What to expect

Rants, missives and occcasional updates about where Masquerade is located and what we are up to.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

California castaways

Rather than being in a small boat surrounded by water we are in a small 5th wheel surrounded by snow. How did this happen?

 

Our 3 month trip to California to avoid hurricane season and check on our property has turned into a 6 month (and counting) work marathon. The house which had belonged to Cindy’s Grandmother has suffered 10+ yrs of deferred maintenance, then 5 yrs. of a renter that had an aversion to cleaning supplies, and an affinity for boyfriends who liked to kick in doors when having an argument. Needless to say we had underestimated the amount of work needed to be done.  We are definitely building up our home improvements skills here; installing doors and windows, plumbing gas lines, rewiring, installing drywall, refinishing hardwood floors, pouring concrete.  Working on an old house is like working on a boat; there are no simple fixes. Every job that you start uncovers several other issues that need to be fixed before the original job can be completed.  

Today I was starting to replace a piece of drywall next to a window that looked like it had water damage. Once I started to cut out the bad piece I noticed a few ants. The few ants became a lot of ants. A lot of ants became a biblical plague. I had to attempt to stop the ant explosion by taping over the hole with masking tape (no sailor is without his blue masking tape), while I ran to the store to get some poison. Once the eruption of ants (living and dead) ends I will get to determine the extent of the damage and the scope of the next repair job to add to the list.  The good news is that this explains the strange dust that found on both side of this wall (inside and outside the house), unfortunately the amount of the dust now terrifies me.

 

Georgetown is a small town between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. We are at an elevation of 2700 feet so we are getting snow.  There is about a foot on the ground but I am guessing it won’t last the week. Georgetown originated as a mining town and still retains a bit from it’s rougher days. Soon after arriving we were walking down Main street and passed the “Miner’s Club” one of the 2 main bars; the music playing inside was the “Dueling banjoes” song of Deliverance fame (as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up!).  We also heard that the toothbrush was invented here in Georgetown. We know because if it was invented anywhere else it would have been called a Teethbrush!

 

We do plan on getting back to our boat soon. We just need to get the house finished and rented out to a responsible party (no problem!). We will be shooting for Jan. sometime, and hope to catch up to all our cruising friends enjoying Mexico and beyond. No we have not “swallowed the anchor”.

 

I have finally made a few updates to the website. It was pointed out that the “plans” section was seriously out of date; now it is accurate but vague. There is also a new photo page for some of our California adventures.