No grass yet

We haven't yet gotten the grass planted for Angus. I've no idea why, I just haven't yet gotten to it. Our days have been pleasantly full in any case. Like yesterday, we bottled a run of an oatmeal/coffee/bourbon stout, then re-racked a blonde imperial beer into a secondary carboy, then we kegged an imperial IPA. That was around checking the greenhouse, going for a bike ride and cleaning up around the house.

Today was dirt work for me. I spent 4 or 5 hours on the tractor moving old piles of rocky sand around, mostly to shine up the driveway a bit. Then I hooked up a drag behind the tractor and smoothed out the driveway. Crystal spent a good bit of the day planting and working in the greenhouse.

We think tomorrow will be brewing another 10 gallons of beer, 2 batches of 5 gallons each. One is a hoppy beer, the other is a watermelon beer (for summer days).

Now dinner is cooking and life is calm and good.

Working on the greenhouse

We’re working away on the greenhouse. I got all the frames built for the grow beds, then we all worked together to get the dirt moved back into there. Got 12 yards of dirt delivered one day, and two days later we had it all moved in. I was pretty happy about that. Crystal has now gotten so much planted out there that I have no idea what the heck all is in there.

We also decided to work up an outdoor grow bed by the battery building. It’s about 15’ X 25’ and I’m working on getting a fence put up around it to keep the deer out. We’re playing with the idea of putting a cover over it that’ll do a better job so our hard work doesn’t get all et up. (That’s not a typo, it’s how I say it).

Part of that was laying out some of the ground out there for a little bit of grass for Angus the pup. It’s not too big, since we’ll have to water it to get it going. If it all works out we’ll make it a little bit bigger next year. That’s if we haven’t moved to San Carlos and taken off on the boat for good.

Don’t laugh, it sometimes sounds pretty appealing.

In general, things are going well. We’re all healthy and life is going well.

A busy day of staying at home

Today, we managed to keep busy most of the day. We started the day with some internet, then Crystal and I went for a nice little bike ride. Then we got together on some seeds and what we might want to grow in the greenhouse.

BTW, the dirt for the greenhouse beds I built over the last week will be delivered on Wednesday. Then we get to move 13,000 pounds of dirt into the building :D.

Tonight we're making dinner and drinking.

Life is good.

Moving forward an inch at a time

Well, the Pliny the Elder beer and the Kentucky Oatmeal Bourbon Coffee Stout and happily in their secondaries and getting prepped. In the meantime I've made a car trip and picked up some beer "stuff" that will make our beer drinking a bit more fun. I lucked into a batch of beer equipment. Some of it is a little better than what I had, and it included kegs. So my buddy and I have purchased a kegerator (it's still on the way) along with a few other bits and pieces that we'll end up needing as we move forward.

So we'll have draft beer for 2 kegs at at time in the house.

pray for us

Also I've been working on the greenhouse like a crazy person. At this point the grow beds are all built and I've cleaned up the construction mess along with making the space useable. The topsoil/grow dirt is ordered and will be here in less than a week. I'll take pics when we get the dirt in there. It's been fun, a little hot, and a bit more work and figuring than I originally planned. But we're pretty close to planting stuff.

I've also ordered tires for my pickup, rewired the trailer lights on almost every thing, and continued cleaning up around here.

It feels good to get some stuff done.

We're still hoping to get to go to our sailboat docking class in May. We shall see.

In the meantime I'll keep brewing beer.

Working our way through the quarantine

We're still working away on projects and such to distract ourselves, and because they're fun.

Like today.... we started out, after tea/cacao, on re-racking a beer that we brewed about 10 days ago. It turned out pretty well, already at 7.2% alcohol. It'll be a little higher after bottle aging for a few weeks. It's a close of Pliny the Elder that Rich likes.

Yesterday Crystal and I brewed another beer, I Eat Oatmeal for Breakfast in Kentucky, from Boomchugalug.com. Man that was a crazy beer, started with lots of grains:



We've taken to brewing in the greenhouse, since it's super windy and there's nothing planted in there yet. That 6 gallons of liquid worked with all that grain, a fair amount of malt, coffee, a pound and a half of chocolate and a few hops. It came out dirty and oily and smelling like heaven. That beer is now happily bubbling away on the bar, as it will for a few days before we re-rack it and move it out to the battery building to sit in the secondary for a couple weeks. We're actively trying to collect enough bottles for bottling day.

