Working In The Land Of Pleasant Living

[special-K]

I remember that being a catch phrase for Maryland when I was growing up. It's a little state "Back East" many know little or nothing about... including residents here from the city and suburbs. I won't go on about it being America in miniature, but the land of pleasant living comes from the Chesapeake Bay. It's a small state with a big bay, and that means miles and miles of coastline. Not just the bay itself, but all the rivers feeding into it are tidal waters as well.

I've been working on a cottage on the Severn River almost at the bay, just up from Annapolis. This place is really neat, a Sears cedar cottage kit built in 1927. This is an old waterfront community get-away in a cove. This place is right down by the boat ramp/beach/docks/bath house. It's on a point with a big sand bank it is perched above the water on. I was there to work, but I made sure I made the most of it. Right off the deck about 20' is an Osprey nest with babies.

[special-K]

I kept going for my camera instead of tools. Boats of all types, a great place to sit back and observe. I stayed there Wed-Sat and I got real used to that place. In the evening after I got a bite to eat I'd sit back and watch the river

[special-K]

Just a fun place to be.

[Red71gmc]

That is a neat place. Maybe you ought to make an offer on it, why not?
I was told years ago a neighboring house to my farm was a Sears kit. It is actually a neat style house. They must have had their place but I know little about them (quality, materials and such).

[Ol Blue K20]

Looks almost like a vacation Tim.

[special-K]

I'm calling it a workation. It's raining today, but I'm going back down tomorrow to finish up things till after fathers day. The owner is 94 and his folks were original owners. I tore out and built a new section of the deck. This place is the most original unchanged still the same place down there. You wind on down to the river with neat little places all stacked up on each other. They have a water system but it's all septic systems. Can you imagine doing that right smack on the water like that today?

This place is a gem, truly grandfathered in many ways. Just toss up a package house on this sand bank perched on cinder block columns. Build a winterized efficiency down below and good to go! It also has what they call "the locker" down below that! The main floor you're looking at Douglas fir studs & rafters and back side of exterior planks. The screening is copper. Even the deck was Doug fir from original. I mean there was one beam (single) under there that looked like a Ruffles potato chip, but mostly that wood held up extremely well.

It would be so cool to own this place. To me it is the prime lot in the community. The only one you can walk without steps to the water. You have to walk "up" steps to the house, and that gives you a view. So cool. I'd own it if I could also have a place in the mountains (with a shop) AND could own a boat! I started out doing work for the son who is about my age. He says they're not sure what they'll do with the place once his dad and mom pass.

[Ol Blue K20]

I like that place, it looks cool.

[1976gmc20]

Too bad Maryland has such a liberal/communist anti-gun government. We have a next door neighbor who had a house out on that big island in the middle of the bay.

I'm just glad that I escaped Coloradofornia.

[flashed]

Tim , do you know of the town Northeast I believe it is , went there a few years ago to a Chevelle Show when I still loved those cars . Still have them but my love for them died with my wife . Very nice little town though .

[Warrens69GMC]

Nice!

[davischevy]

That ain't workin',
that's the way you do it,
money for nothin'
and your chicks for …… Oh yeah your didn't mention chicks.

Working on a place like that can be rewarding. Beautiful.

[special-K]

The whole land of pleasant living thing comes from the pre-bay bridge era, which was completed in 1952. Before that US50 continued across to the Eastern Shore by ferry boat. So, it was that or all the way up and around the top of the bay to go to Ocean City, MD. Tourism and recreation were huge all up and down the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Motor courts, campgrounds, cabins, marinas, weekender communities, and there used to be slot machines when I was a kid.

Baltimore-Annapolis BLVD (1924) is a winding 2-lane that linked the two cities along this (minor) ridge dividing Severn and Magothy Rivers. There was also the B & A RR that was a straight shot through this area, and Arnold was a station, which is where this place is. So in '27 they'd be riding the rail maybe more than driving the Tin Lizzy. MD2/Gov Ritchey Hwy got punched through in the '30s as a 4-lane parkway.

The big focus became Ocean City more once the bridge was built, eventually a second span, and all rthe draw-bridges replaced with high-bridges.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

I like that place, it looks cool.

I sure think so. Ain't nothin' but a fishin' and crabbin' shack.

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Too bad Maryland has such a liberal/communist anti-gun government. We have a next door neighbor who had a house out on that big island in the middle of the bay.

