Typically we, actually Sal, goes up the stream to clear the system maybe, on average, once a month. I drive her and the pups in, go do something else and then go back and pick ’em up cause there is no dock or landing at our beach). The stream intake for our water system often gets clogged with debris and pine needles. In the winter it might be a bit more frequently but, regardless, Sal’s hiking the trail a lot. Lately the clogging up has been even worse. This time even some of the pipe got crushed by fallen trees. So Sal went up the trail again today. The best part for her is that the dogs now go with her and love it. They think the trail is so much fun!
Of course, Sal falls in almost every time so that is always fun. When the task is done, Sal drips and slimes back to the boat soaking wet and looking half-drowned. “Wha’ happened?” “Slipped. And then a fitting came undone so I got drenched. Then I slipped again.”
C’mon! THAT is fun! (For me, anyway.)
The dogs are really enjoying the trip to the creek more and more. When I came into the beach this time they joyfully ran into the ocean water and bounced and splashed in anticipation of my arrival. They were frolicking! No reluctance-to-get-wet was evident. Great! Mind you, minor reluctance is starting show up in Sal (no frolicking) so we’ll see how that all eventually pans out. Poor Sal.
Day before yesterday, we went over to the storage yard and sussed out what needed doing on the new boat. The dogs came. In the car, Daisy puked all over Sal again – Poor Sal. Gus kept his breakfast down – for the first time. Mind you, he seemed very intent on putting his head out my window – while standing on my lap – and I was driving at the time!
So, once there, we all putzed about measuring and assessing and taking notes. Or digging random holes in the yard. Conclusion: we’ll likely be ‘on the hard’ for a whole month. It’s not that the work is so much but rather it’s that we’re getting on and the trip in takes an hour and there’s a lot of dog puke involved. Plus we and the boat are in a field. No power. No water. All done without too much in the way of support facilities. And then an hour to get home….with more puke looming the whole way. Poor us (mostly Poor Sal).
Still fun, tho.
Yesterday we had to take the pups in for their 4 month shots and physical exam. Sal put on full wet-weather gear. “If they’re gonna puke all over me, I do not want it soaking into my clothes like the last few times!” Sal is adapting to the new reality. Poor ol’ Sal.
Gus rolled into the vet at 51.6 pounds. Daisy at 44. Still, they received an exemplary bill of health and all sorts of petting, treats and admiring comments.
It’s a bit ironic….the dogs are getting bigger, stronger, smarter and learning more and more…we, on the other hand, are getting older, with less energy and forgetting everything….and the four of us just play, plug and puke along as if this is all normal.
Today, Sal said, “Ya know, Dave, I am not so sure this really is all normal.”
“Well, Sal, falling in has become normal….especially for you! Puke has become way too common lately, if not actually normal. Fixing boats has been normal for an even longer time in our lives. The only part really not normal is that we are getting old.”
“So, you are saying all sorts of female septuagenarians fix boats, climb streams and sit in dog puke?”
“Yep. Very common. That’s exactly what female seniors do – more often than not with grandkids, tho. Just get used to it. Maybe find an OTG forum on it? I am sure you’ll have a whole bunch o’ new friends in the puppy, puke and dunk forum for OTG seniors.”
Our Off the Grid Home 
So you sleeping in the dog house tonight, and the puppies in the bed!
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Always a possibility but, so far, never enacted. Whew! I write a lot about Sal because, well, she’s interesting….to me, anyway. Sal is a real trouper. A great sport. And almost fearless. She is also of English descent and is the living embodiment of ‘bloody-mindedness’. But even better than all of that, she wants to learn and improve her OTG skills. She knows that I will NOT be around as long as she will be and she will eventually need to know how to do the ‘basics’ herself. Methinks mechanics will always pose a challenge and basic physics is out of the question, but maintenance, repairs and all the household systems she is now familiar with. Again with the bonus: Sal does yoga. She is flexible and strong. She can get into places I simply cannot. Once, when a shaft coupling (on our first boat) parted, she had to strip down to flimsy essentials and I slid her in to a deep but very tight space on a thin plank with a crescent wrench and she had to repair it all using a flashlight.
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Most 20 year olds couldn’t AND wouldn’t do what you two do.
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Well, most twenty-year olds will slip down to the bare essentials in a heartbeat. Getting ’em on a plank might not be too hard either if they went that far. But then slipping them into an engine compartment with a crescent wrench and a flashlight is likely too kinky for most. I’ll grant you that. For the record: that scantily clad girl-on-a-plank image has been burned into my memory forever.
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Nice to see things panning out according to OTG Hoyle for you guys!
And it made me chuckle to see that Super Sal wears the same Professional OTG Homestead/Homeowner red Boots as my Amy! Or vice versa depending on one’s perspective.
I’d suggest a much bigger filter clothed head for the waterline inlet to reduce the number of times one, ie. poor Sal, needs to get up and unplug but I’m sure you’ve already thought of that.
Take good care now. The SUN simply MUST come out sometime!
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I have rigged up a spring box that should save some trips but the springbox needs a trip to finish off and we seem to be up to our ears in stuff-that-needs-doing so it will have to wait a bit longer. Re: Sal and her red boots – she seems to think that only barbarians would NOT consider fashion to some degree.
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always amazes me the amount of work you 2 get done. And I am sure that the puking will stop eventually, once they get more used to car travel. Fortunately, we never had that problem with our dog!
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We try to achieve ONE big thing every day. I may do other things, Sal always does extra things, but we (as a team) try to do something biggish every day. The weakness in that is that the BIG things seem to be getting smaller as we age. It’s a bit of ‘work discipline’ exercise. If we do one thing biggish every day, stuff gets done. If it is pouring with rain, that exercise is ignored. If it is ice cold, that exercise is ignored. But that usually still means that 200 days a year we tackle something.
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The dogs have transitioned you into showing off with pictures. Always nice, the dogs and the landscape.
We all slow down. We will make the best of our next hopefully 10 years OTG. Enjoy yours. Your projects now should focus on eliminating future strains and maintenance.
Steve OTG
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I agree on focusing on my health, that’s why I am encouraging Sal so much. “Hey! You CAN do it, Sal!”
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