Day 29, Monday

Mondays are always a day of regrouping and figuring out what needs to get done during the week. After having a wonderful 4 day weekend, I knew my Monday morning would be interesting. First task of the day was to drive to Bend and pick up our newsletter; the drive to Bend always gives me time to think and this would be a nice way to ease back into work mode.

One curious chicken!

The chickens were going to be disappointed after having four days of running around the yard all day.  Today they were going to have to spend the majority of their time confined to the pen. I was however, able to run home for a quick bite around 2:30pm and let them out for the afternoon.   I figured the risk of any danger between then and when I got home, was pretty minimal.

Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish and Trailer lights

The rest of the afternoon zipped by. I went to the gym with my Mom where I found out I have no flexibility in my hips.  I guess I’ll need to work on that. After the gym, I stopped off at the store and bought some new athletic shoes, (I wanted to call them sneakers - but does anyone really call them that anymore?). I also bought another new set of novelty trailer light, a jar of Mother’s Aluminum polish and some toothpaste, so I ended up getting home around 6pm.

I pulled into the drive and I notice that Red-tailed hawk was back and perched out on the wheel line in the field. This hawk shows up every year about this time and stay for the winter.  I figure he must be back for for the season.   I then got a little nervous thinking about the chicks being out, but pulled in next to the garage I could see that they were all fine.

Less than a minute to shine up the metal like this.

I started to unload the truck and was eager to tryout  this new aluminum polish, when my phone rang. My parents wanted to know if I wanted to go to dinner and I said yes. Food always trumps whatever I’m doing. I did manage to try a small test patch of the polish before my parents arrived and wow, did it work. I’m really excited to see how this stuff works on a large section, but from what I could tell it was the best product I have tried to date and it really created that mirror like finish.

With dinner taking a bite out of the evening I was not going have time to work on the trailer and I really needed to clean up around the house. I have let a rather large collection of cleaning products, tools, used bits of old steel wool and other miscellaneous cleaning products pile up by the back door, that have been used on the trailer. I sorted through what needed to be tossed, put away what was not going to be used and spent the rest of the evening in the shop and garage.  I hooking up cars to battery chargers, sorted through an assortment of car covers to put back on the cars and I straightened up small messes that had accumulated all over the place.

Enjoying her run about the yard.

I am going to be gone for 6 days, so there will be no trailer time for a week, how sad is that.  So why all the cleaning up?  Michelle in my office is getting married and will be having 11 people staying at her house.  I have offered my home up as a place for extra family members and friends to stay.  I don't want my place to look like a total disaster, so I decided to a little cleaning was in order.  Also my folks as well as Amy and perhaps Doug will be checking on the animals and of course, to collecting the eggs.  I couldn't leave and let them watching after a messy house, so the cleaning was well in order. 

Tomorrow night will be more yard work, including mowing the lawn and some last minute weeding.

Now that the trailer is at least presentable I think the house and yard should look good too.

Day 28, One month with the trailer.

What could be a better way to start the day, than going to breakfast with your parents at the Original Pancake House? My Mom called around 8:45am to see if I wanted to go to breakfast with them and I said sure. The bacon, eggs and pancakes were awesome and didn't take long to consume.  With full stomachs we were soon heading back to my home.
 

The day I brought the trailer home.

I told my parents they need to see the chickens “fly the coop”. So I took them out by the chickens so they could see the event. I open the door to the coop and in a flurry of feathers they bolted from their confinement. My parents thought it was hilarious. They dang near trample one another to get out to freedom.

I had just enough time to change before going to church and the chickens were going be on their own for an hour, until I would be home to work on the trailer and could keep an eye on them.

A month later.

Trailer time included scrubbing the roof and working on the right side, around the windows, main door and small storage door. The roof was not that difficult to clean up, other than you can’t stand or really sit on the roof, so I had to reach way out, while standing on a ladder. It is really quite a workout to stretch that far, while your hands are slippery with SOS soap scum, you can definitely feel your core muscles engage to keep your balance. It was really an effort to try and not slide off the roof, with both hands slippery on the buffer and leaning way over a wet curved sloping roof.

Doug came by to help late in the afternoon and went to work on the lower storage door. He removed the drip rail above the door and got it un-crusted from the layers of paint stripper it had collected when we were stripped the sides above it. The right side of the trailer seemed to be a lot harder to get clean. It has this layer of what feels like a paint primer that does not want to come off very easily. It took a lot of effort, but by sunset I had finished about 2/3rds of the right side. It is going to take another day or two to finish the side and the two windows. I also still need to finish the front window, which is going to be a challenge, since the windows no longer open. I think they have been glued shut and I will need to remove each one carefully and then reseal them, until I can find the hardware to make them open again.

Cleaning the right side as it starts to get dark.

It was a long tedious day of scrubbing on the trailer, but week four was now coming to a close.  It is hard to believe that the month of August is almost over and that I brought it home on August 2, 2010.  I still see a lot of work that needs to be done on the outside, but when I look at the photo from the first day, I remember just how far the trailer has come.  I would imagine in another month it will look even better.  I'm hoping October might be the month I am able to get the trailer professional help and perhaps start on the interior.  I will be very happy to get this scrubbing the exterior part done and have all of the old paint and grime removed.

Little by little progress is being made and she has come a long way since the day I pulled her home.

Day 27, Car show and shiny wheels

The morning had a feeling of fall, with cloudy skies and a cool temperature; it even looked like it could rain. Today I was going to take a little time away from the trailer and go to a car show in Terrebonne with the Packard.

