Since we have last updated the blog we have been quite busy. We are still waiting on those logs to be delivered so that we can finish the floors of the vessel and the keelson can be installed and fastened. Sometimes it's hard to get things organised when you're waiting on others to get things organised too.

We have been busy planing lumber on our not so new 112 year old planer. Our very wide pine planks fill the poor beast but it is of excellent quality and has been lovingly restored by Warren and myself and it is responding well to the demanding work that we are asking from it. Surprisingly, we have had people call and request to come and help us plane pine planks. They are 27' long and 3" thick and range from 20 - 26" wide. Can you say heavy lifting? Each one has to go through the planer about 3 times and finally they have to be moved with the skidsteer. My goodness they are beautiful when they're finished.

We are building a cutting room addition on the boat shed. We, quite frankly, have no room to cut planking or anything else under the vessel. It is surprising how a 73' vessel can take up so much room in a 75' building. You'll see that our cat, Maggie, has enjoyed climbing the ladder to get to the roof of the new building. She's in charge of quality control so she has to inspect it daily.

We have had a busy day with visitors today. We had 17 visitors in about 4 groups. We saw old friends and met some new ones who had either "heard from a friend" or read about us in a magazine.It's wonderful to meet people who share our love of the wooden boat.

Our first visitors this morning were a Dad and his 2 young sons. They had been here before and the little fellows fell in love with the Lena Blanche. Today, they brought their own version of a boat that they had built. What a great feeling to think that maybe they had gotten a little inspiration from what they saw here the last time. I see a future boat builder (maybe two).

Tomorrow we will finish up the new addition and move a container or two from the yard. Then we'll get back to planing next week.