Just finished catching up with Steve and Linda's blog (Yesterday's Dream). Makes me wish I was already there. I will get there. Still ironing out some details that seem almost too time consuming sometimes. However...A step at a time.

So what have I been doing with myself? Plenty of little projects.

But first...today is a snow day in Myrtle beach. Everything is affectively shut down :-)  I am vastly entertained.

This is what I am used to.

And this was in Thompson falls, Montana. Kind of known as a "Banana Belt" compared to my home town of Mullan, Idaho.

People in this neck of the woods would be lost if they had a real snow. As it was, Vivian's boy, Mitch, (works at local grocery store) was commenting on all the shovels and sleds they sold. Lucky for the store that the truck load of winter implements arrived in time. I wonder how many people are standing around leaning on their shovels watching the neighbors pretend to shovel? They would be better off throwing a bucket of hot water on the sidewalk and sweeping the water off.

As far as sledding?? I told Vivian that the only way they could use a sled around here is if they got a piece of rope and tied it to the back of a car! :-)

So back to the beginning. Snow day..... Good time to catch up on blog.

I mentioned the masticating juicer in an earlier blog. Masticating juicer is necessary for juicing wheatgrass. Guess what I am doing?

Yes...that is wheatgrass. The top planter was cut a little early. I had trouble waiting. We had an ounce apiece for two days on that. An ounce is the most recommended for beginners. It is potent stuff. If you google the benefits of wheatgrass juice. You will be amazed at how nutritious it is. In organic soil, wheatgrass absorbs 92 of the 112 known minerals. Also chock Full of vitamins and amino acids. I find an ounce (shot glass full) really winds the clock in the morning. Chlorophyll is claimed to be almost the perfect blood as it is only supposed to be one chemical different than blood. Read an article on google search that lists 50 reasons to drink wheatgrass juice.

At this point I am trying to figure out how many trays I need going to give us each a shot every day. Then will graduate to 2 shots a day as the weather gets warmer and I can move grass planters outside.

I am still sprouting mung beans.

My tortilla press arrived.

 Yesterday was learning to make our own corn chips. I also make a very hardy salsa.

Took a couple tries to get the consistency of the dough right so it would smash down thin enough.

Almost perfect. Nothing but corn flour and water. Salt and preservative free. Perfect to go with my salsa. I have been making my own salsa for years. It is very chunky and flavorful. I even use barley in it. Of course Vivian made a big pot of delicious chili. I love home made chili. she is awesome.

I mentioned getting set up to build some cabinets for Vivian and getting another dinghy started. I have a very simple set of plans for dinghy. It will look like the last one, but it is a stitch and glue set of plans. Much simpler than converting plans over to stitch and glue. I did learn a lot on the last build. A LOT!!!  This time I will be making oars. I bought a spoke shave for making the handles round and contouring the blades. I also picked up a low angle block plane for scarfing plywood.(necessary when the boat build requires longer plywood than 8 feet.

I also found the 6 inch vise for work bench.

It weighs about 25 pounds I guess. I think I have a line on the 10 inch vise.

So last on today's blog, but certainly not least. Vivian and I started a Wilton's cake decorating course. I mentioned it last time. We have had a couple more classes.

I made a cake just to try and use up some frosting and try some of the new tips to see what designs they made.

We each had 7 cupcakes to practice with in class(learning new tips). This is what survived the night. Vivian's son Jon is 17. He also likes sweets. Two were not decorated. I did those the next morning.

Then we had Mitch's 20th birthday cake to do. Vivian's Mom also had a birthday within a few days. Both cakes were done together.
I saw this cake in our Wilton book.

Called white opulence. We have not learned to do roses yet but I decided I would do it anyway. This is my version..

I had made it as far as I could on both cakes as I knew Vivian would be busy. I know she wanted to do Mitch's cake.

I found a recipe for a "mock" cream filling online. It is a perfect addition to a cake.

Rose making 101. I needed over 30. Once I got the white cake done. It was time to start Mitch's cake. Vivian was going to be making dinner and had spent a good part of the day helping her mom. I was happy to help.
Mitch had gone to a rock concert and Vivian wanted to go with a theme to commemorate the Band.
OK...

Close enough.

While out picking up groceries for those two cakes. We came across Vivian's neighbor.(retired teacher) They were having a function for another retired teacher. Would I like to do the cake for them? Sure! More practice right. I showed her a picture of the cake I would be doing for Vivian's mom. The teacher's favorite color is violet. I decided to do the same cake for the teachers function but with violet flowers. This is what I ended up with.

Did I mention we were going to learn roses this wed? It is wed. Snow day. Class cancelled. The cake we will be doing?

The purple one. Seems pretty tame compared to what I have been doing.

Is this practical to learn? We are having fun learning something new together. Squeezing the frosting (consistency of thickened epoxy used in joints on stitch and glue boats) onto a cake is good practice for the new way I will be epoxying the seams on dinghies.

 I read something in a book a long time ago.

A man was walking by a field. The farmer had his machine all tore apart. Pieces everywhere. The man asked the farmer if he thought he could fix it? The farmer replied....A man built it!!!
 
The only thing we cannot do is the thing we think we cannot do. We will not try our best, if we even try at all,  if we think it is impossible.

 I have never found anything I could not do.

