Day 309, The Traveleze is off to be restored



The 1950 Traveleze pulled out from behind the shed ready to hauled off
for a complete restoration by Flyte Camp Vintage Trailer Restoration.

At around 3 o'clock today Justin and his team arrived at my house to pick up the Traveleze and take it to the shop to begin the restoration.  Justin and I sat down and talked about our vision for the trailer and what I could expect in the process.  I want the trailer to be showroom new, or better, so we are talking a total rebuild and the replacing of most, if not all, of the outer skin.  All of the interior is going to be replaced and any cabinetry that can be saved will be refinished.  He is going to replace all the insulation, wiring, paneling and flooring.  We will replace the appliances with original and put back in the heater that was removed. All of the windows will be removed cleaned, repaired or replaced and re-installed.  When all is said and done it will be like new or better. 

Justin has several other trailers to work on, so this project will probably take the majority of the summer and I'm wondering if it might be ready by August 2, the one anniversary of when I bought it trailed it home.

With the trailer hooked up and the guys having finished wiring up the temporary lights, they were ready to haul the trailer off to their shop.  I gave Justin and his brother Jeff each a dozen eggs from the chicken, and I showed Scott the 1969 Chevelle Malibu convertible. 

Next step for the Traveleze is to be dismantled and inventoried.  Once they know what they need to do they can order material and parts and start the restoration process.  Justin said I can come by anytime and take pictures, so I plan on it, but also don't want to be a pain in the butt - but I want lots of pictures.

Day 308, The Traveleze is getting closer

Today I got a call from Justin, saying that tomorrow he will come get the Traveleze and get the restoration started.  I will need to pay a third of the bid to start the process and I'm ready to write the check.  The time it will take to restore the trailer is estimated at about a month, so by July the trailer should be ready to go.

In the 10 months that I have owned the trailer, I was able to clean the trailer up, remove the old paint and gallons of roof tar.  It didn't take me long to determine the trailer needed more help then I was capable of doing but I also determined that it was worth fixing.  The shape of the trailer is appealing and it represents a unique period in the evolution of the trailer industry.  There has been a lot updating and modification done to the trailer over the last 61 years and my goal is to return it to as close to original as possible.

Justin has located another Traveleze in Washington that is severely deteriorated and has all the parts that my trailer will need to bring it back to life.  I would figure he will be making a trip to Washington to pick up the donor trailer and hauling it back to Bend.

At this point the trailer will be completely broken down piece by piece and then put back together, removing any rot, replacing windows and replacing interior cabinets and paneling.

I'm excited to see how this goes and to document the restoration process over the next month.

Day 307, Sunday



The four garden beds are ready for planting.



Today started off pretty nice but clouded over with a high layer of clouds.  The temperature was pretty warm and was in the mid 60's by early morning.  I had lots more yard work to do, so I decided to go to the early church service and be done by 9:30am, so I could get started on my yard work.



I needed to plant the garden, get the seeds started in the potting shed (a month late) and fertilize the lawn.    I also thought that since it is June it's time to get the patio furniture out.  I go the 9 chairs out and uncovered the tables but I needed some help to get them to the deck.  My father came over to help me around noon and it was nice to have them out and to have the space available in the shop again.  I guess this must be official, summer is coming...?



The "Before" shot of the 1950 Traveleze, August 2, 2010.



It turned out to be a nice Sunday, even if the sun didn't shine and I got a lot of work done including planting the squash, tomatoes, zucchini and the corn.  I have the pumpkins started in the shed and will plant them once when they have sprouted and the danger of frost is long past.  I plant four kinds of pumpkins which get planted in the orchard and pretty much takeover the entire area.  I also plant a wide selection of squashes and gourds, which come in all sizes and shapes. Next weekend I'll plant the lettuce, peas, beans, carrots and onions.  It was time to get cleaned up and go to dinner.

For dinner I went to my parents for the first barbecue of the season and hamburgers.  They really hit the spot and it was a nice way to end the weekend.



The way it looks today, before going in for restoration, 6-5-2011.



