Sissy

Due to lots of people asking questions about me, I have permission to write a blog.
 My name is Sissy, or DOG! when I am in trouble. I will be four in Feburary, I am half walker (a hound dog) and half blue heeler (a cow dog). Which means that I can sing really good and I that I am good at herding big smelly cows. I really like to do both at the same time.

The first question that everyone always asks is "How does she like the boat?"

And the answer is- I love boats! I like all kinds of boats. When I was little Mommy and Daddy had a little sailboat (a 25 ft Lancer). My friend Ruco and I would go to the lake with the grown ups every weekend. And when Daddy would tack the boat while I was taking a nap I would just roll over and go back to sleep. And if I was playing I would just play on the walls. It was a lot of fun.

We also had a ski boat that we would take to the lake. I liked watching everyone wakeboard and swim, but sometimes when the kids were swimming I had to stay in the boat and just watch them. I didn't like that!  Daddy also had a 12 ft alluminum boat and we would go fishing. Daddy has lots of boats and I like going with him. Sometimes we just take the dinghy for a stroll around the marina because it is pretty outside.

I am not scared of the water at all, I think that maybe I like it more than some people. I even have my own lifejacket.

Now the other question that everyone always asks....the potty question.
 Well when we are at dock we go for walks, just like everyone else, and when we are underway I try to hold it until we get to land. But sometimes it is to far and I can't hold it anymore. So I have to go on the boat by the drain, Daddy says that it is okay but I don't like to mess up the boat so I hold it as long as I can. But hopefully Daddy will take me to shore and it won't be a problem.

I hope that anwsers everyones questions.

Sissy

Merry Christmas from the Family

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and got everything they wanted. We traveled to the frozen tundra of Oklahoma for the Holidays, and of course FROZE. We started in Woodward at Jen's family. We got there and got the pink flamingos out in front of the camper just in time for it to snow. For those of you not from OK we were hit by a bad snow storm Christmas Eve, OKC received 14 inches, and we had 40+ mph winds. Bitter cold. Needless to say we were pretty miserable.

Our Camper didn't blow any circuit breakers in the house this trip, but Jen did manage to pull the hot water knob off of her mom's shower fixture. For those of you who do not know what happens, there is a stream of water gushing out of the hole where the knob was that you can't turn off. So we were delayed a little getting to Christmas. The worst part was I was suppose to be next in the Shower!! So I ended up being the smelly kid till we got it fixed. Apparently this is the second time Jen has done this. I personally think she was trying to turn the hot water on more than the knob will allow.

On Christmas day we stayed the night at the Hotel Grenzebach -Thanks again guys. Got to see Tyson's parents and catch up with them. They are real excited about our boat, and our new life we are about to undertake. In a small way this irresponsible gypsy lifestyle we have chosen is their fault (and of course Tyson's). But I wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China!! Thanks guys for letting us believe.

I was so happy to get back to the boat on the 26th, and see the green grass and palm trees after being in the cold. And M&M did a good job of keeping an eye on the boat while we were gone. Well I guess it's back to work, got so much to do so little time.

Third time a charm?

Well last Saturday we took the boat out, to try to calibrate the auto pilot again. It failed again. That was the third time we have tried to make the darn thing work, maybe next time. When we were out the fog rolled in, so bad that you couldn't hardly see across the boat. It was a good work out getting back to our marina, there was a lot of boats out and about for the Christmas Parade so we had lots of traffic to deal with. Good thing that our GPS works and that I am use to "flying blind."  Jen tried to steer for a little while but she couldn't keep her bearings, so she stuck to being scout instead.

Sat. night we went to the Kemah boardwalk for the Christmas Parade (still foggy) there was suppose to be over 120 boats, but only about 30 or 40 showed up. There were a few really neat ones. One guy turned his sailboat into a huge Snowman. Looked like tons of work. (The phone's camera doesn't do it justice.)

Had our steak/date night on Wed. Didn't stay long, just long enough to grill a couple of steaks, and say hi to everyone. Other than that it's working on the boat everyday. I've been going over the electrical system making sure all the electrons are going where they are suppose to. Which takes more time thinking about it than actually working on it.

Till next time Ryan, Jen, Sissy

Quoted

All who wander are not lost.

Work, Work, Work

I installed a new wind generator the other day, and as far as I can tell it's going to work pretty good. We already have three solar panels. We unplugged the shore power and went 30 hours, living normally, (running the microwave, vacuumed the whole boat, used both PC's, we even watched a movie on the projector.) and our battery bank was only down 2 volts. But we had to turn the shore power back on to run the heaters. All in all I'm pretty pleased with it. Although not quite self suffient on power. Guess I'll have to come up with something else. (I need more power Scotty!)

Almost done remodeling the starboard stateroom, and I am pleased with the way it's turning out, Lots of storage, and the room seems bigger. I'll be glad when it's done, it's been a bigger project than I thought.

We haven't done anything exciting lately, it's been too cold for us. We did go to the Turtle club last Wedenesday for Date night and ended up staying until they closed. Oops. But we did make a new friend so it should count for something.

Hope you all are staying warm.

Happy Holidays!