News from the Country Estate July 26

Greetings from the Country Estate:

Summer made a cameo appearance this week with temps in the 80's and high humidity. The gloomy skies of clouds, fog, and rain more typical of this year's summer returned however, with today barely reaching 70 degrees and intermittent rain showers. On Friday we received more than an inch of rain in five hours during a 'nor'easter'. KT and I did some rainy day shopping and saw the latest Harry Potter movie for a matinee price. An ok film. Just ok.

During a break in the rain last week I was finally able to install some relatively hard to find shock absorbers on my sailboat trailer. They are actually snowmobile shocks, but they're just the right size for minimizing radial oscillation due to cornering. They were about $20/a piece and non-returnable, so I was pretty glad when they did the trick.

After strapping the boat down, I was ready to bring the vessel home. The drive was relatively uneventful and boat, truck and driver arrived in good spirits.

Now in storage under a tarp next to another in progress boat project, she waits for some more time and money to tackle a few projects before she is seaworthy once more.

The end is in sight for the building project that never seems to end. Here we see the 34'x51' timber frame home after two days of raising work. There are only about 8 lifts left, just four dormer assemblies, four rafters and a dormer truss on the far side of the building. The second floor has 19 feet of headroom at the peak of the roof. That's a great height if you are going to house the raptor exhibit at the zoo....We'll build whatever they want.

A hen left a peace offering of a single egg on our deck after both roosters spent the afternoon digging up my tomato patch and fouling our deck. I immediately fried the peace offering to over-easy and partook of it with salt and pepper.

Probably the freshest egg I have ever eaten.

Inspired by my fresh egg experience, I went out to the garden and harvested a bunch of lettuce, some scallions, and a turnip for a mid-afternoon feast. I chopped and fried the turnip and scallions, adding two fresh eggs to make a country scramble.

I regret not planting four times as much in the garden, but who knew the weather would be this wet?

I spent the afternoon studying poultry slaughter techniques in preparation for the next time the roosters decide that its a good idea to hang out and crow by our window at five in the morning or dig up the tomatoes again.

Tomorrow its off to work again thankfully and hopefully all week.

On, Finally.

The day finally came to get my boat off its keel-blocking and stands and onto the bright blue boat trailer. With lots of help from my friend Paul (the boat's previous owner), especially with the welding part, the trailer sits ready to receive the load. A fixed-keel sailboat trailer has to do two things: support the weight of the boat on the keel (the pressure-treated keel-rest in the middle) and keep the boat from tipping over while standing and driving (the steel tubes braced in two directions; the tubes are from old staging sections. We're always recycling). On the steel tubes will go big threaded screws with a plywood pad on them. When I have the time I'm going to paint the support stands.

The trick is to get a tippy boat on to a trailer without tipping it over.

First, you have to jack the boat up so it is at roughly the same height as the trailer, then pull the trailer as close and as straight up to the boat as possibly. Next, more jacking, and lifting by the boat stands, pulling the trailer back etc. When the keel is resting partially on the trailer, its time to put the truck in neutral, rig up some beefy come-a-longs and actually drag the trailer under the boat. This is possibly until most of the boat's weight actually rests on the trailer, then the come-a-longs actually drag the boat onto the trailer.

With some sweat, patience, and proverbial and actual elbow grease, a 19.5 ' 3000 lb boat can be safely deposited on a custom trailer. Bought retail, a custom trailer like this would cost in excess of $3500. Not including time for labor, I have roughly$500 into this one. Including labor, its probably more like $1500, still a pretty good value

It almost looks like its sitting too far back, but the center of weight is almost exactly between the two axles, right where it should be. Its actually sitting a little heavy on the front. And from the front.

Despite appearances, she's not quite ready to take a dip. First, the trailer needs some kind of stabilizing shock absorbers to counter the oscillating bounciness of the coil springs (its a 1960's era chassis). Second, I have a new hitch coupling. Third, as you can see there is no tongue jack. Fourth, like in the previous post about sailboat launching, It needs a little wheel on the tongue to let it down into the water far enough for floating. All that is just for the trailer to be safe and functional. The to do list on the boat is a mile long, but not all of it is necessary for a few day-sails.

This afternoon we're going sailing again on Paul's boat. We'll probably just bop around Rockland, Rockport, Camden area.

News from the Country Estate July 7

greetings,

Forgive my clumvsy typeing as I had the geatr fortune of satisfyiung my curiosity about how stapling my finger to a roof feels...it only throbs most of the time.

It rains again, no surprise.

The shed project progresses nicely:


Wall and roof framing in progress. The big openings are for yet to be determined door/windows.

Door and windows bought, roof sheathed.

Tarpapering the roof.

Windows purchased 1/2 price at the Building Materials Exchange.

Gable overhang.

What my sailboat will look like when its done. This is a Bristol 19/Corinthian

KT takes a photo at the end of the dock at Owl's Head as we prepare to head out sailing on Sunday. We sailed with our friend Paul to Islesboro and back. It was a gorgeous day.

Before that we spent a few days down on Cape Cod celebrating KT's aunt's wedding. The weather was mostly great. Then we headed up to Boston to watch the fireworks from a roof top.....

well the rain continues.....

A break!

A break in the steady rain allows a crew of Maine carpenters to sheath, insulate, and hang drywall on a 24x36 carriage house in just two days. With modern materials like structural insulated panels and a crane, a crew of four can do all that and more in just a few days. A house can be built and weather-tight in less than one week.

That's what we do. Now, if only the 'economy' would pick up we'd be able to do one every other week.

In other news, I drive to Cape Cod tomorrow to meet up with KT and attend her aunt's wedding. I might stick around for a week or so if I can find some work around those parts.