Sentisah's Novelty Boats!

 I have  a ways to go, but I'm making a lot of progress. I'm still waiting on the rest of the donated fronds to dry out. Once they are dry, I can then add them to both ends of the boat.. I'm also working on the boat called Skullah. I  ran out of  wood glue, trying to complete the keel. (Spine, ribs and wings) I'm experimenting with other parts of the palm tree while building the prototypes. I started thinking about how long it's taking me to build the Auset Fronds. I came to the realization that you can't rush doing things because that means that you're not paying attention to important details. So I thought if it's going to take another year, then another year it will be.

I did a lot of work today on the boat Skullah. I had to reattach parts that came loose by nailing more fronds that are hard wood. I added some glue, but I really don't think the bond will be all that tight. The shape of the fronds leaves a lot of gaps between the fronds they are on top of. The hope is that the newly add fronds will stick to the fronds underneath them. I wanted to nail the fronds that I added for more strength, but I ran out of nails and screws. I found a few stray nails and screws still in some fronds that I took apart from another project. I don't have enough screws or nails to continue working on both Skullah and the Auset Fronds. I'm going to buy  more nails and screws soon.

I sawed this block of wood into two triangles. I have 3 more rectangle blocks that I need to cut. Right now I wish I had a small electric wood saw because what may take me an hour if I cut nonstop, would only take about 10 minutes or less with a wood saw. I actually thought that cutting the wood with a hand saw was actually good exercise for me because I'm supposed to strengthening my neck muscles, by doing  certain exercise that was prescribed for me.Working on the boats has been a form of physical therapy for me. In the beginning after my neck surgery, I couldn't  do anything physical. As time went on I saw what my limits were, and now I'm feeling about 90% back to what I used to be before my car accident. Even though it set my project  back a bit, I'm still making a lot of progress. I'm building a kind of cradle for the second boat called Skulla. It's already resting on two short steel legs, outside of the fence in an area that I cleared of bushes. I d

 I have the donated fronds laying up against the fence, so they can totally dry out. I had to figure out how I was going to attached these fronds to the Jaw Rails. I noticed that the Jaw Rails have angular shaped ends on them, that will allow me to attach other fronds to the Jaw Rails on both ends. There are different varieties of fronds, which requires them to be used differently in construction. That's why it is essential that the steps taken in building the Auset Fronds be documented, so that the same techniques can be used in future projects.

 I finished all the Jaw Rails and they are now on the boat. A friend of mind is going to donate some fronds that were cut from her palm tree in her backyard. She said it was quite a bit. My friend is going to see if the fronds can be delivered to my house. I'm going use this new donation to build up the Jaw Rails more which will make it safer for the occupant(s) when they are boarding and exiting the boat. Right now the Jaw Rails are either leaning out or in. Once I add the back Jaw Rails to each end of the boat, that will make them remain straight up. I actually ran out of bitters. I need to go see if the tree where I got them from has been cut back recently.

 I spent 7 hours putting these Jaw Rails together and then mounting them on the boat. Towards the evening, attaching the rails to the boat got difficult because I was bombarded with gnats flying all over my face, neck  and head. After awhile, it started becoming extremely uncomfortable to attach the rails to the boat. To make matters worse, it started raining and it was becoming too dark for me to finish making the last Jaw Rail and attaching it to the boat. I was able to finish constructing the last rail, but I had to bring it inside so I can finish tightening the screws on it.. I only have about 3 or 4 screws left to tighten which I'm going to finish doing sometime this evening. Attaching the jaw rails was a very painful process. At the moment both of my hands are sore from being bitten every time I had to pick them up. Wearing gloves would have been too cumbersome to wear because they get snagged on the frond teeth. Today while I was working on the boat, it started really fee