Last day of work

After working as a State Park Ranger for the State of Iowa for over 32 years, Bob is going to work for the last time.  He will turn in the state truck and then call me to come & get him, hopefully about noon. At that time, we will hitch the boat up to our pickup truck and park the boat at my sister's & brother-in-law's farm.  Wed. a.m. May 4th, we will drive up to the farm, hitch onto the boat again and head for Pepin, WI.  We are hoping to get up to Lake Pepin early enough Wed. to raise the mast, rig the boat & drop Heron into the water. We shall see if all goes as planned.

Big Smiley Face and no uniform, no badge, no weight on shoulders.

One last goodbye to Big Creek State Park.  We,  by the way, got married at the park Aug. 29, 2009.  We will be back to visit Martin's Point.

Our new licenses arrived for the pickup truck, boat and dinghy.  We will officially be residents of South Dakota, May 2nd after we get our drivers licenses in Sioux Falls.

Here he is when I arrived to pick him up.  Since he always drove a state pickup truck to and from work everyday, I had to come and get him.  He was very happy to see me.

The boat has been stored near the Big Creek office for 4 years.  Bob is leaving so the boat is leaving too.

Another pic of the boat heading out.

Installed the Dodger

When Bob came home from work yesterday, we went back up to the boat & zipped the dodger onto the stainless steel frame.  It looks very professional, if I do say so myself.  The bottom edges of the dodger will be snapped to the boat, so we will be marking on the dodger & on the boat where those snaps need to go.  We have decided that the snaps won't be  installed until after we have the boat in Lake Pepin.  The weather is not accommodating and as it was, we were getting wet last night.  Due to the rain/mist, we didn't get any photos or a movie taken of the activity.  Speaking of weather... the severe storms & flooding conditions are becoming a concern. Our plan is to head down into the hardest hit area of the US and unlike traveling over land, there is no alternate route. We will deal, with it should it become a problem. Stay tuned.

Bad weather...

Sorry, the weather is not cooperating.  We haven't been up to install the dodger, yet.  Took the day off yesterday from all preparations to celebrate Easter with Bob's Mom in Moravia. Great food & conversation, now back to emptying the townhouse.

The dodger is finished...

The following clip shows the finished dodger.  The dodger is a canvas canopy surrounding the companionway, but it has clear plastic (glass) in the front, which is the windshield area.  If the weather allows, we will take a movie tomorrow of us fitting it on the stainless steel frame which is mounted on the boat.  Bob made the frame entirely from scratch.  It started out last fall as 3 - 8 foot long straight stainless steel poles.  Can you tell, I'm thoroughly impressed with his skills? He never ceases to amaze me.

Ran the Yanmar engine

Sunday afternoon (yesterday) Bob ran the engine for about an hour.  It sounds wonderful and ran like a charm. While he was doing that, I was sewing on the Dodger.  Boy, was that frustrating. After breaking the sewing machine needle, I gave up until I buy another needle.  Hope it goes better next time.  Sorry, I forgot the movie camera and the still camera at home yesterday, so no pics.

Wicket at the Vet

WARNING:  Viewer discretion is advised. Some scenes could be disturbing.

Wicket is at the vet for teeth cleaning, ECG, blood work.  A general checkup before heading out on the sailboat.  Bob had his the previous week.  Unfortunately, Bob did not allow cameras. But both, Wicket & Bob checked out great and are cleared to set sail. The countdown... 17 days.  Vet Assistant - Wyn and Doctor Paula (my sister).

The new haircut.  She does not like having her picture taken.  She's being very patient with me.  Bob hates the hairbow, so it was immediately taken out after the photos.  Bob says she is not a "sissy" dog, so no hairbows.

Boat Tour

Sunday April 10th was a very warm & sunny day, but it was also very windy.  Here is a tour of our little boat & future home.  The mast is currently spread across the length of the boat for traveling over the highway.  In the video Bob is lifting the mast up & resting it on a blue ladder so it will be out of my way as I work on sewing/finishing the dodger this week & next. (Dodger- protection & windshield made of canvas & clear plastic over the cockpit/companionway of the sailboat.)  Stay tuned for the finished picture of the dodger.

Iowa Park Ranger Association honors 3 retired/retiring Park Rangers.  Here is Bob receiving his plaque and nice gift card at the event Apr. 9th.  Very nice time.  Thanks guys.

Cold & windy

After 80 degree temperatures yesterday, today's 36 mile an hour wind gust & 40 temps were depressing. Looks like this will be the coldest day of the week, however with temps in the 60's & 70's for the remaining days.

Yesterday, Bob & I added fishing pole holders to the dinghy and put some real oar's & oar holders on the dinghy. The oar's that came with the dinghy were just some cheap aluminum & plastic things. It is much nicer now.

Got the new lug nuts for the trailer wheels today, so we'll get those put on the trailer tomorrow.

I finished up some minor adjustments to niece, Ali's prom dress today. I made the boutonniere and started making the corsage. I couldn't find a purple that matched the dress so I got my trusty paints out and painted the roses. Beautiful match. So with sister, Paula, off work tomorrow afternoon, I'll deliver the prom stuff & then Paula and I will run errands in Ames.

Retirement fits me to a T.

Well, it has been a couple years since this has been updated, but things are starting to happen. Susan's last day of work was, yesterday, March 31. She has been enjoying her first day of freedom at home with Wicket and running errands and sorting closets and boxes. It's nice and sunny today so Wicket will go for a walk, also.

Celebrating Susie's retirement with friends tonight at Snus Winery. That will be so much fun. Matt Woods band will be playing. That is the same band that played at Snus the night we got engaged. Ooooh, how sweet!

The house has been on the market now for almost a year and unfortunately it appears there is less interest than last spring. Oh, well, we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Bob has continued to repair, create and improve things on "Heron". This past week it was buying new tires for the trailer and getting those mounted on the rims. Last week he created a bench to be mounted at the aft and will be over the tiller. The bench will double as a great table for cleaning/gutting all those fish Susie catches.