07-31-13

Yesterday morning I put a layer of epoxy on the crack in the RV bath tub. About an hour later I put on another layer. Only time will tell if this is a fix or not.
I sure hope it is a fix:o)

My 30 year old clothes dryer finally gave up the ghost.
Patti told me that while I was at the cabin she tried to use it and it made a lot of bad noises and wouldn’t dry the clothes properly.
I have worked on this old dryer many times over the years and was always able to resurrect it.
This time when I turned it on it screamed very piteously.
I thought that perhaps the tensioner for the belt was needing grease again so I pulled it off and inspected it. It was toast and I realized that grease wouldn’t fix it this time. I started the motor to see if it was ok and it was making more noise than the tensioner. After removing the motor and inspecting it I found that the bearings were worn out so I would have to replace the motor as well as the tensioner.
Patti told me that she had found a dryer on line at Best Buy for $313.
I replied that before I buy a new dryer I would like to see what the parts would cost to fix the old one.
Off to the Appliance Parts and Equipment store I went with the motor and tensioner in hand.
As it turned out the parts would cost me over $200 and I would have to order them and wait a couple of days.
I went back home and thought about it for a while.
The dryer was 30 years old and had been taken apart and repaired on several occasions. Most of the clips that hold the housing together were either broken, sprung or missing. I had had to work on it almost every summer for the last few years.
I guess it is time for a new one. 
Patti and I went to Best Buy to get a new dryer.
The one she found on the internet wasn’t available but they had a floor model that had just the basic controls on it (which is what we were looking for).
It was only $6 more than the one on the web so we bought it. One nice thing about buying a new one is; they will deliver the new one and take away the old one.

The new dryer will be here today:o)

 

07-30-13

I spent most of yesterday morning working on the blog for the previous 11 days.

In the afternoon I went in search of some way to repair a major crack in the bath tub in the motor home.

 

I went to Friedman’s hardware, Home Depot and Marlo’s RV repair.
I ended up at Tap Plastics.
They sold me some epoxy that is supposed to be able to adhere to the ABS plastic that the tub is made out of.
I will try this out today.
Keep your fingers crossed that it works because replacing the tub is a very expensive proposition.

Okay, that’s it for today. Kind of short compared to the last one. Eh?

07-29-13

I just finished 11 days at the cabin. AWESOME!!
The plan was to work on getting a roof over the porch of the cabin.  
It was very hot up at Boonville with temps in the high 90’s and low 100’s so I could only work for a few hours in the morning while it was still somewhat cool. The rest of the time I spent sitting in the shade if there was a breeze or down at the creek with my feet in the water reading.

Below is a summery of my activities.

 

Thursday; 

I arrived at the Cabin around 10:30 Thursday morning.
By the time I got everything moved into the cabin it was getting too hot to do any work.
I hadn’t planned on doing any work today anyway so I just hung out and enjoyed being in the woods.

Friday;

The day started off kind of cool with a little morning fog.
I got to work on today’s project around 9:00.
I am planning to put a tin roof on the cabin porch.
The first project is to build an annex on the side of the porch to move the refrigerator to.
The first thing I had to do was remove the boom that was affixed to the side of the porch. The boom is there to hold up the present awning. I had to move a few things ie, a barbeque, the control battery for the fridge, a garbage can and a couple of propane bottles, in order to get to the bolt that holds the boom.
Therefore I was walking back and forth quite a bit.
I removed the bolt and moved the boom out of the way.
Just as I was moving the boom I noticed a small Rattle snake curled up at my feet just inches away.

  
I am amazed that I hadn’t stepped on the snake while I was moving stuff or that it didn’t strike while I was taking out the lag bolt. My hand wasn’t more than eight inches away from it.
The only reason I can think of was that it was just too cold for the snake to move. If it had been in the heat of the day I probably would have been bitten and would be sending this blog from the hospital.
I decided to put a large rock over the snake so it would be covered and wouldn’t bother me while I did my work.
Oops!
Oh darn!
I dropped the rock. Oh well I guess the snake won’t be bothering me now.

The snake was pretty young and only had one button.

Once I took care of the snake problem I started on the annex.
The first thing was to find some lumber that would work.
I got the wheelbarrow. Carefully turning it right side up and making sure there were no snakes hiding under it. Then I went over to to the lumber pile behind the dining hall. I carefully pulled out some boards keeping an eye out for snakes. You might say I am a little snake shy right now.

After I got the lumber together I started building.
The first thing to do was to cut 4 boards to build the frame.
I pulled the generator out of the van so I could use my skill saw. I tried several times to start the generator without success.

Finally I decided to just use my hand saw to cut the boards. When that was done I screwed the frame together and installed it.

