Wordless Wednesday - Merry Christmas 2013

Happy Birthday, Jesus.  From me and Katie, have a Blessed Christmas everybody!  :)

The worthless LOT has sold!

In May of 1968, my parents traded a small apartment building they owned in Redwood City, CA for three pieces of property in Boulder Creek, CA.   One had a small A-frame cabin on it, and the other two were bare land.  The trade was uneven, so on the deed of the third, smaller piece of property, my parents took ownership of  60 percent of the parcel and the two Realtors split the remaining percentage.  At the time it was worth something, not much, but something.

Then, to slow building in the area, the local County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance that lots had to be a certain size for a septic tank, and this third parcel was smaller than the required square footage.  It immediately became worthless - "unbuildable."   Since there is no sewer in that area, and a septic system can't be installed on the lot, it wasn't worth anything to anyone, except possibly to owners of adjoining parcels.

My parents and others with similar "now unbuildable lots" tried to fight City Hall, but were unable to overturn the ordinance.  After a while they got tired of paying taxes on it, and just stopped paying.  They were "letting it go for taxes."

My lot is on the left side of the street in the photo below, a pretty, forested piece of land.

When I heard they were letting it go, I told them I wanted it, and would pay the back taxes to own it.  So, I paid up the taxes, we did a "gift deed" and title transferred from my parents to me.  I paid around $1,000 total to get the taxes up to date and the parcel in my name.  That was 22 years ago.

I hoped in the future the local sewer system would come out to that area, but in the 45 years the lot has been in the family, it hasn't happened.  From time to time I've worried about personal liability if something happened on the lot.  It's forest land, and right on a main highway.  There are houses on three sides.  A tree could fall on a nearby house, or into the main highway and hit a car going by, something like that.

It's a long story, but briefly, when I took over my parent's percentage I only owned part of the lot.  Many years ago I found one owner and he Quit Claimed his portion to me, so then I owned 85 percent.  No one has ever heard from the other man on the deed, and he is presumed dead.  I've wanted to sell the parcel over the years, but it's hard to sell property with so little value if you don't own it all.  Getting an attorney and filing a Quiet Title to get the other owner off the deed would cost more than the lot was worth.  And there are still Realtor fees and Escrow and Title fees. 

I've had three offers on the lot over the years, one from each of the homeowners on three adjoining properties.  All for nominal amounts but I was still hoping the city sewer would be built out to that area and I turned them down.

Last month I decided to get a Realtor in the area and have her contact the last potential buyer. He agreed to purchase my percentage of the lot and pay ALL fees, leaving me a little profit.  The area my lot has, added to his small lot, gives him a decent sized parcel with frontage on the main road. 

On Saturday, December 7, I signed the documents in front of a Notary Public in Blythe and escrow closed on December 10th.   It's a small amount of money, but will fluff up my emergency fund and the liability of owning the land is gone. 

I am now truly a turtle.  Everything I own comes with me, wherever I go.

And that's how I feel as a full-timer.  :)

In case you were wondering, when I started full-timing, I called the county office in Santa Cruz to see if I could park The Palms on the lot.  Unfortunately, that's not allowed unless I have a "structure" there, and according to my Realtor, I'd have to get permits to build or put down a small structure, and without a septic system, they wouldn't give me the permits needed.  It's cold there in the winter, gets some snow, but it would have been a nice place to spend the summers.

This is what I was thinking of - below - for a "structure" on the lot.  I might still get something similar if I ever buy a piece of land I can use as a part time home base.

I saw it and a bunch of other styles for sale right near the Grants, NM Wal-Mart.  Katie and I walked all around them all, looking in the windows.  The office was never open when I was there.  I think they come in a kit and have to be assembled, but you can pay to have the manufacturer of the kits do it for you when they deliver it.  It wouldn't take much to make the shed above look "homey."

This one is a Tuff Shed - all done up like a little house:

Isn't it darling?  A little, tiny house with water, electricity, heat and sewer (or not - maybe a composting toilet), maybe a stacking washer and dryer on a back porch.  It could also be used for storage and have a little bed and tiny efficiency kitchen - and a pad behind it for The Palms.  Flower garden, some vegetables, a few fruit trees, and a chicken coop. 

Maybe some day, if it still sounds good.  Right now it sounds like heaven!  I guess I'm going to have to start seriously saving my pennies, but I have a few more years on the road, at least.  :)

Sometimes I think about what my life will be like next year, or the year after that.  Five years?  It's constantly changing, but right now, a little house like one of the above sheds sounds really nice.  And of course with The Palms parked in the rear always ready to go at a moment's notice.

