Sunday, June 28, 2015

Mt View Fly-In

The first proper fly-in for us this year. We had never attended this one though it has been going on for 12 years. And the Fawcetts certainly do put on a fine family event at their Mt View hill top runway in Wolfsboro New Hampshire. Saturday it was attended by about 60 aircraft as well as drive in shleps like us. Spot landing and flour bombing contest were held for the grown ups, a candy drop for the kids and pot luck lunch for every one in attendance. As usual lots of fun aircraft to drool over.

My all time favorite the Wittman Tailwind
It looks fast just sitting there.
The front office a bit of a tight squeeze.
It even looks fast from behind
And the ultimate dream home with a giant hangar to keep a plane in next to a lush green runway
A home built Rans S-6 on amphibious floats stopped in for a spell
The Highlander at the top end of the row
A factory built RV-12 LSA
A classic Piper J-5
The flight-line further down the runway
plenty of parking for all
More on the far side
a 1940s vintage Globe Swift
with a classic panel
The newer Temco Swift with the sliding canopy
With a much more updated panel
A 1948 MG
An equally old and perfectly refurbished Stinson 108 two seater
A 50s vintage Russian Yak, the classic soviet block trainer, with its Bulgarian pilot stopped in for a visit
An ultralight also visited
The far side of the runway with home-built Bearhawk and RV-4 along side a Cub and a Champ
a gaggle of . . . .
four Sea-Reys . . .
amphibians stopped in
Bob Pustel takes off for the flour bombing contest  in his Stinson 108-2
The Russian Yak heads for the end of the runway
The owner of the nice house arrived in his Cessna 206 on amphibious floats
An Aeronca Champion departs
A Bell 47 stopped in as well.
A Piper Twin departs.
The Wittman Tailwind takes off https://youtu.be/kdtyO5B4Bp4
And gives us a fly by. https://youtu.be/RxHB1rNUYNI

All in all a great event. And at the end of the day everyone pitched in to help clear tables and tents.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

This and That

Made my second batch of pickled onions.

Start with a mess of boiling onions,
 Peel and put them in mason jars with red wine vinegar and green peppercorns.
Let them sit for three to four weeks. Slice and enjoy in salads, on you sandwich or as trimmings for other dishes. Nice combination of sweet and sour. Goes especially good with avocados.
Peppers and tomatoes are doing better than any I have ever grown. Only thing I did different this time around was to add lots of egg shells, bone meal and a sprinkle of Epsom salts to the soil before I planted them. Must be two foot tall by now.
 One pepper about an inch long.
One long and skinny about an inch and a half long
First tomato about the size of a dime.
Finches have been chomping though the bird seed
I added a dish to the bottom of the feeder as they spill so much of it on the ground
Dug out the old skin-on-frame kayak I built 14 years ago. I have not paddled at all for the last couple of years due to a persistent shoulder injury. But I might give it a  try again so I figured I might as well mend some of the splits in the fabric.
Glued-on a large patch on the aft deck behind the cockpit where is sees a lot of stress getting in and out of the thing and there were a couple of large splits.
A couple smaller splits on the front got patches too.
 The paddle needs a sanding and some oil.
Couple of coats of battleship grey floor enamel makes the patches blend in. Might just have to go for a paddle now.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Did I mention I hate heights?

Five years ago when I did the major exterior work on the house I got stopped by winter, so I left the gable ends of the house in clapboards as they were. They did not look so nice but would have to do. Well you know how it goes. We moved onto other projects and they spent the next five years as I left them. So I finally got motivated to do something about the one on the driveway side.
So after striping the old clapboards off, I re-nailed thee old sheathing back on to the studs replaced the window, re trimmed it, tarpapered it, and trimmed it out.
This is the other end of the house but it looked just the same when I started.
Re-nailing the sheathing back on to the studs before the tar paper went on.
Trimming out the window
Made a new gable vent
tested it for fit
painted it
Here is the back side

Might as well clean the mildew off the rakes and give them another coat of paint.
Fitted the gable vent with a fan rescued from an old kitchen extractor behind it to suck the summer heat out of the roof structure and added the freeze-boards on the rake.
Saturday I started the shingling
OSHA approved staging
By Saturday evening I got this far
Sunday I got a late start and was working a the top of my comfort zone, lots of fiddly angle cutting.
Then I had no choice but to do the double stack thing . . .  everything was screwed and clamped together so there was no flexing of my staging at all, I still did not care for it.
Had to finish the peak off the ladder
Sunday 6pm got it all done and cleaned up.