End of the season, but not just yet.

The last month has tried my soul, my patience, and a few other things I won't name here, as I am trying not to behave like a drunken sailor.

About seven weeks ago, I was within striking distance of being able to launch the boat. A fairly significant illness in the family gave me the gift of making sure my priorities were in order, this meant the boat needed to wait. One or  two weeks after that, I was diagnosed with either plantar faciatis or a severely strained Achilles tendon in my right foot. The doctor said that there wasn't too much difference, they both hurt like hell and the treatment was pretty much the same. Stay off the foot and take these pills. Since my doc is also a good friend, I paid attention.

Since my bike is my preferred mode of transit, this curtailed my movement even more. God knows I love the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority, a.k.a The  Buses and Trains that sometimes move us!) but even at 50 plus years old, I can pretty much beat any bus to whatever destination I choose in the city when I ride my bike. They won't, and probably rightly so, let me race the trains.

So given my priorities with family illness and a semi useless right foot, (although the whole wooden peg leg, pirate scenario is kinda cool!) the boat has languished a bit here. I have stayed at home in my castle by the big lake, taking the occasional ginger footed walk with the dog over to the lake (it's two blocks away) and in general, have been pining to sit in the cockpit of my boat, puttering around on the water. 

In the last two weeks, I have been able to ride more, and my hopes started to rise that I might  get a few days of boating in. I spent some hours at the boat shop, last coats of paint, loading up the storage lockers, fitting in windows, etc., etc., getting the last details glued and screwed.

Speaking of screwing, the City of Chicago chose to close my boat launch ten days ago for renovation.Let me state this again, so you understand what these muthafu.....um...ok....you get the idea. They closed my damn boat launch!  There is a lovely sign there saying something to the effect of "See Ya Next Spring Suckers!" I stood and swore for ten minutes in three languages.

I have, in this last week or so, stopped swearing in two of the languages, thus freeing up what little is left of my mind to form a back up plan. There is another boat launch, farther away, but reachable.It's not ideal and it has some issues, but...........but............BUT........it may be possible to still do this. I may be making Thanksgiving dinner on board when it happens, but it may still happen! If you happen to see an ad on Craigslist in Chicago over the next few weeks or so that looks like this..."Wanted, Crane or helicopter rental near the Chicago River...." well, that's me launching my damn boat!

Patience me hearties.....

 

Well, today was one of those interesting, "no such thing as coincidence" days! After several weeks of looking at motors, and getting a wee bit dejected about it, I took another stab at the problem today. I had gotten a slice of advice to be on the look out for a motor called an "Eska", it's air cooled, no longer made, but by all accounts, worth looking at if I could find one. 

I had been enduring some rather annoying phone calls from people selling motors. Things like.....Me: "So, if I come at look at your motor, can I see and hear it run? Them: "I just had it painted, it looks GREAT!" Me: "So, that's a yes?" Them: "Did I mention that I just painted the motor and it looks GREAT?" Me: "Sooo, what you are really selling here is an anchor?" Them: "Well, it MIGHT need a little work."Me: "Ummmm, thanks, I'll get back to you."

Today I called a young man with this motor, after some chatting, he volunteered to bring it to me, and tank test it right in front of my very own eyes and ears! After I picked my butt up off the floor and regained my senses, I told him that I would add $20.00 for his gas to travel to me if it all worked out!

I immediately went out back, filled up an empty dumpster and waited for him to arrive. By the time he got here, there was a small crowd of my my tenants out back in the garden waiting with me as well, because you just don't get to see a dumpster full of water with an outboard motor churning it up every day! I told the tenants they could bring their laundry down and I'd run it through the motor wash for free. No takers on that!

The guy arrived, we filled up the gas tank, four pulls on the motor and off it went!

As you can see, today I found an Eska, 7.5 horsepower, and if you attach it to a  garbage can full of water, it works!!!!! If it's possible for an outboard motor to be cute, I guess this one is!

Update and such...

Well, it's been an interesting month, mostly filled with too much heat and activity that has kept me from steadily working on the boat! I made this video a week or so ago, hopefully it fills in a few blanks on the whole process and where I am in it!

I had grand and glorious thoughts of building in a set of tandem wheel wells on the inside of the boat that would allow me to pull the boat behind my bike, thus avoiding the acquisition of a car that I really don't want or need. A few weeks ago, as I got near that part of the build, I was sitting in the completed hull, staring at the bottom of the boat. The idea of cutting two holes in the bottom just filled me with dread. Back to the drawing board! I have since started on a detachable cradle on tandem axles that should do the trick!

Here is a video update, I am out the door to go do some work on the boat!

You can get in, but you can't get out...

If you haven't figured this out yet, I don't own a car. I do pretty  much everything by bus, train or bike. Keep this in mind as you read.


Yesterday was a large, long day that required myself, my bike,  and a trailer to fetch and deliver the last load of big lumber to the boat shop, and then lots of food. It was a rather busy week here with other things, so all of  this needed to be done in one day. The equipment was up to the task, but I was not sure about ME being up to the task. My route was somewhat triangular in nature, first from my house to Menard's, about five miles, then up and over to the boat shop, another four-ish miles or so. After that, to the food store, and then home, all told, somewhere around fifteen miles for the day.

