Hiking Sam's Point

Nick leaves his calling card on the Shawangunk Ridge

Two weekends ago the weather gods bestowed on us temps in the high 70's and we had no choice but to honor them by getting a new hike in. This time we explored Sam's Point Preserve (apart of the Shawangunk Ridge) outside Ellenville, NY. Sam's point offers a variety of terrain and beautiful scenic views from a variety of points.

Smoked Chicken!

Two batches in one week! So tasty. One set of drumsticks and then a whole chicken.

Outdoor Yoga Fun

Nick and I had some fun while hiking on a gorgeous day. Here's some pics to brighten your day! Namaste and peace to all our friends, family and fellow human beings we share this earth with. Cliffs of Sam's Point Preserve in Ellenville, New York.

Sailing into Spring

Taking advantage of the nice warm weather we pulled out our sails to give them a little attention.

Boat Heater 1

I was going to wait until this was all done to post but decided following along would be more interesting.

We decided that the boat needs some sort of heat. Since electric, propane and hot water is out of the question it leaves a solid fuel heater as the best bet. I grew up with a house heated by wood and then spent many years building fireplaces so solid fuel heat is very appealing to me.

With that decision made the design process took awhile. We have a bunch of restrictions: cost, size, safety, efficiency and space. Cost is important in all our decisions and for this I wanted to keep it under $50.00. This was actually a hard restriction since it would be easy to design something and weld it but metal costs are quite high.

Next is size. Since the boat is small the heater can't take up much space but it also doesn't need to be huge and provide too much heat. I picked the dimensions of 15" high by 6" wide maximum. Safety is paramount on a boat when dealing with fire so all parts near the flame must be extremely well insulated. Efficiency was another tougher design area that I had to compromise a little on. The old school type of potbelly stove produces a poor amount of heat for the amount of fuel used. Finally space on the boat limits where the heater could go which was important for limiting what sort of shape and mounting the heater had to be.

Book Review: My Old Man and the Sea

Our first book review on here. We will be doing a bunch more, they will be short simple and full of opinion so hope you enjoy.
I received this book for a present. That is always the best way to get a book since you have no real idea about anything in the book other than the person who gave it to you thought you would enjoy it. Honestly I still haven't decided if I liked it or not so I will pass it on and see what others have to say.

PILOBOLUS

We had the pleasure of going to see the dance troupe Pilobolus perform last month. This very talented team of dancers play on the boundary of surreal. Utilizing different mediums such as shadows, video cameras and projectors, they take the audience on a visually tantalizing ride. Their strength and ability to seem as if they morph into each other with such a fluidity makes the title of some of their acts such as Symbiosis fitting.

Engine choices

It seems New England is full of waiting around for the right time then not having enough time. Most of the Winter has seen little work done on our boat and now as Spring rolls in it looks like we don't have enough time to get everything done. Right now we are coming down to the final decision on choosing a new engine. We have thought of every possible scenario to not have to do this but to be reliable in the long run our old rusty Volvo needs to go.