It's been quite a year! or F*** 2020

 I realized the other day that it had been a while since I updated.  I am going to blame 2020 and Covid.  

Brief summary of this past year:

• Winter was cold - I found a laundry service (more on that later)
• We have a plague
• I spent 5 months in Arizona helping with family so I missed the protests (and why I wasn't posting, I didn't want to advertise that the boat was empty)
  
• I am back in Washington on the boat
• Two days after I got back I had a pipe fail and the bilge pump pumped out hundreds of gallons of water (I"ll get into those details later)
  
• Working from home is a thing, and I"m doing it in a boat (more on that later too)

I have quite a few things to talk about regarding living on a houseboat, as that is the point of this blog, that is what I am going to focus on.  I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about what else is going on in the world, but I will talk about those mostly in other forums.

Overall I am still on the houseboat and I am still happy.  The dog did enjoy having a yard in AZ, but since he's small it's still ok.  I have not gotten sick, and I am hiding in my boat until there is a vaccine.  Since I can work from home I will be near the end of the people who get it, but that is where we are.

I will write more posts that will come out more regularly, talking about living through a plague and being in quarantine and lock-down while living in 353 sq feet.  The quick version is that it's doable, the dog helps, neighbors help a ton, and I am grateful for groceries and food being delivered.

It's getting cold! Heat is a thing

It's getting cold again in Washington!  It's not even Halloween yet and there was frost this morning.  Most of my annuals are dead (expected) and I've started bringing in the plants that I have room for so they don't also die.  Well at least not to the cold.

Yah it's going to get cold

I may have my 'it doesn't get above 45 in here' problem at least partially solved.  It was a combination of having an electriction install some outlets on the more isolated circuits and a new heater.

Last year's heater was great but it died shortly after the season.  I had been agonizing over heaters again and I finally picked one.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PLQ4T8

My salvation this winter

The part that drew me to it was the temperature control, I can run it at a really low power setting.  I had an older oil radiator for years when I lived in Utah and finally got rid of it while living in CA.  That thing was great, I love how it just slowly raises the temperature of the room.

I also had an electrician come in and install outlets on the heater circuit.  We also learned that my wall heaters have variable watt settings, so we changed them to the lowest watts.  This means I can have the one wall heater that isn't behind things on and this heater plugged into the other circuit (can't run that heater, it's behind too many things) and the breakers don't trip!  Both heaters have to be on super low but it works. 

For nighttime I wheel the oil heater into my bedroom and it, so far, has kept the temperature just warm enough that I can get out of bed  in the morning.  It's like I live in a house or something!

I still have to pick and choose what I run and when, but I am happy with these developments and anticipate not freezing this winter.  Hopefully.