Moving day

And I'm sitting here waiting for the truck, nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs......more shortly....M

Ready for the move...sorta

So Howard Riopelle and Michael Kaiser from  Ironsmith Design (you may remember our metals artist friends from the roofing episode) spent nearly 3 hours today in their metals shop refining and reengineering the drive train for the paddlewheel, while Gail, single handed, UNtied every barrel so that we could do the move tomorrow morning.

Everything is in boxes....The cat is freaked.  Her only bed vanished today.

We're toast.  Ask us about moving the mattress down the stairs across a lawn and up onto the second level of the boat in the rain....better yet....don't.

So if you're in the Baltimore area tomorrow and wanna come meet us and help we'll be at the Baltimore Boating Center,

Baltimore Boating Center

2015 Turkey Point Rd.

Baltimore, 21221

410-687-2000

There will probably be wine and beer in the offing.

From about noonish or one o'clock on we'll be REtying all the barrels and getting the Floating Empire in the water, assembling the solar panels, putting the rudder in place, setting and testing the paddle wheel, and in general making it into a vessel.  If you're in the area PLEASE come help.  Like i said, we're toast.

Hey, free original art for those that stop by :)  howzat?

Right now, wine and bathing and sleeeeeeeep.  Tomorrow will come way too early.  They're coming for the boat at  9 and we've still got a bit to prep.

Hope to see scads of you there

M

EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!!

So we're moving the boat Friday Morning, and we're in something rather resembling an exhausted panic.  Spent today readying the paddlewheel, power, and rudder assemblies.

Paddles, or, more properly, "buckets" being framed and painted

And then being screwed to the side plates of the wheel.  Yeah, we got a little overly enthusiastic with the Gorilla Glue......

The general formula is the diameter in feet plus 1 bucket, so in the case of our rather small sternwheel, that means five paddles total.

first one side, then the other, then the center driveshaft....

it is, of course, Red, as is traditional

We also finished wiring in the instrumentation, and even had time.....

.....to make the boat official....before the rains came, that is.

So tomorrow will be a zoo.  We have to remove all the flotation and store it aboard, mount, test, and then dismount the paddlewheel, load in the mattress and tools, and in general make the thing ready for transit.

So here's your chance.  If you're in the Baltimore area we'd love your help getting this thing into the water Friday afternoon.  Wanna come visit?  Email us or comment and we'll tell you where.

Seriously, we'd love a hand.  We're tired and swamped.

More later.

Mungo

Mungosforge   at   gmail   dotcom

Heading to the water

First of all, apologies for the lack of photos.  My little camera seems to have given up the ghost finally.  We'll remedy that shortly.  Today we got the front railing, the motor control cables, the side wheels for the paddlewheel, and a bunch of other stuff done.  The BIG news is that we've finally signed contract with a boat mover to get the Floating Empire to water this coming Friday.  It'll be a hassle.  Due to height restrictions, we'll have to remove the flotation and replace it at the marina....quickly as they're charging us $95 an hour to be on their equipment.  Still, we're headed for water and I couldn't be more pleased.

Anyway, i do have a few shots before the camera crapped out on us:

 Heres' some of the frame for the solar panels under construction

 You can see the hinges that connect them here.  We wanted to be able to lower them in case of high winds.

Here's the face of 200W of WindyNation solar panels.

These two crossmembers will support the rudder controls on the bow.

And heres the starboard side of the front railing under construction.....and at about this point the camera died....sigh....

Anyway, apologies for the lack of pix, but I'll solve that tomorrow.  Tomorrow, we heft the mattress into place, finish assembly on the paddlewheel, and finish the drainfloor for the Japanese bath.  I'll also include photos from today's work....stay tuned

M

Loooooong couple of days

Well quite a bit of systems progress on the boat, somewhat interrupted by our mega garage sale.

The following is what downsizing looks like :

Artwork and furniture and appliances and more artwork and books and books and books, all dragged out to the lawn and offered up to....well...a pretty indifferent public actually.  Most of this stuff is going to wind up at Goodwill, I fear.  This is what a major downsize looks like.  Some of the other stuff is going into storage.....and will probably sit there for a year or so until we realize we really didn't miss it.

A lot of internal system work got done on the vessel.

We installed hatches through the floor.....these are some great ones with removable lids and seals designed for kayaks that we got from duckworksmagazine.com......so that we can raise and lower the hoses for water uptake and for draining the greywater filters.  We also got to try our greywater lines and the pumps, all of which worked beautifully.

And no this is not a Dalek under construction on the front of the boat (deeeestroy deeee stroy)  Its the center pilot station that will hold the wheel and instruments.  Tomorrow it gets flanked by railing and the rudder actually goes in.

