We enjoyed living in Colorado again, but we did go east to visit Mother in Virginia and to the Florida family to meet Baby John Gabriel (b.10/08/2015)
We did some upgrades to our home by remodeling our master bathroom and replacing our refrigerator and thirty-eight year old Corning, smooth-top oven/range. The refrigerator delivery coincided with our first significant snowfall and the delivery was set to go as scheduled, as long as our dirveway was cleared of ice and snow. Barb and I wielded our snow shovels for several hours clearing the 275 ft long driveway and the delivery was accomplished without a hitch. Well...except for the hitch in our arms, legs and backs that evening and for a day or so beyond. Since we were spending the winter here, I bought a snowblower within a few days. That was fortunate, because two weeks later our new stove with its smooth-top induction range was arriving...along with the next "significant" snowfall. It snowed for two days, but I enjoyed blowing the snow out of the driveway almost effortlessly, in about 45 minutes each day.
Barb got to enjoy the Christmas holiday at home for a change. We cut a good sized, mistletoe infested tree and used the top nine feet of it for our Christmas tree
In 2016, we decided to visit Jupiter's Smile in the yard in San Carlos and left cold Colorado, April 8th. We had requested that the boat be moved out of the secure yard to the work yard and we arrived with our Little Giant telescoping step ladder and other instruments of construction to take up residence aboard our boat in the work yard. There was hardly a space available due to post-hurricane repairs being applied to damaged boats. We had decided to truck the boat to the Gulf Coast of the U.S. so the goal for this visit was to begin the preparations for that move. We removed instruments, antennae and outboard engines into the van. Barb and I sanded the companionway frame, cap rails and "eyebrow" teak and I applied three coats of epoxy (thank you, Mike Nolan, for the advice and guidance) and then three coats of Epiphanes varnish. While I did that work, Barb fashioned a Sunbrella cap rail cover for the teak. Based on the hours it took measuring, cutting, fitting and refitting and time at the sewing machine, she estimates she would need to charge $4000 to do all this again. We enjoyed our "Spring Break" in Mexico getting the work accomplished, visiting Viva Bob and other cruisers and checking the weather reports for the U.S. of A., as they were very different from Mexico's. We left for home on May 5th.
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| Showing the cap rail cover and clips |
Then came late-Spring and the rains. Our property has a three and a half acre grassy area (in the past, it was our pasture for our horses), but it tends to get rather soft when it rains like it rained. I was able to mow only about half of the property, keeping the grass short nearest the house, remembering how that is a "fire-wise" practice. But the lower section of the pasture enjoyed the lack of attention and responded by reaching a height of three feet in places. When the rains stopped in July, I fired up the trusty gasoline powered, but human propelled mower and cut a 22 inch swath, inches at a time. With each agonizingly, arduously slow pass that threatened to choke the machine, I was despairing that it would take the better part of a week to finish this task. I kept telling myself that I was getting my exercise. No driving to a gym for me! Driving? Now there's an idea!
John Deere sells a beautiful yellow trimmed, green lawn tractor that cuts 42 inches at a time and never complains about the height of the jungle. We got one. After a few passes to see that it cuts through the grass like butter, Barb decided it was her turn to play. She mowed most of the acreage and returned to the garage with a smile on her face in about an hour and a half. Our carbon footprint has been enlarged, but with the help of internal combustion engines we will survive these tasks to live another day.
In September, Hurricane Newton visited San Carlos. We received an email from Marina Seca telling about the domino-like tipping of a row of boats within the yard adding that, if there were photos attached to the email, those photos documented the damage to your boat. Our email had no photos attached. Our friend, Viva Bob was in another marina and had weathered the storm with no damage either. We emailed him and Marina Seca asking if he could put his eyes on Jupiter's Smile giving Marina Seca Staff permission for him to enter the secure yard for this purpose. He saw that Barb's cap rail covers were still in place, mostly, but some of our "clips" were on the ground. Bob threw the clips into the cockpit. All was well and we were relieved.
We would return in November for an interesting 2016-2017 cruising season.
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