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by Dave Lucas – Bradenton, Florida – USA
 

More on Ice and Snow


You guys are sending me some terrible snow pictures. What's up, you're all rich and retired so why aren't you down here with me? Here's the view out my window.

And here's a shot from Bob Hick's window up in Mass. He says that this big green house window helps.

Another view of the same house. Maybe all this snow is really fun and not as awful as I'm imagining but I doubt it. You must have anti freeze in your blood Bob.

Cessna the Labradolphin doesn't care about cold water at all; she does care about the big birds walking on her shore though and will swim any distance to tell them so.

The giant water cooled muffler on Chelsea's Briggs and Stratton motor rusted in half so Steve's having a new one made out of stainless steel. It will be water cooled also because that's the only way to get rid of the exhaust heat in a small enclosed space.

Here I am smoothing out the hull of the Everglades Challenge boat. It took a lot of filling and rolling epoxy to get it as smooth as I wanted.

Ahhh, like glass. John says that he also wants it to be coated with graphite for extra smoothness and toughness.

Helen Marie on the Yorktown a while back. This is the carrier that's a museum in Charleston harbor. The marina where Judy Blue Eyes keeps her catboat in about a hundred yards straight off the bow.

Jamie sent these pictures of Christmas in Afghanistan. Cheery looking place isn't it? He works 12 hours a day, seven days a week doing something with drones but doesn't care, what else is there to do.

Looking down the runway.

Over the north wall. No wonder these people are so tough, they live here all the time. All you ever see is dirt and rocks, what do they eat?

Jim's working on the sliding hatch now; funny how these simple little jobs aren't so simple when it comes to keeping the water out of a speeding boat.

Me up a tree changing a light bulb, I guess my hip is all better if I can do this kind of thing.

Here's something you don't see very often, in fact never. This is the only one. Like all of the guys who frequent the Tiki Hut, Phil is a man of many surprises. He once started a business making equipment to work in orange groves and one of the things they use up a lot are the little truck carrier things like the John Deere Gators. He designed and built this prototype of one that's almost indestructible.

The frame and body parts are heavy duty steel welded together so they won't rattle apart. It's so heavy duty that the finders and dash are made to stand on when working in the grove.

The drive train is hydraulic with individual hydraulic motors on each wheel and a custom splitter to supply the power to them.

The dump bed is massive also, this thing weights in at 1800 pounds and should never get stuck, we hope. We need something like to move the boats around the yard and pull out of the river. The tractors we use now aren't made for this hard abuse; this one will do the job as soon as Howard gets it all fixed up.

More horrible weather up north. Richard sent this one. White Christmas's are over rated if this is what you get.

I'd be right in there with his dogs, snuggled up keeping warm.

Here's what we were doing down in good Fla. I think that's a dog's tail on my are; I'm not that hairy.

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