[Plantagenet]

I’m at a hippy hot springs in eastern Oregon. It’s clothing optional after 9 pm in the hot pools. There were some very beautiful young women in the hot springs this afternoon, along with some sexy fit older women. Hopefully they’ll come back for another session in the hot springs this evening.

Cheers!

[Newfie]

After a month on the hard we are finally in the water. Almost ready to take my cr and this PM found my nav instruments wink work because the rats ate them, in a very inaccessible spot to boot. Something to keep my hands busy tomorrow, as well as my mouth!

But it is sooo much nicer being in the water. The gentle rocking, and it’s way cooler than in the yard. And we can pee at night without a 100 yard dash.



We are the last boat on the tip of the pier.

[Plantagenet]

Thats sounds oh-so-warm-and-pleasant being on your boat and back in the water.

I'm back in central Alaska. We're having a warm, sunny fall here but since its Alaska that means temps are down in the teens and single digits. The big thrill here is the local mom-and-pop ski area is set to open in a week. We're much too small to be able to afford gondolas or chair lifts or anything like that, so the ski area uses old school busses to pick people at the bottom and then ferry them back up to top for another ski run.



Skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnggggg is so much fun.

Cheers!

[careinke]

We just bought 1/2 a local raised, completely grass fed cow, for a hanging weight of only $3.00 per pound! The farmer slaughtered, skinned, gutted and cut it into quarters for us. We were able to see his place and how it operates, so I am confident in his process.

Now, we have it hanging for a dry cure over the next 21 days, before we butcher it. To keep it at 33-40 degrees my son built an insulated temporary box attached to an old fridge in their basement. We are looking forward to a very nice Prime Rib for Xmas dinner.

When we butcher, we vacuum pack and freeze the meat in meal size portions that we can directly put into the Sous Vide cooker. After the meat is done we take it out and sear it to finish it off. If you have never tried Sous Vide cooking I strongly recommend it!!

The grocery stores around here sell grass fed Hamburger for $8.99 a pound, and it usually is shipped in from another country.

So all and all a win; economically, environmentally and we buy local!!

[Newfie]

Just had a short scare that (hopefully) turns out to be just some thing weird and goes away.

I experienced a “ VISUAL MIGRAINE”.

All of a sudden I had a partial circle of jagged bright edges and blind in the center. Started in the left eye but moved to both. It lasted maybe 10-15 minutes. I looked it up (google) and found a PERFECT description of what I was experiencing. Although it was damn hard to read the screen with all this nonsense going on.

The happy part is it does not have any pain and seems to be a passing thing. Not a big deal but scared me a bit. First thing I looked up was “stroke symptoms.”

Something I’ll have to keep an “eye” on. LOL

In the meantime I found out those shooting stars I see in the corner of my eye is the eye fluid getting thick and tugging on the retina. Yet another “benefit” of growing older, periodic fireworks.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'J')ust had a short scare that (hopefully) turns out to be just some thing weird and goes away.

I experienced a “ VISUAL MIGRAINE”.

All of a sudden I had a partial circle of jagged bright edges and blind in the center. Started in the left eye but moved to both. It lasted maybe 10-15 minutes. I looked it up (google) and found a PERFECT description of what I was experiencing. Although it was damn hard to read the screen with all this nonsense going on.

The happy part is it does not have any pain and seems to be a passing thing. Not a big deal but scared me a bit. First thing I looked up was “stroke symptoms.”

Something I’ll have to keep an “eye” on. LOL

In the meantime I found out those shooting stars I see in the corner of my eye is the eye fluid getting thick and tugging on the retina. Yet another “benefit” of growing older, periodic fireworks.

[Newfie]

I’ll consider it. Not so easy to do in St Martin.

[Newfie]

Merry Christmas to all the old geezers here, and the other guy also.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'M')erry Christmas to all the old geezers here, and the other guy also.

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')’ll consider it. Not so easy to do in St Martin.

[Plantagenet]

Happy holidays to all!

Its too cold to ski right now in central Alaska (-20 to -30) and even colder temps are predicted for next week (-30 to -55). Fortunately I started playing pickleball with some friends and locals, and we can set up our nets INDOORS on a basketball court in the University gym (you can fit 4 pickleball courts on one basketball court) so I'm having fun playing pickleball and surviving the cold snap just fine. We will resume playing after a break for Christmas.

We were having record warm temps up until ca. December 15, and then winter started up with a bang! It had been so warm I'd almost forgotten what winter in Alaska is like.

I hope everybody is staying warm and having a happy holiday, wherever you are.


The weather outside is frightful
But inside its so delightful
We play pickleball inside a gym
And almost everytime I win!

Happy holidays!!!

Cheers!

[AdamB]

Merry Christmas everyone.

Kids home for the holidays, everyone seems fully satisfied with the trinkets we bought each other, the dog was shaven as there were plenty of hands in the house to hold him down, turkey and stuffing was enjoyed by all.

Still snow on the ground from the last storms, Christmas Eve was spent with the daughter at the range, today is just sheer laziness and an A Christmas Story on endless loop on the main TV.

