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May 2008 |
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May 2008, Palatka, Fl Progress! The coring is in and sealed now with faring compound (see pics). We have begun the glassing as well and are nearly finished with it. The weather has been conducive for the work but is getting hotter daily. Justin keeps a small fridge in the shed chock full of waters to keep hydrated. Wearing a white suit to protects his skin from the fiberglass but makes working quite a sweaty job. No longer a patchwork quilt boat! One day it was 103° F! Found the camera! But for some reason - I photographed the boat in black and white. Anyway, below you can see all the patches are filled back in. There is coring under that faring (the white stuff). The faring has now been sanded back and fiberglass patches were put on top. We are now at the last stages of glassing which is glassing over big areas with large sheets of glass for strength. I will get some more pics as we go. The summer showers have been a problem for Justin. If the resin doesn't dry completely then he has to grind the fiberglass back and start again - thankfully this has only happened once! So, in the interest of keeping on he decided to work on the interior one day when the rains were threatening. There was a bird in Abi's cabin (the one place he needs to do a bit of glassing) with a nest full of eggs! Justin didn't have the heart to move her or grind fiberglass around her so he found other jobs to do when it rains until her eggs hatch.
Mothers Day we went to St Augustine Beach. We brought our metal detector (total nerds) but did not find any treasure. GARRR! We were hopeful to since that section of Florida Beach is called the "Treasure Coast" . Justin naturally thinks we just need better equipment....hmmmm. The squids,found a dead baby shark though which they toted around for a while - I think they squeezed out his intestines eventually. They also collected loads of crabs - most dead - not sure if the red tide can still be held responsible for all the carcasses on the beach or not but there are still traces of red in the sand. The kids really wanted to bring their findings home and Abi snuck some really smelly crabs in her shell bucket as far as a restaurant a few miles away which we dumped in the their parking lot landscaping when we got there.
We have recently been buying farm fresh eggs from someone in our homeschool group. Well, we sort of invited ourselves out to her farm and got to see where they come from! We had a terrific time. The kids were excited to ride a pony and, except for Aaron falling face first into chicken poop, we had a grand time! They got to collect eggs right out from under the hens, poop and all! They also got to feed the chickens and hold baby chicks. Boatschool is getting expensive but I have managed to find a number of things for us to do next year cheaply on ebay or through our homeschool group as second hand material. It has been really nice having the support of the group. We have to make a trip to Georgia to go through stuff in storage at my Dads over the summer because I am sure I have more stuff there. I think we have all we need for next year, or at least, all we can carry!
Spring Soccer season has come to an end. The squids got awards - very cool and Abi's team had a party at the playground complete with hotdogs and snow cones. Lots of fishing this month and swimming at the marina pool. It has been in the 90's and our a.c. has not been working for the last 2 weeks. Blasted houseboat. The manatee are back and seem to be enjoying the bed of sea grass behind our boat so we are fortunate to get to see them often.
We went to the annual Blue Crab Festival. It is the only thing that happens in Palatka and really I am not sure why they brag about it so much. Vendors had come from all over the country - and their prices reflect the cost of travel these days. Everything was expensive and most of the "crafts" come from Indonesia or China!
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