Day 64, Monday

The day can only be described as hectic.  I made three trips to Bend, one in the morning to pick up our newsletter, one at noon for a meeting and one for my workout.  After working out I stopped off and looked at the new Dodge pickups.  They are one sweet ride, but for now I think I will keep my King Ranch.



Driving home

 After a stop at Costco I was on my way home.  It was a beautiful drive and the sun was now starting to set and it was only 6:30.  I needed to run home and the let the chickens out.  The poor birds had been cooped up all day.  That still cracks me up to say that.

I was not going to have anytime to work on the trailer and the weather had shifted to definite fall like temperatures, with a cool breeze a warning for sever frost in the morning.

Tonight was going to be perfect watching some TV and getting my reading done.

Day 63, Still no time for the Traveleze.



The pumpkins have all turned orange.



Sunday was a little cooler and I woke up to overcast skies.  I had a horrible night sleep as my gray cat Scrappy (the cat on medication) was obviously feeling better and he'd been out hunting all night.  He bought everyone of his catches home to loudly meow his victory just outside my open window.  I had to praised him for his victory to get him to stop and then he would crunch the little victim in celebratory feast.  I don't know if you have ever heard a cat eat a gopher or a mouse, but it's just like crunching a bag of potatochips.  It's hard to be angry at a cat for being a good hunter, but at 3am, 4am, 5am ya just want to duct tape the little guys mouth shut.







Pears



Sunday morning was a scheduled birthday breakfast for my Sister-in-law, at my parents house.  I was a few pages short in my, 12 pages a day to Read The Bible in 90 Days, so spent a few quiet moments finishing Saturdays reading.  The rest of the morning would be breakfast with family and then off to church.  The afternoon would be spent winterizing the chicken coop.



After church, I stopped off at Lowe's and bought a 12' x 10' tarp and a 4' x 8' 1.5" sheet of rigid insulation, to line the chicken coop with.  I had wanted to buy that curvy paneling that is clear to put on the roof of the pen, but it turned out to be $32 for a single 2' x 12' sheet and I would need at least 6 sheets.  I wasn't even going to do the math, a good tarp would do just fine.





Inside the coop, looking out the
chicken's door



I got home and let the chickens out and I was all ready to start working on the coop, but the hens were lined up to lay eggs and I didn't want to disturb them.  I was able to install the tarp, which took about 10 minutes and then I killed some time in the garden. I snapped a bunch of pictures of the pumpkins to send to my niece and nephew, who had helped plant the garden in the spring.  The pumpkins were now orange, the apples were starting to fall, the pears were large and the corn was finally ready to eat (nearly a month and half behind schedule).





Leaves of the Honey Locust starting to turn and fall.



After waiting about an hour, I had 5 eggs for the day and the hens were now all out in the yard.  It was now my chance to insulate the coop.  Using just a small keyhole saw I measured and then cut each piece to fit.  Within an hour I had pretty much finished the insulation and out of the 4' x 8' sheet, I had about 2 square feet of pieces left.  I remade the nesting boxes and put in a roosting bar, lined the coop with newspaper, put in the nesting boxes in and lined them with fresh grass hay.  The hens should now be ready for winter.  I still need to install a heat lamp for the coldest of winter days, but for the most part they should be ready to go.



Sun setting over my parents 40 acres at the end of my driveway



Again, I didn't spend any time with the trailer.  The leaves of the Honey Locust that had protected it from the hot August heat have started to turn gold and are starting to fall.  I will either be shipping trailer off to have it worked on, or I will need to park it inside the shop.  Either way it will need to be moved before the winter snow start to fall.

Despite the day being a little cooler, with a high in 70's, it was another beautiful day.  The only sad part of the day was my friend Ann in Oklahoma had returned home after attending the Texas - OU game to find out that a hawk had squeezed through the 4" x 4" wire covering over her chicken pen and had killed 4 of her chickens.  She had to run to Lowe's to buy chicken wire to cover the roof, so the hawk did not return.  She is now down to 3 laying hens.



Day 62, Saturday and working the 40 acres

Saturday was a continuation of the same beautiful weather that we have had all week.  I woke up nice and slow and watched the quail jump out the spruce to start their day.  Quail make the neatest sound and I swear they are saying "look right there, look right there" as if they are warning each other of danger.  Danger in this case would be named Harris, as in my cat, who makes it a habit to sit and wait for any misguided quail, who forgot to "look right there".  The sun was just coming up and the lawn was fresh with dew.

