Paving day has finally arrived!!!
The work crew arrived on schedule at 8AM.
Fun to watch. Here are some before and after shots.
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Looking forward to driving on the nice smooth surface!
The paving guys finally showed up....today is just clean-up the old road surface day. Tomorrow will be paving.
In the front parking lot - hope the workers have hearing protection and a mask. I couldn't really see.
Our existing road is in pretty rough shape....
They've swept away some of the old chip/tar surface that I didn't know was loose!
Will be fun to watch tomorrow as they put the asphalt down!
A semi-boat-related post....I have a LOT of blueberries in the freezer. Taking up too much room and I can only eat so many blueberry cobblers. But especially when thinking about space in my boat freezer. So I decided to try dehydrating some. Bag on the right is a bag of frozen blueberries. The vacuum packed back on the left is the "after" shot.
My experience with dried blueberries (store bought) is that they re-hydrate pretty well. Unfortunately, it took about 24 hours in the dehydrator to accomplish this. Still, I think I'll do another couple batches just for kicks.
It looks great!
The paving crew arrived at our neighbors to do a smaller project for them.....looks like due to scheduling they will pave at the neighbor's tomorrow.....then will be at our house on Monday for our project.
We've tackled another thing that has been bothering me for years. The concrete cut lines on the ramp outside of our hangar tend to collect dirt and then grow little clumps of grass when left to their own devices. So we cleaned out all the crevasse's and used the leaf blower to get them extra clean.
Ready for application of a special self-leveling concrete sealant.
This took hours and hours.....the ramp is about 60x40' so not small!
Almost done - my knees and feet are achy! Good to cross this one off the to-do list.
I know, not the most exciting of activities....
Well, Lowe's remains in the not-great category of fullfilment venues. Yesterday, I got texts informing me of the delivery time, etc. for the dishwasher, which was fine.
But then a few hours later I got a phone call from the warehouse telling me "sorry, we don't have stock of the dishwasher". Told me that nearby Chapel Hill store had 4 actually in stock and I could go there to purchase. So that's what we did. It's about a 45 minute drive - traffic was backed up on the main thoroughfare so we drove thru downtown Chapel Hill just to be moving. Was a bit fun just to see if anything had changed in the few years since we'd been downtown. (Nothing had changed!)
Uneventful purchase of the last one of the dishwashers (remember, the warehouse guy said they had 4). I think they have an inventory control problem!
Since we'd passed a Chinese restaurant we had frequented in the past, we decided to go back that way and stop in for a late lunch. My sis will remember this one as we met there for lunch sometimes "back in the day".....and it hasn't changed one bit either.
In the homestretch! We decided to experiment with using clips for closure to make putting the cover on easier. If it doesn't work out it will be pretty simple to remove all the webbing/clips and install standard DOT twist lock fasteners like the original.
All done! Just a whole bunch of long, straight seems. Will be fun to put it on the boat and see how good my planning turned out!
More sewing....
The fore and aft sections of the original sail cover had a tough liner to prevent chafe. I decided to use some heavy dacron sailcloth that I have in the "stash". If it doesn't wear well, I can easily stitch a patch of something more durable at a later date since it's hidden inside the cover.
One side almost assembled.
Both sides assembled and almost ready for final assembly. It's a big, hunk of fabric. (Nothing compared to the weight of the fabric on Meshugga, of course!)
Then, of course - attaching the zipper and the closure straps for the bottom of the cover. That will be tomorrow!
Laid out the old cover and got to work making the pattern. Left notes about where to allow seams, etc.
Continued the process. I'll have to cut pieces both of Sunbrella and of sailcloth for the reinforcements on the ends. We're also extending the length a bit because the existing cover allows the end of the jib to be exposed to sunlight more than I'd like. (The whole point is to eliminate UV damage while the sail is stored.)
Major pieces all cut out.
The only sewing I did was these long strips that will be used as a finished 2" binding at the base of the sail cover. I know it doesn't look like much progress but it was enough for one day!
So the forecast for the next few days is rain....unfortunately our driveway paving project was scheduled for tomorrow. It will likely be next week now. Oh well, we certainly want the surface dry and perfect since we don't want to ever have to do this again!!!
I have started the other project - the jib sail cover. Just getting things organized and a large zipper ordered. I've wound a bunch of bobbins. I absolutely hate the chore for some reason! That's it...will get into cutting and sewing over the next few days.
Jumped right into a chore that has been needed for a while now. With the nice clean floor finish cured for a couple of weeks, it's time to start putting some items back that we had stored in the garden shed.
This nice metal cabinet is about 30 years old and in good shape structurally, but has a few rusty spots. Got out the orbital sander and gave it a one-over. (Protected the new floor with paper.)
Just primed the bare spots with rusty-metal primer.
And used a low-nap roller to give it a fresh look. Not perfect but much better!
C
Time is winding down here at the boat.....I plan to make a new jib cover because the old one is very weak and easily torn. It's from circa 2015 so time for a replacement. We removed the old one and covered the jib haphazardly with a tarp and some Sunbrella. Good enough until we return with a new one. I'll use the old one as a pattern at the house - much easier to work in air-conditioned comfort in the wide open basement space at home!
And lastly, Duane had some maintenance to do up the mast.....
Other than that, we just packed everything up for the drive home.
