The Cedar Sachet

If you ever find yourself in Cedar, there is something you should know. The Cedar Stop signs are actually slow down signs. Here's how they work:

After a cursory mirror check for police vehicles...

i) If you are the only car, slow down and take the corner.
ii) If there is another car approaching at the same time check their blinker light... if your paths do not cross, you should both carry on at reduced speed.
iii) If there is another car approaching at the same time and your paths cross, the later person should allow the first person to proceed through the intersection, most times this can be accomplished without either party actually having to stop.
iv) If at any time there is any confusion all parties involved should stop, and wave each other through.
v) It is acceptable to follow the car in front of you through if you do not interfere with any vehicles which approached the intersection first (as in point iii)

If you've never witnessed this tiny shining example of good grace, well all I can tell you is its the most interesting dance in the world. Everyone seems to bow and curtsy their way through. It's all very polite and well mannered. It makes me smile every time I observe the standing phenomenon of the Cedar Sachet.

Canning machines!

It's pretty cool, Mom and I have a standing tradition of canning peaches together. I peel, move things around, and fill the syrup and knife the jar... she slices, and does all the math and timing to figure out exactly how many peaches fit in how many jars, and how much syrup we need to make for the next batch. She tries to double check with me, even though she knows better than that because I can't follow someone elses arithmetic out loud... okay lets be honest I can barely follow my own ;)

Anyways, Mom and I have been canning peaches over the last week or so, and some nectarines because I can't read. Okay but seriously it was the same box as the one the peaches came in and they checked the boxes in yellow! No... I didn't use my Nona eyes.

Now I took an interface course once, and as useless as it was they did say "Don't use yellow text on a white background..." Well no really? I kind of thought that should fall under 'Common Sense' but they don't teach that any more... Put it this way, if you can hardly read something, chances are fairly good that nobody else can read it either.

But here's the thing with canning peaches... they gots to smell like peaches. Like when you walk through that section in the grocery store, it should smell like you're inside a peach.



And just in case you were wondering, yes those are orange cupboards in the background. There are no pictures of me peeling, because I peel peaches... like a ninja!

I'd like to introduce you to baby peach jar number 2... This was the cutest one! I figured I'd save you the time, besides I didn't think you'd want to meet all 41 of her brothers and sisters.

Sooo many todo lists...

Luckily for me most of them have the same 'todo' items on them... now I just have to compile another "Master List" duhnn duhnn duhnnnnnnn.

Currently in progress...

Eggs are good for you!

I'm a little ashamed to admit this... but I just fried my first egg. Mom asked how I could have never done this before, well see the thing is I always make scrambled eggs... or someone else makes them, like my loving brother. ;o)

It made me smile

I was awoken at some ungodly hour by a slightly damp, slightly stressed cat. She was yowwing at the window... in my haze of "what!!?" I managed to open the screen while she stood there looking at me like I was retarded. She did a quick hop over to the door, and her yowwing increased when she realized it was mostly closed... with it being a sliding door I dragged myself out of bed and opened the door with precise zombie-like movements.

30 seconds later there was a damp tousled kitteh curled up on my hip... But it doesn't matter how windy and rainy it is when you wake up with a warm fuzzy purring kitteh in your arm pit.

Status report.

Batshit crazy.

My pressure cooker is in Vernon... cause you know that's totally where we're setting sail from.

My statement, since I don't have anything nice to say about the London Drugs pharmacy... Unmentionable curses.

And to top it all off a friend of mine sent me a parcel, shipped it overnight... and I think it's been sent to Newfoundland for sorting.

Forecast today: Excited with a high chance of sporadic periods of stress.

On a positive note, I've vacuumed and there is some semblance of order. I single-handedly returned most of the cabin to a livable state, while the Captain dove to measure the propeller. I think I got the longer stick ;)

The whole process of visiting everyone important in my life before sailing off into the sunset has been wonderful, eye opening and inspiring. I'm so lucky to be sent off with so many hugs, thoughts and well wishes. *whispers* I've also enjoyed the send off heckling, although I wouldn't usually tell anyone so shhhhhh!

