I mentioned on Instagram a couple of weeks ago (while posting a pic of chocolate chip cookies, ha!) that I was starting a juice cleanse and was a bit worried about it. A few of you have asked since how it went, so I thought I'd share my thoughts with you. Good AND bad!

Here we go...

1. Reservations about getting started on a Juice Cleanse.
I was VERY unsure about how I'd do on a cleanse where all I did was DRINK for 3 full days. I mean... chewing and food are two of my favorite things ;)

 That being said I was really looking forward to emptying out my bod of all the not-so-healthy stuff that I'd been pumping into it. I just felt bloated and gross, so that definitely helped me to commit. Another big help was the fact that a friend at work was doing the cleanse with me too. It's WAY easier to stay on track with something when someone else is around to hold you accountable.

2. I got all of my juice from a local juicer named Dani.
If you're in the SLC valley you can find her on Instagram under @dvinejuice. Here's a link to a blog post she did on all of the flavors she offers.
WARNING: chugging a spicy drink WILL make you burp like a dude.

Remember when your parents used to pull out that big honkin' video camera... mostly at Christmas time and birthdays, and then record everyone doing mundane things or being completely obnoxious in front of said camera, all just to really capture the few important moments that really mattered in that day?

Well, I DO!
Batteries that never lasted longer than an hour or so, sore arm, perma-ring-around-the-eye... but guess what? We all go back and watch those old videos now, and admit it... YOU LOVE THEM! And most of the stuff that we end up laughing hysterically at or remembering forever, are the goofy questions asked AFTER the candles have been blown out, or the presents have been unwrapped. It's the silly little thoughts shared by a passing kid and the random crazy brother in the background making funny faces that we cherish the most. Am I right?

All of this being said, I only WISH I had taken more videos of my kiddos when they were small. They just grow up SO fast, and you don't realize in the moment how precious and perfect they are in that very specific time of life.
LUCKILY though, with all the crazy-awesome technology we have now, capturing video is a breeze, and I've found one of the cutest, easiest, FREE apps to help me do just that - OneDay.
It's an instant movie maker that you literally need NO editing or video skills to operate, because it does everything for you! There are lots of different story sets and questions that you can ask your kiddos to get them chatting away, and then once their answers are recorded through the app, OneDay stitches the video clips together, adds music and makes it an adorable video!
Check it out...


So cute right!?
You can make up your own questions too, which is pretty great, because then you can customize the video clips for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, etc.
Her poor future husband! #ihavecreatedamonster ha!

Solar power racking is underway!

It's something we both avoided speaking about and dreaded starting- although, in the grand scheme- I have no idea why! Saturday, Dan was able to grab a few hours working for his Dad so he took it.  He's still struggling to find something part time that will work with school. If anyone in the Rhode Island area has any suggestions, let us know! While he was off earning some keep, I tackled a list of errands. Neither of us returned home until about 3pm, at which point, we called it a day. Well sort of- we grabbed showers and free movie passes at his parents so we could head out and see How To Train Your Dragon 2. Yes. That was my requested movie. I loved it almost as much as the first!

Anyways, after a day doing other things, it meant Sunday was a work day, noooo compromises. We hope to move the tiny house next weekend, so we need to get crackin!

We researched a few different ways to mount solar panels, and finally decided to go with the ideas shown in this youtube video. We made a few of our own modifications, but the over all concept is similar. 




We have 8 solar panels to build for, so we plan to make four smaller versions of this which will hold two panels each. We plan to put two racks right next to one another to make a 13 foot row of four panels. We will have two rows. That's a lot of sun power right there! I keep seeing all of these tiny houses with just one or two panels sitting out front and I wonder how the heck they manage with that. This is our home full time, and of all things to skimp on, solar power wasn't one of them. I work from home some days, and I KNOW there will be days in the summer when we thank our stars that we can run an A/C and days in the fall when we are happy to be able to plug in the small eco-heater- because the main stove would be too much. 

It's still a very modest system. Here is what our load calculator chart looked like- and it gives you an idea of what we can run.