[careinke]

I'll just leave this here for you to enjoy. Merry Christmas!
USAF Band

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I')n the meantime I found out those shooting stars I see in the corner of my eye is the eye fluid getting thick and tugging on the retina.

[Newfie]

Had a tough night. Moved from St Maarten to St Barths today. Checked in and walked around town, had lunch, did some food shopping. Got back to the boat about 3pm. Anchored in a tight mooring field.

Have I g some weird weather, fog and drizzle this am. This pm we had a bunch of squalls, fairly heavy. Most people were not on their boats being in town. The wind is about 95% somewhere NE to SE and the boats were anchors for that. But diff ere t folks let out more or less chain so that when the wind moves you relationship to other boats changes. I was watching our boat all evening and saw two other boats hit. The wind swung over 180° and we were getting close to another boat, when all of a sudden it took a strong swing. I was in the process of letting chain out to swing behind the guy and ALMOST made it but was too slow. Did some minor damage to our pulpit rail and who knows what to his boat. They eventually came back but I could not get him to talk to me.??????

So after a while I was adjusting our chain when we hit hit by two big waves, which broke the shackle holding the anchor to the chain. Which is quite amazing because it was completely oversized and the shackle pin was held on with dissing wire. The wave also flipped our dingy.

I motored out of there slowly dragging the dink with us upside down. Got to a different spot that has fewer people around, but not a @normal” anchorage. Got a spare anchor down, got the dink up and the engine off, cleaned it up and got it started. Lost a pair of oats and some small items and the one pair of shoes that do not give me blisters.

Tomorrow the outboard goes back in the dink and I go diving for the anchor. It was $1,200 when I bought it 6 years ago. I’ve a good GPS fix in the location so I have a fair chance of finding it.

On the other hand my Wife has not divorced me over this episode and we didn’t scream at each other and she only cried once for a very short time. We had to lost too much, especially if I find the anchor. Most especially, no one was hurt. So that makes it a good night.

As they say, what doesn’t kill ya.....

[Plantagenet]

Joe BIden screwed up again. I know I shouldn't laugh at him but I can't help it.

This time Biden's teleprompter malfunctioned and Joe didn't know what to do so he froze up. Poor old guy.....this must be mortifying for him. Joe knows he is senile in whatever shred of brain power he still has left, but he can't keep from screwing up again and again

joe-biden-coronavirus-teleprompter-screwup

Cheers!

[Azothius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'H')ad a tough night. Moved from St Maarten to St Barths today. Checked in and walked around town, had lunch, did some food shopping. Got back to the boat about 3pm. Anchored in a tight mooring field.

Have I g some weird weather, fog and drizzle this am. This pm we had a bunch of squalls, fairly heavy. Most people were not on their boats being in town. The wind is about 95% somewhere NE to SE and the boats were anchors for that. But diff ere t folks let out more or less chain so that when the wind moves you relationship to other boats changes. I was watching our boat all evening and saw two other boats hit. The wind swung over 180° and we were getting close to another boat, when all of a sudden it took a strong swing. I was in the process of letting chain out to swing behind the guy and ALMOST made it but was too slow. Did some minor damage to our pulpit rail and who knows what to his boat. They eventually came back but I could not get him to talk to me.??????

So after a while I was adjusting our chain when we hit hit by two big waves, which broke the shackle holding the anchor to the chain. Which is quite amazing because it was completely oversized and the shackle pin was held on with dissing wire. The wave also flipped our dingy.

I motored out of there slowly dragging the dink with us upside down. Got to a different spot that has fewer people around, but not a @normal” anchorage. Got a spare anchor down, got the dink up and the engine off, cleaned it up and got it started. Lost a pair of oats and some small items and the one pair of shoes that do not give me blisters.

Tomorrow the outboard goes back in the dink and I go diving for the anchor. It was $1,200 when I bought it 6 years ago. I’ve a good GPS fix in the location so I have a fair chance of finding it.

On the other hand my Wife has not divorced me over this episode and we didn’t scream at each other and she only cried once for a very short time. We had to lost too much, especially if I find the anchor. Most especially, no one was hurt. So that makes it a good night.

As they say, what doesn’t kill ya.....

[Plantagenet]

Yo Newfie

Sounds like a close call with the squall and the dingy getting knocked over and the loss of the anchor (hopefully temporary loss).

Still........you are outside having adventures and living the dream.

Most of the rest of us are sitting in our houses, under some form of lockdown, worried about getting the virus and generally going stir crazy.

Good luck with all. Thx for sharing your stories from St. Barts et alia....right now they are much appreciated.

Cheers!

[Newfie]

Thanks for the thoughts,

Lock-O-the Irish I guess. Went back and found the anchor almost immediately. I could see the shackle pin laying next to it, unbroken. So that means the pin worked it’s way out. The mousing wire must have broken somehow allowing the pin to rotate. Need to keep an eye on that.

It was too deep for my old lungs to free dive so I found a local guy to tie a line on it for me. Disgusting to watch someone so easily do what I can not.

Bottom line is I came out of the episode with a bent tube and bruised ego. And I paid the diver $120 for 10 minutes work. How sweet it is!

Life is GOOD!!!

[jedrider]

We have one senile and one juvenile candidate for President. Some choice.