Pittsboro, NC

 Lindy invited me to help myself to some garden goodies.  Just a few tomatoes and herbs.  Looking forward to using some of the herbs on some Mahi-mahi.

Oriental, NC

 We had a fun day yesterday!  First Buddy called and said he was visiting NC and would like to drop by.  

We had a nice catch-up session with him as we hadn't seen him since  last fall.  Had lunch at M&M's - great local shrimp but the staff was a bit zany!  

 

And then late in the day, Ed & Cathy arrived for a few days.  Fun catching up with them as well.

 

We were treated to a fabulous sunset as well!

Oriental, NC

We're at the boat, just doing some chores.  Things like re-wiring the bilge pumps, replacing a faucet and finishing some grommets on the cockpit enclosure.  Nothing very photogenic.  

But it's nice on the creek - temps are a bit warm but pleasant enough for the middle of the summer.

Pittsboro

 Another Osprey post. This is me standing in front of one of the rotor blades. The thing is huge!!!

Pittsboro, NC

 Thanks to my peeps at the airport for some cool photos from today!

Oriental, NC

 Nothing photogenic happening, just chores. It’s been overcast and rainy. 

Oriental, NC

 More chores at the boat.  I got the little spot cleaner vacuum back out and finished up areas that I hadn't gotten to earlier.  One particularly discolored area was in the galley cabinets.  The curved shape of the hull at the back of the cabinet is covered in the same indoor/outdoor carpet/fabric.  This area looks like it may have never been cleaned at all.  But, in reality, it is always stuffed with bowls and containers so this back area is not really too visible. 

 

Amazing that it all just gets sucked away by the little vacuum cleaner.

Back at the boat - pretty sunset with the two Mantas!

 And on a completely different note..... I've been meaning to mention this new sausage - Impossible Sausage.  Yay!  I get to eat something that tastes just like sausage.  (It's the same company that makes the Impossible Whopper "meat").  Duane likes it as well.  

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Back at the airport, pretty uneventful day.  A nice military helicopter used the airport for some practice take offs and landings.  

Weather continues to be fairly pleasant in the low to mid-80's.  Nice for the middle of summer in NC!

Oriental, NC

Last post about the enclosure for a while. Got it mostly completed thanks to Cathy having a few of the Little Hardware bits I needed. For some reason I didn't plan ahead and make sure I had everything, and it's nice that their boat is right there and fully stocked!

I've decided that I will put a "smiley" in the rear panel to make it easy to get in and out of the cockit (but not the others).   I'm very happy with the excellent  visibility of these new side  panels!

Back to Pittsboro now for a week or so. 

Oriental, NC

 I have almost finished 2 of the side enclosure panels.  Pretty pleased with the results.

As a reminder - here is the "before" photo - the photo actually doesn't show exactly how terrible these panels are.  

 

I know, kinda hard to see from the photos since it's all white but the new ones provide a lot more visibility. 

 

Oriental, NC

 Spent the day working on the enclosure.  Got one panel mostly complete.  If you notice, the borders are pretty narrow.   I wanted to give as much visibility as I could so I made the strips narrower. 

And I found a neat gizmo - a binding tape maker.  You can buy pre-made binding for Sunbrella - but it's a little pricey for what it is.  This little tool worked perfectly and will save me some $$ from now on.

 And here's a look at the first panel when I was fitting it for the zippers.  Big improvement over the old cloudy ones!

Oriental, NC

Jerry and Donna have been storing our big Sailrite fabric order while we were away - so we went over to pick it up and had a nice visit catching up with them.

Unpacking it - lots of zippers, hardware and of course the Sunbrella and clear vinyl (O'Sea 30 polished, if you're interested)  for the enclosure panels.  

 

Getting right to work - I borrowed Cathy's hot knife - really makes cutting Sunbrella nice.

 

Hard to show photos, mostly just assembling strips of cloth.

 

I did make good progress - and the weather is dreamy for the middle of August!  Low 80's and a nice breeze.  More tomorrow!

Oriental, NC

 Finally back to the boat!!!  We drove thru hours of rain....it was 69 degrees when we got to the boat.  Brrrrrrr!  The boat and camper are just as we left them although a bit dusty/dirty.

 

 

Pretty sunrise this morning.  Will retrieve my Sailrite material from Jerry and Donna (they've been storing it for me for several weeks) and get started on the sewing project today.

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Last airplane photo for a while!  Back to the boat tomorrow.

This is an Douglas A-26 Invader that is at the museum at Asheboro.

Cool plane.

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Another day, another interesting airplane....this one I snapped a photo since it's sortof funny.....This is a Cessna 152.  And it is anything BUT "blazing fast" as the paint job implies!

 

 And I just had to share....this is a recording of a message that is saved on the answering machine at the airport.  For real. Click and listen to it.  You can't make this $%#* up.

 

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Different airport, different cool plane.  Hope to be back at the boat tomorrow or Friday.

Pittsboro, NC

 I'm working again a few days to cover for an employee's vacation.

Nice HondaJet at the airport today!  

Pittsboro, NC

 Continuing my chores around the house....our master bath closet is a mess.  It's just jammed and overflowing with towels....I know, I have way too many towels for just 2 people.  

 

I got this idea from a little video that came up in my Facebook daily feed.  Rolling towels

 

Amazing difference - same exact number of towels! 

Pittsboro, NC

 Not a lot happening.  It's hot and muggy.....I've been doing some house chores, of course.  Just an interesting tidbit.  

Back when it was all the rage to replace your incandescent bulbs with florescent ones, I was unconvinced about their longevity so I would take a Sharpie and pencil the "install" date.

We apparently got our money's worth out of this one - almost 10 yrs!

Pittsboro, NC

 We're still at home - familiar scene towards the runway from the back deck....

 

And a pretty sunrise at the Siler City Airport this morning.