Nana's Passing

It is with sadness that we write this posting. It is with a sense of grace that we write this posting.

L.’s mom, the kid’s Nana, passed away just prior to this year’s Thanksgiving celebrations (November 23, 2013). The funeral was then held on the 7^th of December 2013. 

Nana was first diagnosed with non-smoking lung cancer in January 2012. She was on a genetically matched oral chemo drug for cancer treatment that was quite effective until June of 2013. At that point, she decided to proceed with a more typical round of chemo. We knew this when taking the Alaska Cruise via Holland-America. In fact, she was recovering from her first treatment when we went. It was important to her for her grandchildren to see the glaciers (something so remarkably old) before they melted. We also knew this through out our cruise down to Gig Harbor and back. A reality of the cruise that L. and J. lived with was thinking through alternative plans. "How do we get L. to her folks if her mom takes a turn for the worst?" 

Nana continued this round of chemo through the summer but it was found to be ineffective by August. She tried another round of chemo (different concoction) just before visiting us for the Fall Birthday Celebrations. She was so nauseated on the way home, that after much thought and prayer, she decided to proceed with Hospice care. Our experience with Hospice and the Hospice Team was absolutely fantastic.

We made a trip over to the Eastern side of the state to visit with Nana and Poppy in October. This was a good time to be together. It was the last time J. and the kids would see Nana. J. was quite aware of this and thinks Nana knew this, too. We haven’t asked the kids if they felt this way.

In November L. and her sister both traveled to Nana and Poppy’s home to spend the long weekend with them together.

Nana died very peacefully and gracefully on November 23 with Poppy, her husband of 47 years by her side. Nana’s funeral was held 7 December 2013, and while full of grief was a great time to be together.

We all came back over a few weeks later to spend Christmas with Poppy and Aunt S.

Nana was quite an amazing woman. Though we write this at a later date (postdating this entry) we continue to miss her and are grateful for knowing her and the way she touched our lives.

From our October visit:

From the weekend of the funeral:

From Christmas:

Merry Christmas from the MERGANSER Crew

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

J.L.I.M.E.

L., I., E., M., & J.

Snow on the first day of Christmas Break!

The local school was out for the winter/Christmas break yesterday afternoon. Good timing, as a storm was scheduled to come through. It was supposed to start snowing sometime between midnight to 2:00 a.m. When J and L looked out at 4:00 there was snow and it was still coming down. The temperatures were to climb today and start raining by 11:00. (How can the weather folks be so precise? Turns out they were slightly wrong, still snowing at 1300.)

Here are some photos I. took this morning:

Hope you are enjoying some down time were-ever you are.

Christmas Blessings,

J.L.I.M.E

And the kids couldn't resist making a small snowman!

Projects: Quarter Berth ... Cont. (2)

After much thinking of things through, and a year and a half of living with the project, E. and J. decided to work upon E.'s quarter berth some more. This project was more fine tuning, but we think it now looks much nicer, and keeps E. much warmer.

The first installment of this project is here: Projects: Enlarging the Quarter Berth.

The above link shows what this project looked like at that time, while there was a plywood "bunk board" separating the quarter berth from the engine room, it also allowed lots of air circulation through. This had its positive sides (summer lots of air flow) and negative sides (winter lots of air flow). In addition, while the previous owners (original owner?) had insulated the entire hull with closed cell foam, he/she neglected to insulate the lazarette and the cockpit foot-well. This meant that the foot-well would drip with condensation during the fall, winter and summer.

So, we decided to insulate the foot-well; close off the bunk from the engine room; and make the quarter berth more finished.

So, the first step was buying a roll of foil wrapped bubble-wrap insulation and some spray glue at a hardware store, plus some 1x2 boards (we already had some wood glue).

Next, we removed the "bunk board" so that we could clean the foot-well and cut the bubble wrap to size. We decided that we'd glue a piece along the bottom, and sides prior to inserting the bulkhead. This way, the foot-well would have a little "play" if it needed to flex for some reason, and might allow us to take it out at a later point. (The foot-well can come out of the cockpit to make it easier to work on the engine or to remove the engine if necessary. We've never had it out ourselves, and I don't think it has ever been removed.)

