Preparation

The stands were actually finished right around the turning of the year. Well, almost. I had to cut tops and put them on, and Stacey helped me bolt them all together. I pestered Layton about where to put the boat, and ended up taking the space to the left of the shop. There was an old firepit there, along with some junk, but as there was also a tap/hosebib handy it seemed like a good place. I went out on a Sunday to try to level the area.

5 minutes. That is what it would have taken to level that in the Komatsu. 5 hours later I was sweating and still not done. Many odd things had gone into that fire...rat traps (complete with rat if the bones are anything to judge by) old engine components, plastic, paint cans. I sifted through and put all the junk in a bin, metal in a wheelbarrow, and ashes in a pile. Then I dug out the area and raked it. I was concerned that the ground was a bit soft, and later I was proven to be right.

I needed to put the boat on wood blocks. Generally, you lay the keel on BIG chunks of wood, and use the boat stands to keep the boat from falling over. In a perfect world, with your own crane, you can have a cradle made for your boat with casters, and then you can push it all around on your concrete parking lot. See why I want a marina? Of my own? But the order of the day was, well, wood blocks. I had a few chunks of 4x4, but that really wasn't going to cut it. I went on a wood gathering venture early one morning. Where? Why, to the root of all evil, Bear Mountain. I moseyed into the area where I last knew stuff to be, but it was long gone. All covered in fog and hard to scout for scraps. I looked around for houses in the finishing stages of framing, and eventually I found one that looked like it was being built by a first timer; tons of scrap all over the place, no bin, garbage everywhere. I poked around and was rewarded by a few chunks of 6x10 PSL and one big eight foot piece of 6x6 timber. One gentleman protested my absconscion of said piece, but I squashed his protests and made off with my spoils. However, it was nowhere near enough timber.
Driving through Langford every night is a bit of a pain, but we have found a few shortcuts. One is down Station Rd. from the parkway to Jacklin. It goes alongside the tracks, and there are piles of old railroad ties...which I had noticed. On my way home one night, I investigated these piles, only to find most of the ties rotten and useless. Not all, however. The real issue was that most of the good ties were 15-20 feet in length and totally outside my ability to lift! I didn't want to show up with a chainsaw, as the legality of taking the ties was a bit questionable. Technically, VIA Rail owns the property and all the stuff on it. They were obviously discarded, and an environmental hazard to boot with all that creosote...I figured I was doing someone a favour. But cloud of creosoted woody dust is not a good idea. And the noise...

Well, I found a couple of 10 foot lengths I could pick up. They were pretty solid, and I had no problem getting them to the car. Then I had to curl a huge (guessing around 150-250 lbs.) timber onto the roof of our poor little tercel, with chunks of gravel and dirt all over. Two of them pretty much put the rocker panels on the ground. Then I strapped the huge lumps of wood down and drove home.

Getting them off the car was an adventure, but gravity helped as always, and the next day I went back for 2 more. Emboldened by my previous success, I chose two 14 footers (length of the car +) and barely got them onto the roof. The car swayed in an alarming way. Looked fun, so I strapped them down and went to Wal-Mart to get some stuff for Stace, and to show off my rooftop prizes.

You know that thing where people ostentatiously avert their eyes from disabled people, embarrassing displays of affection, and people with large growths on their face? That's what I got. Everyone averting their eyes as soon as they saw my disabled toyota with its large rooftop growth and affectionate driver.

I got them home without real incident (if you discount the part where the car tried to swap ends and roll over while I was cornering at a speed best suited to a BMW.) and decided I had better get them off the car before taking stuff into Stacey. It was raining and I was cold and in a hurry, so I tried to push the timbers off the car while NOT wearing gloves. Predictably, the first one slipped out of my hands in a big way (big timber) and bent the antenna while on its way to shearing the drivers' side mirror clean off. I calmly dragged the other one across the roof to the same side, so as to avoid losing ALL my rearward visibility, and it damn near took out my foot. Note to self, get small trailer. It was amazing how sprightly the handling was on the remainder of the trip down the driveway! I guess a 500 lb rooftop load isn't really recommended.

Next day, I set out my huge timbers, hacking up two of them with my sawzall, and placing the big ones along where the keel would go. I set up the stands, and tried to imagine what the boat would look like.

I phoned Don's Boat Hauling, and made an appointment to pull the boat out the very next day...Monday, January 14.