8/31/2010 - Ratlines revisited

It was a beautiful day in Charleston today. By the time I crawled out of bed at 9:30 the fog had lifted and the sun was shining. It was even warm-ish. Might have even been a good day to get underway but we didn't. We're still getting used to being back on the boat. Have to remember where everything is again. Decided we'd take care of chores first and still plan on maybe shoving off on Thursday.

Today, I finished redoing the ratlines on the starboard side. Not sure if I wrote about it earlier but the ratlines have been bothering me. You may remember that the way I attached them to the shrouds was basically to clamp them in place using a nut and bolt on each side of the shroud. Worked great but it left these 2" pieces of wood sticking out on each side beyond the shroud. This meant there were 32 possible places for lines to hang up on or sails to chafe against. I kind of knew this but was in a bit of denial until Steve Webster at Riverbend Boatyard in Newport said it out loud. I knew I had to change the setup.

I pulled out my trusty "The Rigger's Locker" by Brion Toss and studied how he said to do it. I didn't follow his suggestion to use 2 rope ratlines for every 1 wooden one since I prefer all wood rungs and since they were basically all built already. I took down all the ratlines and took them with me when I headed back to Cody's house earlier this month.

What I had to do was to a.) glue both faces of each rung to its mate, b.) cut off the end of each rung bisecting the hole that went around the shroud so that I'd end up with a groove instead of a hole, and then c.) drill a hole parallel to the groove but 1-1/2" to 2" in from the end to take the lashings. Having use of my chop saw and Shopsmith made this project way easier than it would have been on the boat using hand tools.

Yesterday evening I mounted the first 2 rungs and today I completed the rest of the ones on the starboard side. The following photo shows how the rungs are lashed to the shrouds:

I hate those little knotted ends sticking out. Two of them will be eliminated along with the double constrictor knot they're attached to but there will always be one. Brion says to finish of the wraps with a couple of overhand knots, pulled very tight and then back that up with a figure eight to use as a stopper. He says to work the figure eight up tight against the overhand knot but, try as I might, I could never get it to snug up and stay put. The double constrictor knot was just something I added. I was having some trouble with the rungs wanting to slip a little when I really put force on them when tightening wraps on a higher rung while standing on a lower one. I was essentially pulling up with my arms while pushing down (on the rung) with my feet. It was almost inevitable that there'd be some slippage. So, I added a double constrictor knot around the shroud just below the wraps as a sort of collar to keep the rung from slipping down. It didn't work - the constrictor knot slipped as well. Tomorrow I'm going to get some good old fashioned friction tape and wrap the shroud where I'm going to make the lashing. Hopefully that will help. If this was galvanized rigging, I'd serve the entire length which would really help, and help the rigging last a long time, too. But stainless steel needs oxygen so service would be a bad idea.

I prefer this photo since it doesn't show the little knots:

The bolt is there just to reinforce the face-to-face glue joint and to keep the lashing from splitting the wood. In Brion's example he uses solid (not glued) wood but still uses a copper rivet to prevent splitting.

The ratlines are plenty tight and tough enough to support a person doing normal things aloft like navigating through coral heads or trying to spot a whale. But, as noted above, they are likely to slip when excess force is exerted on them. Consequently, it would be great if I could have installed them from the top down. But I didn't see any workable way to do that. As a result, I ended up redoing probably half of the lashings before I was all done. In this photo you can see that I still have one left to straighten up:

In case you can't tell, it's the aft end of the second one from the bottom. Needs to come up about 1/2".

But, just so you know that these "lash-ups" really can carry the load:

Until later, ta-ta from Charleston.

PS: Although I know it's unlikely that any of you would think that Lulu is just idling her time away while I'm working my fingers to the bone, I should mention what she did today. She spent the better part of the morning and part of the afternoon getting things stowed, cleaned, and squared away for our next leg of the trip. Then she got out the scrub brush, scraper and Simple Green and got to work on the ugly dirt and gunk we got when we were side-tied to B dock when we first got here. What a scrungy spot that was. We warped the boat across to the empty slip on our starboard side so she could clean the worst side of the boat easier.

