26 Jun 2013

One of the things that I thought I would miss the most, after moving out of our little home in the woods, to the even littler home on the water, was the wildlife. In Marmora, we had a constant parade of squirrels, and birds, and all manor of 4 legged creatures, but life aboard has yielded little to that old scene. The only difference is that the animals are different. Ground hogs, bunny rabbits, swallows, swans, geese, fish and ducks. Everywhere we look, everywhere we walk, in the evening, or during the high sun of the day, they are all over, often right at our feet.

Our yacht club is on a small island with a causeway attaching it to the mainland. And in this little protected environment, the wildlife flourishes. They have become accustomed to the silly humans, and only get out of our way when we get within petting range. The other day I had to give a baby ground hog a little nudge with my shoe so he would get out of the middle of the road and scurry back up the hill. Other than the occasional lame threat from a domestic canine, they are left to there own devices.

The great thing about it though, is that we get to watch them, enjoy their simple life, and marvel at the individual personalities that seem evident in every living thing.

On the boat note: Its getting slow. The big yard sale is today. Our truck is packed solid with stuff that has to go. We need to empty our storage unit before Saturday so that we don’t have to pay for another month, and for our own personal sanity. Progress can be measured in many different ways, sometimes the rearranging of stuff, and the reduction of required space can give the illusion of getting ahead.

We spent about 5 hours going through every nook and cranny of the boat re-evaluating every little thing’s importance, reducing where we had too much, and repacking where it was too loose. We put the sewing machine in its place, and it fit great. I have enough room in my chart storage area for probably the entire Atlantic ocean, all in big zip lock bags to keep the moisture from killing them. The boat still lists to the port side, but that is where the batteries are, the canned goods, the pots, pans, and utensils. I am pretty sure that when the big cockpit locker on the starboard side gets filled up, we’ll level out. Its still empty. I would like to get some more wiring done, and maybe get the solar panels installed before the end of the weekend, but we’ll have to see. Something always seems to get in the way, and the weather gods haven’t been playing all that nice lately.

What can I say, retired and living on a boat is rough work.