Trickle Trickle

Things have slowed to a trickle which they often do when there has been a flurry of activity prior to a big event or trip with Fillmore. Having said that there is still some action, which means lights are on and furnace is running.....and batteries are drained. So it's great now that the inverter is installed. It can provide me with 110V as well as trickle charge the battery bank and keep it up to snuff.

The "shore power" connection is a 30Amp service with a locking retention ring on the chord.






















Of course I only have a 15 Amp circuit to plug into right now so I have to use a 'dog bone' to step down to the regular plug.

Before the trip to Manitoba a few weeks ago, we installed the bathroom walls. But like most things, the term installing doesn't mean permanent and we "un-installed " them for more finishing work

With my trusty helper, we needed to fill nail holes and feather the union between the rounded corner and the wall panel. I haven't quite figured out how/when I am going to spray these again. If I can hit one more above zero day I can do it outside....otherwise I will need to drape an area off in the garage....and that might not go over so well with the locals....

Turkey Trip

The day was upon us, after much last minute scrambling to get the necessary accoutrements installed and working, we were road worthy. At 5am (or shortly after as marital law would allow) we hit the road rumbling down the highway towards Manitoba.

The weather was beautiful, as was the scenery. The company?........

They were....comfortable if not talkative.



The trip out was fine, clear and sunny. But after a weekend of sunny weather we ran out of luck and the drive home tested Fillmore's winter preparedness

Snow started to fall just west of Regina, the thermometer started to fall

And I discovered that the back of the bus has it's advantages....an adequate supply of heat being one.

The trip home was full of slush and snow, but riding up high was nice. Progress was slowed for a few hours when we got behind a guy with a 5th wheel, but we just slowed down and pulled out the snacks and enjoyed the journey.

In the end we were home before sundown, safe and sound. The inaugural family road trip was a success!

Scrambling

Why is it that when we have lots of time to achieve a goal, no matter what we always seem top be rushing to get the final details done in the end. Ignorance?Lazy? Unorganized? Or simply a belief that things will progress faster than they always do. I would venture to say that the final point is simply a justification of the first. None the less, I researched and purchased my inverter many, months ago...perhaps even a year, but I knew that there wasn't much use in installing the inverter before I was ready to put in plugs and such. Although I am at the point of planning the placement of the electrical plugs, family plans created as desire to expedite part of the plan.

Part of the issue was....to install the inverter I need to access the battery bank. To access the battery bank I need to remove the back bench cabinets....to remove the bench cabinets, I need to disconnect the furnace ducting.So likie many times before, to kove forward I must take a step back.

After much ado, the battery bank was unearthed(just for the record....and so I remember the battery bank has 440 amp hours)

Now that the batteries are accessed, I needed to make cables. From the batteries to the in line fuse(jeff is installing). From the fuse to the inverter.














Then from the inverter to the sub panel.

Once the panel was installed I could run plugs.....or specifically one plug....for now.

Once the plug was ready....we needed the bathroom walls. No, not because the bathroom was being installed for this trip, but we needed somewhere  to install the......

TV

Getting it just right....

It's always been, brush or roller? What is going to get you the best coverage and the best finish. Well I decided that I would try both. I used roller and brush. Both had pros and cons but bottom line was.....neither. The brush left brush marks that either you had to put the paint on so think to allow slumping of the paint to "fill the stokes" or your left with seeing the brush strokes and they are not 100% perfectly parallel. So brush was a fail. Roller was more economical on paint but the finish was bumpy. Not bad but I wanted smoooooooth like my face after a close shave with a new blade. So I sanded everything down using a 600grit wet dry sand paper and then....

I took the plunge

Years ago I bought a really cheap spray gun, I did no research on technique, and then got tremendously frustrated when it didn't work worth a hoot. So this time I bought a decent gun....not over the top....but it had me at "DeWalt". Then thoroughly educated myself on Utube and asked a plethora of questions at Benjamin Moore.

After prepping the pieces and setting up in our not so down draft hermetically sealed paint booth, Jeff got first dibs

I though roller application was efficient....wow I painted a whole lot more with the spracy gun using a fraction of the paint needed for rolling.

And the finish was smooooth and shiny!