Jan's Journal

July 30, 2004

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

It has been rather a busy week and the most exciting thing that happened in my life was I that I saw a fisherman catch a huge Chinook salmon right outside our window the other day. I guess the word got out fast because it wasn't long before there were about a dozen boats fishing in that same spot! OK, I realize watching someone catch a fish isn't the most exciting thing in a lot of your lives, but this is a small town, and you have to get your kicks wherever you can! Besides, it was a BIG fish!
The rest of the weekend I spent alone, as Dave had to announce the American LeMans auto races in Portland. Since I had just been to the big city, I decided to stay in Wheeler. This was the first time by myself and I was a little apprehensive about it, but I did fine.

On Saturday, I ran down the coast to Tillamook to get a few things at Freddies. I stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory on the way home to browse through the gift shop for a guest book to have our guests sign when they visit. I've been looking everywhere for one of those things! Wouldn't you think that someone would have a guest book around here? I may have to resort to using a journal, since that's all I've been able to find. Anyway, no luck, but I did manage to get one of my favorite things, Coffee Mocha Ice Cream!! Yum! Yum! Ice cream is something that I can't resist. I also stopped at a fish market to pick up some fresh salmon for my overnight guests, Stan and Terrie. They were coming down to get away from the heat of the big city. It was 103 in Portland - upper 80's down here. After dinner, we watched "Chicken Run" on television and were in bed by 10:00 p.m. We are such party animals. Sunday morning, we walked down to the Treasure Cafe for breakfast and then took the high road back. I mean the steep high road and I just about died, as I am so out of shape. Even though Dave and I walk up to the post office each morning, I am not in any shape to take on the hills of Wheeler!!

Dave returned on Monday afternoon and we have been busy working around the place. I tackled the weeds and after four hours and three garbage cans full of debris I think the weeds won this round! I didn't get very far, but at least I can see a difference. I also made up a new batch of hummingbird food but I used the wrong combination. Instead of 4 parts water, 1 part sugar, I thought it was 3 parts sugar and 1 part water. Talk about syrup! The hummingbirds thought they had hit the mother lode and have been buzzing around here on sugar highs! The thick solution didn't seem to slow them down too much, but I'm sure it was like trying to suck sap straight out of a tree!

As most of you are aware, we have moved into Dave's parents house after the death of his mother in January. I feel her presence here and I know that both his mom and his dad are looking out for us. Sometimes, when I get frustrated, I will stand in the middle of the kitchen and ask Lillian for a "sign" if I can't find something. It's amazing, because the answer will come to me. Just yesterday, I was starting to plant some Day Lilly's that she had bought and never got planted. I had the shovel, water pail and was ready to start shoveling dirt when all of a sudden I decided to plant them somewhere else. I am sure she had something to do with it!

The steam meet is almost here, August 13-14 and 15th and we are hosting it this year. A while back, I wrote a story about my involvement in Dave's hobby and so I am going to share it with you today. Hope you enjoy it!

SOOT HAPPENS!

One of our hobbies a 20' steam launch, the "Captain Bell". The "Captain Bell" has been in our family for about 15 years. She originally was named "Polly" and when we purchased her, she became "Slow Bell". That had a double meaning, one for a speed signal from the captain aboard a ship to his engine room; and the other because our family's last name Bell, and the boat is...well...slow. After my husband's father passed away, we again decided to rename her the "Captain Bell" in his honor.

For those who are technically inclined, you need to know that the boat is powered by a 54 square foot fire-tube boiler. The steam from the boiler drives a 10-horsepower "vee-compound" engine. We have burned a variety of fuels over the years...anything from pure diesel to old crankcase oil. Anything that will make a fire and keep the water boiling. Recently, we even tried an alternative fuel called bio-diesel. Instead of being a petroleum-based product, its base is vegetable oil...you know, the stuff they scrape off the grill at McDonalds. It was "so-so" as a fuel, but instead of smelling like the tail end of a big truck, the smoke from the stack smelled like french fries!

The "Captain Bell" is a real show-stopper. She is painted red, white and blue and has a striped red and white canopy that is held up by shiny brass stanchions. She has beautiful brass running lights both fore and aft, as well as port and starboard and this wonderful brass steam whistle that greets people for miles around when we blow it.

