The drive to Saluda, SC. on Saturday was a bust. The van looked okay in the pictures. The ad stated a manual transmission. I have driven with a manual transmission most of my life. I liked the idea. As I walked up to the van with the owner, he told me it had an automatic. My shit detector went into the red zone. What else would not be the same as ad?
It was a conversion van. The outside looked okay. I opened the drivers door and saw chunks of wiring laying on the floor and the captain seats were all but destroyed. Turns out the two captain seats in the rear were half decent. That was the interior pictures in ad. The door panels were carpeted a long time before the windows had leaked and destroyed them. It was parked in a mud hole and needed jump started. Bald tires. I was surprised when it started and ran well. But I can buy a good van for what he wanted.

It was a 3 and 1\2 hour drive up from Myrtle Beach. We tried to contact other people with vans for sale in the area. Easter weekend. No luck. We returned home.

So that was not my van. One will show up.

Meanwhile....back at the ranch(so to speak).
I have been busy getting geared up for boat work. I have a booth and table to build for Mary Lee(amongst other things) and a nester dinghy to build. Neither project is very difficult but I am putting all other projects on hold until finished with them.

First was practice runs with edge banding bits in router table and horizontal router jig I built a short time ago (see...it was for a reason).
 This is a look at the project.

Plywood edges shaped on the verticle and solid wood for edges on the horizontal.

Then put together with edging stained.

More surface area to glue. Stronger than tongue and groove. Will do table and cabinet doors on Mary Lee this way.
That piece is actually very similar to what I will be doing in Mary Lee to brighten it up and add contrast. I will be using maple countertop laminate on marine plywood and wrapping the edges in mahogany hardwood. So similar, as in light wood with dark trim.

I made a shooting board. Dovetailing and fitting corners tightly requires very straight cuts so the edges have no gaps. I needed a way to absolutely have this on every edge.
Top picture is with piece I made(yellow paint)to do 45° corners.
Of course the bottom is for square ends. The hand plane slides on the edge just how you see it. 60 grit sandpaper glued on top keeps everything from slipping. I made a practice corner piece the way I will do table.

 The stain makes the corner look like there is a gap. I assure you. It feels smooth when you run your fingernail over it.

I also squared the other practice piece perfectly.

You notice the chisels? I spent some time in my 20's working as a meat cutter. I  worked kill floors, grocery stores and meat packing houses. I know very well how to sharpen a knife. I needed a good way to do chisels. Got one.

That is a diamond sharpening stone with the standard stones.
It is a fine grade. Still feels rough to me. But it is great for squaring up the edge of whatever you are sharpening before polishing it out on a good stone.

The white stone is a very good stone. I can make anything razor sharp on it.

The coolest thing about the diamond stone is lapping the real stones with it to keep the surfaces flat.
Just like picture of grey stone on top of diamond. I do it in a sink of soapy water. I draw pencil lines on stone. When it takes all lines off. Stone is flat and perfect for lapping chisels. I never use oil. Just soapy water. Oil can get on meat, clothes, whatever. Soap is a great lubricant and contaminates nothing.

Yes...the grey stone is my cheap throwaway stone for fixing edges before I will touch them on the good stone. The chisels are very sharp.

The diamond stone works so well, it may eliminate the need for the cheap grey stone.

Yesterday morning I decided the rose bush needed moved in the courtyard. We were going to plant two. This one has no thorns. We went back to get a second one last year and they were out of them everywhere. Now this one is so much bigger that a second one will always look small.

It was on left. I centered it under windows. It blooms all summer and is really growing fast. Vivian will be able to see the flowers from inside the house as well as out.

The Live Oak tree we rescued(supposed to be a dwarf) is really taking off this spring.

When we got it, it had been pulled out of the ground, drug off near the woods and left to fend for itself. The water running by it from the rain kept it alive. It had very few leaves on it when we planted it. I reluctantly pruned it this winter. I was afraid of killing it as it had shown no growth last summer.

It is doing well now. These are all new leaves coming out. Should make a nice looking tree after all.

So Vivian cooked a nice Easter dinner for us. Later...it got quiet. You know how it gets quiet when kids get into things?

There she was putting photo albums together. What a sweetheart!

This month we start  getting rid of unused "THINGS". Both of us are beginning to adopt a more minimalist lifestyle. We will still have things. I will not part with any tools again. She has keepsakes she will not part with. I admit to some of that myself.

