Things are moving right along. I now have my South Carolina Class A license.

Have passed my physical. Have a job offer. Vivian is having that lasik surgery done shortly before I go. So off I go to drive truck again on October 19th. Nine and a half years to get to this point. There is a chance that I will have trouble....but I know all about troubles...not going to worry about it. I have been seriously hitting the gym. I am truly doing all that can be done.

Last post I mentioned making cream cheese. I made it. Yum!!!

Lots of hours for the two steps. But it was just waiting. Never required much effort.  It really was simple. Heat milk to 72°. Added the mesophilic quick set. Cover with towel. Let set on counter 15 hours. Pour in cheese cloth. Hang for about 12-14 hours(depends on how thick you want it) to let the whey drain out. Ready to eat. We like it on fruit or good grainy crackers. Even at 40° it still spreads easily on toast.

I will never eat store bought cream cheese again. I don't even want to know what they do to make that gelatinous mess. Was same way with tofu. I will never eat store bought again. It is as un-natural as the cream cheese you buy. Next is feta cheese. Not that I like feta cheese so much...but feta cheese will require the use of rennet and the extra steps that are similar to the steps for making cheddar. Then will make cheddar. Already learned quite a bit about the process just from the cream cheese.

Our baby dove took off a while back.

I got this picture a couple days before it left.

Getting anxious to get to work on Mary Lee. I will certainly be working on that nester dinghy....finally.

I do like wood work. Some of the necessary eqiuipment I will be buying is what is required to do the fancy laminated wood for marine applications. If you spray contact cement and laminate on a boat....it is doomed to fail. You use a type of epoxy. Bag it. Vacuum compress it for the required hours and it is permanent. The tools and equipment I will buy to do Mary Lee will allow me to do the same work on any boat or camper.

 These are a couple boats I want to build. The desire to build boats is overwhelming to me. I am absolutely setting myself up for this.

I love the looks of these boats. Top is a cedar lapstrake. Bottom is an Oughtred clinker built. But as much as I like those two. I want one of these

As a nester. It is an Oughtred design like sailing version above. But only 8 feet. I knew I needed to build this dinghy the instant I saw the picture. Its big brother above is also on my hit list. It will be nice to be set up to do these.

Of course...I have lots of projects planned. Going to work is sure going to make the s--t hit the fan :-)

It is official. I have a job offer from a trucking company. I can start any Tuesday. I say Tuesday because I have been away from trucking so long I have to take a refresher course.

It takes 3 to 6 months of recent experience (in last three years) and I literally can go to work for just about any trucking company in any state. Driving local or long haul. I am going to make this work around boating.

 It changes plans for being in Marathon this fall. I am contemplating working until the end of next June. Finishing up all the previously mentioned projects on Mary Lee during days off. Take Mary Lee back up to  Chesapeke bay for a month or so of exploring. Then take it to Florida for next winter. I could end up driving 3 months and then taking her south this winter or just heading south with her when my six months are up. Decisions,decisions??


Meanwhile. I am waiting on my butter muslin to arrive. The culture and rennet arrived. We also found raw milk.

I am making cheese very soon. I will do cream cheese first to get an idea how that works. Why? Everyone says that once you have tasted the home brew(so to speak) you will never buy store cheese again. It is true about tofu. I think that processed food is changed in the process just enough that once you get away from processed foods you will certainly be eating tastier and healthier foods.

The new things we are trying this week. Morning drinks with mata, cocoa powder and powdered wheat grass in soy milk.

Mata is supposed to be a mild stimulant that gives you the wake up without the caffeine. Amongst other things. Everybody has heard the benefits of cocoa powder by now. This is not sweetened, but the bitter has been removed.

I am sticking with the mostly vegetarian diet. Certainly not eating meat with even every other meal. I am back in the gym. Using powdered protein. Not wanting to burn off muscle.

Almost forgot. Vivian picked up a dehydrator. We are experimenting with that.
We are really eating some yummy foods. Along with the soups (and spatzel, that is now made with soymilk and rice flour) we are trying some new things and reliving some old. I saw these onions on a cooking show.