From me and Katie, have a great day, everyone!  :)

My teeny-tiny Christmas Tree and 3 Katie photos

This year I finally found a tiny Christmas Tree that easily fits on my dinette table, and will be super easy to store during the year.  I got the tree at Quiet Times and purchased tiny flowers to wrap around the branches, a few little bags of gold ornaments and a string of battery operated lights.  And Waaaa Laaaa! - my Christmas Tree:

A close-up of the tiny cloth flowers, gold musical ornaments, gold and white round bulb ornaments and lights:

That's all I've done this year to decorate for Christmas, but I love my little tree.  When I was done decorating it the other day, it looked exactly they way I pictured it.  :)

Here's Katie - when we get back from our walk, or a drive with Hazel and the Greyhounds and I take Katie off her leash, she runs home and waits for me.  Notice her left front paw raised?  She still does that a lot when she "sits."

And here she is playing ball - she'll bite her tennis ball, shake her head back and forth until she loses it, and then she wants me to get it for her.

Mom??  Mom??  Mom??

I DO usually get it for her because I don't want to trip on it and, having gone through this over and over, I know she ISN'T going to get it and put it on the couch, out of my way.  Just like a kid.  LOL!  I remember, back in the day, when "playing ball" meant I'd throw it and Katie would run and get it. 

From me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)

Can you tell the difference? And new camp furniture and a new camp ; )

I think these are so clever - notice the large eyelashes on the mom and the thin eyelashes on the baby:

Don't you just love these clever water towers?  They are at the edge of the parking lot where the big tent will be in January.  A family - Mom, Dad and Child.  Very cute, and you can't miss them when you're driving past - what a cool way to advertise.  I don't know if they are full of water, but I'd bet during the Quartzsite Big Tent event, they are.

I got some new chairs a couple of days ago - from K & B Sales on Khuen Street - $39.99 each, and $87.97 including tax for two.  (High sales taxes here at Quartzsite - which I don't mind at all.  We RVers who come in for brief periods of time, or even the whole season, are using all the facilities, roads, etc., and paying no taxes to the town, so the sales tax is the only way we can help out, and that's fine with me.  First time I've happily paid a tax.)  So far I'm really liking the chairs.

They have a side table that folds down when not in use:

And the other side has a number of storage compartments  attached - for a Kindle, cell phone,  camera, etc. Two are fastened closed with Velcro, one zips and the largest is open at the top.

I've put them on my new rug, an 6 x 8 I think it is.  Just the right size for my small camp, and it'll be easier to store when not in use.  I had a larger one last year, but I gave it away.  It was just too big to store.  This rug has some brown touches in the center flowers and they match the chairs - wasn't that good luck!

Merry Christmas to me!   :)

Oh yeah, this is kind of embarrassing, but I forgot to tell you.  Katie and I moved camp again.  I decided I wanted to stay in this area, but I really wanted to get TV if I'm going to stay here for months.  So the other day when I left camp to fill my water tank, Katie and I drove around in this area, testing for signals, driving on, testing again, etc.  We finally found a spot that has a pretty good signal, and so I'm nesting now.  Everything is out, the new rug is "nailed" down to the desert floor so it won't blow away, and we are settled.  We are a little ways from the Dingbats' camp, but I can see them and we go down once or twice a day to visit around the campfire.

I hope they don't move again - I'm getting tired of following them around looking for this seed.

Welcome to our newest Followers:

Black Sheep no info is shown for you Black Sheep, so I can't give you a plug  left me a comment that he does have a blog and here is the link:  Voyager54, so you can check it out.     I'm happy you're following along with me and Katie.  Katie is a White Hat sort of dog, but I'm a bit of a Black Sheep myself, so even if you aren't an RVer, we have something in common.  Thanks for joining the blog and traveling along with us.

And Wendy's trip log -  Wendy isn't an RVer, but she has a blog that she's hoping will keep her creating and connecting with others.  She lives with her husband, kids and dog Upstate NY.  Wendy is an independent consultant for Close To My Heart scrapbooking and crafting supplies (that's her passion) and as a therapist for her day job.  I'm a scrapbooker, too - but with space being an issue in  my small motor home, I'm loving digital scrapbooking for now.  It must be fun working with Close to My Heart.  Thanks for following me and Katie on our travels.

Welcome aboard to you both!

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - Beautiful Photos

More photos from the National Geographic Photo Contest:

Scott Bechtel - Male Rufous.  (Isn't this a great photo?  I wish I had taken it!)

Mark Bridger - Large Red Deer Stag calling.

Sara Malas -  Blue Footed Booby in the Galapagos Islands.

Graham Erik Mandre - Brown bear cubs climbing.

Ian Schofield -  Little owl and great spotted woodpecker with dramatic full wing extensions. 

From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!