Mini-home

Like The Girl Said; He Not Only Lied About The Size Of His Yacht, He Made Me Row! Lol 8' X 8' Dome Tent On Craigslist, May Just Pitch That On The Pontoon Deck For Now (if I Stay Out Over Nite). Just Have To Worry About Groc`s Crawling Aboard.!! Dam, Now I Scared My Ownself!! If All You Houseboat Guys Were Closer, We Would Have It Done And Be On The Water. Ron
 
Dan said:
Yer killing me with the pics! lol
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fasteddy said:
Dan, every time I see Barely A Wake's pictures I start to shake and shiver
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Michigan Mike said:
BarelyAwake ... post more pics for us landlubbers to drool over ... you da man!
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Arm twisted :D

Dan, a folding, rack mount MB woulda been great! There's defo a market for them amongst liveaboards, I pedaled many a mile way overloaded with rations & fuel and I woulda loved a lil "assistance"! It's true that all the places closest to shore are always the most pricey, I would venture far and wide lookin' for those "dented can" stores. I never worried as I just dented them more myself on the trip home lol

Steve, Ontario to Florida in 1952 on a Nova Scotia built 36ft Ketch? that woulda been an epic adventure! *sigh* Silly parents for sellin' the boat - ah well **** happens, living ashore is insidious - it'll manage to come up with all sortsa ways to keep you grounded, I'm struggling with this myself. It's NEVER too late tho and sailing craft are very reasonably priced used ;) oh and BTW - good job catching the joke in my name. few notice that'un heh


A 23 footer is a lil small for full-time residence, but at the time it was my very first boat and I didn't want to overdo it as I hadn't been ON a boat before let alone actually know how to sail o_O Yet it turned out to be really quite easy... most of the time.

As time went on I got better at sailing, the miles drifted past and harbors beckoned with promises. As I singlehanded, the quarters actually were spacious enough - I only later wished a larger craft for a better galley etc., and though people have done it - I didn't want to cross the Atlantic in what most consider a "weekender". Here's the layout of 'ol 'Serenity' to give ya an idea;
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And a few more pics lol
1: Headin' south for the winter with a flotilla of other liveaboards...
2: Often we'd "have dinner" - I passed out on the foredeck of the boat to the far right with the sails down but not stowed... I don't remember much more of that night lol
3: Inside shot of my cozy quarters, one of the things I miss terribly is the gentle motion of a home on water - it's like she's alive, very different than living ashore.
4: How I made my monies - I manufactured small "rug hooking" tools and sent them off to a retailer via postal drops once every two weeks or so.
5: Random canal picture, tho somewhat troublesome with a sailboat - I loved canals and the people I would meet and the forgotten places I would find.
 

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Purchased A Used Island Hopper Fold Up Last Year. The Motor Doesn`t Run Good, Have Not Worked On It. Got The Carry Bag And Misc. With It. It Is Painted Ss. Paid $225. Those Bikes Are High Dollar. Guy On Craigslist Is Dealing With Me On My Two Tailing Winches, Was Going To Rig Them For Lowering Tree Limbs. I Don`t Know If They Are 1 Or 2 Speed. Sail Boats Give Great Fuel Milage!! Oh, Will Post Pic Of Dahmon Folder, I Think The Motor May Be 25cc?? Great pics awake, time spent on the water is time well spent. Ron .
 

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Ron, that is awesome! Exactly what I was thunking!

Stopped at the "Old Town" last night (local watering hole) for just one (as always, 1 or 2 meant 12, snork) But as I walked in a couple sitting by the door had the usual questions and loved the MB. Honda on a PB. We sat for hrs BS'n and had a grand ol' time. Turned out he, John, is the son of the original publisher of "Soundings" magazine and gave me some great info on boat building. He really had some great incites and I would have never got them with out having been on an odd thing such as a MB. We might have said "hey" or some thing but that would have been it. I love my bike.

OT and PS, just got a new GB, wow!!!! I rode around so long I went threw a dollars worth of gas in one day! hehe, all this rambling was close to on topic, I learned how to build a cement platform on to which to build my floating hotdog cart/convenience store house boat.

