Friends and Family

This is Molly and Kalli

Jon and I had a fantastic Christmas; we went to Connecticut to visit his parents, brother, and sister's family. Christmas was at his sisters and brother-in-law who always know how to cook up a great time, and meal (Thanks Kapoo). On our way down we stopped by to see our friends Rick and Pam (we bought Kasidah from them). It was a superb time. We had lunch with them and they gave us a tour of their new Trawler boat, which is huge, compared to Kasidah. Their dearly loved dog Molly died a month after they
had brought home another Norfolk terrier pup named Kalli, it’s
odd how that kind of stuff happens. These dogs are so mellow and intelligent. Our dogs got to
meet her and go outside to play with her a little.

Jill & I playing with dogs

Jon,Rick,me and Pam

Holiday Message

As the Christmas holiday approaches, many different emotions hit people for many different reasons. Of course there was a big holiday just before this,Thanksgiving, and one soon to follow, New Years.

We believe, as do others, that these three holidays, or the Trilogy of Holidays, are put together for a reason.

1^st comes Thanksgiving. This holiday’s origin in our country gives Thanks to the Lord at the end of a harvest season. Since then we have rightfully included giving thanks for the many things in our life. So we reflex on our lives, some recognize and realize that life is good, some reflex and might see room for improvement. Some are thankful for what they have, others are thankful for what they can do to help others or have done. Some people just have a BIG meal, a paid day off from work with some good football games.

Next comes Christmas. We celebrate the birth of Jesus, Son of God. As Kings and Wise men showered him with gifts, we now exchange gifts with each other, friends and loved ones, fellow workers, and even total strangers. Our focus turns to our faith, the depths of which very from a pretty Christmas card with a picture of the Nativity Scene, to reassessment of our believes. We spend this day with family and friends. We go to great expense to travel, share time and gifts, and beliefs with family and friends. Some people just have a BIG meal, a paid day off from work with some good football games.

Finally comes New Years, where we usher in the next Year with great fanfare and remember the Year that is passing. Maybe rejoicing the things we’ve done, laughing at the things we can, mourning things that have left us. We look to the New Year and make promises to others and ourselves to better our life. Maybe we wait to do more this next year; maybe we want to do less. Some people just have a BIG meal, a paid day off from work with some good football games.

On this final and 1^st holiday of the year, maybe it’s a time to think of the other two holidays that just passed. Did we give enough thanks or have enough to be thankful for. Did we remember the real reason for Christmas?

So from our family we wish your family and all our friends a wonderful set of holidays. To Our men and Women of our armed forces, who protect our freedom, Thank you!

We hope you get some time with your families and friends to enjoy the Holidays.

Electrical Testing

So this is our new 1500 watt inverter - 75 amp charger by Xantrex and the link 1000 monitor. I brought all of the batteries from the boat home for the winter, I really wasn’t sure how many amp hours they would provide or even rated for. There are 6 golf cart batteries, with 2 wired in series and then the 3 sets tied in parallel, and of course the starting battery. I set up the system in the basement to charge the batteries, and get familiar with how it works and maybe a clearer plan for the wiring. 2 of the batteries where set under the sink near the engine, I never liked this set up for many reasons and plan on either removing them from the system, if newer batteries could be bought of bigger amp hours, or move them to the lazerette. So after the charge, and equalizing them I did a test run by connected a 17 amp load and it ran for almost 38 hours before the voltage dropped to 10.5. This told us we have about 660 amp hours in our battery configuration. Of course you should only use about 50% of this or you will kill them right a way with a short life span. We also brought down the kitchen microwave to run it off the batteries. This was a 1500 watt microwave and ran perfect off the batteries. OF COURSE there was a 125-amp load coming out of the batteries. This is a much bigger microwave than we will take with us but it was nice to see the unit maxed out. I also saw that one wire got warm and I thought it would because it was under sized. This is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. Now it’s back into the lazerette next weekend to try and fit 4 house batteries and the starting battery in there. Also I’ll start reworking the wiring, circuits and other things.

Winter has arrived

Winter came late but hit hard....

Very Busy Fall

Left side are my new cushions

Jon and I have been really active for the last month, Jon’s been pulling wire and parts out of the boat and purchasing all kinds of things…One new item was a 1500 inverter-charger and a link 1000 to go with it, lots of hoses, all different sizes and now he is looking at boat cable. I have been busy with sewing projects and getting use to sewing in general, my new 1959 singer sewing machine has been fantastic. I just finished the interior cushions and brought a couple to the boat to see how well I did. “Not bad at all”. I decided to divide the bottom cushions so that it would be easier to get to the lockers underneath, this will be a big plus.

Zippers and misquito netting are finished for the dodger, Outside flap around bimini has been replaced and I added a 12x12 window in the back so we can see wind direction and sails a little better. next will be to replace fittings on both stainless steel frames and make a large weather cover for the entire cockpit that will go over the bimini and consist of canvas and netting that will roll down so we can entertain more when weather is so-so or mosquito's are out.
One other thing I finished are the jacklines and tethers. My tether is a single straight line and Jon chose a double line with one side elastic.

We are trying to have an optimistic look on our house situation. If you don’t know our house has been on the market for a year now and it just is not moving. Nothing in this area is right now. Something that’s really amusing is that we started telling all our acquaintances that if they send anyone this way and they buy our house we will give them $2000. Cash. Now that’s all we hear in town (small town we live in) is if that’s true because they might know someone that’s interested. We would really like to sell so we can start planning next falls exit.

Well our Daughter Amy has been away in Colorado for about a month now doing some of her basic flight training for the Air force. She should be home for Christmas then off to Mississippi to live and begin the next part of flight school. She sent a few photos and said she loves everything about it so far.

Jon will be heading to the boat Saturday to bring the wheel and some batteries home for the winter. Winter has begun here and it really it hard with over50-mile hour winds the other night, which lasted 2 days. The boat cover had a few rips in it just
from being older and starting to wear, so we spent the day trying to mend them and fix what we could. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it makes it till spring. On nice thing about where
the boat is sitting is that Tim, the owner, has cameras that we can get on-line and zoom in to
watch how it fairs in a storms.

This is just some of the wiring Jon has pulled from the boat.........