Perkins Cove Maine, Barnacle Billy's

Barbara and I went up to Ogunquit Maine for a lobster treat Saturday.  It was a bit hot even in Maine, but otherwise lovely.  Here's an aerial view of Perkins Cove. 

We ate at Barnacle Billy's.  It's a rough lobster place but has a nice deck overlooking the cove.  BB was in a very buoyant mood and we had a lovely day.  Here's herself and the view from the restaurant deck.

The cove is wonderfully charming.  There's a draw bridge across it and a number of boats sheltered inside.  Here's a few photos.

There are others in the web album, but you get the idea.

When your ju ju goes bad it can really go bad.

The last few days have been VERY trying. It started with my main development machine acting up. At first I thought it was software but no amount of tweaking things helped. Eventually, in absolute frustration, I took the machine in to be serviced. While I was at it, I also took in the boy's machine which has been unusable for over a year (they got viruses on it and never felt like cleaning it up).

So while those machines were in the shop, I went back to my prior development machine (I always keep two). Then it too began to misbehave. About then the shop calls and says it's a bad disk drive. Fortunately I've got a spare so I drive it down to the shop (discovering along the way that the town is putting in water mains and has the street to the shop in a fine mess, never mind they are repaving the return route which is also in a fine mess). About the time I get home, the shop calls and says the disk on the boy's machine is also dead. Fortunately, I've got another spare, so it's back to the the shop again.

Once I'm home, my old development machine completely locks up. So I take it into the shop. Wouldn't you know, another disk drive. Now I'm out, so I go down to Circuit city and buy another one, take it to the shop and start home. About half way there, the tech calls and it turns out the drive and controller are incompatible (drive to large). Now I've got to find a smaller drive. No such beast locally, so I end up paying the shop price ($170 for a $75 drive).

I've now put those three machines on contract but at the end of the day I'm out about $800 and 2 disk drives. On a positive note, I now have 2 new spares but I think I'll return those.

I've got my main development machine back and have begun to rebuild it. Should be done in another 4 or 5 hours. In aggregate the thing is going to cost me over $1000 and 3 or 4 days work.

I suppose I should think about prayer or sacrifices or something.

Dinner at J's Nashoba Valley Winery

Barbara and I went out to dinner at J's Restaurant at Nashoba Valley Winery.  It's in Bolton, Ma and really very lovely.  Here's an aerial view and a couple of outside shots of the restaurant.

   

The food here is really very good and unusual featuring many locally grown seasonal foods and, of course, wines from Nashoba Valley Winery.  The winery specializes in varietal fruit wines.  While most fruit wine is really over sweet to my taste, these are really magnificant.

We like to eat outside on the back patio with views of the orchard and pavilion.

The day was really magnificent and we had a lovely time.

 

Boston Harbor Sail

Bob and Bernadette Landry and Barbara and I were suppose to go sailing overnight this last Thursday and Friday.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast did not cooperate.  Thunderstorms and rain were predicted.  Bob is a bit new to sailing.  He has a boat for the week but got caught between thunderstorms early in the week.  Like most sailors, one experience is enough and so when storms were predicted he canceled the trip.  Of course, the weather was wonderful.  As most people know, weather forecast and actual weather are only nominally related. Soooo

Friday mourning Bob called and we decided to go for a sail.  The forecast was, of course a bit marginal but nothing ventured.  Unfortunately, by the time he's called Barbara had made other plans.  So the three of us went off for a sail.

Bob had joined a timeshare for the season our of Rowes Warf, Boston.  This is right in the heard of the sea district and quite the place.  At any event off we went and of course had a wonderful time.  We sailed out of the marina past the airport and out into the islands.  Here's an aerial view.

Here's a few photos.  There are more in the album.

Yard - Put in new lawn

I've been trying to get this entry made for the last few days but things have been really busy.

Monday I started putting in the new lawn. Here's what things looked like when I started. Fairly sad really.

When we bought the original house there was a fair yard. But after the fire (our house burned down) and the subsequent reconstruction, the yard was in sad shape. Much of the problem was due to storing building materials in the yard during construction. There wasn't really anything that could be done since the lot is wooded.

At any event I rented a machine from Taylor rental. I'd not seen one like this previously. It had a couple of dozen rotating disk about 1 inch apart to score the soil and a seed hopper that dropped seed into the scores. Really fairly clever and MUCH easier than using anything else. The one I rented was brand new but worked well until one of the tires came off the rim. Seems they were tubeless and not properly inflated. Once that was put back on things went well.

I scored the yard in two directions then went over it twice more seeding. When I was done, I raked up the worst of the debris and started watering. Here's what it looks like now:

Since then I've been watering and watering and watering. I should know in a few days how much of the seed will grow and will post some more photo's then.