8/30/2010 - Back on the boat

Just a quick note to let you all know that we are back on the boat in Charleston and our lives have returned to normal. We left Scott & Cody's house this morning about 9:20, drove to Eugene where my folks took their pickup back and toted us back to Charleston. Been reading a blog by folks who are making the same trip we are and ocean conditions sound favorable by their accounts. We have a couple things to do here (get groceries, refasten the ratlines, replace the incandescent running lights with LED running lights, general clean-up) and then we should be good to go. If conditions stay good we could be out of here as early as Thursday.

We had a great time in the valley with the kids but it sure is good to be home again with nothing scheduled.

More tomorrow.

8/29/2010 - Whew!

This was originally going to be three separate entries but, what with the whirlwind of activity that surrounds the preparation for even a casual wedding, there has been precious little time to blog until now.

MEAT

The first entry was going to be titled "A Man & His Meat" but I was afraid that might not make it through all your various porn filters so I was going to change it to "It's In The Bag".

The results of over a week of almost constantly breathing smoke from the poor old overworked Brinkman Pitmaster Deluxe: 50 lbs of cooked, de-boned, mostly de-fatted pork. There were also two more bags (about 8 lbs.) of smoked turkey breast that I made for Scott's mom because she can't eat pork but the breasts were on the pit when I took this photo. I also made 14 half-pints of habanero jelly. This seemed like overkill at the time but I've had several requests from friends who wanted a jar to take home. Amazingly, by the time all the spoken-for jars are distributed and the 2-1/2 pts that were used at the reception are factored in, there are only 3 unspoken-for jars left.

WEDDING DRESS BLUES

The next blog was going to be titled "Honey, I Ruined The Wedding Dress!", starring Lulu.

Lulu and Scott's mom, Janet, worked together to build Cody's wedding dress. Lulu did the bodice and Janet did the skirt. Then, since it didn't fit quite as well as Cody would have liked, Lulu did a little modification and then ultimately had some fancier mods done by a seamstress in Mt. Angel. Once it was fitting right, she brought it back home and made even more modifications (a bride can get pretty picky about how her dress fits).

Finally, on the Wednesday before the Saturday wedding, the dress was done except for hand sewing some beadwork around the neckline. Lulu's in the dining room with the dress and the ironing board for one last pressing and I'm in the kitchen washing some dishes. All of a sudden Lulu exclaims, "Oh my god! I ruined the wedding dress!". Now, I'm not too shook because Lulu tends towards hyperbole. So I finished what I was doing, dried my hands and then looked over the counter. "Oh my god! You really did ruin the wedding dress!"

Right there in the middle of the front was a big iron-shaped hole just like you'd see in an "I Love Lucy" rerun.

Lulu said she thought the iron was in the OFF when she set the heat to a low setting. Instead she was starting from the HIGH position so she only decreased the temp from HIGH to ALMOST AS HIGH when she made the adjustment. As soon as the blazing hot iron touched the dress, it instantly melted. The lining was unscathed but now what? You can imagine how freaked out she was. Here she's got a dress that has been 3 weeks in the making and, with only 2 days to go, it's virtually ruined. Fortunately, Cody was at work during this calamity or it would have been traumatic to the nth degree. After Lulu calmed down a little we assessed the situation. Maybe it wasn't so bad. There were only two panels involved so, if she could rebuild those it should be okay. She was lucky the she still had enough fabric on hand to do this and still had most of the day to get it done before Cody got home from work. And, since Cody had stuff to do after work and wouldn't get home until late, all the better.

So, she spent the next 6 hours or so undoing and then redoing what she'd already done.

