Four Days at The Cabin

NOTE:
I am having an issue with Live Writer at the moment so that is why I haven't posted anything for a while.
I have given up on Live Writer for now so am back to using Blogger. It is a lot slower and doesn't have some of the nice features of Live Writer but it will work.
Patti and I came home from the cabin on Wednesday and when I tried to post the blog I got an error message  and haven't found any way yet to solve the problem.
Only now have I decided to try and do a post on blogger.

So, Here is Our Trip to The Cabin.

Sunday.

Patti and I headed for the cabin Sunday morning.
I wanted to drive the van so I could collect more data for the technician so maybe he can tell me why the engine doesn't like to accelerate.

I found that at 60 mph the engine runs at around 2500 rpm.
At that speed and rpm, if I push the accelerator to wide open  the engine
sounds like it is starving for fuel and won't accelerate. If I depress the throttle slowly and not go into full throttle, it will accelerate gradually.
As long as I don't have to push it, the Van runs good.   I am concerned about what will happen when we are at high altitude climbing the Rocky Mountains and I have to have my foot in it.
Anyway the van ran good all the way to the cabin with only a couple of hiccups.

The Road is Better.

When we turned onto the main dirt road going to the cabin we noticed that the grader guy had been there since the last visit. He had the road pretty smoothed out and the pot hold filled in. As long as the rains let up it will probably last through the summer. They didn’t do anything to the slide yet but there is enough room to get through just fine.
We arrived at the cabin at 11:45

When we got out of the van at the cabin, Patti noticed oils spots on the back doors of the van.

I HATE OIL LEAKS!!!

A Quick Look for Leaks.

I took a quick look in the engine compartment to see of I could see any leaks. I did see some fresh oil near the left front corner of the valve cover so I tightened the bolts on the valve cover.

Moved rug.

The last time I came up to the cabin, I brought up the large rug that Lorraine gave us and put it in the dining hall for safe keeping.
The first thing Patti and I did was to put the rug in the van and moved it to the front of the cabin.

Emptied cabin.

We took everything that was on the floor in the cabin and put it outside and on the porch.

Once the cabin was empty Patti swept the floor out real good and she was pooped.

 At this point it was time for lunch.

Installing the Rug.

Here is the empty cabin. 12' X 16'.

Here is the rug, 10'6" X 13'

We had to unroll the rug so that we could roll it back up the long way. That way we could unroll it inside the cabin and it would be in the right direction.

We laid the rug out and I started by cutting out around the woodstove.

There were four legs that had to be cut around.

Two around the counter legs…

and two around the cook stove legs.



Here is the rug installed.

We were moved back in by 5:00.

Chicken for Supper.

On the way up here this morning we stopped at Safeway and bought a rotisserie chicken. That way I didn’t have to cook.

Monday.

Goofed Off Day.

I was pretty pooped from yesterday so we mostly goofed off today.

Checked for Oil Leaks.

I crawled under the van to see if I could find any more oil leaks. I did see some dampness around the plate that covers the old fuel pump hole. I was able to tighten one of the bolts holding it on. The other one was tight. I also noticed some oil near a bolt that holds  one of the side covers on. I was able to also tighten that.
None of the leaks that I found were very bad, I hope tightening them takes care of the leak.

Lizards.

We noticed several alligator lizards running around on the porch.

Watched a Tree Fall.

We were sitting in the cabin having lunch and we could hear some of what sounded like thrashing around in the woods past the dining hall.

We were watching to see if  was some kind of large animal would come out of the woods there.
All of a sudden a tall skinny tree fell into the clearing not far from the front of the dining hall.

Here is the tree as seen from the porch of the cabin.

Here is the tree, looking at it to show the length. I am standing near the tip and Patti is near the base.

We didn’t do anything to the tree today.

Worked on an Old Chair.

Some time ago we bought an old chair for the cabin from Salvation Army. It is kind of a neat old chair but a while back some one leaned back on it and it made some loud snapping noises.

When we emptied the cabin we left the chair out so I could try and find out what the snapping noise was all about.
It turned out that two of the stays came out of their holes in the legs, also one side of the seat had delaminated.  I had to use a couple of long screws to fix that.
I didn’t have any glue to re-glue the stays so I used an old school repair that I have seen on many old chairs.
Bailing wire!!

I wrapped a piece of wire around the two legs that the stays had come out of. With Patti’s help, I put the ends of the stays into their holes and tightened the wire by twisting.

The Mosquitos were so thick while we were working on the chair that after a short time we decided to quit for the day.

Tuesday.

Split firewood.

After Breakfast I split some firewood for this evening.

Limbed Tree.

Once Patti was up and going we started working on the tree.
We limbed it out.

While I cut the limbs, Patti disposed off the brush.

I cut it from the rotten stump.

Pulled Tree Out of Woods.

Once I had the stump separated from the tree I hooked the van to it with a chain and pulled it out of the woods.

After Lunch.

We cut up and stacked the tree.

I decided to cut the pieces a little long so they would be good for the fire pit. We stacked some of the wood by the dining hall steps…

and another stack by the edge of the forest.

We took the rest of the day off as it was getting very hot.

Wednesday.

Before breakfast I split some more firewood.

Patti and I had a large country breakfast this morning.
After breakfast we went back to work fixing the old chair.

We started on the second pair of legs.

Once the wire was tight I inserted a stick in the loop to keep the wire from loosening.

While we were working on the legs we found that there were some places on the seat that had become delaminated and one of the bows for the back was broken.
I screwed the delaminated parts together and put a long screw into the bottom of the back bow to hold it in place.

One of the stays was cracked so I attempted to wrap it with wire to keep it together.

Going Home.

Once the chair was fixed we put it behind the table where it belongs and started packing up to go home.
We left the cabin around 2:30 and got home around 4:45. Lots of stop and go traffic nearing Santa Rosa.

It was a great 4 days at the cabin.
Now I have to get back to fixing the van.

Okay, That was our trip to the cabin. I hope you enjoyed it.

Working on the Van.

Since we got home I have been trying to get this problem solved with the TBI in the van.
I got a new fuel pressure gauge and tested the fuel pressure. The readings turned out to be close to what I had suspected with the old gauge; 12 psi in put and under 2 psi return.
I called the technician at Howell and talked to him for a while. He suggested that I make sure that all the ignition system was good; and gave me a couple more trouble shooting ideas.

This morning (Saturday) I went to the auto parts store and purchased distributer cap, rotter, plug wires and ignition module.
I went home, replaced everything and took the van for a ride . NO Change. :O(

Oil leak.

I haven't found the oil leak yet. I have found a lot of places I think it could be coming from and tightened the bolts but no success yet.