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.