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As many great changes in life do, this particular change started with the most trivial of things. It started with a ripped tarp. One of the occasional visitors who come to see my Chebacco was here, and we were putting the tarp back on the boat. It ripped, like the proverbial tissue paper. To many high energy photons would be my guess.

Now, this wasn't one of those cheap plastic things, it was a birthday present from my mom, a nylon, Cordova, tarp from Northern Tools. Quite expensive, bought on the theory that I wouldn't have to buy a cheap plastic tarp every year, if I had a good nylon one on the boat.. It didn't last as long as the cheap plastic ones last.

This effect, officially called "The Richard Spelling Wastes Money" effect, is quite common around this part of the country, for some reason. I buy something cheap, to save money. Then, I buy something else, cheap, to replace the first cheap thing I bought, and eventually I wind up spending more on cheap crap than if I had just went out and bought the good stuff in the first place.

So. I decide that this very nice boat that I spent a years worth of blood, sweat, and tears building, needs to be kept out of the weather There are little 18x20 carports for sale all over the place in this part of the country, they sprout up like mushrooms, appearing from nowhere at used car lots and pawn shops and trailer shops. At least that's how it seems when you start looking for them! So, for $595 I can have a carport to keep Schroedinger out of the rain.

But wait, theres more! My Chebacco is almost 8ft tall while it's on the trailer, and the trailer and boat together are about 23 feet long, so I would need to add height and length to the carport. Also, if I'm going to have carport, I might as well park the truck under it. Then I'm not parking the boat in the middle, so I'd need the extended side walls to keep the wind from blowing rain sideways into the cockpit.

Of course, now we are considerably beyond the original $595. Well, if I'm going to spend THAT much, I should go the extra mile and just build an enclosed garage, so I can lock the boat up! But hey, if I'm going to do that, I should be able to lock the black truck up as well, so I'll need a three bay garage. Oh, yeah, and the best place to put it requires I have two doors, so I can drive through the garage to access the back yard.

However, this solution addresses several concerns, one being the proper storage for my boat, another being that I currently have two different shop buildings, and I get tired of walking a couple hundred feet every time I forget a tool. Also, there is the nagging desire to do something different. Build an underground house, or straw bale, or live in a log cabin, or a monolithic dome, or something. Also, there is the very small issue of having no mortgage. Let me say that again. No.... Mortgage.... What equity I have in this house will buy a very nice used trailer, outright. And shop. Or, I may buy an RV and live it in while I build a log cabin in the woods. Or something. Options. I have options again! Actually, the first thing I need to build is a shop, and a place to put my boat! A man must have priorities, after all!