Thursday May 24, 2012

Good Lord will this boat project EVER be done???? The more we scrape and sand the more places we find that have to be replaced due to rot and water damage. The arthritis in my hips is killing me, and my hands and arms just ACHE! Looks like this is gonna be a bigger job than we thought. Oh well... with each repair we are one step closer to getting the boat done and on the market. While Ben tore apart the back deck I finished the hand sanding around the windows and deck rails.

Once every thing is sanded down we will start on varnishing the wood and putting down the new non-skid deck coating..... IF we ever get to that point. It feels overwhelming because there is so much to do. I think once I actually start to see the finished product it will feel like we are accomplishing something. I am sooooo looking forward to this weekend. I can hardly hold it in... not telling Ben his sister and brother-in-law will be joining us for the Mariners game. Is it Saturday yet????

Guess I better get started on today's chores..... I keep hoping I will wake up one morning and all the work will be done......  *sigh*

Monday May 21, 2012

Rain, Rain, Rain........ We have had such a run of great weather I had almost forgotten we lived in the rainy northwest! Oh well, can't have blue Sky's everyday.... We had a great weekend. aka.. no working on the boat. LOL. My big brother Bob and his wife Lee drove up Saturday afternoon and spent the night on the boat with us. We enjoyed a great BBQ on the deck, a few beers and great company. I don't think Lee knew what she was getting into when she agreed to spend the night on the boat. We have two double beds in the aft cabin, both are partially under the outer walkway so you kinda have to sleep under a shelf, poor Lee is like me, a little claustrophobic.... so Bob had to sleep under the 'ledge'. Then there is the wonderful smell of the diesel.... and the oder of the toilet.... I LOVE having company but I am embarrassed by the shape/smell of our boat. Lee and Bob were troopers. They survived the night and after a breakfast of biscuits and gravy (of course), they headed back home. Thanks for visiting, I love you both and admire your courage!
Saturday is Ben's birthday, daughter Crystal sent him Mariners tickets for the Saturday game. He doesn't know it but his sister Karey and brother-in-law Mike are driving over from Idaho to go to the game with us. I am so excited! I can't wait to see them. I know nothing about baseball but I'm so excited about going to the game. Thanks Crystal, what a great gift! And thanks Mike and Karey for spending your Memorial Day with us, it will be a wonderful surprise for Ben and I am so excited to see you both!
Today we begin AGAIN working on the boat, all the scraping is done on the wood, we just have to do the finish sanding and then the varnish. I think today we are going to start working on the decks, remove the old cracked paint and get it ready for a new coat of non-skid. Ben wants to wait until the weather turns again before we start tearing apart the bedroom and remove that DAMN diesel tank and replacing the floor. I just keep thinking that with every day of work we are getting closer to putting the boat on the market and selling it. At the very least.... even if it doesn't sell right away I will have a CLEAN, boat to live in... one that I can actually go BOATING IN!

Thursday May 17, 2012

Every month I attend a WIC, (Woman's Interclub Council) meeting at a different Yacht Club. This month the WIC luncheon was held at Olympia Yacht Club and the 'theme' was Alice through the looking glass, a Mad Hatter Tea Party. All the guests were encouraged to make a hat for the occasion. My hat won a prize (a pretty little cup & saucer) for Best Hat! I am a creative genius! Now why can't I make any money doing what I love!..... HUH!... WHY!... I guess that would just be to easy.  ** sigh**

I drove to Olympia ALL BY MYSELF, my first trip on I-5 alone and driving through Tacoma... I was very brave and only took the wrong off ramp once and was able to get back on the freeway with out freaking out TOO bad! LOL. When I got home Ben was slaving away on the boat. We are in the process of completely re-doing the boat. Not only is Ben going to repair that FREAKING leaking Diesel tank but we are stripping ALL the wood trim (and DAMN there is alot of wood) so we can put a new coat of varnish on the trim. Once the trim is all scraped and sanded we will put around5 or 6 coats of varnish on all the outside wooden trim. THEN Ben will pull the diesel tank and repair or replace it. After that it's time to touch up the exterior white paint.... and it's a BIG boat, then we will put down the light blue non-skid coating on all the horizontal decks. Once THAT is done... holy crap I'm tired already.... We are putting new material in the interior cabin ceiling, and the final step is new carpet throughout. THEN..... wait for it........

We are gonna put the boat on the market and SELL IT! Then????? Well, I guess we will have to see. We have been working our asses off and every time I get tired and my arms ache... I just thing of how nice it will be to get outta this boat!