My neighbor had just gotten the second cutting of hay off my fields and was starting up the irrigation again, which is a series of moving the wheel lines across the field. Today the wheel line was at the position closest to the house which means the chicken coop gets soaked. Usually they do this position at night as to not bother the chickens when they are out in the pen, but they must have forgotten. I decided to leave the chickens out in the yard even though I was not going to be around. This would at least keep them from getting soaked.

Car show in Terrebonne, OR

The car show was fun with many of the usual cars from the area. It’s always fun to here people’s comments about the Packard. I had one elderly lady say she and her girl friend used to go out in a Packard and drive around thinking they were very special, and look for boys. One guy told his wife after being asked who made Packard that Packard was made by American Motors.  Another person said “Wow a Rolls Royce”.  Mostly people just asked about the engine, how long have I had it, or make a comment like it sure must be fun to drive. It’s fun to share the Packard with people and tell them about this once great american car company.

The car show was over by 3pm and I drove home, but first stopped off at Lowes to by more steel wool, 3M pads and a can of gloss black spray paint.

The chickens were running about the yard and seemed happy to see me as they all came running up when I drove in. I tossed them some whole wheat and they were very pleased. I checked of eggs and the count for the day was at one.

Before and After

I changed into my work shorts and went to work on the trailer. My first project was to clean up the trailer wheels, since they seemed to bother my father and now that he pointed it out, they bothered me too. I had bought a wire wheel brush that could be attached to my grinding wheel and I wanted to see if I could polish up the lug nuts to the trailer as well as the two nuts that hold the spare tire to the bumper bracket. I love to use a wire wheel brush, because the result is immediate and it is fun to strip away years of rust and tarnish. The can of black paint I bought was for the wheels. Eventually, I want to have the wheels painted to match the trailer, but until I decide what that color might be, I’m going to paint them black. I have ordered chrome trim rings, which should be here any day and once I figure out where to get 11” center caps, you really won’t be able to see much of the wheel. I figured for now, they would at least look clean and not bring down the overall appearance of the trailer.

Before with a light sanding, 3 lugs removed for cleaning

I removed each lug nut and polished them on the wheel; I also removed the center grease cap and the wheel brushed off years of gunk, old dirt and grease. I then took a new 3M pad and scrubbed each wheel and whipped them clean. I knew this was not going to be perfect, but for the time being, it would at least make them presentable. After about an hour I had the old tired wheels looking pretty good.

Now that the wheels were looking descent I went to work on the right side of the trailer. I started at the front and worked at removing the scuffed up marks. I worked for about an hour and it started to get dark. With the cloud cover it seemed much darker, earlier than usual. I had cleaned up the front of the trailer including the door and that was going to be it for the night.

After - looks a little better and should make my father happy.

I did one last check on the chickens, even they seemed to think it was getting close to bed time and were heading to the coop. There was one more egg, so it was a two egg day. They all followed me to the pen and with them all accounted for I put them to bed and closed the door to the pen.

I was ready to go in and thought I would spend a little time on the computer trying to find center caps for trailer. The best I could do was find a place called Hub Cap Mikes, who is supposed to be the expert when it comes to hub caps. I’ll have to give him a call on Monday.

That was about all I was up for and I was done for the day.

Day 26, More fun with the Trailer

The morning started off a bit cool with frost again, and this time it actually damaged some of the leaves on the pumpkins. I didn’t think it was going to get that cold last night, or I might have tried to cover some of the plants. Anyhow, it was warming up and I had a full day of cleaning ahead of me. With clear skies it should be a perfect day.

I had two old bananas that I wanted to feed to the chickens before I let them out for the day.  They pretty much devoured the banans and soon they were out running all around the yard, happy as can be.

I spent most of the day souring, buffing and polishing on the trailer. The left side looks pretty good and I worked my way around to the rear of the trailer, starting up high on the roof and working down around the tail lights.

Chickens on the deck

Stopping for lunch, I decided it was time for an egg check and sure enough there was one light brown egg. I made a sandwich and sat on the steps of the back deck. The chickens seemed very interested in what I was eating, so they came up for a look. I tossed them some grapes and they were very pleased. I finished my sandwich and I heard a car door over by the trailer, so I walked around to see who it was. My parents had stopped by. My mom drove the car while my father had gotten out and walked my trash can all the way back from the street (It was garbage day).

They had brought me the newspaper which had an article about chickens they thought I would enjoy reading and they wanted to see the trailer. They were impressed with the progress, and my father thinks I need to spend some time on the wheels and tires, I agree.

Aspen trees that are going to be removed.

I offered them to join me in the last piece of birthday cake, and my father said sure, and my mom said she would just have a bite of his. With cake in hand, we sat on the back deck under the shade of the aspen trees, the same aspen trees which I am going to have removed next week. They are a beautiful tree, but very high maintenance and where planted way to close to the house. The sucker roots send shoots out, up to 70’ away. You can never keep up with pulling the shoots. They are everywhere, including under the deck and in the crawl space under the house.

Just down the road is a tree farm and I asked my parents if they would want to go with me to pick out a few replacement trees and they said sure.  We finished up the cake and got in my truck and we were on our way.  Just out of the driveway, Doug came driving up, so I asked if wanted to come along and he said sure. We dropped his truck off at the house and we all headed off to the tree farm.

