Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Oriental, NC

Had a busy day, just not a lot of photographic evidence.   Helped Duane trace some wiring inside the boat.  It is amazing how much wiring there is!!!  There are literally a hundred wires running around thru various conduits inside the boat.  Both electrical power and communication lines (with an occasional water line thrown in the mix!) 




Did another couple of loads of laundry....amazing how quickly that builds up!  


For those of you that haven't seen the boat in person, we have a nice setup for washing clothes.  Lest you think I'm having to use a scrub board and bucket - we have a Splendide washer/dryer all-in-one combo.  The loads are small - about 1/2 a "normal" home washer.  I have only been using the wash cycle since I have "free solar dry cycle"!   (Plus the dryer vent hose has come loose from it's outlet so I need to crawl way up in the confined storage compartment and fix it....haven't done that yet - and I've known about it for 6 months!) 




Dinner was on What If -  some yummy left-over spinach lasagna.  Cathy and I decided a while back that we needed to start serving left-overs occasionally instead of going all-out at each meal.  We had started to get over-run with left overs and our fridge/freezers were too full!  She added extra cheese to the lasagna and I do believe it was even better the 2nd time around!!  Then she topped that off with a wonderful cheese pie with apple topping - recipe from the cream cheese box.  Wonderful.  Now I need to do another 15 mile bike ride to work some of this yummy food off my waistline!

A few games of Hearts and a beautiful evening on Brown Creek!



Monday, May 11, 2020

Oriental, NC

We did a BIG bike ride with Ed and Cathy -  it's been several months since any of us have been on bikes....over 15 miles!  Beautiful Mother's Day!  This is the view from across the creek looking at our Mantas at our dock from a different viewpoint.




Ed and Cathy


And dorky us!


Here's our route - probably should have cut it a little short by taking a smaller circuit - I was pooped when we got back!

Drinks out on the dock - I fished out that can of Rum & Cola that I'd gotten in the Bahamas a couple of months ago but never drank.  It says it's 8% alcohol - which is alot - but it really just tasted like Coke.  Good and fun refreshment.



And while we were relaxing on the dock, a Hobie cat sailed by silently.



Here's our Garmin route - I finally got my refurbished smart watch back from Garmin so I can track our sojourns!


Sunday, May 10, 2020

Oriental, NC

I got a hankering for biscuits and gravy....I actually used a recipe - this one has sour cream and an egg....strange!   They turned out fabulous - really light and fluffy sortof like a Bojangles biscuit.


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 Recipe from the Butter with a Side of Bread blog:



To make Sour Cream Biscuits, you’ll need:
–1 egg
–1 cup sour cream
–1 TBSP sugar
–1/4 cup butter
–2 cups all purpose flour
–1 tsp baking powder
–1/2 tsp baking soda
–3/4 tsp salt

To make Homemade Biscuits, first you’ll need to preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray an 8×8 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
Crack egg in a bowl and beat with a fork. Add the sour cream and sugar.
Grate the cold butter into the mixing bowl. Grating butter is a super fast way to mix small chunks of butter into the dough without taking time to roll the dough multiple times. As a matter of fact, you don’t roll the dough out at all with this recipe! Add in the remaining dry ingredients and stir just until mixed. Dough will be sticky.

Lightly flour a counter top and use a rubber scraper to scrape the dough out from the bowl. Sprinkle some additional flour on top and lightly knead a few times. Shape it into a mound and pat dough out to  1″ thickness. I just use my hands!
Spray biscuit cutters with non-stick spray. If you don’t have cutters, you can use the open end of a cup, canning jar rings or simply cut them with a knife and form balls. Cut dough to form 9 biscuits. If you have leftover dough, divide it up, pat each piece flat and place it on the underside of each of the 9 biscuits.

Place the biscuits in the greased pan with the sides of the biscuits almost or barely touching. Pat the tops down slightly so that they’re smoother on top. Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Serve warm topped with our Strawberry Freezer Jam. Yum!
Yields 9 biscuits. For more roll-like biscuits, add an extra egg!


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And then I realized I was about out of bread, so made another loaf.  



Other than that, we didn't get much accomplished.  Did a good bit of reading on our Kindles.

After dinner on What If, they had an appointment with a  buyer for their old 2 cycle dinghy motor.  It was in good shape but was a bit underpowered for their dinghy.  Also, they are planning to upgrade to a motor like ours with electric start and power tilt.  (We're spoiled!!)

They had told their buyer that he must come wearing a mask and he complied.



That was about all the excitement for the evening!

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Oriental, NC

Pretty sunrise, looking west.




And just a few moments later, the sun peeked out and brightened it all up.