I'm just glad that I escaped Coloradofornia.

I don't know about any communism, but it's just what you hear about a place being all you know. Just like Hawaii always has volcanoes erupting but the pineapples are great. All I know is I don't see, notice, or think about any of the stuff in my life and I see people like you and me everyday.

Maryland is huge on liberty. When the British thought in 1812, 36 years after their defeat for our independence, they'd come back to burn our capitol and sack our military it was here that against huge odds they were once again defeated and sent back with their tails between their legs.

Originally Posted by flashed

Tim , do you know of the town Northeast I believe it is , went there a few years ago to a Chevelle Show when I still loved those cars . Still have them but my love for them died with my wife . Very nice little town though .

Yeah, that's way up at the tippy top of the bay. A neat little old bay town. Duck hunting was the big thing up there back in the day. The water has very low salt content up there. The Susquehanna R. is huge. The shore is more like a lake, muddy not sandy. I've been in that area working back in the '90s. Nice place

Originally Posted by Warrens69GMC

Nice!

Good place to relax... but I was there to work!!

Originally Posted by davischevy

That ain't workin',
that's the way you do it,
money for nothin'
and your chicks for …… Oh yeah your didn't mention chicks.

Working on a place like that can be rewarding. Beautiful.

No, I just popped some pictures to lay the subliminal tracks. The ole man stepped up on deck just as I snapped that one. Darnit! The three were too young to be talking about. They came in the cove and did a loop through. As they were leaving one said loudly "I LIKE HOLDING ON FOR MY LIFE!!"... teenagers

[1976gmc20]

I don't know about any communism, but it's just what you hear about a place being all you know. Just like Hawaii always has volcanoes erupting but the pineapples are great. All I know is I don't see, notice, or think about any of the stuff in my life and I see people like you and me everyday.

Well, I own (and do) stuff in Montana that would make me a criminal in Maryland. A little while back, the cops went and shot down a guy about my age because some folks who didn't like him reported that he "might be dangerous."

I'm sure it's a pretty place and has some great history.

[GOPAPA]

Tim,, you sure find some interesting jobs to enjoy .. I envy you ,thx for sharing it with us .

[special-K]

I have more pictures from this job. As far as living in MD and their laws on guns, I don't feel the need for anything I can't have. The guns I can't have I consider toys for pleasure and I don't own guns for toys. I do get great pleasure from hunting, but that's about providing for myself, continuing an ancient tradition, using my tracking abilities, looking for sign, and other skills involved, as well as just getting out there in the woods, marches, and other places away from the hustle bustle. I am allowed to have any gun I need for what I do with them. No one is trying to take those away.

Back to the land of pleasant living job

[special-K]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

Tim,, you sure find some interesting jobs to enjoy .. I envy you ,thx for sharing it with us .

Not all there Larry. Just last week I had to empty out a septic tank to patch a crack in the bottom and it was 95 deg with high humidity, had a deadline so I ate my lunch down there with sandwich in one hand/tool in the other. And, the homeowner kept using the toilet.

I got that first section rebuilt for Fathers Day, then they wanted me to come back to fix the under structure of the other section, new footers, posts, beams, and some of the joists. I also fixed the hand rails where needed, made them sturdy, and used some of the old Doug Fir I took out to replace bad spots in this section of decking. This section was added in the '50s.

I had my daughter bring my grandson to see the Osprey, play in the water, and 'help' me a while. There was a stash of old Matchbox toys all busted and buried in the sand and he dug up a sea plane. I told him to put it in his pocket and take it home to wash. I went over to spend the night the next day and he had it all spic & span, his favorite toy for now. He's showing everyone "I went to my friend Pop's job and we found this". They are amazed he has a friend named that who has a job, until my daughter tells them he's talking about his grandfather

[special-K]

Some shots of the work. I was there to do work you know

[Boog]

All the pics you post of your part of the world sure are nice. And you do all these jobs alone too?

[special-K]

Originally Posted by davischevy

…… Oh yeah your didn't mention chicks.

Working on a place like that can be rewarding. Beautiful.

Ok. Alright. I confess. I had a few 100 yard girlfriends while down there

[Boog]

Eyes on your work there buddy! You keep looking off and sure as the dickens you will drive a nail in a thumb or something important with a power nail gun.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by Boog

All the pics you post of your part of the world sure are nice. And you do all these jobs alone too?

