![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterSo, I guess there was a weekend that just happened? It doesn't entirely feel like it, just because of the sheer number of Things Needing Doing.
On Saturday morning after rowing practice, teammates and I worked on putting in our early-season "temporary" dock, which is colloquially referred to as "The Bubble Dock." (The manufacturer's name for it is JetFloat Dock, which is not as much fun to say).
Ordinarily this isn't a major undertaking, but this time around we had extra pieces to add on, and also did some work to swap out old pieces that were cracked and leaking. After a series of struggles, we eventually figured out that the tabs sticking out of the sides of each piece are all at one of 4 different heights, so there IS a way to align everything nicely to get the whole thing to behave itself.
That will largely be a problem for the fall. At that point a subset of us are motivated to take everything apart and use the different piece colors to spell out our team initials, ARC.
As a part of a project to overhaul the boathouse this spring, the City also provided us with a dumpster to get rid of bulky trash items. It's kind of amazing how quickly that kind of stuff accumulates in the boathouse and boatyard. In addition to tossing the handful of cracked JetFloats in there, we also disposed of not just one, but TWO flammables cabinets that have disintegrated into piles of rust after years of hanging out in the saltwater that flows down off the interstate in the winter.
My teammates figured out how to use a piece of pallet wood and old oar to carry the second flammables cabinet like they were pallbearers:
That's how I learned about Ghana's professional dancing pallbearers. Heartwarming! They did not attempt to dance while carrying this disintegrating flammables cabinet, just to be clear.
Anyway, I feel better about the boatyard now that even more stuff has been hauled out of it.
After a quick trip to the bank to deposit some checks, I finally came home and worked to finish re-wiring our navigation light charging station:
It can now accommodate 24 lights instead of just 20. Hopefully the new USB charging ports will be more robust than the old ones. And with the unit re-wired, most problems can be isolated to issues with the boards and batteries inside of the lights, which can be replaced individually (at some expense, mind you!).
I did a full charge, am working on a full discharge, and will do another full charge before I cart this thing and the coxboxes and megaphones back over to the boathouse. More than anything I'm just relieved to be done with this overhaul so I can turn my attention to a zillion other projects.
As far as personal projects go, I also finished building the two wire squirrel cages to go over the lettuce planter boxes:
I want to make some simple hinges and latches to hold these onto the planters.scrottie says he doesn't think these will hold very many squirrels. (that's a joke). While these are indoors they are doing a nice job of keeping the cats out, too.
In any case, hopefully it will keep the squirrels from trying to bury their acorns in these once they go back out on the back porch rail.
Sunday was mostly cooking, balancing my checkbook, other household chores, and prepping for this week's teaching.
My riggers for Petrichor still haven't shown up.
And today, S heads out, first to Minnesota, then to California, for a while. Back to just me and the cats holding down the home front.
On Saturday morning after rowing practice, teammates and I worked on putting in our early-season "temporary" dock, which is colloquially referred to as "The Bubble Dock." (The manufacturer's name for it is JetFloat Dock, which is not as much fun to say).
Ordinarily this isn't a major undertaking, but this time around we had extra pieces to add on, and also did some work to swap out old pieces that were cracked and leaking. After a series of struggles, we eventually figured out that the tabs sticking out of the sides of each piece are all at one of 4 different heights, so there IS a way to align everything nicely to get the whole thing to behave itself.
That will largely be a problem for the fall. At that point a subset of us are motivated to take everything apart and use the different piece colors to spell out our team initials, ARC.
As a part of a project to overhaul the boathouse this spring, the City also provided us with a dumpster to get rid of bulky trash items. It's kind of amazing how quickly that kind of stuff accumulates in the boathouse and boatyard. In addition to tossing the handful of cracked JetFloats in there, we also disposed of not just one, but TWO flammables cabinets that have disintegrated into piles of rust after years of hanging out in the saltwater that flows down off the interstate in the winter.
My teammates figured out how to use a piece of pallet wood and old oar to carry the second flammables cabinet like they were pallbearers:
That's how I learned about Ghana's professional dancing pallbearers. Heartwarming! They did not attempt to dance while carrying this disintegrating flammables cabinet, just to be clear.
Anyway, I feel better about the boatyard now that even more stuff has been hauled out of it.
After a quick trip to the bank to deposit some checks, I finally came home and worked to finish re-wiring our navigation light charging station:
It can now accommodate 24 lights instead of just 20. Hopefully the new USB charging ports will be more robust than the old ones. And with the unit re-wired, most problems can be isolated to issues with the boards and batteries inside of the lights, which can be replaced individually (at some expense, mind you!).
I did a full charge, am working on a full discharge, and will do another full charge before I cart this thing and the coxboxes and megaphones back over to the boathouse. More than anything I'm just relieved to be done with this overhaul so I can turn my attention to a zillion other projects.
As far as personal projects go, I also finished building the two wire squirrel cages to go over the lettuce planter boxes:
I want to make some simple hinges and latches to hold these onto the planters.
scrottie says he doesn't think these will hold very many squirrels. (that's a joke). While these are indoors they are doing a nice job of keeping the cats out, too.In any case, hopefully it will keep the squirrels from trying to bury their acorns in these once they go back out on the back porch rail.
Sunday was mostly cooking, balancing my checkbook, other household chores, and prepping for this week's teaching.
My riggers for Petrichor still haven't shown up.
And today, S heads out, first to Minnesota, then to California, for a while. Back to just me and the cats holding down the home front.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-17 11:46 pm (UTC)How about some straps with click together ends that you can tighten down over the lettuce?
no subject
Date: 2025-03-18 04:11 pm (UTC)The squirrel cages will hold plenty of squirrels if you pack them with care.
Thoughts
Date: 2025-03-19 09:46 pm (UTC)I think those modular docks are so clever. :D
>>It can now accommodate 24 lights instead of just 20.<<
That is a brilliant solution.
>>I want to make some simple hinges and latches to hold these onto the planters.<<
Squirrels can work simple hinges and latches. Some people use squirrel feeders based on that. You'll need either something with a spring too strong for their tiny hands, or an actual lock such as padlock or combination.