We'd planned a picnic/grill for the evening....got the fire going and chatted for an hour or so....but the winds started to get uncomfortable and we decided it would be best just to have our picnic on the boat!




Friday, May 8, 2020

Oriental, NC

Just a pretty spring day!!



Duane continues to work on the NEMA 2000 wiring, he says he's almost finished. 

I made more cookies....this time homemade Do-si-do peanut butter Girl Scout cookies. Because we need extra calories.....



We had dinner on What If - a great red beans and rice dish.  Played just one game of cards because I needed to get on a 7PM Zoom teleconference for book club!  I'd never done a Zoom meeting but had read about it lately, of course.  We had 11 members "phone in".  Unfortunately, this particular screenshot does not capture most of us smiling.  But it was fun and there was much laughter.  However, it was not ideal - my internet apparently was not good enough to stream the video consistently and I think a few others had the same problem.  But it was sure fun seeing all the ladies after such a long time!  We hope to meet in person (outside) in June. 



Thursday, May 7, 2020

Oriental, NC

Duane is continuing to repair some internal wiring (NEMA 2000 if you're interested) that has been causing difficulties with some of our electronics.  In order to do this, he had to tear apart the galley!





Was actually nice to have the stove out - I did a good bit of scrubbing on it that would have been difficult with it in place.  Got alot of the cruddy bits that are in hard-to-reach spots.



He got the galley partially re-installed in time for me to cook dinner.  Made some of those 1 hour breadsticks. 




I forgot to snap a photo of the finished sticks until long after supper was over.  They were good and so simple!


A few games of spades tonight - the girls won one round and the boys won the other.  A good day!

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Oriental, NC

It's a soggy day!!





Only the ducks are out and about.



But a good bit of interior wiring rehab was accomplished.




 Ended the day on What If, played a couple of fun games of Hearts.  Slept soundly to the pitter-patter of pouring rain.



Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Oriental, NC

Gonna be a cool and dreary day here....spring seems to be pretty fickle this year!




Just doing chores, Duane's digging a drainage ditch along the property line.  I'm adding to our caloric intake.  Garbage cookies again.


Monday, May 4, 2020

Oriental, NC

Noticed a very colorful sail approaching the boats...a neat little trimaran.



The winds were pretty gusty - they got a little "tipsy".  They actually went over a bit more than pictured.



But they got it under control and went on their way.



It's turned warm and sunny (temporarily - I see we have some cool and rainy days approaching again).  I got out all the sun shades to try to keep it comfortable in the boat.



And we needed to get our spare propane tanks filled - went to Eastern Propane in Bayboro.  They had a table up in the entrance that blocked your way inside.



Was pleased to see that they were adhering to the protocols.   I donned my mask and placed my cash on the table so no contact at all.


Sunday, May 3, 2020

Oriental, NC

One last chore before being able to call the electrical work complete was to bury the big wire.

We rented a Ditch Witch from the local garden supply (I wore my mask in to pay, they had plexiglass shields up at the counter so limited contact.)



Duane and Ed made quick work of it.  (Well, I exaggerate - it took hours and hours but significantly less than if they had to dig it by hand).



Just a little hand-digging at a few spots.




And after the cable was buried and the loose dirt smoothed over, it was time to relax a bit around a fire.



We got a nice coal bed started and ended the day with a picnic, burgers cooked over the fire.



The wind calmed and it was a beautiful bug-free evening.




Saturday, May 2, 2020

Oriental, NC

The guys got a lot done on the electric supply -  they greased-up and pulled the main feed line thru conduit under the dock.



Was quite the ordeal - you can see just a bit of Duane's legs on the floating pontoon.  Ed's the one laying on the dock.  A good team.



Panel under construction.


And the finished panel!




Now we have full power on both sides of the dock.  Yeah!!!  And now I can run two air conditioners, the water heater, the microwave and the washer dryer all at the same time (if I was so inclined...)




And Cathy and I were also busy with laundry.  Cathy had dinner ready when the guys finally got showered and relaxed.  A yummy taco casserole.  I had made a Paula Dean peach cobbler.    We played Hearts for the first time - Cathy won the first game and Duane the second one.   Tomorrow is trencher day - we'll rent a Ditch-Witch from the local garden center to bury the electric cable back to the power panel.


Friday, May 1, 2020

Oriental, NC

Hard to believe another month is gone!

The boys worked on the electrical in the morning - we knew that heavy rains were approaching mid-morning from the west.



The rains did not disappoint!   Near white out conditions and heavy winds too.



But before sunfall, the skies had mostly cleared and the winds abated.



Dinner on Sojourn and a couple of games of Spades....which the boy's team won.