The trees were very nice and we immediately found some Autumn Blaze Maples that where 12 to 14’ tall and on sale. We walked around to make sure we were not missing anything and decided that they were the ones I needed, so I bought 5. I paid for them and since I lived so close, there wasn’t going to be a delivery fee and he would help place them; all I need to do is call when I want them.

Side looking pretty good.

With trees bought it was back home for more work on the trailer. My parents didn’t stick around to help, but wished me well and drove off. Doug stayed and helped work on the rear of the trailer. We had to break out the paint stripper, in order to take off more paint on the lower end below the tail lights. After a few hours we had it looking pretty amazing.

Doug was tired and went home and I buffed for a little longer trying to get the back end as shiny as possible before I called it a night.

Back end all cleaned up and looking much better.

It was around 6:45pm and I went to check on the chickens and this time there were two eggs, including a white one. The girls had been productive today.

I finished cleaning up around the trailer and took a few more pictures. It really had been a productive day. I just have the right side of the trailer and the roof to work on next and then the preliminary outside cleaning is pretty much done. Oh, I still have the front window to clean too. That should be interesting.

Anyway, It was a great day.

Day 25 An entire day off to work on the trailer

I started the day off by sleeping in until 7:30am, I’m not sure what it is, but those few extra minutes really make a difference. The first thing I had to do was close up the house, as I had all the windows open and it was extremely smoky from a forest fire that is burning just west of Sister. If the smoke lingered around all day it was not going to be a very nice day to spend any time outside.  Bummer!

Chicken coop and pen.

Next, the chickens deserved a break, since they had spent the entire day in the pen.  I treated them to a full day of foraging throughout the yard and I let them out around 8:30am and they were all too eager to fly the coop. It’s amazing how many of our common expressions come from chickens, which I had never stopped to think about until I owned some.  Cooped up, penned in, birds of a feather, hen pecked, pecking order, are all chicken expression related to their lives. I still haven’t figured out why we might say some someone is “chicken sh*t”??? No eggs by the way, but it's early and I’m optimistic.

I spent the morning doing some odd chores around the house and tinkering with the trailer. I ran a few errands in town, stopping at the bank to depositing a check from my birthday and stopped at Lowes. I needed more steel wool and I bought M3 sanding pads. I thought I would try them and see how they worked. I bought all three levels of coarseness, but figured I would only need the finishing pad.

Front of trailer starting to shine up, note the bondo patches.

When I got home I experimented with the pads. The coarse was too abrasive, the mid grade still a bit much and the finishing pad was just right (I felt a bit like the three bears). I was a bit nervous to scratch up the metal skin too much, not knowing how it would respond. I worked on the front of the trailer where there were some pretty heavy scuffed areas from when they had primed the trailer for painting and applying the bondo patches. I used the finishing pad and sanded directly over the scuffed area. It removed the scuffed spots, but left the metal looking like it was anodized or like stainless steel. I then tried the SOS pads and that brought the shine back.  I then used the Truck Box Polish and that really made a huge difference. Now I just needed to figure out how to do this with the electric buffers, so I didn’t have to do it all by hand.

Starting to shine up the front and working my way back.

I spent the next few hours playing with the process and ultimately I came up with four steps, hand sand, machine sand with finishing pad, buff with SOS and polish with Truck Box Polish. I would then wash with water and lightly running an SOS soap pad over any area where the polish didn’t want to come off and then dry with a towel. Hmm or is this a six step process?

By mid afternoon the smoke had cleared and it was a pretty nice day. The chickens spent the day out in the yard periodically coming up to me at the trailer checki,ng on my progress. The produced two eggs around 3pm and they were both pink. Eldorado has not laid a white egg in two days.

Starting to shine once more.

I spent the day buffing on the trailer and was pretty pleased with my progress and felt that tomorrow I would really be able to get a lot done. By sunset I was splattered from head to toe in gray SOS soap scum and tarnish and it was time to clean up.

The chickens had gone back to the coop. The small chicks have been sleeping in a cat carrier in corner of the pen; it’s been their escape from the larger chickens since they were tiny. The chicks are now large enough and the chickens except them and I thought that it was time for them to start sleeping in the coop. Amongst a flurry of peeps, I hand placed each chick in the lower empty boxes of the coop. The big chickens, all seven of them, bunch together on the top three boxes and seemed uninterested in all the commotion. Within minutes all the peeps and churps were silent and they were all asleep for the night.

I was ready for bed too and I knew after a good long shower and some scrubbing that's exactly where I would be.

Day 24

Pretty much as expected there was no time for the trailer today. The temperature was in the high 90’s which was nice, but the forecast was for a 14 degree drop for Thursday and down to the mid 70’s for the weekend.

As for the chickens it was a two egger day and even the chickens did not get a chance to run free today. By the time I got home from the Music on the Green concert it was 8:15 and the sun was long gone, so they had already gone to bed for the night. I did have an opportunity at lunch to feed them a bunch of grapes left over from the golf tournament that had turned. They seemed to enjoy them and by evening there was nothing but the stems.

21' 1954 Traveleze, These are the same stripes my trail had.

I’ve enjoyed the book Silver Palaces and the more I think about how to paint my trailer, the more I like just the idea of leaving it original with just the dark green stripes. The 1954 Traveleze in the book looks great with just stripes. My only problem is my trailer has some damage to the lower rear and lower front skins. We had talked about repairing with bondo and painting over it, or adding a kick plate. I’ll have to go over my options again with the trailer guy and see what he thinks. Another interesting discovery is that the yellow back splash in the kitchen matches the yellow floor tile found under the sink cabinet, so my idea of painting the trailer yellow might not be so far off the original paint scheme.

