Day 7, and the end of the first week.

The smallest of the chickens called Tiny Tim

Today is Sunday and it now has been one full week owning the Traveleze.  I felt really good about the progress we made yesterday on peeling back the roof tar.  I estimate we removed about a 1/3 of what was up there.  Today there are two full seams across the trailer, another entire side, plus a roof vent, but I am optimistic because both Amy and Doug are going to help today.

First things first however, I had to run and check on the chickens.  They are always eager to be fed and let out in the yard, but all I really wanted to know was did they lay an egg.  I opened the coop doors and the answer was no, no egg yet anyway.  I filled the food bowls, changed the water for the chicks and sat in the chicken pen for a while.  The small chicks like attention, so with a handful of cracked corn I gave each one a little quality time.  Since there were no eggs, I left them in the pen until it was closer to noon.  I've been told that most chickens lay eggs in mid to late morning, so it's best to leave them in the pen, so they can lay in the coop and not in the yard.

Doug scraping away!

I texted Amy the news about the lack of an egg and she said we could check later, which I had planned on doing.  I was eager to get started on the trailer, but new that I could only get a brief start, as Doug and Amy were going to come over around 10:15 and we where all going to go to church at 11 (surely by then we would have an egg). I did some light scraping on the trailer and then got cleaned up and ready for church.  Doug and Amy arrived, but still no egg, off to church we went.

Church was excellent and now I was really ready to get to work. Again, first I checked on the chickens, nothing , so I opened the door and let them have the run of the yard. We got right to it, Doug scraped and Amy worked with solvent to remove the

Amy scrubbing. Trailer restoration is hard work.

remaining tar stains from around the back seam, that we had stripped the day before.  Doug attacked a sample section, where we had poured solvent on a large section of tar and let sit over night. It worked, but it made a large gooey mess.  I think we both agreed it was easier to scrape when it is dry.  It was a long day of chiseling, but we really made progress.  Amy did a great job removing the tar residue , but she burned her leg accidentally by getting paint stripper on herself, ouch not fun.  Doug and I were perched on top of our ladders all after noon and it took an enormous amount of energy to continuously scrape and chip away at the tar.  It was now around 3:30  and we stopped for a break and water. 

The egg layer

It was about this time we heard one of the chickens singing away in the chicken pen. All of the other chickens were out in the yard rooting up bugs and eating plants.  To have one chicken in the pen by herself was a pretty good indication that something was up, or in this case out. Amy went to look and sure enough we had our 3rd egg.  The egg laying chicken was the black and white, Silver Penciled Wyandotte.  These small pink eggs are tiny and would take a dozen to make one  average size omelet, but it's still fun to get them. 

The last seam to go.

At 5pm we had a party/barbecue that we were invited to, so we stopped to get cleaned up.  I think I almost killed Doug, it was really hard on the ol' body to be on top of a ladder for several hours straight.  I know my shoulders and back were getting extremely tired and sore.  Still, I hated to quit, because there was still nearly an entire seam and about 4' on the top side to do, before all the tar was removed. I figured there would still be time when I got back and I planned on doing as much as I could before it got dark.

All the tar has been scraped off, but there is still a mess.

I was back form the party around 6:45pm and by 7pm I was back on the ladder by myself scraping away.  By 8pm I had finished the last seam and all I had to do next was the top side just above the door that was about 4' long.  At 8:45pm I was done.  WOW, what a feeling of accomplishment.  I never thought we would be able to get all the roof done this weekend, but we made it thanks to my good friends. I took a picture and sent it to Doug and Amy and they were amazed.  I had huge piles of chipped up tar everywhere, so I got a large piece of plastic and put it under the trailer at the front end and then swept the trailer roof off, catching all the debris on the plastic.  Again, I took a picture with my cell phone and texted it to Doug and Amy.

All the tar mess cleaned up, just need to scrub next.

It took me about a half hour to clean up the mess around the trailer and when I was all done picking up, I hosed the trailer off and surprisingly no leaks.

Tomorrow is the start of another week and the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) will be in town. I will be working an information booth Tuesday-Saturday and I will be sure to make some time to view the coaches and hopefully they might even have vintage trailers on display like they did in Albuquerque back in March.  I told Amy that FMCA will be displaying one of the dresses that Lucile Ball wore in the movie, The Long Long Trailer.  How ironic is that, that we would be working on vintage trailer and to have Lucy's dress from the 1953 move be in town.  Amy can't wait to see it.  I'd rather see the New Moon trailer, but still it's kind of cool. 

It was a long day and I was amazed to have been able to accomplish so much.  I never thought we could remove all the tar from the roof in one weekend.  What a super day, spent with great friends, awesome weather and a pretty nifty trailer.