Appliance Load/ Name	On At Same Time	Quantity	AC Watts	Hours on Per Day	Watt Hrs/ Day
Cooler	Y	1	70	8	560
Great Rm Lights	Y	1	50	6	300
Kitchen Light	Y	1	10	4	40
Blender/Juicer	-	1	300	0.1	30
Sewing Machine	-	1	100	0.1	10
Table Fan	Y	1	25	7	175
Computer (Laptop)	Y	1	50	6	300
Window Fan	Y	1	40	6	240
Clock Radio	Y	1	1	24	24
A/C (or heater in winter)	-	1	600	4	2400

So our total system is 4079 Watt-Hours Per Day. Without the A/C option we would be down to just 1679 Watt-Hours per day. That would be nice on the wallet, but I've sat through more than one scorching day with no A/C and I'm not about to make us tough it out in that little box on wheels!  This chart comes right from the AltE website. They have a lot of great calculators that make it much easier to understand what you are calculating, and provide a lot of the basic appliance power loads for you!

The board at the bottom of this pic is the where the panel goes.

Anyways- back to the racking. So we went out early and got our rough estimate of needed supplies. Then the mind-melting math came in. When I say mind-melting, please don't take that as an indication that it was truly hard- it was just one of those days when we both were suffering from chronic brain farts and could not process basic geometry. I lost count of how many times we talked out our moves and our cuts and our measures, only to pause right before beginning and say, "Wait....go over that again?" 





On our first run through, we made the cuts "upside-down" the first go round, meaning, if we had put the rack up, the solar panel would be at the exact opposite angle of what we needed. After doing the math for our latitude, we found that 35 degrees would be optimal. A triangle always adds up to 180, and we had our 35 and 90 degrees, so the last angle was 55. What we got mixed up on (among many other things that day) was which corner needed to be 35- the top corner or the bottom one?




I'll cut to the chase and tell you- it's the top. It may have taken us a few hours, but we finally got all of our cuts, angles, and measurements right. Our first racking post was complete. We spent another hour or so making cuts in an assembly line manner. By the end of Sunday, we had completed two of the eight posts we will need.

We didn't get it all done, but man does it feel good to have sailed over the hurdle of just-getting-it-started. We have about 40% of the wood cut. Throughout evenings this week we will complete all the posts and hopefully head over to the farm to mount them in the ground. 

Yep! It fits! Woooh!

We aren't done yet, but we feel light as feathers!

It was a big pain and an even bigger relief to get the solar panel racking built and in the ground. Over the last week we have been steadily tying up loose ends. I sanded down all the areas of siding that I applied wood filler to, and then went out and got a stainable kind- which should make things way easier. We also finished building the rest of the posts needed for the panels, continued siding work, and then this weekend, mounted the posts in the ground. 


Talk about work! It took us almost two full days and some extra help to get those posts in the ground, level, plumb, and ready to rock. Luckily it was flat out amazing weather. Mostly sunny, low 70s, and breezy. When you are digging holes, the weather can play a big part in your experience. We definitely got frustrated and threw shovels (ahem, DAN) more than once, but I can only imagine how it would have gone down if it were say....98 degrees, 99% humidity and zero breeze.













The soil at the farm has a LOT of rocks in varying sizes from baseball to "Why don't we just put a koi pond here by the time we get this freakin' thing out!".  On day one, we did most everything ass backwards. Maybe it was the added stress of possibly moving the next day (which didn't pan out) but we both were approaching the task in a not so efficient way. We dug holes first and expected the rest to fit flawlessly. Never again! Thankfully, most of our holes were not too far off, but we did end up digging more than the 6 you see in these pictures. 




Dan's Dad came by later in the day and helped us get the first row secure, level, even, and pretty much any other direction descriptor you can think of. Man, can it be hard to get things lined up when they can go wrong in about 8 different directions! We put in about 9 hours on Saturday.


On Sunday, we came back and finished the second row. We had the holes dug, and things looked relatively straight. That was until we started measuring with tools. HA! Long story short, we had to dig our holes deeper, and of course we ran into a very large rock right where the pole needed to go. Deb and Michael were home Sunday, so Michael came to the rescue with his tractor and dug a great big hole before that stupid boulder was out. The second hole seemed fine, so Michael went off to tend to his own chores. When we got to the third hole, we realized that the poles were not in a neat row, and the hole had to be moved about 6 inches over and be about 6 inches deeper. We found another rock. We battled with that thing for about an hour, using every technique we could come up with including using an 8 ft 2x4 as a lever. 

