Life goes on, and it is good and also challenging!

So I often wake in the wee hours of the night, and after not being able to "fall" (doesn't that sound easy?) back asleep- I get up to get something done. :) So it is now almost 4:30am and I've been awake since 2:00.
We are in Washington, getting to stay in our own VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) a blessing and a challenge as when it is not rented then we get no income from it- but I DO get to work on the castle. :)My sweetheart is still in slumberland.
I enjoyed working with him on the F/V Liahona for three days (not Sundays- as that is a blessed day of rest :) while yesterday I got to work on the castle as he was in Seattle for meetings. I got to make curtains from sheets of a color and pattern that works great, not just the ONLY material available on board, and do it with a sewing machine instead of by hand. We then got to use real rods to put them up, instead of fish mending twine, which always sags. We did invent (?) a way to use about the least expensive rods possible, by Ray drilling holes in the frames of the parallelogram shaped window frames, so the tension rods stay in place. Looks great if I say so myself. :)
Actually what I did the whole first day though was to "muck out" the galley. Ray had cleaned it before me of the large stuff. I cleaned the fridge inside and out, the stove (oven still in process) the counters, washed all the windows (harder than you might think as there were rust stains that really took elbow polish!)and many of the cupboards inside and out.
I also had gotten from the thrift store some King size quality pillow shams, from which I made covers for the galley benches. It felt like such a blessing to find what colors and patterns I wanted for only 2.99 a case and I only needed 3.
We also found a clock that looks great- it was of all things at the hardware store! I got from the thrift store some frames and rescued the required safety and environmental posters Doug had printed for us, and I had put up (in the mad dash to get out of town last spring for fishing) inside plastic page protectors with masking tape- which didn't stick and so duct tape was added to the "decor". :/. Anyway, now it looks down right classy.
I don't think I mentioned that the whole inside of the boat had a thin coating of soot as a filter blocked up and spewed smoke and soot inside on the trip home? Well, soot makes everything dirty gray colored and gets anything that touches it the same way too. I still have the walls to wash down before I can finish the varnishing I started and had to leave half done as the boat had to go and I ran out of varnish anyway (& money to buy more) and they had to work in the area I was varnishing too.
Ray had been forced by lack of $ and time to make our door into the ships cabin
of plain old plywood, (he did put a window in it:) and painted it white,(so sad but it worked anyway)- so how totally blessed we were to rediscover a REAL marine door of thick Mahogany in dutch door style, (top opens separate from bottom of door) that we had taken off an old boat years ago and stored in our boat shop. It fit!!!
It did take two days to get it mounted though, with some cutting of the steel boat, and buying (credit card pit :( ) of special woods needed to frame it, but it is SOOOO classy and a great "first impression". Just wish I knew how to put pictures in here so you could see the things I talk about!
Now I am looking in thrift stores for two more picture frames, one for a picture by artist Arnold Frieburg, which includes the liahona held in their hands on board ship as the family looks towards the promised land they have been lead from Jerusalem and across the ocean to the American continent under the guidance of God through the liahona.
The Liahona is SORT of like a round ball shaped compass but it does not just point North. It has two needles, and one points the direction they are to go (which changes with the terrain etc) and the other if I remember right- is what indicates that it is working, as it didn't work if they were not being righteous! Also there is writing that appears on the outside of the ball, and is changed from time to time, with other directions of things they are to do.
So we named the first boat we made back in the early 70s after this marvelous device of "curious workmanship" (this history is told in the first chapters of The Book of Mormon) that God gave them, and used to help guide them. When we made better boats later, we took the boat name with us. We did digress with one boat, and named it The Order of Magnitude (which boat was illegally taken from us in the bankruptcy of our business) but God blessed us in a friend who actually paid directly to us some of the money he had from the insurance payment when his boat was destroyed by fire), when he got ours so auction price cheap! (bankruptcy story waits for later! )
So, what do I do when I wake up in the wee hours in the castle? I "putter" and put things where they are supposed to go, do mending, decorating, cleaning, organizing and in general try to make the castle more enjoyable for all guests and easier for the cleaning team to clean.
I also use some of the materials gathered over the years to make more costumes for the use of guests to the castle, and maybe to sell if I can and we need the $ enough. Velvet bedspreads from the thrift stores become full length hooded cloaks. Filmy curtains become princes dresses, often paired with satin sheets.
It is so fun to get to play the Fairy Godmother. I call myself a "Fairly Grandmother". We have planned for a group of Missionaries to come on their preparation and service day to help with some of the work here, and then get to dress up in the castle time costumes for picture taking. I'm so looking forward to the help (Ray is going full time on the boat) but he will be here the about 2 hours to help supervise the Missionaries.
We are trying to get a marine mortgage for the boat so we can pay back the several friends who loaned us some of the money to build it, but so far no mortgage. We have a few new leads and hopefully a lead for forward motion of our pin bone fillet machine too! I do love hopeful looking leads. :) It is getting scary though as the castle is scheduled to be foreclosed on Sept 6, 2011 if we can't pay the about $400 thou- we were forced to sign a mortgage of the castle to pay to negotiate out of the business bankruptcy-- though we were indemnified but the bank illegally didn't do that as they were directed to when our business was taken over by another corporation. :(
We are working on that too. I will not focus on the negatives, and anyway we have all we need and most of our wants, and that is amazing. I will trust God, that he will continue to supply our NEEDS as He has in the past.
If you are wondering if we got to go on the church history tour back East that we have wanted to do for years-- the answer is "not yet". Many parts of Alaska had record fish runs, but the one area Ray was limited to fish in, had the worst fishing run in recorded history- a disaster! Still though Ray managed by the grace of God, to get enough fish to squeak by, and pay the crew, but we still owe the cannery etc. The cannery reneged on the promised payment for our tender work for them, and paid us less, but we had already paid our crew based on what they had promised. Sigh, but we can hardly go ask for the money back from the crew, though Ray had already made a decision in favor of the crew, taking the fuel expenses out of the boat share instead of out of the joint crew/captain shares so they got more than the standard % but Ray had hoped to pay them all so much more! Everyone worked so hard!
Fishing is a gamble just as farming is- and it is Gods grace that makes the difference in whether there is a "crop" or not. All we can do is all we can do as we pray too! There is some blessing for us in all this, and I do understand that it is FOR trials and tests that we came to earth, as from THEM we learn and grow best. I'll sure be happy to graduate from this life though, God gives us just enough "free time" to make it livable. I must not whine- as so many others have such harder challenges than I have.
I have my best friend as my spouse and we are married for time and all eternity! We have such great kids, that they are also our friends, now all of them have kids of their own too. All of our family are righteous, and that is the greatest blessing! None of them are self destructing or on bad paths. Our grand-kids are such fun, and I just wish I had more time with them. Well, we still have our health (though no health insurance- as no money-- so maybe the unconstitutional Feds will fine us-- but what can we do?). We can't work as hard or as long as we used to, and our bodies complain more, but they still work which is a tremendous blessing! :)
Another blessing I SOOOoooo enjoy is getting to discuss the gospel with people of other faiths, to learn what they believe and why and share what I believe. The IPhones that were our wedding anniversary gifts to each other last year are so great, that I get to do facebook where I can share in the few sit down times I get. Also our VRBO is a missionary tool to it seems :), so though we haven't gotten to "Go" on a mission, in ways one has come to us.
Well, I don't know when I will get back to posting on here, as my life is so full and I rarely get to sit to a full keyboard but we will see. May God continue to bless and strengthen us to meet and win in the challenges that life gives us. Gramajane