That's the beer bubbling away

Stirring in the malt

Adding in some hops

Cooling down the wort so we can put it in the brew bucket

More cooling

Racking the beer into the brew bucket, look at that dark stuff!

The coco butter will float on top, when we re-rack we have to leave it behind

There was LOTS of trub left behind when we re-racked the Rich beer. Crystal saved it and is now making a bread starter with it. 

The rest of today? Worked on a motorcycle that needed some fuel system work and fixed a bum turn signal. Then I completely rewired a trailer I use for hauling stuff. Also put new LED lights on it all around. Finished with a little ride on the motorcycle and a good dinner.

Social distancing

We're practicing the social distancing, oh hell.... we always did. :D

Working around the house, waiting for a good day to get in a bike ride and playing outside.

Yesterday I watered the solar batteries, and cleaned the chimney. Crystal did our taxes. We also went for a middling walk, too windy to go out for too dang long. We also drank some beer and made some food. Really? This isn't much different than our normal lives.

Today I did a bunch of research on watermakers for Contigo (our 41.5' boat) and found some web sites by folks that have the same boat. It's good to see what other people have done and how they did it with the same volume constraints. I'm working through the paperwork on getting stuff done on the boat as well as I can manage through the online method, though that would have been how I did that anyway.

Mostly just checking in a bit. We'll all see what happens next.

Contigo is now our boat

The closing on the boat happened on Thursday around noon and the paperwork was sent out on Friday. It hasn't gotten here yet, of course. And there are still things to finish setting up. The U.S. Coast Guard paperwork got submitted but will take at least a couple of months to process. Then we can use that to apply for our Ship Station License for all the electronic stuff on the boat. WE already got our online FCC radio license. We'll also have to register all the emergency radio buoy stuff with yet another U.S. govt organization. Then we also have to process the paperwork in Colorado for buying the boat, our home port is listed as Del Norte, Colorado...... I think we'd need a MUCH deeper river to sail the boat up to the house. :D

We still have to set up for dry storage and work on the boat while we move forward from home with no way to get there to work on it. :D So I'll contact the sales guy at the Marina so I can get properly hooked up with the folks that own the boatyard where Contigo currently sits. And we have to work with the Marina down in San Carlos for the Temporary Import Permit that lets us keep the boat in Mexico for 10 years for the whopping sum of about $75.

We have to purchase insurance for it, required by Mexico to be on the water, it's liability insurance and not too expensive each year. And we have to get started working on our Temporary Mexican Citizenship application. Yes, there is such a thing.

There are several things we want to do to the boat for cruising and comfort there in the Sea of Cortez: Air conditioning, a blizzard of choices for that. We might go with something a little more expensive that uses half the energy so we can still use it judiciously while "on the hook"; I want a bow thruster on it for better/easier parking and that'll have to be done in the boat yard; and the boat needs an antifouling "bottom job" to keep the marine growth off it while sailing. We've found a place that does a copper treatment of the hull that has reliably lasted 10 years as opposed to the usual 2 years you get from ablative paint; I have to replace the house battery bank and perhaps upgrade the solar; and we'll have to install the fancy "MacPack" sail storage system that the previous owner (Chris) bought but didn't have time to install yet.

Of course, virtually none of that can get done while we're all on "lock down". So we'll get stuff in place and prepare. I'm taking an at home navigation class, we're both working on a Spanish class and there's a docking class we're studying for in May that we'll take on the water.

So we're sitting home but not sitting still.

How Y'all?

Much ado about not so much

We're chilling at home. No big panic here. We've always joked that the phone and power go out here all the time so it's all the same. So we're not going into a big panic. I think the only thing we've gotten that's out of the ordinary is some extra Jamisons.

Our time today was spent cleaning up outside and making a dump run. We stopped at the grocery store for a few things we were out of and laughed at the empty isles where the toilet paper and paper towels and hand sanitizer should have been. At least the hand sanitizer makes sense.......

