When we where kids growing up in Maine, my friend Richard and I decided one day that we needed a boat. Hutchinson Pond was behind our houses about half a mile through the woods. It was 80 acres with no houses or cottages or anything that wasn’t wild all around it. You can read about Hutchinson at the link below.
Hutchinson Pond http://www.mainepower.com/hutchinson-pond-manchester.htm
We used to call it Hudson Pond but what did we know? So we decided in the morning that we needed a boat so we asked my dad and he bought some lumber. Richard and I started building. Brother Bill probably helped. It came out something like this:
By the end of the day the boat was finished. One day’s work is all it took to build a complete boat. The next day we put our little one and a half horsepower outboard on it and away we went across Hutchinson Pond. I can’t remember how we got it there. It was a simpler time. At least I can say that I am an experienced boat builder. The thing about growing up as a country boy in Farmingdale Maine is that you learn that if you want something sometimes you just have to build it yourself. We had tons of fun in that boat. The boat is gone but the pond is still there.
The ESPcat project isn’t moving quite so fast but it is moving. Today I mounted the helm.
The helm is the bit with the steering wheel on it. This is what it is going to look like:
That’s me sitting at the steering wheel (the purple helm) looking rather yellow and pale because that is what I actually look like. There are a couple of other pale, yellow people in the drawing. God knows who they are. Yes progress is slow but if you have a grand idea, sometimes you just have to grind away at it. I’m grinding away.
espcatblog 
from John Caldwell building a kind of boat in Auckland, New Zealand
John grew up on the Litchfield rd…in a white Cape on the right going to your house…about 2 miles from mum’s I would guess
never heard of Hutchinson Pond..have you?
when did Jimmy’s pond become Jamie’s pond ________________________________ > Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2016 07:07:42 +0000 > To: jodyplb@hotmail.com >
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Hi Jody, We always called it jimmy’s Pond as well but then we called Hutchinson Pond, Hudson Pond so who knows? No matter what the name was, it was a wonderful area for a boy to grow up in. Probably not so great for girls but that is simply because most girls are not encouraged to get out into the wild. Nobody much ever heard of Hutchinson Pond because there was no road near it. Unless you lived next to it, you wouldn’t know it was there. It really was and probably still is, completely wild with fish, turtles, ducks, beaver and moose in abundance. Oh yes, and one small, wooden boat.
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