CANADA DAY

Well tomorrow is Canada Day, so I have the boat all decorated.  

We will cruise on out of the harbour tomorrow morning around 11:00 or 11:30.  We will do a pass along the beach around 12:00 noon, then proceed to Tower Beach.  

Tomorrows outing is not just about Canada Day, but is also to honour Jim Hembroff.  Carla has chosen this day for a celebration of life for Jim and a ceremony to spread his ashes, per his wishes. 



I hope this wonderful weather we've been having will hold for all that everyone is planning for tomorrow.  

NOT MUCH GOING ON WITH US RIGHT NOW.

This is kind of boring to report, but there is not much happening around here right now.  The weather has been gorgeous and we have been having a wonderful leisurely time this past week.  It's drizzling a little this afternoon so I thought I would take this time on board to catch up on my blog.  As I have been rather lax about it of late.    

I have been working a little on the “Shrubberies” that Dean planted along side of our dock approaches a couple of years ago.  I managed to find the two roots of the ones the mowers have run over a few times.  I've pampered them a little, put a little fence around them and they seem to be coming back to life.  Now if the mowers will just stay away from them, and I give them a little more “Miracle Gro” maybe they will have a chance to recover.  I used to be a fanatical gardener when we had our house on Henderson Hywy.  (That's a thought for a future blog.) but I am not willing to put to much effort into gardens that aren't really mine.  Just enough to make it pleasant. 

I’m also trying to keep the geese off of the grass.  They are now past cute and are now at the stage where they are nothing but, eating pooping machines and it’s beginning to be difficult to get from the boat to the picnic tables without a messy incident.  Which of course can be tracked into the boat.  And as for bare feet!  That is totally out of the question. 

 I put up the yellow rope line that worked last time, but I used tent pegs this year and think this time it’s a little too low and they are stepping right over it.  So, we are going to try some higher stakes that we can adjust, and see how that works.  

After all, those little buggers are up here before Dan and I can get up and let Sea-enna out to chase them away. 



WELL, WE'LL SEE HOW WELL THIS WORKS
(These are both works in progress)

OUR COUSIN'S GET TOGETHER

We all had a wonderful time at Cousin Patti's Matlock cottage on Saturday. 

It was a lovely day and we had a great turn out. 

I managed to snap a few pictures of those in attendance.  As pictured below, there was Cindy and Brad.

Rick and Carol.

Keith and Cathy

Kent and Jill

Back row; Uncle Hal Whittaker, Bill Baker, and Tom Baker

Front row;  Lorna and Vivian

Plus there were a number of other guests that I didn't manage to get photos of, including Dan and I, Auntie Joyce, Beverly Park, and a distant cousin from England that made the trip over here with Patti.  

It was a great afternoon, and we'll have to do it again some day.  

THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING PATTI

WE'RE HAVING A COUSINS REUNION IN MATLOCK

Back in the 50s, my Grandparents, Gladstone Ewing Baker

 
 and his wife Adeline Patti Baker, retired to a cottage 

at #23 Beach Avenue in Matlock.  

 (His son my uncle Bill, even built his cottage right next door at #25)  All these years later, my cousin Patti Baker, Bill's Daughter, another grandchild,  has purchased a cottage at #2 Beach Avenue in Matlock, (even though she lives in England???). 

Needless to say most of us Baker descendants have very fond memories of time spent at different times and sometimes all together at Granny and Grandad's and at Uncle Bill's place at Matlock. 

So, this weekend we are having a cousin's reunion at Patti's Beach Avenue cottage.  We need this excuse for a get together, because as we get older and life gets busier, we don't see much of each other.   




I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS

DIY: THE BOAT VENETIAN BLINDS

Thunderbird is docked in the marina with her bow pointed South.  So the sun comes up on the Port side and sets on the Starboard.  I have found that venetian blinds are the best solution for this situation.  As the sun comes up, we can have blinds on the Starboard side closed and avoid  the glaring sun and keep the boat from over heating.  And around noon, we can close the Starboard blinds and and open the Port side ones. It works very well.  

So during the refit I started with the Captains forward cabin.  There are four port holes rather than windows in there.   And as port holes are a nice feature in a boat, I wanted them to show.  I find the venetian blinds, when left open, show off the port holes rather than cover them up, and when closed they really give you the privacy needed and they also block out the sun.  

With that working out so well, I went through the entire boat with venetian blinds.  It was quite a chore.  They don't exactly come in convenient sizes for this application, but with a lot of fitting, cutting and customization, we now have blinds on all the windows.  

I only made one mistake and that was the four pilot house windows.  The blinds I ordered for those windows were too wide an expanse between the vertical blind supports. All of the blinds throughout the boat only have about 8 inches between the upright blind supports, but in the pilot house the expanse was around 16 inches.  These are only the simplest PVC blinds so after a few years in the hot summer sun those blinds started to sag in the middle,  as you can see in the above picture.  

 

So, this week Dan and I, took down the old ones and again custom fit new ones on all the pilot house windows. 

And this time they have three vertical supports (barely visible) per blind, which is what was needed.  That extra center support will really help.  But, as before, they don't have a ready to order size available for these windows.  

So it was a full day's work, but they turned out great.   

 IT'S DONE AND I AM PLEASED. 

IN HARBOUR BAR - B - Q

We had a very successful Marina Wine and Cheese get together at the Club House yesterday.  There were a few cloudbursts that came through, which sent us scurrying off of the deck a couple of times, but they only lasted a few minutes and we were back in the sunshine very quickly. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so no pictures of this event.

I have a couple of steaks marinated in the fridge, but because it was a little late getting back to the boat after the Wine and Cheese party yesterday, my plans for a steak Bar-B-Q got side lined to today.  ,

Although the wind is down the temperatures are still a little cool, so I think a Bar-B-Q here in the harbour is in order, rather than out on the lake.  

SO THAT'S THE UPDATE FROM BOUNDARY CREEK MARINA

SETTLING IN AT THE LAKE

We are starting to settle in at the lake. Slowly getting into the rhythms of nature that we live by here.  

  Sea-Enna certainly is feeling at home.  She just loves to be outdoors and here at the lake, she gets to be outdoors, whenever one of us is. 

 

 And she has her work to do here as well.  Every morning when she is let out she chases the geese back down off the grass and back into the water.     

 

 I love having the geese swimming past the back of our boat, but when they are up on the grass in front of our boat, that’s a whole different story.  They are pooping everywhere with every step they take.  

 We have two families in the harbour this summer.   

One family with 4 goslings,

 and another with 6 goslings.   

The babies are so cute right now, all yellow and fluffy, but in a few weeks from now they will have their full feathers and will be walking, eating and pooping machines. That is when I will have to get out my Pooper Scooper, and clean up the grass every morning until they are full grown and leave the harbour.  

BUT THAT'S PART OF LIVING WITH NATURE TOO!