We're still working through all the stuff on the boat purchase. Yesterday I got the Radio Operator licenses for Crystal and I. Today I'm finding online options for ships logs and cruising apps. There's even a cool one that'll tell you if your drifting at anchor.

We're nearly at the end of our 6 week diet with few carbs, no alcohol, no sugar, no caffeine.... basically no food that isn't boring. :D In truth, Crystal does a great job of cooking up delicious food even given the restrictions.

So we're chilling, watching the stock market crash, watching idiots buy all the toilet paper, and glad we live a long way from all the craziness.

Hope all is well with every one else.

A little about buying a used boat

I think it must be time to tell the tale of working to buy a boat. A used boat certainly, since we choose to not afford a new one.

I've been looking at boats for at least a year and a half now. Doing my research, checking out the ins and outs and such. Trying to figure out what we're most likely to be happy with since we're in the middle of a largish country and there aren't many blue water sail boats around here.

Everyone says to try out lots of boats before you buy one. We're not built that way. So this is how the current deal is going......

Started talking to the owner last November (It's now March) about this boat he has that looks like something that will work well for us. Understand that there is no perfect boat, each one is a compromise of features, price and location. I have good conversations with the fella, then family stuff happens on both sides and we can't get down to look at it.

Flash forward to February of 2020 and the owner emails me to let me know he's dropped the price by 17K. I think about it for about 3 seconds and write, then call the broker in Mexico to make a full price offer. Not usually what you do but when a 75K boat is now 32K you jump. 2 days later Crystal and I are headed to Mexico to look Contigo over. Oh, during that time neither the owner nor I was hearing back from the broker so the owner stepped up and pledged the boat to me even if it got him in trouble :D. Turns out that was fine with the broker.

So we've looked at the boat. No one actually asks for the 10% down they're supposed to. This is OK with everyone. Odd. I get with the broker and schedule an inspection (Survey) and set up to have a mechanic (apparently THE mechanic) look over the motor. Motors cost about 25K to replace, it's worth a bit to check them out.

The survey comes back, with a crack in the fiberglass on the keel and rudder. I freak out a little, and contact the broker, the surveyor and the owner. All say fiberglass repair is easy and relatively inexpensive. The owner notes that the Marina cracked the keel and pledged to repair it and the owner also had paid to have the rudder re-glasses. We're still waiting to see how that turns out.

The motor was supposed to get looked at yesterday. Looks like Friday is more realistic. It seems the storage yard and work yard have decided you can no longer start an engine on the hard and it'll take $250 to move the boat over and back. The owner has decided to pay for that (I already paid for the survey and the mechanic) and that's really cool since he doesn't have to. So we'll find that out on Friday.

The boat papers (crucially important) got lost in transit but then found again. It's kinda nutty.

Updates as conditions warrant.

Moving done, for at least a minute and a half

We're back home, what seems like at last. Left Charleston, SC Tuesday morning a little before 10 AM and got home at around 10:15 AM on Wednesday. It was a quick trip out, a lot of work and then a quick trip back. Well worth it though, since Glen is all settled in now and we can relax at home.

Next......

So we got home pretty late on a Tuesday night and crashed. Then we got, like, a day and a half at home before heading out to South Carolina to help Crys' dad get settled before he leaves town for a job. Poor guy, he'd just closed on the first home in his life he ever owned a week before having to leave.

Glen had put lots away and there was still an uphill battle to go. So we got in the car on a Thursday afternoon and pulled into Charleston, SC at around 6 PM  on Friday evening. Glen took us to a nice Olive Garden dinner. We visited and chilled a bit and went to bed.

Saturday Glen went to work, and I woke up and started wrestling boxes. Crys got up a short time later and we got some done, then went to the bank for a little business. After that was all you can eat sushi which was great, a grocery store and ACE hardware stop and then back at it.

By Saturday evening we'd gone through all the boxes, worn ourselves out, and went to a well deserved sleep.

Sunday (today) was more of the same. A little shopping for stuff the house needed. A meeting with the house sitters, more work, then a nice dinner by Crystal and now we're chilling before sleep. Glen leaves tomorrow in the afternoon, we'll probably grab a nice dinner then sleep before figuring out our travel plan for getting home.

