Pittsboro, NC

 So there was left-over 36" pipe from last fall's earth-moving project.  It's huge and just in the way. 

I hated to take it to the landfill....so I put out a Craigslist "freebie" ad.  Within an hour, I had a local fellow on the line ready to come get it.  Deleted the ad quickly and only got a couple of folks that I had to turn away.

Nice fellow - lives a few miles away.  He has a couple of projects in mind for our rubbish.   Off to it's new home and I didn't have to lift a finger!  (Other than on the keyboard to make the ad.)

Pittsboro, NC

 More outside work.  The temperature was only around 90F, so much better.  Haha.  No.  

Spreading out a couple of loads of dusty-dry dirt to level the new drainage area.  Lots of roots to pick out.

 

Seeded, fertilized - ran out of straw half way thru.  Hoping for some gentle rain soon.

And more tree felling!!!

Duane wanted to get rid of some trees on the back side of the hangar that were leaning just a bit too much towards the hangar.  

This makes me nervous!!

He cuts a big chunk out of the base in the direction he wants it to fall.  You can visually see that the tree is leaning towards the hangar. 

 

 Timmmmmbbbbeeerrr!

Scary to watch - perfect aim though - the branches just lightly brush over the edge of the building.

 

 

And then it was just a bunch of cleaning up the limbs.  Our life for the past few days!

 

All done - Duane will cut these into 12' lengths and give them to our neighbor with the sawmill!  Doesn't look that big, but I paced it off and measured about 66' left after trimming.

Pittsboro, NC

 Sorry to be so repetitious....but our days are filled with this....but what you don't see is the 4 hours we spent troubleshooting the ancient dump truck.  New fuel pump installed and we're good to go.

It' been crazy hot so we've been working an hour, then going inside for a rest/refreshment.

Getting the area pretty cleaned up.

And Duane moved some dirt to level the drain area from earlier in the summer.

Pittsboro, NC

 I forgot this photo - I was at the Siler City airport the other day - a King Air and a Hawker jet on the ramp!

We're just busy, very warm, taking down some more trees.

Duane prepped this tree to make it fall the direction he wanted.....

 And then he simply pushed it over with the front-end-loader!

 Then all that's left is the cleanup!!  It's 90+ and sunny - so we're taking an air-conditioning break every hour or so.

 

Pittsboro, NC

More tree work.

 

 Hauling off the brush and trimmings.

 

 Then our neighbor, who has a sawmill, came over with his trailer to pick up some free wood!  (And get it out of our way!)

 

 

Cool little trailer.  Duane was able to use the fork lift on the front of the tractor to easily load the heavy logs.

 

And a short little garden update.  Some of the tomatoes are ripening....not the greatest.  Not sure the soil is quite right for tomatoes.

 

And also courtesy of Denise and Keith, these poblano (I think) peppers are doing quite well.

 

And towards the end of a very hot day, Duane changed out a noisy wheel bearing on our car....busy!

 

Pittsboro, NC

Duane has been busy getting his old dump truck running.  Now he's using his new little tractor to clear some underbrush in the woods beside the house.  Good fun!  Nothing nautical happening....

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Continuing the cushion making saga.....

Beginning to assemble the "box".

 

One finished shell.  I put two tabs on each cover so that we can anchor them on the seat to keep them from slipping around.

 

And after applying some muscle, the stiff foam is inserted.  One down, one to go.

 

Both finished.  Don't look too closely - a few puckers here and there but these cushions won't be visible when installed.

If you're having trouble imagining where these cushions will go - they'll be tucked under the existing cushion at the arrows.  

Pittsboro, NC

The sling seat on the boat needs some more "structure" in the sitting area.  Currently, we've got some orange life jackets tucked in there but that's not a very nice solution.

So we stopped at the fabric store in New Bern and bought this sheet of very firm closed cell foam. This foam absorbs zero moisture so it's perfect for this application.

 

With the electric knife, I cut out the two pieces to size.  I contemplated making one very long cushion, but decided that two smaller ones would work just as well and handling them would be much easier!

