Life Last Week

Well last week was a full one for sure.

Tuesday I spent seven hours at the hairdressers getting a perm that had about four hundred rods in my head. It was an exhausting ordeal but Im now as curly as a lamb.

Wednesday I worked on the boat, then off to do 3 massages

Thursday morning we got up and the sun was shining, the sky was blue and I couldnt face one more day on this industrial dusty island.I kidnapped David from his zillion and one chores and we went on a road trip.

We started with eggs benny brunch then headed up the road to Squamish ( on the sea- to-sky highway midway to Whistler, the sight of the 2010 Olympics)I haven't been up that way in years and had forgotten how beautiful this province can be.It was a splendid day, no traffic at all and gorgeous views of snow capped mountains, lush forest and dazzling sea scapes.

We checked out a cool marina in Lions Bay, where all the boats are kept out of water in a three story covered hanger. When you want to go out, they grab your boat with a forklift, put it on a trailer and have it launched in ten minutes. Nice setup,no docks to worry about, no damage to boats in the water, no worries about sinking boats ect. All nice and neat and protected.Stacking them three high made optimal use of the space as well. I was very impressed. David wanted to check out the area up here for some water space to put his houses for the olympics with the idea of renting them out as accomadation.

We then made our way to Brandywine Falls for an ozone fix.My lungs hadn't felt that good in months.I could breathe all the way down to my toes, sweet fresh moutain air, got to love it!. Spent a little time tree hugging and soaking in the greenery, then it was off to Squamish.

Brandywine Falls





We found the slough where they moor their boats. Its totally gorgeous,tucked in beside the Chief mountainside.I could live there!






On the way home we stopped downtown to visit Davids friends at their new tattoo shop they just opened. I havent been on Granville street after dark in about 20 years.Felt like a teenager again. I forgot how vibrant that part of town is. So different from Richmond that rolls up its streets at dusk.

One of the tattoo artists had air-brushed this very cool painting on the shop wall. Its a little on the evil side but I thought it would be cool to do something like this on my hull.Just not the image I would chose for myself, but love the effect.

Friday I spent installing some boards on the boat and did some massages in the evening,not getting home until alomost midnight.

Up early Saturday morning and spent the whole day working on the boat.A quick shower and it was off to a friends house for one of the best jams Ive ever been too.
Awesome music going on in three different rooms. Didnt get home from that until 2 am.

Up at 8am for a full day of massages at the clinic on Sunday. Got home around 8:30 pm and was curling up in bed ready to call it a night when we got a frantic call saying Davids Tugboat was out in the middle of the river.

We raced down to the docks to find that a hundred foot section of concrete dock with the tugboat tied to the outside had been hit by a huge deadhead tearing it away from its moorings. The current was roaring as it was a 13 foot drop in tide that night and we couldnt do anything to pull it in. With no choice but to wait for the tide change all we could do was attach a mechanical come-along to a rope and tie it off to hold all it in place. Too scared to leave it and sleep, we spent a long night watching and waiting for the tide change.It finally started to shift around 4:30 in the morning.We then spent a grueling three hours pulling it all back in and getting it properly secured again.

Eight am and we finally crawled into bed, wet and exhausted.Slept pretty much the whole day away.Ordered take out food for brupper ( breakfast,lunch,supper), then it was off to do a few more massages.

Tuesday was another full day of work, nine massages.Then it was off to the other side of town to buy myself a new laptop. My old one finally hit the floor one too many times and died on me last week. Came home and spent several hours downloading software until I couldnt see straight anymore.

Yesterday was a day of a zillion errands, all over town.Hardware store, gorceries,drugstore,4 computer shops,the water store, laundry, dishes and a home cooked meal, then back to work for another 3 massages.

Whew Im tired just writng about it all.Time for a break, ...haha ya right.David is barking at me to get up and get busy.Sigh ...here we go again!

Im a Girl So...

changing my mind comes with the territory. After spending a small fortune and several days on the plywood scheme, I changed my mind at the last minute and installed the boards instead. The plywood had started to warp quite badly from curing in a cold damp room and looked like it was going to be a hassle to install neatly,so I decided to try going with the boards after all. The reason I wasnt going to in the beginning, was I thought I was going to have to steam them all to make them fit tight. Lots of clamps, glue and a zillion screws later and they are in and looking fine if I say so myself.I'm very proud of the finished result and much happier to have real boards in there.