Yesterday, the teardrop yellow side marker lights came in the mail, so I have those ready to put on when it comes time to start reassembling the trailer.

I’m looking forward to having Thursday and Friday off. I have a list of chores to get done, so it should be nice long 4 days of puttering with projects. The chickens should enjoy it too, as I will be able to let them all day.

Day 23, Life's to short to live with dirty windows

Today was much warmer than yesterday, but I still think the morning was around 39, with the day warming up to the mid 80’s, which was awesome! The thought of winter coming just makes me shiver.

My day was pretty normal and I came home for lunch around 1:30pm and checked on the chickens, nothing. I looked thoroughly through out the coop and there were no eggs.  My search made me realize that I desperately needed to clean out the coop, and I'm sure by the time I got home tonight, there would be eggs.

The rest of the afternoon went very quickly and before I knew it, it was time to go home. The temperature was absolutely perfect and I was looking forward to working on the trailer. I changed clothes and then checked on the chickens. Nothing! No eggs! What the heck, the old saying of “An egg a day or heads will stray” came to mind; perhaps Amy was right, and I should paint that saying on the inside of the coop for the chickens to look at everyday.  How disappointing to have nothing, after two days in a row of 3 eggs.

42 Packard pulling a trailer, now that
would be fun.

A Rolls Royce pulling a trailer?

For some reason I started thinking about what car I might want to pull the trailer with. Of course the truck is the natural choice, it was designed to tow, with a transmission cooler, trailer brakes and the tow package etc, but for some reason it doesn’t seem all that exciting. There is the 42 Packard 120 convertible, but with its low horse power straight eight it might be a bit much for the poor old girl, but nothing would be more fun. Hmm, or do I need a little more refinement with the hand built elegance and sophistication of a Rolls Royce Silver Spur II. My neighbors from my childhood home had a 1960 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II that they pulled a trailer with. They had the trailer painted to match the silver and black paint scheme, now that's living. Maybe I can recreate that experience. Rolls and Canned Ham, now that sounds like a lunch choice or an hors d'oeuvre . There is always the classic 60’s styling of our family’s 1969 Chevelle Malibu convertible. This car screams Brady Bunch, so maybe it’s too 60’s to pull a 1950 trailer.

What I really need is a 1949 to 1953, Buick, Cadillac, Olds, Pontiac, hum or Hudson or Nash. There really isn’t a car out there I don’t like.

1969 Chevelle pulling the Traveleze

Enough dreaming, I wanted to scrub up the windows a little bit more. I also wanted to scrub on the side of the trailer and see if some of the scuffed areas were going to buff out. I spent probably 40 minutes working on the two windows on the left side of the trailer. They shined up really well and with very little effort. I used some special metal polish that I had and applied the polish sealer, so I’ll see if it works and if it keeps the metal from water spotting and tarnishing again. I really need to figure out how to remove the glass window frames, so I can really scrub all the way around the window. That might be a project for this weekend.

Grimy window frame

Shinny window frame

I worked on the windows until I couldn’t do much more without dismantling them. Now I was ready to work on the side of the trailer. I think when they painted the trailer last, they ruffed up the surface in order to get the paint to stick. I was concerned that this will not buff out and I would be forced to repaint the entire lower half of the trailer. I’m not opposed to painting the lower half, but after seeing just the three stripes on the 1954 Traveleze in the book Silver Palaces, I think that might be the way to go. Anyway I started scrubbing with just an SOS and it did buff away the scuff marks, but it was going to take a lot of effort. I then wondered if I could just place an SOS under the buffer and see if that would work. I got out the buffer and a few SOS pads and placed them under the buffing pad and then pressed it against the trailer. I pushed the on button and gently moved it over the scuffed up panel. After a few minutes I stopped and washed the tarnish off.  I was surprised to see that, it worked!  I think with a good afternoon I will be able to shine up the entire trailer.   This is going to be much quicker than doing it all by hand.

Clean chicken coop, with fresh hay.

It was now around 7:20pm and I really needed to clean the coop and mow the lawn. The coop was pretty bad, but cleaned up quickly and I dumped the chicken poo on the corn and pumpkins, so we shall see if it is good fertilizer or not. I jumped on the mower and in an hour I was done. It was now dark and I had finished mowing using the headlights on the mower.

With a good shower I was done for the day. Tomorrow is Wednesday, which is my workout day with my Mom and the second to the last concert in the park, so it will be after 8pm when I get home tomorrow.  I probably won’t have any time with the trailer, how sad is that.  Luckily I’m taking Thursday and Friday off, so I will have ample time to make up for lost trailer time.

Day 22 A new week has begun

It's a new week and with the workweek not looking to hectic, I scheduled Thursday and Friday off. This will be much needed time away from the office and a great opportunity for me to work on the trailer.

Frost on the roof, August 23, 2010

On the chicken front, I was able to come home for lunch and check on the girls. There was nothing in the nest, but figured I would get something by the time I got home from work and the gym. The day turned out to be beautiful, after a very cool start to the day.  I actually had frost on my roof this morning, but it was now 78.

When I got home from work, around 5:30pm, I checked on the chickens and there were two eggs, one pink and one white. I was a little disappointed not to have three, but I guess even the girls need some time to build up a steady production line. I was now home for the rest of the day, so I opened pen and let them run wild through the yard.

Polished up window frame.