Tomorrows projected weather forecast: Windy and raining. Sub-optimal for removing masts and other fun things atop a tower... guess what we're going to be doing?!?!

Don't sweat it...

Life is a journey, and sometimes you get separated from your luggage. ~ Grey

You have got to be kidding me...

London Drugs just called, they *lost* the 5 prescriptions I brought in to fill...

Guy: "So do you have them written down anywhere?"
Me: "Uhh yeah, on the prescription paper you guys have"

I mean really, I can't pronounce any of them let alone remember what they were for!?!? That's why I gave them to you. Grrrrrr.

Guy: "If you could take it to your doctor..."
Me: "I'm from Vernon, I don't have a doctor here..."
Guy: "Apologizing profusely, well if you could come down with the list and then take it into a walk in clinic and get it approved by a doctor"

As unladylike as I know it is, but whoever told you I was a lady was lying... I just want to run down to London Drugs punch him in the junk and yell "You know why! You know what that's for!!!"

I also just remembered there's no friggin' ketchup for my grilled cheese sandwich. Booooo urns.

Virtual Chinese water torture

I think my head is going to explode.

The clock in this room, is half a tick off from the clock in the kitchen... in the near future I see one of these clocks mysteriously having a battery pop out?

Me to Mom: *shrugs* I dunno how that happened.

Taking a break from all the nothing I accomplished today

For all that I was on the boat all day, except for the bit where we went for lunch... I hardly got anything done. I think if we had added tighten hose clamp around bilge hose, that would be the only thing I could check off.

The morning started out fine, I dropped Dad off for a meeting, grabbed a large double double (Gods I'm going to miss those) and headed for the boat with the intention of accomplishing a *short* list of things that needed to be done.

1) Vacuum the fiberglass dust off of all surfaces
2) Chisel clean the pretty part of the backing for the chain plates, re-caulk, and put them back the way they were
3) Finish running the copper tape to be used as a grounding strip, which has to go over the pretty part of the backing
4) Put a hose clamp on the bilge pipe <-- I only discovered it was missing when I accidentally pulled it off *oops* (but a good oops)
5) Pull the random coax cable that has a plug on one end (that doesn't fit the radio) and is just chopped off at the other end... we can't figure out what it's for anyways lol

Now, this looks like a fairly reasonable list. I mean I should be able to get all of this done and still be home in time for supper. You would think. But NoooOOooo. This turned into one of the typical days that Dad has had so many of while working on the boat, where you are busy all day but don't actually feel like you got anything done.

To start with the electrical system and I, well I must not have been holding my mouth right because no matter what switches I switched I couldn't get the vacuum to turn on. Soooo I put all the tools away, and wiped the dust out of the kitchen. Dad came by, jiggled all the plugs, held his mouth right and got the vacuum working.

Great. So I figure I'll start with the fine fiberglass powder outside, at least that will keep us from tracking it in. I am so glad that I closed everything up before I started vacuuming, because it appeared that it was just sucking the dust up and spitting it out the back end... found out later Dad had been using it as a wet-vac and taken the filter out so that's exactly what it was doing DOH!

I'll let you know if I ever get the fiberglass slivers out from between my fingers ;o)

Fine the vacuum still doesn't work, no big deal I'll put the pretty covers on the backs of the chain plates. Then at least I can finish running the copper ground tape. Well that wasn't so bad, I cleaned them off, figured out the Silkaflex did one, two, three... then I got to the ones that have to go on *before* the copper tape. Yeah. Two of the bolts were too long, and the dremel was at home. Awesome.

In any case, here are the things I have learned about Silkaflex
1) No matter how much paper towel you have it wont be enough
2) Even when you *think* you've got the extra surrounded by paper towel you don't
3) Whatever you do, you will still end up with it on your hands
4) When you are done, there will be Silkaflex on surfaces you weren't anywhere near
5) You will not have a good angle all the way around whatever you are working on
6) Acetone should be used in well ventilated areas
7) You have used too much acetone when simple tasks like folding paper towel become difficult
8) Ummm I can't remember...

