A Short Cut to Mushrooms

Hello Folks! A lot has happened since I last posted. We've now been living aboard for almost nine months. Many boat projects have happened in that time, including a nine day haul-out and the addition of new portholes.  This post is about the most important project of all.

This week I decided to paint the mushroom vents. 

Because they're called mushroom vents, people!

Using sandpaper to scuff up the brass so the paint'll stick.

Two coats of white.

The dots took me awhile with painter's tape. I did them free hand. (I had to promise Ben they wouldn't look like something out of Super Mario Bros.)

First coat of red paint. There were ultimately 5 coats.

Ta-da!

The mushrooms are based on the Fly Amanita, because it's probably the most recognizable of all mushrooms. They're also the same color as the stack, so weirdly it works.

According to the folktales I've heard about this particular mushroom, it's called a Fly Amanita because they'll enable you to fly. Reindeer seem to love these and this might be how Santa's heard gets around. I mentioned this to Ben and he reckons we'd need more than just two to lift a >60 ton tugboat into the air.  These are also known to be hallucinogenic, so if we do start flying it'll probably be in my own head. Shame really, as haul-outs would be a lot cheaper.

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Good Morning

First morning on the boat. I'm sipping a cup of tea and listening to a furious Kingfisher. 

Fo'c'sle

  

Broken August and Red Huckleberry Jam

In Early August, my mom, who just happens to be a hand therapist, took a look at my right wrist that wasn't healing and made me a super special, customized splint.  In doing so, she effectively salvaged the rest of my summer.  So, thank you Mom.  :)

I started to work more on the boat more.  Then Ben got really sick, so for a while we weren't moving very fast. But we were able to get in this tile in.  It's where the diesel stove is going to go.  

He sat there on the ledge and placed all the tile and handed me pieces to cut.  I would then hop down to the dock where we had the tile saw set up, and back up with a resized piece.  I was able to do all but the last ten or so, when my wrist started aching. Here are some pictures:

We were going down to the boat one Sunday and I had my feet up on the dashboard of the truck, when I felt the unmistakable sensation of a large insect flying up the right leg of my shorts followed immediately by a sting. Since there was no shoulder and a steep drop off on the side of the road, we had to drive with this thing crawling around inside my shorts for a couple minutes till we found a place to turn off. 

I am not officially allergic to wasps, yet, but every time I am stung the reaction is worse. The last time I was stung and didn't get treatment immediately, the swelling wrapped entirely around my leg and I had to take antibiotics and other fun pills that I can't pronounce.  I was also limping for a week. So when I get get stung, it is unfortunately a bigger deal than I would like.

The place we found to pull off was a gravel parking lot next to one of the Swinomish Tribe administration buildings. Ben sprinted around to my side and helped me out. We had to move extremely slowly and carefully, I got both feet on the ground then took off my shorts. During this, I felt a second sting on the thigh. I can only imagine what this scene looked like the the people driving by.

Ben shook my shorts and a Bald-Faced Hornet fell out onto the ground. We then looked at each other and he said,"Well, I guess this day is shot."

We turned right around and headed to Island Hospital. Because it was a Sunday, the walk-in clinic was closed, so our only option was the ER. I got a bed, and Ben sat in a chair next to me and swapped jokes and talked Game of Thrones until the doc showed up. 

It was a hoot.  I am so glad I ate lunch before all this. 

In the Island Hospital ER.

Now, lest you think this month was a pile of crap, a week later I hiked to the top of Mt. Erie with my knitting.  Get a load of that view.


Partway up, I found the most heavily laden Red Huckleberry bush I've ever seen. All those little salmon egg-like berries peeking out from behind those little tender green leaves!  I like to rub my face against those leaves because they're so soft.
I made a note of its location and returned with a friend the next day.  Now only she and I know where it is.  I am so excited about this! I've been foraging berries and other goodies for awhile, but I've never had a treasure spot before.

Jamming time!

So no, August wasn't a loss.  And in terms of boat work, September has been pretty awesome.  I'll write about it in the next couple of days.  Until then, thanks for visiting.

Cabinetry and Living quarters

Note: This is my first post done on the Blogger app. So if you have any trouble seeing these photos please let me know.

Well, all the structural work we were doing is done, so we are now on to the fun part. We have been planning the cabinetry and the layout of the living quarters for years now, and it's a tremendous pleasure to finally be able to do it. 

I find the above pictures absolutely adorable. Ben looks like a kid with a new Lego set.

Yes, those are splints on both my wrists, it turns out both wrists were sprained.  The secondary x-rays turned up nothing broken, luckily. The healing is slow and I'm having trouble holding a hammer or a brad gun, but I am able to do lighter tasks. I can also carry a surprising amount of lumber in the crooks of my arms.  It's hard not to be joyful though, watching this all come together in the golden July sunlight.

At the other end of the dock is a beautiful little sailboat called Treasure, and on Treasure lives this little guy. His name is Redford. 

Redford has discovered that it is not too hard to hop aboard the big tugboat down at the other end of the dock. And if he does so, the people working there will stop whatever they're doing, and scratch him behind the ears. 

Happy Summer everybody.