Saturday May 12, 2012 Weekend at Nicole's

Spent the weekend at Nicole's working on the Jeep. Ben spent ALL day Saturday and Sunday under the hood. At one point he tried to align the steering wheel so it was 'straight' and I don't know what he did... but every time we turned left the horn went off. I laughed so hard... it was hilarious! I spent the weekend playing with Chloe in the yard, it was such an awesome day. We BBQ'ed some chicken and Nikki and I just hung out with Kale. Ben finally got the horn to stop going off... although the steering wheel is still crooked! BaHaHa... Monday it's back to the boat and more scraping and getting her ready to replace the diesel tanks. YUCK! What a job. Of all the things my hubby has brought home for us to fix-up.... The old motor home, the camper trailer, the pick-up camper... This is defiantly the WORST! The next time he finds a 'fixer-upper' I'm outta here! Next time I want something that is READY to move into!

Friday May 11, 2012 Bug Museum

Bremerton Bug Museum.  Today the Explores club.... yes all 2 of us. Headed to the Bug Museum. I think it is designed mostly for kids... So of course Yoli and I had a GREAT time! We got to see some of the weirdest and coolest bugs. We explored bizarre bugs under the microscope, looked through glasses that let us see like a bug, and even watched busy ants in the giant 8 foot long Ant Farm! They have the weirdest and most interesting bugs on display.

We spent several hours exploring the bugs and having fun in the gift shop. I found some great gifts that I want to get for family and friends. They have really cool butterfly feeders and butterfly houses. The also have every kind of critter container you can imagine. Ant farms for the kids, kits to raise your OWN butterfly, frog houses and other very cool gifts and learning toys for the kids. We really had a fun time! After the bugs we headed to the Port of Bremerton and the Navy Yard to tour the Turner Joy.

This is the first war ship tour I have ever been on and it was very cool! The tour is un-guided so you get to climb all over the thing, you can walk through the whole ship, go down in the crew quarters, the engine room, the boiler room, up to the bridge, into the gun towers, etc. Amazing how they built those ships back then (the USS Turner Joy is from 1957 and decommissioned in 1982), long before CAD systems and all the tools we have today. USS TURNER JOY was the last ship in the FORREST SHERMAN - class of destroyers and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name. Her keel was laid down on September 30, 1957 in Seattle, Washington and she was launched on May 5, 1958.

Turner Joy's distinctive service included a double-duty role as flagship for Destroyer Squadron 13 and Destroyer Division 131 with several tours in the Pacific. She also stood air-sea rescue duty near the Marianas Islands for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's visit to several Asian nations. In terms of history, this vessel is most remembered for her participation in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was incredible to walk through. To visit the buck where the crew slept.... (Man they musta been skinny, those bunks were stacked 3 high with about 2 ft clearance between the bunks. I, of course, had to climb into a bunk... RACK, excuse me... to see if a human could actually FIT... and I did, but just barley. LOL.)  We toured the galley and imagined how it must have been when men lived and worked in these cramped spaces. It was so very interesting. I would love to go back!

Saturday ay 5, 2012 New Puppy

After looking high and low... going through Craig's list and scanning the local shelters we finally found a new member for our family. Little Chloe. She is part Dachshund part ??????? She weighs about 20lbs, is 1 1/2 yrs old and is sooooo cute! The first few days she was very scared and timid, probably looking for her 'temporary' parents. But after I explained that WE are her forever parents... she seemed to feel a little more comfortable. We found her an Craig's List, they said she has lived on a farm and they just couldn't keep her any more. She doesn't lick, and we have yet to hear her bark... AND she doesn't even know what people food is. Gonna try to keep it that way if I can get Ben to not feed her Ice Cream! LOL. I can't wait to find out what her personality is like after she gets used to us. She is so sweet. I wanted to name her Ruby, but Ben won out (Surprise, Surprise) and we named her Chloe. When we got her they called her Isabella, Ben didn't like the name. She has sooo much energy compared to Zoe. When I take her for a walk I actually have to trot to keep up. LOL, that should get me in shape!


Saturday April 28, 2012 Tuff Truck

Port Townsend Tuff Truck Competition

Nicole and Anthony invited us up for the weekend to join them for the Tuff Truck competition. Anthony spent most of the morning trying to get his poor beat up Toyota running.... then it was time to load up and head for Port Townsend. The event is kinda low-key... there were a few exhibitor booths, some selling the usual jewelry and just, another booth sold those stickers everyo9ne wants on their rig,,, like 'This is NOT my husbands JEEP' or 'JEEPS are for Girls' LOL. There was a bull ride for anyone who was feeling adventures. Anthony rode the bull with Kale, although I don't think he enjoyed it much. LOL

There was a fishing hole stocked with trout for the kids, Kale tried but didn't catch any when we were there, although I heard after we left they went back and caught a BUNCH. The Tuff Truck competition was kinda just a free-for-all. A dirt track where everyone drove like crazy. I understand that at this event every year Anthony rolls his truck... didn't get to witness that this year. BUMMER. Even Nicole took the wheel and ran the track for best time. (She beat Anthony's time. HA) Wouldn't let Ben take the Jeep through.... After all, It's MY Jeep!!!!



