July 2017 Back to Texas

We spent 4th of July at our 3rd Naturalization Ceremony. It is a great way to celebrate the USA as we welcomed over 500 new citizens to our country from over 60 different countries. No other 4th of July event can compare with attending this event.

Proud to welcome a lot of new Americans to the United States.

That is the scrap metal bin at the Admirals fathers hobby shop.

We filled it with over 250 carbuators and other scrap metal from his shop.

Big Dave drove the fork lift as we loaded up the remaining stuff from the second story storage areas in his shop. Then we went down and helped to sort the stuff of just  toss it out.

Just a few remaining items, almost done, One more fork lift load finished getting all the carburetors, hydraulic hoses and connections, Propane hoses and connections plus a lot of miscellaneous stuff down.

Done, all the shelves are empty.

Big Dave called two friends up and they each took a truck load of stuff they wanted.

We started each morning about 8am and finished by just after 10 am due to the increasing temps in the shop.

No big deal for a Texan who works in this every day, but we have acclimated to the Pacific Northwest where it has been in the 70's during the day and 58-62 degrees at night in July You have to really work to get a sweat going but here the sweat starts at 8am. 

lots of Cushman carburetors.

A new project has appears in the back lot of the shop.

I lived in Ft. worth for a little over 7 years, mainly during my high school years. I took some time to drive by the homes we lived in. five different homes in those memorable years, this Third one on Cork Place. 

This second on Olive Place, Two of the homes, one on Curzon, and on on Byers had been removed and replaced by more modern construction. Did not make it over to Bluebonnet circle to see if that one was still there. 

When we made it back to Settle I was intent on getting our engine work complete on Snowball. I hired a Mechanic who is a long time resident of Poulsbo and he has a large clientele that keeps him busy. I started doing some of the easy things like replacing engine hoses, thermostat, and starting the project to replace the transmission cable. 

I explained to the mechanic that if he could just come and finish the heat exchanger, exhaust riser, and the anti-siphon that I would get all the rest done. This seemed to spur him into action and the job is now complete as of Aug.7.

I'm going over this weekend to change all the filters, the antifreeze and oil. Then Snowball will be sailing the waters of Puget Sound safely very soon!

July 2017 Back to Texas 

We looked forward to our trip to Texas since it seemed a very long time since we had been back. I was missing our Texas Family and so we made sure to have some quality Austin time for sure. The main goal to help the Admirals dad get all the rest of the stuff down from the second story of his 3,000 sq ft hobby shop. It was obvious he had been doing a good job of downsizing since we were here last. Not always easy for some to get rid of stuff they have been collecting for a lifetime, but Big Dave is gettin'er done!

the temps were in the 90's when we arrived and we paced ourselves, but the day we flew out of Austin back to Seattle the high was 114 that day. After almost four years here in Seattle our bodies have fully acclimated and so returning to what used to be just a hot day was a lot more to us. Our July in Seattle has had no rain, every day sunny and in the 70's with a couple of 80-81 temps, and cool nights around 60.