But we can sure thin out some other stuff. I did a lot of that when I moved out to work on Mary Lee that first summer in Baltimore. I have to do more.
 It should be interesting

Last time I was talking about going back to work......almost made two weeks. There I was on Friday morning, peddling away on bicycle, headed to work. Less than a hundred yards from the building, cars were coming, I took a short piece of sidewalk. Cars went by and as I dropped off the curb, I jammed my spine. Immediate hurt. I continued on to work because I knew I wouldn't be able to walk once I stopped. I could feel my back knotting up. By the time I got into the building it was getting hard to put one foot in front of the other. By the time I made it outside the training room I could barely move. It seemed to be pinching nerves so bad it was hurting down both legs. They thought they needed to call an ambulance. I finally convinced them that just getting me home so I could lay down was best. The pain was familiar to me. I have been through it too many times.

So...I have been riding bike a lot. I had even ridden over that curb several times before going to work, just making sure I would be able to handle getting to work okay.

I think my back was hurt so easily because I was already hurting from all the sitting I was doing in training. So in a weakened state, I hurt it.

So....now what? It appears that sitting for long periods is my downfall. I have been working on building stamina by keeping moving and sitting or laying down when needed. I had not really considered what might happen if I sat for long periods. Long drives in the car hurt.

I generally hurt all the time. I guess the difference is that the sitting still hurts me while stiffening me up. So even though the movement hurts, it keeps me limber. Being limber keeps me from hurting my back so easily.

My physical therapist had a bad back injury when younger. He is quite active. He said he could never sit still for long stretches either, it hurts his back to do so. Other people I know with back injuries are the same. I don't know why I thought I would be so different.

So...what else has been happening? Always something.

Remember this picture?

That wool hat is seeming to fit rather snug and kept sliding up on my head. I have owned it for years.
When running around the woods of north Idaho, during the cold and often wet times of the year, when such a hat is needed, it generally would get stretched out once wet. It stayed stretched out and always fit well. Once I saw the picture, I realized Ye olde cover was needing stretched again. Got it wet...

Stretched it over the right size ball to dry.
 Just like new.
Ended up almost completely disassembling the new hand crank sewing machine to learn how it worked. Since the directions were in chinese, I had to sort it out myself.

The holes are the length of stitches it came sewing. You can see the short row of stitches on the top of picture after learning how to adjust. The thread tensioners also had to be moved. Well..one of them did. Singer built a machine almost identicle a long time ago. I found a picture. Not much help, but could see where the thread tensioners went.

The tripod it came with was unstable and poorly built. I attached a block of wood to the bottom so I could clamp it in a wood vise to use it.

What else? Always something.

I am working on learning the art of doing hand cut dovetails and sliding dovetails. Tried some yesterday. The saw I used is too course and big. Kind of like trying to build a grandfather clock with a chainsaw. It can be done...but is not pretty.

The first thing I tried was a sliding dovetail.
Top picture shows it ready to slide together. The bottom is what you would see on the face of whatever you were building. It is supposed to fit so tight as it comes together that glue is almost not needed.

Next was a run at a through dovetail. There is also a half blind dovetail joint that is only visible on one side. A through dovetail is seen on both sides of the joint
Like this rough cut example above. Of course...that is my first try at handcut and I don't have the right saw for fine line cutting. Practice with the wrong tools is still practice. If you remember...I have a router and template. I can do dovetails much quicker.

This is a half blind joint I did earlier on.
Why not just do these?  They are certainly quicker. Much less labor intensive. Anybody can buy a router and template. How many people do you personally know who can do handcut dovetails? I "might" know somebody. But since nobody I know has ever fessed up....I don't know.
 Do you know why dovetail joinery was so prevalent in the OLD days? Nails were expensive. A glued dovetail joint needs no nails. The dovetails were considered ugly, so were hidden by trim or used where they were not so visible. Odd how we now tend to see them as a strong ornamental joint that shows one's craftsmanship.

Whatever...it is a new skill I will learn and use on boatwork. I also noticed it is much quieter and makes much less mess to cut them by hand ;-)

Looks like we are driving out Saturday to look at a van for me. It is time for me to have a vehicle. I may still be able to work at Vacation Myrtle Beach part time. There are other jobs available that will better suit my special needs. Once owning a van...I intend to put out an ad for work as a handyman. I understand there is a need. I also know how to fix about anything.
 I think that will be right up my alley. Also a good practice run for what I will be doing in Marathon.

 Steve and Linda Franko sent me the raw water pump off their Onin generator. A new pump is rediculously priced. Rebuild kits do not seem available. There is a belt driven pump available for it(also expensive). I have time. I am going to poke around at an idea I have this winter and see if it can be done.

