https://www.patreon.com/posts/8519227

New episode y’all!

Hope you enjoy it. I’m going to go start working on the next one 😉

Thanks you guys for your continued love and support

~Ruthie

Last Thursday we covered the entire deck. It surprisingly didn’t take that long…I guess we are still getting used to having 3 people capable of working! The boys slipped on their little blue booties and went to town on deck. I trimmed the edges and glassed the corners. We listened to music until the speaker died, I took pictures till the camera died, and we caught a timelapse of our labor until the GoPro died. We drank champagne to celebrate the momentous day then watched a movie and passed out like we were dead! We were an excitable bunch! Any way here are some photos of the day 🙂

(prepping/sanding the deck)

(breaking out the huge roll of fiberglass cloth and measuring, preferably twice, then cutting the needed length)

(stretching out the individual pieces, trimming the overhang, now all that’s left is to mix up a few batches of epoxy and wet it out)

What have we epoxied this week? Well, the 2nd layer of the hull-to-deck joint, the transom-to-deck (both layers), the cabin-to-deck, then the entire deck minus the side decks, the first two western red cedar cabin beams, and a few hundred bungs that’s all.

Garrett trimmed the corners of the cabin walls

Then him and Hoffa sanded those edges smooth.

We swept the deck free of debris.

And got to it!

We used only a 6oz cloth versus the 8oz we were using on the hull-to-deck joint so it was much easier to wet out. Garrett may hate the sticky but Hoffa and I found it to be quite satisfying. Using a brush, finger, or squeegee to cover and smooth out any air bubbles in the cloth felt gratifying. Standing back and seeing an even glassed surface gave a real sense of accomplishment. Finally we are beginning to get back into the groove of things.

 We’ve been experimenting with the GoPro (Reid, Garrett’s brother, gave us his old one) catching time-lapse footage of our days work. Hoffa started the trend using his iphone. We’ve put them on our Patreon page, exclusive for our patrons 😉

In the evening we take the epoxy over to the house we are sitting to glue up deck beams over night. We are all really excited to have these sexy beams over our heads to stare at down below in the future. The western red cedar came from a schoolhouse in Vancouver Washington built in the 1940’s and torn down several years ago. The demolisher kept the rafters hoping to use them in the home he was building but didn’t so years later he put them on craigslist to sell and that’s where we came into their story. Now the boards that once housed landlubbing children will now shelter big kids at sea.

We will have a total of 6 cabin top beams. So the theory is with being able to glue 2 at a time it should only take 3 days! Once they are in place we’ll then have to decide whether to lay the port orford cedar down now or after we lay the plywood (which will be the main structure for the cabin top) and place the orford between the beams later… I’m thinking we’ll choose to lay the orford first then place the ply on top of that, because you know less measuring.

Garrett built this mold in a few hours and I think the mold itself is pretty special. Bracing for both the bottom and sides to keep the beams to the curve of the crown as well as perfectly square at the sides.

No sleep for these builders for the spring is near and there’s a charge in the air!

If today is a glimpse at what the rest of our stay here in the Northwest is going to look like then bring it on! We’re supposed to receive rain the next 7 days but that’s tomorrow’s problem. Today the sun peaked in and out and inside the shed we may have seen like 55 degrees! Hoffa and I worked on the second layer of glass on the hull-to-deck joint while Garrett cut into the western red for the cabin top beams.

“The day was bomb-diggity. Very glad I pulled my butt out of my ass and decided to do the beams well, and do them right. Really pretty stuff. I definitely feel my motivation returning. Felt good, awesome, to get out to the boat early. To get a real solid day in and make some real progress. I’d say the day was just about as good as a lemon flavored snow cone.”

There you have it folks a winning statement from our Captain

We made it to the boat around 9am and stayed past 6 (longest day since November!) One full day of mixing epoxy and stretching out fiberglass cloth. Garrett even made me and Hoffa a sandwich and brought us a beer! Happy crew, happy ship.

A little snow-fight break and food always puts you in the mood to glass a deck… Isn’t that what mama always said?

Settling in for the evening with hot tea, steaks, and hookah after an excellent day of progress. We can all sleep well tonight knowing that we kicked today’s butt and will do it again tomorrow if we have to. It’s time to embrace today and yell at the snow until it melts

 Garrett consults the building book

while I continue on the next Salt&Tar

episode.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m so done talking about the snow and the weather but as it’s still melting slow we remain in the clutches of winter. We’ve moved a few things around and have cleaned up the shed a bit in hopes to improve the flow of motivation. To be honest we’ve mostly been making food and drinking tea. Conserving our energy for the spring to come. Garrett’s been working on the cabin top beams. So far they’ve been constructed out of plywood, which we’ll paint, but I think Garrett may be changing his mind…. He’s been thinking, you know. I think… as well… that his newer idea may be better and he should do it. He’s contemplating laminating together western red cedar for the beams, which we’ll varnish. His hold up is weighing the cost and the time to put these together since the plywood beams are already made. But I know Garrett and he will be truly satisfied if he does it the way he really wants to. The cedar beams will look just gorgeous in the cabin up next to the port orford ceiling. So I may upload pictures later with the beams redone but for now here are the photos of the progress so far:

All three of us are itching to taking off the side walls of the shed. Rediviva deserves to feel the sun. She’s been hard to photograph this winter in the dark. The starboard side of the shed has earned the nickname, the dark side. That portion of the shed is always cold and dreary (probably due to the snow spilling in through the wall.) We can’t express how anxious we are for the change in the season. We still have a bit of cold weather epoxy so we are thinking tomorrow we might get out to the boat early to begin glassing the deck. A second layer on the hull to deck joint needs to be applied and then the entire deck is ready to be covered. The cabin house to deck joinery can be done after that (with 6” cloth). Once the cabin top is on (after we figure out the final consensus on the beams) we will do one more big layer overtop the whole cabin house overlapping the deck a wee bit. I’m getting close on the next episode despite the technical delays. There’s the bright side to not being able to put in as many hours at the boat as we’d like, I can just keep my nose in my laptop to be productive!

That’s all for now 🙂

Cheers,

Ruthie

I almost forgot to introduce the newest furry member of the crew!

Miss Jada has put in a good days work eating up all the snow. Pushing the winter out and helping the spring in.

Garrett’s begun placing the cabin deck beams in. One is fully installed and the next ready to be fastened. Despite the snow continuing to fall, the day was warming up to a delightful 35 degrees making it a perfect day to get back to filling bungs! Hoffa worked with me mixing up epoxy and starting in on the starboard topsides. We made quick work getting done what took me 2 days on the port side in 3 hours. 451 countersink holes were filled,  6 batches of cold weather-epoxy were mixed, 1 batch smoked, another hardened too quickly, and only 2 gloves ripped. It felt good, the first work day as a crew. The music played in the background as we each carried out our duties for the day.

 

Rediviva met her first new crew member today

With the sound of snow still underfoot they locked minds. So many thoughts making their way to reality. A strong feeling of family fills the shed. The first tequila toast has taken place. The first of many musical evenings over tacos has taken place. The first steps upon her deck now have taken place. Welcome Hoffa, you’re home.

Garrett walks Hoffa through the interior ideas that have stuck. We discuss the future, both immediate and long term. First task, while the snow still falls, is assembling the rudder.

 

 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/salt-tar-is-in-8310714

 

Dear Friends,

The day before yesterday I had to say a final goodnight to my little laptop. I’ve had that 11” MacBook Air for as long as I’ve been married to Garrett (5 years). We’ve been through a lot together! Boat and job hunting, wedding planning and weather forecasting, millions of pictures and hours of episode editing. Now it’s gone. I wish there was some epic story to tell… God knows how many times I’ve dropped it, forgot it, saved it from flying across the cabin in a gnarly swell, covered it with sawdust while it played hours of music to boost morale. But it passed away silently. No response to touch or pleading for a sign of life…

I’m sharing all of this with you because now I’m computer-less. We may be a little M.I.A for a while. This also means the next episode will be delayed!?!?! Which really upsets me. Hours already put into the next one wiped away. At least I was smart enough not to store anything on the computer itself and have all raw material saved on separate hard drives. I’m going to still try and post from friends computers but this may be few and far in between.

Sorry,

Ruth

Ruth here:

“Close your eyes and you can hear it. The snow is melting. In the comfort of day a transformation takes place, solid becomes liquid, but in the silence of night every twig and leaf becomes incapsulated by ice.

Above us white, beneath our feet white, chattering white teeth and shattering white ice is our landscape.

Alas, a welcoming sight. The ingredients to make the night right. Hot buttered rum to warm our bellies. Who knew such an elixir existed? Brown sugar, nutmeg and cloves. Honey, cinnamon, and don’t forget that golden churned gift from a dairy goddess.

Starving for an outlet for this motivation that’s grown during the seasons forced hibernation!

Garrett unearthed the table saw. He was thinking about digging until he reached the lofting floor but the handle of the shovel broke so the saw was far enough. We’ve been making due with the smaller generator my folks leant us (3000 watt) but it just isn’t strong enough to run the table saw. So back to trying to fix our 5550 generator… We’ve run the poor thing for a hard 2 years, through two hot summers and two brutal winters (and let’s not forget the wee fire.) This may require an expert. For now we can move the table saw to our neighbors and cut from there.

Garrett’s next line of attack is getting the corner posts for the cabin in and the trim piece that lines the cabin walls near the ceiling. The trim piece at the top of the cabin walls is where the cabin top beams will connect in. We have some really nice 1×4 Western Red cedar (soft reddish hue) to use for the trim. This will give a really beautiful contrast in color from the cabin ceiling and corner posts which will be Port Orford cedar (light and yellow.) Once those two jobs are complete the cabin beams will be next. The beams are simple, laminated plywood which we’ll paint later for finish. Garrett’s pretty stoked to be diving into a little bit of finish work. It is, however, a little weird to set his mind to that mode when everything else is still so “ruffed in.”

I believe after the rest of the bulkheads are in we may move to putting in the cabin sole! Finally we’ll get to cut into the Black Locust we’ve been hoarding. That is if we can properly power the table saw, that stuff is tough!”