OK, I'll be over here


dance1
 
I've been reading and enjoying this thread, a few pages at a time over the past week or so. There are many things here I can relate to, from the desire to live simply close to nature to pontoon boats. Back when I lived on a 160 acre homestead in the Superior National Forest I used an Alaskan chainsaw mill and later had a Bellsaw with a big insert tooth blade powered by a tractor power take off belt. At that time I lived in a 32 ft. diameter Mandan Earth Lodge, six sided, earthen floor, wood stove in the center to fend off 40 below outside in cold dark of endless winter. Two of my children learned to walk on that uneven floor and have fond memories of those hard years. I was building an octagonal stone house by hand over many years then and had to sell the land when it was almost done. A heartbeaker for sure. I raised Lac LaCroix Indian ponies there, had a big garden and lived next to a ten acre pond with forest all around me in all directions. I could drum beneath the stars without anybody complaining. Can't do that most places.
Later while living where I am now I had a pontoon boat which I rigged with a Gruman canoe sail. What fun that was, feeling the wind pull me along. It was at that time that I, too, had thoughts of living on the water with a bigger pontoon boat, maybe with a shell from a 16' Bambi Airstream as the cabin (minus axle and tongue) or a bent conduit frame work supporting a fabric "tent" of the same Twinkie shape. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I grew up on Ojibwe Lake north of Ely, Minnesota a few miles from Canada by water. Barelyawake, I can feel your longing for being on the water as I am a waterman, myself. It isn't so much the fishing, or even the incredible sunsets and stars at night... nor the loons and eagles... it is simply being on the water, adrift and free. There's a little Huck Finn in all of us.
I also share an interest in tiny homes, alternative living options, and ascribe to the idea of "less is more". Some years back I had a fishing resort here, was hit by lightning through my left ear and lost much of my hearing, have a permanent brain trauma from having the front lobe fried, nervous system trouble, etc. A few years back I developed a partial paralysis with Guillane Barre Syndrome (similar to Polio) which left me crippled for a couple of years until I built up strength in my upper legs to compensate (which is what led me to motorbicycles and where I am now building them for others). I lost everything from that encounter with the great beyond but my life. No more resort, no more marriage, no easy life. So both by natural inclination and by necessity I have learned to embrace doing with less, making what I have be enough and not linking my happiness or well being to my income. Life is good. My brother allows me to live on his property (part of what used to be my property in the days of the resort) and I wanted to build a small cabin on it for me and my dog Aaniimoosh. The county said no, as it would be two primary residences on the six acre parcel. I got around that by purchasing a trailer to use as a cabin. No cabin blending in to the forest, but I could put up a behometh modern mobile home and as long as it had wheels and no foundation, that would be OK. Go figure. I watched eBay and found a 26 foot Airstream travel trailer in poor condition... lucky I was up in the middle of the night with pain in my feet, cruising the internet... buy it now for $200.00, which I did, borrowed a truck from a friend and went to Michigan to pick it up. The owner just wanted it gone. I rebuilt the interior in knotty pine left over from the resort days and set it up as a little home for me and the dog. We lived in it for several years and even went out to Tuscan one winter a few years ago, then to the east coast in Maryland. That trailer was cold in the winter with almost no insulation at all. I had an old caboose stove from a defunct logging rail line up this way and that was our heat. I ended up giving it to my brother as a guest place for his family when I decided to find a better trailer for a permanent home. By then I knew what I was looking for, a 1940's or 50's Spartan Aircraft trailer made by John Paul Ghetty after WWII and built the same way as his top of the line airplanes. Very cool and the best trailers ever made, bar none. I found one in North Dakota and paid $1200.00 for it. Another $500.00 and it was up to snuff. I heat it with a fireview wood stove and it is adequate even at 40 below zero. I recommend highly that anyone looking for affordable, quality housing on a shoe string budget, find out about Spartans. There is a yahoo group of restorers which has been a great help to me, like this bicycle forum. A couple of years ago I started working as a handyman/caretaker on the east coast as a way of escaping the cold of Minnesota winters. Now that I am an elder, and with the damage to my nervous system I no longer handle winter very well. The days of riding bareback and working in the woods are long gone. So I found another old Spartan, a l951, in Iowa and paid a thousand dollars for it. Another 500.00 brought it up to snuff, too. And now I have a winter home in Western Maryland near Camp David where I caretake. I don't own the property at either place, but have two homes which look nice and are comfortable to live in. The one here is a 57 and is about 40 feet long by 8 wide. The one out east is 33 ft long including the tongue and is a breeze to tow behind my old truck. I'll be leaving Minnesota in another month. So that is another way to live on the edge financially, but live pretty well, nevertheless. I'll never be homeless and everything is paid for. If anybody is still reading this book length post I hope it isn't too boring and at least suggests another way of living small. Barely a wake, it saddens me to think of a fellow waterman landlocked. You'll find a way and I'm doing my part wishing it for you. I think the creator wanted for us to be happy and to live peaceful lives. May your spirit shine. Wishing all of you all good things,
Silverbear
 