Almost forgot. I decided to use a sewing machine motor on my paint mixer.

It works quite well.

I just have to share this. One of Jon's soccer games was played on this field.

They watered all the surrounding grass on the large school grounds. Also charged a higher admission for the game. I wonder if it was to buy a hose and sprinkler for the field

So March second was my first day back at work in nine years.

By now Vivian has figured out that if I have pictures of me to use, I am less likely to use pictures of her.

So I am looking like I had very little sleep, also, I need to work much harder on that profile.
Well, I'll get to the lack of sleep in a minute.

Turns out the training for a month just may be necessary. This is the training room during break. That is my new chair up in the leftcorner. $2500. (Remember last winter when I went to the South Carolina State assessment center? Because I did, they will bend over backwards to do whatever it takes to help me return to work. )New system to learn on computer. Phone protocal and even the rooms we will be booking. Yup...I will be doing that, at least part time, until the move to Florida.(I will get to that in a minute also)

 Jon, Vivian's youngest, had a soccer tournament up in Rock Hill, S.C. to kick off the season. Off we went. It was a bit cool. Not bad 38°. We even got some rain with it. I let Vivian use my heavy wool coat. Was okay, I own warm clothes. I am used to Idaho weather.

Only one problem. I was pretty much packed the night before. I just needed to put on the clothes I intended to wear. By this I mean shoes. I had two appointments. A hearing aide adjustment and then pick Vivian up and head to physical therapy. I wore some lightweight sketchers I had bought for on the boat. So...I spent friday night, Saturday and Sunday sitting outside with cold feet. We did go find me a pair of wool socks. That helped some. Lucky the wind seemed to blow right through anyways.

So that was fun! :-) Now we start getting to the good part. The motel was clean. We found the breakfast(continental) was over at nine am. We got over there at 9:05. Looked like it had been put away for quite a while. Okay...we don't normally eat that kind of food anyway.

The part that matters in this is the little bed (well okay, fullsize). Maybe not so much the size...but maybe the fact that someone very heavy had spent considerable time sitting in the middle of the one side. Right on the edge. Well I didn't actually look. Perhaps they ate it because they missed breakfast. I let Vivian have the other side. I hope it was the good side :-)

So.....now we are getting somewhere in this sordid little tale. Not much sleep. Cold feet all weekend. Guess what that got me? Yup....I got sick.

 I refer to the first picture. Walking in to work. I was tired. Felt a little odd but not unusual for as little as I am able to sleep. First day went fine. Second day. Not out of bed more than 10 minutes and I throw up. Few minutes later I felt better. Must have not agreed with something. Second day, seemed okay, pretty tired. Got home and almost literally the s--t hit the fan. Diahrea big time. Pretty steady all night. About every hour or so. Great!! Called in for my third day. Was pretty rough but I knew I couldn't miss much work. Showed up thursday. A bit lightheaded, wave of nausea occasionally. Good to go. They chased me off and sprayed the place. This was the Fifth. Since the first. They had already booked over 1800 rooms and fielded over 4000 calls. Cannot have a sickness spread there.

Turned out to be a good call. I was nowhere near well. I would have embarrassed myself had I stayed. I won't go into details but Vivian had to tolerate a lot. Like changing bedding at 5:00 am saturday while I showered. I was really bad. I lost 10 pounds in 5 days. That is more than enough details. You get the picture. I decided early sunday morning (while showering) that if not better by monday morning it was doctor time. I turned the corner at mid-day.

So....I am the sickest I can remember...my first week finally back to work. Nine years after getting hurt the worst I ever did.....REALLY!!!!! Are you freaking kidding me?

I restart work the 16th. I guess it is okay as Vivian has me trying to keep on the braty diet(bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and yogurt). I still feel ill off and on. Next week should go better.





I just did some research on a better way to cook and peel hard boiled eggs.(If I cannot go to work, I will find something to do)

This is what I came up with.

Got my steamer out of storage for this. Is simple and fast. About an inch of water in bottom of pan is more than enough.

While bringing to boil, add however many eggs will fit in the top tray. Then put in after water is boiling. It said 11 minutes for hard eggs and 6 for soft. I turned the heat down to medium while cooking because it seemed to be boiling pretty hard. The second batch I did 12 minutes and they are almost hard. Just the center of yolk not quite finished. Next time I will leave on high.

