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Published: October 30th 2015
The Start & Ending Point for the Race
The boats had to go across the river & back to winWe have definitely been busy since the last update from the US. We (actually more Bob than Janice) have been working every weekday from 7 or 8AM til 5PM. It definitely has not been sounding or feeling like retirement, but we have been seeing quite a bit of progress lately. We have an excellent contractor that we are working with (and John and Bob get along really great!).
With so many activities going on in the area, we did take a few days off once in a while to take in some of them. As one of Bob’s favorite sayings go “all work and no play, makes Bobby a grumpy person” and we definitely don’t want that!
There were quite a few events scheduled close together the beginning of August and we squeezed in as many as we could. Janice’s sister Barbara and her husband Peter joined us in watching the cardboard boat race in Schuylerville, NY. What a riot – there were plenty of entries with all types of boats. The theme was “Fire on Water” in honor of the area volunteer fire departments. Boats ranged in size from ones that could only carry one child to a
29 foot long one built by a group of friends made from carpet cardboard tubes. None of the boats can be “water tested” before the race so everyone finds out at the same time if their particular design can float. They give out a variety of awards for the various classifications and there is even a Titanic award for the boat that sinks the fastest! It definitely made for a very entertaining and fun afternoon.
Our anniversary this year fell on a Monday and with our work schedule at the house we figured we would celebrate on Sunday. Being the water people that we are we decided it would be fun to do some kayaking on the Batten Kill that starts in Vermont and runs into NY and right through the village we bought our house in. We found a great place to rent a tandem so enjoyed a beautiful day on the water. The rental company shuttled us up to the starting location in Vermont and then picked us up at the end of our trip in New York. The only down side was that it has been dry and we could have used a little more water
in the Batten Kill. There were times we had to push the kayak through as we were hitting bottom and other areas where there was some fast moving water which were exciting as we maneuvered around the rocks. It was definitely a great way to celebrate our 41 years of marriage!
In this area it seems that there is a festival almost every weekend - with that in mind we decided we would just pick one to go to The Scottish Games in Altamont was a nice outing and escape from our work week. There was plenty of Scottish music in the form of pipe and drum bands, folk singing and better known Celtic groups such as the” Brigadoon’s “playing. Highland dancing was on display with many of the younger members of the dance companies showing what they have learned. One of the highlights of the games is the athletic competitions which included the hammer toss (throwing a 16 lb. weight), stone toss (17 & 22 lb. stones tossed with one hand), weight throw (28 & 56 lb. weight with an iron chain handle) and the famous caber toss. For those of you that don’t know the caber toss
Some of the 2 Person Teams
both male and female teams participated with determination - it involves tossing a tapered telephone pole weighing 100-130 lbs. and measuring 18 -20 feet long. The object of this one is to flip it into the air, pitching it end over end so it lands in a straight line from where it was thrown. We had heard of this, but never had a chance to see it before – it really is quite a feat to see! We found out that the day that we attended was the amateur day while the master athletes were the day before – even with that, it was quite impressive. Some of these events included female participants as well.
Everyone that we met in Greenwich told us we “must” go to the Washington County Fair so we followed orders and took a day off to visit the fair. It is a very typical county fair with all the typical fare from plenty of cows and pigs to a large variety of agriculture produce and numerous crafts there for judging. There were plenty of educational materials in the buildings to learn about the dairy and poultry industry and even an interesting film on the “farming” of ice blocks. As with all fairs,
Boats With One & Two Member Teams,
Family Entries & groups of friends there was plenty to eat – everything from gyros to pizza, hamburgs, blooming onions, loaded potatoes, cotton candy and lots more. Fortunately we did not partake of too much of the food offerings but just enough to know that we don’t need any more fair food for quite a long time! There was a variety of entertainment offerings from escape artists (he was actually very good!) to country singing groups to the highlight of the “hot dog pig race”. We figured we had been to a sheep race in the Channel Islands but never to a pig race so couldn’t pass it up. It drew quite a crowd and the audience was divided up to cheer on a particular pig as it ran around the track! It was actually a fun event - now we check that off our list of types of races to see!
