Pilings moved to accommodate a catamaran

 Our new dock has two boat slips - one on each side of the dock.  They are only wide enough for a monohull sailboat - about 18' wide.

Our next door neighbor Rick had long ago hired a local marine contractor to do a repair at his dock.  He told us about it and encouraged us to "piggy-back" on his repair since they would already be up in the area.  It's apparently hard to get them to move their barge to you for small amounts of work.

So, within a few weeks they showed up to do our work!   We were not there, but Rick sent us lots of photos as they were doing the work so we could follow along!

This is definitely not a "do it yourself" operation!!!   We needed two pilings pulled up and moved out to make the slip 30' wide.  Plus, we wanted the extra security of an extra piling mid-way, so we had them add a completely new one.

The barge with the equipment - pulling out one of the pilings - they're about 15-20 feet underwater and about 10 feet above water.

And putting it back in the wider configuration.  Rick said they were being meticulous about having them plumb and true (note the worker with the level on the other side of the piling).

Cool process -

The view from Rick's dock.

Sorry we missed seeing them do the work, but glad it's done!

News on the Avion front!

If you haven't visited the Avion blog lately.... you should!!

Daffy's

It's amazing....Daffodils are almost blooming!!!

Beautiful January Day

Wow, we have had some wild swings of weather in January this year!!

Pulled the cars out for wash and vac....boy, I know how to have fun!!!

Women's March on Washington Trip

What a whirlwind!!  Skip down to the photos if you don't want to read my short political intro....

Let me start by saying some folks question "why" go to Washington?  Aren't you just being "sour grapes" and "whining" about the election results.   I hope you see that isn't really what's a play here.  (Although it would be silly to say that the losing side isn't disappointed in every contest!)

I get it - the U.S. has spoken and they wanted "change".   I really do respect that.  I don't really fully understand it, but I respect it.

But, I want to assure that my (small) voice is still part of the process for the next 4 years.   I don't relinquish my voice just because those I thought would best represent our country's needs are not currently in power.  I'm not just walking away.

The march was about so many things, important to so many people.   Mostly that there is fear that long-fought battles to gain rights over the past century could easily be un-done in the current Washington "climate".  The list was long -  equal pay for equal work for both women and people of color, climate change concerns,  gay rights - both marriage and anti-discrimination, abortion rights and Planned Parenthood,  immigration issues, income inequality and minimum wages,   prison-for-profit mentality,  imbalanced sentencing for people of color, income inequality and the overwhelming number of millionaires slated to lead our government, etc.

So, here we are - hoping to help the U.S move forward, not backward!

End of politico....


After meeting early at neighbor Gretchen's house, we carpooled over to Southpoint Mall where they kindly let us use the Park-N-Ride lot.

At 2AM....loading our bus - there were 4 going from this mall.

In DC at the Metro station - our first taste of how big the crowd was going to be.  Luckily, we arrived around 7:30AM - the rally was supposed to start around 10:30AM.

In line, waiting for Metro tickets. 

Our group had a paper "torch" that we were going to try to stay near during the event.  (Only paper items allowed, no wooden posts).

Waiting for our subway train.  We were at Huntington station - the farthest station away from downtown.  I can only imagine what the other, closer stations looked like.

Trains were packed to the brim - squeezed in and standing room only, leaving riders to wait on the platform for the next train.

Exiting the Metro was difficult too!  Just so many people, we inched along.

In place as the rally started with many wonderful speakers.  This was our view for about 4 hours - because we literally couldn't move!!   We were a couple of blocks away from the main stage but they did a great job of having "jumbotrons" and huge speakers so everyone got the message.

We eventually got separated from most of our bus - Gretchen, Katie  and I stayed together the whole time.

We eventually marched up 7th St with the Capitol in the background.  It got a little crazy as folks were starting to move - it took over an hour to walk/shuffle 1/2 mile!  I certainly have never seen so many people in one place at a time!

We tried to get on the Metro to depart but the station was temporarily closed because of overcrowding.  We finally walked to a different Metro station and made it out to Alexandria (close to where our bus would pick us up).

Found a little hole-in-the-wall seafood place to finally rest and get some real food. (There were no street vendors in the march area, so we only had snacks and drinks from our pockets all day). 

Had a terrific crab sandwich!

And finally - if you're wondering what all the "cat hats" are....a local lady that couldn't go to the march made hats for everyone on our bus.  We wore these as "protest" and a notice to our new president TO WATCH WHAT HE SAYS BECAUSE WE'RE LISTENING!

Just in case you didn't see the awful lines in print - here they are - direct quotes from Donald J. Trump:


“I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it , “I did try and f*** her. She was married, I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married.  I’ve gotta use some tic tacs, just in case I start kissing her, And when you’re a star they let you do it,  Grab them by the pussy, You can do anything.”

