I had this old Seagull outboard kicking around the basement for I figure at least 20 years. John Mason had given it to me to put up on the wall with some other relics at Edey & Duff when I worked there. I did not think that a motor fitted in with sailing hardware, so I kept it in the basement. This year I decided that I would try to get it going and sell it, or take it to the dump. I am trying to raise money to buy another short shaft outboard for the new inflatable I am planning on buying this spring. Quite a bit of rust had found its way onto various parts,but after a lot of WD40 I was finally able to remove the sparkplug. I also loosened up all the brackets in the same way. Bought a new plug and gas and this weekend took the engine outside and put it in a tank. Pulled, and pulled, and zip. The owners manual says that you should never have to attempt to start it more than 4 timesor you will end fouling the plug and flooding it. So when I pulled the plug I found it was clean and no burning. Cleaned out the gas line and I was sure I was getting gas into the cylinder but no spark. Went back on line and found a site that suggested spinning the engine with an electric drill for 10 minutes to excite the coil. Also to adjust the points and reset them. Did that and opened the throttle, pulled the cord, and Ta da, it stated on the first pull. So it is pumping water, goes into gear and the prop turns and pushes a lot of water out. Now I have to find a buyer.

It's time to pull in the Triceratops snow measuring device for another year. We did get measurable snow this year but not much. 2 storms each about 6 inches. Spring is here, the weather is actually getting warmer and it is getting time to take the cover off the boat. We will be putting it in the first week of June. The water is still too cold in May to swim or sail and we usually get a bad storm around the middle of the month. I am working for the UPS store for 1 more week while the new owner in in training in San Diego. I will be really done on April 11. Need to find another part time job to generate some extra funds for beer making and travel during retirement. I am also running for a position on the Open Space Acquisition Committee here in Marion. This will be the first town committee that I will actually be elected to. All the others have been appointed positions.

We were in Florida from March 7 to 17 visiting Tim. Sean & Nicole found us a Time Share Unit in Pompano Beach where we stayed for 7 days and spent the other days in Tim's Condo. Did some beaching, geocaching and fishing. Picture above is of Ellen & I at the South Boca Raton Beach Webcam Geocache, communicating with Tim on whether or not our picture had been taken. Had a great time at the St. Patrick's Day parade in Del ray. The weather was beautiful, nice and warm. It was tough to come back home to the cold weather.

When we were geocaching we went to this park where they do cable Water skiing. Really neat. The cable runs in a large oval and the skiers can do jumps. The lake was very shallow because they were able to walk ashore when they fell.