Merry Christmas!

 Attending the Night before Christmas has always held some magic for me.  This year we met the folks coming into the lobby with our caroling and even asked if they wanted to join us.
The candle-lighting is so warm and friendly while we sang Silent Night, but prior to this, the message from our Pastor Kathi Busch clarified our relationship with GOD.

The Worship Team singing "Joy to the World"

To You and Yours!

 

How the cover photo was created.  The last image we took of Daisy in September needed some artwork to maintain her looking at the camera.  This time was no different.  Daisy needed to be prompted to look at the camera, therefore I snapped the image of she and Sue together (first one).  Unlike the September image seen earlier in this blog, we did several images of all of us together, knowing that Daisy wouldn't have the "look" that we wanted (see below).  Instead of dropping another image of Don or Sue and layer masking it to fit, we just moved another head of Daisy into the image to add that special look.  The border I used was from a beautifully lit tree from Longwood Gardens, also below.

Daisy watching me (used her head)

Daisy not looking (used us)

Decorated Tree from Longwood Gardens





Down to the Wire...

As we all go about our shopping, wrapping and preparing for this years' Christmas, perhaps we should reflect on some of the outstanding times of our life that occurred this year and how we can thank the LORD for each.  We are thankful for our health; the church in which we worship (RiverCross) pictured here; the time with spend with our family & friends; and most importantly, each other!

Feeding the hungry in New Castle has been my desire for the last year.  I have began a team of caring individuals who have similar feelings. Our RiverCross Food Closet has fed over 100 families in the last year and I thank the team members and our church congregation for bringing the food for all to enjoy. 



Milk & Cookies for all the kids....even some big kids!

Each year we celebrate the birth of Jesus so we can give each other a gift symbolizing the gifts given to Jesus as he "laid in the manger."  Perhaps this year we could make this gift of caring for others in our community, our gift

throughout the entire new year.



2015 Christmas Reality

On the way to becoming a solar user, we needed to remove a maple tree that was in our south-east sector and greatly affected the sunlight that fell on the top of our roof.  The tree was 75' tall and had three trunks, and many exposed roots that our John Deere tractor didn't enjoy running over.  The stump is showing in the second image, but what isn't available is the size or a person to lay across the trunk to show its full size.  This trunk will be cut up on another day by the same folks who took the tree out.

When the tree was completely cut down, all the limbs (wood) were place in an access area for our neighbors' son to load into his pickup truck.  He made 2 loads on Tuesday and 2 more loads last night.  I heard he has split all the wood and estimates a total of 4 cords.

Also the roof is being renewed in the areas where the solar panels will be placed. Two hearty souls are climbing the ladders and taking off the old roof and replacing with new 50 yr shingles as I write this.

I suppose this is a Christmas present to us.  We use electricity to heat our home along with gas heaters in the basement and camera room that I installed years ago.  Some of our neighbors are seeing as much as 80% off of their electric bill in the summer time, and not quite as much in the winter when the sun is behind the clouds .  We hope to judge the performance of the few panels (14) we are installing before we add more in the spring.
This past summer we visited a nearby home that had 28 panels installed.  We noticed that the electric meter on the side of the house was running backwards.  The owner smiled, and said he hasn't paid an electric bill for two months. We also noticed that he had a swimming pool and hot tub.  
This is the feeling we would like to have... watching the electric meter run backwards!


working side by side for the first hour

November ReCap!

Pulling the raw water pump to rebuild

As the weather is beginning to close in on us, we are trying to complete most of the boat projects as possible.  It doesn't look like we will even start the insulation of the refrigerator at this point; mostly because Don doesn't have the weather or inclination to begin it. The full cover is on, but let's not use this as an excuse.
The insulation is the one item that is necessary for us to go cruising again and not worry about low battery amp-hours. We'll just have to begin early in the spring to finish this project.  

Sue & Daisy enjoying the sunshine

 

Don on his birthday waiting for Daisy to blow out the candles

Our RiverCross Life Group working together on their service project to feed 130 persons for lunch

Sailors get together at the Sloan's new home


As November comes to a close, we have celebrated Don's birthday, (undisclosed #) our anniversary  (37yrs).  

For the first time in many years, we celebrated Thanksgiving away from home. We joined daughter Karen and her husband Carlos and our two granddaughters Miranda and Savannah at the Kalahari Water Resort Park in Pocono Manor.

 



mother & daughter

The Dipres Family

 



 

October/November (winterizing & projects)

 






besides using a preventer, Sue likes to see where we've been

Jubilee came north on October 29th to spend the winter on her cradle at Delaware City.  There was lots of excitement while making this trip.  It was the first for our newly adopted Daisy Girl and we had fog and wind at our backs to make everything interesting. 

We had so much fun watching as Daisy decided where she wanted to hangout on the boat.  Her #1 spot was in the salon next to a few cushions and #2 next to mommie anywhere she was.


best in Mommies' arms

waiting for a car carrier to pass

It was an above average day with temps in the seventies & nice winds from the southwest that sped us on our northern journey up the Chesapeake, into the C& D Canal and into Delaware City.  As we approached the Summit Bridge, I noticed that the train bridge was down...apparently waiting for a train to pass so we used this time to drop the mainsail and flake it into the stackpac.  I went down below to pickup the binoculars and Sue hollered out that the train was passing.  We pulled into the Delaware City Canal in time to lower the main onto the deck and place it into its' bag to store until Spring arrives in 2016.  I rowed against the current to the boat ramp and we loaded the dinghy onto the trailer to bring home for the winter.  Many non-boaters don't realize the lengths we go to prepare for the winter and if our situation were different this fall, we may have gone South. 


We found that Daisy loves to perch on the bow to watch passer-bys

we have our own night light at the marina

flaking the mainsail on the deck

Domestic water is finished and ready for freezing temps

winterized Jubilee with Sue's help



the boom is down & protected

This winter we will be replacing the insulation in our refrigerator so we will use less amps to cool our food during the summer months.

Daisy is taking part in RiverCross "trunk or treat"



 









Navigating October

Hasn't the weather been exceptional this month!  With highs in the mid-seventies and some cooler mornings, we have been given time to work on our homes and boat.  Don had his arthroscopic knee surgery on September 22nd and has been going to PT most of this month to stretch out his hamstrings and quadriceps.  That is until last Sunday when he picked up the Flu bug somewhere and he has been sidelined most of this past week.  Tamiflu is wonderful, but expensive.  Perhaps a flu shot would have been more effective and less expensive.

Daisy has been a wonderful addition to the family, except in times when she becomes stressed and she shows her ugly past.  We resort to using the crate/cage that we bought before bringing her home.  We probably will never know anymore about her past, but we know she is slowly forgetting those terrible thoughts of biting our hands.

We'll be bringing Jubilee up to its' winter storage next week and then the projects begin and continue through the winter.