Creek progress

Recently I spent a week at the creek by myself and in spite of the not perfect weather I was able to get quite a bit done. Our Christmas trip allowed us to get the floor done in the master bedroom but we weren't able to finish the trim on windows and doors nor get the bifold doors installed. I decided to go again for a week and see how much of that I could get done. I also wanted to bring home a boat that my dad built over 20 years ago and see if I could restore it. It is in pretty rough condition but I think I can fix it. I will also make a sail for it so I can sail it. I spent about 3 or 4 days getting the window and door facings stained and varnished. Then we had a day of rain with about 2.5 inches falling that day. But I did get the facings on the doors and windows in the bedroom and the window facings on in the dining room. We are ready to lay flooring in the dining room and finish the doors and baseboards in there. Hopefully we will get these done when we are down for spring break. I also finshed up putting the balusters on the porch railing which I didn't finish at Christmas because I ran out of material then.  I still wasn't able to get the bifold doors in the bedroom done but maybe I can get them done spring break as well. Above is a picture of the woodwork and below is a picture of the boat and another of a sunset.

This is the old boat that I will take home. It is 15 feet long and will hang out the back of the truch by about 7 feet.

Here is a nice sunset picture as well.

Back to the creek

I am planning to return to the creek next week to continue on the stuff we did at Christmas. I want to finish the window and door facings in the master bedroom and the windows in the dining room. I can't do the door facings there until we get the flooring down. I plan on leaving on Wednesday and staying for a week. It may be a little longer depending on weather and how much I get done.

The bird in the picture is a male Great Blue Heron. He is courting the female who is standing, or rather dancing on the next pier. These are beautiful birds and are quite large. For reference, the grey square on the post next to the bird is about waist high on me or around 3 feet above the deck, so this bird is easily 5 feet tall or more when his neck and head is extended as it is in this picture.

Welcome to 2011

I see that I have posted 50 times over the last year or about once every 7 days. Sometimes they were more frequent and sometimes less but that was the average. Perhaps I will be able to do better in 2011.

We spent the last 2 weeks of 2010 at our Caney Creek retreat working on the house and just being away. There is no internet there and we just barely have cell phone sometimes. We worked on the decks, front and rear, and laid vinyl flooring in the master bedroom. We had hoped to do the dining room as well but it was cold and we were worried that the glue would not setup correctly. The MBR is now almost finished. We just have some window and door trim to complete and put in the bifold doors for the entry to the room. Maybe I will get it done on my next trip down. I added some balusters to the deck railing and the next step there is to stain the whole deck and add a roof to the creekside deck. I also worked on the pier, puttered around with one of my dad's old rowboats, and put a line in the water fishing, but there were no fish. Martha picked up oyster shell around the pier when the tide was way out and they were exposed. She also painted the bedroom and helped greatly with the flooring. In between she worked on Algebra. She wants to complete her degree but alas college algebra is required and she has not kept up with math skills so it will be a struggle. She spent much time practicing math skills in preparation for intermediate algebra this spring.

We did squeeze in a visit with our son and daughter in law and their children on the 18th. On the 20th I reached a milestone by turning 70. On the 21st we gathered with my sister and brother and spouses to celebrate another year. It was a great visit and good food, I think we all enjoyed the time together. We need to do it more often.

I have included a couple of pictures of the house. I have also posted a few more pictures at Picassa. You can see them here.

More to come
 

Fall has fallen

The leaves that is. We have 5 pecan trees in the yard and they are working overtime on making leaves, or at least making them fall. The picture is only showing less than half of them and the street is full as well along the curb. Raking and bagging the leaves is probably my least favorite thing to do. Usually we just mulch them with the lawnmower but this year there were too many. I have blown them into piles and am slowly getting them into bags. The city picks them up and they dump them out of the bags. It would be nice if they would invest in a large leaf vacuum and just come by and vacuum them out of the yard. I'm sure that will never happen, but it would save on bags.