The focus of the trailer for tonight was the waistline trim on the left side. It was fairly clean, but had clear silicone between it and the trailers side and it did not want to come off. Whatever this silicone product was, it was one tough product to get off. I tried paint stripper, Goof Off, the putty knife, steel wool and nothing would loosen its grip from the side of the trailer. Finally I broke out a fine copper wire brush and with Goof Off, it took most of it off. I then had to scrub fast and furious with an SOS pad to get it to come clean. Once that task was complete, I moved to the rear window and started scrubbing with my wire brush and SOS. I opened the window and scrubbed all around the inside of the frame as well. It came clean quick and easily with just my soap pad and wow, for the shine. This is another part of the trailer that it is fun to clean up because the transformation is so quick. Again, this was just a quick scrub.  When it comes times to polishing with Truck Box Polish the window frames should become “mirror like” with little effort.

Hooks need to go!

I spent a little time inside trailer as well, and removed a set of hooks that were mounted just inside the door on a board. They had been bolted on with very large bolts that were randomly drilled into the side of the cabinet behind it. It was nice to get it off the wall and out of the trailer.  You can see on the ceiling above where the hooks were a square patch.  This is directly below a capped off vent in the roof.  I assume, as some point or another, there was a tall gas heater that was vented through the roof at this location.  Today I received a book in the mail called, Silver Palaces and it shows a 1954 Traveleze.  The 54 looks very close to what I have and it shows the tall heater standing just inside the door where I believe mine once had one.  This might be something I have to add to my "quest to find list" and track one down some day.

Hooks gone, patch in ceiling, gas heater vent at one point?

One of the neat discoveries made last week when the guy with the trailer restoration shop was here, was that an old porcelain gas heater was located under the kitchen counter.  I had looked at it earlier, but figured it was bolted in there and I wasn't sure what it was. Last week we pulled it out to see exactly what it was.  It’s a free standing small heater unit that gets plugged into a gas propane line and radiates heat. It’s in phenomenal shape for its age, which has to be from the 50’s or 60’s. It would be fun to see if it can still be used and if it could adequately heat the trailer (there is currently no source of heat for the trailer). If nothing else it is definitely a great conversation piece.

Old porcelain propane gas heater.

The sun sets earlier everyday and the sun had just gone down beyond the mountains when I realized that the chickens had all left the yard and went back to the pen and were already in the coop for the night. I thought I should put out some feed for in the morning and close the door to the pen for the night. I had to take one more look and make sure they were all in the coop. I opened the door there was an egg and all the chickens where on the top bunk. Sometime between 5:30pm and 8:15pm one of them laid an egg. I think 3 eggs a day is the new norm.  I brought the egg back to the house and placed it in the carton with the other eggs.  I almost have a dozen again after eating the 6 on Sunday with Doug and Amy.  At some point I hope I can give a dozen eggs every other day away to friends and family.  Amy says I should sell them and regain some of the expense that I have put out, but it's more fun to give them away.  I do have to chuckle with this recent egg scare going on, having your own chickens and knowing where your eggs are coming from doesn't seem like such a bad idea any more.

The Humphrey Radiant Fire No 14, propane trailer heater.

My arm is healing nicely by the way and still no pain, so as far as wounds go, this was a good one. Paint stripper is bad stuff and as my trainer said today, perhaps I should have worn a long sleeved shirt. Now that would have been a smart idea.

I was all done for the night and it was 8:45pm.

Day 21 Week three comes to a close

The morning started off very brisk and it was as if the seasons were getting ready to make a change. This was a sign that the extreme heat of summer was ending and that fall was just around the corner.

Doug and Amy were coming over around 10:00am for fresh eggs and ham, I had the eggs and they had the ham.  After breakfast we were all going to go to church. When they arrived, we all went out to check the coop and see the chickens. There was a lot of stirring going on, but no eggs. Amy noticed that the Brown Rose Comb, or Eldorado as we call her, was acting very strange and kept heading in to the coop. We figured she was going to lay an egg at any minute and this could mean that I was going to have my first three egg day. We decided we should leave the hens to their egg laying and went about making our breakfast. When we finished breakfast, Amy went out to the coop and came back with one white egg. It was the first white egg and it was from Eldorado, very cool! We put the new egg in the refrigerator with the rest, then piled into my truck and headed off to church.

The Church service was really good.  The choir seemed exceptionally in tune and the songs were particularly appealing. The sermon was delivered by a visiting pastor and before I knew it, the hour was over. We drove back to my home and we all went to check on the chickens and this time there was one LARGE pink egg. I’m not sure which one laid it, but it fits into the "Jumbo" category by supermarket standards. We were excited about the large egg and the white egg from the morning, but it was time to get to work. Doug and Amy drove off and I went to change into my trailer clothes.

As I walk around the house I passed the Box Wood hedge and I realized I had wanted to trim them and the Potentilla hedge around front too. I decided I better do some yard work first, because I didn’t want to have that neglected yard look or any guilt going on from spending too much time with the trailer. It only took me about 30 minutes to trim them up and I was now free to work on the trailer guilt free.

The roof of the trailer all clean.

With the ladder in place I went up to finish the last quarter of the roof. It was cool and pretty windy and the tree branches kept knocking me in the head. I had to tie one branch up and out of the way, so I could continue working without getting clobbered. Within a couple hours I had finished the roof. I continued to work with the paint stripper on the trim and with a brush and putty knife I was pretty successful.  

