Morning walks

While in Michigan and off from the boat I’ve had the time to indulge in a favorite past time of mine, walking. Every morning I’m up before everyone else and after a cup of Joe to get the blood circulating I go for a walk. I thought that I might show you a few of the things that I enjoy seeing along the way. One is the dam in downtown rockford and the other is a pond and bridge that Ken built. I missed the picture of the flock of turkeys. (over 20 of them)

Hot weather

Even here in the cool north we have those rare days when it can get a bit oppressive. Yesterday was one of them with temps above 90 and a 90% + humidity rating. I realize that this isn’t too bad when compared to the south but up here it's a bit too much. When you toss in a bike trip on that kind of a day it can soon become a real death march. I volunteered to go on a bike trip to celebrate my friends 55th birthday. Not much of a ride really, only about 42 miles of easy ridding out and back again. The problem arrived when the temperature went over 90 during the middle of the day and the lack of shade on this particular bike trail. The only saving grace that we had is that the trail was built on an old converter railroad bed so, the trail is mostly level with only very slow inclines/declines. Once out of the sun and into the trees, it became a pleasant ride filled with birds and animals and most of all,,,shade!
Visit the “rails to trails” conservancy some time and learn more about this national group dedicated to biking trails through out the USA. www.railstotrails.org

Poison Ivy

One problem that we never had to contend with while living on a boat is this itchy weed. Up here in Michigan it’s high season for poison ivy. Last week, I found this out when I was helping Ken drag cut tree limbs off into the woods. Even though I washed my arms when I was done, a bit of the plant oil must have lingered on my wrists for by the next day I had broken out! Even worse, Anna asked me to rub her back that night and I infected her too! As you can see my wrists are still welted and her back has one big itchy streak that she can’t reach. Next time, I think that I will wear better protective clothing when I go dragging things into the woods.

Our new home???

We have a chance to buy an old “river Queen” house boat. The problem is that it is in poor condition and will need a total rebuild. On the other hand, the boat has real potential and could become a floating cottage on the lake if redone properly. The River Queen’s were manufactured in Michigan and we ran across many of them last year on our trip down the river. For our long term plans this situation just might be the best option that we have come across, a floating home in the south and another floating home in the north. Here’s a few pictures, let me know what you think.

Were back

Were back to the rat race and I do think that the dirty old rats are winning already. The old Plymouth van that we have sounded like a truck so the first thing I did was give it a new muffler. Afterwards I had to resurrect my dead, WV diesel Jetta. (300,000 miles). A used battery and a lot of bleach to take care of the mold inside (there must be a leak in it) and it finally started. It feels strange to have transportation at my disposal when we have gone almost a year without the use of a car. Then, it was out to the marina to look at our ‘potential” new summer home. It’s a bit of a down size from the Snow Goose. It’s a 30 foot Morgan that needs a bit of work. Anna still has to take a look at it so the jury is out on any final decision. We hope to have living arrangements completed in the next few days so as they say on TV,,, stay tuned!

Ready to leave

The trouble with leaving your “home” and going away for a few months is that you have to do a lot of work on everything and in the case of the Goose you also have to put a coat of varnish on everything that is exposed to the sun. Yesterday it was repair the deck, repair the wood step into the boat, remove and sew and fold up the forward sails (all in 90 deg + heat), and start to sand down all of the areas to be varnished. We have about 3 days of work to do before the goose will be ready to be pulled for the summer. We also have to remember that even here in Deltaville, over 50 miles from the ocean, a hurricane could come through and so we have to strip everything that could create extra windage off from the boat when we store her. So, off come the sails, unnecessary rigging, the spinnaker pole, the booms, and the side solar panels. I almost think that it would be easier to go back to the Great Lakes rather than strip the boat down for the season.

Breakdown

Every good sea story starts with “And there we were…” Well,,, and there we were sailing across the Albemarle Sound when I heard a loud ‘clunk’ in the rear steering area. “Anna, would you come up, we have an emergency” I yelled. The large chain sprocket that our autopilot uses to drive the steering system had fallen off. The area is a tight squeeze to start with and with the boat rolling it was no fun to climb down into the seat to replace sprocket. After much sweat, grease all over my hands and a bit of cursing I finally got the sprocket onto the drive shaft and locked back into place. Anna had to hand steer the Goose during this interval. She sure was glad to have the autopilot repaired and back on line when I was done!