Our Lovely Country Home...can be yours!!!

We love our home, but we'd like to live closer to the school where my wife teaches so that we can go to more of the school games. It’s difficult to teach, and be active in extracurricular activities when you don't live in the same county.

So here’s my unabashed advertisement for our lovely country home:

Situated at the end of a cul-de-sac in central Gloucester County, our 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1400sq foot rancher, with its bright open floor plan includes a great room, huge master suite, new appliances, fenced in back yard, generator hook up, and much more. All of our appliances are electric and thanks to the shade in the summer and the high efficiency woodstove in the winter, the electric bill rarely exceeds $150, but is usually more like $100 per month. With mature hardwoods surrounding and encompassing our 1/2 acre, it’s quiet. At night we hear tree frogs, not traffic. The property is 60 ft. above sea-level, so there's no flood danger. Our neighbors are awesome and so is the county with great schools, parks, trails, several boat launches, and it’s just over the bridge from York County and the rest of Tidewater, Virginia. The whole package is negotiable at $205k. If interested, call our agent, Wendy Jackson at 757-870-5892 or 804-693-7444.

View from the circle:


Living part of great room:


Dining part of great room:


Kitchen:


Master bedroom:


Baby's room with Rainbow Fish theme:


Not shown: The third office bedroom, the huge master bath with skylight, the detached workshop, and the attached shed.

Extreme Speed

Yesterday was a day of dynamic weather. There were squalls, lulls, and extreme winds. Because of this, Gloucester Seafood of Guinea was again converged upon by the wind riders. James documented this, well, in this post. He also provided photographic proof that I can windsurf, fast even, when I’m not breaking boards, or gorilla taping sails. Thanks James.
And now for some tokens of my appreciation:


James shredding.


Farrah shredding.


After all the rain and wind, we had clear skies and wind.

The EPA is broken

Stephen Johnson (Bush’s EPA administrator) refuses to sign the waiver to allow California and a dozen other states to have higher emissions standards. California never had a problem getting these waivers signed until Johnson came onto the scene.

I thought the Republicans were for smaller government, where states have more power to regulate, not less. By stealing California’s ability to lead in fuel economy, Johnson is polluting on a grand scale, stifling innovation, and as one of the war hawks, he’s hindering the war effort. This is the first war in our history where we’re encouraged to consume with impunity.

We all owe our great grandkids an apology for the outrageous bill that we’re leaving for them.

Video of Macky and James (March 4)

Back in Action!

I smashed the nose of my board on the second outing, so I glassed it up. It’s not pretty, but it’s water tight.

First I hung it upside down for a week, but it was still damp, so when it got real cold I fired up the woodstove, brought it in and dried it good, for 48 hours.



Then, one 50oF morning, I took it back to the shed and sanded it (80 grit) until all the pink was gone. After sanding, I wiped it thoroughly with acetone for good bonding with the epoxy. This is a very important step.





I cut up several pieces of fiberglass tape, brushed on some epoxy with “fast” hardener. Laid the glass pieces and brushed more epoxy on top of them. I used the fast because that’s what I had at the time and it was 50oF, so it was actually pretty slow.

I thought I could just rely on the wet epoxy and glass to keep the gaping hole in the nose closed, but I was wrong. I figured this out after wetting everything and laying the first glass. So, I pre-drilled right through the repair area and then drove a drywall screw through the board. Then I continued glassing around the screw. It worked like a charm.

The first layer, with the screw still in.


After the first layer of glass hardened, I removed the screw and sanded the heck out of it, which opened some of the original damage. So, I wiped it down and laid more glass. After the second layer of glass I hand-sanded the burs and voila! I went windsurfing.

If I get around to it, I can clean the area with soap and water, sand some more and then wipe with acetone and apply Colloidial Silica to the West System epoxy and fill any low spots. Then, I can sand and repeat until I achieve a desired shape. After that she can get paint.

I could give the board a whole new look, or I could go windsurfing, like we did today and it was great! Besides if I invest a ton of effort to make it look beautiful and then re-bash the nose with another catapult, I’d cry like a baby.

James taking her for a spin.


Macky Launching.