  
My cordless drill’s were working pretty hard and by the time I had the frame together my newest one was barely working.
I also had to cut several more boards for the floor of the annex. I needed some electricity.
It was time to find out why the generator wasn’t working.
After monkeying with it for about half an hour, I realized that the problem was that the generator was low on oil. I topped of the oil and the generator started right up.

I carefully scrounged up some more lumber for the floor of the annex and cut and installed the floor.

 

After I moved the fridge onto the annex I was done with that project.

I still have to build an enclosure for the fridge.

By then it was too hot to do any more work so I had lunch and after a short nap I headed for the creek.
Unfortunately my work wasn’t done yet.
I had to cut a downed tree off the road to the grove. Fortunately I had my chain saw in the van and it finally started after about a dozen pulls.
As soon as I got to the swimming hole I waded in to cool off.

  
I hung out at the creek until around 5:00 then headed back up to the cabin.

Saturday;

The next thing to do on the roof project was to make a “peeling horse” so I could peel logs for the posts, rafters and rails.

I found a large section of a fir tree laying along the side of the road so I hooked a chain from the trailer hitch on the van to the tree and drug it home.

The log had been laying around for a couple of years so the bark was pretty loose and mostly came off while I was dragging it down the road. 

The next thing was to drill some 1-1/2 inch holes in the log for the legs to fit into. I had to use a 1-1/2 inch hand auger to drill the holes as that is the only drill I have of that size.

This it slow work and I took several breaks before I finally got it done.

Once the holes were drilled I had to find something to use for legs. I decided to use Tan Oak saplings for this as there are a lot of Tan Oak’s around. I cut a couple of small trees down and then I cut them to length.

Next, I had to shape the ends of them to fit the holes that I had drilled in the fir log.

  

After I got the legs pounded in

I went to the creek for a dip.

Sunday;

Some time during the night my refrigerator had stopped working. The propane tank on it ran out of gas. Fortunately I had a back up tank so I changed it over and that got the fridge working again.

Just as I was finishing my morning shower the propane tank on the shower water heater ran out.

I decided to finish the peeling horse, then go to Philo (about 10 miles away) for propane. There is a gas station in Philo that sells propane and kerosene. He is usually closed on Tuesday so I figured that he might be open on Sunday.

The first thing to do on the horse was to get it up on it’s feet. That was kind of tricky since it was too heavy for me to lift. I could only manage to lift one end.
What I did was to lift one end and set it on a saw horse then lifting the other end I rolled it over and set it on its feet.

 

The next thing to do was to drill more holes. This time they were 1-1/4 inch holes for pegs to hold the logs to be peeled in place and a couple for stops. This was a little easier than the the leg holes since they were smaller and the log was sitting at waste height .

By the time I was done with the holes and had some pegs made it was too hot to do any more work.

I had lunch and loaded the two empty propane tanks in the van and headed down off the hill for Philo to get them filled.
Unfortunately the gas station in Philo was closed so that was a wasted trip. I almost decided to go all the way to Ukiah but changed my mind and decided that it would be better to come back to Philo tomorrow. 

Monday;

Right after breakfast this morning I headed back to Philo to get the propane. This time I was successful.

When I got back to the cabin I started peeling the fir poles for the rafters.

After they were peeled I cut them to length.

Then I peeled the redwood logs for the support posts.

By then it was way too hot to continue so I had lunch took a short nap then went to the creek for the rest of the day.

Tuesday;

The first thing to do today was to set the posts on the corners of the porch.
I used a plumb bob to get them “plumb” and braced them in place.

After that I cut the ridge pole to length then figured out where the notches were to go.

I figured that I wanted 2-1/2 inches of wood above the top of the posts so I measured on the thick end of the ridge pole and drew a line across the end using a level. Keeping the pole in the same position I drew a corresponding line on the opposite end of the pole.

Then using a chock line I popped a line the length of the pole on each side.

That gave me the depth of the notches and lined them up.
To make the notches I laid the pole on the deck of the porch against the posts and marked where the notches were to go.
I used a hand saw to make several cuts down to the chock line.

Then I broke the wood out with a hammer and used a chisel to clean up the notch.

I set the ridge pole on the posts, screwed it in place.

After that I had lunch and went to the creek.

Wednesday;

This mornings chore was to notch and install the rafters. I used a similar method to make the notches in the rafters as that which was used to do the ridge pole except that the notches in the rafters had to be rounded to fit the ridge.
This took a lot longer than the square notches in the ridge pole did. There is a lot more meticulous measuring to be done as well as more chiseling and rasping to get the notches to fit. Unfortunately my notches didn’t come out as tight as some others I have seen done but they work.