Well I figured the last possible thing on my list that I could accomplish was pulling the random coax cable. I chased it almost to the end, and couldn't get the pretty cover off. Grrrrrrr. Dad stopped by and pointed out that they had installed the lamp protector *after* and had screwed it on through the pretty cover, and that it didn't matter because the coax came out the other side of the wall. *mutters* stupid random cable that we don't know what it's for. But with his help we stripped it of it's protective zip ties, and pulled it the rest of the way out without having to remove the pretty cover. So there!

OOohh I did get the radio working too, but that doesn't really count... I just had to flip it from 'CD' to 'FM', so at least I had some tunes :)

Introducing "The New Hotness"

I just spent a fair number of dinars on "The New Hotness" the Nikon D90, but when I held it the skies opened up and the angels sang. I'm not even kidding you!



I'm so happy, it sounds like a "real camera" and when you push the button it takes the picture... not 3 seconds later when the cute kid moment has turned into them picking their nose, or the moment has passed as though it was never there *grins*

With any luck I will have some decent pictures to post here for you, I will only post the good ones though I promise.

I should know better...

But I found myself with a little 'down time' (I jest I know) so I took The New Hotness for a hike down to the old lighthouse. And by hike I mean hour and a half bushwack... I had regained my senses for the way back though so I took the well established trail, and that only took a half an hour ;o)

Ooooh look a froggy! This was my first live specimen. Have I mentioned how much I am in love with this camera even though I don't know how to do much more than turn it on?!?! Just LOOK how cute he is!



After re-acquainting myself with the unforgiving ways of the back 40, I found myself moderatey misplaced. I wasn't lost per-se as I knew more or less where I was, and I was never anywhere that I couldn't have gotten home from... I just wasn't quite where I *wanted* to be.

So a few scrapes, bruises, slides and some seaweed later I made it to the old light house. It was so overgrown that I didn't even bother taking a picture. But I got a couple of other cool ones along the way.



This is where I grew up, this was my back yard. I can't believe I never got really for real lost.

Good morning sunshine

Woke up smiling today.

There are a bazillion old world forestry scents to smell outside this morning, they're all just mixed together perfectly. Between that and the sun shining through the trees, well it's a beautiful morning. ;)

Does it hurt when you do that? Then don't do that!

So today I spent a ridiculous amount of time and money on drugs... and that doesn't even include the prescription ones cause the pharmacist couldn't read the doctors handwriting either.

It was pointed out that, getting drugs in Nanaimo shouldn't take two hours, you just have to walk up to the corner... Ha ha ha... thanks for that.

But in all seriousness I'm just glad I got out of there without setting off some kind of warning that I'd bought all the ingredients for meth or something... whatever they are... maybe I should have paid cash...

Happy Easter!

I was sitting here telling my Mom what I was going to do today, when I got distracted and found a yellow Easter jelly bean in the chimney stones!

Now we didn't do Easter this year, apparently they did it last year for my little brother... but when I blew of the dust and tried to bite it I nearly broke my dentures. So I'm guessing it's at least 3 years old. Ewwwww

First aid kit

So after much deliberation, and looking up the same drug name for the umptillionth time we decided that complicated drugs wouldn't do us any good if we can't remember what they're for. *whispers* Since we wont have access to Google (*shhhh!* I'm still in denile), we've opted in favor of a simplified pioneer first aid kit.

I present to you the bandaid and the bullet. Yes those are gold plated bullets, nothing but the best. They also make an excellent double backup as plan "Zed" in case of catastrophic Zombie attack.

If the bandaid doesn't fix it... the bullet will.

Done! check, almost done... *curses* add another thing to the list

So, I have to admit... I'm wondering if we'll ever get all the right pieces in all the right places, or if we'll reach that "t'hell with it, it's close enough!" stage first.

Here she is with the "Burgundy Barf" bottom paint, I'm pleasantly surprised that it doesn't look so bad really!