Ultimately it all turned out alright as you'll see in the next section titled:

THE WEDDING

Friday evening was nuts. Scott's family (Dad & Stepmom, Mom & boyfriend, 3 brothers along with 2 wives and 4 kids, 2 sisters along with 1 husband and one kid, a stepsister and child, a stepbrother, a cousin and her husband and child (I'm sure I've forgotten someone), along with Lulu and Lucas and I and, of course Scott and Cody were all here at the house. Amid all the hubbub we managed to get the bridal path strewn with bark dust (actually 'hog fuel' but bark dust sounds less crude somehow), set the benches up so they weren't too tippy on the sloped ground and so that everyone would be able to see the bride and groom, decorate a ton of cupcakes and mini-cupcakes and get various other pre-wedding stuff done. I don't know what all went on in the house, I just know that it was a flurry of activity every time I entered. After dinner, things calmed down a bit, at least relatively speaking. Eventually much of the family went home although we still had 11 overnight guests. Well, we started with 11 but sometime around 2 AM, Scott's brother Casey must have decided to take his brood home as they were gone when we got up Saturday morning. So, including Cody & Scott and Lulu and I, there were 11 for breakfast yesterday.

One thing we've apparently been successful in passing on to Cody are some of the things that work when dealing with large groups of people. Over the years we've had many events at The Shire which included overnight lodging for up to as many as 30 people. One of the most important tactics is how to deal with breakfast. You could just put out cereal and milk and let everyone make their own bowl whenever they get up and at it. But cereal is expensive so we rarely went that route. Our solution was pancakes. The batter is relatively cheap and easy to make. Don't have enough? Takes all of a minute or so to make more. The griddle can be kept warm and pancakes can be made as each person or group of people finally arrive at the table. So, in true Woodstock-at-the-Shire form, the Saturday morning crowd was fed blueberry pancakes using blueberries that Scott, Cody & Lulu had picked earlier in the week.

I had gotten up early and headed down to Lulu's old kitchen at Silver Crest school. Mark, the principal, had kindly agreed to let Lulu use the kitchen to prepare for the reception. She baked all the afore-mentioned cupcakes there and I was using the massive oven to heat all the BBQ meat back up. Once the meat was all in the oven at low heat I headed down to town to pick up a few last minute items that we had forgotten.

The wedding was scheduled to happen at noon. About 11:00 I headed back to the school to pack up the meat in coolers to keep it warm. I also loaded up the salads and such that had been stored in the refrigerator at the school. By the time I got back home, guests were already arriving. I changed my clothes and then it was time to get started.

Cody & Scott had cleared out an area behind the house in which to have the ceremony. I have to hand it to them. They took on a task that we would never have even considered. When you look at the pictures, notice all the brushy growth just outside the grassy area. That's how the now-grassy area looked before they got started. They uprooted salal and vine maple that has been growing there for years and years. And then they rototilled the area. And flattened it. And seeded and watered it. And finally, if it weren't for the moles, ended up with a very pretty park-like setting for their wedding. The benches and hog fuel managed to distract from or cover up most of the moles' work. They also cleared a long path through the woods for Cody and I to walk up during the ceremony. The weather was perfect and the setting was beautiful.

The ceremony itself was short and sweet.

And then it was over, except for the picture-taking.

You'll probably notice a lot of folks wearing jeans and other very casual attire. This is just how Cody & Scott wanted it: very laid-back and comfortable.

After photos we headed down to Silverton's Coolidge-McClaine Park for the reception. An advance team had already gone down to get things set up. The serving table was heaped with pork, sauces, buns, potato salad, cole slaw, a couple different pasta salads, carrot-raisin salad and Capt. Dad's Spicy Tex-Mex Salad, as well as cupcakes. Everything was ready. But wait, seems like something is missing. What could it be? Plates? Forks? Napkins? Nope, we've got all that. Sandwich makings? Salads? Nope, we're well covered on those fronts. Oh wait! What the heck are we going to serve the salads with? Crap! We forgot the serving spoons! Since it's a 15 mile drive back to the Shire, Lulu opted instead to go to Goodwill and buy a bunch of spoons. But, before she actually started the truck, she remembered that our friend Rosie lived within a block of where we were parked. Rosie wasn't home but her husband Dan gladly loaned us serving spoons. Hope Rosie didn't have a bunch of salds to serve when she got home because I don't think Lulu left her much of anything to serve with.

