Andy's Ramblin's

So much for Spring!  I was hoping to work on the Curlew this weekend but we are getting hit with a big snowstorm right now.  So far over 8" in 5 hours and it is still coming.  When the snow gets done the winds are going to pick up and we'll have some serious drifting...  I hope to have it cleared out by tomorrow afternoon.  I also clear snow for a couple of customers so will probably be rather busy tomorrow.

The Curlew is slowly coming along.  I keep hoping to get to the lumberyard to pick up a couple of sheets of plywood for the deck but I never seem to have the time.  My step-son works for Menard's and so maybe I can get him to pick it up for me as he works out in the yard part of the time...

 

I am hoping to get the garage/shop cleaned up soon so that I have more room to work.  I am building a new workbench and I'm going shopping for some hickory at a local sawmill.  I have a business acquaintance who owns a mill and often has odd lots of lumber (he produces hardwood flooring).  He has some mismatched hickory (flat grain) which will be perfect for laminating a top together.

Notice all of the "junk" in this picture.  That is boxes and boxes of flower shop supplies, silks, ribbon, etc.  It is all going to our local senior center for their crafting area.  Just think of the space I'll gain!

My stationary power tools are going to be "breathing" a sigh of relief with the expansion of room.

I will post some new pictures when I get things set up better.  I obtained some used heavy duty pegboard from work so am also hoping to better organize my hand tools.

February 28, 2009

Boy, we just can't win here in Northern Wisconsin.  I got up this morning around 4:30 and checked the air temperature -   -17 deg F...   BBbbrrrrrrr....  Hard to believe on the last day of February but there you have it .  Here is a view of my shop.  Lovely ain't it?  It is supposed to warm up a few degrees tomorrow and as there is no football on tv perhaps I can spend some time out there...  I sortof promised my wife I would help around the house today with some projects.  Maybe I can get her distracted on Facebook or something and she'll forget about them!!!  lol.

March 1, 2009

Ok, while I always consider the whole month of March as the beginnings of Spring, the temperatures this weekend are making it a little tough to reconcile with warm spring zephyrs, chickadees calling from the expanding buds of Red maples, melting snow water gurgling and trickling in little rivulets, etc.  We had a nice bright sunny afternoon yesterday with a high of around 15 deg.  Today is supposed to be the same and a little warmer.  My shop as seen in the photo above, faces WNW and gets quite a bit of sun, so I should see temps up around 40 deg inside this later pm  as the sun moves west...  I have to go into town for my (what seems like) annual haircut at noon and then I will try and work out there in the afternoon.  I have a pile of boxes to go out to the curb for trash pick-up that'll give me some space.  I will try and get the pegboard up this afternoon...

March 7, 2009

Lake Superior dreams...  Here is a view of Wisconsin Point.  One of our very favorite places to wander...  Miles of beach - The shallow waters are great for sailing if you have a boat designed for beaching.  This place is what started me building the Curlew as I wanted a serious boat that we could use for playtime along here but is capable of  bigger waters.

Temperatures are moderating nicely up here in the North Country.  Yesterday we had the unbelievable (almost) temp of 47 deg!  All night was above freezing and our snow is melting rapidly.  It will be a month before the ice comes off the lake and we have more winter weather coming on Mon/Tues.  Its the Weekend and I and the wife are off together for the whole thing.  Not sure what we are doing but can guess that housework is in the mix somewhere LOL!  Its 7 a.m. and my wife is all ready in the kitchen pantry organizing....  The Curlew is beckoning me so I will probably have to do some finagling to get some time out in the shop...

Heres is a picture of my cedarstrip canoe on a point at my campsite on Lake Polly.  A co-worker has got me thinking about a canoe trip with some serious fishing this summer.  We both love the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness with fish practically jumping in the canoe.  Tons of wildlife - loons, moose, black bears, deer, songbirds, and miles and miles of bogs, pine and spruce and the "scent" of wilderness.  I have been several times but can always go back...  The perfect place for cleansing your soul and renewing your spirit...  I haven't been for 4 years and I could really use the break.  No real vacation in over 15 years, just short little trips to see family or brief camping trips.  I'll have to start doing some planning and sweet talking with the wife lol...

March 15, 2009

So one of our illustrious colleagues on WBB (Wooden Boat Builder) asked me recently how I came about choosing the Curlew as my next project to build and so I am adding this little memoir to my notes here...

