Started out the week by damn near killing both my guys. A 250 lb sheet of plate steel fell on both of them as they were under it trying to guide it into place. For some reason the engage/ disengage lever got tripped and the sucker came crashing down. Both of them got banged up and John gashed his finger pretty bad. We were very lucky, an important lesson learned. Being butch, they both laughed it off, saying that things like that happened all the time in a boat yard, but it scared the shit out of me.
The main cabin is starting to take shape and it looks great. It seems the main engine may have a cracked block and have to be replaced. While this may seem like a real bummer I'm not at all unhappy about it. It's an old naturally aspirated hugh clunker of a beast built to drag nets 24/7 at slow speeds and by todays standards is not at all efficient or clean. Given how they're clamping down on dirty truck diesels these days and given the price of fuel, this might turn out to be a blessing. The savings in fuel will pay for a new power plant in a couple of years time.Or maybe not, I have yet to get any quotes and replacing it with a smaller 8/71 may be the way to go. There are more diesels in La. than there are people and I have my guys looking. I must say that topping off their paychecks with a little bonus each week is really working out well. They're enjoying the project and are endlessly helpful with interesting ideas and suggestions.
We are still in our little shack in Jeanerette, the other house had disgusting old carpets thick with fleas and the dude refused to put in wood floors even after I offered to pay half the cost, which was kind of loco on my part as I'm only staying a few months. I was feeling bad about leaving here anyway, we're the only pink folks in this whole section of town and our neighbors have been great to us. It would have been a real insult to them to leave. When we move onto the boat I'm going to have to get a kilo of cocaine and roast a pig for them.
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