Good Morning Silverbear, Nice Post. When I Was Up Home In Wis This July, I Thought Of You, But The Time Went By So Fast. Deer Hunted In Orr, Mn. One Season. Lots Of Snow That Yr. Fell Over Wearing Snow Shoes, Had A Hel* Of A Time Getting Up Rite!!! Had To Laff At My Ownself!! After I Finished The Required Cussing!! Hope You Stay In Touch. Ron
 
NEAT TIMES said:
Good Morning Silverbear, Nice Post. When I Was Up Home In Wis This July, I Thought Of You, But The Time Went By So Fast. Deer Hunted In Orr, Mn. One Season. Lots Of Snow That Yr. Fell Over Wearing Snow Shoes, Had A Hel* Of A Time Getting Up Rite!!! Had To Laff At My Ownself!! After I Finished The Required Cussing!! Hope You Stay In Touch. Ron
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I have a friend in Orr at Pelican Lake. Or I did until he passed over. Walter Sattela he was. He supplied horses to the logging camps way back when and it was from him I bought my first Indian ponies. He was a Finlander and although born here of immigrant parents, still spoke in broken English like he just got off the boat. I can still remember the day he stood in a meadow by the lake and banged his hand against a bucket of oats to call the ponies from the forest... "come boys". He always called them his boys and girls. What a horseman he was. I could hear hooves in the distance and then they broke from the forest into the open, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen thesse were the real deal... true mustangs, Spanish barb horses like what the conquistadors introduced to this world... it raised the hair on the back of my neck and it seemed like memory bleeding through from a former life, seeing and feeling them. I bought two fillies that day, all black and wonderful. My wife was kind of surprised when I told her what I did that day. Never forgave me either. I ended up with a herd of blacks and grays. I built a sleigh and a wagon and taught myself how to work with them. Or I should say they taught me. Some of the best people I have known had four legs, ponies and dogs. I have said before that if you're going to live with a ***** be sure she has four legs.
I have a number of friends at the Village of Nett Lake where the Bois Forte band of Ojibwe live. Small world, isn't it?
Silverbear
 
Barely Awake, asked mom this morning why they sold the boat and it was the weather.
Sea Mist sat in lake St. Clair and the winter storms had set in and then the locks were closing for the winter before we could get to them so she was sold.

Mom did say that they had always wished that they had stayed until spring and left then hindsight is always 20/20.
They did go to Fla. for the winter many years later with my brother who had a 16ft O'Day sail boat and got to sail in Fla at least a little bit.

Thinking about buying a small cottage in Prince Edward Island due to the cheap prices compared to British Columbia and that would give me the push off point to go south in the winter. Then a nice 30ft live aboard would do the same thing.

I thought being retired was going to be easy. Gives meaning to, so much to do, so little time.
There was a very nice 30 footer in Seattle that needed a little cleaning up and new rigging for $5,000. Might be doable in 3 months if it is still available. Oh heck, a trip through the Panama Canal and up the coast in time for the winter or winter in Panama.
Who said life wasn't hard for the elderly.