 

Cut out the Phifertex mesh fabric pieces to make a waterproof cover for each of the cushions.

 

Installed a long zipper to aid in the assembly.

 

Kinda hard to see that is a zipper, so I un-zipped it for this photo.

 

And the "box" is ready for assembly.  That's as far as I got today.  More tomorrow.  This is not the most fun material to work with - the mesh is very thick and not "bendable" like most cloth.  So not really looking forward to sewing the assembly...

 

Pittsboro, NC

 I was at the Asheboro airport doing some paperwork.  Pretty summer day - there was a nice Falcon jet in.

 

 

Duane and I ate at a Chinese restaurant for the first time in a couple of years.  I particularly liked the fortune cookie!!

 

Pittsboro, NC

 We're back at the house for a while.  We have our annual physical appointments, Duane's FAA medical appointment and our niece's wedding coming up in the next few weeks, so we'll be in Pittsboro for a while.

Our buddy Cecil has been keeping his Cessna 190 in our hangar over the winter while he built a nice hangar at the Sanford airport.  His hangar is now complete so it was moving day.  (Unlike our airplane, his old Cessna has a radial engine - it's normally very "smoky" so no worries about the blue trail....)

 

A quick flight in our Mooney over to the Sanford airport (Raleigh Executive Airport to be exact) and we'll pick up Cecil so he can retrieve his vehicle at our house.

 

Very nice brand new hangar!!  Fun little sojourn.

 

With plenty of room for all Cecil's toys!

Oriental, NC

 The dinghy came with a nice fabric seat cushion/organizer.  It holds 4 life jackets and has a couple of pockets for miscellaneous items.

Unfortunately, the 3 metal zipper pulls have corroded beyond repair in the salty environment and must be replaced.

 

Turned inside-out for zipper removal. 

 

For replacement, I'm using white #5 Vislon plastic zippers since that's what I had on board.  And using plastic pulls this time since they won't corrode! (Thanks Cathy, for the extra zipper pulls as I didn't have enough.  Really nice to have neighbors with the same interests!)

 

Re-assembling the large pocket with the new zipper.  It's a bit more complicated than sewing a new construction since you have a "closed environment".  You have to unzip the zipper partway thru in order to have access to sew your seam.

 

And several tedious hours later I have all 3 zippers replaced.  The small pocket zippers were particularly maddening since the pockets are actually "box" shaped.  Trust me, it was a pain!

 

Reinstalled on the dinghy, ready for more salty adventures!

Oriental, NC

 First, I've got to admit a boo-boo.  

This spring in the Bahamas, we took the dinghy chaps off and I re-sewed all the seams because the thread was breaking down.  It never entered my mind that I needed to wash them off.  Not too smart on my part since they were probably heavily laden with salt from being used in salt water every day!  

I pulled my sewing machine out of its storage and was appalled at the rust!  I should have known.  Really silly of me.  

Luckily, the rust is confined to just the areas right around the needle where the salty fabric was touching.  The bobbin area was involved as well.  This area looks worse than it really is because some of that rustiness is a mixture of rust and lent.

 The only solution seemed to be to wash it.....so I removed all the coverings and literally hosed it off with copious amounts of fresh water (protecting the motor of course).  Not something you think of when it comes to sewing machines....

There are still some traces of rust, but after being heavily oiled, I hope it will stop any further rust. 

 All back together and it seems to be working just fine.

We spent a good while doing some mowing and weed-eating on both the lots....it's sorta hot and muggy here!  

I came back to the boat for a shower and was shocked a bit to see what I looked like!  Good fun!

Oriental, NC

 More projects - this one all Duane's!

He's installing another set of lithium batteries - bringing the total to 600AH.  Here he's got all of the batteries out  doing the initial balance.   Yay!  More power for me!

And installed back in it's "home".  Just a few items needed to do the final securing to make it "sea-worthy".

As we were enjoying happy hour and left-over pizza outside with Ed & Cathy, a storm was brewing.   We ended up 1/2 way through dinner scurrying back to the boat.

 

As is oftentimes the case, the storm skirted us and never really was a problem.  It made for a pretty sunset though!