Pink Versus Blue

David's been expressing his blue view every once in awhile and I thought I'd elaborate a bit on pink versus blue chores aboard. After you've lived with someone awhile, you tend to assume that certain tasks at home will be your responsibility and your partner will assume others. Some you handle together or as needed or as time allows. You tend to migrate towards your individual areas of expertise or interests and work at getting everything done. Being on a boat is no different. We often refer to them as pink and blue chores. It's the age old girl-boy thing, although there's sometimes a bit of cross-over.

As you'd probably surmise, I'm in charge of most pink things aboard. That would include cooking, cleaning, food shopping, laundry … all the typical things you think of when you think pink. David certainly helps out when asked and the same applies when he's up to his eyeballs in “blue” tasks. I can hold a flashlight or find the right wrench (spanner) and am happy to do so, when asked.

I do 95% of the cooking, but David's “the pizza and bread man”. I usually wash the dishes though. I handle all the provisioning requirements and write up the shopping lists although David comes shopping with me to help carry everything back to the boat and more importantly, to make sure I buy enough cookies.

I handle most of the sewing chores although he's very handy with a needle and a palm for hand stitching and quick repairs. Anything to be done with the sewing machine, I handle. David is very handy with pattern-making and also repairs the sewing machine.

David's responsibilities include all systems on the boat. Whew! He maintains and/or repairs the engine, the plumbing, the electrical, the electronics, the fridge, the watermaker, the rigging...the list is endless and definitely more demanding than my day-to-day stuff. Who knows what will break next?

We tend to share jobs like sanding and varnishing and stainless polishing. We alternate plotting courses and checking each other's work, just in case one overlooks something critical. I do not change the oil, but I can bleed the engine if necessary. David does not pay bills, remember holidays or birthdays, update the website or monitor bank accounts, but he certainly knows how to. We stand watches equally and get seasick equally. In an emergency, we can rely on each other without reserve to do whatever is necessary to make sure we're safe and sound.

Pink versus blue extends beyond the actual performance of a chore... part of it is mindset, preference and part of it is sheer physical strength. I have a hard time lowering and hoisting the 46 pound dinghy engine, so I don't. I can hoist the dinghy using the winch though. I think about new placemats or polishing the tea kettle and things that make Nine of Cups comfortable and homey. David is all about the systems and keeping the boat in good condition and afloat. Don't get me wrong. We're both concerned with the boat and with our creature comforts. The chores just tend to migrate in the direction of the person who's most concerned at the time. We find that staying happy aboard, as in any household, has lots to do with fair contributions to the workload. We've worked out what we think is fair to each of us.

I was asked once if I felt badly about not being able to do everything on the boat myself. Could I handle the boat if something happened to David? I always felt very confident of my own abilities on land. If I couldn't handle something in the house, I'll find someone who could. That's not as easy on the boat. For sure, David is better equipped and much more knowledgeable about the boat than I am. I'm sure I could get us and Cups to safety in a pinch. I am, however, more confident that our combined pink and blue activities (does that make lavender?) keep us happily afloat and content.

Look for more Blue View posts in the future. David's getting into this blog thing.

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Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

World Hypnotism Day celebrates bringing the power of hypnosis to the world. Its intent is to educate folks about the positive aspects of hypnosis e.g. quitting smoking, losing weight. Check out their website. You're getting sleepy, very sleepy!

Popping Up

Are you a snacker? I certainly am. If I'm busy working, I can go for hours without eating. Sometimes I forget about meals entirely (rare). But if I'm just hanging around the boat reading or putzing, I'm noshing constantly. If cookies are close, they're crumby history. With a New Year's resolution to eat less junk food, it's important to find and stock a reasonable alternative. Trying to eat healthier on the boat is sometimes difficult if we can't get to a store for freshies. Popcorn seems to fit the bill. That and the fact that it's cheaper and easier to stow than most any other snack, makes popcorn a regular snack item on the boat.

