Some good stuff happening

[laurentide]

Ugh. You and me both need a barn.

I'm slowly spending a bunch of money on custom canvas, one section at a time. I'm sick of wrestling with tarps.

 

[Watermann]

Wellll... that didn't work! :facepalm: :suspicious: :rant: :yell: :grumpy:

Uh oh, that doesn't look good from here :grumpy:

 

[BWR1953]

Thanks guys. I really do need a better shelter! This one's broken! :lol:

The shelter blew over my neighbor's fence which also has an electrified top strand. Once we saw what had happened we went out to investigate. Didn't touch the fence until after contacting my buddy and having him reassure us that the fence was indeed off.

The good news is that the boats are all okay and my neighbor's fence was undamaged, including the electric fence strand.

The shelter was damaged. Several of the steel frame tubes were broken and the tarp(s) were torn in several places too. Once we get some good weather we'll take a closer look at everything and reassess. We separated most of the frame tubes and stored them in the Chieftain for the time being. The tarps were folded up and placed in the donor boat for storage.

As I'd said in a prior post, May is usually the driest month here. Many times in the 10 seasons that I've been here, there has been zero rain in May. This week is the exception that proves the rule. And it wasn't just regular ol' rain, had to be a windy thunderstorm this afternoon.

But it was all my fault anyway. I'd not anchored the tent shelter at all the day before yesterday, anticipating no rain or maybe light rain. When the shelter was at the driveway it was securely anchored and survived winds of 60mph with no ill effects. I simply didn't prepare for a healthy storm.

My bad. :facepalm:

The weather is supposed to break again by the end of this week and we'll take all the tarps and spread them out for cleaning and examination. At that time I'll also check out the frame damage and see if anything can be done to make it work again. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

One nice thing is that when we first went out to inspect the situation, it was raining steadily, so we climbed up into the Chieftain's cabin to wait for a rain break. Spent about 45 minutes in there, dry except for where the bulkheads and door would normally be. So we sat and listened to the rain and talked about the Chieftain project. My wife, the boy and me. :grouphug:

And I was very pleased to learn that the mahogany brace under the front deck is in excellent shape!

 

[Watermann]

The mahogany bow supports being in good shape was one of the high points for me too.

 

[BWR1953]

Been a few weeks since anything has been done around here. Mostly waiting for my buddy. His availability is limited since he's in such high demand. Justifiably so though!

Today he came over with his new-to-him loader/backhoe. Very nice machine! He got it for a song too. And he'll be selling his old Massey and will come out with extra bucks in his pocket. His old machine will sell for twice what he paid for the new one.

Dug a big hole, buried the burn pile and moved the extra dirt up to where the shelter will be again.

I had him bury the ashes because wood ash is alkaline and the sand/soil here is already very high pH. Spreading the ashes around would just make the area even higher in pH, making it difficult for grass to grow.

The plan is to move enough sand/soil to the shelter area to make it a nice level space and purchase more fill if needed.

 

[Decker83]

I bet your glad to see that big pile of ashes gone..

 

[Watermann]

Looks to me like if you wanted a rock at your place you would have to go buy it somewhere. :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

I bet your glad to see that big pile of ashes gone..

Absolutely! I was surprised that it didn't get reduced more when tropical storm Colin came through over the last couple of days. Persistent stuff.

Looks to me like if you wanted a rock at your place you would have to go buy it somewhere. :lol:

For sure!! :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

Several more weeks have passed and more work has been done. Still very slow going though.

Part of the reason is due to my health again. I finally tapered completely off the steroids but doing so caused me to have withdrawal symptoms like weakness, excruciating pain and the inability to move my right shoulder. Put me out of service for a couple weeks. Doing better now though. Still not back to normal but at least improving.

Another part of the slow progress is my buddy's availability. He comes over for 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there and does what he can in that time. But it's progress, so that counts! :joyous:

And he helped me with mower and tractor problems as well. Big help there! :encouragement:

On 6-21-2016 I had some dirt delivered.

https://youtu.be/-9gdA-_MisA


On 6-22-2016 my buddy came over with his small tractor and started moving the dirt to begin creating the shelter pad base.

https://youtu.be/g_0S8uF2QM8


On 6-26-2016 my buddy came back with his bigger tractor and did some more work.

https://youtu.be/B8If7QdEL88


And yesterday another obstacle jumped up and bit me. We had to have a new well pump installed! Ugh. Delays and expenses!

But I'll keep after it until I finally do have a decent place to work on the boats!

 

[g0nef1sshn]

Good to see things are comming along over there! If all goes right for me I will be having a SPLASH in the Okeechobee waterway at the locks in Stuart Fl this weekend!

 

[BWR1953]

Good to see things are comming along over there! If all goes right for me I will be having a SPLASH in the Okeechobee waterway at the locks in Stuart Fl this weekend!

Thanks. I hope you have a safe and enjoyable splash! I did read about your replacement tires. Good move.

The yard and new pad area are still unchanged for how. Plenty of work left to to. Am hoping my buddy is available to move dirt again soon.

Still looks like this:

 

[BWR1953]

Hi all. I'm back again. My buddy came over with his tractor and started leveling the piles. Only took him about 1/2 hour to knock them down and start the leveling process. But then he had to leave again. Sigh. Someday soon it'll all be done!

 

[BWR1953]

The man knows how to use that tractor!

And I sent my boy out to get some pix and video when he was finished for the evening.

 

[Watermann]

Quick work made of that heap of sand, I don't know about where you live but here that would be a huge weed farm in 2 weeks time. :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

Let's see if these pix work. Been getting "file corrupted" errors when trying to upload. I hope it works this time.

Nope. :blue:

 

[BWR1953]

The only way I can get pix to upload is to transfer them to PowerPoint, save them as a .jpg file then resize them in my photo software. A pain. So I'm gonna stop with this one. At least y'all can see the "runway" effect.

 

[BWR1953]

My buddy did repair the box blade on my little tractor the other day, then demonstrated that the fix worked. Not quite as powerful as his machines though! :lol:

 

[Decker83]

Looks like it's getting better all the time..

 

[BWR1953]

Guys, I'm still around. Health has been kicking me really hard over the last few weeks. Severe arthritis/muscle type pains. Barely able to walk. Lots of pain all over. As my dad would say... "Even my HAIR hurts!" LOL! :lol:

The pain may be withdrawal symptoms from the steroids or a corollary disease that often accompanies GCA. Which requires more steroids for treatment! :dizzy: :blue:

If it's withdrawal, it'll take a couple months to clear up. If not, back on the steroids. Ugh.

With this pain, no yard work and no boat work. But I WILL power through this time too!

Today I managed to cut the grass this morning with a new-to-me (but used) Zero Turn Radius mower. The grass is starting to cover over where all the trees and the burn pit were. Nice to see. Man, that ZTR is easy to use and fast for cutting.

When I finished, I let the boy drive it around at slow speed. He had a ball! I had a tough time getting him off the thing since he was having so much fun doing donuts in the yard!

 

[jbcurt00]

Nice

Good luck w the health stuff, ugh is right