Videos to follow. In addition the Sand Hill Cranes we have a family of Red Shouldered Hawks living in the yard. A mating pair and four young ones. So far the young ones have collided with the house and the porch windows. I hope they learn before they do themselves in. We have way too many squirrels, so I am happy to have them. They did chase the song birds away though. We had a flock of about a dozen Ibis hanging out today also. jim
Jim Nice photos. It must be nice being able to launch the boat right in your own yard. I see the boat in close to shore, yet with the engine all the way down. Does it drop off pretty deep there?
It is not real steep. I would not run the engine there. It is pretty close to the bottom. I thought it would look better with it down. It is nice to launch right here. It was always my dream to have that. jim
So that's your backyard right there? That's awesome! Does that dump straight into a lake or is that a river you're on there? Great dream to have! I remember seeing in Lake Havasu at one time manufactured subdivision houses that were literally right on the lake like that, and had actual garages (with garage doors and openers) in the back of the house that were filled with water. The lake came right into the garage so you could store your boat/jetskis/whatever. They weren't that expensive at the time either, and always seemed like that would be a neat thing to have. I can't imagine what would happen if the water levels would go drastically up or drastically down, and how that would affect the house/garage, but it seemed impressive at the time. Seemed like anybody could just swim right under the garage door too and break into your place. Who knows...
You know all these years and Jim's boat has not been "Boat Of the Month" and with these great shots and over 1000 posts I think it is about time. Daniel I will be changing the Photo and Boat of the Month pictures on Wednesday.
We live on a fairly protected cove in the lake. That is what you are looking at. The lake is about one mile long. The cove where we live is almost always calm for skiing. I do have a separate 3 car garage where the boat lives. It only takes about 5 minutes (single handed) to launch it. There is a garage door on the lake side which I do not use. I have some video here of a launch, a tour of the lake, and some skiing. I have it ready to send to Daniel. I' try to get it off tomorrow. It will show more of what it looks like. jim
I put the boat there because Pam wanted a picture of it. It is filthy from us using it for 2 weeks. It looks a lot better in the picture. The dirt and grime does not show up much. The boat has about 4 gallons of fuel in it as it sits. It gets used a lot for the two weeks a year that they are here and then it hardly ever goes out. They went home today and I am sad. jim
Heh, here in California, that makes you a millionaire, with gas prices what they are. Seriously, great looking place down there. That's great for sure to be able to whip the boat out in 5 minutes and be on the lake. Can't beat that at all.
Thanks, It took me a life time to get this place, and I could not afford to buy it now. 10% percent ethanol fuel has finally come to central FL. We don't have an air pollution problem here so we did not have it until recently. I pre-mix my fuel and the shelf life is not good with the new fuels so I try to run it down at the end of the vacation. My motor runs better than I thought it would on the stuff. I think I need to richen up the idle mixture a little. The boat runs a little flatter with a full tank, but as you can see in the header picture it almost runs too flat with two big guys and a full tank. It does not have a handling problem, but the bow is pretty buried. It can be controlled with trim, but that changes the wake too. A full tank with me solo or a light passenger is pretty good. jim
Jim, Would it be an option to make your last tank or three fuel purchased from a non-oxygenated fuel source, e.g. avgas or from a marina which supposedly, marinas do not vend fuels with alcohols due to the water absorption problems? Avgas at 110 octane may not perform well at all in a Johnson FastStrike 150 as it would be mixing the 2-stroke oil and compressing at a lower ratio than a Turboed Continental 6. Just an idea that may make the off season a little easier to bear in the spring.