Driving home.

We drove home on Tuesday. Had to. We have to get to South Carolina to help Crys' dad get settled before he leaves the country for work.

We left the room at about 5:45 AM and hit the road in the dark. Not too bad really. I'll copy in the notes I took down on the way home. That's probably the most representative way to do it.

"Left Guaymas at 5:45 AM

Tolls: Hermosillo bypass 113 Pj (only one toll going back)

Military check point between Hermosillo and Nogales. Around 112 KM mile marker. Just asked if we had guns. 

Free bathroom at travel plaza right before Santa Anna. Crystal says it might be gross. 

Turn in visitor visa at the same office at KM21. You have to cross the highway 

Got to border in Nogales at 11:15. That town is a clusterfuck. Border check was fine, just looked through the trunk.

Got through border at 11:40

Headed out through the Arizona hinterland. Got stopped at a random border patrol check point. Funny, the Mexicans don’t want us to have guns and the Arizonans don’t want us to have Mexicans. 

Home at 11:32 PM

Total miles  957"

IT was a pretty good drive really. Took around 18 hours and we were home. I only did one General Lee off the side of an on ramp to make the proper turn in Nogales. We were pretty wiped when we got home. 

Some boat pics and some catch up

It's been a few, rather busy, days and those details will shine in another post. For now, the catch up on the road back to Colorado.

First a few boat pics.

That's Contigo there in the middle. We've decided to keep the name

This is the battery bank that may or may not be shot. Shame, they were new in the last year or two. I'll try to bring them back, we'll see.

Crystal was trying on the main cabin for size, looks perfect to me.

The galley isn't the biggest one we've seen on a boat but it seems quite workable.

This is the pilothouse you walk down into from the cockpit. Lots of good room and storage in here. The wheel isn't connected to the rudder in this room, but is in the cockpit. We might change that.

Obligatory shot of the bow.

And we took a walk on the beach.

One toke over the line sweet Mary

We are going to go forward with the boat purchase. That means we set up for a marine survey and a check out by a mechanic. The boat is sitting on the hard, which means it’s in a boat yard on pavement. Can’t really do a sea trial on it, but it was floating last summer so it’ll probably float just fine now. The mechanic, Omar, will trial start the engine and the broker, San Carlos Yachts, will send us a video of it. The surveyor will look the boat over for structural problems and that’ll all be good to know.

I’m pretty sure all the batteries on board are shot. 4 big 6 volt house batteries for the solar and a starting battery for the motor. The wood work can use a good shine up along with the metal on the boat. There’s little stuff like a shelf I’ll have to replace. Before it goes in the water I will want to put an air conditioning unit on it. That will take another through hull fitting and a place to put the air conditioner. We’ll have to have what ever diesel is in the tanks “polished” so it’s clean for the motor as well. And at some point we’ll add in a water maker to the mix so we will have clean reliable water in that system.

Right now we’re trying to transfer the pics Crystal took to this machine so I’ll do another post with more pics and stuff later.

It’s been a good day, went to the beach, visited a scuba shop, bought a boat, got a nice dinner for next to nothing. And a shower, since I was smelly.

Sunday, play day

Today was a “free” day. We got here yesterday and can’t look at the boat until mid morning tomorrow. So we lazed in bed playing games, doing research and drinking decaf.

Somewhere in the middle there I managed to fall down the stairs. Way to feel like an octogenarian eh? The stairs here are very steep, made of slipper metal and have no handrail. We’ve both been careful but Crystal stumbled early upon arrival and I fell this morning. Hers was ladylike and essentially gentle. Mine was face first holding 2 empty ceramic cups right into the stairs, the floor, then the wall. :D Luckily there wasn’t too much blood.

We did finally get moving but we didn’t worry about getting going too early. The two days of driving had worn a bit on both of us. Before we left the stay, Crystal went and said hi to the tortoise.

