February was a bit of a whirlwind. A very positive one, but a whirlwind nonetheless. Our 3 week San Diego house sit continued into the first week of the month, and because we thought it unlikely that we’d find ourselves in that part of the world again, we tacked a short road trip on the end of our sit. After a lot of consideration of options of where to go, we opted to check out some very contrasting wilderness from what we are used to. Desert.
Because of the very changeable situation with wildfires, we decided not to fix the route of our road trip until a week or so before, when the situation was clearer. We flew out to the US with only a rental car booked, but with a 3 week house sit that left us plenty of time to plan. It’s not like the demand for accommodation was huge in early February. We wanted to see as much as possible, but without having to drive for 12hrs every day. California is a big place and its easy to underestimate how long it takes to drive from A to B. We decided to embrace the different, and head inland to National Parks that wouldn’t require snow chains.
On 8th Feb, we collected our homeowners from the airport and collected our rental car – a Nissan Rogue. We had considered a convertible, but a combination of the extra cost and worries about the size of the boot and having to leave luggage on display on the back seat, led us to take the sensible option in the end. We said our goodbyes and received thank you gifts in the form of a rather nice bottle of Argentinian red and a penguin tea towel from the Falkland Islands from our generous hosts (they took an Antarctic cruise from Buenos Aires), and we were off on part 2 of our American adventure.
I fancied a trip up the Pacific Coast Highway, but the aftermath of the Palisades fire meant most of the stretch we could reach, was closed. By the time we had crawled through very authentic LA traffic (catching a brief glimpse of the Hollywood sign in the hazy distance between tower blocks), it was sunset by the time we reached Highway 1 north of Malibu. The sunset was spectacular, but difficult to fully appreciate whilst driving.
A stop over in Santa Barbara and an amazing Mexican food truck set us up for the longest drive of the trip into Death Valley. The driving conditions on day two were a stark contrast to day one through LA, as the traffic thinned and the roads changed from 10 lanes to two. Photos really don’t do justice to the vastness of the place. We could drive for 2 hours and only see a handful of cars – and a random donkey.
This set the tone for next 3 days, different desert and rocky landscapes, all huge in scale and very few people. Those we did see were concentrated around visitor centres. Death Velley was a very pleasant 25 deg C. I don’t think we would have been tempted to go during the oppressive summer heat. We nipped over the border into Nevada before heading on to the Mojave desert, as it was only a 7 mile detour. We took advantage of the much cheaper fuel prices and had breakfast in a casino with a giant fibreglass cow in the car park. The big bovine of the desert was one of those unexpected roadside novelties that makes an American road trip fun. It cooled slightly as we headed into the Mojave desert and Joshua Tree National Park, but the sunny dry days were quite a contrast to SW Scotland in late winter.
I was disappointed not to to see a real life road runner or coyote – that was always one of my favourite cartoons growing up. Despite a few wilderness walks we weren’t lucky enough to catch a glimpse of any wildlife except birds. There are a few experiences that will stay with us – sunset at Zabriskie Point, heat haze rising off salt flats, staying at an eccentric isolated 100-year-old hotel with an opera house (and 100 year old plumbing) and managing to turn up at a neighbourhood pizzeria in Twentynine Palms on the one night a month they have a Dolly Parton tribute drag act.
It is well documented that learning something new is good for your brain, but I always find experiences that are out of the ordinary really give me renewed energy and drive. I don’t think you realise you are in a bit of a rut until you do something completely different. Perhaps it is a bit of distance and perspective on the everyday, perhaps it is pathways in our brains that change when experiencing something new. Whatever it is, this was certainly the case when getting home from this trip. despite the jet lag, we were keen to crack on.
We had arranged for a local builder to start work on rectifying the structural issues that were holding up progress in our ‘rubble room’, two days after we got home. With Mr Wombat’s help, he made great progress and Mr W picked up some useful knowledge into the bargain. They took down the dividing internal wall that was cutting across a fireplace, moved the beam supporting the floor above, into the ceiling and fixed it appropriately into the stone walls. The large fireplace was emptied of rubble, revealing the vent that we could see from outside, but which had been blocked off at some point. They also built a new structural stud wall to make the bathroom slightly larger and removed the old one.
