Day 119, Year 8: Progress
Date: Saturday March 2, 2013
Weather: Partly Cloudy to Overcast, Temp in the 50’s F
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
We are making progress. Lee Kaufman came over this morning and helped Mark fill the holes in our teak deck. Thank you, Lee. Of course, we made the holes, but getting them filled before it rains again is a very good thing. Today’s process was to put epoxy in each hole, put in a screw if there was enough wood left at the bottom of the hole, and then tap in a wooden teak plug. For those holes where there wasn’t enough teak left to screw into, the plugs just went in. Our deck is 32 years old and during the trip around the globe, the wood just seemed to shrink. It is much thinner than it was in 2005 when we left Boston (wish that were true for us instead of the deck), so we are doing what we can to keep from having to replace the whole thing. Anyway, we now have about a half of an inch of wooden plug sticking out of each hole. When the epoxy is good and dry, Mark will take a chisel and knock the tops off these plugs at deck level. Then we will have to do some sanding. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as we had hoped as Mark realized at the last minute that he didn’t have enough plugs. I made a run to the local West Marine, but they only had 30. We needed 75. So in the afternoon Mark drove about 45 minutes to the West Marine south of Myrtle Beach to get those. But even with that little hitch, at the end of the day, we can definitely say progress was made.
My job of renaming all of our photos from Year One is coming along. I know you probably don’t understand exactly what it is that I am doing, but trust me, it is tedious and you don’t want to know any more that that! In another day or two, I should be done and all Year One photos will be uploaded to the web in Picasa. That is what counts. I am now in Tonga and then have only New Zealand to go. Year Two photos were done in Picasa as were all photos from that time on, so they are all in the same system and no renaming is necessary. For that I am quite thankful.
The weather turned chilly this afternoon and it looks like we have another week of days in the 50’s and nights in the 30’s. Regardless, I took time off this afternoon while Mark drove down to Murrells Inlet to get the plugs, to do some planting in Joe’s garden. He worked with his yard helper this morning to get a little patch for vegetables and another for flowers cleared and roto-tilled. So this afternoon, I planted peas from seed and a few kale plants. The cold shouldn’t hurt these and hopefully as soon as this cool snap is over, they will thrive in the warmth of spring.
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| 130302 Day 119 South Carolina, USA–Plugs in the Teak Deck |
