Come to fruition

 What to do what to do......life is tough when the world is your oyster. Some may say that living in the country you limit your access to various things. I disagree. Perhaps in a rural school you don't have enough bodies to do a huge number of  non mainstream sports and arts programs. I will grant you that. But in a rural school you do have all the mainstream sports and arts programs, with the added benefit that if at 16 you want to start a sport (with perhaps the exception of hockey) they welcome you with open arms. Especially if you are athletic and driven.

 Jeff loves Volleyball, but he has always longed for the opportunity to channel his inner beast.Volleyball, although requiring its own set of tremendous athletics, is a game that requires a very strong mental game and not much latitude on the allowance of celebration and physicality. More specifically you can celebrate but when you do, you cannot look at your opponent, no (official) talking to the opponent, no touching your opponent.

 So to say it was a departure is an understatement but not a surprise to me. It was much to the chagrin of his mother of course....that Jeff REALLY wanted to play Rugby.  Being from a rural school this means he has the opportunity. It's everything Volleyball is not. Running, tackling, verbal, and physical with your opponent. And not to my surprise...Jeff is excelling at it and loves playing. And I will gladly stand in the rain and cold windy weather to watch the smile on his face at the end of a game. Just like Anna and her dance, the look of satisfaction and contentment in who they are and what they are doing is worth every moment as a parent.

 But not every day is spent watching the kids and their endeavors. There come days where there is nothing on the docket. No lawn to mow, no wood to split, no dishes to do(cause I did them already). So I get to brew a pot of coffee, turn on classical music and play in my work shop, made only better when it's cold and raining outside cause that removes guilt as well!

On today's wish list is the pull out pantry. I have in my mind what I want  after researching pre-made pull out pantry designs from companies like Richelieu. I decided that for a fraction of the cost....but perhaps a significant more amount of time, I could make my own. Using 5/8" Baltic birch plywood I constructed the overall skeleton or framework.














Then moving to a 1/2" Birch ply, I made a couple of movable shelves with a sturdy shelf base rebated into the sides and end.

The test fit was trial by error. Meaning , where I put the shelves was decide by the arm load of groceries I stole from the house to see what room we needed. Cereal, Kraft dinner, spaghetti sauce, peanut butter....you know the basics!After a coat or two of tung oil things are looking pretty good.

 And they are moving just the way they should. The good news is my vision of the pantry seems to have come to fruition, but because of my unconventional design the heavy duty slides pose a problem at the final install stage of the install....but I have a plan. Fingers crossed!

"Mudder Trucker!"

 At the end of January this year, I made my annual trip to central America to do some volunteer work with Dentistry For All in Guatemala. Once again, my hats off to the organizers of the trip for there is a tremendous amount of administration and logistical work to be done in order for a trip of this magnitude to be successful. Below is a picture of the entire team at what we call the cross over. Basically where week one individuals and week two individuals share the same place at the same time while one team comes in and the second team finishes up. It ends up being 24 hours of a lot of bodies, but the photo gives you an idea of how many people are involved on the front lines.

 In particular I want to point out Cody and Kari, who got engaged on the trip(yay!). Cody is a rancher from the Water valley area north of Cochrane who, as his hobby (like hes not busy enough),builds and races what I can only describe as "mudder" trucks

 May long weekend, a handful of us from the spring DFA trip decided to meet up, go camping, and watch MUDAPALOOZA the qualifying event on his ranch for the weekend.

 And what a weekend it was, some pretty impressive engineering that goes into these beasts.

 And the drivers are constantly pushing the limits to try and win.....

sometimes they push a little too far

 And now the tie in...I of course took Fillmore camping. When I got to the ranch and parked I saw that I had a wee coolant leak from my mid station heater core. Being that I was on my own in the bus for most of the weekend (jeff did join me on the last night) I decided to take apart the core to see where the leak was.

 Try as I might I still wasn't 100% sure if it was coming from a hole in the core or one of the hoses. But it was a slow leak....so I decided to put it in a tub for the ride home. Full pictorial disclosure, I didn't have the where withal to take a picture at the time of the incident. The previous two pictures are after we got home and I had disconnected the hoses. So, where was I??....
monday morning we pack up and it was time to head home. I was first one out of the gates and left the ranch. About 5-10 kms down the road I pull over to wait for Jeff (in his car) and my buddy Brad and his contingent as they are pulling a big trailer. As I wait I get up to make sure everything is in its place. As I turn to the back I see that the tub I used to hold the heater with the slow leak is FRICKEN FULL and slopping over onto the floor! My slow leak turned into Niagara Falls !! I shut everything down, raced to the engine room and shut the cheater core circulation valves off. (Why I didn't do that when I found the leak in the first place is beyond me). Luckily I travel with some extra fluids and we topped up the coolant.

 Also lucky for me, I have a spare heater core sitting in the garage at home(don't ask, its a long story). Being that the other one was submerged in coolant....I'm not sure how well the electric motor will 'dry out'. With a little help from my progeny the new core fits beautifully in the original spot!

 Next project on the docket....Pantry!

beauty is only skin deep

OK, so I finally got the material I needed from 3fab manufacturing, and by that I mean sheets of 20 gauge brushed aluminum panels. I traced,modified,and cut the panels before finally used a very sophisticated template for rivet location.

I was worried that I needed to pre-bend the panels on two planes to make them adapt properly. That was always my biggest progression stumbling block.

But, I threw caution to the wind, and decided to let fate take control. If it works,  then it works and I look like a chump for over thinking things and letting years pass by before taking the leap. If it doesn't.....then its a costly dumb-ass mistake. So pretty much a win-win which ever way it turns out....right?