Maryland is a great lay of the land. But then there are all the people, hiways, and cities that mess it up. Down there, toward Annapolis it gets nice and all the south from there, across the bay on the Eastern Shore, west of Baltimore a ways into the Piedmont where I live, and all the way west into the Appalachians is all nice. I have to drive through a real rats nest to get down there, although not really that bad for traffic. Takes about an hour, 50 miles. The folks on the Eastern Shore think of the Western Shore as a mess they don't want because that means Baltimore and Washington, DC to them, and they get all them coming over to get away. Up my way and west the locals have to go through the busy part to get to the shore, so the two good parts stay pretty separated, except going to the beach for us and some of them head to the mountains. We have white tail deer and they have Sika deer, or that's what I hear them called. Smaller coastal deer. We fish for bass and trout and they fish for all sorts of sea type fish and other seafood like crabs and oysters. There's a little bit of everything, sorta, in this little state. But TOO MANY PEOPLE!

Yeah, I work alone. But sometimes a grab one of my sons if they are available to help with some things. But if they can't come I suffer through it . I had to tote a dozen 80# bags of Sakrete up and around to under that deck one day. I felt fine. Tuesday I needed one more bag for something and I was hurtin' for two days! Maybe it was something else.

Originally Posted by Boog

Eyes on your work there buddy! You keep looking off and sure as the dickens you will drive a nail in a thumb or something important with a power nail gun.

Can't a feller take a break? Sheesh! Safety first. No nail gun but I'm using an impact driver and screws. I did manage to poke by thumb nail with the star bit somehow and got a dead spot on my nail... somehow

Right at the bottom of the bank is that little dock. It is part of the community even though it is straight off this property. I can hear then but can't see them, unless I try to look through the trees. Same with them. I can hear every word they say and I'm sure they can hear me work. Tuesday there were older teens there, a boy and two girls, fishing. He was showing them how. He kept saying he was the master baiter (heard no reaction from the girls). I was tempted to holler, "Time to do something about that son!"

This one's done and I'll be down where I work a lot at the western edge of the 'burbs. It's either country for me or at the edge of the muck for me. I have three smaller things to do down there for three homeowners, all I've worked for before. One is actually in the woods in the country. Dang woodpecker and squirrels putting holes in his cedar siding. Later I'll be fixing on some things on an old reconstructed hand hewn log cabin out back on this farm. It's on the farm where I did that kitchen counter out of white oak old I posted about last year, if you saw that. I have major work to do on that big Victorian I've been working on. Major for me anyway. The whole 2-story bay with octagon turret above the roof needs rebuilding/jacking up and getting right from foundation all the way up

Here's that farm and countertop



And here is that bay/turret

[special-K]

I have a friend in Boonesboro, MD and I do work for him. His buddy needed his flashing around his chimney done nicer so I fixed that for him. He's a good guy and now we're friends. I kinda knew him before from making sausage and going over to his place with my friend. He retired from running a lowboy for an equipment rental outfit and works on cars now. Has a lift hidden in his rancher's attached garage. He's an Effy guy. Has a sweet '54 F100. Another guy who knows all them stopped by with his F100 and the other guy with the '55 gasser had just left. Early spring, real nice day. This is west of me. We have two fingers of the Blue Ridge Mts reaching up across MD. It's where I lived before meeting my wife that isn't my wife anymore

[special-K]

Here's looking east to South Mt. from his rooftop. You can hear Mason-Dixon Dragway from his place. It seems everybody has cool old stuff out that way. It's where I like to spend time when I can... or farther on up home! I'm really wanting to get at least out that way, if not up home



These are from up home. First is up on our place, then the Youghiogheny River last weekend after heavy rain, and up along Bear Creek at Crusher Hole where we've always taken a dip

[Boog]

That's mighty fine looking country up that way Tim. And historic too.
I like the blue effie. My first truck was a '56 effie. Well, partly. The title and sheet metal was effie but everything else about it was all GM after my dad and i got ahold of it.

[special-K]

That's what my buddy around the corner from me has had since the '70s, among other thinds. A ;53 F100 on a Blazer chassis. He's a GM guy. Has some nice stuff. This guy Bill has a sweet old school off white/creamy colored '54 with red up under it. He's a good guy even if he is Fordtarded