I spent most of the afternoon on the trailer removing the last bits of silicone and paint.  At one point I stopped to look at a small hole on the roof just above the rear window.  It looked like a nail was coming up through the roof from the inside.  I decided to take a look and see if I could tell what was happening.  On the inside of the trailer there were two screws holding up the ceiling paneling and I was pretty sure the one was in the right spot.  I backed the screw out with a screwdriver and then went up to look.  Sure enough the screw that I had backed away  was no longer visible, just the hole was left.  I could see where the second screw was also pushing up on the outer skin from the inside, but had not yet worked all the way threw.  With one more trip back inside the trailer, I backed the second screw out to prevent it from making a hole too.  At some point in the restoration process I will need to address this issue.

The first three eggs in a day, and one is huge.

I was down to my last SOS soap pads, and I wanted to stop off at the store to get a few more boxes of them and a gallon of milk.  I have two birthday cakes in the kitchens and cake without milk would just be wrong.  I ran my errands and when I got home the chickens were still running about the yard, the two cats were sitting on the porch and the sun would still be up for another hour.  I needed to do a little work on the chicken pen while they were out in the yard and I could check the coop one last time.  I opened the door and there was another egg. It was official,  I now have three hens laying eggs.

As the sun was going down, I decided to play a little bit with the buffer and the Truck Box Polish.  The polish worked great and showed where I still needed to scrub.  I  have not even started scrubbing on the front and rear of the trailer, or the right side.  I also have to hand polish all the windows and around the door.  I have a ton of work to get done before I can really get to use the Truck Box Polish, but it was fun just to see how it might shine up..  

With the sun setting, I cleaned up the mess and went in side.  I took a shower and scrubbed off all the dirt and grime and I noticed a dark mark on my arm.  I took my brush to scrub it off, thinking it was SOS soap scum, but it was actually a blister.  I must have gotten paint stripper on my arm and it burned the skin right off.  My dark forearm has a one inch section of raw white flesh.  I don't know how I didn't feel it, but it didn't hurt, and I hope it stays that way.

It was nice to end the week on a high note.  I had finished cleaning the roof of the trailer and the chickens had laid three eggs in one day. The blister on my arm was just a reminder of no pain no gain.

Day 20 A full day on the trailer

Today started off a little cooler, but still a very nice morning. I was so looking forward to sleeping in until at least 7:30, but my brain had me up at 6:30am. I started thinking about all the work that needed to be done on the trailer, in the house and around the yard, that I thought I had better get moving. I crawled out of bed and tossed in a load of laundry. At least I was getting up on my own, with no alarm clock, I was just awake and ready to get things done.

Saturday morning chores were done; I pulled some weeds and cleaned up in the garage a little. I checked on the chicken around 9:15am and there was already an egg. I let them out to run around and they were all too pleased to be let out so early. They scratched all over the yard, rooting up all kinds of bugs and they seemed particularly interested in digging around under the big blue spruce.

Scrubbing roof heading toward the rear of the trailer.

With the ladders in place I started to work on the roof. I pour big puddles of paint stripper and would cover about one square foot at a time. I’d let it sit for a few minutes and then scrape it over to another section, spread it out and let it sit again, continuing this all over the roof. The roof had been covered with silver roof mastic and the minute the paint stripper hit it, it would turn to black tar.

Cleaning around roof vent.

The roof vent was particular hard hit with roofing tar and some other tan seller that was particularly hard to remove. I ended up covering the seams around the vent with an extra amount of stripper and letting it soak, while I work on another part of the roof. When I came back to work on the vent, most of the tar came off with light scraping and the rest would come off with an SOS soap pad.

I spent a lot of time working on the roofing trim and was able to get the left side of the trailer pretty much cleaned from top to bottom. There is just one small section that I hope to spend a little more time with tomorrow. On the right side of the trailer the trim is covered by an awning rail. When I first saw the trailer 20 days ago, I thought the awning rail would have to be replaced, but now with it all cleaned up I think it is in pretty good shape. I would like to remove the rail and spend some extra time with it.  This will also allow me to clean up the trim underneath. One of the things I am really looking forward to, is ordering an awning and putting it up the first time.  How nice it will be to sit in the shade of a new awning when all the hard working of restoring a trailer is done.

Trim on the left side all cleaned up.

I spent all afternoon working on the roof. I started on the left side of the trailer and work back, toward the rear of the trailer and down the curve. I then switching to the right side of the trailer and did pretty much the same. The right side also has the vent cap, where a gas heater would have vented. This is something I want to investigate and see if I can find what kind of heater it wouls have been and can I find one to put back. It would have to be a very thin and probably tall unit, but it will be fun to investigate and see if I can find one.

Cleaning around the right side of the vent.

Cleaned up for the night.

I worked until about 4:30pm and then went into clean up mode. When I washed the top of the trailer off all the goo, tar chunks and paint stripper residue (I removed most the stripper with the putty knife and put in on newspaper to toss away) would run down over the trailer. This left stains and a mess all over the sides, so I gave the entire trailer a quick wash over with an SOS pad and cleaned everything up. The trailer is really starting to look good.

One thing I have noticed, now that the trailer is starting to get all polished up, is that you can now see that this trailer has gone through some hail storms. Hail dimples are all over the trailer. I think they actually give it character.  Its been said that a  trailers worst enemy is a hail storm and this trailer  has seen a few in its 60 years.

It took me a little more than an hour to clean up, wash and dry the trailer. I had friends coming at 6pm, for more birthday celebrating (I like a Birthdays that last for days) and it was now 5:45pm. I was covered in trailer grime and needed to get cleaned up myself.