Okay, now we're ready. But wait a minute. Isn't there supposed to be something in that empty punch bowl? Crappage! We forgot the drinks! Wait, let's amend that. They forgot the drinks. Lulu and I had ours: a half case of Milwaukee's Best Light (yeah, we're a cheap date) on ice. Since Cody's new family are almost all Mormons, some other libation was in order for them. So we sent Lucas to Safeway with a fistful of cash and orders to buy bottled water and pop until the money ran out. Then Janet, Scott's mom, went to the store and bought a bunch of cans of pink lemonade concentrate. Of course, we never found a water source at the park to make the lemonade with so most of it went unmade. I think a punchbowl's worth was made up but I'm not sure where the water came from (melting ice? bottled water?). So, along with the pink lemonade concentrate that was forgotten at the Shire, Scott and Cody now have at least 2 dozen cans out in their freezer. Good thing Scott professes to love the stuff.

The reception was unusual in that a couple of traditions were missing. The emphasis was on having a good time and visiting rather than doing things traditionally. Probably the most obvious missing element was the wedding cake. Instead of a regular cake, S & C opted for chocolate cupcakes with white frosting decorated with a little red frosting flower. I had built these tiers to display the cupcakes. On each of the 10 tables was a tri-level tier that held 10 cupcakes: 5 on the bottom, 4 in the middle and 1 on the top. Then, on the serving table was a much larger tier that had about 6 levels and must have held close to 100 cupcakes altogether, some full size and some minis. Altogether Lulu baked 212 full size cupcakes and 93 mini cupcakes. This really worked out well. No one had to wait for the cutting of the cake, no cake got shoved into the spouses' faces for phot ops, and everyone could just help themselves whenever they wanted. Sorry that I don't have any photos of the cupcake display.

Another tradition that was skipped but not missed (at least by me) was the tradition of toasting the bride and groom. Maybe some people like these but we aren't among them. Apparently Cody and Scott aren't either. Good for them.

Also missing was any music at the reception. We talked about it and my opinion was that, if the music was loud enough to hear, it made visiting difficult. And if it was low enough to allow conversation, you couldn't hardly hear it anyway. So, we opted to skip it. And, as a bonus, skipping the music meant that we didn't have to have the traditional first dances. Neither Cody or Lulu or I like to dance very much and certainly not with everyone watching. Matter of fact, Cody's so shy most of the time that I'm amazed she got through her wedding ceremony with everyone looking at her. Anyhow, we got to spend our time at the reception just visiting with family and friends rather than anticipating doing things that make us uncomfortable.

After what seemed like an unusually long reception, we returned to a blissfully peaceful Shire and watched Cody and Scott open gifts before they headed up to Portland. Today they are on their way to LA where they'll board a Princess liner for a week's cruise along the Mexican Riviera with stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. We, on the other hand, are enjoying a very quiet house. Lucas will be heading back to Portland later today and then it'll be just Lulu and I again.

Tomorrow we'll return the pickup to my folks in Eugene and then they'll drive us back down to Charleston. So, by tomorrow afternoon, we'll be back home on Siempre Sabado ready to continue our voyage south. It's been a crazy August starting with the reunion in The Dalles and ending with Scott and Cody's wedding. It's been good to have lots of time to watch how Cody & Scott interact with each other and to get to know Scott better. But it's going to be great to get back to our normal lives.

Whew!

