Living Contentedly

Up & about predawn to realise the blusterimess persists. I wrap in suitable clothes, feed the hungry cats, but they appear soon after, still hungry. The dog eats appreciably and only wants me to walk. Cats for domestic company, dogs for walking.  Reading about an old mentor Rousseau in  Philosophy of Walking. How   R. discovers himself through walking, an act of shunning society's failings and distractions, to be a quiet, self loving being.  "...when the solitary walker tried to unearth from under layers of culture the inborn truth of human passions, he only discovered a naive and unassuming self-love".  The author cautions, this self-love as being quite different to egotism.  I am barely a fraction of the man Rousseau, but I can agree a) that walking provides for the mind, body and soul, and b) that a respectable goal of self and cultural critique is to discover a simple self love.     

After fettling the cabin back onto shape and firing up the woodheater to ward off the blowy chill, I returned to work on Ilona. I had left the deck boards sanded, but with only one coat of varnish. So today's efforts were to add two more coats of varnish to the deck. I branched out to sand & varnish other exposed timber on deck; centreboard case, outboard well surrounds and fore and aft deck scuppers.  Under lights tonight she's definitely blinging it out!  

Having a coffee fromonkwy on the Wire, Wellington. 100k down in wet & stormy.conditions, its been good to get out here during a weather break & stretch our legs.  It stayed stormy all around, all the way. Frequent heavy showers, miles apart. But the scenery was beautiful.

After my Sunday ride, my first for a while sue to rainy weather, I decided to collect rubbish. A section of just 200m coming into a village of maybe 2 doz houses.   yep a half a vacuum cleaner.  I don't think the Container Refund system is operating too successfully. 

Once again visiting my daughter in the Central West for a week, l am reexamining my life's direction. Yes sailing is there no matter what, its just whether I sail what I have or sell my house and go bigger. The central issue is the care of small animals, my daughter's cats, which really have belonged to the farm, and my son's dog, ditto. While my daughter has volunteered to mind these wee beasties, to drop them off entails a 14 hours return drive.  So, I drive out to drop them off, go coastal sailing for a month before going out to collect them. Lots of driving, loading my daughter up, stress on the cats during travel and new situation. Bad for the environment too.  Plan B is to sell the farm and my current boat and move aboard, with animals, a larger boat. Well, pretty good solution but big time delays selling farm and boat and then having to manage a large vessel.  Plan C might be to shoehorn all of us aboard my little boat. But while cats and dog don't currently sail...

Its hard being single and trying to get away from the house. My sons dog, my daughters cats and chickens had needed daily attention. So, I put some things in order for me to escape for a few days.  Chooks: A cube of water on a slow drip: this needed a soft hand to get going at the right rate. A bonus is the gentle sound of water dribbling.  A 10 litre bucket of grain with a toggle for chooks to release pellets: it took a few hours, but its like having a 24hr self serve. The chooks are happier with no drama, jistca lot of soft clucking sounds.  Electric Auto Feeder: this too needed fine running to release the right amounts. It works a treat. My son will be around to give the cats tinned food and some socializing.  The dog will come with me on my bike, boat or car.   All this makes me really happy. Knowing the pets have reliable access and seeing them more at ease, is rewarding and relieving.  BOAT WORK:  Due to chronic wet weather I have ILONA's sp...