Day 84, Sunday and the first big storm of fall.

The rain poured all night long and when I woke up around 7am the wind was howling and the rain was coming down in buckets.   It was a great morning to stay under the warm comfortable covers of my bed.

By 8am, the winds had let up and the rain was down to a light sprinkle.  The leaves from the maples, locus, pear, apple, lilacs and birch covered my yard.  Even the Ponderous Pines contributed to the mess shedding what I would later find out would be a wheel barrow full.   The yard was pretty much a soaking wet mess, but it looked like fall and I was in the mood for the fall like weather.



Wet trailer and chickens

My thoughts did turn to the trailer and I wondered if it was leaking.  With all the wind it could easily blow the water back up under the seams, since they are longer covered in gallons of roof tar.  I planed to check it out after I got back from church.

The Pastor at church was on fire today and very entertaining as usual.  He commented on the weather and said it was "raining cats and dogs", I so wanted to scream out "be sure not to step in the Poodles" but I kept my composure.  Today's sermon was all about thinking before we speak and to choose our words wisely, for they can be very powerful and do great good or harm. 

After church I ran to the store to pick up some needed items like light bulbs.  I don't know if you have noticed, but light bulbs are getting fewer and harder to find.  Everything is switching over to low energy florescent, but I hate them.  I'm stock piling bulbs, especially the kind that I use in the bathroom.  All of my lights are on dimmer switches and florescent don't work with dimmers.  Anyway, light bulbs were on sale and I needed a special bulb for my closet.  I do use florescent around the house where I don't spend a lot of time like in the garage and in all the porch lights.



The 1950 Traveleze safe and dry behind the shop.

When I got home, I changed into old jeans and a ratty sweatshirt.  I was now ready to start wintering the house, but first I wanted to check on the trailer.  I haven't been inside the trailer for long time, at first glance everything looked pretty good, but I did find a puddle (or is that Poodle) on the window ledge by the front windows.  Everything else in the trailer seemed dry, but it was obvious I needed to move the trailer under cover.  The carport behind the shop was open and I figured it would fit if I could get back there.   I was pretty sure the truck could not maneuver it back there, there just isn't enough room.  My brother had his quad down here under a cover, but it has an electrical problem and wasn't operational.  I then thought my John Deere mower could probably do it.  I removed the bags and there was spot to put a ball, so I ran to "Big R" to get one (I have 2 on stingers for my truck, but I didn't want to remove them).  Once back home I attached the ball,  backed the mower to the trailer, lowered the hitch and I was set.  It pulled it with no problems, my only issue was I couldn't see where I was going.  I had to guess, back up, stop and look, back up stop and look, and I back it all the way behind the shop.  It really worked very well and within 15 minutes I had the Traveleze safely under cover.

I will make one last attempt at trying to call the two shops that said they would work on it and if I don't get a response I'm hauling it to Prineville.   I have actually received a called by the owner saying bring it over.  Prineville is just a little further away, but not by much, so that might be my best shot at getting it restored this winter.

The empty driveway.

The rest of my winterizing chores included putting the patio furniture away and putting the foundation vent plugs in.  In order to get everything in the shop, I had to clean it up first.  All of the trailer cleaning materials needed to be put away and all the parts that I removed from the trailer needed to be stored inside the trailer, so I don't lose them.  Once the shope was cleaned up I could put stuff away.  I washed cleaned and put the John Deere in the shop behind where the truck parks.  The Mercedes has been in the trucks spot all summer, so I moved it back in the garage at the house, next to the Packard.  



Once the car shuffling was completed I really needed to clean the chicken coop.  Chickens are pooping machines and there was a mountain of it.  With that nasty task complete I raked up a huge wheel barrow full of needles, just as the next big storm started blowing in.  It was starting to get dark and the rain had just started to come down as I finished up my outside chores.  The driveway looked empty without the trailer, but everything was put away and dry.

The last thing I had to do was close the chickens in the pen for the night.  It was starting to get dark so most of them were already in the coop.  With a little coaxing I had all 11 in and I was really getting wet, so it was time to call it a day.

It's hard to believe I have had the trailer 12 weeks.