Day Off! (Boat Repair)

    Today, I had a day off, so Uncle Art took the boat up to get worked on. I was able to sleep in. I woke up at about 5 AM, with no alarm, and I realized I had fell asleep on the couch last night. I walked up to my bed, then I set an alarm for 8:30 AM, so I didnt sleep to late. I guess I turned it off at 8:30 AM, because I finally got up at 10 AM. It was nice to sleep in, but good I got up at 5 AM, with no alarm so I can get used to that sleep schedule.

     I had 2 pieces of pie, and some popcorn for breakfast because it was basically lunch time. I just hung out on the couch all day, watched Netflix, and at about 4 PM, I went downtown with Aunt Pennie, Uncle Rich, and Aunt Ruth Ann. We walked down by a lot of different cool shops that we went in and checked out. One had a lot of things from the beach and things made out of shells and stuff. It was neat!

     Aunt Ruth Anne showed me how to play Pokemon Go on her phone for the first time, and I caught some pokemon for her. It was pretty fun, but I probably wont play it anymore since you need WiFi anywhere to play it and since I dont have a phone, I cant play it. We drove back to the house, and we were going to get dinner at The Happy Clam, which has German food.

Eating at The Happy Clam

Lobster Trap Chair!

I like this show.

     Tomorrow, Uncle Art said it was going to be a long day, until about 3 PM, so we will hopefully get a lot of lobster. After tomorrow is Sunday, so I will have that day off, and Uncle Art said he is going to get the boat more fixed Monday, so I might have 2 days off in a road!


           -7/22/2016

First Day Back!

     Yesterday, I flew to Maine by myself. I had 2 flights, from GR to New York, then from New York to Maine. I was by myself and it was fun. I got to Maine perfectly fine, and I went to go get my checked luggage. I waited until I saw my Aunt Pennie, and then she drove me back to her house, about a 2 hour drive away. When I got there, Uncle Art took me to eat dinner at Taco bell/ KFC (they were 2 restaurants in one building. It was yummy, then we went to get icecream. I got a strawberry milkshake. When I got home, I just hungout untill about 10:30 when I went to bed.

     This morning, I woke up at 4:30 AM. I got my clothes on for the day, then I made myself a sandwich, and I got a bottle of water, and some cherries and put that all in my bag for lunch on the boat. We drove down to the Wharf, and took the row-boat to the Lobster Boat. I put on my new yellow seal suit, and my new gloves.

     It was slow at the beginning, and then, about 90 minutes later, the boat started to make weird noises. The Shaft of the boat was making weird noises, and it was over heating. The Shaft is the long pole that goes along the bottom of the boat to the back of the boat and make us go forward. It was overheating, and Uncle Art tried to add some grease to it, but it wouldn't work, so he decided to go back because he couldn't keep driving it like that or it would get worse. 

     He drove me home, thinking that we were done for today, and he went back to work on getting the Shaft fixed so it could turn and not overheat. I took a shower, then after that, Uncle Art came back saying he had fixed it, and I went to go out again, right after my shower. The whole time, Seagulls and a Seal were following us, hoping that they could get the rotten fish out of the bait bags I dumped off the side of the boat, and they did. It was a nice day, and it was hot, but not on the water because it had a cooling effect. We had our sandwiches, then continued. We got done at about 3 PM. It was a good day, we got about 540 LBs. We used up most of our bait. 

     I got home, took ANOTHER shower, and started to make Mac & Cheese for a snack. 

              -7/21/2016 

Flying to Maine Tomorrow...

     Tomorrow morning, I will be flying out to maine. I will be getting up at 4:00 AM so that I can leave the house at 4:30 AM. I will be taking 2 planes to Maine, and this time, I am flying alone. I dont think it will be that bad, because I have traveled so much, I know how to get around the Airports, and find my Gate and stuff. I am taking a back pack, and one Checked luggage. I think that I will be spending about 3 and a half weeks out in Maine this year, and I will try to take pictures, and Blog everyday so that I can post about what happens each day. I fly out tomorrow which is Wednesday, then I start to work on Thursday.

NEW UPDATE!! (MOVING?)

Hey everyone!! Its the end of January 2016, and I thought i would do a quick update on my blog. I am going back to work on the lobster boat in August of 2016 again and i will continue to blog. I will use the same website as last time.

http://lobstermanjackson.blogspot.com/

That is the link to the blog site! I am also moving to Ireland for 2 years starting in late August and i will be coming back to Grand Rapids for senior year! While i am in ireland, i will start a new YouTube channel, and have a blog to go along with it! I will have more details on that later! Bye!