I got up and did my usual weekend chores and of course let the chickens out.  They were thrilled to be out so early.



Old fence line needing to come out.

My parents have just acquired the 40 acres across the street from me last week and my father wanted to close up some of the holes in the fencing and re-mark the corner pins with large metal stakes.  There was also an old fence line that needed to be removed and if I could get the metal post out of the ground, they would be perfect for marking the corners.  In all there were about 18 fence post and I was able to get all of them out, except for one.  I also had to cut loose 5 rows of barbed wire that ran about 300'.  My father was going to come over and help mark the corners, and if I wasn't able to get the post out, he was going to run into town to buy new ones.  I told him I had been successful and would go to my office to get the fence post driver to set the new posts and I needed to stop by the Vets.

Last week I had taken my 15 year old gray cat to the Vet to see why he was losing so much weight.  At his peak he was 20 lbs and now he is 9 lbs.  The Vet ran some test and it turned out he has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, great!  Anyway, I needed to stop and pick up his medication and we shall see if really is the problem and if we can beef him back up.  If not I'm going kitten shopping!

With the fence post driver and medication in hand my errands were done and my Dad and I could set the new corner post.  We walked the entire property which is almost exactly 1 mile.  The temperature was around 90, so by the time we got done, we were parched.  We also rolled up 5 nice roles of old barbed wire.  When that was done we wanted to post a sign on the gate that we  had closed and instead of walking we took my Dads car.  There is something somewhat amusing about driving a Cadillac through a dried up field and when we were done, the car was covered in dirt.  We quickly washed and cleaned the car at my house, so Dad could drive it home without getting in trouble.

I didn't spend anytime with the trailer today.  After working on the 40 acres and washing the car, I still needed to mow my lawn and clean out the chicken coop.  After that was done my folks were going to take me out to dinner, and again, food is a great way to reward hard work at the end of the day.

It was a beautiful day and I was exhausted.

Day 61, Friday!

We have been blessed with spectacular weather all week and today was exceptionally beautiful.  I got to work at 8am and I already had a message on my phone.  It was from someone I honestly think is one of the Top 10 people on the planet.  His sense of humor and creative talents are match second to none.  My entire office lights up when he comes in to see us and it was a great way to start the day no matter what he had to say.

His message to me was that he had spotted a vintage "canned  ham" trailer that he thought I needed to look at.  He said it belongs back on the road and perhaps I was the one it needed to help it get there.  I took note of the street it was on and I planned to drive by on my way home from work.

At noon I had time to run  home to let the chickens out and as I pulled out of the parking lot I ran into Doug, not litterly, but he was on the sidewalk.  He had just walked from his new house, several miles away to downtown.  He had the horrible miss-fortune of borrowing his Sister-in-laws truck and hitting a large bird that broke the mirror off and then hitting a deer, causing the truck to be out of commission for 10 days while it gets repaired.  I had offered to let him use my truck to pull his trailer to the house, as long as he promised not to hit anything.  He road with me back to my house on my lunch break and would take my truck for the rest of the day.

I let my chickens out and gathered two eggs.  I figured the chickens needed some extra time out in the yard and would be back at 5pm to keep an eye on them.  I ate lunch, tossed the chickens some more freezer bread and went back to work.  This time I drove I drove the Packard.



A 1950's Shasta Trailer.  I'm not sure what year it is...?

At 5pm I fired up the old Packard and went to take a look at the old canned ham that my friend, Lee, had told me about.  It wasn't hard to find and sure enough there was what I guessed to be a late 50's Shasta, sitting sadly amongst a collection of various parts and old equipment.  Several of the windows  have been broken out and the lower storage door was off and laying on the ground.  The inside was a mess, but I could see that the appliances stove, oven and refrigerator, were still all there.  The gas lamp was above the table and of the cabinets were still there.  This could be a really neat looking trailer if it was brought back to life.  I snapped a few pictures and went  home.

A Shasta trailer from what I think is the mid to late 1950's

I returned home around 5:30pm and the chickens were happy in the yard.  I went out to check for eggs and there were 2 more.  Four was pretty good for the day and one of them was white, so the Cornish hen had laid an egg finally after 4 days of nothing.

Around 6:30pm Doug and Amy came by, so Doug could drop my truck off and they wanted me to go to dinner.  I'm not one to say no to food and besides I was just going to mow the lawn and food sounded better.

