Segue to Springtime

We finished up our house concert series with the Stillhouse Junkies, with Secret Handshake opening once again. What an incredible treat it is to have these wonderful musicians impregnating my house with such great vibrations. I know the house stores that magic for later radiance. Not sure who is next or when, but I reckon Julie and I have to keep shows going.

Down in the shop we headed down the home stretch on Shaman's Gallery.

How many boatbuilders can you keep busy at once?

Crazy tiger grain ash. SeaDek is going on. 

The grace and beauty of this work is hard to describe.

Final sanding for her paint job.

On with the rubber outer chines

I ordered Shaman's paint a little late, so it's time to finish off Hetch Hetchy. Here is the removable transom being created.

Taking precautions for the low clearance work.

Busy busy busy

We have a launch party coming up, so I must visit my favorite hair salon. Since 2015 Margeaux is my only barber. I am her only client. How sweet is that? That hair wasn't gray when she first cut it. What is she doing to make that happen?

Off to Lake Mary for a cool launch party. Cricket is riding Hetch Hetchy in.

Shaman's Gallery is still waiting for her paint, but she is fully operational.

Something to temper that sickly sweet champagne.

Okay, back to work. Cricket is putting the Eyelash Girl from the Shaman's Gallery rock art panel on the transom.

Proportional striping, here we go.

A green perimeter stripe to give the decks a bit of punch.

More transom art. This is a rendition of the Hetch Hetchy valley, flooded to quench San Francisco's thirst. Restore Hetch Hetchy!

Yay! The paint arrived. Definitely worth the wait.

The name has been transferred, awaiting Vladimir to get off the river and paint the lettering.

There's nothing more we can do for her. Away she goes. Eyelash Girl is waving bye bye.

Cricket and Justin have departed for the river, but Pat had another day or two before his first trip. So we blew Surprise Canyon, RJ Johnson's old Briggs boat, to smithereens. RJ tried out my stand-up footwell last summer and got addicted. So another conversion is in the works here.

My little dory boatman summer home, Gingerbread, born in the '70s in Utah, has returned. It has a proud history of residents. For now it'll be Justin and Cricket's summer refuge between river trips.

We are thinking that strapping the wheel to the messed up axle may not be viable again. But it worked this time. Clear through downtown Flagstaff at rush hour. As the old saying goes, "When you're walking on thin ice, you might as well dance."