Away from the marina, there's no microwave oven unless we start the generator or the engine and that won't happen...not for popcorn anyway. Not to mention microwave popcorn is very expensive here comparatively speaking. We don't own any other electrical appliances, so a hot-air popper, the healthiest preparation method, is not an option. Nope, I heat a little oil in the bottom of a saucepan, pour in the popcorn. It starts sizzling and exploding and voila...fresh popcorn. Evidently it's the moisture in the corn kernels which gets pressurized and then explodes when it's heated in oil. No matter. It smells heavenly when it's popping and it's not unusual for a passing sailor or two to stop by to check it out and sample the fruits of my labor.

I remember popping corn as a kid. We'd make sticky sweet popcorn balls with corn syrup for Hallowe'en treats and string popcorn and cranberries to decorate the Christmas tree. When a new JiffyPop product was introduced, my sister and I fought over who could jiggle the disposable aluminum popper over the burner. We watched with delight as the crinkled foil expanded and expanded until we thought it would burst. Who cared about the popcorn? It was the whole, fascinating experience.

Popcorn has been around for millennia, originating from Central America. The Native Americans knew all about it. In fact, archaeologists found evidence of popcorn in New Mexico dating to 3600 BC. The English who arrived in America in the 17th century learned about its value from the indigenous people. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, popcorn became popular because it was so cheap and available. During the war years that followed, sugar was rationed and candy was rare, hence popcorn saved the day. Popcorn is the “official” snack food of Illinois. Really?

There's a whole website devoted to corny facts on line which I found quite interesting like:

• October is National Popcorn Month and there's actually a National Popcorn Day coming up soon … January 19th
• Popcorn can pop up to three feet in the air
• The world's largest popcorn ball weighed in at over 2.5 tons in Sac City, IA in February 2009.
• Popcorn comes in two primary shapes: snowflake and mushroom
• And the most incredible tidbit of all...if you made a trail of popcorn from New York City to Los Angeles, you would need more than 352,028,160 popped kernels! (Who the heck figured that out and were they snowflake or mushroom shaped?)

When we were back in the States recently, we noted there are lots of different flavors now: caramel, cheese, kettle corn, light butter, heavy butter, no butter. We're purists … no flavors, no butter, thank you; but sprinkle a little salt on the batch, would you?

Anyone got any ideas for other low fat snacks that are easily obtainable and might be stowed on a boat? I'd appreciate hearing about them.

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Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

The Festival of Sleep

was created to allow folks to get some rest and relaxation after the chaos of the holidays. After the Christmas shopping marathons and the New Year celebrations, it's time to take a nap.

Unwanted Critters Aboard

Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have problems from time to time with unwanted critters aboard. I'm not talking the domestic variety; I'm talking the 4 or 6+ legged variety. An occasional spider (small) is tolerable. You can't do much about the errant fly that comes in through the open companionway. Mozzies we don't like, so our screens are always in use when they're around. No, I'm talking about any critter that invades and gets out of hand aboard. I'm talking about the other creepy-crawlie varieties like roaches and rats, for instance. Eeewwww! We've never had a rat aboard, but if you tie up to a waterfront dock, the chances increase significantly that one will get aboard. We've certainly seen them up close, dead and alive. There are rat guards that some folks put on their docklines which at least give the rats something to think about as they're figuring out how to get around them. Once aboard, they eat and gnaw at everything including wood, wiring and foodstuffs. It ain't pretty and they're hard to get rid of. Traditional rat traps eventually do the trick, we're told, but it takes awhile and you have to hope they die in the trap and not get away wounded to die in some obscure place on the boat.

I remember friends in Ecuador who hailed the fleet about 8pm one night when a boa (no legs) crawled up their anchor chain, came down through their open forward hatch and settled comfortably in their head. Maureen nearly had a heart attack when she went forward to do her business that evening. A local guy finally went out to help them and, we're told, had the boa for dinner the next night. Rest assured, we never eat what we catch if it's been living on board!

