I picked up some 1/2″ rope this week to make a boarding ladder for the sailboat. It seemed simpler and much cheaper than buying a transom ladder, or pre-made rope ladder.
Ben immediately decided that we should build the rope ladder from “The Magic Tree House” series of books. He even brought down a copy of one of the books so we could look at how it was made.
This morning we went out to the workshop and picked out some wood (I think it is cedar) that was the proper size and didn’t need milling. It was a quick project with both boys helping. The rough lumber isn’t slippery, so it makes the ladder safer.
Total time: 5 minutes picking out lumber; 10 minutes cutting the lumber by hand; 10 minutes to drill the holes on the drill press; 10 minutes to make into a ladder with both boys helping.
We finished in time to head to the submarine base and spend an hour and a half swimming at North Lake before lunch. Now to build the boat ladder….
It has been a nice, slow, Saturday so far. Will and I went out first thing so I could get my hair cut. Susanna and Ben slept in. I was going to mow the yard this morning, but the mower battery was completely dead. I knew it was going but had hoped to make the rest of the season on the old battery. So another trip to get a new battery. This time with Ben.
I did mow the yard this afternoon. Now we are taking time to cool off in the new pool (thanks Susanna for the early birthday presen).
Tonight we are heading to the base for a free showing of the Avengers.
Today started out with my normal routine. The boys slept in, but the dogs wanted to go out at 6:45. I put them out and went back upstairs to lay down for a little longer before starting the morning.
Then came the smell. Skunk. A faint odor at first, then stronger. After a couple of choice words, I went down to check on the dogs. Targa had been hit. Tucker was still running around, but I couldn’t imagine him escaping.
I put Targa on a leash and hosed him off (with some soap) while Susanna chased Tucker around the yard to catch him.
The spray seems to be limited to both dogs noses. And Targa’s mouth. No eyes thankfully.
Susanna is off to the store to get special shampoo for the dogs. The house smells like skunk; we are waiting for a good breeze to blow the lingering skunk smell away.
One of our family goals is to get the sailboat in the water by this fall. Just one time in the water. I have had a 1973 O’Day 22 foot sailboat for over 10 years and I have never had it in the water. It is in the garage, and the trailer has lots of rot. Too much rot to move the boat, so even if I wanted to get rid of it, I would need to repair the trailer.
The boat off the trailer on the stands
The first part of the project required lifting the boat off the trailer, pulling the trailer out from under the boat, and setting the boat down on stands.
The boys and I started working on the boat this afternoon when Susanna headed into work. The goal for today was to finish this step of the project. I couldn’t have done it without the boys. Ben helped the first part of the afternoon, and Will the second part of the afternoon. All three of us struggled to pull the trailer out from under the boat (one of the tires was very flat – made it even harder to move). It took the three of us and the tractor to pull it out.
None of the usual complaining about being bored and not helping. There was a period that I wasn’t sure that we would get finished today.
The next step is to clean out the inside of the boat. Susanna is planning on doing that over the next couple of days. Then we will evaluate the scope of the work remaining to get the boat in the water.
We even dug out the mast from behind the barn (the boys washed it).
We are all scraped up and banged up from the project today. I’m tired, but I think Ben got the most banged up (not all of it was project related – a lot of scrapes playing around on his bicycle after a hard day working outside) – he got a good cut on the palm of his hand helping put the mast on it’s storage rack.
I haven’t forgotten my other projects. I am still working on the kitchen island – but I can’t just have one project going on at a time. I want to make progress on the boat before we break to paint the trim on the house in July (with Susanna’s sister, Rebecka’s, help).
The rain stopped long enough on Saturday afternoon to take a walk down to the cemetery before dinner. The boys brought their new toy bows to protect us from orcs, goblins and uruk-hia that were there to attack us. I think that they must be more dangerous than the zombies and ogres that normally plague our walks.
This morning the boys started by fighting zombies. Then turning into zombies – until they couldn’t find a brain in Tucker to eat.
It rained most of the day – which put a damper on our hopeful beach plans. But a slow day is nice once in a while. Will had a friend, Tyler, sleep over again last night. We took Tyler home just before lunch on our way to the toy store – Ben had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon and needed a gift. The boys spent their allowances eacg on a set of toy bow and arrows.
Ben guarding the gate
Will had been wanting to watch the “Lord of the Rings” movies again. We had watched them two years ago (and skipped lots of scary parts). This time, with Ben at a party, Will wanted to watch the entire movie (win-win, Ben got to play at a party and Will got to watch a movie that had given Ben nightmares previously). It was a rainy day and perfect for a three hour movie. And the movie explains the lack of zombies on our evening walk (and the addition of enemies from middle-earth).
We are having a nice family evening. Both Will and Ben have friends over. We cooked up the chicken I got from the Sawyer farm and headed to New London for ice cream (and to visit Susanna at work)
After dessert we took some time to run around the Mitchell College campus.
It is quiet during the day with the boys not here. That gives me a chance to catch up on chores. But I’d rather have the noise of kids running around and squeeze in chores on the edges.
I picked up (and planted) tomato, pepper and celery seedlings from the Sawyer Family farm. I also picked up a freshly slaughtered chicken – dinner one night for the boys and me.
I mowed most of the yard this weekend (a little left to finish next week). The yard is coming together. The garden is planted. The flower beds are getting cleaner (ok, still work to do).
I also covered the hole in the second floor of the barn where the original stairs had been. I am getting ready to install a large (4′ x5′) window in the south facing wall. I will hinge it so I should be able to get a nice breeze in the summer. I had to repair glazing on the window and paint it.
In addition I removed four of the glass storm windows and installed screens (I have only 3 screens, so I’ll have to make more this summer.
It finally feels like summer here. Now for pizza and beer while enjoying the evening from the patio.
It is a rare weekend night that I am home and the boys aren’t here. Even rarer now to have that and Susanna not working. Last night was one of those rare nights. In addition Loreen from Sweden won the 2012 Eurovision contest. I think they hadn’t won it since 1918 or something like that. Sorry, not 1918, I’m thinking of something else; Sweden hadn’t won Eurovision since 1999. Understandably, Susanna was pretty excited. Also, understandably, as hard as I may try, I’m just not as excited as Susanna about it.
Anyway to celebrate the Eurovision win (for Susanna) and to celebrate a night we can actually go out (for me), we dressed up and went to Foxwoods Casino for dinner and drinks. We enjoyed mexican (food and drinks), and I actually won $20 on the slots (yeah, slots, like lottery, tax on people bad at statistics – but it is fun sometimes just to put in $20 and see what happens – and going to a movie would cost just as much).
We came home to enjoy the humid evening on the patio. We even dug out some of the sky lanterns we had left from last summer and lit two of them – watching them drift away into the night sky. I think we will save the remainder until the boys are back (and for when Susanna’s sisters visit this summer).
Speaking of visits, it looks like both of Susanna’s sisters may be here at the same time. That will be a change, from a household that has more males than females in it to just the opposite. If anyone wants to find me that week, I’ll be locked in my workshop. I have beer and water in there. I just need to find a urinal and install it – I’ll be all set for a couple of days at least.
Enough random musings for this morning. Time to drink my coffee and get moving on my day.