There was no time for the trailer today, but tomorrow is the weekend and I hope to do a lot more work.  Tonight it was going to be reading, laundry and bed.  

It sounded like a great Friday night to me.

Day 60, Thursday and takeing a break form the trailer

It's Thursday and another awesome sunny day.  I got home around 5:45pm and I was just tired.  I decided that today I would just kick and relax and do nothing.  I wasn't in the mood to do much of anything other than put my feet up, so that's what I did.


What a great looking trailer

 I let the checkens out so they could enjoy some freedom and they only laid 3 eggs.  I am starting to wonder if there is something I need to be adding to their diet.  Perhaps they are not getting enough protien, or have they lost their enthusiasum for the layer feed. I wonder if I need to switch to something more flavorful.  

In the search to find something they might want to eat, I discovered about 9 bags of frozen bread, buns and rolls that I have no idea how long they had been in the freezer and I figured the chickens would eat it.  I tossed them a bag of hamburger buns and they thought that was fantastic.  I'll have plenty of bread for them over the next few days and my freeze looks a whole lot better too.

With my plan to relax firmly in place a took a good look at the trailer.  It's pretty dang cool.  It has great lines and someday it will look awesome behind a vintage automobile.  I spent the rest of the evening looking on Autotrader for a potential tow vehicles and I was in bed by 10:15pm. 

It was a great night.

Day 59, A little more polishing

Starting to polish

I had about an hour to work on the trailer today and my focus was going to be to polish the right side of the trailer.  There were still a lot of water spots and I want them gone.  Mother's polish says it protects and from what I have seen on the left side of the trailer it really does.  I have polished the left side weeks ago and even after the rainstorm we had a few weeks ago there are still no water spots or streaks.

More polishing

The first area that I polished was the compartment door on the bottom right side of the trailer.  With just a little polishing the mirror like quality started to show.  When I looked at the entire side of the trailer the thought of hand polishing seems quite daunting, but if I break it down into small sections it seems much more palatable.  It's like that old question of "how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time".  My goal for the almost hour I had was, to just polish up the section from the back of the trailer to the small compartment door, or about a 3' x 3' section.  I'm not sure if it was a reasonable goal, or if it was just the maximum of my attention span for the monotonous task.

I was able to complete the area that I wanted to polish before it got dark and I was starting to get hungry.  My folks and I were going to go out to dinner and I had enough time to get cleaned up and ready to go.

Looking at the trailer I figured it would take about 4 hours for me to shine up the rest of the right side of the trailer.  I also need to spend time a lot of time polishing the front, roof, rear and the window moldings etc, so the work is endless.

A small dent/scratch and lots of water spots

As for the Chickens, they only laid two eggs and they got to spend the evening running around in the yard.  I haven't had a white egg in 3 days, so I'm starting to wonder about the Cornish hen.  I kept an eye on her and she didn't lay an egg in the bushes, so I'm not sure what is up with her.  If I don't find a white egg shortly we'll have to have a talk and I'll have to explain how this room and board situation works.  An egg a day or heads will stray.

The same area polished

I had a great dinner with my folks, I read my 12 pages and went to bed.  I was tired.

Day 58, Scrubbing on the Trailer

I was able to work on the trailer for about an hour and a half last night.  The right side of the trailer hasn't totally been scrubbed after striping the paint off.  There are still areas that have a few streaks of what could be primer or paint. I was able to work on a lot of the areas that needed scrubbing and I was able to work on some of the scuffed up areas that needed to be sanded out and buffed.

What I hadn't realized, was that were I have parked the trailer, it was getting hit by the sprinkler everyday and there were some pretty significant water spots starting to build up.  Luckily with some SOS and my buffer I was able to scrub most of them off.  The right side definitely needs some more attention.

Chickens starting to head back to the coop for bed.

The chickens had been running around the yard since I got home at 5:30pm.  It was now about 7:15pm and they started headed to back to the coop.  I started cleaning up about then and the trailer look somewhat better.  I did readjust the sprinkler, so that it can no longer hit the trailer and perhaps tomorrow I can work on shining up the right side a little more.

I was inside by 7:45pm and it was dark.  It is really sad to see our day light slipping away earlier and earlier, but I needed to get my 12 pages read from the bible and the earlier I get it done the better.  Reading the Bible in 90 Days has turned out to be an interesting challenge and I quickly learned that I can not read the bible in bed, wow does that put me to sleep.

I went to bed with the windows open and I know I will soon be shutting them for the winter and turning on the furnace.