Layla knows just where to lay down and relax...

After enough grunting, screaming, swearing, sweating, tripping, shoveling, filling, packing, twisting and tweaking, we had our second row in order. We thought it would only take an hour or two, but ended up taking the better part of 4 hours. We plan to add some more supports to help brace against wind. We will put a small leg under the front low arm and another 2x4 bracing against the back of the pole too. 

Our site supervisors. If only they were as helpful as they were attentive! :)

Pointing directly south? Check!

Needless to say we are two pooped, sore, but very happy people. Sure the job sucked, but the land, the weather, the view, and all the wildlife made it worth it. The farm is SO beautiful and we cannot wait to get there! 

Solar racking: MOUNTED!

So much going on! I had to report back real quick!

This week and today, we have been steadily tying up loose ends. Ill admit, I'm reporting to you a little inebriated- just returned from my little cousin's grad party...CONGRATS AMY!  :)

After a day of digging more holes, we certainly enjoyed ourselves. I'll keep it short n' sweet- lots of visuals... 

Over the last week:
We secured the kitchen counter. It had been resting loose since last October. We applied a coat of poly and added splash boards. There was something specifically satisfying about seeing the kitchen counter have a durable gloss on it. To me it said, "Hello, I am scrubbable!" And for that alone, I love it. 



We also finished up the second wall with siding, completed all of the brown trim, worked on the kitchen drawers, started the third wall of siding, began packing up our loose items, dropped the Pod to the ground, filled the tires, adding additional supports to the solar racking, and so on. Basically, we covered a LOT. And tomorrow- we MOVE THE TINY HOUSE. 



Needless to say, I am less than totally calm and cool. When we are being reasonable and considering all aspects- we are going to be fine- but when you let the mind roam.....I keep thinking of all these worst case scenarios! Can't wait for it to be moved and safe and sound in the new spot!  It all happens tomorrow! Stay tuned for video and excessive photo coverage of the moving event! AHHHHHH!

Preppin' the tires...

The Pod is on the ground!!

We're very excited to announce our upcoming presentations at Trawlerfest Baltimore 2014. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

On Friday September 26, our seminar topics will be...

HOW TO CRUISE TOGETHER WITHOUT KILLING EACH OTHER
Presented by: Chuck Baier and Susan Landry
Authors and long-time liveaboards Chuck Baier and Susan Landry discuss what couples can expect when they go cruising and secrets to maintaining their relationship.

And...

ICW INSIGHTS
Presented by: Chuck Baier & Susan Landry
Authors and veteran cruisers Chuck Baier and Susan Landry provide an overview of what to expect as you head southbound on the ICW. This seminar “closes the loop,” so the speak, making an excellent companion seminar to the Hospodar’s presentation on the inland portions of the Great Loop.

http://www.passagemaker.com/events/trawler-fest-2014-baltimore/

First I would like to apologize for our blog postings not being as timely as they have been in the past. There is a very good reason for that and I will do a post explaining why sometime in the future. Beach House still needed to get farther north to be sure we met our insurance requirements and to also give the crew peace of mind during this next hurricane season. The stay at Dog River Marina was nice and the chores and repairs we wanted to make were done early. The only delay was waiting for the chart chip for the plotter that covers the inland river systems. We came to the realization that our plotter only covered a small part of Mobile Bay and did not cover any of the inland rivers. So a new C-Map chip was ordered and, of course, the two-day shipping arrived in four days. Since it was delivered at about 10 a.m., the docklines were cast off and the trip up Mobile Bay and into downtown Mobile was made a little later than we liked, but still early enough to reach our first day's anchorage with time to spare.

