Random Weekend Happenings

So last weekend I harvested worm castings and used some to fill up the soil in the citrus orchard. All of a sudden this week random plants have been sprouting from the orchard. It's pretty funny, they look like tomatoes and peppers. I am going to let them go at least until the first real leaves show up to figure it out.

The second bathroom is grouted and the doors have been sanded and are in the middle of finishing. They will end up being walnut to match the table.
The trailer got a new jack in front. It works with the original caster and lets me roll it around pretty easy.

Roe Circle Country Club Concert Series Part 1

Last Friday night was the inaugural concert for the Roe Circle Country Club concert series. David Oakleaf with Tentill Blue came in from Nashville. We managed to get the block party permit and only got the cops called a couple times.

The weather was great and not too cool. We had between 50 and 70 people come out, which was pretty good since there were lots of other things going on that night.
Mark has not moved in yet, but he is painting.

Yes, a car trailer was out stage.

The dude by streetlight. The night before was worked on covering the new streetlight. Only part got covered. The LEDs are way too bright and this week has commenced the complaints.

Fruits of Our Labors

Overall it was a very productive Labor Day, at least by the "I can't believe what washed off me in the shower" comments. We grilled out with neighbors, Sam worked on getting flower beds tamed, and I worked on the second bathroom. Since the bathroom picture aren't that exciting, here is a gratuitous trailer shot.

Hey, I said these weren't very exciting but I posted a lot to ensure you that I did in fact work all weekend on this project. First step in turning the furnace nook into a bathroom was building a bulkhead to square up pipes.
Not too bad. There were five pipes/cords that run through this section.

Hey what about one on the other side to hide the electrical. Notice the switch, closer to a bathroom.

We ended up with a three door Johnson hardware sliding door kit. It was a tight fit top and bottom. Since the concrete slopes toward the drain, needless to say the world isn't flat here.

Sunday morning call to Jerad "hey where are you at.... Lowes why?... Stay there I need you to haul some plywood home for me" Three custom fit birch plywood doors later you can't see me pee.

After that on Sunday all I had energy for was filling a big hole with floor leveler.

Monday was for tiling. I hate cutting porcelain tile. But hey, doesn't it look original, that was what we were going for? Now to grout, install door hardware, finish the doors, and build/install a vanity. No problem.

Saturday we did a trial smoke on the egg with a turkey. Never mind my frowning expression, it was delicious.

Labor Day is Coming, Time for Work

The word is that the hot weather is going to break tomorrow and fall will be here. We haven't done much at all this summer on the house. It has been too hot to work outside and too hot to work on any house projects in the garage. We are both looking forward to making some progress on unfinished projects this weekend.

Not much is going to happen with the trailer this fall but I thought some reference pictures would be good. Ours is all original, which at this point means it smells like 50 years of people hanging out in a 10'x6' space. Other than the wings, ours looks just like the original ad, at least on the outside. It originally had the top floor plan. The table and benches are gone so it is a clean slate. We are going to end up modifying it to something like the bottom layout.
Not too bad. Since aluminum doesn't really deteriorate the skin is hiding some very rotten wood.

All of the aluminum Hehr windows and screens are intact and work. I can get restoration parts and these will be back like new.

The screen door frame is in tact and in good shape. Right now it is in easy access mode.

The inside currently resembles a hobo lounge. There is very little to keep in here. Notice the little high window. There is a fold out sleeping shelf for a couple little kids and the window is for ventilation.

The vintage laminate paneling is not going to be replaced. We have lots of work before this is ready for a trip.

Ok, shifting gears to some in-progress projects. This space is currently the furnace nook with a toilet. There used to be blinds you could pull for some (little) privacy. I have been slowly working on turning this into a more true half bath. The project has stalled mostly because of the heat, but I should make some good progress this weekend.

Some solids doors will go on so people on the patio can't watch. Notice the light switch. That was step one. The tile was in pretty bad shape and has all been removed. There is a pretty good dip in the concrete and self-leveling grout will be needed before new tile goes back in. The plumbing is in for a sink.

The tile has been removed and cut to make space for the bottom track of the sliding door system. We got a very nice three track Johnson hardware system. This is a pretty small space and pictures are hard so don't expect them to get any better.

Random picture of the day. An owl was hanging out in front. It just sat and watched us all afternoon.

Our First Trailer?

The talk around the circle this summer has often been of redoing an airstream. Every time we start drinking the idea keeps coming up and getting kicked around. After checking on the towing capacity of the element, unfortunately all airstreams were out of the picture. Here and there we started looking at ultra-lightweight trailers that were originally designed to by pulled by cars. The good part is that in the 60's there were lots of little trailers to load up the family and head west on vacation. The bad part is that they were cheap and not treated very well. Most have been modified or have just rotted away.

Well because we don't have anything better to do (insert sarcasm), we ended up finding a project. It is pretty rough and needs a complete redo and will be good motivation to finish up those nagging house projects this fall.

It's a 1965 Shasta compact, 12 feet from the tongue to the bumper and originally listed at 1125 lbs. It is all original and prime for restoration. It has aluminum louvre windows with screens. There is a little kitchen, icebox, closet, benches around a table, little pull out bunkbed for for little kids. There has been leakage around the back window and the seat supports are shot.
The plan is to restore it for a home base for vacations and for races.

Mid-Summer Slump

Luckily last week we got to escape the heat of Kansas City for the mountains. I had a conference in Golden and Sam came out for the weekend. The weather was perfect, sunny, cooler, low humidity, just perfect.

What to do in Golden, Coors' tour of course.

The Coors brewery in Golden is the largest single-site brewery in the US.

It was a self-guided tour and we quickly guided ourselves to the tasting room. Coors has a "short" tour for the School of Mines students who refer to it as Coors lab. We each got three real sized beers in glass glasses.

Overall a very nice tour with lots of memorabilia.

From one tour

to the next.

After carb loading we managed to do some running in the mountains. From our hotel all trails headed up.

It sure was a bright sun. The run up was pretty slow, but the run down that was fun.

After Sam left I managed to get in a couple other runs. I headed up South Table Top Mountain which overlooks the town and

the brewery.

I also made it up to Buffalo Bill's grave site, or at least on of them. He and his wife got divided up between a few towns.

Back at home it is hot and humid. I can't get any good pictures because the camera fogs up. Yes, that is a giant sunflower.

The poor fall starts. My beans all died and only a couple broccoli made it. At this point I am looking forward to next year.

One splash of color, the red belgiums are getting close. So funny that they grow upside down.

I found that cucumber in the gutter. The peppers are plugging along and that's about it.

We have been needing some motivation to get a few house projects finished. Nothing like a new big project to move the little ones along. Stay tuned for something cool.