When timer goes off. Put in ice bath. Let cool. Then, and I love this trick, hit large end of egg with teaspoon to break shell

That is all you need. Pick off that little bit of shell. Then insert spoon under that piece of skin that makes peeling egg so easy.

Slide spoon up and pop shell off. I think I could do a dozen eggs in under a half hour. From the time I reach for the pan until the eggs are cooked, peeled, everything cleaned up and the pan put away. Cuz it only takes about three minutes to peel 8 eggs. So that is not a rush job. Anybody could do it.

So last....but not least.

The dream board has now got pictures of Banana Bay on it. Yes.....Marathon, Florida. We are making it Mary Lee's winter destination. Helps when you finally decide on the where and when. But Charleston harbor in South Carolina for this summer.

It's official, I start work on March 2nd. On March 31st it will be nine years since I got hurt.

Talk about a long, difficult vacation! Pretty sure I don't want another one of those :-)


Seems like forever ago that I decided to buy Mary Lee. I remember very well how I came to the conclusion that I was just laying there waiting to die. Not wanting to. But unable to stand much in the way of activities. I also remember thinking at one time, much earlier, that if nothing improved. I had enjoyed all the fun I was likely to ever have. The pain was pretty intense for a long time.

I knew if I never took drastic steps to change things, my inactivity would lead to an early demise. I don't even know how I made it through the first year with Mary Lee. Like Barbara(a very good friend )said, I backed my way into a corner so the only choice I had was to come out fighting. I did do that!!

 So here I am. Finally going back to work. It is going to be a very busy summer. Along with working, I will be giving Mary Lee some much needed changes. She also will be moved to Charleston harbor for a much anticipated summer of sailing.

This fall she will be moved to Florida, finally!!!

So right now, I am starting to wrap up some projects so I can get to Mary Lee's projects.

I did get the washroom cabinets done. Trust me, the picture does it no justice.

When we got my stuff out of storage. I had a quite expensive mattress set that was barely used. We decided to use it. On Vivian's frame, it is quite tall. I even have to roll myself up into bed. I built Vivian a stool. Finally built a better stool for her and now I use the original.

They are made from the same boards. Just white pine. I used steel wool rusted in white vinegar for stain on the dark one. Just wiped the rusty looking liquid on and watched it darken while drying. That is two coats. Same polyurethane on both. I guess it works on the tannins in the wood. Who knew?

Better yet, if one wanted an ebony look. Just use the rusted steel wool pad and scrub the liquid into the wood. The two pieces of oak on the left are from the same board. Once the wood has dried. The finish will bring out the color stain has made the wood. (Everything I show here has polyurethane on it) Or, you can wipe it with damp cloth to see what it will look like with finish on it. Do not totally understand the science behind it. Just know it is a cheap and affective stain. I guess you can add food color to it and get a different tone.







This weekend is a trip out of town for a soccer tournament. Jon, Vivian's youngest son, is playing his last season of high school ball. He is starting his third year on varsity. Soccastee (sock us tea) high is a AAAA school this year. New league. Jon has assured us that they have a really good team this year. They had a good team last year.

I must admit. I never really watched soccer before. Vivian needed a soccer compadre to go with. Turns out I kind of enjoy the game. Who knew??

I find it interesting that a school this big, with a soccer team this good, hasn't got more people in the stands. The picture is not quite right. The crowd of about 30 to 40 is to our right as I took this. Mostly parents. The bleachers on the other side are indicative of what you generally see on the visitor's side. Mostly Soccastee's side has the same wherever they play. Soccer parents are pretty reliable for Soccastee.




Oh well, they are good games and Jon scores often. Vivian is quite the fireball in the cheering section and I am highly entertained. All is Well :-)

I am beginning to think I forget to take pictures of half my projects. When I do, it is usually just the final product. I will work on that.

Today started with Vivian's hair dryer. The cord had finally been twisted enough times, it shorted out where it goes into the handle.

Got a spare dryer out.  Flipped breaker. No power. Once I got her out the door I started working on the problem. It turns out that the outlets for both upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are on the same circuit. No problem, but why no power? Turns out the "one" outlet, with a little gvi switch for safety, is upstairs. Good! Well..not good. But good I do not have to fix a cobbled up wiring job on a new house.

So....being me, I eyeballed the hair dryer and decided to fix it. I have a solder gun and solder in the garage. Why not? Pulled unit apart. Unsoldered cord from both switches. Cut off bad end. Soldered back onto switches. Put together. Works fine.

