I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving? Brett smoked one of the four turkeys that the park was having for their potluck dinner. He got up at 130am and then at 530am! It turned out fabulous! All the food was really good. We sat next to some great Canadians and Dennis sat with us, too. Brett worked on the boat almost all day and I worked on organizing my boat pictures in the computer and working on jewelry. A Northerly front blew in the night before so it was very windy and very cold on Thanksgiving. I did manage to bundle myself up and brave the cold to go for a great row in the marina and part of the bay. The sun was shining sunbeams through all the clouds, it was heavenly.
I row past the Pelicans every time I go out to the "markers" and watch them as they sit on the pilings. I watch the shrimp boats come and go and the palm trees sway in the wind. I row by the fishing station and my friends wave and sing "row row row your boat" to me. When I row, I am reminded how beautiful it is here and how blessed Brett and I are to be able to be here working on our boat. It makes me almost cry every time.
Last weekend we had a show in Galveston. On our way to Galveston we stopped in Lake Jackson to get a fold-away dolly cart we'd read about online through Lowes. It was one that we could use for shows, the boat and tools. It only weight 9 lbs and folds to 2"! Perfect for our boat! We did find that the majority of the frame was STEEL not Aluminum so it will probably rust. We also decided to purchase another shop vac. The one we have has been dunked in the water, used and abused with water and fiberglass dust and has a hole cut in the top to allow ventilation so it doesn't get too hot! LOL- I guess it WAS time for a new one. We also stopped at "Hobby Lobby" so I could look at decorations for the upcoming Victorian show. I had never been in a Hobby Lobby and thought it must be like Michael's. Well, it was overwhelming as soon as I walked in. There was 10x the amount of everything than Michaels! Rows and rows of Christmas deocrations. Rows and rows of scrapbooking, of home decor, of jewelry! It was incredible! I could have stayed in there for hours! Definitely my kind of store! LOL I finally found the copper ornaments I'd been looking for everywhere. And they were 50% off that day! What luck!
We shoved into the camper with all the show gear and headed toward Galveston. We stopped at Starbucks and enjoyed our rare mochas together while searching for our range in the West Marine catalog. Starbucks has become a special treat for me when we go to the big cities. It always reminds me of the busy life in Eugene/Springfield. It feels a little like the familiar civilization we left behind. But our wallets soon remind us why we are glad we don't have a Starbucks in Palacios after $8.00 leaves the pocket!
We thought we'd stay at the Galveston Island State Park, but I called and the lady said they were "closed" so we parked at the Walmart in Galveston. It was so noisy with people but it worked. Later, we found out that it was the reservation office that was closed, not the park! I was upset about that. It was not great but it paid the bills. We had about the worse spot in the show, upstairs in a room in the far corner. ick. But it was fun and I met a fantastic lady who also sold jewelry. We had gotten to the church and were getting ready to check in and she mentioned she needed help unloading, that she had cancer and could not lift anything. I snagged her equipment out of her truck for her, admiring her pretty nail polish and we talked about her cancer and the show. I helped her truck her things to the church and up the elevator to her spot. We thought that we were in the same room together but come to find out we were on opposite ends of the upstairs in seperate rooms. Brett ended up using our new fold-away dolly to truck everything upstairs by himself. She told me of her 5 year struggle with the cancer, first being colon and then moving to her liver. She does shows nearly every day as her income! She was so sweet and so strong and meeting her was definitely the hi-light of my show.
This week, Brett got part of the galley built in where the engine is at. He was also able to put in the electric panels and they are on hinges so he has easy access to them! He also got the toilet completely hooked up so it works now. He worked on installing the shower sump as well. Last night, as a treat for Thanksgiving, he strung the wires for the nav lights forward and the stern light aft. He hooked them to his battery charger and ran up here to the camper to get me to look. I opened the door to tell him I had to go to the bathroom first but I glanced over his shoulder at a bright green light, glowing from the boat! How cool! I went ahead and walked down to the boat with him and we marveled at the brightness of our new nav lights. The stern light also shone so brightly, it hurt to look at! So that was fun. He also has been installing the LED lights we purchased last week. He has to mount each one and string the wires through the boat, and rewire them too, as they are wired to plug in right now. He then took spare switches he had and installed two of them near 
two of the LED lights so we can turn each light on individually. The wiring of the boat is being completely redone and it requires a lot of brainwork from Brett. We are down to a lot of time consuming work (Brett is, I should say) of wiring and trim work. But it's coming along. We've been short on money and racking up the cards but we're still healthfully plugging away at it.
I row past the Pelicans every time I go out to the "markers" and watch them as they sit on the pilings. I watch the shrimp boats come and go and the palm trees sway in the wind. I row by the fishing station and my friends wave and sing "row row row your boat" to me. When I row, I am reminded how beautiful it is here and how blessed Brett and I are to be able to be here working on our boat. It makes me almost cry every time.