It started many years ago (around 1977) because when I was around 16 years old I had a paper route and worked at a Boy Scout camp and had earned a fair amount of money.  During this time I had become, through the Boy Scouts, initiated to water sports like canoeing (heavy, almost indestructible Grumman's) and sailing (we played "pirates" on a small impound lake on Sailfish boats).  I became enamored with sailing and the concept that I could harness the wind to take me places.  So, with my hard-earned paper route money I bought a used 10' sailing dinghy built of oak ribs and mahogany plywood.  The mast was footed in aircraft aluminum and the top third of the spar was made of spruce, I think.  The boom was spruce, the mainsail was of saggy nylon, there was no jib and half of the chromed fittings were chromed no more and brass was showing through.  All of this for $100.  My Dad drove me in our F100 pickup to fetch her home.  I spent hours cleaning her up, hand-scrubbing the sail and finished by painting the hull with some aqua-blue marine paint I got at the local hardware store (I think it was Petit's). 

She was taken out to my Grandparent's summer house on Big Cedar Lake near Slinger, WI.  There I spent many happy hours on the water.  Late that fall I was up to the lake with my mom - I think she was closing up the house for the winter and helping my elderly grandparents get ready for the move back to Milwaukee.  I took the boat out for one last time.  It was a cold, grey day with steady winds.  As it was the last sail of my first season I ventured way over to the big east end of the lake where the sailing regattas were always held (I think that I was drawn there by the thought of maybe competing in some of the beginner classes) I was on a running reach and some how got knocked down by a strong gust.  I went over and started to turn turtle.  The boat had no additional buoyancy other than it was made of wood and ply.  The mast had no running rigging and so became un-stepped.  So here I am with no life jacket on, I am trying to hang on to the boat to keep from drowning and the mast because I was afraid it would sink and somehow I was trying to use my third hand to wave a red boat cushion over my head to signal anyone for help.

I was extremely fortunate that I am here today to tell this tale as a man had seen me from shore (he was probably admiring my fine little craft and my expert seamanship) as I flipped over.  He quickly jumped into his fishing boat and raced out to rescue me... I was towed back to shore shivering and freezing...  I only sailed her that one summer - she was stored first in my grandpa's garage at the lake and then got transferred to a neighbor's boathouse the following year.  I was busy doing other things and lost track of her.  I think that I eventually gave her to that gentleman's grand kids - I never saw her again...

This started my interest in building my own, more substantial boat.  A dream I carried for many years until I had built my first cedarstrip canoe (the one you see in my photo album).  It was 2004 and I had been in my professional career as a florist and greenhouse operator for several years and had managed to accumulate a fair bit of woodworking tools owing to the business and building the canoe.  Here was the time to start searching for plans to a boat that would fulfill my dreams, that didn't stretch my woodworking skills too much, and that I could afford the cost of.  I had through my later childhood and college visited the library and bookstores often, checking out books on sailing and boat-building and stumbled on Edwin Monk's book on building sixteen different small boats.  And there was the 'Curlew'!

 

The design showed a boat which didn't look too hard to build.  She was more substantial with an iron pivoting centerboard (I guess you could call it a swing keel) and I figured that I could use her on larger lakes and even sail some of the coastline of Lake's Superior or Michigan.  With the pivoting centerboard I could run her up on a beach and sail in quite shallow waters.  That late summer, I began building her in an unused 24x32' greenhouse at the back of my property on Rice Lake (in Rice Lake, WI).  As a side note I will say that that greenhouse was the best workshop I ever had.  The cover was an inflated double layer of tough, uv resistant 6 ml plastic.  During the day, even in the winter, It was very warm - at a minus 10 deg F it was still 60+ deg inside, even on a cloudy day.  I had a small used house furnace which I ran during the nights, keeping the work area around 40+ deg.   By the spring of '05 the hull was essentially finished. 

 

The failing economy (and my business) forced me to stop most of the work on Curlew.  I was having to sell the greenhouse property and try to reestablish my flower shop in a new location, move to a new home, and struggle to make a living.  At no time did the boat itself really cost me that much to build.  I had the tools, I had most of the materials other than the plywood, and I rarely spent more than an hour or two at any given time working on her.  She now sits as you know in my shop (converted garage).  We have moved to a rental place on another lake north of town where I hope to launch her this summer once I finish the deck, build the spars and rig her.  We shall see lol....