Saturday April 15, 2012 Earth Day Clean-up

QuadraPaws / Tahuya Park Clean-up.

For our second run with the club we headed to the park for a day of trail clean-up. Apparently in Washington you have to PAY to take your garbage to the local dump... so many people decide to just take their garbage to the woods and dump there. We found couches, old speakers, a computer monitor???? and other assorted strange and interesting stuff. The best part was spending the day with friends..


AND as an added bonus we get 'hours' from the DNR that we can use to get next years park pass. For every 16 hours you put in as a forest volunteer you get a free pass. So Ben and I earned 8 hours between the two of us, only 8 more to go and next years pass is FREE. I love being in the park, in the woods. It was another beautiful day, it actually got hot enough that I had to strip down to just a t-shirt and Capri's! (GOD I love summer). Our 4X4 group has 'addopted' the 4X4 trails in the park so we do alot of work on the trail system, adding rocks where needed, blocking off trails we don't want people traveling on, the club is even building a XXX trail for hard core rock climbers!

As an added bonus... Ben sold his 4-wheeler when we got home! YAH... now we have the money to fix this #%&^%$## boat!

All in All a GREAT Day!

Thursday April12, 2012 Glass Museum

Today our 'Explorers Club' (all 2 of us) went to the Tacoma Museum of Glass. It was AWESOME! From the very beginning when you start your adventure I was amazed at the beauty. To get to the museum you first cross this awesome bridge of glass. A partnership between the Museum of Glass, legendary Studio Glass pioneer Dale Chihuly and the city of Tacoma resulted in the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a 500-foot-long pedestrian overpass links the Museum to downtown Tacoma and its cultural corridor.

At the approach to the Museum is the Venetian Wall, an eighty-foot installation displaying 109 sculptures from three of Chihuly's series: Venetians, Ikebana, and Putti. Three distinct installations comprise the Bridge of Glass. Furthest from the Museum is the Seaform Pavilion, a ceiling made of 2,364 objects from Chihuly's Seaform and Persian series. Placed on top of a fifty-by-twenty-foot plate-glass ceiling, the forms are suspended in midair and make dramatic use of natural light. As we walked under this pavilion, it was like we were walking in an underwater world of glass shapes and forms a few feet above our heads. The bridge of glass was so beautiful... and we had not even entered the building yet! It was kind of a chilly day so my favorite part of the museum was the Museum’s Hot Shop and watch the visiting artists demonstrate the fascinating process of creating works of art from molten glass. Glassblowing is a mesmerizing and magical process, and it was so nice and cozy.... with the heat coming off the 'hot pots' of molten glass! Yoli and I had a wonderful day. I can't wait till the next Explorers Club outing!

Saturday, April 7, 2012 Newbee Run Tahuya

QuadraPaws 4X4 Club / Tahuya State ORV Park. Ben and I searched the web and found a local 4X4 Jeep Club. We went to a meeting to meet everyone and they invited us to join them on what they call the 'Newbee Run'. The 1st Saturday of every month everyone meets at the Safeway in Bellfair and then heads out for the Tahuya ORV park. What a fun and beautiful park. There are 4X4 trails exclusively for Jeeps and other off road vehicles, 4-runner trails and motorcycle trails. All the trail are desperate so you don't have to worry about coming around a sharp corner and running into a 4-wheeler or motorcycle! The weather was BEAUTIFUL a little cool up on the mountain but it was so nice to be in the woods! I had forgotten how much I loved the smell of trees and earth. The group is composed of young and old, men and even some women drivers... and everyone was so nice. One of our members is a Washington state trooper... so NO drinking on the trails, now THAT'S different from our usual Jeep trips, LOL. As a non-driver, I could have a cocktail when we stopped for lunch... but NO open containers! (Poor Ben). So we have to attend 3 meeting and go on 3 4X4 runs to be eligible to join the jeep club.... so 2 more meeting and 2 more runs. Can't wait!

Saturday, March 25, 2012 Kales Birthday

I have been falling down on my 'blog'. OMG has it really been almost 2 months since I last sat down at the computer and recorded our journey??? So I have decided to 'backtrack' and record some of the events over the past several weeks... ok months....  It's like I have got so far behind in the Blog I don't know where to start???? So I will begin on a happy note, our Grandson Kale's 3rd Birthday.

Ben and I drove up to Port Hadlock to spend the day with our 'little man'. The weather was great, we had the party outside and Kale loved having a party that was ALL ABOUT HIM. He got a new bike from Mom and Dad, complete with training wheels although he thought it was much more fun to have Dad push him than to actually work and 'peddle' on his own. LOL

Kale and Grandma had fun in the Bouncy Castle, although I got my butt kicked when the rest to the kids climbed in.... God I wish I had half the energy these kids have! All in all it was a great day. I ate lot's of "Cars" blue cake... I think I still have blue teeth......