Sliced about an inch thick. Lightly carmelizedon both sides in a skillet. Then popped in the oven at 350° until done.
Tonight we had eggplant cooked the way my mom did it. The fried picture looks pretty dark but I have given up on the phones camera ever being accurate with colors :-)

Sliced, egged and coated with corn flakes. Seasoned and fried in olive oil. Naturally, we are eating a lot of vegetables and Vivian is the queen of salads.
 Hopefully I am making cream cheese tomorrow!!

I keep thinking that I have nothing to post. Suddenly I find the list of things to share has grown almost too much. So...once again....I should have posted sooner :-)

Over a decade ago, I started fasting to detox. Reading up on nutrition. Finding out what a person should be eating. I was still active but beginning to realize that I had been burning the candle at both ends. I finally ended up taking time off driving to get everything the way I wanted. I spent 3 months eating very healthy and riding bicycle as many miles a day as I could stand(fortunately, I do like riding). I was 203 pounds with no gut what-so-ever when I returned to work. A couple short months later I got hurt. Everything went on hold as I was slammed into survival mode.


Jump ahead almost 10 years and some of the things I was wanting to do back then are in motion.

I just finished a twenty day fast. Down a solid 25 pounds after eating was back to normal. Have cut out wheat. Cut out almost all dairy. Just some cheese and some cottage cheese. Eating much more vegetables. Much less meat. No hotdog or bologna type products. Cut way back on sugars and basic snacking. Sounds busy....but there is more. Much!!!


I taught Vivian how to sprout when we met. I had learned how during my winter stay in Thompson Falls, Montana.

I had also bought a soymilk machine in Montana. I made lots of soymilk. It also had settings for soup making. I just tried that setting a couple weeks ago. Have used rice, potatoes and onions as an alternative to a creamed soup made with dairy. Liked it. Old machine died. I bought a new one. A gourmet(brand name).

It works great!
So I ate my first tofu with Vivian. Miso soup. Pretty good. Still deciding about tofu. I think it is fine if not eaten every day. But...what is tofu made of? Soymilk. I decided it was time to teach myself that particular skill. It took two small batches to figure it out. Then I made 4 quarts of soymilk for a big batch.

It did look like a lot but the machine made the milk.
So finish heating to °180 without burning. Add coagulant. Let set 10 minutes or so. Put curds in cheescloth lined press. Mash water out.

And four quarts of milk makes a 9oz. brick. Now I see why they say,"once you have had fresh tofu you will not buy it again". Nothing but fresh soymilk and coagulant. It is way better. I will be perfecting the process.

Along with the soup making. I bought a spatzel maker.

I used to make egg noodles but it was way too time consuming and messy. Spatzel(like dumplings) is so much easier.

I made the first batch of spatzel with skim milk and general purpose flour like recommended. Turned out great!

Next batch was made with almond milk and rice flour. It was every bit as good. I followed my rule. Make it per directions the first time. Easier to trouble shoot that way.

Have made it a few times now. Much better than one would think!

Next on the agenda was fermenting vegetables. I first heard about this a long time ago. I could go into a big spew about the gut flora and the affects of all this food that is essencially dead due to modern food processing. the better bioavailable vitamins, etc. But I suspect if you really want to know, you will google it. Many people have written much on the subject.

So I decided to do saeurkraut first. I shredded my cabbage.

Sliced up some parsnips, turnips and onion to go with it. Made my brine.

Jarred it up. A day and a half later we tried a little bit. It was just a little tangy, but certainly fermenting. I plan to end up with about 12 quarts of different vegetables going at varying stages of ferment. We will eat about a half cup each at two different meals each day. Once you research it for yourself...you will wonder why you have not been doing it.

I finally got the cupboard doors made and hung in the garage. Can you remember when I built those cupboards?

Doors were needed.