How can any woman not be deeply troubled and offended by those words??

Have a great day!!

Women's March on Washington January 21, 2017

I'm just about ready to go to Washington, DC tonight!  Leaving tonight at 2AM returning in the wee hours Sunday morning.


The official color for the NC contingent is PURPLE.....unfortunately, I have almost no purple attire.  Just not my color.....

So, I headed to the Pittsboro PTA Thrift Store the other day and found a purfect purple fleece!  For $3!

They March organizers have cautioned us that we will be on our feet from 8AM to possibly 6PM - and we're not allowed to have backpacks.

So, I decided that some LARGE pockets inside of the fleece are in order for me to stash a bottle of water, some nuts, a map and such.

I just took some black cotton cloth I had in my sewing kit and made some patch pockets.

Double-stitched them to make sure they don't rip out.

For some unknown reason, I had a spool of purple thread leftover from some project that I don't remember 30 years ago!   You can hardly tell that the pockets are sewn in this photo!

I even changed out my wrist band on my Garmin exercise watch to match!!  Thanks Robert!

Here's all the stuff I'm taking on the bus - neck pillow to sleep, hopefully, snacks, some Goodies powders and Bendryl, just in case, a toothbrush for in the morning on the bus, etc.....

Oh, and I've done as the organizers suggested- I've written the Legal Aid phone number on my arm just in case I need to be bailed out of jail!!

Should be an interesting time - exercising my right to speak my mind by participation!

Avion

Hey folks - just been working on the Avion this fantastically warm January week!

Cilantro storage

I love cilantro....Duane does not particularly care for it. 

To keep it around in the fridge fresh is a pain since it wilts and rots pretty quickly before I can use a whole bunch.

So, I've found the best way to store it is to freeze it.  I chop up the entire bunch and mix it with a little bit of water to hold it together.  A single bunch seems to be just right for an ice tray.

A few hours later - I pop it out of the ice-tray  and put it in a zip lock bag.  Then I can just take one cube and add it to "my portion" of the dish, perfectly fresh!

Avion

Lovely day on Friday!!!  Got a little work done on the Avion!

Lot work

We went down to Oriental to do a bit of work on the new lot.

The pilings at the dock need to be moved to make way for the next catamaran.  They're currently only wide enough for a mono-hull boat....

And we met with the contractor about installing the septic system and the driveway.

Here's the "before" shot with the ribbons on the trees he's going to remove. 

It may be a while before he can get the work done since it's been so wet lately....will update as soon as I get the word that he's been able to get to it!

First snow

its always slightly exciting when the first winter storm is forecast.....we didnt get the 5-7 inches of snow that was forecast, only and inch or so.

We went over to Dick and Lindy's house in the afternoon to watch the movie "Sully" - great movie!!

walking home, the sun finally came out and had the icy trees glistening!

 really cool wild turkey tracks we saw in the roadway - the tracks were not there when we walked over, so we must have just missed the turkeys!

New acquisition

We bought a different lot at Oriental!!   I know, we already have a lot....but that one is not actually "on the water".....this one is!

I didn't want to put pictures here until we were sure that the deal would go thru....but we closed on the property yesterday.

I had seen this property for sale a few years ago, but we thought the price was much too high....but recently the price was lowered to a much more reasonable amount, and we jumped on it!!


It's about 1 and 1/4 acres on Brown Creek, a little north of Oriental. 

To give you some perspective - here's a little map -

It's really lovely...the driveway.

Pretty trees....

But the best thing is the view and the dock!!!

Looking back towards the lot.

 Our dock - all ours!!  Ready for the next boat!

And this is the view of our dock from our neighbors dock.  We happen to know the neighbor - he's friends of Pat and Diane - so it's super cool to have ready-made friends as neighbors!!

Roasted veggies

It's cold and rainy here....and I wanted some "comfort food"....so I cleaned out my veggie drawer in the refrigerator....

My sweet sis gave me a couple of eggplants when I was her at a few weeks ago....this is the last one - peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces.  Olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

And the remaining root veggies in my bottom refrigerator drawer  - turnips and a "purple" sweet potato from Granny and Cordy, onions and a couple of carrots.  Also drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

(The purple sweet potato is peeled - so you only see the slightly yellow flesh - tastes pretty much like a regular "orange" sweet potato that we're used to)

About a 1/2 hour later - roasted at 425 degrees - very sweet and yummy - no sugar added!!

Happy New Year

Hope everyone will have a great 2017!!!!


We went to S. Florida for a bit of boat shopping -  see the details here