Just as I was finishing the first rafter, Joanne and Dave showed up with 7 year old Cody, a boy Joanne baby sits.

It was a good excuse to take a break so we sat around and visited for a while.
After a bit Joanne and Cody took a walk, Dave went down and puttered around their camp.
I took that opportunity to make another rafter.

Eventually Joanne and Dave took Cody to the creek.

After they left I had lunch and took a short nap. Later that day I made another rafter.
Three done only two more to go.

   

Thursday;

In the morning I got the last two rafters in place.

 

I was kind of tired from all the heat and work of the last couple of days so I decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. There was a nice breeze blowing so I spent much of the day sitting in the shade reading.

After supper I drove over the mountain to the south side so I could get a cell lock and called Patti.
She had just gotten home from her trip to Redmond, Oregon.
We talked for a while and decided what she needed to bring up with her for Friday and Saturday nights supper.

Friday;

Patti came up around 11:00. by then I had 
finished most of the frame work for the porch roof. I attached a couple of 1X6’s across the rafters for something to screw the tin to. I was short one piece of 1X6 to finish the framework.

We had lunch around noon and then we went to the creek.

Saturday;

I started working on the rails for the porch after breakfast.
In the picture below you can see the 1X6’s that I mentioned.

I got the rails installed by lunch time.

  
After lunch and a nap we went to the creek.
While we were at the creek we picked up a couple of redwood branches that I wanted to use for decorative pieces on the rails.
On the way back to the cabin we stopped at the wood pile and I scrounged another piece of 1X6.

Sunday;

I had one short post to put up on the right side of the stairs to the porch so I started on that right after breakfast. Once that was done I began adding the decorative pieces to the rails.

 

By Noon it was too hot to continue so we had lunch.
After lunch we loaded Patti’s car and cleaned up the cabin in preparation for going home. We left the cabin around 2:00 and were back in SRO around 3:30.

It was quite a productive 11 days despite the extremely hot weather and the fact that I could only work for a few hours each day.

I still have a little more decorative work to do and the tin still needs to be installed but then the porch roof will be done. 
That will have to wait until my the next trip to the cabin.

07-18-13

Okay, its Thursday.
The last few days we have been just puttering.
Patti and I trimmed the grapes in the back yard. They were taking over the patio.

On Monday we took Patti’s car in to get some things fixed on it before she takes it to Redmond. She will be leaving on Sunday morning and will be back the following Thursday.

When we were on the way south, coming home on US 101, the car in front of us kicked up a rock and put a star in the RV’s windshield. Yesterday the guy from Safelight came out and repaired it. 

I am heading for the cabin this morning and won’t be back until after Patti gets home from Oregon. She will come up and spend a couple of days with me, then we will come home in her car and leave the van up there for the summer.
Therefore, I won’t be posting any thing until after we get home.

07-14-13

We have just been puttering around the house the last couple of days.

Our friends Jerry an Loraine came by yesterday. We had a nice visit with them.

The RV is pretty much unloaded.
Now we have to start in the back and clean our way forward.
We got hit by a rock on the way home and it put a star in the windshield. I will have to get that fixed before putting the RV in storage. 
I am putting that off until after I come home from the Cabin.

Oh yeah, I have been getting the van ready to take to IC.
Yesterday I greased the van and have been charging all the batteries that I will take up with me, for the fridge, the radio and tools.
I will be going up there on Thursday.

Today we are going shopping at Cost Co and Walmart to get stuff for the house and supplies for my week at the cabin.

07-12-13

I didn’t do a post for Wednesday or Thursday so here it is.

On Wednesday we were still a little burnt out from the drive home.
The first thing we did was to remove the battery from Patti’s car and go to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to buy a new battery. I installed it as soon as we got back to the house.
Patti had some errands to run so she took off and I started removing a few things from the RV. This job will go on for the rest of the week. A little at a time.

In the afternoon my niece Joanne, invite us over for dinner. Around 5:00 we went to Joanne’s house and had a nice dinner of barbequed chicken corn and salad. We we visited with Joanne and Dave for until around 10:00, then went home.

Thursday morning I got the van “Pig Pen” started. Once I put a little gas in the carburetor and hooked up a jumper battery the van started right up.

The rest of the morning Patti did some more errands and I removed some more stuff from the RV.

Some of the stuff ie. Blankets, tools and some camping things I put into the van so I can take them when I go to the cabin.

My friend Bob stopped by in the afternoon and we visited with him for the rest of the day.

Today will be more of the same.

When I start going to the cabin I won’t be posting every day as there is no internet or phone service up there. I will likely only post once a week or when I come home for supplies.

   

07-10-13

It took us 10 hours to get home from Glendale.