OMG it worked!!

I mean....of course it worked, I knew it all along!

As I sat there drinking a celebratory beer and getting a muscle cramp from reaching so far to pat myself on the back....I saw a big mistake....






















The drivers side is supposed to have a dome light, stationed above the driver. You know to read a map....which are now on phones and have back lit screens but, sometimes you need a light to find your bag of Doritos! Anyway, in my excited haste once I realized the panels were going to work, I riveted the drivers side panle in before cutting the hole for the dome light. Luckily by removing the MDF backing box for the speaker and squishing my hand into a place only a mouse could squeeze into. I was able to retrieve the dome light, then using a pneumatic reciprocating saw , cut an install hole, and boom!...

Then there was light! I was so lucky to get this done....I had nightmares of drilling out 40 rivets!

In the end, things look great!

Next on my adventure is the pull out pantry!

Roof Over My Head

Have you ever driven somewhere, only to get to your destination, throw the car into park and think..."How the hell did I get here?" It's not that you are asleep at the well, but rather the scenery is the same day in day out, and after a while you grow so accustomed to it that you forget that its even there. This is the scene on my daily drive home. Stunning when you see it here, but I must admit that I drive this every day and there have gotten to be more days than not that I don't see the world around me. I've (sadly) grown accustomed to it

The same could be said for the entry into the bus. When Randy and I skinned the interior roof, I was having issues getting a satisfactory adaptation of the panels in the front of the bus. So I did what any good bus guy would do....I put it to the side and said..."I'll let that simmer and get back to it!"

As recent as last summer at the The Grey Owl golf tournament Shawn and I sat in Fillmore and brain stormed different finishing techniques for the roof. Shawn's idea was to have smaller "slats" for lack of a better term      

But after I installed a few I decided to abort. I really didn't like how it looked and figuring out the tapering angles was driving me mad.

Even with making a fancy jig.....it really didn't work.

I had kept the original panels from when I tore everything out in 2009

With some slight modifications, add here and there. I might be able to recreate the panels in a different material

Wiggle Wood!

This stuff is awesome, easy to work with and lite as a feather. I was sold......until Shawn put doubt in my mind.....doubt, or you could call it encouragement to continue on with my train of thought. But to do that I needed more (different ) material. Which I ordered from 3 Fab

 

In the meantime I decided to layer in insulation. Two layers of reflectix foil/bubble insulation sandwiching a layer of Aspen Areogel

The result was great, clean and contained. I had a layer of automotive 'jute', then this bubble wrap, then hard foam insulation

Odds and sods

The greatest majority of the work on Fillmore these days is little projects that need time and attention. Work continues on cabinets in every little nook and cranny that I can find.

Another job that came to light last summer while camping in the rain in Jasper was the sunroof. Turns out the mounting screws on one side were stripped and the seal was incomplete. So during the rain we had a little leakage. So the job was to re tap and drill the frame and mounting brackets.

Everything looks good, now we'll need to  field test it!

Another job that has been put off was the mounting of the antennae for the stereo. Nothing more nerve wracking (and permanent) than drilling a hole in the body....

Drilling the hole was the easy part, fishing the wire through the deadspace was the challenging task.

In the end it looks good and now we have unencumbered radio signal!

I'm starting to muse on design for the pull out pantry. Turns out I can probably buy a premade roll out cabinet from Richeleu but where's the fun in that?

Leslie Ann Sinclair

A mother’s love is forever strong,
never changing for all time…
and when her children need her most,
a mother’s love will shine.

I am late with this, not for lack of desire but rather perhaps the fact that it forces me to admit that she is gone. On March 12, 2019, Leslie Ann Sinclair, Bridget, Nanna, Mom, passed away surrounded by her family. She lived her life with smiles and laughter, she was full of love and mischief. Never one to pass up on a get together or a chance to play a game of cards. In keeping with her wishes we didn't have a "stuffy funeral" as she referred to it but rather the "Irish wake" she wanted. We celebrated her life, with music,wine and stories in a fashion to which she would be proud. In my heart and on my mind, I will miss talking to you about everything and nothing. I love you, I miss you already. Be well, and say hi to Dad for me.

Less is more

Have you ever been to a friends house who did renovations? They could have torn half the house down to put on a new addition, move the kitchen and create a media room to die for....AND they did it all themselves! Impressive! But once you've gotten over the shock and awe of what they did and how good it looks, you start to notice small things. Things like the base board in the new bathroom is just sitting in place, not brad nailed down yet.  The toilet still has the manufacturer sticker on it and the cold air return vents are still the temporary construction ones.
After a few beers, you call your friend on it...and say.." You did so much! Why don't you just finish it?...all that's left is the small stuff!!"
It's true, the less there is to do, the longer it seems to take. Is it motivation? Is it a feeling of calm? laziness? complacency? I don't know what the answer is really but what I can say is that when I'm working on Fillmore these days I am calm. I don't feel rushed or under a deadline. I am happy to spend a couple hours out there and all I have to shoe for it is a test fit of a cupboard door.

Maybe deep down I don't want to finish...ahh look at me, using Fillmore and 'finish' in the same paragraph...pretty presumptuous I would say!

Until that day comes, I will continue to putter away, creating small cupboards for storage of things like bed sheets and blankets

Some of the lounge cabinets finally got taken out and prepped for paint. While some of the other cupboard fronts get another coat or two on them.

The big news is at long last the bathroom door has finally been installed. I fought with mounting trim, but in the end perseverance paid off!