Summer of 2007

Hi to everyone who visits my little workshop.

It's been a long summer and I have much to tell. Unfortunately, there hasn't been any work on the boat. Summer brings warm weather and that means lots of work at the concrete plant where I work. If I have failed to mention earlier in this blog, I drive a concrete mixer for a living, as well as many other things around the plant like dump trucks, tractor / trailors, bucket loaders, the forklift, the skid steer and anything else that I can do. Warm weather means contractors want to pour concrete... and we've poured a boat load of it this summer, (ship load actually).

If you've visited this site before, you'll notice that the first slideshow to the left has a completely new set of pictures... and I've added a music video from one of my favorite artists... Kitaro. Hope you enjoy the music.
The pictures show some of the work that I did on my boat last winter... 2006-2007.

I'm looking forward to working on her again this winter while I'm laid off work.

Aside from working at the concrete plant, I've accomplished much in what little spare time I could salvage out of my days and weekends.
(I typically work 8 - 12 hours per day... 6 days a week).
(During the fall harvest I was working as many as 16 hour days and 7 days per week for about 8 weeks straight.)
Just a note... this is about the same time as last year when "Abbeygirle" came to live here with us.

THE WORK
As mentioned in the "Tuesday, May 1st" posting, I had started several flower beds for my wifes flowers, bulbs and bushes in the back yard. I also landscaped the front yard with much of the same. A real patio was in order as well so, I built a 13' x 17' patio out of Dutch coblestones. Two different size stones in three colors. This I did while working 12 hour days and staying outside as late as 10:30 PM... for a week with temperatures in the high 90s ! UFFDA !!!

If interested, pictures of everything are available to view at the following link.

http://vicslittleworkshop.shutterfly.com/action/

Here's just a few pic's:

I also, (during the harvest), organized a benifet ride for my boss who has been diagnosed with colon cancer. In September, a friend of a friend twisted my arm a little bit and convinced me to buy his motorcycle... a 1995 Honda Shadow ACE VT1100 c2.

Shortly after buying the bike I found out about my boss' condition and decided to host a benifit ride in his honor. I had to take off work on a couple of sundays to research the route and the stops but, on October 21st, 2007 we rode! We had 11 bikes, one van (our mechanic... just in case !), one bright red corvette (my boss' father inlaw) and my wife in her car. A total of about 20 or so people actually riding and many other people (including Ron & his family) showed up to see us off. It was great !!!

"Ride for Ron" was a huge success. I originally intended to buy only 15 or 20 shirts and hoped to raise enough money to cover the cost of those shirts. I ended up ordering 45 shirts (with an additional 10 to back order), sold all of these with the exception of 4 or 5 of the smaller sizes. The donations were enough to pay for all of the shirts as well as an additional $1200.00 or so to give to my boss Ron to help him with his medical / nutritional expenses due to the cancer treatments.

We rode approxamately 170 total miles from central Illinois (USA) into Indiana, around two state parks (Beautiful fall scenery), and back home. When we got home we all stopped at Ron's house for a "Meet & Greet" with Ron and his family.

Again, pictures of the ride can be viewed here:

http://vicslittleworkshop.shutterfly.com/action/

Here's a few pic's of the "Ride for Ron"

Here's me...

Ron, his wife Lori & two daughters.

Now, at last, I come to the news that I've been waiting to tell for some time now !

As I have mentioned on the front page of this website under "About my Boat" my boat was built by
KAUFFMAN BOATWORKS, OSPREY, FLORIDA.

On Sunday July 29 of 2007 (this summer) I was contacted, via e-mail, by a man who's name happens to be... George M. Kauffman, who is one of six children of George H. Kauffman, the founder of Kauffman Boatworks and the builder of my boat...

Wow.

I never expected my little website (blog) to reach quite so far... this is awesome to say the least.
I have since been contacted by two more brothers in the family, John and Karl Kauffman.

Kauffman Boatworks is no longer in business. I don't know when he started building boats but, from what the Kauffmans have shared with me, Mr. George H. Kauffman was born around 1920, took part in WW2, started building wooden boats in Osprey, Fl. untill he switched to building fiberglass boats and moved his shop to Venice, Fl. and eventually stopped making boats all together in 1970 to take a job as a foreman at a yacht yard in Massachusetts on the Island of Marthas Vineyard. He later passed away in 1987 in Boston.

That's about all that I've learned about Mr. Kauffman, as the builder of my boat other than the fact that he did have hired workmen to help build the boats.

George (the son) seems to be quite familiar with the building process as he has explained in much detail how these old boats were made.

Thank you very much to each and every Kauffman kid who has contacted me regarding my old boat. You have all "made my day" !!!

I wish that I could post the 4 pictures that George has given me but for some reason they won't load onto blogspot... I'll keep trying though.

Untill next time....

Happy trails.