Not a lot to add at this point. It is still a little cold. I am working on building the wood working bench in the garage.

2x6's split down the middle and then glued together. The four, 3/8inch bars of all-thread are helping with the clamping while glue dries. When finished they will be left in to help strengthen the glued top.

 Top of bench will be about 2 1/2 inches thick. One vise is 40 pounds, the other is 25 pounds. Table will be 5 feet by 3 feet. With vices attached, legs and shelves, sides,doors, it will weigh about 230 lbs or so. Loaded with tools??? It will be pushing 300 pounds or more. With rubber feet it will not easily move around when trying to work on it. The top will be permanently one piece but all legs and sides will be built to bolt together so it can come apart. I am taking it to Florida along with my tools when I go. I intend to be refitting a bigger boat in the near future.

A new dish added to culinary skills.

Made canadian yellow split pea soup the other day. Never had it before but grew up on the green split pea soup.

Of course....no matter what kind of split peas, it has it's own special look when done. It was delicious, but had that infamous "slop" texture.

Found this picture while looking up blogs for Vivian. No story came with it.

This picture is more like what we have in mind. This site had some nice pictures.

This was in a boatus magazine. I would like to see it someday.

I still think I want to spend a summer sailing Maine's coastline. I had a friend from Maine while in the Navy. Saw some pretty neat pictures. It would be nice to have a look for myself. I don't want to spend all that time on the ICW going there and back. I also think there are places I cannot go on the Intra coastal waterway unless I can drop the masts. So sailing up the coast would be the only option. Time will tell. Once I have been out to the islands I may change my mind about going north :-)

Glue should be dry enough for clamps to come off work bench. I better get moving.

Starting to warm up in Myrtle Beach. I have started bike riding in t-shirt and shorts. Ok...It was 60 degrees and sunny but a bit windy. I debated on going back for warmer clothes. I decided it would get warmer as the day went and I was headed to the boat anyways.

 Mary Lee is just a mile and a half from Vivian's and on the hard again. If you follow the blog you know that after I had Mary Lee out last year the marina told me I could not stay on it. I put on a prop and left. Now I get to do the things I wanted to last year.

But.....Before I get ahead of myself. It is only 5 or 6 miles from Osprey marina where I had Mary Lee this winter to Hague marina where she would be pulled out for work. Vivian had never been on a sailboat and certainly never steered a boat either. So I took it out of Osprey.

Vivian not only "captained" Mary Lee to Hague Marina, She even used the radio to ask the socastee swing bridge master to open the gate.

Last year she took a picture of me going through the same bridge on my way south.

 She did great and we both had a good time. She is as anxious as I am for Mary Lee to be launched and taken down to the summer's sailing grounds. Everything will finally be caught up this summer. Can you believe it? This is my 4th summer of trying to get Mary Lee and myself fixed up. We will spend the summer sailing and then I head to Florida this fall. We are"tentatively" planning a trip to the Islands for Christmas. This really is my year.

But like I said. Much work to be done.

So out she comes.

Tucked back in the trees. I will have afternoon shade. The bottom paint will get done correctly. I got lucky. Previous owners took off old paint before repainting. The power washer actually took it down to gel coat in quite a few large patches.
I have a prop shaft to get shortened. Good time to make sure all is well with cutlass bearing and seals.
Of course I have this to replace.

Electrolysis strikes. I could not have done a nicer job with a hacksaw. 

Pretty important piece. I have a cure.

I have been looking Florida over for fun. I have a friend (Paul) with a Block Island 40. He and his wife Cindy live in St. Augustine. He will be helping me look for a larger boat in the next year or so. Vivian's mom is moving to Florida soon and will be living further south on the gulf side. Steve and Linda on Yesterday's Dream spend winters in Marathon. It is looking like the place to be.

Well before I get that far. I am also finishing the non-skid on Mary Lee. The grey was bad advice followed once again. It gets scorching hot in the sun. It will be white. While doing this, I will be wet sanding the gel coat and buffing. Everything else will be white also. I have to re-bed the deck hardware and stanchions. String the new running rigging I have been splicing ends on. I will also repaint the boot stripe. Will pick whatever color goes with the canvas picked.