I am still getting used to the idea that everyone doesn't just fix everything. Vivian said she paid about $100 for it 6 years ago. It is a good little machine. Maybe it will last a few more years.

I put together my paint mixer/tumbler this week.

I had a smaller one I used for cleaning brass when reloading shells when shooting a lot. It was rather small and although I could put small spray cans on it to mix while I got ready to paint. I could not use it in anything larger than quarts.

I realized when I was doing Mary Lee's bottom paint that I wanted to mix gallon cans the same way. The motor is a shoe shine machine. It works great. I epoxied the old pulley, from the little motor that came on the old tumbler, onto a piece from the shoe shiner. Added a vacuum cleaner belt and it works great.

Speaking of shoes. Vivian had work shoes that were still in good shape. Just scuffed enough they needed re-dyed.

I did six pairs. Deglazed them first. I could have used acetone but had deglazer. Dyed them. Then used my airbrush to put the protective finish on. It is a finish designed for leather. Flexible and water resistant.

I built the frame for Vivian's dream board this week. I had attached eyebolts to a bedroom wall so she could do her exercises before bed.

She wanted to put up pictures of tropical places we may see boating.

I got my hearing aides.

Pretty neat hearing all those small sounds I had been missing.

I built a jig so I could have router set up horizontal. The router table is great, but I have found it lacking.

The router mounted this way allows different things to be done. I also realise that I will have to build a better router table sometime.

 I have outgrown the one I bought.


I finally got around to repainting the stool I built for the bathroom.

It got a coat of flat white when built. Kind of had that whitewash look and looked interesting. So I left it. Noticed it was looking a bit bare the other day. I know Vivian was expecting white when she got home. I thought the bathroom could use a splash of color.

Therapy continues to help. I am sleeping better. A lot of that really overwhelming fatigue, I have battled for so long now, is easing up. It is freezing outside right now. This is the first time since I got hurt, that I am doing projects during the cold stretches. Only a couple months until I hit my two year anniversary of stopping the pain pills. Last winter at this time, it was all I could do, sometimes, to get breakfast dishes cleaned up before Vivian got home in the evening.

Can you just imagine how good this summer will be? I have much planned.

Definitely not going to crash clown bike this year! 😉

I have so many things on my plate that sometimes I wonder how I get myself into these things.

Of course you already know about the upcoming work on Mary Lee, trying to get projects finished here before I start work. Well....I have had something on the back burner for several years. I am that guy who can never find a good pair of shoes. Most shoes look mostly new when thrown out. I buy shoes when I need them. Soon as they start breaking in....they are no longer comfortable. I think I have a half dozen in there right now. Two pair look new. I don't like them.

So years ago(already?) I started pondering the idea of making my own. Pre-computer days it was quite hard to find tools or even a book. I have most of the tools now. Still unable to find a book that works for me.....but I found lots of good videos on utube. So this week, I finally found lasts in my size. 12EEE.

It took some doing. I made all the regular searches. Ebay, craigslist, every other site that advertised lasts. Best I could come up with was suppliers that would only sell them in lots. Whatever style you want...you had to buy a run of sizes in that style. At $180 a pair, buying several sizes I had no use for seemed a bit too much. Suddenly ebay has a bunch of them. A few more things to get and I am going to give it a go.

Why?? I have heard the old"buy a custom pair" speach. For $3-400 I could have one pair. For much less than that, I can own the tools and build several pairs. I watched a lot of videos. Frankly...I would find pulling an engine out of a sailboat, rebuilding it and installing it much harder. Oh wait!!! I have done that also. I saw nothing on any of those videos that I could not do. Soon I will prove it. All it takes is taking your time and not moving on to the next step until satisfied the current step is done correctly.

I replaced my phone last week. While switching everything over. I found email address was compromised. I now have a new email address. Same phone number.

Was cold on the beach the other day. Vivian was showing me she was tough enough to take it.

Physical therapy continues.

The first picture was taken a few months ago. Notice the big knots.

Vivian took this the other day.

 Different position, but you can see the knots are going away. I was so locked up everywhere. The hamstrings have been especially fun to get loosened up again.

I doubt if much of me was not all knotted up. Slowly changing eating habits. I walk as much as possible. Some days I hurt too much, but on a good day I have walked up to 2 1\2 hours. I use a heart monitor when exercising. I keep my heart rate between 75-80% of maximum. My 2 1\2 hour walk got me 10 miles.

Tonight is clam chowder night. I told Vivian it would be on the stove when she got here. Lucky she had gym after work and a soccer meeting with Jon(her son). I better run....later