The 100 watt solar panels from windynation.com also got framed and ready for mounting.  I completed the jumpers for the deep cycle batteries and ran all the lines to get ready for this.  Tomorrow as soon as the rain abates, the solar panels will go in, the drains in the bathing area will go in, the rudder will make it's appearance, and I will fall over.

And, no, the front of my boat looks almost nothing absolutely like these.....nope....no resemblence at all..........maybe the deathrays.....

Just a quick note

Two very busy days, and lots accomplished, but we've finished the day exhausted.  I'll have a passel of pictures to post this evening so stop by.  Paneling is all in, electricals are all in, plumbing is all in, and work on the rudder and paddlewheel are in progress.

stay tuned

M

TOILET!!!!

Okay a couple of days of really useful progress.  First of all we got the wiring in, both 110 and 12 V.

Here's one of the deep cycle batteries we're using for a test.....

Here's a trial fitting of the 12 V. Switch pod in the panelling.  It has switches for the nav. lights and instruments, a 12 plug, and a battery meter.  Duckworksmagazine has lots of useful things like this, if you haven't visited them.

Here's the panelling with the box....we haven't fully installed the thing yet, but you can see where it will sit just inside the cabin on the starboard side.

We got a lot of the panelling and trim in today...here you can see the wires for the above box prior to it's installation.

And though it took a couple of tries, we got the composting toilet and urine diverter installed.

long day.....

Tomorrow, we'll finish the bow and rudder fittings, wire in the instruments, and all the galley plumbing....all the while getting ready for a monster yard sale.

Stay tuned...

M

Without a net.....

Today we did something I've been dreading:  We attacked the medallions on the stern.  The bow was bad enough, but the aft end of the boat is already four feet off the ground.  Add to that some somewhat shaky planks laid over the paddlewheel well, the fact that there's absolutely nothing to hold onto when you're up on the ladder, and the fact that I'm becoming freaked out by heights for some reason (never was before) and it made for some discomforting hours....

As with the bow, the medallions aren't just decorative, they serve to help hold the roof fabric in place fore and aft.  They have to be screwed into place and the remaining roof fabric cut away.  Please note from the angle, standing on the ground I'm well BELOW the bottom of the pontoons.  It's a ways up there folks.

NOT a happy camper.(and, yes, my hair really is that long, thank you, deal with it) ....  We did do some things better this time, though, trimming and touch up painting as we went along.  I removed the tuftex from the aft wall so we could at least tie off the ladder to something.

It looks good, though.  Next up, the awning holding the solar cells, then the paddlewheel.

Inside, I started building the shelves that will hold the deep cycle batteries aft.

Soon that well will house our electronics, deep cells, inverter, and the like.

All in all a pretty full day.  I also spent some of it chatting with boat movers.  I'm beginning to think that in order to get this thing moved, we'll have to remove the barrels (sigh), then re tie them at the marina before the thing gets splashed.

Any other ideas folks?  Hey if you're in the Baltimore area, we'd love to meet you and we'd really love some willing hands to help us get this launched.  Leave a comment and we'll email ya. (without publishing your phone/email'/etc btw.)

M

MUD!

So today, among many many other things, we mudded in the tiles of the hearth.

The terra cotta tile are bedded in a mixture of one part clay, two parts sand, and one part vermiculite.

So this gives us an inch of concrete board, half an inch of the vermiculite/clay mixture, and then a layer of terra cotta tile for the hearth.  Now I just have to clean it off my nice shiny corrugated steel.

   

Here's the fully mudded hearth

 

 Here's a long view showing the tin and the pot rack and hood.

We also...finally....installed the ladder to the loft:

And prepainted a bunch  of stuff for the morrow.

Along with installing an antique breakfront, anchoring it into the galley area.  It fits perfectly :)

And, of course, with the top installed, as indicated by an off camera Vannah White

 Here's the piece with its drawers.....just about perfect

 All in all, another good day

Stay tuned....

And COMMENT, damn ye.

M

So Much Cool Stuff Today

I was rather freaked out, because the lovely little camera we'd been using to document this stopped working, but it seems to have recovered.

We got a lot done today.  I cut and we got painted all the medallions for the stern roofline trim.  We finished all the interior paintwork.  We cut and painted the "plug" that will go into the sleeping loft floor after the mattress goes up tomorrow

The ladder going in.


But mostly Im delighted with the galley.  We used some simple drip edge tin to create a sliding door setup that matched the tin of the hearth.

The doors are just luan stained with gunstock oak stain, but I think its a wonderful and functional look.  Sorry about all the crap on the counter .....

  I continue to be really happy with the way the galley is turning out.  Tomorrow, we'll finish with the doors and mud in the tile for the hearth.

So we're only about two weeks to the water....that is if any of the freaking boat moving companies will return our calls.  Would not have thought just finding someone with a pontoon boat trailer would be this difficult.

Stay tuned.

M