Capt. Dad's Spicy Tex-Mex Salad

Mix together:
1 lb. frozen corn
1 can medium pitted black olives, drained
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 small can chopped jalapenos
1 diced bell pepper
2 diced tomatoes.
1/4 finely chopped red onion (or 1/2 bunch chopped green onions)
1 lb. cooked breakfast sausage, crumbled up
1/4 cup sour cream
1-1/2 tablespoons chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

8/23/2010: I sold our boat!

Okay, hopefully that headline didn't cause anyone to blow coffee out through their nose or anything although that was , obviously, the intent. Clearly I'm not referring to Siempre Sabado. No, the boat I sold yesterday is the first motorized one I ever bought. We had a 12' fiberglass canoe before that and she was actually our very first boat. In 1985 or 86 the Silverton Public Works Department organized an employee fishing trip to Oregon's Suttle Lake for a weekend. I returned home after the weekend repeating my standard mantra: "I must own a (fill in the blank with whatever the latest toy I played with was)". A month or so later I bought a 1947 fiberglass Mobilecraft runabout, or whatever you call the regulation open boats that you see all over lakes and bays. She was in rough shape so my next project was to restore her to her original beauty. I installed new oak gunwale clamps, built new pine seats (one with a toolbox under it), added a small oak foredeck so there'd be a dry spot to stash a jacket or something, and then gave her a spiffy new two-toned white over blue paint job. She was a beauty.

And then I used her maybe 3 or 4 times. That's the story of most of the toys I buy.

But the real story here is about the outboard. It's an old Evinrude "Fisherman". I don't have any idea how old it is but the styling of the cowl says early 60s to me. It's a 6 horsepower two-cylinder 2-stroke. Looking at the registration on the boat, it's obvious that neither boat nor motor has been used since 1990 and I'd guess 1988 or 89 is probably even more accurate. The boat was bargain-priced because, over the years she had fallen on hard times and was in deplorable condition. Two of the three seats were gone, the varnish had mostly flaked off, the paint on the inside of the hull was flaking off, and she was generally not a particularly attractive little craft. Once the gas cans and other crap that had been stored in her were removed and she was cleaned up a little she looked a little better. Her original sexy shape was still evident when you looked at her from dead ahead and slightly above or, even more so when you looked at her from astern. Her transom wasn't wide at the top and then just tapering slowly down to a v-shaped bottom like most of the aluminum runabouts you see. No, hers was a bit narrower at the top. It then widened out to a pair of nicely curved buttocks at the waterline followed by a very flat slope to the keel. It was a shape that said "Go ahead, stand on the gunwale, I won't tip over." But I digress...

Back to the Evinrude Fisherman. The guy who was coming up to look at the boat really wanted to see/hear the motor run. Well, that might present a problem since it hadn't been started in over 20 years. I tried to use the excuse that I didn't have a barrel or anything to mount it in to cool it while it was running but that was something that could be easily overcome if I really wanted to run the engine. So, I figured that there was no way anyone was going to buy the boat and motor without seeing if the motor ran so I'd better bite the bullet and rig something up and try to get it running.

I found a deep plastic bucket that, when propped up on a couple of concrete blocks and 4 x 4s, was tall enough to keep the cooling water intake nicely submerged. Now it was time to actually start the beast. I got the Evinrude gas can out of the barn where it had been sitting, full, since it was last used back in 1989 or thereabouts. I cleaned the accumulation of oily sawdust and dirt off the top and hose and carted it over to the boat. So now I had a 40+ year old motor that hadn't been started in over 20 years, hooked up to a can of mixed gas that was last filled over 20 years ago. If you read my entry titled "The Little Engine That Could" probably have an idea about what's coming. I connected the gas line to the motor and gave the priming bulb a couple of pumps. Oh crap! There are a couple of cracks in the fuel line just past the connector on the engine side. I took the cowl off to see if there was any extra fuel hose so I could cut the cracked section off and, miraculously there was. Not much, mind you, but probably enough. So I cut back to good hose and reinstalled it. Gave the bulb a couple more pumps, saw a few more small leaks but chose to ignore them. Pulled the choke lever out. Hey! It's not supposed to come all the way out! Like no-longer-attached-to-the-motor out. Off comes the cowl again. Oh, the choke lever just slipped off the piece it's supposed to control. No problem, just put it back on. Okay, choke out, fuel line primed with 20+ year old gas, give the starter a pull. Nothing. Again. Whoa! It actually sort of coughed that time. One more pull and it starts. THE SONOFAGUN ACTUALLY STARTED!!! Ease the choke back in and it's idling. IT'S IDLING! As in "not dying". I cannot believe this. Maybe I've paid my karmic dues with of all the fits that the 10 horsepower Saab engine on our first sailboat gave me. I don't know but I've never known outboard motors in general to be particularly cooperative. Now I've had two motors that should have probably never run again without major work and they both started up without hardly any fuss at all AND using old gasoline. Old mixed gasoline since they're both 2-strokes. I don't know. Maybe I'm living right. Or maybe I'm just incredibly lucky and shouldn't read too much into it.

