Well, Betty Boop is, for all practical purposes, done. Woohoo! She needs some water. White water. Soon.

Here are a few catch-up photos from the last few days of being too tired to tell stories. Below is a shot of drilling the holes for four eleven-inch stainless steel twelve dollar goddam bolts that hold the oarlocks to the gunwale. The levels are clamped to the side of the boat to give me a visual idea of where I am heading. Astonishingly, it worked.

Test-fitting the new hatch lids.

Hurrying the epoxied-on nonskid texture by the wood stove.

Peering through the self-bailer with the boat up on its side.

Painting lids

Then suddenly this evening: done.

Now what? Plenty. Tomorrow Edith comes down from the loft to go for a ride up to Grand Canyon for a party with the Kolb family on Wednesday/Thursday. Betty will be going upstairs to let her paint cure until a river screams out for us to go run it. And Euphrates and Lodore will be coming in this weekend for a bottom beef-up next week. No rest for the psychotic boatbuilder.