Steve.
 
Thanks Ron, I was looking your neck of the woods at sail boats. Well all over Fla. really.
Can't believe the people who want $20,00 for a boat and can't put a photo in the ad but the guy who is giving one away has 6 photos.

I owe Barely Awake a bottle of 1st class champagne' or cement overshoes for stating up something I've put aside for years.

Had planned on buying and restoring a very rare and collectable motor home but for the $6,000/$7,000 that would cost me, a bunch of us could sail down the Inland Water Way if work could spare a crew for a few weeks.
I'll know just where life is taking me by next June. I'll have enough money put aside by then to be able to make a move.

Some how the thoughts of hearing the slap of the waves on the hull has more call than scream of a snow blower trying to chew it's way through another 3ft snow fall. O.K. call me crazy but that fellas, is the way I feel.

The only snow I want to see is on the picture above the calender and if Santa isn't wearing shorts while he's ringing his bell in front of the package store as I go in, I will be in the wrong place.

The 30ft boat in Seattle is $4,000 but I'm sure for good reason.Buy in Fla,fix it up and sail north in the spring might be the answer.

Hooking up with the rich widow down at the senior center and pis*ing her kids inheritance away has it's charms too.

Back in the dark corners of my mind, tucked safely by my first girl friend over near my best friend who moved away when we were six not far from the night I became fast eddy is the idea,{wild as it is} that a pontoon boat with a cabin built on it and a couple of outboards with a decent size on board gas tank might just make the trip.

Steve
 
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Silverbear,
Your life sounds like high adventure to me! Great post. All best wishes and prayers for your long, good health.
.trk.
 
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Neat Times...ah.Pensacola ...nice place....I am hanging here in St. Pete...weather is just getting good ...did a nice 20 mph run today for 30 miles .....what a nice day...we can now rag on the guys up north when they are burried in snow and we are still riding with our shorts on
 
Thanks for your story and sympathy silverbear, in some ways I find our stories aren't that dissimilar o_O I spent nearly twenty years wanderin' the American highways, I only stopped cause fuel got insane as did most law enforcement. I've even done my time in campers way the heck up in the middle of nowhere in both Colorado and upstate NY. I dearly loved that time!

fasteddy, I'll take the glass of champagne over the cement if ya don't mind :D BTW Ya don't really need a crew for a sloop 33' or under and/or a pontoon boat would be fine for most of the great loop, there's places where it'd be dicey - like Sandy Hook (NY/NJ), Chesapeake & Delaware bays, and other stretches of the East Coast. I've spent over twelve hours with more than four feet of green water washing over my decks (and me, tied to the helm lol) and that was "in" the Delaware Bay on what was actually a quite nice day! (current one way, tide another, and wind in yet a third = "square waves"). A pontoon boat wouldn't be very happy with that - they'd rather be upside down o_O

Other than these not so "inner" bits of the Intercoastal Waterway a pontoon is actually a really good choice due to it's incredibly efficient hull design and it's squat shape is perfect for going through the canal ways. The only thing that would make it better is if you could somehow get one that uses diesel instead of gasoline - the difference in fuel price vrs range is astounding. So if you DO decide pontoon - just stay away from "dubious" stretches and pick your day ;)

My "long-term" plan is to head south where the boats in the size and type I wish are more common (33' full keel self righting sloop). The price per foot that's been mentioned in previous posts is what I'm after, but the type hull I wish is almost nonexistent up here due to the extremely rugged, rocky coastline and the very short season - and we all know what rarity does to pricing lol
 
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Turtle T, Been Down Here 20 Yrs, From Northern Wisconsin, My Brother Was Complaining About The Cold Last Week. I Lived In Ocala, Fl The First Year, I Prefer The Panhandle Of Fl., Its Cooler
 
Barley A, We Have Less Than 2 Feet Max Tide Depth Change Per Day . Think I Saw Like 50 Foot Change A Day On A Tide Chart. Is That Correct?? Ron
 
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