Back again.

 I have noticed a change in the last few days.
   It has been a struggle to try and regain what I lost with my back injury. Between the heavy pain medication and the softening of muscle and subsequent loss of endurance, it has been a trial.

  The changes have been slow and only really noticed when looking back far enough to remember what things WERE like. I have been really pushing all I can stand when I feel good enough to do it. Mostly, winter takes away a big part of what I gain in the summer months.

  Vivian has told me that I am torturing myself by pushing so hard. I admit, it has been difficult. I have probably been pushing a little TOO hard at times. But in just the last couple days I have reached a new plateau. My energy levels are up. Maybe not all the way back to normal, but it is an immediate and noticeable change. I am very pleased.

Yesterday I started working on Mary Lee again. I got the first coat of white non-skid put down.

You can see the places that are still gray. I had to have a place to stand and walk around. Even though it still needs another coat the change is pretty extreme. By the time I got this far and was pulling the masking tape off,  the gray was scorching my bare feet. I went below. Where the ceiling had the white it was a little warm. Where gray,  it was already hot to the touch inside.
     Remember what cockpit looked like all gray?

Today is rain. Thwarted!! But okay. I have the cutlass bearing/drive shaft job starting tomorrow.

              First was the cylinder brake hone and a little soapy water being used to fine tune the
                                           fit of the cutlass bearing into the flange 

                                                  Perfect fit.

Now for a couple jigs to make it all go together correctly the first time. I have a dish in the hull where the drive shaft exits. It will need built up properly with epoxy. Fortunately I have a lot of practice glass bedding hunting rifle actions into stocks. I will use neutral colored shoe polish for a release agent and to fill up any gaps I do not want epoxy setting up in.

I will put bearing in flange, slide the bearing into the tube and build the epoxy up where it needs to be. When set up. I have a 2x4 block with holes drilled in the right place. I will hold this up and use it as a guide to drill the holes for the flange bolts to get them square. I will also use block to hold bolts until the epoxy dries. This will keep them lined up square. I will then clean everything up and use 5200 to bed the flange to the hull. Job done. I will take pictures for the next post so you can see how it goes.

I have a couple of footstool projects going.

Just using up the rest of the bike rack scraps. The piece with the spokes is actually the two bottoms put together just to show what it will look like. The board in front of it is the actual top. Just needs cut out and sanded. It is actually 5 boards glued together with a step joint.

So what is the point of this project? I mentioned that the projects I am doing are specific projects for planned jobs on Mary Lee.  This is a little more complicated hexagon than the one I showed in the court yard geometric wall hanger last post.

 The next project is a wood bucket. Then the grand daddy project I am going to do. Wrap the mast in Mary Lee's salon

That is the mast I will be wrapping. Why? To see if I can. That settee you see on the left. That will be a booth before summer is over.

So there you have it. I am finally feeling good enough to move ahead with plans/dreams. I will be posting more regular as I get things done and finally realize the product of my labors. I may actually have Mary Lee in the water before July 4th. If not.....it certainly will not be from a lack of effort.