Below is a picture of the load from Menard's.  I had five milk crates strapped under the wood filled with glue, hardware, and a LOT of ice water. On top of the crates were four sheets of plywood, two sheets of Styrofoam, and a sheet of plexiglass. On top of that is a bundle of 2x2's as well. Not especially heavy, perhaps 175 pounds, but rather wide and long. 

I arrived at about noon  at the lumberyard, a pleasant place to be, wandered around the store for a good hour or so gathering up what I needed. After you pay for your stuff, you have to drive around the store to the back, where the large goods are stored. They have a security guard kiosk as you go in, the guard writes down your entry and points you to where you need to go.

I must digress for a moment here. When you haul stuff around on a trailer, especially large things, loading that stuff is somewhat critical. There is no such thing as too many bungee cords or ratchet straps. You want the load to be over the wheels as much as possible, otherwise it feels like you are towing a piano playing gorilla around behind you.  I had modified this trailer I brought to haul plywood sheets, but I had not tried it out yet, so I was curious to see how the whole arrangement worked.

After a good hour or so of loading, positioning and strapping everything down, I pedaled over to the security kiosk to check out. The guard checked off my supplies against the list he had and then he paused. He paused for a very long time.

"I have a problem." he finally announced.

"Oh?" says me.

"I can't let you out." he further announces.

"Why is that?" I inquire.

He scratches his head for a second, staring at his hand held computer.

"To clear security here, we have to put a license plate number into the system. You don't have a license plate. You have a bicycle and a trailer. I need a license plate number. It won't let you out otherwise." he announced, seeming to recite clearly from his training manual, that somehow suddenly had taken on a certain TSA, red tape quality to it.

I paused for a moment to think about this exquisite set of statements. I try to cover all the possibilities when I ride around with a trailer. This was a possibility I had not considered.

"So, what should we do?" I asked. I thought that if I referred to the guard and myself as a "we" it might promote team building and problem solving and get me out of there faster. I still had to get this stuff to the boat shop, as well as grocery shopping to do, and it was starting to get hot out.

He uttered the words I dread. Not to be disparaging of the security guard profession, but seldom do the words about to be uttered ever bring any problem to a  successful resolution. Now that I think about it, if the word "seldom" in the last sentence occurs more often than the word "rarely", then let me emphatically say again that RARELY do the about to be  uttered words have a positive effect.

"Gotta call my supervisor."  he said.

My heart fell. By osmosis, I think, the three people in line behind me in their properly licensed vehicles, felt their hearts fall as well.

The supervisor was paged while I pulled out of line over to the TSA like "holding area." I mentally prepared for the arrival of the "supervisor" and what was sure to be the subsequent cavity search of my person.

I watched as the guy in line behind me pulled up to the gate in a a huge SUV with two bags of cement in the back. Twenty seconds later he was through the gate and gone. The same with the next two cars as well. The guard and I commenced to chat a bit, I dug out my water and a granola bar and we waited.

Forty five minutes later, the supervisor calls back. The guard suddenly goes back into "Def-Con 1" mode, and walks away from me to have a whispered conversation with his boss, just out of earshot. Five minutes go by. The guard is gesturing and pointing at me, his little portable computer, my bike and trailer, but never mind that his supervisor can't see any of this. Finally he hangs up and comes back over to me.

"We are gonna override the system and let you go" he announced, as if he had just negotiated a four country peace treaty. Even more importantly, he was sparing me from any sort of personal  body cavity search as well.

My spirits soar as I see that my lumberyard imprisonment is at an end! I sign the little portable computer screen, along with a requested phone number of mine, just in case that after I leave they find a bomb under the plywood somewhere in the warehouse.

I pedal off to the rest of the day.

Little pieces, lots and lots of little pieces....

I am in the middle now, I think, the middle of past where most of the big pieces have been put into play, and now it's grind out the small and medium sized pieces. Today was a repeat of Sunday, to some extent, I made the decision to have another hatch on the forward cabin roof, the same size as the one on the forward deck area. I had debated this one back and forth for a while, but in the end I liked the idea of a plexiglass hatch over the bunk/sitting area. One could also stand in the walkway and poke a portion of their body out the hatch for a view or some air as well.

I am urgent need of another trip to the lumberyard to retrieve the last pieces I need. Some plywood, more 2x2's, LOTS MORE GLUE!

It's cool to feel the entire boat starting to stiffen up as I get the top framing in on the roof, it still wiggles in the back, and of course, with no bottom on it yet, it's gonna wiggle!

I like how the foredeck hatch will look, one could sit on the bunk, half in and half out and survey things from semi inside. I keep playing a video in my head how it will look from profile going by on the water. So far it seems to match up!