When Jelly was aboard, she was great at bringing critters in as opposed to keeping them out. Huge moths (usually with a bite out of their wings) and small birds were her specialty. They were always deposited on my side of the bed and never truly appreciated.

We've been inundated by flies on occasion. One time in particular in Gloucester, Massachusetts, they about drove us crazy. David sat in the cockpit like the Mad Swatter, gloating and laughing maniacally each time another body was added to his growing pile of carcasses. He wanted to mount their little dead bodies on toothpicks as an example to the other flies, but I had to stop him.

Roaches are probably the biggest worry aboard. In the colder climates like here in Tassie, we'd never seen one ... that is until we tied up to the Elizabeth Street Pier. Roaches seem to like the undersides of pilings and piers. David spotted a few at low tide when our view of the underside of the pier was best. We hadn't seen any aboard and we sprayed the lines which we think deterred them from making any forays onto Cups. At least, we haven't seen any yet. What's the gestation period for roaches? Three weeks maybe. We're still on the look-out.

In the tropics, it was hard to avoid roaches. When you buy groceries, they're in the plastic bags. If you set your backpack down for minute on the floor, they crawl in. They lie in wait in packaged cardboard boxes of macaroni or crackers. They crawl inside bunches of bananas. We began leaving all of our groceries on the dock or in the dinghy, removing every item from its bag, box or over-wrap and inspecting it carefully before allowing it aboard. A hassle for sure, but much easier than trying to get rid of a whole herd of undesirables later.

Weevils present another issue in the tropics. They seem to come as an extra added protein bonus with your flour and grain purchases. You know how flour usually comes in heavy-duty paper bags? The tops are just folded over and glued shut...always a little flour loose at the top? Weevils seem to thrive in that floury environment and the poor packaging does nothing to deter them. I add bay leaves to all my dry goods canisters as a deterrent to unwanted bugs. I spread a few bay leaves around in our food lockers, too. It seems to work.

We've had bees and wasps aboard in great numbers especially in the tropics when we've had hands of bananas hanging from the boom crutch. We learned quickly to move the fruit elsewhere on the boat and never bring it down below until we're actually using it. We watched in dismay as an entire swarm of bees invaded the boatyard in New Zealand and visited Nine of Cups for a half hour or so. We were off the boat as we watched them land and were very, very relieved when they decided there was nothing there to warrant their attention any longer.

Ants were the bane of my existence for awhile. First, flying ants which came in swarms aboard the hardstand boats in Ecuador. It lasted for just a few days, but man were they ever thick. I fought with tiny little ants from Panama to Chile and they nearly drove us nuts. We watched one day at Shelter Bay Marina while we were on the hard. They marched determinedly up the hull and onto the deck and of course, found their way below into my galley. We sprayed them; we tried to drown them; we stepped on them; we used ant cups. Nothing seemed to work until we got to Chile's cooler weather.

We thought we'd share a recipe for Roach Cookies that has been effective for roaches and other creepy crawlers in the past. Obviously, keep them out of reach of children and pets.

Roach Cookies:

3 parts boric acid powder

1 part flour

1 part sugar

milk

Mix dry ingredients with enough milk to form a thick paste. Roll out or put teaspoon size dollops on wax paper. Let them air dry. When dry, cut into roach-size servings. Actually, we put a teaspoon full of paste in used plastic bottle caps and to let them air dry. We then distributed the caps throughout the boat. The roaches munch and then take some home to their kiddies. It works wonders without using toxic sprays.

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Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

Sci-Fi Day

Isaac Asimov's birthday (1920-1992). His most famous work is the Foundation Trilogy.

Try reading or watching some sci-fi to celebrate.

Swiss Cheese Day

Not only eat Swiss cheese, but if you're up to your eyeballs in projects, consider the Swiss cheese scheduling approach...leave a few holes in your schedule.