The Shak

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2016.  I hope everyone had a great 2015.  I must say, there were some bumps in the road, but I enjoyed it.  It was a good year.  Well, except for turning 50 - that part really sucked.  Still, no sense in giving up and now I have another ten years before I have to worry about another major birthday.

If you didn't know, we have been restoring an old "shack" down in Panacea.  The house had been abandoned for about eight years.  Everything was rotted; the carpet stunk; the yard hadn't been mowed in eight years; and some vagrants had actually stripped out all the electrical and plumbing from underneath the house.  Simply said, it was a dilapidated dump - and that's being kind.  But - it had good bones.  They built em well in the 50's.  The entire house is made of oak - no drywall.

Although it's just a little cottage from the 1950's, it's extremely convenient for fishing because it is located only a few hundred yards from where the boat is housed at the marina.  Not that I ever would, but I could imagine drinking at Mad Anthony's bar on the water after a long day of fishing and walking back to the Shack (after my personal limit of two alcoholic beverages, of course).

Terri has been designing / "cuteifying" (not a real word) the Shack and I have been doing the demolition and foundation rebuilds.  I've learned a lot.  Although I have spent a great deal of time alone down there, I have also had some help.  Thank you to Terri, Cameron, Delaney, Jeff, Sam and Gene for their ongoing assistance.  It still has a way to go in regards to remodeling, but it is livable and kinda fun to stay at now that it has heat and air - and electricity.  Here are a few before/after pictures for your viewing pleasure:

START (the day we bought it):



PROGRESS:

ALMOST DONE:

  

The colors we (Terri) used are very South Florida and tropical.  We have also been going with a mermaid theme. (Not sure why - it just happened).   We have mermaids scattered throughout the Shack with more that are sure to appear.  Perhaps we will have a contest one day to see who can find them all.

So that's it for the Shack.  Now, if you fish with me, you don't have to drive all the way back to Tallahassee - or wherever. The place easily sleeps six (thanks to Terri's bunk bed idea in the crew room).  Sitting by the fire on the back deck with a cocktail after a long day of boating and fishing sounds just awful doesn't it?  Oh - let's include some broiled or fried fresh grouper.  Yeah. Yeah.

It's been a while since my September post.  That really upsets all three of you readers - I know. Although, you three readers must like re-reading these posts a lot since I now have over five-thousand hits on this blog. Damn - and thank you for reading.  We all know its me re-loading the page over and over again to get my numbers up.  :-)

I apologize for my infrequent (non-existent) publishings these last few months. What can I say, I have been working on the shack every weekend!  And well, it is frickin winter!

But the good news is that I actually have another blog to write about 2015 New Years fishing (sorry for the delay Nick) - which I will try to construct and publish tomorrow.  So you will get two blogs in a row in January!  Unprecedented.  Don't expect much from me in February -  I hate Februarys.

Gonna be a fun 2016.  We have a lot of fishing to do.

I'll be back soon with some cool (and recent) grouper photos, I promise!


Captain Marc Paul