The downtown Mobile waterfront is mostly industrialized with shipping terminals, repair yards and various other terminals. The only semblance of a downtown waterfront is the Convention Center with a concrete bulkhead to tie recreational boats. The reviews we have received from other boaters do not recommend this spot because of the large amount of commercial activity, including large ships, working tugs and tows that can create rather large wakes along the wall. In bad weather, this can be downright treacherous. Our destination was much farther upriver, and one encounter with the prop wash from a tug moving a ship into the terminal was all we needed to encourage us to keep moving. Once beyond the main harbor, the scenery changes significantly and the hustle and bustle changes to a relaxed and more remote waterway. The Mobile River is wide and deep right up to the banks. The current flow was against us for the entire trip and always runs from north to south. Along this stretch we would have about ½ to ¾ knot of current against Beach House, nothing of real concern. During the Spring floods, the current can run 3 knots or more.


Once away from Mobile, the river is tree lined on both sides and there is little to no sign of civilization. There were a few small fishing boats, but even they disappeared as the miles ticked off behind us. A sharp lookout is required anywhere on the river system. We often passed everything from plastic buckets to tree branches to entire trees floating just near the surface. Many of these pieces of debris could do serious damage to our propeller if we struck them at our cruising speed. What appeared to be nothing more than a small branch floating just above the surface might very well have a 20-foot tree trunk attached and just a foot or more underwater. We often found ourselves zigging and zagging around small pieces of driftwood just in case. Once well underway, it would be a long distance for any attempts to provide us with assistance or repairs should we have needed them.


Because of the late start, the decision was made to pass up several good anchorage spots early on. Insurance pressures were not the only reason we needed to get up the river system as soon as possible. The locks at Coffeeville and Demopolis were both scheduled to close for a month to complete annual maintenance and the date was approaching. The distance to our first anchorage was at river statute mile 39.2, giving us a total mileage for the day at about 50 miles. The tree-lined river is spectacular and the only traffic besides Beach House was a number of large tows pushing barges that measured in the hundreds of feet. The first day was uneventful and by mid-afternoon the entrance to Tensas River appeared around a corner offering a wide, deep, protected anchorage well off the river and away from the commercial traffic that travels all night. Just past the first bend in the Tensas, the depths rise to 8 and 10 feet rather than the normal 20 to 30. Our challenge for the rest of the trip would be to find anchorages that were shallow enough to not need excessive amounts of anchor rode. On this night, we would share the anchorage with a small sailboat. It would be the last anchorage for while that we would share with another pleasure boat.


Hurdle number one was within our grasp. Coffeeville Lock and Dam is located at river mile 116.6, about 77 miles up river. A long day for us, but easily doable. The day started just after the sun came up, and for half the day, the sun was out and the temps were comfortable. By midday, the clouds began to build and a check of weather radar showed showers and rain moving into our area. At the junction located at statute mile 45, the Mobile River becomes the Tombigbee. The river twists and turns to such an extent that to travel 40 miles as the crow flies requires traveling 60 miles or more on the river. On several occasions we heard our boat named being called over the VHF radio. Tows heading in our direction were seeing us on their AIS display and knew exactly where we were, and how fast we were traveling. The AIS allowed us and them to be aware of each other and make passing arrangements long before either of us saw the other. At times, it was as simple as instructions from the tow to give them a pass on one or two whistles. One whistle meant we passed them leaving the tow on our port side and two whistles meant we left the tow on our starboard side. On a couple of occasions we were asked to pull over to the side and stand by until the tow had passed. Beach House was happy to comply.


By 4:30 in the afternoon, we were approaching Coffeeville Lock. It had been raining off and on for hours, and as we approached the lock entrance the rain increased, of course. Contacting the Lockmaster on the VHF radio, we were instructed to enter the lock and tie up port side to. The boat is secured in the lock using a single floating bollard tucked into an indentation in the lock wall. All that is required is a single line attached to a midship cleat. We were also instructed to make sure everyone working on deck was wearing a lifejacket. Beach House slowly approached the floating bollard, slowed to a stop, and a line was dropped around the bollard and then made fast to the midship cleat with little or no slack. It was the easiest lock tie up we have ever experienced. The Coffeeville Lock would raise us up 35 feet to the next river level. The entire process took about 25 minutes and Beach House was the only vessel in the huge lock. When we motored out the other side, the rain was pouring and we were thoroughly soaked. Rather than find another anchorage for the night, the decision was made to tie up at Bobby's Fish Camp, a small marina and campground just outside the lock. We wanted to plug in and dry off for the night before we began the next part of our river journey.