Rabbets and apples
Let’s see, according to our original schedule, we’d be planked by Halloween.
It could happen. And Cheney could come out and admit the whole Iraq thing was a mistake from the get go too.
Meantime, back in the reality-based community, I’ve been fairing the rabbet down from the transom through the deadwood, and into the keel. Mike started the rabbet out as you can see here:
You see that slot cut into the side of the deadwood from beneath the transom and running forward? That’s the rabbet Mike started. He stopped it where he did until we had attached the deadwood and transom to the keel. This morning, we put in the final screws and 2 drifts to hold everything together, so now we can fair in the rabbet without fear of anything moving on us.
I battened out the rabbet and bearding lines to match up with the rabbet I’d cut earlier in the keel, and a few hours later, voila!
There’s the rabbet now cut and faired into the keel. It’s a little wiggly in places, but we’ll fine tune it as it comes time to plank.
By the way, we’ve got everything laying over on its side because it’s just easier to work this way.
We’ve been having wonderful weather out here, and along with the turning leaves, it’s apple time! I went out to visit a cider mill (B.F. Clyde’s) in Mystic with a friend Sunday, and I’m here to say that nothing is better than a glass of freshly squoze cider, unless it’s a glass of ice cold cider slushee with a freshly fried donut with cinnamon and brown sugar. Damn. It’s almost enough to give you religion.
My grandad had a small cider mill & press that he operated throughout most of his life. By small, I mean it made about a gallon of cider at a time and fit easily into the back of a pickup truck. This one is a tad bigger. Here’s the ground up apple mash coming down from the upstairs mill onto the a slatted base covered with a tough, open-weave cloth.
The whole thing gets spun under this giant press
and gallons of juice flow out into a trough and down to the bottling room.
The extra great thing about this operation is that it’s powered entirely by steam.
All the machinery is driven by wide leather belts. It’s amazing how quiet the whole thing is. If you’ve had much exposure to steam engines you know that they need lots of oil, but as a result, you don’t get any squeaking or sqealing as they run. Just fast, quiet power.
Here’s a little video
Tomorrow we’ll get the backbone completed (at last!) and start setting up the molds. Seems like we’ve been on pause…