The Big Pour

Posted on September 24, 2010 | 2 comments

A dozen bags doesn't go far


A low spot near the edge of the steepest part of the driveway has steadily gotten worse in the three years I have owned my home. Although I don’t drive over it, chunks of concrete from a previous patch keep breaking off. Runoff from rain now flows freely under the patch leading to further erosion and settling. Today my neighbor and I filled the low spot with a dozen 60-pound bags of ready-mix QuikRete (see photo).

Our big pour took place right after one of nature’s big pours—last night it rained heavily. When my neighbor called this morning, the sky was overcast with more rain forecast. We decided to ignore the weatherman. After a quick trip to Lowe’s for materials, we got right to it. A couple of hours of sweaty work later (I mixed while he poured and troweled the concrete), the patch was in place. By late afternoon it was ready for the next rainy day.

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Posted in Home

Still No Picture

Posted on September 16, 2010 | 1 comment

One of the Mud Bay blog’s initial posts was about a 1958 Pontiac that is seen occasionally on Rocky Point Road. Recently I learned a bit more about the car, although I still don’t have a picture. But take my word for it, the black sport coupe is gorgeous.
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Posted in Cars, Mud Bay & Rocky Point

Deck Scrub

Posted on September 12, 2010 | 1 comment

One section at a time


It’s been a while since I last cleaned the mildew, algae, and bird droppings off the deck. I thought about trying one of the deck-wash products available at the home improvement stores. According to their directions you just spray on the cleaning solution, wait 10 minutes, and rinse with a hose. In the end out of concern for the environment and a suspicion that no job could be that easy unless the cleaner is mostly bleach, I decided to clean the deck the old-fashioned way—with a scrub brush (see photo).
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Posted in Home

Coming in Spring 2010/11

Posted on September 9, 2010 | 1 comment

Best of luck


The old sign announcing the Chico Beach Cottages said something like “Coming in Spring 2010” or “Available in Spring 2010.” Construction finally started a couple of weeks ago. The new sign (see photo) doesn’t mention the missed deadline, but a flyer available at the site states that completion is now targeted for Spring 2011. It also advises that only 5 of the 7 homes to be clustered on the roughly 1-acre site, which are priced from the mid-$500s, are left. I learned this on my bike ride today.

The waterfront project is located on the northwest side of Dyes Inlet, just before Chico Way dead ends into Newberry Hill Road, about a half-mile south of Silverdale. It’s a high-rent area due to the view and location. The home just to the north of the project is valued at more than $760,000 on the county tax rolls. I will miss the heavily wooded lot that’s been clear cut to make room for the cottages. But it will be interesting to see if the project can live up to its own marketing: “Once in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a new, legacy waterfront home in Kitsap’s first ‘pocket neighborhood’ cottage community!” More important whether the long-delayed construction start means local real estate professionals think Central Kitsap is emerging from the housing slump.

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Posted in Economy, Other Local Places

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Active People

Posted on September 3, 2010 | 2 comments

A cool new ride


My cousin T.H. and his wife L.H. are fun active people. They surprised me with a visit late yesterday, ended up spending the night, and are gone again. That’s what’s neat about seeing family—get-togethers aren’t always planned. We don’t visit often enough, so there’s always something new (to me) in their lives. I was expecting the Camry or VW van, not a sporty convertible (see photo).
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Posted in Friends & Family

Driving in Bremerton

Posted on September 1, 2010 | 3 comments

It’s the first of September, the first day of the fall school term in Bremerton. That’s one more reason to be careful when driving around town. The safety of kids is of course paramount, but that’s not what I’m writing about. With red-light cameras at major intersections and a citywide emphasis on traffic enforcement, drivers already need to be especially vigilant when driving in Bremerton. The all-day 20-mph speed limit in school zones just ups the chances of getting a traffic citation.
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Posted in Cars, Government, Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Other Local Places

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Mud Bay Salvage

Posted on July 19, 2010 | 2 comments

Will someone claim this boat?


A long-neglected boat (see photo) drifted in on an overnight high tide late last month beaching itself on the spit in front of my neighbor’s property. At first I was excited as it would be great to have a rowboat for exploring Mud Bay and nearby Dyes Inlet. In checking around I learned that it is customary to wait a month before claiming a small derelict vessel. But a close examination of the hull shows that I probably don’t need to wait that long. In fact it’s unlikely the owner will ever mount a search for it. Now I’m trying to decide if I should patch the leaks or haul it to the dump.
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Posted in Mud Bay & Rocky Point

Finding the Property Line

Posted on July 6, 2010 | 2 comments

Location of Surveyor Muller's 1975 mark


My neighbor to the north, whose large lot fronts on Mud Bay, has long been concerned about identifying the exact location of the line that divides her property from mine and the house just to the east of mine. I used the word “finding” rather than “surveying” in the title because she isn’t a licensed surveyor. But she sails, understands navigation and the use of a GPS, and owns a laser light. She put those skills to work and seems to have done an accurate job. Part of the evidence is that she uncovered a long-buried surveyor’s mark in an area that is underwater during the highest tides (see photo).
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Posted in Home

100 Thousand

Posted on June 26, 2010 | 2 comments

Parked along the Skokomish


The “Posts” section of a WordPress account keeps track of the number of posts published in a blog. With 99 prior to this one, the Mud Bay blog has reached a milestone worth perhaps two sentences—of which this is the second. So I’m writing instead about a different “100” that just happened in my life. Yesterday the odometer on my collector car (see photo) rolled over and now reads 00021 miles.
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Posted in Cars

Fishing Sculptures

Posted on June 24, 2010 | 1 comment

Sculptures in 2010


Can anything new be said about the controversial public art (see photo) that was installed this month at the intersection of Fourth and Pacific in downtown Bremerton? The sculptures, of a fish and a fisherman, have been criticized in blog entries, in letters to the editor, and in hundreds of online comments on the Kitsap Sun web site. The answer is probably no, but that didn’t stop me from writing about them.
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Posted in Government, Other Local Places

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