Then we were off, just slightly after noon. :D We both managed some decent sleep even though some delightful person outside was blaring a radio until 3 AM, luckily we both know to travel with ear plugs. Tonight (Sunday) it’s some loud jack off preaching with a microphone. If only his god would take him now. It’s almost chilly in the room, so we have the windows shut, but somehow you can still hear the man and his endless, amplified, monologue.

We went driving around Guaymas for a while, saw a bunch of floats being positioned for the “Hospitality” day parade, one well guarded port location complete with spikes in the entrance and a guard on a walkway with a BIG gun. There were also piers set aside for the fishing fleets, some of which are not in good shape.

 It was a fun ride through town. Then we headed toward a prominent point that overlooks the ocean in an extension of San Carlos. This is where the wealthy buy houses as well. It was pretty, and also pretty chilly with the wind coming off the water there.

Then we went and looked for the boat yard where we’ll go tomorrow to see the Cooper. Oddly I thought of that a few miles after we’d already passed the road to it and had to go back. (We don’t much like going back). Then we got a couple groceries, and filled up with gas so we could hunt down some food. I’d picked out a gastropub hoping to find something there I could eat. No dice, it was beer, pizza and some kinda fish stuff. Nothing for a veg head. Luckily I only had to circle the block a couple times to get into the entrance. It’s becoming a habit for me. In the same parking lot there was a sushi and martini joint so we went there and had a good meal. If only we weren’t on an alcohol break we’d have had an even better dinner!

Then it was back to “home”. We have the windows all shut to keep out the chill. I’m doing this, Crystal is doing her Spanish lesson and we’re having a nice, warm evening drink of decaf. It’s all the better since we got some sweetener today.

Probably early to bed tonight so we can head to San Carlos tomorrow to see Contigo and decide if it’s the boat for us.

On the move again

We’re at it again. Looking at another boat in Mexico, this time in San Carlos on the sea of Cortez. This might be the one, we’ll get to look at it in a couple of days. It’s a Cooper Pilothouse 41.5’ sloop. The guy has lowered the price to $32K from $49K so we made an offer and for the first time in our lives drove down to Mexico. San Carlos is a little over 200 miles down into the country and we were a little nervous going through the border and trying to do everything right.

We started from home, then went to Durango, CO to get the oil changed in the Nissan Versa. They even got us in early so we could get on our way. That night we stayed at an AirB&B in Tucson, AZ with a couple fellas that are retired (for 20 years) and used to run a restaurant in Portland. They were very nice, even agreed to let us check in late. That was a good thing since I tried 3 other places and got turned down on all 3. The night surprise was Carl and Archie made us omelettes in the morning!

That morning it was off to Mexico after breakfast. I’d done a fair amount of research for our first trip and thought I had it all figured out. The truth is no plan survives first contact. It was a little confusing the first time. We almost missed “KM21” where you get your tourist visa and make sure all is set up for your car. Luckily we figured that out or we’d have gone a hundred miles and ended up having to come back. Everyone at the check in spot was nice to us too, and we got pesos there. 

Those were the toll gates. The first one comes up well before you have a chance to swap dollars for pesos, and they only take pesos. Luckily Crystal had some in her purse and got us through there. Then there was about an hour of driving through small towns and construction. The last few hours were all on good roads and went well. No army checkpoints and smooth sailing. Then we were getting to Guaymas to find our room......

We found the room just fine (lots of potholes) :D and the friend of our host let us in and got us as set up as we could with her no-English and our crappy Spanish. OK, Crystal is pretty good. I suck. The funny part was the stray dog that let itself into both the yard and the hosts house. They finally corralled it and got it back outside the gates. The place has a big gate we park the car behind and feels pretty safe. And it all looks nice too. There are tortoises in the yard, kinda cool.

After settling in we went for a drive for some dinner and a few groceries plus a look at the marina where we’ll go to meet up with the boat broker. 

Upon our return “home” we’d locked ourselves out and there was no one home. So I jumped the gate, what else would a retired lineman do? :D Now we’re settling with decaf and some quiet in a place that isn’t moving. This was  the most scary thing we saw today on the drive down:

Nice tie down job don’t you think? 

Tomorrow we’ll hit the beach, perhaps find a place to eat one meal and generally bum around. Updates as conditions warrant.