While at my folks, I got a text from Justin, of Flyte Camp Vintage Trailer Restoration; he is going to call me this week to set up a time to come get the Traveleze and start its restoration.  I can't wait, to see what he does it with and to see just what it looks like once he takes it all apart.   It will be fun to report on it's progress and to see the transformation.  It's hard to believe that I'm two months short of a year, from when I bought the Traveleze and towed her  home.  The trailer has come a long way, but the real work is just beginning.



 It was a great weekend.

Day 306, A beautiful Saturday

I woke up at 7:15am and laid in bed for 30 minutes, it was awesome!  My headache was gone and I felt like I was back in the correct timezone.

Bringing home 5 Bradford Pear trees



The sun was shining brightly and the forecast was for sun and temps in the 70's.  I felt refreshed and was ready to go.  I ate a little breakfast and by 8am I started working in the yard, pulling weeds and getting the garden ready for planting.  I also mowed the lawn, cleaned up the gravel paths and pruned trees.  Around 3pm, I ran  into Costco to buy some trees that they had on sale and to pick up some lawn fertilizer.  I also ended up getting some flowers for the entry and few tomato and squash plants for the garden. 

When I got to Costco, I was surprised to see the price had been reduced and the trees almost gone.  I was lucky I got there when I did, as there were only 8 trees left and I took 5 of them.  The trees are close to 9' tall and should do well in this area.  When I got home it took me about 2 hours to plant the trees and they looked great; now if I can just keep the deer away from them.



Rocks placed where the chickens liked to dig and make a
mess on the front walk.



I spent the entire day working in the yard and I was very pleased with the results.  Being gone for nearly 2 weeks I had felt like the yard had almost gotten ahead of me, but now I felt like it was back under control.

I had let the chickens out all day and they keep making a mess in the bark-dust along the front steps, scratching in the dirt and tossing it onto the patio and steps.  To fix this ongoing problem, I laid some flat lava rocks where they dig.  This should take care of the problem and hopefully I won't have to clean up after them, at least in this area.

It was a beautiful day!

Day 305, It's Friday!

Even though I only worked 3 days, I had never been so glad to see Friday roll around.  I have  had a dull headache since my return, which I know is bit of jet lag and lack of good sleep.  I am looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday and just letting my system get back to normal.

The work day was fine, with the usual work load and nothing too dramatic.  I came home at noon and let the chickens out and was back to work after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

At 5 o'clock I had an evening get together, which was  a lot of fun.  It was a pot luck, so I brought desert and a meat, cheese and cracker tray.   The event was lots of fun, but that dull headache was calling "time out" at 7pm, so I headed home to call it a week.

I was in bed by 10, and it felt wonderful!  I know how dull, a Friday night and in bed by 10, but I didn't care, I needed the sleep.

Day 304, Tursday and back at work

I'm at work and back in the routine, but I have a bad case of wanderlust.  I often wonder if vacations are a good thing or bad, because I always spend months daydreaming about other locations.

The day went pretty quick and I ran home at lunch to let the chickens out.  They had already laid 6 eggs and they were thrilled to be out in the yard.

After work I had the monthly Sons of Norway Board meeting meeting and my head was starting to hurt from jet lag and lack of sleep.  I just wanted to home and take a nap after work, but I went to the meeting and left immediately after the Board meeting and skipped the social.

I got home, closed up the chickens and went inside.  I had hoped to just lay down a bit, but started to do chores instead.  I did manage to get to bed by 10pm.

Day 303, Wednesday and back to work

I got up as scheduled and made it to work at 8am.  My head had the dull ache in the center, part jet lag, part lack of sleep and part ringing in my ears from the noise of jet.  I managed to keep up all day and I sorted through 303 emails, 10 days of newspapers and several phone message.  Yes, I was back to work and dreaming of exploring castle ruins.

At 4pm I left work to go workout and start that routine again as well.  I had manage to workout 3 times in Ireland once in Dublin and twice in Killarney.  I needed to get back at it, after eating all those fish and chips and sitting in a car driving around the Irish country side.

The workout was hard and could tell I was seriously out of shape.  It was also partly that all I had to eat was pear, an apple and 4 crackers with cheese, seriously not enough to keep me going.

I had dinner with my folks and was home by 9pm and in bed by 10pm.  I miss Ireland and want to go back.

As for my chickens, they had been laying anywhere from 4 to 6 a day.  Today's take was 6, so my egg supply is starting to build up.