Springtime on Kent Island: 4/16 - 4/18

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, April 16

I was awoken early this morning (6:45 AM) by ducks landing on our cabintop and hitting the lifelines with their wings as they landed.  It was the same three ducks that frequently hang out on our dock--one female with two males.  As I slid the companionway hatch open to investigate the noise, the last of the ducks (a male) flew off the boat to join his companions who were already in the water nearby.  The morning was chilly, probably in the low 50's.

Lola in the morning sun, still somewhat
agitated by the duck invasion
earlier this morning.

Lola got up at the same time I did and was very alert to the presence of ducks.  She was clearly not happy with the earlier duck invasion.

My morning preparation routine went as usual and before long we were driving across the Bay Bridge to Annapolis.  After my radiation treatment, we went out for lunch at Italian Market.  (We usually go out for lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.)  I'm glad when Friday rolls around and I don't have to undergo my preparation for a couple days. (I only have two weeks left to my treatments!)

After lunch we stopped by our storage unit and picked up a few things I needed to work on the knife handle (namely, my belt sander and my work mate).  While there, Maggie planned on which items still in our storage unit will be given to her daughters.  We stopped by Ace Hardware in Cape St. Clair to pick up a 5/32" diameter brass rod for my knife handle project--it was the last one they had in stock in this diameter.

When we got back to the marina on Kent Island, it was very windy and cold (still in the 50's).  I had my "perfect hot chocolate" for Happy Hour.

Saturday, April 17

The wind had died down considerably by the time the sun came up in the morning.  The outside temperature was still in the 50's and 59 degrees was the expected high for the day. 

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I am currently reading a (kindle) book called the The Artists Way by Julia Cameron.  The goal of the book is to enhance one's creativity.  

I am interested in enhancing my creativity--specifically involving my photography.  In the book, there are exercises--one is called "morning pages."  This morning I started my "morning pages" exercise where I wrote three pages of my thoughts (per the instructions).  Mostly these thoughts are details about things I am working on at the moment or things that are bothering me (supposedly standing n the way of my higher level of creativity).  We'll see how well the exercise works...

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As it turns out, one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about is how to proceed with my knife handle project.  I had planned on cutting down the thickness of the handle pieces using my belt sander, while holding the knife pieces to a larger piece of plywood using two-sided tape (and I still think I may do this).  However, I recently came up with the idea of modeling the knife handle using modeling clay (which I have onboard from another project) before simply cutting down the thickness.  (By visualizing the desired form of the knife handle, I may not want to cut the thickness down equally in all areas.)

The modeling clay I had onboard was stored in the bottom of a locker where it was cold.  Consequently, the modeling clay was too hard to mold into a shape.  I allowed the clay to lay in the warm sun but didn’t feel like waiting for it to warm up before proceeding.

So proceeding with my original plan, I fastened the two halves of the knife handle to a thick piece of plywood so that the handle halves were securely held in place during sanding.  Using my belt sander with a course grit belt made short work of reducing the thickness.  I deliberately made the handle halves slightly thicker at the butt end.  Then, I epoxied the handle halves to the knife’s spine and clamped everything in place using the two machine screws I used previously.  This was a bit messy since I had to coat the machine screws with Vaseline so that I could easily remove them after the epoxy cured while simultaneously dealing with the oozing epoxy.  I allowed the epoxy to cure overnight in our enclosed cockpit where it was nice and warm.

Sunday, April 18

I got up early and removed the machine screws I used to temporarily clamp the two halves of the knife handle together.  Fortunately, the use of Vaseline worked and it enabled me to easily remove the machine screws.  I cut two pieces off the 12-inch long brass rod I bought on Friday and inserted them into the handle with a generous coating of epoxy.

The brass rods were just epoxied in place and
it was actually starting to look like a knife
handle! (I still have lots of shaping
and sanding to do.)

The weather was beautiful today but still a bit on the cool side as we went out for a light breakfast at Starbuck's here on Kent Island.  (The roads here on Kent Island were designed so that you can get almost anywhere on the island without using Route 50 which is mobbed with beach traffic on most late-spring and summer weekends.)

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I spent several hours in the early afternoon shaping my knife handle and sanding down the brass pins to become even with the handle.  In late afternoon, I added some epoxy to fill a small crack between the knife blade and one of the handle halves.    (I taped off everything but the open crack with plastic tape to avoid getting epoxy on everything.)   We worked the epoxy into the crack using a folded-over piece of paper and left the epoxy to cure overnight.

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I don’t recall a spring season that been this long with cold days interspersed with some warm ones, though I’m sure most were.  This is the first spring we have spent on the Chesapeake within the last five or six years.  During the last five or six years, we have spent springtime between the Bahamas and the ICW where it seems like we were always on the go.  I must admit that this springtime (being in one place) has been nice, even though I’ve been going through radiation treatments.

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I hope to complete my little knife handle project early next week--of course, after that will be several weeks of applying the oil finish.  Stay tuned and thanks for following our blog!