Shastoration Sunday

This weekend was a big work weekend on the trailer. Next Friday is first Fridays and the shop will be open so we wanted something to show off.

My structural engineer provided shop drawings with a fairly large radius for the rear portion. I had to be creative to get it laid out. The pencil on a string approach seemed to work.

 Sam dictated sizes and doubled-checked cuts while we laid out the wall on the floor. It was nice to have a big space to lay everything out.



We picked up a couple pieces of angle to cut and make connections. Sam cleaned up the burrs and drilled pilot holes while I cut the big pieces.

 Little by little one half came together.



The end pieces were glued and pocket screwed together. It took about 8 hours to get one wall completed and my back and knees are pretty sore from bending over. I may take the next weekend off to recover.

Getting Close to Walls

This week we made some good progress towards getting walls up on the trailer. Sam got the structure figured out for the new canned ham shape.

Saturday morning we headed to metal by the foot, a local metal supplier. The frame will be 1x1 and 1x2 aluminum tube. All of the frame material easily fit in the Element. 

We templated the wheel wells and starting cutting. Hopefully in the next couple weeks we will have something that resembles a trailer again. 

Belize Part 2

We finally picked up our pictures from the underwater camera.  The first pictures are from cave tubing on the mainland.

 This was the first time I have ever worn a hard hat with a bikini.  Hopefully, also the last.

I like the 1970s effect.

We also went snorkeling at the Barrier Reef.  It was awesome and the pictures don't do it justice.

Coral

More coral

Do you see the sting ray?

Can you find the sting ray?

Nurse Shark

Sea Turtle

Fresh Air

The storms managed to miss Kansas City and we got to spend the either weekend outside working in the yard. Sam decided to pull all of the mulch against the house on the patio and clean it up with rock and new planters.

 Removing the mulch and placing weed screen.



We also tore out a sickly grass and mulch section above the grill. Every time it rained the mulch ended up on the patio and just made a mess. Saturday we picked up some sod to stabilized the slope.

The garden is well underway at this point. Tomatoes are planted, peas are up, lettuce and spinach look good, and garlic is getting big. I mulched around the beds and they look brand new.

And in the meantime some work happened on the trailer. The floor is finished and painted. The next step is to spray the underside with soundproofing and then walls. 

Belize 2012 Part 1

Over spring break we took a few days to relax in Belize. We were looking for someplace warm and Sam found a pretty good deal on expedia. We stayed on an island about an hour and a half boat ride from the mainland. At the biggest point the island is a couple streets wide. We also did some cave tubing and snorkeling but those pictures aren't developed yet.

As soon as we got off the water taxi we pulled the suitcase to this bar. There is only one beer in Belize, Belikin. It is a refreshing German lager.

This was the view from our room.

Breakfast on the beach just doesn't get old. 

The island doesn't have very many actual cars, most people use golf carts or beach cruisers. Our hotel had a bunch that we could check out and ride into "town."

The view just off the main drag.

Mmmmm, rum punch or pina colada?

Our hotel had a nice little bar the squirrels nest, right on the beach.

Not too shabby.

Overdue Updates

This is the first of a couple overdue posts. We spent the last week in Belize relaxing and in the meantime it got warm, very warm, at home and the garden/yard has exploded. Tonight or tomorrow we should get time to post some more updates. Anyway, here goes.

I made some progress on the trailer. The framing members on a Shasta are only 3 inches deep so the treated 2x4s had to get ripped down. Here the mounting holes are drilled and all carriage bolts are test fit. The original bolts were 3/8 inch plain steel. We are going back with 1/2 inch galvanized. From the general deterioration of the original undercarriage I highly doubt they used treated or even sealed wood for the framing.

 For the flooring we ended up going with the zip system which is OSB panels with a water proof fiberglass coating on one side. On houses this eliminates the normal moisture barrier when a special tape is used to seal the seams. Zip only makes wall and roof panels so the trailer got the 1/2 inch wall version.



Here are the panels during test fitting. The wheel well is just sitting on the tire and will end up getting attached to the floor from the underside. The flooring will get bolted, glued, and screwed to the wooden framing so there should be no squeaks. After everything is installed I will undercoat for some extra water resistance.