My arms are still going numb every night, so I am trying to avoid lots of repetative work on the boat. To that end, I hired a young man to come over last Saturday and grind the paint off the bottom. It was a chore I was dreading doing as it would require laying on my back and holding the heavy grinder over my head.

It was the best hundred bucks Ive ever spent. He did a great job and got it all done in one day. While he was here, I had him and David work on getting all the through-hulls removed.( Most of them had to be cut off as they were so rusted)David got most of the routering finished so Im having my helper back this Saturday to pull out the last of the caulking and to start filling the seams with fairing putty. Whoohooo...finally progress being made.I had my doubts that this would ever get done, but now that we are this far along, Im starting to feel hopeful.

The main challenge left now, is to figure out how Im going to rebuild the side decks and get the last boards just under them installed.There are a few patches that need to be installed, one over the big drafty hole behind the bed and I want to cover the two holes in the back of the transom. Im not sure what their original purpose was, but all they seemed to do was be a doorway for rodents to get onboard.Once all that is done, I'll go over the whole boat with a grinder and sander to smooth out any bumps and then the fiberglassing can start. I have no idea what I'm in for there but hopefully it goes well and quickly. I would love to have this done by the end of the year. Wishful thinking perhaps, but its amazing how much work gets done with a few helping hands.

Progress Update

Well pretty much all the caulking is out now. Ive been picking away at it a few hours at a time over the last week and yesterday David spent the whole day on it. He has started routering all the seams to prepare them for being refilled with fairing putty.He has another good day of work to do before that job is all done.His hands are killing him as are mine ( ripping out caulking is HARD work)so it will get done in a few days when we have recuperated.

In the meantime, I got my plywood patches all covered in resin ( along with half the shop and a nasty resin burn on my chin). I ran out of catalyst, so off to the shops today to get more so I can install the patches tomorrow.

The bottom of the boat still needs to be grinded to remove the old paint and some boards need to be cut to fill in the places the patches dont cover. Then all the seams filled with putty and sanded.Once that is all done, the hull of the boat will be ready for fiberglassing.

Before that happens though, I still have to deal with rebuilding the side decks and window frames.So much to do, so little time, even less strength and energy. SIGH!!

As a diversion from all of this, we went out to a Halloween party Fridy night.What a blast! My friend Taylor had just moved into a 7 bedroom mansion in the tony North Vancouver heights.It has a spectacular view of the city, a living room the size of a barn and a gorgeous fireplace in the kitchen.There was a full band set up in the living room, a large dance floor space and all were dressed in costume.

I had noticed a large piece of fabric draped from the ceiling and was trying to guess what it was.I thought it was a hammock but was floored when I found out what it really was. Taylor came out dressed in a long flowing white dress, unhooked the fabric so it hung straight down from the ceiling. She then separated it into several pieces which she put around her wrists and ankles. Suddenly she was flying through the air on the coolest swing Ive ever seen. She could rearrange the fabric in different ways and do different poses that looked like floating ballet.Too cool, I want one.Apparently there are courses here in town to learn how to do it, I cant wait to try it out.Im not the most graceful person around, so doubt Ill ever make it look as good as she did, but looks like so much fun, Im willing to give it a go. Good thing David has a large open style house,its the perfect place for practicing something like this.

Taylor on her swing


The beautiful kitchen fireplace



Me and a few of my friends in costume

Does This Ever Happen to You?

I have had a weird relationship with all things electrical all my life.I first noticed it as a child when not one watch I ever owned would keep time.

I dont just mean they were a few minutes off either.I could set my watch at noon and half an hour later it would read 9am or some such thing.What kind of watch goes backward at light speed? Funny enough when I would look at the watch it was always ticking forward at a normal rate, take my eyes off of it for a few minutes and it would read hours of difference. I gave up and have never worn a watch since.

