Hurricane Irene photo from Pecan Grove

Just thought I'd add another view of the marina. This was taken during the hurricane. Notice that the pilings appear to be just a few feet out of the water. They are normally about 10 feet from the surface of the water. Amazing that the crew of volunteers kept all the boats safe during the storm! They were walking between those boats on the docks that are beneath at least 4 feet of churning water. I'm in awe that anyone would volunteer to do that!

Here is a photo showing the decking and pilings in the marina - this is all hidden by the huge amount of water!

A little torn foresail - thanks Irene

We finally got some info from the marina about Irene damage. Could have been much worse! The marina suffered some damage, don't really know the extent yet. Most of the boats came thru well. Glory Days suffered a torn sail....bummer. Must have come un-wrapped during the high winds.

Here is a photo that someone took in a lull - you can see the torn sail flapping. Also note that there are no docks to be seen - they are under 4' of water!

New home for Axle

Richard and Miranda needed to get a fence installed in their backyard so Axle could stretch his legs.....so they came and picked up the old dog house for him.

Then Robert joined Richard for a little fence-building. I think it looks great!

Gutter Forest

We got back from our little trip to the boat Sunday afternoon.  When we were taxiing to the hangar, I said "we've really got to do something about the forest growing in our gutters".   Notice the pine tree saplings that are extending up from the roof of the building.  I think the hangar was built about 13 years ago....and no one has been up there to clean the gutters in all those years.  The building is 18' tall, so not an easy task.

Luckily, we have wonderful neighbors!!!  One of them, Barney, has a nice little bucket truck!  I called him and he said "sure, come on over"!   My only task was to move the truck forward as Duane got the gutters cleaned out - no easy task!

The little trees were tough little things!  Amazing how much root each one grew - no real dirt, just decayed leaves that had blown into the gutters over the years.

A little hard to see, but an amazing amount of trees/debris was thrown down!  Some of the saplings were 4' tall!

See?  All nice and clean, ready for the next 13 years!!!

We are NOT really that stupid!

I get this wonderful Parmesan cheese at Sam's Club. This is a big 2 lb hunk.

But, I noticed this on the label.....Contains: Milk.  Like, they need to warn us that CHEESE contains MILK.  Geeze. 

News14 Video

I've got 10 more seconds of "fame" to add to my list!!  There was an airplane stolen from Chapel Hill today and it crashed north of Pittsboro......(they're still hunting for the thief!!)

Stolen Airplane News14



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Bahamas bound!!!

Hang with me on this. It's "project time"!!!!

We are going to the Bahamas next year...... In our airplane........

The FAA now requires that you have very "visible" registration numbers on your aircraft. Just in case the F-16's want to buzz around your aircraft - they want to be able to identify you.

But, alas, our airplane was manufactured prior to this requirement. Our airplane's registration numbers are small. Entirely legal for flight inside the borders of the U.S.A. See?  The numbers are visible as small gold digits near the tail of the aircraft.   We have to fix that!!!

So, we start painting!!  Lots and lots and lots and lots.....of tape.

Duane wanted to do a nice "outline" for the numbers.....so, it's about twice as much tape!!   Here the airplane is all wrapped up ready for the "outline" color (brown to match the bottom stripe).

Trust me - it will make sense in the end!

Brown painted for the outline.....

OK, now it gets a little complicated - next, the outline has to be masked over for some primer to be applied to the inside of the numbers.

Primer applied so the "under colors" don't show thru.

At this point, we still hadn't decided on the exact color for the numbers.   So, I went to Lowe's - and got about a hundred paint chips....No, we're not using regular paint.  The paint we're using is very expensive 3-part Acrylic Polyurethane.  We just used the chips to decide what color we wanted - took the chip to the paint shop and had them mix it. 

Drum roll........

And the color is GOLD!  To match some emblems on the plane and it goes nicely with the earth tones of the airplane.

Just page thru the "unveiling":

Peeling the masking (in the reverse order in which it was applied):

And there you go - ready (almost) for the Bahamas!!!

Tee Shirt Hemming Trick

Some of you may have noticed that I like to trim off the bottom of my tee-shirts. I'm just more comfy with them loose and not tucked-in.

I've been using a "blind hem stitch" on my machine for this - but it sometimes puckers the fabric. To remedy this, I thought maybe the needle was dull, so I decided to replace it. I got down my little box of sewing "stuff" that came with my very basic sewing machine 20 years ago. While searching for a new needle, I found a weird DOUBLE NEEDLE. It is an amazing thing!! So simple, so easy, made me so happy!!




You thread the needles just like you would one needle - just using two spools of thread. Both threads go thru the tension wheel together.





This is the result - a very even, smooth hem!!



Here I've pulled the hem aside so you can see both the top and the "wrong" side. I'm a happy camper - see, it doesn't take much to make me happy!

Big Sale!!!!

I know, it's not the "big sale" at Belk's.....



It's the "Karen got to SELL a BIG AMOUNT"!!!!

2700 gallons of jet fuel....that's a little more than one third of a tanker truck load!

Yep, damn the stock market. If only I could sell this much every day!



The airplane is a G-4 (Gulfstream 4) - one of the biggest we see. A very nice ride...to say the least!

Poor Ben - the fueling took about 45 minutes! I took him a bottle of water half-way thru and let him leave early for the day....it was the least I could do for the record-setting fueling.

"The Help" you gotta see it!

Our book club had read the book "The Help" several months ago....universally liked (which is unusual in our group!) We went to see the movie on opening night - it was PACKED - we could only find a couple of seats together and had to spread out in the theater!! Bravo - a really good movie - and you don't need to read the book first!!!

Just a little table

So, most of you guys know I occasionally score "finds" at the "swap-shop" at the local recycle center......

My latest is a little side table. I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it! Miranda and Richard needed a little table to set on their porch - and this one can be customized to match their house!




Here's a close-up of the pretty top





After a few little repairs, the table got a good primer coat - then a couple of coats of exterior paint.






Starting to add some color! (I borrowed their house paint!!)




Pretty yellow accents




And lastly - some very bright blue!!!



A little hard to see - but I got a sheet of glass cut for the top. Ready for delivery!

Birthday picnic

This past weekend, we scooted up to Mills River for a quick family picnic/birthday celebration/sister visit!


What a nice relief from the 100 degree heat at home....gotta love the mountains for the wonderful temperatures! This crowd knows how to relax!





Mom and Frank enjoying their meal






Yep, relaxing visit



The birthday girl!! Fresh from N.D.!!!





Somebody reached the 1/2 century mark.....had to add black/white candles to the vegan cake!!





More birthday girl!




What trip is complete without a little dip in the pool - just a bit chilly for me at 80 degrees!!!




More silly water fun




Over too quick!