Lunacy

We see it all the time at work, we have a day that goes off the rails, things just don't seem "normal", procedures are harder, patient management is more challenging and upon investigation we see it's a full moon! The ever present scapegoat for a day gone wild, when the occurrences are pure "lunacy".
The term comes from the Roman Goddess of the moon "LUNA", and there are many cultures which attribute bizarre behaviour or happenings to the super natural and the full moon.

Last week Lunacy hit the Sinclair house, Michelle was away for a girls trip to Arizona,hiking the grand Canyon, and a little recoup time in Sedona. As I got home on Wednesday night and was starting to prepare dinner, my daughter Anna emerged from her bedroom to announce"Dad, it's raining in my room!"

Sure enough her roof was leaking, quick investigation revealed water from the attic space, the culprit?....An ice Dam. For my southern American friends, an ice dam is when you get a heavy snow load on your roof that blocks your ventilation in your attic. This results in a rise in attic temperature, thus melting the snow in contact with the roof. The water runs down the roof until it reaches the edge where is cools in the sub zero temp and forms ice. This process repeats and repeats until the water cannot easily drain and instead backs up the roof and seeps under the shingles, thus leaking into the attic space-onto the insulation and down into the house.

So I spent Wednesday night, Thursday night and a very good part of Fillmore Friday crawling around in the attic, hand bombing wet cellulose insulation out small bag by small bag.

Randy, steadfast but shiftless as ever, came out to pay Fillmore the attention he deserves. After making one of the final mock up pieces for the fridge we concluded the general floor plan. Which meant we decided on which window would be eliminated from the passenger side. Randy set out on drilling rivets!

Once I emerged from the attic I spent some time looking at an air shock for the passenger seat. Unfortunately it is too tall and I cannot use it, so back to the wrecker I go.

A place to set and gather your thoughts.

 A quote from a play I was once in. The quote was said by Marcellus Washburn, in Merideth Wilson's "The Music Man" I do believe played by my good friend Darren. The quote seems to sum it up. Randy came out for a day of Fillmore and we set to getting some exciting stuff done. Randy was tasked with creating some building blocks, very rough mock pieces that mimic the size of some of the components of the interior. Nothing like the mock ups done by Paradise coach for Ben Willmore's  Creative Cruiser , but this isn't going to be my full time home either.

As Randy puttered away with the wood, I continued to grind and weld. I continued to work on the couch mounts.

The old adage measure 16 times weld once is a good one!

 Once the mounting Brackets were fabricated it was time to place the couch into position.

The placement to allow for the couch to fold down into a bed required us to leave a bit of a space behind the couch. I have an idea of how we can use the space effectively for blankets and bedding.

At days end we have a few counter tops in place, and the pillars for the bathroom position. Next will be the mock up for the fridge and bench/bed in the back. Once they are in place we can "shuffle" the pieces around to best use the space where we need it the most.

Last fall my mom had a close call, a heart attack. We were lucky and her stubbornness was her greatest gift this time. She managed to pull through none worse for the wear, perhaps when it's all said and done she's better for it. Better lifestyle better choices which often happens when one faces a near miss. Anyway she was finally well enough to travel so she came for a visit. Saturday was a beautiful day of +5C and  I managed to get her up into Fillmore. Mom got the first ride on the properly mounted and stable couch that won't tip off it's temporary legs during the journey.....sorry Sharon/Leslie/Verna!!

The good, the bad and the ugly....

I know, I know the temptation here would be to question what is good, what is bad and who is ugly....but no. I WILL NOT stoop to that level of bathroom humor in this blog, well not today anyway.
Harold tirelessly worked away on finishing the paneling, making templates for the rear wheel wells and cutting the plywood to fit.

Good looking results!!

 Meanwhile I started to map out the mods I will start on the front passenger wheel well that will hold the front mounting plate of the fold down sofa bed.

Now for the bad and the ugly. I'm not sure which is which but, as I moved some plywood sheets away from their place of storage I noticed that the side wall of my shelter was looking.....hmmm.. shall we say odd? To paraphrase Mr Shakespeare 'Something is not right in the state of Denmark!'
We has a few days of pretty heavy snowfall in the last 48 hours, the snow load is taking it's toll on Fillmore's house. Designed as a temporary shelter, it has already lasted longer than I thought it would be up....but I need it for a while yet. And right now I need an immediate fix that is more than temporary.