Well, suffice it to say that the guy who bought the boat/motor/trailer got himself a hell of a deal. I didn't even charge him extra for the 6 gallons of vintage pre-ethanol gasoline.

8/18/2010 - Yodersaground: bits and pieces

Haven't written much because there really isn't all that much going on. This afternoon I finished building the 14 benches for the wedding. So far I've BBQ'd six pork shoulders which yielded about 18 lbs. of pulled pork. I have 3 more shoulders on the pit right now as well as another three thawing for tomorrow. Couple days ago I made two batches of habanero jelly (16 half-pints) but, for some reason, it didn't set up so we have sweet habanero sauce instead. Actually it's a little easier to use for some things in the un-gelled state, Pectin is weird stuff sometimes. You never quite know if it's going to work or not until it either does or doesn't. You can do everything the same way you always do and every so often it just won't gel. Weird.

We've had guests the last few days. Tuesday, Lulu's cousin Treva came over from Idaho to visit and then last night we had her (Lulu's) youngest brother Jim as well as the next oldest brother, Joe and his daughter Emily from Iowa. Emily is starting her freshman year at Lewis & Clark College in a week or so and Joe was helping her get moved out here.

Lulu's been doing a bunch of work up here to get ready for the wedding: washing windows, cleaning the house, spray-painting the table centerpieces that I built, planting flowers, making hanging flower baskets, tending the yard, etc. The girl is tireless. Today she made bread and baguettes to go with the smoked steelhead spread that she made from the smoked steelhead that Treva's husband Jeff sent over for us from Idaho's Clearwater River.

Now that I've finished the benches, I can use some of my old shop tools for the boat. Awhile ago I built and installed ratlines on both sides of the mast. They work great but they have a couple inches of wood rung sticking out beyond the shrouds both fore and aft. This was so that I'd be able to clamp them to the shrouds with a bolt on both sides of the wire. However, it's obvious to me now that these "stick-outs" are going to foul the lines and chafe the sails. So, I dove in to Brion Toss' "The Rigger's Locker" to see how it's supposed to be done.

The upshot of his article is that the ratline rungs should all be inboard of the shrouds and lashed in place. So, I brought mine home and tomorrow I'll start modifying them so that I can reinstall them correctly.

Cody & Scott have been collecting open cell foam cushions for quite awhile now. The reason they do this is that they wanted to build a "blob". Apparently a blob is a big giant pillow for lounging around in while watching TV, etc. The other day they determined that they had collected enough. Lulu made the fabric enclosure per their specs. They had spent many many hours cutting the foam into cubes roughly 2-4 inches on a side using scissors. The night they decided to fill the "blob case" they still had some foam left to cut. As they were struggling away with their scissors I asked them why they didn't use a knife instead. "Oh, we tried that but it doesn't work very well." Unconvinced, I went out in the kitchen, got one of their hopelessly dull knives, sharpened it up using my favorite knife sharpener, and went back out in the living room where they were cutting the foam up. Putting almost no pressure on the knife, just letting the edge do the work, I sliced through the 4" thick pad like it was soft butter. Scott's eyes got very wide and then he wanted to try it. He was having so much fun slicing through the foam instead of trying to force the scissors through that pretty soon we had 3 more knives sharpened up and Cody and Lulu were slicing away as well. Hopefully Scott and Cody both will remember the value of a good sharp knife after we're gone.