We had hoped to go to the Newport Boat Show in order to see a few friends that we have made since cruising, but the timing of it was not good with what was going on at the house so we had to cancel those plans unfortunately. The Annapolis Boat Show is a
favorite of ours and is held in October so we hoped to make it to that and use that as part of our birthday celebration. It got close to the time of the show and we still had lots to do on the house, but… we decided a break was needed so planned a quick trip. We typically go to the show for 3 days with 2 days for travel, but this time we knew we couldn’t afford that time so compressed it down to a total of 3 days – 1 ½ for the show and 1 ½ for travel. It was a quick trip, but we really enjoyed being by the water again and in the midst of all those boats & all the great gadgets available. The best part was that we got to meet up with Ed and Sue from SV Angel Louise that we had met while in London last year as well as Skip from SV Saralane whom we met in the Caribbean. A special thanks had to go to Skip as he also kept in touch with us via the SSB when we crossed the Atlantic with words of encouragement and updates on
Checked Out the Boats on Land
and they did well in the water too weather. We did find that one bonus of having the boat in Europe is that we bought a lot less as we knew we couldn't easily get it there by plane in our luggage - sure saved on our budget this time!
Now, for the main activity since buying the house – trying to get it ready to move into before the snow flies! It is quite a race right now as the weather is definitely getting cooler as seen by the beautiful autumn color this Fall. Our contractor has been doing a great job and fortunately he doesn’t have a problem with us working on the house as well. We each have our “jobs”. Bob has been busy now working on putting in the electrical boxes and Janice has been putting up insulation. Both of these jobs need to be done so the contractor can put up the sheet rock. Fortunately we now have 3 of the 4 upstairs rooms almost complete as far as the sheet rocking goes. The contractor put in the plumbing and Bob has worked on bringing the water to the bathrooms and laundry. Janice has even had a chance to swing her hammer
some putting on hurricane hangers in the garage and the master bedroom.
The house we were living in sold so we moved to an apartment the beginning of October. Janice spent a large part of September working on packing up our belongings and deciding what would go to the apartment and what needed to be stored longer. Fortunately we got the garage closed in just in time so we could take a few things over to the new garage while we wait to get the house finished to move there. As we keep saying through all of this “the dominoes are at play and things have to proceed in order”. Sometimes it has added stress to the process figuring out if A will get done before B needs to take place, but so far it has been working.
Our next big deadline is getting a working kitchen sink, a working bathroom and a bedroom completed enough so we can move in by the end of November. We found out that we legally have to have a working kitchen sink before we can move in. Bob has been busy building a bathroom vanity for upstairs which is close to
This was more like the size of a dragon boat
and held lots of people -cardboard rolls worked well! being done. Once we get one of the bathrooms done we can get rid of the port-a-john which Janice will be very happy about as the weather is getting colder!
What are the next projects that need to be completed? Just a few of them are 1) painting the walls in the bathroom so 2) flooring can be installed, so 3) toilet can be installed and then and only then can we 4) get rid of the port-a-john. Another rush is to get electricity out to the garage so Bob can move his woodshop here. Fortunately for us the person that bought the house where we were staying is allowing us to leave his shop there while we finish in Greenwich. With cold weather coming the next major project for Bob and I is installing a new radiant heating system. We drove up to Vermont a few weeks ago to pick up all of the supplies for it – now to find time to install it. Fortunately there is oil in the tank at the house now so we are able to warm up the house with that in order to work comfortably inside.
We have been fortunate
in having a few visitors that have gotten to see the house in progress – some from our time in Trumansburg (thanks Mary & Henry for coming out), some from our cruising life (Denise & Jean-Pierre on their way down to the Newport boat show), a high school classmate (thanks Keith) and Janice’s cousin flew up from Texas (thanks Nancy for coming). Members of Janice’s family have made it over and Uncle Charlie & Lynn came to see it when they were here to pick up the cabinets Bob built them. It is good to show people now so they hopefully can appreciate it more when we are finally finished (if that is ever possible with a house!) If anyone else makes it to the Greenwich area we would love to show you what we have been spending our time on.
Sorry it has taken so long to get an update posted, but hopefully by what can see of the photos, we have been quite busy and by the time we get “home” at night we are not that anxious to do much on the blog. Those of you that are on facebook have been getting a glimpse at
some of the work that has been done, but wanted to update everyone else on our activities as well.
We will still fill in the gaps from our travels this past summer/fall – with not being on the boat, at least looking through our photos of our travels brings back fond memories. Now that the autumn leaves are falling and Janice finds herself raking leaves, we are missing the boat even more!
We hope everyone is doing well and we will update you when we can.
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Mumtraveller
Lynne Brown
Fun
Looks like lots of playtime so Bob would not have been grumpy. A glimpse into your lifestyle .Thanks