I wanted this to just be an update about Oscar and Felix but, while there is plenty to say just about them, the story would be incomplete without mentioning that the construction to “shore up” our floating home is in progress right now.
You may remember back in February that our floating home tilted quite alarmingly due to the thick, heavy, wet snow we had around Valentine’s day.
To prevent that from happening again, we are adding about 9 feet to the overall width of the floating “foundation” that our house sits on. That is, Harbor Services – NO, we did not do their website, but I’m offering! – is adding that width to our house’s foundation.

Because our house sits on about a dozen logs that have metal I-beams strung across them (thus, “stringers”) this is involving

  • grinding the ends of the existing stringers (loud),
  • welding new extensions onto the existing stringers (loud),
  • adding new stringers across the boat well (loud)
  • bolting those extensions into new logs (loud),
  • cutting the ends of the logs so they are the same length as the extended deck is going to be (VERY loud),
  • and building in a new “foundation” and floor in the boat well (which is becoming part of the house’s interior space). …(also loud)

So on to the news about Oscar and Felix.
For the most part, Felix could care less about all the noise. To him it’s just part of the background. He’s far more interested in watching “cat TV” (i.e., looking out the window at the many birds that live here still in the winter).

Oscar, however, has often traveled down under. Down under the bed, that is. He has been staying there most of the daylight hours, while all the grinding and hammering and sawing are going on.

All of this is MUCH more interesting than the fact that Felix has learned how to guarantee that he has our attention. (He’s in the “slowly push things off the nightstand onto the floor” stage.)
And that they’re going to be traumatized (ok, no they’re not, they’re CATS) by us being gone for the entire month of January. (Brian and I will be spending the entire month of January working remotely from Palm Desert to enjoy some more sunlight and warmth than is currently available in Portland, Oregon.) Don’t feel too sorry for Oscar and Felix, though, because our amazing friend Simone is going to be house- and cat-sitting for us, and the boys absolutely love Simone.
Even Oscar does, though it took him a little while to stop pretending otherwise!
Hopefully for next month’s newsletter I’ll have good photos of our new COMPLETED deck and ex-boat garage.
And, of course, more photos of the boys.