 Have doors now. I will take them down a one at a time and paint white. Trust me....it is better that way.
   We have a lot of sorting to do. I can build more cupboards, but in the end, We really do have a bunch of stuff out there that is not being used.

We tried to discourage a dove from building a nest in the top flower box by the door.

We were unsuccessful. The dove laid her eggs there in the dirt. We thought she would go elsewhere when we chucked the partial nest twice.

Didn't take us seriously and laid the eggs in the dirt. Now we felt bad.
I had a picture of the two eggs. I think it was on the file I accidently deleted on the phone.

So anyways. I went out and found some fake green grass to put around the edge of the box. It gave the dove a little more privacy so we were not always scaring her off the nest. Then when the rains came. I felt bad about the bird and eggs laying in the wet dirt(remember I tossed a partial nest?). I built a roof.

One egg hatched.

You can just see the brown momma behind the little one.

I am sure I forgot some stuff. Went down to finish some things on Mary Lee last weekend. Forgot the keys. It is almost an hour and a half drive.

Last for this post. I have started applying for a trucking job again. I will likely have to wear a back brace, but I really do not care. I need to fill the coffers again and driving is something I can do anywhere. I can drive half the year and boat the other half. Besides that, I have plans that require my working if they are ever to come to fruition.

I meant to post a little sooner. I forgot to finish the last post and it just got left as a draft. Then I deleted a folder of pictures off phone. Gotta love android phones. They help us remember and find things, but one slip-up and something is lost forever :-)

Well Mary Lee runs. I have yet to make it down to finish the mechanical fix. The shop did a great job with the new bracket. It will not break soon. Of course I have no pictures of that.

I did have a picture that shows part of the problem

The replacement for this is much nicer, if I had a picture.

As I was cleaning up the oil(scrubbing the bilge, I realised that the previous owner left me another little gem. The hose that runs off the bilge is 3/4 inch. He must have bought a used pump to replace the old one. It has a one inch output. So he just shoved the smaller hose into the bilge output and called it good. I have to put a picture of the repairs in the next post.
   Mary Lee has a dripless driveshaft or I would likely have found that sooner. Amazing as it seems. The bilge pump seemed to be working just fine until I lifted it up and the hose fell out.

I am on day fourteen of a fast. Down 24 pounds this morning. I am going 30 days on this one. Maybe more. Will see how the rest of the weight comes off. I am really going to concentrate more on portion control and snacking when I start eating again. I weighed 205 pounds when I got hurt. I have used snacking as something to help take my mind off pain. I did not always eat the healthiest things. Vivian is a vegetarian. She does eat some seafood, cheese and eggs. She does not mind me eating whatever I like. I am going to adopt a diet more along the lines of what hers is.

So on a fast I generally go through cookbooks and watch cooking shows. This time I am still doing that. But I am learning to make new things.

Crepes

 This one browned a bit much because the skillet was too hot when I poured the batter in. I liked the color so it is the only picture I took. This is eggless. Next batch will be with a non-wheat flour.

I posted a while back about a new way to do hard-boiled eggs. I improved on it.

Now the shell slides off each egg in one piece. Even if it cracked while cooking and had some seepage.
 So what have I been practicing this skill on?

Deviled eggs. With a twist. These are not you basic deviled eggs. I had someone tell me they were the best she had ever had. Vivian says they are great. With the eggs being so easy to make, it takes no effort to make these. We will have them often.
  So basically. Most red meats and wheat will be cut out of my diet. Sugars cut waaaay back on. We have decided that it will be best if I make something sweet on the times we want it. If it is not just laying around being easy to pick up then we are not likely to have it.

A lot more is happening. Good things. But until I know more I will save them for later. Remember that rose bush I fertilized with the wrong stuff? It had gone dormant. I watched it do almost nothing for a couple months. Finally thought"what if I just fertilize with rose fertilizer?" Would it change the soil enough to make it grow?

It did!

It has really been something to watch.

