More house chores

We're just slowly getting a bunch of house chores done....

While we were gone this winter, a squirrel or other varmint ate holes in our decorative house vents.....we couldn't find a nest in the attic so don't really know what the point was....

You can see one of the holes here:

So Duane used the bucket truck again to remove 3 of these vents.

Then he used aluminum sheeting to bend covers for each of the slats.  His reasoning is that the varmint can't chew thru the aluminum!

All finished, ready for paint.

After 3 coats of paint, reinstalled.  

Sometime soon we're going to finally put a deck under the "door to nowhere".....stay tuned.   Now we need to get back to the boat for more chores!!  What a life....

House maintenance

So, it seems like we came back to our house just to work on it!

It's been a few years since anything outside has been "washed" and it was showing.  The siding and the concrete were all moldy.

Luckily, our neighbor John has the bucket truck we can borrow!

A lot of bleach and a good rinse is all it takes to brighten it up.

And as the cleaning progressed, I got out our small pressure washer and tackled the moldy front sidewalk.   It was rather tedious but fun to see the fresh concrete color emerge from under the mold.

Much better!

Next was the moldy deck.....

 We used a good bit of bleach on the deck as well as the pressure washer.  The deck is 25 years old and it's been thru quite a few mold/wash cycles and it doesn't come perfectly clean.

 And the last item on the agenda was the lower concrete pad.  It was nasty!  Almost slippery with mold and dirt.  For this, we borrowed Pat's much bigger pressure washer.

Again, fun to see the fresh concrete under all that mold.....but at some point, it sure became quite the chore!!

But much better now!  Time for a rest.

I'm light-headed now!!

Only sailing related because it will be much cooler sailing now....


Before

After!

I saved the hair to donate to Locks of Love.  I read up on them at Snopes - they seem to be a pretty good charity.  They will sell my grey hair since they only make wigs for children, but I'm OK with that as it helps run the charity.  I measured and my hair just makes it in for the 10" requirement.

Rest of the Ocracoke sailing trip and family visit

We had to scurry back from Ocracoke to Asheville for Frank's funeral.

I had one more day of photos from the sailing trip in my camera - so here they are!

We sortof filled up all the available space at the NPS docks with SCOO boats.

Our final event with the group was the  potluck dinner.  Dale is the organizer of this event and did a great job.

The potluck meals this group does are great!  Wonderful veggie salads and lots for me to eat that doesn't involve meat.

Even a great veggie only pizza.

Just a wonderful group and a perfect day. 

And then it was a trip to Asheville for the funeral.  We had the normal cookout at Mom and Frank's.   Mom and her younger brother David.

 David and Lib were in town for the funeral and came over to visit.

 Shannon listening to all Gene's jokes.  (some of which were slightly funny, haha)

And after the funeral we went to a Mexican restaurant with all the relatives.  A big group!!!!   (Sorry, some of these photos are not the best since my cell phone isn't of the highest quality)


Eddie and Trudi

Keith and Denise

Eddie and Brittany

Curt and Judy

David and Pam

Gene and Francis (I took several shots, and believe me, this is the best one since Gene wouldn't behave!)

Shannon and Jeff

Teresa and Rafe

Richard and Miranda

And Robert - he had been "messing with" Teresa, so she paid him back....

And Mom - she's doing fine and looking good!

Mills River

Just visiting Mom at home.

Saying goodbye to Frank

I need to pause here because my mother lost her husband yesterday.

He was a good man and they found much happiness together.

Ocracoke SCOO trip

The National Park Service at Ocracoke has instituted an new "walk on" ferry service between Ocracoke and Hatteras Islands.  Today was the inaugural run and they gave away free tickets to train the employees.  We boaters are not too happy about the addition because they took valuable dock space and turned it into the ferry loading platform....but I wanted to see what it's all about anyway.

Got our round trip tickets.

Right on schedule, the fast ferry pulled into the dock.

 In line to board with our bikes.  I gave the camera to Rick and he got "fancy".

Rick and Sue in line.

Putting our bikes in the racks on the bow.

All aboard and ready to leave Ocracoke.  Sojourn in the background.

Sojourn is on the right.

 Leaving Silver Lake in Ocracoke.  There is outdoor seating on the top but it faces backwards. 

Inside is very nice.

An hour later, approaching the ferry dock in Hatteras.

We had a little over 30 minutes to kill before the return trip....so we biked over to the Graveyard of the Atlantic museum for a little history.

 Cool lighthouse.

Nice exhibits, but we didn't have a lot of time to explore.  We'll have to go back sometime when we've got the whole day.  Uneventful hour ride back to Ocracoke.

And the evening was for "happy hour" with the SCOO folks.

Nice to meet new folks and enjoyed visiting with the ones we already knew!