Road Trip to the Home of Blackbeard

I have always been a little crazy about boats and boating. My folks had a place on the lake when I was growing up and helped my dad build two boats. The destination for this trip was to Bath NC which was the home of Blackbeard. It is a very small town on the Pamlico River which is part of the Pamlico sound... a huge area protected by the outer banks. Lots of farmland once you get away from the coast. There was one plant in abundance that was in bloom that I did not recognize. Turns out it was cotton. The Upstate of SC was once dominated by cotton mills and yet I had never seen a cotton plant.

The ghost of Blackbeard is reported to wonder about the area in search of his long lost head. I went to look at the boat below which is a crab skiff built on Harkers Island. you could sail it, row it, or use the motor. It is well suited to the area and sorry to say that I was not able to complete a deal on this boat. 

But I am planning a return trip to the area.

Another reason for the trip was to visit the River Rat Yacht club over on the Pungo River side of the peninsula that is also the home of Bath. 

I had connected with a guy who lives aboard a sailboat there and has quite an extensive cruising background... was lucky enough to get a few hours out on the water in one of his boats. 

The famed River Rat Yacht Club... It's in the sticks for sure.

2020... One for the record books

I went to Myrtle Beach... Ocean Lakes to be exact... thanks to a freebie place to stay for a few days. My first time there and the first time to Myrtle Beach this century. I really don't remember the last time I was there but most of my coastal adventures in recent years have been to the NC Coast. Beaufort, Oriental, New Bern and a few others. There is a huge procession of golf carts of all kinds each evening. Here are a few pics from this trip that I call

 Ocean Lakes After Dark.

2020

2020 has a bit of a futuristic tone to it and I'm a little surprised I have made it this far... it's no longer a futuristic dream but now a reality. I've been watching some of Ken Burns Country Music episodes... and one that particularly resonates with me covers the 68 to 72 time frame. It covers my high school days and just after and is now over 50 years ago. It covers part of the Vietnam era... it covers Kris Kristofferson's early days, Bob Dylan in Nashville playing with Johnny Cash. Early days of  Willie Nelson when he wore suits and had funny hair. It winds up with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Will the Circle be Unbroken. It seems so long ago and it seems like only yesterday. A time when I knew it all and thought I would live forever.... and now when I realize how little I know and wonder where the time went and just how much longer I'll be around.

Horse Power Plow Day

Went up to Warren Wilson  college a few days ago to check out Plow Day. It was a little on the toasty side and the ground was a bit too hard for a lot of the teams including the team owned by the school. It was supposed to be their last event but they stayed in the barn I reckon. There were a few teams that did a little clod busting for the folks who showed up.

Its Alive

Just needed a new spark plug to get this engine running... with no load on them... they are coasting most of the time until it slows down enough to release the latch holding the exhaust valve open and allowing it to fire after which it goes back to coasting. Thats why they call them hit and miss engines. 

Hit and Miss

The latest project here under the Shadetree is this old hit and miss engine. It's on what's left of an old Economy Tractor. We'll have this thing popping and hopping real soon. These things are a blast to hear run. They are quite primitive with nothing mechanical operating the intake valve. The only thing that opens it is the vacuum created by the intake stroke thats sucks the valve open and draws in air and gasoline.

It has a governor that controls the speed of the engine by holding the exhaust valve open and the engine freewheels until it slows down enough to let the exhaust valve operate. It will then fire once or twice and go back to coasting. That's where the hit and miss moniker comes from.

A Ride Back in Time

My friend Clarence recently acquired this very cool truck… which I actually found on facebook ads. It was ready to roll right from the gitgo  has a few minor issues but has taken us around Little Mountain a few times now. Working on the ahooogah horn…amazing that you can get new brushes for that right online. Didn’t need brushes though… it has an ungrounded motor inside and requires two leads to make it work… it was missing one but still had the original connectors inside… quite amazing.
 

2018 in Review

2018 has been a bit hectic... and my blog a bit neglected... I'm going to end 2018 about the same way I started this year with a return to the handyman proa. It been taking up space in a shop that belongs to my good friend Clarence Gibbs. The shop now has heat and air and a pretty good start on the tools needed to become the center of  handyman festivities. I need to make a call on the proa project to either get it on the water or get it out of the way and move on to something else. I'm moving my home automation related posts to  Electrick Handyman. I recently discovered upython that can be installed on ESP 32 and the 8266. I also finally broke down and got a Raspberry Pi... it's a full blown computer on a card with a linux variant operating system and it can run a program called Node-Red which is a cool tool for allowing the ESP 32 and other devices to communicate with each other using the mosquito or msqtt protocol. I will be posting updates on that undertaking on Electrick Handyman as well.

The Cottonwood Trail

I've been doing handyman work as a sideline for a little over a year now and it has been both enjoyable and profitable. I would like to thank all of you that have allowed me to be your handyman. One of my more interesting encounters led to my discovery of the Cottonwood Trail on Lawsons Fork Creek. It seems I'm becoming more connected to this creek.. It seems to be everywhere I'm fond of frequenting. I enjoy riding a motorcycle and often ride on Hanging Rock road which borders the creek there at Valley Falls. It also borders the property at USC Upstate... its not so obvious there but I recently discovered that there are some nice trails alongside the creek there. Most recently I discovered the Cottonwood Trail by accident... I have a customer whose property is very close to the creek in the Fernwood area. After finishing a job there I saw a sign for the trail and decided to check it out. It is a 115 acre preserve complete with a boardwalk and nice trails in the heart of Spartanburg... if you've never been there you should check it out.

This is the view from my friends window... Lawsons Fork Creek is just across the road... they had this killer piece of glass art... A 12 inch cube of  fused glass with an incredible amount of detail in the colored cube in the center.

Handyman's ESP32 Home Automation Web Server

The ESP32 Handyman home automation web server is up and running. The ESP32 connects to your local WiFi network and then you can connect via your cell phone or your computer or tablet and control eight devices. These are hard wired to an eight relay device which you can see in my previous post. The ESP32 serves up the webpage and switches the eight relays which are in turn wired to the devices you want to control. Virtually all of my lighting is led types. In my shed / shop area I have at least ten led light fixtures all on one circuit. I checked the load with an amp meter and it was less than two amps. The relay switches are rated for 10 amps so no problem there.