The Mama's point of view (guest blogger)

I've been going to Maine since I was in high school.  I remember so well, the homemade bridesmaid dress that I wore to Pennie and Art's wedding and refusing to eat the lobster at the reception.  I've grown a bit since then, not wearing many homemade gowns anymore, and now eating much of what Art catches!  Maine to me is pure and authentic, I feel a sense of peace and calm like no where else in the world.  I have loved it more every year as the time has passed. Never did I imagine having boys that would one day stern the boat for Uncle Art, but here we are, life does surprise you sometimes.



Since we have been summering a bit in Maine for the past few years, and Jackson is now 14, it was time to take it up a notch, and boy did we!  One of my favorite days was going out and watching J haul.  I mean he has always been an impressive kid; smart as a whip, piano player extraordinaire, and a rival at negotiating!  But I was unsure of how he would be at straight up hard labor.  I had my concerns going into this, but they were unfounded and I couldn't be more proud.  J got up daily, very early, fought the fog, learned to band lobsters quickly, and put together a system to get bait bags done efficiently enough to keep up with Captain Art.  This is no small task; Art is a very hard worker, very serious on the boat, and an excellent role model.  I've always known it takes a village to raise kids, and I am so lucky to have Pennie and Art in mine.  While Art taught Jackson the "art" (pun intended) of lobstering, Pennie housed, fed and put up with an x-box in her living room for 5 weeks (something I couldn't bear to do!).  While I worked, Oma walked daily, and Levi kept us all on our toes.  But Jackson continued to work every day that Art went out and became a pretty fast helper on the boat.

To say the summer was a success is an understatement!  Jackson now has more money in the bank for the car that he is saving up for when he can drive.  I am moved to tears with the pride I feel for this kid - what an inspiration for Levi to look up to.  He even kept up this blog.  I'm amazed, humbled, and more grateful to our Maine family than I can express.  I know that Opa is beaming with pride, watching and aiding his grandson from above (and probably calling him Little Joe Jackson).  We all can't wait until next summer when we get to go out again and live in Maine for part of the summer. Who knows, there might even be a cottage in our future, on the Atlantic, maybe only a kayak ride away from Pen and Art.



You did good Jackson, really good!!!

Thanks Art! What an oppor-tunity you have given to Jackson!

....start practicing Scooter!

      
      

Home Finally! (few more blogs to come)

This is going to be my last blog. I finally got home tomorrow. Yesterday, there were 2 planes that we took to get home. One was 2 hours, and the other one was about a half an hour. When i got home, it was about 2 P.M. and all my friends were at my house waiting for me. Caleb, Ben, and Max, and Calebs brother Asa, were there and they all gave me a big hug. Then, we all went swimming in my pool for about an hour and a half. It was really fun! We played tag in the pool. They had to leave at 3:30 P.M. but then, i got to go to my dads house to pick up a package.

I went to pick up my Xbox one from my dads house. It had just been delivered today. I bought it with some of the money that i made from lobstering. I was so excited when i opened it! Everything seemed more advanced. The Xbox one was way bigger, and was more square, which looks awesome! It can play blue ray discs, and it came with all of the halo games. The controller was way better, because the bottom of it didn't have the battery pack sticking out of it, and every-thing was more precise and put together. The controller itself was made with a sturdy, softer material, so it wasn't just smooth, it had a kind of soft, grainy feel to it which would be nice for playing games for longer periods of time. I let my Xbox one download the halo games, then i went to practice some piano!

-September 2, Wednesday

Guest blogger soon, and a separate blog on the observation tower! 

Day in Portland! (fly home tomorrow)

Today, i got to spend the whole day in Portland! Yesterday i said i was in Rockland, but no its Portland. In the morning, i got up at 7 A.M. and then we went to breakfast. We went to breakfast at a place called local sprouts.  It was a really cool restaurant that had a lot of vegan and gluten free stuff. There were some really unique items on the menu. I got a pancake with butter and Maine maple syrup, and 2 pieces of toast with butter. My mom got the breakfast burrito, which was really good. Levi got french toast!

Inside, they had seating, they had a couch, and a high table with high stools, and we sat on a platform with 3 chairs, and the table looked like an old door turned into a table, and it was really cool! The pancake was really good, and we all finished our food. Then, we went to a bookstore, and i got a journal, and Levi got 2 mad lib books. My mom tried to find a book that she wanted to read on the plane ride home tomorrow, but they were all out. We then went to an ice-cream place called Gelato Fiasco. I got toasted coconut, and mango. It was very yummy!

We went next to an observatory. It looked like a lighthouse made out of wood, and the whole thing was made out of wood. It got thinner the taller it got, and it was pretty tall. There were a lot of rocks holding it down so that the wind couldn't knock over the observatory. As we walked up the observatory, the rooms kept getting smaller and smaller, until we got to the top of it, and you could see about 30 miles! It was awesome! We had a guide who told us how it was used for raising flags every-time a ship came in, and people would know the flag and which ship was in.

We came back to the hotel room, and we were going to go to the Green Elephant for dinner.

-August 31, Monday