Vivian will be helping with new canvas. The canvas will happen throughout the summer. The Bimini and Dodger are to low for me to stand up under. I am going to remedy that.  I am going to spend some time in a boatswain's chair. If everything else is going to be bright white....so are the masts.

Lets not forget the cabinets I will be building for Vivian this summer and the Dinghy build.

This is the next dinghy.
I have until October. I want to build this Day sailor and make it a nester dinghy. We will see if I have time.

It can be built in a 12,14 or 16 foot lengths if I remember right. Maybe 10? It might be hard to fit two 6 footers on Mary Lee but not on a 45 footer. I want something bigger than a small dinghy. I want a boat big enough to do the things I have planned....and it cannot pop.

So by now you know the drill. I plan all I can. Then I dive in and do all I can. It was much easier to get things done before I got hurt, but I will happily take what life has left me to work with. The old brain is back up to speed. I still have a little trouble remembering things sometimes but the fog from all those years of pain pills is gone.  I hurt all the time, it is always hard, sometimes bad enough  that I would take a pill if I had it. Exactly why I won't go get any. The trade off is more than worth it.

Last summer was so very hard for me. I feel better starting out this year and summer is not even here yet.

Valentines day has come and gone. Vivian and I had a nice dinner and I baked a cake for dessert.

So once again we are feeling a little sugared out.

I found the dinghy and day sailor plans I was looking for. This is my next dinghy build.

Dinghy is 8 feet long. I will build it in preparation of something bigger.

Will be studying the smaller one as I build it to see how I can make a nester out of the bigger one. This type of boat is certainly going to be more complex than the last one. I don't care, if I am doing the building, I want the nicest dinghy I can fit on Mary Lee.

Vivian found this jewel. How fun is that for a snow plow??

She also found this on a weird photo page somewhere.

The weather is getting nicer. Sunny again today. The storms that go through are just about all I can take. The pressure changes would put me out of work if I did indeed have a job. I get stronger all the time but sometimes it is frustrating to work so hard at recovery and still not be where I want to be. I am not kidding about being in Florida next winter.

Hopefully the arbor nut will be here for the tablesaw this week. I have the lumber out in the garage for the work bench. Also am building a larger table and sled for the tablesaw. Table will be big enough to make router table on one side. I will be building Vivian's cabinets at the same time I am doing the dinghy.

I like having more than one project going. While working on one project I am able to sort out any issue that came up on the other. Of course...I generally have several things I am thinking about at the same time. Yet...the answers I am searching for still keep popping in so I see no reason to do it any different :-)

I wonder at what age this will be too difficult to maintain. I sure am glad, I was able to figure out how to deal with pain without the narcotic pain meds. How fantastic that my brain is once again fully functional. Halfway through my 11th month without them. It has been a challenge, but not once have I "missed" them. At times I hurt so bad my eyes water but I refuse to go to another doctor just for that. When I am settled in Florida I will go in and get my Medtronics implant taken out. I have not used it since house sitting in Thompson Falls, MT.

The wheatgrass and fruit/veg juicing along with sprouting continues. I feel like a wheatgrass farmer. I am learning to sit on a heat pad before my back gets so knotted up. It helps. I even went for my first bike ride of the spring. I missed riding. Next month I will be back in the gym again. Riding all I can and making Mary Lee shiny for the move to Georgetown,SC. The sailing begins this summer. If all goes well....maybe can sail to Florida instead of running the engine all the way there. I have a friend willing to come help with the move. I think an auto pilot is in order.

One of the things I am looking for is glued lapstrake plans for a day sailor very similar to this.

I have a desire to build one of these. This picture is a lapstrake build but it is not glued lapstrake. I want to build it using the glued lapstrake technique as I think building it the old way will take much longer than I want it to. All I need is the name of the guy who drew one as a glued lapstrake plan or the name of the design.

Not much else to add. Another winter storm is supposed to be rolling in. Freezing rain and colder temps. The winter storms in South Carolina seem rather anemic and short lived. I find this oddly comforting.

Next winter I'll be in Florida.