I took one final picture of the trailer and wow, does it look better.  With one more day I should be able to have all the heavy scrubbing done and then I can work with the Truck Box Polish and shine it up to a high shine.  Oe thing for sure is I'll need to seal it so it doesn't water spot, otherwise all that hard work will be for nothing.

It was a fun day with the trailer and I was pleased with the progress.

Day 19 Golfing and Trailer

Today was our Golf Tournament, so I was up and out the door by 5:45am. My office had all agreed to meet at 6am in order to be ready for the 7am check in. Everything worked like clockwork and the tournament was a huge success. By 2:30pm the tournament was over, the trophy’s and prizes handed out and we had almost everything packed up. By 3:30pm, we were back at the office and had unloaded everything, counted cash, checked emails and managed any issues that needed to be dealt with.  We were closing early after an already long day and I was on my way to Lowes.

Diamond Brite, Truck Box Polish

Lowes was my first stop on my way home. I wanted to find that metal box polish. I couldn’t remember the name, but I knew where to look.  I found it right away, duh, it’s called “Truck Box Polish”. They had several bottles and I figured I would buy 3 to start and either come buy more, or return one. The bottles were small and the product seemed very watery.  It had separated into two parts a heavier white part and what looked like water on top. With a good shake it blended together, but quickly separated again. I started to wonder, how good could this stuff really be? Now I really wanted to get home and work on the trailer.

Reflection after uing Truck Box Polish!

With a quick stop at Starbucks to return coffee containers from the tournament, I was home in no time. I grabbed a bite to eat, let the chickens out, gathered the two eggs, changed into my trailer shorts (torn at the cuff with a few splatters of paint) and I was ready to try out Truck Box Polish.

I squirted a little polish on the buffer and buffed a spot for a several minutes. The black tarnish immediately started to form and I could see my reflection emerge. I stopped and got a bucket of Orvis soapy water and a rag to wash off the blackened tarnish. I was really impressed and could tell this product was really going to shine up the trailer.  I just need to remove all the heavy grime, paint residue and tar stains off first.

Scrubbing with Goof Off and ready to use an SOS soap pad.

What I really needed to be doing was scrubbing the roof and getting all the above mentioned grime off. I grabbed my steel wool and the gallon of Goof Off and climbed up the ladder and started scrubbing. The Goof Off cut the tar stains immediately and with a little elbow grease I was able to scrub off a nice section of the roof. I then had to switch to an SOS soap pad to cut the Goof Off and tar. This left me with a nice section of metal, but it still has a paint-like primer feel to it, which comes off with the soap pad and a lot of scrubbing. Within an hour I had a good section done.

Clean roof just needs a little scrubbing to shine up.

By far the most time consuming part is cleaning the riveted trim, which still has sections with paint, silicone and grime incrusted on it. It all comes clean; you just have to scrape around all the rivets, use paint stripper, steel wool and the edge of a putty knife to get it done. With time and effort the trim comes clean and looks amazing and it’s actually quite gratifying to set your mind on a cleaning a section and watching the shine reemerge.

Oh, how sad does that sound? I enjoyed spending my Friday night alone make metal shine.

It was starting to get dark and I was really getting tired, so I started to clean up.  I was very excited for tomorrow and finishing up the roof and trim, at least that would be my goal.  I still have more work on the front and rear of the trailer as well as the entire right side.  There is plenty to do and I'm in no hurry.

I forgot to mention yesterday, that on my birthday the title to the trailer arrived; what a nice Birthday gift.

Bergman tail light with lic

With the light and my energy level fading, I still had trailer on my brain, so I decided to go online and see if I could find tail lights for the trailer.  When I was removing them, the center light was starting to crumble and it had little chance of being saved.  It was so badly faded and when I removed it and set it down, it just came apart.  I googled vintage trailer parts and found several sites and after looking at couple I found VintageCampers.com.  Among their selection of tail lights was a Bargman tail ligh with license plate lens, they only had one, so I bought it.   The one I had on the trailer was what they call a wedding cake style with two tiers.  This one only has one tier but it would matches the two outer tail lights.  I found the two tier wedding cake style on another site, but the bolt pattern doesn't match up, so I thought I would buy this for now and keep my eyes open.  Now, I just need to find the two outer tail lights so they will look new and fresh. If I can't them I can work with what I have until I can find them and in the morning I can call Vintage Campers and see if they might know where I can find them.
  
So, dispite spending my Friday night alone make metal trim shine, I had a great day.  Spending a little time with the trailer is great therapy.

Day 18, Another year older

50's hunting, fishing thermos

August 19 and today I turn 45! It’s amazing how fast time is flying by and when I bought the Traveleze, I thought this will be my birthday gift to myself. This has been an exceptional day from start to finish. I actually opened my first gift yesterday from my brother and sister-in-law in Portland. My brother was going to be gone on my birthday and they want to know what my reaction was I opened it. When I opened the box, I found the neatest 1950's thermos I have ever seen! Im serious on the cool scale, this is it, it is absolutely perfect!  It even still has the original label on it and it's going to look awesome in the trailer.