Martha is on holiday for Thanksgiving and we will go to visit some friends for Thanksgiving day. We have much to be thankful for at this time. I recently traveled to our daughter's house in Louisiana and stopped at our son's house on the way. I had time to spend with both and with all our grandchildren. we are blessed beyond measure to have them all and we don't get to see them often enough.

As I drove through the forests of east Texas with rays of sunlight filtering through the trees with their red, gold and green leaves, I was reminded of our creator who gave it all to us to care for and manage. We haven't done the best job of that but even so, it is beautiful. We are reminded by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to give thanks in every circumstance. The apostle does not say "for every circumstance" but "in every circumstance". No matter what comes our way we can rejoice and be thankful that God loves us, cares for us and is in complete control. He is still on His throne and always will be.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving, not forgetting to really give thanks to Him for all we have.

The cat who came to bathe

The cat who came to bathe

We love cats but currently don't have one. We did have 2 who were brother and sister but they died after 14 years and we haven't felt like we should get another one. We do like them however and several seem to enjoy passing through our yard and drinking water. We keep water dishes in back for the birds and other animals that might pass through and the cats are frequent visitors. Usually they shy away when they see us and will not hang around. This morning though, one stayed around for most of an hour. He knew I was watching him and kept a wary eye in my direction but didn't leave. He would get a drink and then go lay in the sun and bathe. Then get more water and bathe some more. He left once for a minute but came right back to his spot. I enjoyed watching him for quite a while and I took a few pictures for all to see. Here is one of them.

Maiden Voyage

The Builder Chapter 7


The big boat that dad built was in the water but it was 70 miles away in Galveston and dad was itching to get it home to the creek so he could continue working on it. He had already begun to prepare wood to make the mast. It would be made from many pieces of wood and carefully glued together to form a very strong spar. Dad called me in December of that year and asked if I was interested in the maiden voyage. We would use the outboard to travel from Galveston to the house, a distance of about 65 miles by water. Thus I found myself in dad’s VW headed for Galveston way before dawn on a Sunday morning in December. We were to meet my brother there at the boat and be on our way by first light. We had snacks and drinks with us as well as charts of the Intracoastal Waterway which would serve as our highway home. My brother was coming straight from work and ran a bit late but by full light we were under way. We had traveled less than a mile when heavy fog set in and we were forced to put down the anchor and wait for it to lift. An hour later it did and we were once again on our way, but slowly. There was still some fog and we were headed against the tide. The remainder of the day was like that, patchy fog and contrary currents and what wind there was blew against us as well. There was a distinct chill in the air but after all, it was December.

Now the thing was, mother was expecting us about 7:30 or 8 PM and she was preparing a feast for our arrival. You might remember also that in 1972 there were no cell phones and there were few if any places where we might have stopped and called, but in fact I don’t remember that we even thought of it. We were on an adventure and even though we realized that we were hours behind schedule we still didn’t think of trying to let mom know. By dark we were crossing the Brazos River and had about 20 miles to go. At the speed we had maintained all day that was about 4-5 hours. We cleared the locks on the Brazos and continued through the night towards home. In the dark it was hard to gauge progress and we didn’t realize that we were now traveling with the tidal current and were going much faster. The fog was setting in again and it was cold and misty. At times we could not see the bank at all and we were running along very close to it. This part of the waterway has many small lakes on both sides and we were watching the shoreline as it disappeared and reappeared each time we passed the entrance to one of these small lakes. We had crossed the San Bernard River and thought we were crossing the entrance to one of the lakes since the bank had disappeared. We had gone quite a ways in the fog without seeing anything when the boat ran up on the bank and lodged there, firmly stuck in the mud. It was nearly 10 PM and we didn’t have a clue where we really were. At the house, mother was wondering if she should call the Coast Guard or the Sherriff. Supper was done 2 hours ago and now was getting cold. Back aboard the boat we studied the charts and finally figured out that we had been going faster and were about 4 or 5 miles further than we thought we were. The canal makes a left turn at that point and we had crossed the canal and run up on the bank on the far side. The boat was light and we were able to get off the bank and back into the canal. Once we realized where we were, we were able to head on toward home. We finally arrived around 11:30 and after all the apologies and excuses, mom insisted that we eat. So supper was warmed and we ate at midnight. I had to be at work the next day in San Antonio so I left and headed home. Needless to say I was pretty tired by the time I got there but the boat was delivered safe and sound and we had an adventure that I have never forgotten. I don’t think my brother has ever forgotten either and if mom were alive she would remember as well and probably still be upset with us.