In my life I have had a VCR that would turn itself off and on whenever it felt like it, a desktop computer that would turn itself on ( usually at 3 am scaring me half to death), a toaster that would only toast one side of each piece of bread,a million unexplainable computer glitches that magically sort themselves out after 10 computer geniuses have given up,and strangest of all, a mysterious black box that shows up on my tv screen. The box blanks out about two thirds of my tv screen and the only way to make it go away is to hit the volume button once. This sometimes cures it for the night, sometimes it comes back constantly for hours.Even stranger is sometimes this black box gets writing in it, like someone is using it for a computer screen, only the writing never makes any sense. Sometimes it looks like Russian, the other day it was an url repeated over and over. Strangest of all, is this is the second TV Ive owned that has done this at two different addresses.

Oh yeah, and I can blow out street lights just by driving past them. Happens all the time to me. The street I lived on in Richmond was pretty much in darkness the whole time I lived there. They would replace the bulbs only to have me drive by the next night and blow them all again. My record was seven in one night.

So Jamie(MV Katherine Jane) while I can commiserate with all your recent woes with modern technology, until you have had me on board to really screw things up, you ain't seen nothing yet. Hope it all sorts itself out soon for you.

My TV screen with its annoying black box, no writing in it today.

The Continuing Deconstruction Of My Boat

Well Im still at it. David kept pointing at the patch job and telling me all the caulking had to be taken out,so I finally got around to doing that. All proud of myself because I spent about 3 hours doing it only to find out he meant the whole boat not just the patch job. That was another job I wasn't expecting and a brutal one to say the least.I spent eleven and a half hours working on that the other day and got about half the job done. I figure Ive done about 730 feet of caulking removal so far. All I can say is OUCH!! Each board has an inch of candlewick-like stuffing between it covered over with some kind of silicone-like substance that is stuck on there for life. I had to pry it all out one inch at a time. My arms were killing me when I finally called it a night.I didnt sleep a wink as my right arm went totally numb and tingly with a burning pain from hell that kept me wide awake. Thankfully that resolved itself the next day but had me scared for awhile.

I took the next day off and rested all day. That evening I went to the Parade of Lost Souls, always a treat for the senses and then off to a friends for a good jam session. It was awesome to get out, its been way to long since Ive had anything resembling a social life.

Originaly, I had intended to replace all the rotten boards with new ones, but that was looking like the job from hell, so decided to do something I swore I wouldnt.Im putting in large plywood patches instead. I spent the last two days making patterns from white board and cutting out 3 layers of plywood to fit the two big holes.

Today I finally gathered the courage to suit up and paint them all with fiberglass resin. While it was drying, I put in the rest of the new ribs.It all sounds so simple on paper but each job has many steps and lots of prep work to get all the tools and supplies together and the space prepared for the task at hand. When I look at the boat, not much seems different but I have spent endless hours on it. I can hardly wait till it starts going back together, the more I remove from it, the less it looks like something that will ever float again.

David has offered me one of his Dickinson diesel stoves for my boat. It needs a serious good cleaning/rebuilding and I would have to rip out the existing area where the wood stove is and rebuild it to fit the stove. Then I'd have to figure where to put fuel tanks and vents ect. I guess part of my mind set with this boat is worst case senario and the world goes to shit, can I survive on it? I could be off the grid with diesel and propane but in a complete shutdown of services I would still be in trouble. A woodstove with a cooking surface and a water coil would be ideal, but hard to find in the size I need to fit my boat. I do have a propane furnace which means just one kind of fuel for hot water, cooking and heat but thats alot of propane connections on one boat, kind of scary. Whats a girl to do?


The transom removed



A view of some boards with the caulking removed and one that still needs work



The gaping hole in the transom filled with a sawdust and glue mixture






The plywood cutouts all laid out ready for flooding with fiberglass resin

How I Waste Time to Avoid Working on the Boat

Ive been playing an online game called TextTwist.You get 6 jumbled letters and try to make as many words out of them in the alotted time.My best score in one run is 14,600. Im totally addicted and play half the night.Not getting much work done but sharpening up the rusty brain skills, all good.

http://sympatico.zone.msn.com/en/texttwist/default.htm?dr=t

Go ahead , try a game, its free, but dont blame me if you dont get anything else done for awhile:)

Ive always had a facination with hobbity looking houses and ever since I went to see that funky floathome a few weeks ago, Ive been checking out other cool architecture online.