So Mary Lee made it almost halfway to Charleston before we ran into trouble. There we were....squeezing past the low water by McClellensberg just a couple hours before low tide. Doing fine...Sloooww...but okay. 3.5 miles south of McClellensberg, the engine suddenly slows like it is throttling down....and quits. Oh Boy!!!  I run forward and drop the anchor.

Guessing we were already blown over into the mud before the anchor hit bottom. So the next step was to gander at the engine. Alternator bracket had broke. Knocked a hole in the oil filter and of course, oil everywhere. Great!!! A couple of weeks before I moved her to Johnson's marina, Georgetown landing had called, someone wanted to buy her. Don't think I never thought of that.
  It is what it is. While waiting for tow boat U.S.

We took a selfy. What else can you do?

While waiting for our two. We watched a storm roll in from the south. Noticed the leading edges swirling a lot.

Our tow boat was a couple hours late. They ended up outrunning a cyclone and beaching the boat.

Eventually we got dropped off at Leeland Marina in McClellenberg.

Vivian made a friend.

Who made sure I tied off correctly.
Turns out we really enjoy the people here. Small town and down to earth.

View off the stern was of the shrimp boat fleet.

Vivian truly is a good sport. Neither one of us has had a lot of boating enjoyment out of Mary Lee yet.
So instead of sailing on July 4th....we drove up to Georgetown and watched the fireworks before going home. We have had quite the heat wave. Working on boat would need to wait a bit.
So...I did a little research. It turns out that Universal engines are notorious for the alternator brackets breaking. The advice given was to replace with better or buy a new engine.
I went back down to clean the oil out of the bilge and while there I changed the filter, refilled the oil and the engine started. Could not run more than a minute or so until all put back together. It was a little rough at cold idle but seemed to smooth out okay when throttled up. I may have got lucky.
While at it...

I get to fix the bilge pump hose. Turns out the previous owner must have found a second hand bilge pump that took 1" inner diameter hose. Hose on boat was 3/4 inch inner. He just shoved the smaller hose into the larger hole and called it good.

That has been all the hold up on Mary Lee. I have found nothing that was not cobbled together on the whole boat. Every single thing worked when I bought her. Every single thing was cobbled together in a way that made the fact that anything worked kind of a miracle.
You have heard the saying about opening up a can of worms? I bought one. Not complaining. I was in much pain and on really strong pain pills when I bought her. It was about fighting to get my life back.
I have come a very long ways. I know quite a lot about the different systems on a boat. Eventually we will move up in size. I will never trust a surveyor again. I have had two surveys. One when I bought her. The other when I got boat U.S. insurance. They both missed several things. But...I did get to see how they do their job.

I will survey myself when we eventually move up in size. My rule. I do not care so much that a boat needs some things freshened up...or even an engine built. The price will reflect that. But if I spot cobbling caused by an owner slapping something together wrong just to save money.....I walk away.

So hopefully I get Mary Lee to Charleston next weekend. One together, I will fire her up. Put in gear and throttle up. She can stay tied to the dock for no less than an hour while running. Hopefully I am not building another engine. Likely have less than a hundred hours on this rebuild. Funny thing is. If I had opted to stay in Baltimore for one last winter, I could have done some sailing right after engine build. Then sailed most of the next summer before heading south.

I would have been sailing...but would not have met Vivian. There is no question that she has filled a hole in my life.

Maybe someday I can take her sailing?? ;-)
In the meantime... Have you ever seen a monkey fist knot?

They are used for tying a weight on the end of a line to help one throw a line up to a ship from the dock. Of course, a lot of people think that using a one inch steel ball in it and a long lanyard is the modern equivelant of a mace. A sap??
 Whatever. I thought they make a nice keychain. Heavy weights wear out ignition switches. I mostly just wanted to learn a new knot.

Learned it. Mine have a rubber ball in them. Well...the big one is a baseball. The larger white one has a ping pong ball. I did a couple with an unbreakable fishing bobber.
 I found these motion activated owls in dollar tree. A box full of obnoxious sounds.

Thought Vivian would distribute them amongst her co-workers. Nothing doing. They are boxed up in closet :-)