It's way to Cold to Kiss

A song for winter, sung to the tune of Sealed With a Kiss

Yes we had to say good bye to the summer,
And now it's come down to this
Minus twelve in November,
Now it's way too cold to kiss
Guess it's going to be a long nasty winter,
I'm huddled in bed writing this
Too cold to get up and start a fire
Don't know how I'll make it through this
The water pipes are frozen
The propane hose is cracked
Ice is on the docks
Not enough wood got stacked
I didn't want to say good bye to the summer,
Knowing the heat I would miss
If I could have left in September,
Then it wouldn't have come to this
Guess it's going to be a long nasty winter,
Promises of lots of ice and snow
If only I was was rich, I could get on a plane and go
to Mexico
Where it's warm enough to kiss
And away from all of this


Bah Humbug, I hate winter and more so with every passing year. There was a few years in my twenties and thirties once I had learned how to ski, where I found a modecum of enjoyment from the sight of fresh snow, but now that I am older, stiffer and poorer that small joy is forever gone. Now it's just a struggle to survive each day. Living on the water makes that job even harder.

It's a constant battle against the elements here. We are limited to one hundred amps of electricity for the whole marina and that has to be shared by everyone. That means there isn't enough electricity for everyone to run a million space heaters
24/7, so alternative sources of heat must be found.

First you have to insulate EVERYTHING! Seal all the windows with plastic, stuff all the cracks with insulation, and hang blankets in all the doorways. Our main source of heat is the woodstove which eats firewood in amazing quantities. We seem to spend a large part of each day chopping wood which then vanishes in a a few short hours and requires setting an alarm to get up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire.

Luckily we live in a climate where it rarely dips below freezing but when it does we are in trouble. All of our water comes to us through garden hoses which freeze solid. The regulators for the propane tanks also freeze meaning no hot water or cook stove. Any dampness on the docks turns to ice making them extremely treacherous to navigate. If the cold snap lasts long enough, the river itself freezes, sending large dangerous chunks of ice sailing down river to crash into us.

Over the last two years, so much sediment has built up under us, that Dave's house sits on the hard at an angle during low tide. With last night's full moon making an extra low tide and the extreme cold, his house was making huge cracking noises which sounded like all the beams were breaking.Thankfully they didn't but the noise was something fearful to experience.

Even with 4 heaters and a fire going for most of the night, when we woke up the temperature in the house was at zero, the water pipes all frozen and this is just November! Our really bad weather typically doesn't start until the end of December.

I wish I was a bear so I could just hibernate until this is all over! Or rich enough to just leave for somewhere tropical for the next four months.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back and Mind Your Toes

Well I've scared off another gas-fitter today.I had finally gotten my water heater back from Mike and the metal plates he made to mount it to the wall a few weeks later. I called another gas-fitter and made an appointment for him to come by this morning and get me hooked up. He started off all positive but as he took a better look at the situation, he backpedaled right out the door. All full of apologies about his "bad feeling " about the whole setup and his woefull inadequacies when it comes to working on boats. DAMN! I get different advice from everyone who looks at this. One says I need a pipe with an elbow to reduce condensation,another says no, a straight pipe is fine. One says I need copper pipe, another says your not supposed to use copper pipes on boats anymore.WTF???

Just when I had given up all hope, I got a call from Kim, he is the guy that took my propane furnace months ago. I had all but given up on him. He dropped by this afternoon with my furnace all repaired and looking brand spanking new. He gave me a bunch of copper pipe and various copper joints and elbows so I could get it hooked up. I would like to vent it through the woodstove chimney but he is concerned that if the pipe isnt hot it wouldnt draw and the smoke(fumes?) would pour back into the boat.If anyone has tried something like this, I like to hear how it worked out.It will be a bit of a procedure to get this hooked up as I have to loosen off the tarp on the water side of the boat, thread the gas hose through a cleat hole, and drill a hole somewhere to vent it. A project for another day, today I rest!!

Kim has said he can get me a vent pipe for the water heater, so back to playing the waiting game again. At this rate, I should be good to go by next winter! Speaking of which we had our first snow storm last week, followed immediately by the pineapple express which dumped a ton of rain. This resulted in an interesting few days. We tacked down chicken wire while the snow fell to make the docks less treacherous. I went off to work all proud of my ability to do battle with mother nature to come back to such a high tide from all the flooding, that I was walking up a ramp that usally only has various shades of down. The water was inching dangerously close to the buildings on shore but receded before it got too scary. Another storm weathered and Im still here. The next day, I went shopping for more tools of survival. I picked up a 1000 watt gas generator, brand new for $95 and a gas water pump for the same price. I also picked up another bilge pump and a marine battery. Alot of money I hadnt planned on spending, but feel better knowing I am ready for any emergency.

David managed to drop the big marine battery on his foot bringing it down to the boat, so we spent 2 days trying to get him in for xrays at the local hospital. After an excruitiating 6 hour wait in which I threw my back out trying to stay upright in the chair, he fianlly got looked at. No broken bones, just a bad crushing of a few toes. This has slowed him down quite abit and he finally took a few days off and just relaxed. Ive never seen him sit still for more than 5 minutes, this is a treat.

We have had all kinds of issues with the sattelite tv. All the reafing on the piling its attached to when bringing the tug back up, knocked it off its course and ripped out my line. In the meantime , my reciever decided to pack it in altogether. Poor David had spent hours on the phone with them trying to get it sorted out, but they are complete morons. He spends half an hour telling them what is wrong, what we need done and giving them all kinds of info about the account, and then they start all over asking him all the same questions and putting him on hold forever and ever.If you could kill someone over the phone, I think there would be a few people having a bad day. We did get a guy here to repostion the sattelite dish so we have a signal again, and David brought his reciever and wire over here and got it hooked up. In two months we have had about 2 weeks of service. The worst part is , even when its working , there really isnt much on anyway.