My day started off with a phone call to the guy in Bend to see if I could catch him on his visit to Redmond. I dialed the number and he said hello Eric, so he knew it was me. He was very interested in coming by and looking at the trailer and would be here in 45 minutes which would give me an excuse to be a little late to work today. He arrived right on time and took a good look at the trailer and was very enthusiastic about what he saw.  He said I had a very good trailer, which made me feel great and a little reasuring that I wasn’t totally delusional. I thought I Had a good trailer but what do I know.  He gave me all kinds of good advice and recommended that we keep all the skin intact and not take it apart. I really want to enlist his services and I am sure he will be helping bring this 1950 trailer back to life and back on the road. He was going to go back to his place a work and think about it and what to do. I told him I would like to be on his work schedule, which is out to October. This works for me as it will give me time to find parts on ebay, like the tail ligths etc.  As for now, he said keep cleaning and polishing, he told me what to use and what not to do. His polishing recommendation is a product used on diamond plate truck boxes. I forget the name of it, but it’s “box…” something, and you get it at Lowe's, so I will be stopping there tomorrow afternoon.

One of our birthday traditions in the office is to buy breakfast, so that’s how we started the day. I think everyone appreciated the extra energy. My office then gave an amazing gift and one that I think is so creative and thoughtful. They bought me an old wire egg basket and then created a personal egg carton label for me, from “Coup De Ville Farms”. It is so hilarious it is awesome beyond words. It has all kinds of great saying on it like, "100% Resort Raised", (who needs free range, these birds are spoiled). Anyhow, it is a very thoughtful gift. All my gifts were thoughtful and very unique, including a killer vintage flashlight, which will look fantastic in the trailer, homemade rice crispy treats (who doesn't love those), my very own buffer and a Pendleton sweater that I saw way back in March!

I had a wonderful day and then I did one of my favorite things of all, I had dinner at my folks place.  Ddinner was served on the patio, with, New York steak from the barbecue, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and a salad. For my birthday cake, my Mom made me my grandmother’s recipe for Apple Spice Cake, with nearly inch thick brown sugar frosting. You have to make it several days ahead of time and let it age.  My Mom even made the apple sauce from scratch (I love my mom!).

It truly is a special feeling, when you know you are loved. Beyond the gifts, just the number of people who wished me a Happy Birthday, who sent me notes via card, text messages, emailed or Facebooked me, it was overwhelming. I feel so very blessed to have such good friends and a wonderful family.

Today was the best birthday ever!

Day 17 Another Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day on the high desert and the temperature was in the high 80’s, which is idea for me. I like having warm summer days, that way you know you have had summer when fall comes around.

This morning I had a meeting in Bend, so on my drive in I had some time make a few phone calls about the trailer. I was eager to hear what the gentleman in Bend thought of the pictures I had sent and if he thought he could help. I have been a little reluctant to dive in and start taking the trailer appart until I had someone who knows what they are doing look at it.  I don't want to do anything that will harm the trailer, or waste a ton of my time in the process (unless I’m having fun).

The rounded egg layer

After my meeting I was able to come for lunch and enjoy a sandwich on the deck. I did my chicken recon, gave them some cracked corn and took a pointy egg from the nesting box, the Cornish was now starting to out lay the Wyandotte. On my walk back to the house, I took a good look at the lawn realize that tonight I had to mow! That fertilizer I put down weeks ago is really working well, too well.

The rest of the day went well, and my trainer cancelled my workout for the evening, so that freed up and extra 2 hours if I counted the drive time and hour workout. As soon as 5 o’clock rolled around I was out the door, but first needed to stop off at Tracy’s to reprogram her Rain Bird lawn timer. Talk about rocket science, geesh, we had to download the instructions from the internet to figure it out and now only time will tell if we did it right. Tracy should know by 5:30am tomorrow morning if the sprinklers come on. Tracy also had  made homemade banana ice cream over the weekend, so I was offered a dish and I’m not one to say no.

Almost done polishing above the windows, what a differance.

I was home by 5:45pm and did my usual quick change into shorts, let the chickens out, gathered a rounded egg from the nesting box, fed the cats and then realized that a lot of the corn in the garden had blown over in yesterdays little wind storm. I spent a little over a half hour staking up the corn and using twine to hold it upright so it could withstand stronger winds. I am not about to let a little wind keep me from enjoying corn this summer. I’m not sure if my Iowa farming Uncles would approve of my corn propping and tying up methods, but I know they works, because I did the same thing last year when the corn blew over.

Metal above ther front windows polished and looking pretty good.

It was now almost 7pm and I still wanted to work on the trailer, so I got out my ladders and SOS and scrubbed for about 45 minutes.  I was able to shine up most of the front roof above the windows and thought that it is really starting to look pretty good. I knew I had to mow the lawn before it got too dark, so I cleaned up my mess and had to settle for just a few minutes of trailer time today.  Oh well, I guess every little bit  helps.

I mowed the lawn in a little less than 48 minutes and luckily my John Deere has headlights, because it was dark as I finished mowing the last few sections of lawn. I emptied the double bags twice, so it had needed to be mowed.  I put some of the lawn clippings into the chicken pen for them chickens to eat, and I then dumped the rest out back for the horses. I have to scatter the lawn clippings out very thin, so the horses can’t gulp it down and plug themselves up, but boy, do they love to hear the mower coming.

With the lawn done it was time to clean up, I took my shower to get the lawn dust and grime off me and I then fired up the computer to check emails. I was very excited to see that I had an email from the trailer guy in Bend. He was very confident in being able to help me as he does this kind of work all the time. He really liked the trailers shape and is interested to know what I want to do with it. The most exciting part is that tomorrow he is coming to Redmond to look at a trailer that has to be  very close to where I live. I fired off an email and hope he reads it before he comes to town, as I would love to show him the trailer and get his thoughts (I will call first thing and see if I can catch him before he leaves).

It was another beautiful day.