In other news, Barbara and I were suppose to go sailing with Bob and Bernadette Landry Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately the weather forecast was poor and Bob decided not to go. Of course the ACTUAL weather was wonderful. Such is the way of weather forecast. In any event we may try to get out for the afternoon Friday. We'll see.

Sunday - boat day

Yesterday was spent working on Marc and Miriam's boat repairing some bright work I'd broken in a bit of a mishap. It's about 85% done now and I think Marc will finish the sanding and varnish.

I got out early today and finished up the lattice then cleaned up the stone and rubble from the recent yard work. I took a look at the old air conditioner slab with a thought to perhaps breaking it up to improve the look of things. A bit of investigation revealed that it's at least 16 inches thick. Why on earth anyone would pour a slab that thick for an air conditioner compressor is a complete mystery to me. But they did. I've already tried to break it up once with a jack hammer and had no luck, so given what I learned today, it's going to stay just where it is and I'll try to find some way to screen it.

I'm going to check the weather for tomorrow and if it looks good, I'll rent some equipment and prep the yard for the new lawn. It's a bit late in the year but I should be able to get a fair start and then reseed next spring to have a nice lawn.

Lattice mostly up

Well, I mounted some of the lattice yesterday and almost finished today. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Rhode Island to finish the boat. Prosaic, but sometimes that's what life is.

Plan for the day

Plans are, well just plans. The original plan for today was to drive to Rhode Island and help Marc finish the work on the boat. But it's raining so time for plan B.

I'll try to hang some of the lattice on the front steps and if it rains over much, I'll just work on the master bedroom molding. I also noticed that some of the photos did not come through with the blog posts. I'll clean that up. Clearly there are some learning issues with Picasa.

Plan for the day

Well the day got off to a VERY rapid start. I finished the stone walk (see earlier posting), checked out the irrigation system, and bought the lattice for the front steps. With that all done, I've no plan for the house for the rest of the day, instead I'll try to get a bit of work done.

The gravel walk is done!

One of the task for this summer was to put in a walk along the front of the house. Well, here it is! There's over 1000 feet sq. of it lined with cobbles, plus two (count them) designer stone patios. One is in front of the slider into the downstairs den and the other off the downstairs bedroom.

That's about 70 feet of house and walk!

Stone under driveway deck stairs.

One of the task this summer was to lay a stone floor under the driveway deck stairs. Here it is. Now this doesn't look like much of a job, but given that things sloped in two directions it was a chore. Plus, I'd not set stone for a while and had to relearn.

The stone walk is done! Yea!!

Well the field stone walk is DONE! I can feel my back, knees, and various muscles celebrating that there will be no more stone work this year! Yea!!

Here's what it looks like from the master bedroom deck. Shot down like this you can not see it all and it doesn't really look that big ... but the part you can see is about 40 feet or so

The last shot is looking back toward the designer stone patio under the master bedroom deck. This is the bit you can not see from the master bedroom deck photo. It's about 25 feet or so.

Some of these stones were large, in the range of 300 to 400 pounds ... ouch. I managed to get them all set with only a couple of slightly mashed fingers and one toe.

After the stones have set, I'll need to adjust them for drainage but other than that this part is DONE.

Bar Harbour Trip - May 2006

I've been playing with Picasa and organizing some photos. Here's a first effort creating a post with links to my web album.

We went to Bar Harbour, Maine for a bit of a holiday in 2006. We stayed at the Atlantic Oaks. It has a main hotel building, many other buildings, and the original grounds mansion. We started out in the main building but the room was VERY noisy so I spoke with the manager and they moved us to a suite in the mansion. The room was large and very very nice complete with a fireplace and private deck overlooking the ocean.

Bar Harbour is definitely a tourist town and a bit funky. This alleyway caught my eye particularly.

We walked about, ate in some nice restaurants, and went for a cruise. None of the high speed catamarans were running so we went on a relatively small boat for a trip around part of the island. It was interesting to note the tidal range, grand hotel, and many mansions along the way.

The coast was really spectacular. I was particularly struck by the mountains and the tidal caves.

On the way back we went by Bar Hourbor light. The islands were covered with seals and pups. It was something to see.

I had wanted to take the high speed ferry to Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, it did not start running until the following week. However, one of the schooners started running the last day we were there and so on a rather brisk May day we went for a sail. It was COLD. It was FUN. When it came time to raise the sails the passengers lent a hand. I must admit, it was rather more work than I'd imagined. Surprisingly, at one point the boat hit almost 12 kts in a rather modest breeze. I was also surprised to learn that it had a swing keel, something that came in rather handy as we scraped bottom a bit as the tide was rather low.

Of course, no trip to Bar Hourbor would be complete without a trip around the island and a drive up Cadillac Mt.