Once a layer of insulation was installed along the bottom of the foot-well, we reinstalled the "bunk board" on the engine room side of the fore & aft bulkhead. Then we fit pieces of 1x2 vertically (like tongue and grove) along the bunk board.

Once, these were dry-fitted, we added a layer of insulation to the sides of the foot-well, then glued the 1x2 pieces in place.

E. has already commented that it makes a huge difference. In addition, it has cut down on the condensation in the engine room, too.

We plan on painting during the next haul-out. In addition, I would like to glass-in/seal-off the through-hull fitting in this bunk, and move the electric bilge pump through-hull to a better position. However, one thing at a time.

Pictures follow:

Here E. measures for the next board, while J. cut it to length before handing it to E. to place (dry fitting them all, first).









This shows as far as we got before moving the cut pieces, and gluing on the insulation to the side of the foot-well.

There is a hole in the bulkhead for the cockpit drain hose to exit. This is why the third piece from the front is not quite up to the foot-well. When glued in, we used a clamp to hold these pieces tight to everything.

Once the insulation was glued to the side of the foot-well, we could shape the end pieces and glue everything together. 


Here's the finished result.

Down aft you can just make out one of the covered cushions, and the red at the top is a piece of yarn the kids were using for a game the other night.

Post Updates ...

Updated - 12/30/13

We're still working on our summer cruise - stay tuned!

NEWER:
As of Dec 30 - We've got the trip down to Gig Harbor up; + Our time in Gig Harbor up; + some photos of the Point Defiance flower garden up - more to come ...

NEW:
As of Oct 25 - We've got the trip down to Blake Island up.
And ... We've uploaded videos of the privous summer cruise posts (those that had them)
And ... We've uploaded the jazz video of E's Jazz Combo
            Plus ... uploaded the video of the entire Jazz Camp the night before: They all play/sing "Sing, Sing, Sing"

As we said before:

When we post - we will backdate them so they stay in chronological order - but we may delete this post and add another saying that we've finished updating them. :D

In other words - stay tuned and don't hesitate to look at previous posts (especially under August).

Fair Winds
 ~ JLIME - the MERGANSER crew

Fall Birthday Celebrations

As the LIME part of us jlime crew all have birthdays within 3 weeks of each other, we had a marvelous time celebrating. We started early with a mid-September visit from Nana and Poppy. Then Uncle M and Aunt A came up to visit the day before L.'s birthday (two days before I. and M.), and we spent the day in Bellingham visiting, walking around Whatcom Falls and then eating at the Chuckanut Brewery (which is also family friendly). We also celebrated with ourselves as a family.

We took a break from celebrating birthdays, changed venues (across the country) to celebrate a wedding back in Massachusetts (part 1 and part 2).

Upon our return, Auntie KT came up to help celebrate E.'s birthday.

Whew!

Here are some snap shots of the festivities.

Celebrating Birthdays with Nana and Poppy (and Nana's Birthday, too)

Hanging out with Uncle M and Auntie A at Whatcom Falls

Of course, we've got to get wet!

Experiencing the train!

Celebrating with ourselves ...

"Dirt Cake" birthday cake for M. and I.

A New scarf for L. ...

If we smile nice, can we open our gifts?

Yeah! Socks!













Then the end of the first week in October, Aunt KT came up for a quick visit. For some reason, neither J., L., or I. had their cameras, so we have Aunt KT's photos documenting the visit.

Auntie KT arrived just after church finished, and so two families (counting KT as part of ours), joined a third at their farm. KT got such great pictures and it was such a great day, that we thought we'd include them.

Believe it or not, but this pup's head is now above table height! Such is the life of a Great Dane - Great Pyreness cross. We can tell he is going to be a fine dog.
















































































 Ok, so the horse does belong to the neighbors.

To celebrate his birthday, E. wanted P.I.E! So we went out to a great home-made pie place and had pie first, dinner second.









While the rest of us went to school or back to work, KT got some great photos of the surrounding area before and after J. joined her for lunch.

Then the three weeks of birthdays were over, and back to the regular routine.

Thanks for visiting, Nana and Poppy; Uncle M and Auntie A; and Auntie KT - you make our birthdays special.