Last weekend we had a show in Galveston. On our way to Galveston we stopped in Lake Jackson to get a fold-away dolly cart we'd read about online through Lowes. It was one that we could use for shows, the boat and tools. It only weight 9 lbs and folds to 2"! Perfect for our boat! We did find that the majority of the frame was STEEL not Aluminum so it will probably rust. We also decided to purchase another shop vac. The one we have has been dunked in the water, used and abused with water and fiberglass dust and has a hole cut in the top to allow ventilation so it doesn't get too hot! LOL- I guess it WAS time for a new one. We also stopped at "Hobby Lobby" so I could look at decorations for the upcoming Victorian show. I had never been in a Hobby Lobby and thought it must be like Michael's. Well, it was overwhelming as soon as I walked in. There was 10x the amount of everything than Michaels! Rows and rows of Christmas deocrations. Rows and rows of scrapbooking, of home decor, of jewelry! It was incredible! I could have stayed in there for hours! Definitely my kind of store! LOL I finally found the copper ornaments I'd been looking for everywhere. And they were 50% off that day! What luck!After our stop in Lake Jackson, we made our way to Seabrook, on the east side of Houston to the resale boat shop. Brett was hoping to find an altenator and other engine parts while there. It took forever to get there but we made it. After we looked around for about an hour, we didn't find anything to take home. We had glanced at a range that had not been priced yet sitting on a cart in the middle of an aisle. It was in gorgeous condition and had 3 burners and an oven. We started looking at the other ranges, because we knew that one would be at least $400 for sure. The other ranges had a lot of wear on them and were only two burners or the wrong fuel type. We decided to ask the owner of the store how much the newer one was. He looked it up and found that it was on consignment for $299.99! It was a compressed gas model but had a new conversion kit for propane inside the oven that had not been opened. After a lot of discussion, we decided to use the card and get it. We had seen many many ovens come and go from here that were a good deal and we didnt want to miss out on this one. It was a Seaward, too, which are really good ranges. So we went ahead and got it! Later, I found out it was a Seward Hillerange, which is very very popular and a good working model. It is not common to see them with three burners though. It doesn't even look like it was used except the oven. New, they are $800-$1200. So we did good. I can't seem to find a picture of it though and it is locked up in a storage shed right now. I'll get pictures soon of it.
We shoved into the camper with all the show gear and headed toward Galveston. We stopped at Starbucks and enjoyed our rare mochas together while searching for our range in the West Marine catalog. Starbucks has become a special treat for me when we go to the big cities. It always reminds me of the busy life in Eugene/Springfield. It feels a little like the familiar civilization we left behind. But our wallets soon remind us why we are glad we don't have a Starbucks in Palacios after $8.00 leaves the pocket!
We thought we'd stay at the Galveston Island State Park, but I called and the lady said they were "closed" so we parked at the Walmart in Galveston. It was so noisy with people but it worked. Later, we found out that it was the reservation office that was closed, not the park! I was upset about that. It was not great but it paid the bills. We had about the worse spot in the show, upstairs in a room in the far corner. ick. But it was fun and I met a fantastic lady who also sold jewelry. We had gotten to the church and were getting ready to check in and she mentioned she needed help unloading, that she had cancer and could not lift anything. I snagged her equipment out of her truck for her, admiring her pretty nail polish and we talked about her cancer and the show. I helped her truck her things to the church and up the elevator to her spot. We thought that we were in the same room together but come to find out we were on opposite ends of the upstairs in seperate rooms. Brett ended up using our new fold-away dolly to truck everything upstairs by himself. She told me of her 5 year struggle with the cancer, first being colon and then moving to her liver. She does shows nearly every day as her income! She was so sweet and so strong and meeting her was definitely the hi-light of my show.
This week, Brett got part of the galley built in where the engine is at. He was also able to put in the electric panels and they are on hinges so he has easy access to them! He also got the toilet completely hooked up so it works now. He worked on installing the shower sump as well. Last night, as a treat for Thanksgiving, he strung the wires for the nav lights forward and the stern light aft. He hooked them to his battery charger and ran up here to the camper to get me to look. I opened the door to tell him I had to go to the bathroom first but I glanced over his shoulder at a bright green light, glowing from the boat! How cool! I went ahead and walked down to the boat with him and we marveled at the brightness of our new nav lights. The stern light also shone so brightly, it hurt to look at! So that was fun. He also has been installing the LED lights we purchased last week. He has to mount each one and string the wires through the boat, and rewire them too, as they are wired to plug in right now. He then took spare switches he had and installed two of them near 
two of the LED lights so we can turn each light on individually. The wiring of the boat is being completely redone and it requires a lot of brainwork from Brett. We are down to a lot of time consuming work (Brett is, I should say) of wiring and trim work. But it's coming along. We've been short on money and racking up the cards but we're still healthfully plugging away at it. 
Today he is working on other people's boats. Last week, he was hired to reglass the casing for a keel of a 25 foot Catalina sailboat. The keel wire had broke and when the keel swung down, it cracked the fiberglass! oops! So Brett spent 3 days and reglassed the casing to make it extra strong. But when the splashed the boat (put it in the water), the calking for the keel bolts did not dry fast enough and they ended up with a small leak. Brett has spent the last 7 days getting the leak to stop without pulling it out of the water. He was finally able to get it to stop and is now putting the inside of the boat back together. He still has work to do on that Ginseng boat he's been working on for a year as well as Dennis' boat. Always busy. Always.
I'm getting us ready for our huge show next weekend in Galveston. I finally got my costume all together thanks to the thrift shop and thread. It looks great I think, we'll take pictures at the show. I have Brett's costume mostly ready as well. I am a "lady" and he is my "clerk".
A couple days ago, I painted a watercolor picture of a pelican. It actually turned out ok. I have not painted for 2-3 years. Anything I did try to paint, I threw out. I find that I have to REALLY want to paint something for it to turn out.
Charl graciously offered us his solar panel that he used to go around the world with at a very cheap price. He also gave us his old altenator that just needs rebuilt. We're not sure if it will be big enough for what we need but it will work for now. The solar panel is very expensive new, so this will be a great addition to our power supply!
Well, I think that is about it for what's been going on with us. Please make sure you go check out new pictures through MY FAVORITES link- I have been reorganizing my pictures and will probably be reorganizing them soon with Picassa Web Album but for now I'll just add another album for today.
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