Backyard Pirate Ship - Day 10 (I think)

I know, haven't posted an update in a few days but in my defense it was hot, so we hit the beach a few times, then i trained all day yesterday.

Anyways, really big day today so get ready for some pics.

So when we last tuned in, I believe I had started framing the cannon room.  So this morning I was out there at 7:30, finishing up the decking on top of the cannon room.  That deck will be the bridge.

And at one point this morning I got to pull out another tool I hadn't used yet, the table saw.

So to recap, I have now used practically every tool in my arsenal on this project.  Only the air tools have remained on the shelves and also some plumbing tools cause I sure am not putting running water in this thing.

I needed the table saw to rip my boards at an angle to finish the top of the hull.

Also, at one point today I had to relax and go spend a few hours weeding the garden.  Doesn't it look nice.

In all honesty, this is all the wife's work.  I have provided some technical support but 99% of this is her handy work and with the summer we're having, veggies are already coming in and we now have more than we can eat.

Remaining on the farm for a sec, we have had some new arrivals.  We have had 9 quails that have hatched.  I've never had them but I'm hoping they taste like partridge.  We also have a new bunny named Potter, which Cooper is obsessed with.  He can stare at it for hours and it is hilarious.

Ok, so back to the ship.  After framing the cannon chamber, I started looking at my supplies and noticed that I was starting to run low on pine boards.  So for the back of the ship, I started dipping into my scrap board pile.

I used a lot of the bits an pieces and managed to finish the rear of the boat without dipping into what was left of my full board pile.

So I then continued with this side of the boat and finished boarding up this cannon room.

Mathieu had a friend over so I asked them to go to the bridge so I could take a pic.

So my son is apprently fearless (or suicidal) and his buddy was hanging on to dear life.  Right now I'm still debating on if I'm going to put railings around the bridge or just buy parachutes or those winged jumpsuits that they could glide back down to the ground with.  I'm going to sleep on this.

I then wanted to finish up another part of the structure so I went to the small mast.  Now I had to run around to a few building supplies places on Tuesday and apparently nobody carries 4X4 in 16ft lengths.  I ended up going to a small sawmill nearby and they did have them but they were rough (not planed).  I got them anyways and with 2 passes with my elec. hand planer on each side, I got the thing to a nice finish.  I even turned the planer to a 45 degree angle on the corners and rounded them up.

So put the rear mast in.  Technically it really isn't going to be a mast as it won't have a sail, rather it's going to have a yard arm (I think that's the right term) that will swivel at the top, have 2 pullies and Mathieu will have a crane to bring supplies onboard before he heads out to sea. 

Now this mast goes down to the bottom of the hold as well and will serve as the corner to 2 walls.  One wall which you can see the bottom plate of will seperate the front of the hold from the back entrance.  It's also going to provide me with some structural reinforcement at mid-ship.  Then I'm also going to frame a wall and small door between this mast and the ladder, and voila! Mathieu has his brig.

Now back up top, I started on some railings, starting from the entry way going into the cannon room.

I'm using boards up to the middle of the railing then the top part will be patterned individual pieces of pine, to add a bit of style.  That 3ft void is where he'll have a cargo net type of ladder to climb on board.

Seeing that I was almost out of screws again, I decided to tackle the other side of the ship and try and get the most out of my day.

Then I ran out of screws...again, so Mathieu and I did a really good site clean up.  I also took down the  rear ladder and trimmed it to give it a bit more angle, it is now kid approved.  Really happy with everything that I got done today.  Another day like this and we'll be down to finish work and props.

Also spoke to the armorer (grandpa), and he was working feverishly on completing two cannons.  Grandpa sounded bored so I upped the order to three cannons, 2 for the cannon room and one for the main deck.

Tomorrow morning we leave for a little road trip (actually it's a workday for me).  I'm going to visit a few railway and trucking guys up north so I won't be reporting much from the shipyard for a few days.

So until my next update, thanks for dropping by.