Building a big boat

The Builder Chapter 6

Launching the boat

Do you have dreams? I’m talking about those dreams where we envision what we might be or maybe what we want to be, or … I think all of us have them at various times of life. We have a childhood dream of being an astronaut or a star athlete or some other equally stunning career. Later we dream of a mate and a family and by middle age when the family is scattered we dream of reunions and grandchildren and worry that life is slipping away and we haven’t accomplished what we dreamed about. In the golden years, the autumn of life, we dream of retirement. Some will dare to dream big, sailing off into the sunset, exploring the unknown, searching for the meaning behind all that we dream about. I fear that most of us simply dream and never really attempt to bring those dreams to reality or maybe we try and somehow get discouraged and it just never happens. There are those however, who dream big dreams and forge ahead to make them happen. They have that determination, that spark that drives men and women to be successful in endeavors that seem to be huge to those of us that are “want to be’s”. This chapter and perhaps the next two are about such a man who dreamed big and a lot of it came to pass.

I don’t know exactly when dad began thinking about building a boat but it was in those years when I was away in the service. I would come home and he was surrounded with boating magazines. He would talk about the different types of boats and what he thought would be good. He was talking about sailboats and not small ones either. He talked of a long trip aboard the boat with mom as they would travel aboard their own sailboat. After a lot of study and correspondence with others who had done this, he ordered the plans to a 30 foot trimaran sailboat. It would be built out of wood with plywood hulls and glued with epoxy. The year was 1966 when he got the plans and after studying them for weeks, he brought the first pieces of wood home on the roof rack of his Volkswagen. Every piece of wood in the boat came home the same way. I remember coming home that summer and he showed me the first frame he had built for the main hull. This type of sailboat had three hulls tied together by beams that spanned the width of the vessel. It was to be 30 feet long and 18 feet wide. Dad had never built a boat before that I know about, and certainly not one of this magnitude. Noah building the Ark comes to mind. Piece by piece the frames were built and stacked in the garage. He built a backbone in the yard so he could assemble the hulls. Time passed slowly, months became years but always he made some progress. He was still working full time so the boat building was relegated to evenings and weekends. The hulls were finally finished and coated with epoxy and fiberglass. Then came the task of connecting them and building the beams that would be the strongest part of the boat. I think it was sometime in 1970 that he really set a goal to retire and have the boat finished by the time he did retire. The date was set for his 62nd birthday, October 1, 1972. So it would take slightly over 6 years to complete. Dad stayed doggedly on task and by late summer of 1972 it was nearly finished. The cabin was done with bunks and a galley and a portable toilet. He had ordered a sextant, used for navigation, and charts and was already dreaming of sailing off into the sunset. There was still much to do however as he lacked the mast, boom and the sails. These additions would come later but for now he had finished the basic boat. Plans were made to transport the boat to Galveston and launch it soon after retirement. Mom and dad owned the house at the creek that I write about often, so the house in Bellaire was placed for sale and they prepared to downsize and move to the creek in retirement. The boat was indeed launched in early October 1972 at Galveston and christened “Wanderer”. She still did not have sails or spars but there was an outboard motor to provide power.

I’ll continue this in the next installment, stay tuned.