September 2015

We are here

Enough already!

Our friend Lyne has an outdoor shower on her and Ian's island, and for the longest time I have been listening to a plaintiff Janice going on and on about it. 

Sample dialog:
"Lyne has an outdoor shower.... [choked up] but I don't."
I sure wish I had an outdoor shower like Lyne has, but of course... I don't. [ Lower lip quivers here]
Lyne is lucky. She has an outdoor shower...[whimper] but I .... don't.
Lyne gets everything... but I never get nothing." [Sigh]
I sure wish I had..." Agggggggh!

Finally, I relented. This month, I whipped up an outdoor shower in my free time. It consists of a slate floor with copper framing, bleached Manzanita twigs and a rain forest marble backing. 

The climbing vines will take a year to grow enough to allow one to shower 'au naturel' in our birthday suits, so this year it will only be available for rinsing off after swimming in the river.

Please don't forward this pic to Playgirl magazine. I really don't have time for a photo shoot.

I'd love to write more but Janice is calling  to tell me about something else she wished she had....

 More summer visitors

Having fun in our sun with a little afternoon swim with favorite aunts Monique and Kimberly and uncle Pierre who dropped by for a visit this month.

A quick primer on how to operate a jet ski lead to....

"And what happens if I do this?"

The view from the cockpit

Hours after I posted last months Epistle, my friend and neighbor Ken asked if he could fly with me. I reminded him that he would be my FIRST non pilot passenger EVER. I assumed he would wise up and reconsider, but throwing all caution, common sense and self preservation to the wind, he climbed into the back seat for Mr.Toad's wild ride.

Ken, looking none the worse for wear.

I wasn't sure if I should be flattered by the vote of confidence or if he was depressed and wanted to end it all with a great view. In any case, I have now crossed that milestone and we both lived to tell the tale.

Flying is not that big of a deal to some people. But you can see some of what Ken got to view below.

OK, it just so happens that there is a whole lot of aviation news this month. If it bores you, you can probably stop reading now, because it's not going to get any better.

How to built an aeronautical seaport

Having finally reached the point where the plane is being put on amphibious floats, I needed to finish the 67 feet (22M) of new dock at the island. (Amphibious is different from a float plane as it has retractable wheels inside the floats that allow the plane to take off or land from either a grass or asphalt runway and / or the water) 

I began the assembly of the dock on top of our electrical transformer enclosure which doubles as a poor mans workbench. It's the construction equivalent of preparing a wedding banquet over a fire at a campsite. 

Please spare me the condemning emails about my goofy looking 70's 'staying alive' swimsuit. I can do serious marine construction or be a fashion plate, but not both at the same time.

In the video below, you can see how after building the basic frame of one section of dock, it got 'launched' into the river, and towed by boat to where it belonged. The end of the video shows how I mowed the runway. How do you mow a river? Easy. The weeds that grow under the shallow area of the bay would get caught in my water rudders on the planes pontoon floats. 

So, I went out with our little runabout boat and used the propeller on the outboard to cut the underwater weeds wherever they grew to about 20 inches (60 cm) below the surface. Gotta keep the runway mowed!

Anyways, the 5 sections of dock were then united to the staircase from the island, empty plastic barrels inserted into the framework of each section to raise them out of the water and the deck added to the top of each section. Then there was the issue of attaching the aircraft carrier (the metal plane lift) to the entire floating dock. This was the tough part but, as usual, it got resolved with the help of the brains of the operation, my buddy Wayne.

Humpty Dumpty coming together, slowly but surely.

In the August 2010 Epistle, I wrote about the new aircraft carrier I had purchased. I had talked a bunch of friends and neighbors into helping me get it in the water. In the hopes of demonstrating just how it would eventually work with the plane on it, I posted this picture.

OK, so it took me 5 years to connect all the dots, but as you can see, if patience is a virtue then I am the most virtuous guy you know.

In preparation for my landing in front of our island, I thought it prudent to meet with the local authorities who have jurisdiction in this area. We are in a unique but tricky location being literally on the US / Canadian border and incredibly close to the US and Canadian custom stations. To add to the complexity, there is a 400 foot tall (130 M) tourist observation tower nearby.

The finished seaport awaits the plane

Flying low, near and around all these obstacles and sensitive locations had the potential of raining all manners of hell down upon me. I beat them all to the punch by presenting myself to them first with a detailed plan as to where I would take off and land in the area. 

This was in the hopes of preparing them for the possibility of a 'concerned citizen' hysterically reporting a low flying airplane near the tower and the border area. Shades of 9-11...

You would be forgiven for thinking that I am getting over dramatic here until you realized that I had to meet with the folks at US and Canadian customs, US border patrol, New York State Police, Ontario Provincial police, US and Canadian Coast Guard, Homeland security, the  Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the owners of the observation tower. All of our neighbors have been anticipating the first landing all summer long.

 Let the games begin.

"He landed so he must be here somewhere"

 

Finally, a little humor that was sent to me on Facebook