Now, I'm a terrible knife sharpener. I CANNOT keep a constant angle when trying to sharpen a knife on a whetstone. That's why I resort to one of these:

I'm sure real cutlery aficionados will eschew my sharpener choice because it is pretty hard on blades. But, for a no-talent sharpener like me, it sure does a great job of putting an edge on even the most far-gone knife. And I'd rather have a few mediocre knives with sharp edges (maybe not finely honed, but sharp nevertheless) than a couple of great knives that I can't keep sharp using a whetstone.

Anyhoo, they finally got the blob case filled up and it's now a major presence in the living room:

It's very comfortable but it's kind of tough to climb out of and it really does fill up the living room.

Enough bits and pieces for today because Treva's cutting up the baguette so we'll be having that with steelhead spread here shortly and I need both hands free for scarfing.

8/14/2010 - Back in Silverton

I'm back at Cody's with Lulu to help get ready for Cody's wedding at the end of the month. It was a little bit of a shock since it was about 63 degrees in Charleston when I left and about 90 degrees here when I arrived.

Spent this morning out in my shop continuing on the bench building project.

It's great when the weather is such that I can throw open the big double doors and practically be working outside. In case you're new or weren't paying attention, Cody & Scott will be getting married in a little wooded clearing behind our old house (now Cody's house). Not wanting everyone to have to lug along their camp chairs, they asked if I'd make some benches for the guests to sit on. I said "certainly". Scott managed to score a bunch of 2X6 cedar from someone's dismantled deck. Some of it was rotten but a lot of it was serviceable. Last trip up here I ran as much as I thought I'd need through my (oops, not mine anymore) Dewalt surface planer. That got it looking pretty good. Rustic, for sure, but good nonetheless.

Today I cut out all the pieces for fourteen 8' long benches.

Naturally I didn't have quite enough wood milled so I had to go through the leftovers and see what I could find that I could plane down and use. Fortunately, I had no trouble finding what I needed. The reason I ran short was because, after I got to looking at how long an 8' bench is and then pictured it full of butts, it seemed inevitable to me that it was going to sag in the middle. So I had to cut some pieces that I could mount on edge directly under the seat to prevent the embarrassing sag and the irresistible photo op it would present.

But, all the pieces are cut now. I still have to rout the dadoes in the bottom of the benches to accept the legs but I built a little jig for that so it'll go fast. The only other thing left is assembly.

One down, thirteen to go. BTW, I'm not sure why my face looks like I'm disgusted. I'm not. Maybe that's just the face I get waiting for the camera's timer to finish.

Tomorrow, besides putting more benches together, I'll start smoking the pork shoulders for the reception. Every batch takes 12 hours or so so I have to start fairly early. So, if you smell smoke, don't panic. It's just me and my BBQ pit.

8/15/2010: Stupid dial-up

I actually wrote a blog entry yesterday and I'll probably write
another one today. But, since yesterday's had 3 photos, Blogo timed
out before the entry completely transferred. I'll have to wait until
I either go down to town and get wifi at the coffee shop or go over to
our good friends the Hupps who said I can park in their driveway or
sit on their deck and latch on to their high speed signal.

Just didn't want you all to think I was slacking off. Right now it's
8 AM and I'm the only one in the house who's up (besides Lulu and I,
Cody, Lucas and Julia are all here). In a few minutes I'm going to go
out and start the coals to start my alder-wood fire so I can get three
naked poek shoulders started on their 11-12 hour journey to smoky
goodness.