Building a Shop: Week 8

With the frozen nights, climbing on the metal roof has become a more dumb idea each day. I took a few moments of sunshine (although it was only 20 degrees) to climb up there to try and finish the roof. I had to change my pants after a couple slips before I realized my roof-climbing season was over. I was able to get all the metal roofing on except the top ridgejust not all screwed down. With snow in the forecast, my father in law, Stuart, helped me nearly complete all the metal-trimwork on Wednesday. With the 20-foot ladders fully extended, standing on ice, we came up with an idea of basically screwing 22 feet of top-ridge together, walking it up the ladder and then carefully laying it on the roof ridge, putting in 2 screws on one end and then hoping it stays there until April. With the snow starting to really come down, our plan worked like a charm. Now we just have to wait until April to see if it was a good idea. The good news was that it ended up snowing several inches and then froze. All the weight of the frozen snow is basically holding down the top ridge. It was a Christmas miracle to finish the last few pieces as the snow starting to fall. I suspect well have snow on the ground until Spring, so it couldn't have been better timing.

All that is left is installing the garage doors. Projects that I can complete inside the building, protected from the elements.

Again, a big thanks to Stuart and my other friends. There is now way I could have finished this mammoth-sized project without you.

Why would you take pictures of naked men?

I'm lucky to have great parents and yhen to have married into some great parents-in-law too. My Pa-in-law, Stuart, and I have spent a lot of time together the last couple years. We've had a lot of fun, got a lot done, and he's taught me a ton (I'm a poet and didn't know it??). Other than learning to fix things, save money, and sail, one of the greatest attributes that the Stu-man has is that he doesn't care what you think. And I love that about him (That's why I'm pretty sure he doesn't mind me telling this story) Though, he may have taken his care-free attitude a little too far a few days ago.
We were at a water-slide park for a family-day and following the water time I took Caleb to change out of our wet clothes. To avoid my hair from looking like a dog had just been attacked by a fire hose, I had brought some shampoo to wash my goldie-locks. But in the wide-open men's locker room, there wasn't a shower? I'm still a little confused of the lack of showers, but I digress. So I started washing my hair in the next best thing, the sink (You didn't think I was going to say the urinal, did you?) As I was finishing up rinsing my hair hunched over in the sink, I noted a camera flash. I turned around to see Stuart taking pictures of me. He was just about to laugh about it, when a big ole' burly, Harley-riding, beast-of-a-man growled, "Who's taking pictures in the locker room!" I'm pretty sure Stu would have crawled on his hands and knees along the gross floor if he could have. The big ole dude turned around from the urinal and looked right at Stu and repeated his roar, "Are you taking pictures in the men's locker room?" Stuart sheepishly tried to explain that he was just taking pictures of a guy washing his hair in the sink, but it was too late. I had locked up the moment in my head under the hilarious file. Good times. I love you Stu. At least I didn't tell the story about you jumping and screaming at little garder snake to only have a girl come over and pick it up with her hands and place it in a bucket for you. I always wondered where Monica got her snake-fighting skills....click here)

Three Hour Tour

My father in law, Stuart (Stu), bought an older sailing catamaran this spring. He has a great passion for sailing, and I'm starting to catch the bug as well (At least, I think that's what that rash is from). He purchased a Nacra, which is similar to the more popular Hobie-cat, but a whole lot faster. We've taken it out a half dozen times this year and it's been a blast.

Yesterday, I was playing Mr. Mechanic on my boat and he came along to provide some muscle (two nurses = one man)(yes, he's a nurse too). During our successful replacement of the steering cable on my boat, the wind was howling, and we both knew we had to go out for a quick sail...despite both our wives waiting for us at home.

There were white capped waves across the lake blowing onto our shore so it took several attempts just to get out pass the docks. We have yet to master getting off the dock while looking like we know what we're doing. This time was no different as we crashed into a neighbor's dock, turned around, ran onto the beach, turned around again, got the dagger board stuck in the mud, turned around, then after barely avoiding another neighbor's dock, finally made it out to the deep stuff.

Once in the deep, I think we know what to do and with that strong wind we were flying. These Nacra boats are pretty simple crafts, just two hulls, a sail and a trampoline to sit on. We had brought a couple folding stadium seats to sit on, a bottle of water, a couple life jackets and Stu never goes anywhere without his cell phone.

We were cruising for about 15 min when I mentioned to Stu we should tie up the life jackets (you didn't think we'd actually be wearing the life jackets did you?) and seats. I had just buckled my life jacket around the mast when we rose up on one hull. Now these boats are made to ride on one hull, but we're not exactly at the level yet. But the next 10 seconds would change our level of sailing quickly. The side I was on rose about 5 feet, Stu tried to steer us down to the water, but the wind took the boat over on it's side. I was standing on the now horizontal mast for a few seconds deciding were to jump and Stuart was swimming to try and catch the boat.

These boats are suppose to be fairly easy to right once they've tipped over, but I have a good 1-2 hours of my life to prove otherwise. We pulled, pushed, swung, swore, and did everything else to try and get the beast right side up, but couldn't do it. Some guy even showed up with his boat and tried to pull us over, to no avail. The wind finally took us to the shore, which in retrospect, sounds like a safe and easy place to right the boat, but not for 'ole Stu and me. We looked like Larry, Moe and Curly trying to pull the boat over. Just when we thought we figured it out, we were raising the mast and it got stuck in some trees overhanging the shore. We did finally get it right side up and then we repeated our song-and-dance routine to get the boat into deep water again. It took some time to go up-wind back to the lake house, but we did remain calm and with smiles on our faces.

The stadium seats and water bottle were our only casualties (other than our egos), Stu had grabbed his life jacket as he went overboard, my life jacket remained buckled to the mast the whole time, and Stu's cell phone had amazingly made the ride inside an open pocket on the trampoline. After arriving to the dock, we took the ski-boat out and found the seats on the shore.
One of my ultimate goals is to sail the world with my family...that's sail the world with both hulls in the water at all times.