Today, well today... we re-drilled the solar panel holes and flipped the panel around so we could access the wiring bit, cause we didn't have the part for it, then we mounted the solar panels on the solar panel bracket after a trip to the Chandlers. We did some creative 3 dimensional thought exercises trying to figure out how the wind-vane steering was going to fit in roughly the same place as the solar panel... Dad was ready to hack off the top bit until I realized we could just use a hose clamp, and get rid of all the 'optional' parts.

I'm a genius I know, I'm just misunderstood sometimes. But I would like to know why my father always sounds so surprised when he says "You're right?!?!" *grins* okay it doesn't happen that often, but of late it's been a little more frequent than usual ;o)

Here I am drilling the bracket to match up with the holes on the panels. TC, just for you I cropped the part that shows how high up I'm standing ;o)



Getting the offending part off was interesting, we exploded 4 dremel disks in a row trying to get part of it off, until Dad gave in and put the bigger one on... then he stepped on that one so technically we broke 5, that's lucky in Japan right? Here's where I was starting to wonder, how many times do you try something that doesn't work... because I generally go with third time lucky, and if that doesn't pan out move on. I'll let you know when I figure out Dad's philosophy.

We also did the wire run for the solar panels. There is no way to say how much of an understatement that is... I just can't describe the small spaces, and screws in ridiculous corners, and odd angles... One of them Dad had to hold the screw driver and I had to turn it! Somewhere along the line we managed to un-wire the antenna for the am/fm radio... Dad was trying to figure out what the coax was for, I think that happened *after* he cut it Doh! but I felt it was wiser not to ask. His professional opinion was "It's buggered".

Then we needed some more parts... and the Chandler was closed. What is this CLOSED on Sunday afternoon business, didn't you hear? We leave soon, and there is no rest for the wicked!?!

So we stopped that project, and proceeded to remove the bolts for the chain plates. Dad removed one, with much ado and decided that if "The Guy" - Toby says they're okay then we'll just put them back together, shine 'em up and get him to fiberglass it in all nice-like and call 'er done. Sounds good to me!

Oh right, and while I cataloged and foam protected our 'full meal' canning in the storage lockers Dad broke four bits trying to drill into one of our three rudders which has been dripping rusty water since we hauled. *adding to list*



We also managed to change one of the diesel filters, but still need to prime it... we were in search of the luser manual for that, and I think Dad was hungry so we came home.

Time passes... but some things stay the same

T: Its like nothing changes...just time in between

me: I think that's how you tell the difference between friends and acquaintances

I have angry ears on

It might have something to do with chocolate, but I was mad enough to bite my own ass today, so I did my best to refrain from saying anything that could be taken the wrong way. In fact I did my best to say as little as possible.

Today wasn't bad, don't get me wrong we got some more boat stuff done... I am just tired. Got together with an old friend of mine and saw Aaron Pritchett at the VIEX last night, he was awesome, but it turned into a late night, I hauled myself out of bed early thinking we were going to Victoria which we didn't... *shrugs* nothing really went as planned.

We did buy tupperware though. I'm adding it to the list right now so I can check it off... *check*

The fair was cool, we saw an Alpaca while we were wandering around the VIEX who also had his angry ears on. We stared each other down, and it made me smile that he looked about as ticked off with the world as I felt.

We looked at DSLR's, I'm eyeing up the Nikon D90 it seems to be a good entry into mucking around with the manual settings which is what I'd like to learn... and we sketched out where all the holes should go to mount the solar panels... but we left all the drill bits at home so it was a short stop at the boat today doing that and dropping off the canned spaghetti sauce.

I can't believe it...

Dad lost the 'to-do' list... now how are we supposed to get anything done?!?

Ok I lied. I'm really not that surprised, it doesn't really matter anyways... we were just going to add things we'd actually done to it so we could cross 'em off. I just love that feeling when you get to cross something off the list *grins*

Luckily I had a copy in my Dropbox folder, thanks baby!