Now...I'm a landlubber at heart, but I am married to a man who has salt water in his veins. His father was a river pilot and his whole family is in the boat business. So naturally, he yearns for the water. "Yearn" wouldn't be a word I would use to describe MY relationship to water. "Tolerate" might be a closer choice. I am proud of the fact that I have learned that the pointy end of the boat is the bow and the back of the boat is the stern. I also know the difference between the port and the starboard side of the boat, and I'm proud to be a member of the crew. I guess you could call me the Second Mate. Now, that sounds good until you realize that the Second Mate's job on this boat is to do the cleaning, painting and brass polishing. But I take that job seriously! You can eat off her deck when I get through cleaning! It is also my responsibility to watch for debris in the water while we're under way and to tie the boat to the dock when we land. If my husband criticizes me about my seamanship, I point out that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I remind him about my gardening skills and his lack of same and enough is said. Point made!

The "Captain Bell" is a great boat. But she's still a boat. And on top of that, she's a boat powered by steam. That means one day you are riding high, all is well, everything is sounding wonderful, the water levels and steam pressure are perfect. But the very next day it will be just the opposite, there will be no steam pressure and you hardly have enough power to blow the whistle, let alone get back to shore! And for no reason! That's the life of a steamer! You really have to love this hobby because it seems like there are more "down" days than "up" days.

We have had many an interesting time with the "Captain Bell". A couple of years ago, a friend of mine brought her niece with her for a ride. This was one of the "up" days. We had shirtsleeve weather, and we went up the river to the next town for a wonderful lunch. On our return trip, as we approached our dock, we turned the wheel to the left to make the landing...and the boat turned right! Thinking the tide was affecting the boat's handling more than we thought it would, we went full circle to the right and once again...as we approached the dock...turned to the left. Again...the boat continued circling to the right! So we shut it down and whistled to a nearby boat for help. We asked if the boat could tow us into the dock and we got the towrope in place.

Now, it needs to be said here that just like some drivers on the highway, there are people that should never be allowed to run a boat on the river. Of all the people we could have asked for help, we picked the one guy that couldn't even tow us in a straight line, much less the 100 feet to the dock. By the time he got the hang of it, he had us going 20 miles an hour! Now - when we asked him to tow us in to the dock...we didn't really mean "into the dock"!!! We hit so hard we nearly ended up high and dry on the deck! When we got the boat up on the trailer later in the day, we discovered a broken rudder shaft - that's why it wouldn't steer...but no damage from our adventure with the dock.

Then there was the time when we were with a couple dozen other steamers at Kingston, Washington. One of the other larger boats went aground on a mud flat at low tide and several others, including us, went to her rescue. The only problem was, that there was even more mud between us and the other boat. The CAPTAIN BELL came to an abrupt stop as she too was grabbed by the mud. Now - you have to picture the scene when steamboats gather. Everyone seems to spend every pound of available steam pressure blowing the whistle. All the time! They sail around waving at people and blowing the whistle. So...here we are...aground. We began waving our arms and blowing the whistle in series of three to signal our distress. Flush from their success in pulling the other boat off the mud, the rescuers all went by us, smiling, waving and...you guessed it...blowing their whistles right back at us! We really thought we were going to be a "land-based attraction" for the next several hours when someone finally caught on that we might have a problem and threw us a rope.

Yes, operating a steamboat is fun...and a series of adventures...when it runs. But all in all, we love it!

Oh yes, Soot Happens...where did that come from? Picture yourself down on the dock, admiring the CAPTAIN BELL or even a fleet of steamers. It's a nice day and you're wearing a nice white shirt. When it comes time to fire up the boiler, the first thing to come out of the smoke stack is...soot! Lots of coal black, sticky soot! With a natural attraction for white clothing! It's then that about all we can do is shrug our shoulders and say we're sorry...but SOOT HAPPENS!

End of story.

That's it for this week...the DSL is not working again and so there's no webcam, and no pictures this week...but hopefully we can get it all figured out in a few days. Keep checking!