Basket, Storms, Dingy,

Here is the finished pine needle basket I made. The first sewing project of my life though as I write this I think that is not true. In 8th grade I took home ec and we sewed something - I can't remember what it was. I do remember cooking in that class and my mother coming to dinner as part of the class but more than that I remember what the shop looked like. The boys got to take shop - I had to take home ec. All the tools - that is what I really would have liked to do - But who knows perhaps 8th grade home ec gave me some of my love of crafts. I sooner think it was my mother and me making sequined Christmas ornaments when i was a kid. My family still has some of these old, tired and a little squashed styrofoam balls covered with hundreds of push pins, one sequin per pin, carefully pushed into the ball and overlapped like fish scales.Very fancy.    The shape and size sort of made themselves - Unfortunately Libby who helped us learn this craft had to go back to Vero before I could get more instruction. I am going to try to sweep the next basket out more instead of having the sides come straight up.                We won't be going anywhere today - our dingy has a hole in it. It always has - a self baler - a problem waiting to happen - my father will appreciate that as we had boats in the past with pesky self balers. I don't think there is one in the world that doesn't leak.  Ours has leaked for a while but yesterday when we got back from grocery shopping the water was over the floorboards and you could see it pouring in. Don got in and started to pump our hand held baleing pump - we loaded the groceries, pumped some more and went straight to the boat with the water just up tot he floor board,  It's scary because water weighs so much that with 2 of us in that smallboat if we got waked or slipped to one side - hmmm... we'd be nice and wet.  We hooked the dingy up to the halyards and raised it up onto the boat.  our neighbor, Allen from Nova Scotia who built his own boat over heard us talking to another neighbor who had stopped by to see Tiller - Allen came over and let Don know he has lots of fiberglass and know how. So when this storm blows by - it's again very windy , raining and about 40 degrees, they will pull the dingy up on shore, take out the baler - which has unattached itself from the bottom of the boat ( rusted ) - plug the hole with wood and fiberglass it.  I will feel so much better not running around with literally a hole in the boat just waiting to open.