Mother's Day

It was a bit of a roller coaster weekend. Yesterday the weather matched my spirits, rainy, chilly and somewhat sad. It was my friend Jeff's birthday yesterday, the first one since he passed away. His family gathered from near and far, and I was invited to spend the day with them. We had some fun, there were kids there, so that always lightens the mood! Dinner afterwards, some sleep, then off to the boat today with  a load of supplies and a good, sunny day to cheer me up.

I made a bunch of calls as I was making half lap joints on the forward deck. My mother's best friend Louise, other friends, my  brother as well. Pretty soon, the forward decking structure was in place, and then after two tubes of glue and screws, finally in place for good.I thought about my own mother a bit today, it still strikes sad chords inside, but the day was nice, and she would have wanted me to be happy today, so another dozen screws and glue helped in that regard!

Some cajoling with a piece of plywood, and soon all but the hatch was in place. The hatch will be hinged to tip backwards against the forward window with a plexiglass inset on the hatch, so whomever is driving the boat can see through if the hatch is open. The plexiglass top on the hatch will also allow light in when it is closed, even though the hatch is over the foot well of the bunks, but it all helps! Later this week, if I can finagle my cousin and his large mini-van into it, i will fetch the last of the lumber I need, and have the top decking in place so the whole thing  can be flipped over for the bottom, the skids and paint! 

All, in all, a good day! Happy Mother's Day

Today I thought about time. In twelve hours, more or less, you can get up, get to work for eight hours, and get home. You could maybe watch all of the Lord of the Rings movies, read three or four chapters of "War and Peace", and if you have the flu, you could be really sick for twelve hours.

I put four sides of the boat together in twelve hours! I can't quite float on it yet, but I could read "War and Peace" in it, if I so wished!

Part of this project is to also give some praise and recognition to my friend Jeff, who is, in part, some of the inspiration for my doing this. There are other reasons as well, I shall speak of them more as I go along. In my first post here, I  spoke about how he has been part of the annual toy give away I do. I did not mention this before, but Jeff passed  away about a week after I finished the toys this past holiday season.

So, now you know a little more about where a boat goes. Perhaps why as well.

Quasi point of no return

When you only have only side of a boat done, you can still call the whole thing off. You still have enough lumber in the pile to make a really long bike ramp, without having to make a boat. Today I paused just long enough to ponder that possibility, then I started in on the other side.

I didn't really want a fifteen foot long bike ramp anyway. This will be more fun.

Saturday,  it's an extra cup of coffee day. We are still stuck in British weather here and I am slow to climb on the bike and head over to the garage to work today. It'll happen, it's just gonna be in slow motion, that''s all!

After the success of earlier this week, I am attempting to get the starboard side framed in, bow and transom made and maybe....MAYBE, I will have a few pieces tacked together today! The neighbors in the alley have started to pause as they walk by, wondering what I am building. I have not clued them in yet, I want to have some sort of three-dimensional shape to show them!

Now, where is my rain poncho?

It's the last day of April, a rainy one at that. The dog is curled up on the couch, the steady downbeat of rain keeps me and the last of my morning coffee company here.

First my apologies. To all your grammar hounds out there, yes, I do know what spell checker is, and I'm sorry I did not turn it on last night during my first post. I shall endeavor to be more careful in the future when writing!

Yesterday when I was hauling my tools and such over to the garage where I am building this boat, I got a few odd looks from the cars going by. You see, I don't own a car, but I do own a trailer. The trailer is made from metal crutches and it gets pulled around behind my bike. I have about four of these trailers right now actually.

A guy in a car pulls up next to me at an intersection and stares. His window rolls down.

"Hey!"

I smile and nod.

"Is that thing made out of crutches?" he asks.

"Yup." I answer.

"Wow. That's pretty cool."

He rolls his window up and tears off down the street. I pedal on, pulling my tools along, towards the boat.

I suppose this is, in part, why I am doing this.   It's just plain cool.

Oh, did I mention I am going to pull the boat to the water behind my bike? The boats will have wheels on it!

The First Tangible Step that started months ago.

In December of last year, a few weeks before my best friend, Jeff passed away, he and I made toys to give away for the holidays. Well, I suppose I made them, and he supplied the inspiration, the paint, and the brushes. Jeff lived in Virginia, I live in the Midwest.  In typical overkill Jeff fashion, he made sure that the Art supply place sent something like 200 brushes with the eight cans of paint that arrived. If paint brushes are made from horsehair, there is now a herd of naked horses wandering around right now, hoping to God that spring gets here soon.

I made almost 200 toys to give away. I do that every year in lieu of my complete and total opposition to going to church.  I figure I can sing praises to the Universe and actually do something tangible in the world, all at the same time! I gave the toys away  to a day care center and a food pantry to be included in their Holiday boxes.

Jeff asked me what my next project was going to be. I told him I was pondering a boat and that he should come next summer and we would go for a ride. he laughed, a sad laugh, but he did laugh. I told him it would be like a floating tree house, along the lines of the one we had built as kids together. Except for the part that this was a boat and not a tree house. I had found some plans for a boat and I was keen on building it. He was, of course, enthusiastic.

Today, after months of planning and logistics, I started my tree house boat.