We decided after the first course in cake decorating(butter cream frosting) that having so much cake and frosting around was not really what we wanted for ourselves. We did get our certificate. We had to decorate a cake with roses for the last class(we also learned roses the same class). Vivian did a nice job.

I baked the cake for her and made the frosting because she had other things she needed to do,  but she did the rest.

I had a little extra practice. The flowers do better putting them around the side if they get to dry a little first. There was no time for that. The five or six on top was all that was required.

Better picture.

I was surprised at how "rough"(for lack of a kinder word) the cakes made by our classmates looked. Vivian's cake totally spanked the competition. Funny thought. I never baked a cake, made frosting or spread it on a cake before this class. The class was four Wednesdays. Two hours each. Once this cake was baked, I think it took about an hour and a half to decorate it.

After having way too much sweet stuff around and realizing neither one of us had enough self control to stay away from it, we decided that Latin dance classes may be a healthier alternative. :-)

Vivian's son Mitch made the comment that it seemed rather ironic I could put an engine together from parts and yet be able to put together a nicely decorated cake. I can do a lot of other things also. Seems to me that any person should strive to be well rounded. Why be defined for having ONE skill?

The wheat grass juicing is escalating. After the last blog I did a little more reading. Chlorophyll is almost identical to hemoglobin. The main element in blood is iron. The main element in chlorophyll is magnesium. Wheat grass juice is high in iron. Along with all the vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, minerals,etc. It makes a pretty good blood builder.
 I now have 6 trays planted. Right now we are waiting for some to reach the right height again. We had 6 days straight of drinking our WG juice in the morning. Perhaps 6 trays will be enough to keep us going every day without needing to wait on more growth.

I just planted tray six. It is on the floor until fully rooted. I have been sprouting them first in this little sprouter I found on amazon.

When sprouted enough. I spread them on soil. sprinkle a little soil on top. Cover and keep damp for a few days until they seem well rooted.
 I have a book on making Kimchi and another on making cheese at home. As these other projects come on line I will add more. One at a time. I am having my sister mail my soy milk maker to me. I learned making soy milk in Thompson Falls, MT. Next on the list is making tofu. Vivian is fond of miso soup and now has me looking forward to miso soup days.

 Have spent quite a bit of time studying cabinet building lately. I mentioned that project last time. Waiting on saw parts. Home depot can get marine grade plywood for me. Dinghy build coming right up.

Weather is slowly warming up enough to start riding bike in shorts. Will be back in gym soon. I still have not reached a point where I feel good. Still tired. Back still knots up horrifically. I realize that my poor diet while laid up has something to do with it. I am thinking about taking Steve and Linda's (Yesterday's Dream) advice and going to a nutritionist and having blood work done to find out why I am still so exhausted. I want to believe that I can figure it out with a good diet. However, if nothing else is wrong then the leg exhaustion is from the nerves in my back being pinched. It certainly is worse when my back knots up.

 I have been sleeping better recently. So part of the mental fatigue is finally going away. I slept so very little for so many years that it is almost hard to believe I still functioned. It is still hard to imagine what I went through. As bad as it still seems at times, it is so very much better than what it once was.

 However, no complaints, I am doing better now then at this same time last year. It is going to be hard to keep me away from Florida this next fall!!!

As always....Too many things to write about for a blog post.

 I have been doing a lot more thinking about my book ideas. The Elves of Christmas City, is the one I want to get after first. I put it off for so long because I felt, and still feel, that I need to feel good myself in order to write a good story. One of the things I have been doing, is taking the personalities and traits of people I have met and known along the way, and using them to build characters. I have a great interest in psychology(I have read so very many books on it and analyzed so very many people in the last two decades). I am hoping this, with all the traveling I have done and people I have met along the way, will give me a good background to draw from. We will see.

Soon Mary Lee will get the rest of her new lines, some canvas and of course, bottom paint. I was in a rather shoddy yard last year and could not live aboard long enough to get it done. It didn't need done until they took the high powered washer to it. No other yard sprays boats with that much pressure. I wonder if it gets them more work doing bottom paint. No matter, this time I will do everything the right way. I also have to shorten the drive shaft. A summer of sailing in Georgetown, SC. then Florida bound. I am excited...busy, but excited.

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.