One of the sites I stumbled across is about Fairy Houses. The concept is to build a tiny house out of natural objects and place them in your garden or in the woods for fairies to inhabit. It sure got my creative juices going, wish I had the time to try and make a few. Heres one site that sells them premade but I suggest you google image fairy houses to see what other people have created.

http://www.twigwizardry.com/Fairy-Houses.php

Here's a site about handbuilt houses. This is the gallery page showing a variety of houses, if you click on Home it shows the authors house.There are some great links to other sites with similar buildings and info on sustainable architecture as well

http://www.simondale.net/house/gallery.htm

Then there is always "Some Turtles Have Nice Shells", all about truck homes and converted buses ect. Lots of inspiration here too.

http://www.housetrucks.com/maindex.html


Check this one out for sure. Called "Flying Concrete" It shows the most beautiful creative ways of using concrete sprayed over forms Ive ever seen. The possibilities are endless with this stuff.

http://www.geocities.com/flyingconcrete/new.htm


The Quiet Earth Project, is a bloggish account of one womans dream to build her own straw bale house.Some good information and links on here as well

http://www.gwaliaessences.co.uk/story.htm


So playing games and dreaming of fantasy houses have been my way of not going crazy in this time of stress and aggravation.I think its working so far :)

PS Im so sorry, I can't for the life of me figure out how to make the links automatic, so you will have to copy and paste to check them out.

Rhianna's Folly

I alternate between wanting to work on the boat and wanting to cut it up for firewood.When I first pulled her out of the water, the thought was just replace a few rotton boards, slap some fiberglass on and be on my way.What a dreamer I am!

When we finally got all the paint scraped off( a huge job I wasnt expecting to do as the book I read said you could fiberglass over it, but was later told no..if I tried that, the paint would turn to goo under the glass and ruin the seal), we found alot more rotten wood.Once that was removed,we discovered alot of the ribs were rotten as well. I am now faced with an expensive rebuild of the boat.If I am to do it right, I would have to somehow remove the concrete in the bottom of the boat, gut the interior in the process, replace all the bad ribs and replank the boat with 30 foot continous planks.NOT going to happen folks.

We have cut out rib sections to replace the rotten bits and painted them with red lead paint to protect them from rot. Even though the hull will be fiberglassed and technically waterproof, the interior of the boat still gets moisture in it from showers, cooking ect., so I'm trying to provide maximum protection for the exposed wood.Once they are installed, I will be attaching red cedar boards to them. One whole side of my boat will look like a giant wood puzzle,made up of many joined pieces. I am worried that this will severely affect the sea worthiness of the boat, even with a solid fiberglass shell. I have visions of the boards separating at the joins and bulging out through the glass.Im taking a huge chance doing it this way.

I orginally intended to remove the decking on the back deck and refinish it, but the screws were all rusted and not coming out. Some of the boards were looking worse for wear, so in the end they all got cut off with the saws-all.Another expense I wasn't counting on is the price of new boards to redo the deck.

David has been very busy with his own projects as of late and hasn't had much time to help me. This has slowed me down considerably and progress has been slow. I really needed to feel like I was accomplishing something, so yesterday I installed a new tongue and groove floor in the bedroom. Not exactly a priority project, but one that I had wanted to do and was capable of doing myself. The wood for the floor had been left on the boat by the previous owner. I had been storing it for the last year, so finally decided to pull it out and see what exactly I had. I am quite happy with the finished result, much better then the piece of plywood that was the floor.Now just have to sand it and one day stain and varnish all the floors. That will wait until the construction is pretty much done, too much dust everywhere right now to do a good job.

Every other day , I want to walk away from this project. Not because I dont think its worth it but because of the massiveness of it all. Its not just one thing that needs doing, its everything from one end to the other.The more I do,the more I find that needs doing.I feel like Im digging a hole to China.

The Good




The Bad





The Ugly ( a huge rotten hole in the back board of the transom, we stuffed it with wood shavings mixed with glue)



The back deck stripped of its wood



An interior shot showing some of the new ribs



The new bedroom floor ( whoohoo)