We left Kathi and Bobs just before 9:00 and drove to Wolf Creek where we filled the gas tank on Plan “B”. Then we got on I-5 and headed to Grants Pass where we got onto 199 heading west.

When we arrived at the little town of O’Brian, we stopped at the RV park there to see if they had an RV dump station. They did not so we continued west until we came to another large RV park just 9 miles west of Crescent City. The office was closed so we just helped ourselves to their dump station. After dumping we continued west until we got to US 101 where we turned south.

The drive on 199 is a little narrow in spots

but is pretty scenic as a lot of it follows the Smith River

and goes through redwood forests.

 

We had planned to stop at Becky and Dennis’ for a visit but they were not going to be home so we decided to just make a bee line for Santa Rosa.

It was a little fogy along the coast but that made it nice and cool.

We only stopped twice on 101.
Once at a rest stop for lunch and a short nap.
I went to use the toilette at the rest stop and they didn’t have any TP. Can you believe it? The highest taxed state in the west and they can’t even provide toilette paper at the rest stops. Fortunately we had some TP in the RV.

We crossed the Klamath river bridge. It is presently under repair.

We stopped again at Ukiah to get some gas and got home just a little after 7:00.

It was a long drive and we were both very tired.
But we are home now so we can relax for a while. 

07-09-13

We didn’t do much yesterday.

We just hung out with Kathi and Bob. We went out for a Mexican dinner at a place in Glendale called Nano’s. It was pretty good.  

Today we are leaving Glendale. We are not sure how far we will go today. Maybe only as far as O'Brian or maybe as far as Myers Flat or maybe all the way home.

I’ll let you know tomorrow.

07-08-13

Yesterday Patti and Kathi went to the Seven Feathers Casino.

Bob and I went to Medford to check out the Railroad Park.

Bob showed me what they have been working on to improve the layout.

Unfortunately none of the waterfalls or other water features were working and we couldn’t run any trains but all the work they have done is still pretty impressive.  
They have built lots of bridges and trestles.

  

There are small towns,

rivers, and lakes.  This one is their coy pond and the only one that has water in at all times,

 

and even a sea port. Visualize water.

 

The bridge in the background is an exact replica of a real one in New York.
The crossing in the foreground will eventually be a functioning cantilever draw bridge.

There is an electric trolley system with a scale model of the original southern Oregon Traction Company power plant

and a saw mill complete with smoking sawdust burner. 

The trolley system is still under construction as well as other features.

For Harry Potter fans there is a Hogwarts Express layout. Complete with a model of Hogwarts Castel

the Quidige pitch,

train station

and even the Whomping Willow with Mr Weesley Ford Anglia, tangled in it.

There is a railroad museum, small trains that you can ride on and much , much more.

If you are in Medford, Oregon during the summer on the second or fourth Sunday of the month, take your kids to the Railroad Park, they will have a ball.

Here is a web sight with more information.

http://www.ci.medford.or.us/page.asp?navid=497

Or you can just Google,
“Medford Oregon Railroad Park” 

 

07-07-13

Where we park when we are visiting with Kathi and Bob is in a cul-de-sac at the end of their road. The cul-de-sac is not large enough to turn the RV around in with the jeep attached so we had to stop halfway through the turn and disconnect the jeep. When I tried to start the RV after disconnecting the jeep the engine wouldn’t turn over. The starter solenoid just clicked.
I was surprised because we had just driven about 180 miles so the battery should have been fully charged.

Fortunately the RV has a switch that when the engine battery fails you can switch to the auxiliary batteries and start the engine. I got the engine started and we parked the RV.

Yesterday morning I cleaned the battery connections and tried to start the engine. It still wouldn’t turn over with the engine battery. I suspected that the battery was shot. I got out my meter and I had Patti try to start the engine while I monitored the battery voltage. As soon as Patti turned the ignition switch to start the engine, the battery voltage dropped from 12 volts to 4 volts. That proved to me that the battery was shot.

We drove 25 miles to the town of Canyonville where they have a NAPA store and I bought a new jell-cell battery.
I installed the battery and the engine started right up.
I am slowly changing all my vehicles over to jell-sells.
The Jeep was the first one when I had to change the battery in Blanding, Utah.

The rest of the day we spent just hanging out with Kathi and Bob and playing with their grandson, Lucas, who is a very cute little boy with a great personality.

Here are some Lucas pictures;

Lucas with Uncle Marty.

 

Lucas with grandma and grandpa.

Lucas and mom.

Super Lucas ready to fly.

Who, Me??

Let me think about that.

Hey, I’m cool.

Every time I see this shot I have to laugh.

I could go on but you get the idea.

Today Patti and Kathi are going to the Seven Feathers Casino.
I think Bob and I are going to the train park in Medford.