A few minutes to think and problem solve and presto! We have a winner! I changed the set up to allow for slight movement of the tree in the wind but the jack is bolted to the shelter wall and putting pressure on the tree to keep the wall vertical. Just needs to last the winter!!!!

Good Friends, Good Times

Christmas is a great time to get everyone together for a visit. My Buddy Harold and his family made the monumental trek from Thompson Manitoba all the way to Bragg Creek to come see us and get away from the Manitoba deep freeze. We spent some time visiting, skiing.....and of course a bit of bus time.

Harold, never being one to shy away from a task was given the job of finishing the wall panels on the drivers side while I finished reinforcing the bottom lateral supports on the passenger side wall.

After Harold made some good head way on the wall panels, he started to play around with the destination sign.

Houston we have a problem, a large plug for a small hole, we'll see what sort of creative problem solving we can come up with!

Cut and paste

We very soon ran into our next "issue" There were places where the supports between vertical members was......bulky folded over thick sheet metal. The biggest problem was it was sitting proud by at least an inch. So I decided to modify.....again!

Just like computer work really, cut and paste

A little running in and out, cutting-fitting, fitting-cutting.

 I decided to take advantage of our mild Alberta weather and work outside in the +5C weather

 All said and done things turned out the way we had hoped.

In the evening we had friends pop over to celebrate the season....and Randy's birthday. What better way than a little spin in Fillmore!

Putting up walls

Usually putting up walls is a bad thing, meaning your shutting someone or everyone out,but in this case it's a good thing. It means I get to see the beginnings of what is to come. I have put the interior window skins in place and with the help of Ron, we got a healthy start on the wall boards.

First order of business was tracing the wheel wells. Taking a page from log home building(thank you McIvors) I created a make shift scribe.

Apply the kiss rule and don't get too serious.

Turned out well. We created a template to modify the boards on both the driver and passenger sides and then started to work our way back.

 For one, the smell of fresh cut wood in the air as opposed to metal shavings makes Michelle happy.

Charlie Brown Christmas

Living on an acreage there are plenty of pros and cons. A con? when you run out of 5/16 coarse thread bolts late on a Sunday evening....your day is done. Although the Moose Mountain Hardware store never ceases to amaze me in what they have on hand, it is not Home Depot and thus they do close their doors at a reasonable time. A pro to living where we do? Well the kids and I went Christmas tree hunting...in our own back yard. It was an exhaustive search that lasted about 15 min. I know it's not the Christmas tree lot tree but frankly it's what we prefer. We are always a root for the underdog kinda family so getting a Charlie Brown Christmas tree seems only right!

It is time to prep the interior window skins, first a sandblast, then modifications to allow for the insulation and wall board.

Using a sandable primer I painted the remaining bare metal, a couple of coats for good measure. 













Then with a 220 grit sandpaper spent some time getting to know the window skins.

Having CBC radio in the shop is a true god send.

Anna was having a quiet day, lounging on the couch after getting all her school work done. I conscripted her into service, helping me install all the skins on the passenger side.

Wee little steps

 It's almost not worth posting but on the other hand, progress is progress. After getting a couple sizes of angle iron and playing around with different possibilities for modifying the interior window skin, I finally came up with a solution. Apply the KISS rule and move on.

 So I trimmed the bottom flange, leaving some excess that I could bend to my liking and use as backing for the 3/8" (~10mm)wall board. I know some guys use metal wall boards but being up in Canada, insulation is insulation, and the R factor of even a piece of 3/8" plywood is more than sheet metal....soooooooo, wood wins today!

This is obviously not the wall board but rather a scrap piece of 3/8" plywood just to see what the finish line looks like. And it works!

Seriously?

Where am I, Thompson again?

Insulation from or for reality?

Finally I get a job done. The gas covers are finished and in place, which then means that I can finish the wall insulation-or at least try...

Riveted on and body sealed up the yin-yang

Some of this stuff was finicky hand cutting. But when it's all done such a sense of accomplishment!

As I was working away I decided that perhaps I should get the interior window wells in place, or at the least figure out which one goes to which window.

But....as I paired the interior window skins I came across an "issue"

My plan was always that I was to place a backing board into what appeared to be a preset recess for this very purpose. What I didn't remember or realize was the position of the board relative to the space.

As you can see the slot sites well within the insulation space in the wall. The space that would be available behind the board would only be ...1/2"? Being that I want 1 1/2" EPV foam board... this just will not work. I have to come up with another solution.