We are now just waiting for a local stonemason to be available to repair the cracked granite lintel across the large fireplace with stainless rods and resin. It all seems to be drying out nicely and I have specified the insulated lime plaster we will use inside with the lime supplier. We just need to wait for slightly warmer weather to be able to remove the vent in the back of the chimney and fill the hole with stone and lime mortar. Then it should be all systems go putting the room back together.
It will be nice to get some radiators connected, as we had to cap of part of the central heating system to take out the radiator that was on the wall being removed. Unfortunately this means that our bedroom above is currently unheated. We have a small fan heater, but if we forget to turn it on before bed, it is a bit chilly! We take it in turns to venture out of bed in the morning and switch it on.
All this progress also means a lot of spending. We have a fairly large house renovation fund, but I think it is going to feel like we are spending money like water over the next few months. I have already ordered new radiators. Bulk delivery of lime plaster is not going to come cheap even though the materials themselves are not hugely expensive. Then there is the stone floor throughout, a wood burner, flue and fitting, new bath and shower and associated tiles and fittings, and all those other ‘bits’ I haven’t yet costed in to plumb everything together and redecorate. It was always what we intended to spend the money on, and why we didn’t invest the surplus when we bought the house. Still, when you are habitually frugal and a saver rather than a spender, a sudden influx of costs is hard psychologically.
While we are globetrotting and focussed on building work, global politics once again influenced the value of the freedom fund, just not in such a good way this month.
Freedom fund value – £1,361,315 (down 10k on last month)
Expenditure – £3,674.13 (or a 3.2% withdrawal rate) including renovation costs, or £3,659.78 (or a 3.2% withdrawal rate) without renovation costs
Earned income – £0
We definitely made up for the fairly frugal January with a spendy February. The travel costs for our road trip was by far the largest chunk of this. We spent just over £1300 on accommodation, meals out, fuel, groceries (including those from the last week of the sit), and park entry fees. That was staying in motels and budget hotels too. The contrast in cost between house sitting and suddenly having to pay for everything was stark. In fact it has convinced us that even when we have animals and can not house sit as often, we will still maintain the trusted house sitters subscription. It is so valuable for the few trips we will take. If we take a break in subscription, then we lose all the positive reviews we have built up and don’t want to have to start from scratch again.
As well as all that travel spending (which maybe isn’t excessive by some people’s standards, but it is a lot for us), we paid our share of a holiday cottage for a trip with friends later this year (£288) and for a heating oil delivery made on account before we went away (£527).
There was hardly any renovation spending this month, but that is going to change in a big way in March.
So, what about those other goals for 2025? I’m a bit behind already, but this year I want to:
Reduce plastic waste by making one change every month – I actually made a start in January switching shower gel for soap. Locally made soap at that, so I decided to progress to solid shampoo and conditioner bars in February. Having tried the handmade local option and discovered is built up into a greasy mess over time, I have settled on Gruum solid shampoo, which foams well and irritates less than any liquid shampoo I have used. Result!
Do something creative every month – After a flurry of Christmas card activity last year, I am behind already in 2025. A local artists group meeting has prompted a lot of ideas, but they are only in my head at the moment. Must do better in March.
Record the birds and mammals spotted around the house each month – I have seen it done at nature reserves and National Trust properties and I want to do my own experiment. I want to capture the changing seasons, see when migrants arrive and leave and how that changes over the seasons. I will do this with a small board or dedicated diary eventually, but for now it is a notepad. The rules are the same as the RSPB big garden bird watch, you only record the number of creatures you see at the same time.
Most of the mammals are caught on the trail camera after dark, but I expect we’ll see plenty of hares, mice and voles out of the window as the weather warms up.
The last of the Californian sunshine, snowdrops in the garden and a little project to help the swallows out – we had two nests fall down in the woodshed last year, probably because it was so damp.
Finding Enough 