Plans for Mary Lee?? She gets moved to Georgetown, SC. this spring. the closest place for sailing. New lines will be up. This is sailing summer. In the fall will either go to Charleston, SC. or Florida. Charleston if there is opportunity I cannot pass up. Florida if there is not. I am spending my last foreseeable cold winter. Hurray!!!  What about Vivian? She will visit as much as she can. We have plans, but at this point she is still working at the college.

Hi. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.

Christmas with Vivian and her family was wonderful. I had a great time. I even posed for a picture with Vivian in front of the tree.

Of course...when Vivian saw the picture I had to be a little more serious.

So lets digress for a few.

I put the tree in the stand and put the lights on. They hung a pile of ornaments. I had never seen the ornament collection the way it was done here. For each year, whatever her two boys were interested in that year, an ornament for each was added. The ornaments tell a life story(so to speak). When they were done hanging ornaments, I spent the next day putting the tinsel on.
I can claim to have put the first present under the tree (only because it came in earlier than planned) :-)

I made another lemon meringue pie.
But that was for Christmas dinner and I am getting ahead of myself. There was decorating to do. I like putting up lights. Last year I had put up just over 5000. This year I had limited space.

Once again there were icicle lights to hang on the gutters.

I also built a fake tree to put on the courtyard table. Wires will run from the top of pole to outside of base. lights are then wrapped around the wires. Like this.

Ends up looking like this when you use icicle lights.

So the view through the living room window is this.

The visual is much improved once fully dark outside, but you get the picture. I have a plan for decorating the sailboat.' Nuff said for now. You will see.

Vivian can play "Oh Susanna" on the harmonica. Just Oh Susanna. Nothing else. I decided to pick an instrument to accompany her in a duet. I will try to make time to learn Oh Susanna on the recorder by next Christmas.

Vivian getting after that Christmas dinner.

Spot from crystal sun catcher shining through edge of plant onto wall. Just thought it looked interesting.

I have been making my own salsa for years now. Better than jar stuff and more bang for the buck. Mine even gets barley in it..

Trying my hand at shredding and drying coconut.
Got a masticating juicer for Christmas.

This is the stuff that didn't fit in the fridge. We did a 12 day juice fast. Vivian's first. She did very well. I had one of the other juicers. The masticating is so much nicer to run and clean up that it must be experienced to believe. The other kind also ruins much of the nutrition due to oxidation. If wanting a juicer...just get a masticating. Ours is a Omega 8004.

So Christmas dinner went well. New years eve came and went without incident.
One of the gifts I bought for Vivian and I is a Wilton's cake decorator kit and the first months lessons. I think we need more things to do together while the weather is to cold for Vivian to be outside. I know....I grew up in the snow and it is pretty nice here for me. But Vivian is not a cold weather person. So the cake decorating class. The first week required a half dozen cookies per person. I was the one who baked those.

Go big or go home!!
Just finished the second class. This time it was a layer cake.

We did well for our first cake.

Plans for the new year??? I am setting up Vivian's garage to build the next dinghy. I learned a lot on the first one. Considering dinghies are not common in North Idaho. I had no idea what the strength characteristics would be so built it much heavier than needed. I did not have any kind of example to look at or anyone to ask that knew more than I did about building them. Top that with a set of plans that were marginal and you end up with a dinghy that could hold up well drug down the road behind a car at the end of a chain. Kind of overbuilt. That said. I had over 600 pounds in it and it was not submerged. It did weigh in the neighborhood of a hundred pounds and should have weighed 60 lbs.

I also looked at several other dinghies. Now that I have built one and see what it took and what I ended up with. I can readily spot design changes that will make a difference. I used as much as 4 times the epoxy needed on seams. all framework and knees were heavier than called for. By a lot. Side boards will be a little higher. Will gain a bit more in load carrying/buoyancy. seating changes will make it more easily rowed by any size person. Considering whether or not to modify it to be a nesting dinghy. My own plans can be built by me as often as I want. Legally I can't do this with someone else's plans. Once I get it figured out, it should take about a week to build one.

Just started drawing up plans for cabinets I will be building for Vivian.

Still reading everything I can get my hands on. Everything from boat and cabinet building to The Akashic records and Black Elk speaks(and much about fermenting foods and old time food storage techniques). Cake decorating kit in middle of stack. Actually. The act of squirting the frosting out of the bag will be a nice way to put bead of epoxy in seams on dinghy build. The spreading frosting on the cake is very similar to spreading epoxy on dinghy. Everything I learn ties in with something else. I have known this for a long time. It just amazes me how things so different can have a commonality.

Mary Beth's dog Bailey got beat up by the neighborhood german shephards. She is out of the cast now. Mary Beth was on the ferry that ran aground in Oak Island while enroute between bald head island and southport, nc. At this writing they are both recovering but I think Bailey is doing better. Mary Beth's parents stayed with her until the last week as she was not able to drive. Rough month for Mary Beth. I count her as a good friend and am wishing her a speedy recovery.

So there you have it. Lots of new things. Some not mentioned. If I put everything on these they would get insanely long. I am getting excited to build the next dinghy. The cabinets will be fun also. That is just the simple set of cabinets. I will have a set over 8 feet tall with drawers on the bottom half. Will get a lot of dovetail practice on that.

Last addition. I will be throwing together a quick 12 foot rowboat to handle four people and outboard. I have someone to teach me oystering.