Quarantinis

Wow, this quarantine thing has really disconnected me from the passage of time. But I've gotta say, I've never been much busier, or much more relaxed. Good thing I was already easing into retirement. So what have I done? Well, Dawn and I stare out the window a lot in the morning. These are some of our visitors.

Speaking of windows, they hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. Okay, years. Okay, maybe decades. Dawn put her climbing skills to work.

I purged the closet, throwing out clothes that don't really fit or hadn't been worn in years. Okay, decades.

 We've made quite a few expeditions into the woods and out into the cinder hills.

Here's a big old boat we found atop one of the cinder cones. WTF. (Welcome to Flagstaff)

We have been working a bit in the boatshop, finishing up odds and ends.

A new tiller for Stella

 We finally finished the last of the mini boats. Powell boats are insanely labor intensive.

I'm going to miss these sweet little boats.

The annual Guides Training Seminar near Lee's Ferry was cancelled due to Covid, so we did a virtual one via Zoom. This is me doing my presentation on Bert Loper's Boats. It should be online somewhere soon.

Dawn decided it would be fun to have quarter-scale dories for a bird bath and garden. Here's the strongback.

And sides.

Glassing them up.

Teeny tiny gunwales.

But we needed to replace the deck before we could install the new boats. The old deck lasted thirty-five years, so hopefully this one will outlive me.

Time out for a sunset birthday float for Margeaux. We had quite a few Quarantinis that evening.

Pat's new rig: a '62 Willys. It might end up Willys Beryl Green.

The first day of my river season: launch day for my first cancelled Grand Canyon trip. But it was a pretty good day nonetheless.

I've been thinking about getting a new mountain bike, so of course I had to build a bike trail switchbacking up the mountain to the forest roads.

Dawn needed a rock wall in her front yard. This is me resting after a day's work moving giant rocks. Lava, as you may or may not know, is ten percent heavier than granite. 

Setting up a reflecting pool for some boat portraits.

Dawn doing the transom art on the new boats.

Bird Disneyland on the new deck.

A nod to Glen and Bessie Hyde with a sweep scow made of old deck parts.

Last post before antisocial distancing

Wow. I just got home from a 15-day Grand Canyon trip to encounter the Scared New World. I should not have left y'all in charge of things when I was gone. But now that we are all locked in our little cages for the foreseeable future, it's a good time to catch up. 

Back in February we finished up Papa Bear, the new king-sized Briggs boat for Canyon Explorations--a twin to Shaman's Gallery, that we built a year ago. Here we are glassing gutters and decks.

Gluing up scarfed ash gunwales.

And bolting those gunwales onto the boat.

We took a break to dress the place up for the annual Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival party. Mini boats got a display above the band stand.

Hatch lids getting glassed the eve prior to the party.

Peter McLaughlin and Chris Brashears tearing it up.

Back to work on Papa Bear. Pulling tape.

Touching up lines.

Milling out the oar stands.

The Doryaks came in for a little love before our training trip.

Papa Bear awaiting a ride to the warehouse.

But since we had almost two weeks to kill before launch day, we banged out another boat. Chet and Kat came in to assist in banging together a standard Briggs.

We try to leave about an inch extra above the designed gunwales so we can adjust and cut to what looks perfect. This time we added a little over half an inch to bow and stern. No two are ever quite the same. As it should be.

With the gunwales on it's just a matter of a few details. Day after day of a few details.

 And that's it for this one. Chet and Kat get to take her home now and figure out the paint job.

Somewhere in there we got in a few more days on the Powell mini-replica. Here's a long, wiggly strake. The straighter they look installed, the wigglier they are in actual shape. Go figure.

About 150 teeny ribs got made, boiled, and bent in. The spacing is scaled off a remnant of one of the Nellie Powell, one of the 1871 Powell boats.

The Barbies taking the hull out for a test run.

Ready for the seats, end compartments, and oarlocks.

Time out for a test float/ test flip of the Doryaks, and a test run of Cricket's little Jiminy, the wee motorboat. Sorry not to get any good shots of the festivities.

Interview time in our silly little boats.

The day before the river trip, I found out we were taking both Doryaks, but I only had one set of oars. Time for some speed-whittling!

 And off we go, with a huge fleet of craft including four Fretwater boats.

Dawn and I stayed aboard Peekaboo most nights. Such a cozy little thing.

Cricket and Dawn in Papa Bear.

The Doryaks rocked it. Not a single flip on the whole trip, and we ran big at every opportunity.

I should get some good action shots of the Doryaks before long, but none just yet. I'll close with an emblematic campfire shot, summarizing man's relationship with our planet.

Stay healthy, stay rested, and we'll see you at the other end of the tunnel. Remember: Worrying never fixed yesterday or changed tomorrow, but it sure fucked up a lot of todays.