Summer & skye » Follow our adventures with Summer Wins & Skye!

The only thing more fun than Spring cleaning the house is Spring cleaning Summer Wins. After sitting in the water all winter the outside gets absolutely filthy. So Carl spend Saturday and Sunday scrubbing the outside. Still not done. I spent 2 days scrubbing the inside. Fortunately only a little bit of mildew but everything had to be scrubbed, floors, walls, ceilings, sinks etc. Lucky for me Carl was kind enough to clean the head for me. We did have guest, just not the kind we wanted, there were 3 different wasp nest in the cabin and a few wasp lost their lives in the process of removing the unwanted visitors. Hopefully, the rest will go to one of the many ignored, never touched boats in the marina to make their new home.

The day was glorious, middle 80s, sunshine and a nice steady 13mph wind that cried out for a sail. Was beautiful on the lake, kids were jumping off the cliffs, riding Air Heads and enjoying the 72 degree water. Great way to end the afternoon.

Can’t believe it is March 25 and today is the first time we went sailing this year. We have been so busy redecorating the house on weekends that we haven’t had any time to take the sail boat out. Finally we are done with the main floor and the weather cooperated so we could enjoy an afternoon of sailing. Glorious weather, 72 degrees steady winds out of the NW about 15 mph made for a wonderful relaxing afternoon. By the way water temp was 66.9

Summer Wins Waiting for First Sail of 2012

Not the only Sailboat out on the Lake

For the last few years Jim and Marilyn have been inviting us to visit them in Gulf Shores and it never seemed to work out. A couple of years ago Carl made it down for the weekend but never the 2 of us, this year we were able to work out a short visit. And it was a short visit. Drove down on Friday evening, a 7 hour drive and arrived around 9pm. Saturday morning the guys went up and went golfing and Marilyn and I hit the shops. I got a new Vera Bradley Bag, love her bags. The weather didn’t cooperate with us, windy, overcast and chilly. Carl had to be at the office Monday morning, so early afternoon after a stop for frozen yogurt, yummy, we headed back to TN. Nice to spend a time with them, wish the weather would have cooperated.

The following weekend Jim and Marilyn stopped by to visit on their way home to Grand Rapids. Weather again was chilly, but we managed a tour of downtown Nashville, a visit to the Marina to check out the boats and lots of hours of the guys playing Angry Birds. Monday early am they headed back to MI.

Jim enjoying Angry Birds

Typical scene for our home; iPads or Laptops are frequently, ok almost always, in our hands.

Carl and I went to Nick’s to help him finish removing the wallpaper in his house and paint the downstairs. What a pleasant surprise when we walked in, the living, dining, halls and stairway were all painted and looked great and had new blinds in the windows. The weekend task finish removing the wallpaper from the family, kitchen and powder room. The family and kitchen while not easy went well however the powder room seemed determined not to lose the wallpaper and Carl struggled with it. After removing all the wallpaper the guys then sanded and sealed all the walls and began the process of adding compound to the walls to replace the wallboard that came off with the wallpaper and make the wall smooth. What a job. Would love to report that they were able to finish the downstairs, however, everything takes time to dry and while great progress was made the powder room walls need a bunch of work as does the kitchen and 2 of the family room walls. They were able to finish the wall in the eat in kitchen and family room and Carl assisted Nick in putting up verticals at the sliding glass door and blinds on the family room windows. My job for the weekend was easy, keep Pepper company.

Living Room Ready for Furniture

Carl Fixing the Wall in the Family Room

Powder Room Before Stripping the Wallpaper

At the last minute I decided to end our stay here in Aruba by going for a Para-Sail. I had been once as a double with Carl in Key West. Thought then it was scary but, I lived thru it and thought the scenery was unbelievable, so, decided to swallow my fear of heights and just go for it. Did I mention how windy Aruba is? It was windy up there, little chilly and ever so scary, but the sights were amazing. The crew kept trying to motion me to let go, sit back and relax, but, letting go was not in my ability..to scary. Would I do it again? In a heart beat, especially on a windless day. I wore Carl’s Go Pro camera, Carl was on the boat using our Sony camera and Carl combine them into a fun video. Video is 4 minutes 17 seconds. Warning; turn your sound down, we will be replacing this video next week when a new editing program we ordered arrives. Meanwhile hope you enjoy.

Take off

Flying High

Survived!