June16 to 22, 2013

Sunday ; Today was mostly sunny and mild, with a brief spell of heavy rain. The forecast was for much worse.

I continued working on the trailer bathroom ceiling replacement project. Today I was "rebuilding" the areas lost to dry rot using a wood dry rot repair / rebuilding epoxy compound. Sort of a cross between wood filler putty and fiberglass repair epoxy. It seemed a bit too dry for my liking. I'll see what today's results are tomorrow when it's all dry. I sincerely hope that it sticks as well to the dry rot sealant treated areas of damaged wood ... as it does to the bottom of my foot !

I harvested some of our own lettuce for the first time this season.

Monday ; Sunny and hot, becoming cloudy and cool, becoming heavy rain, thunder and lightning.

I continued working on the trailer bathroom ceiling replacement project. It didn't go particularly well today. Lots of learning curve, not much accomplished. I worked for an hour and a half on a neighbour's computer software problem. Well, at least I was able to fix that. I'm better with computers than I am at carpentry, that's for sure !

Joanne worked on landscaping the front yard rocked slope, planting two lavender plants given to us by neighbours, and two purchased.

Tuesday ; Cloudy, cool, and raining again. I feel lethargic on rainy days.

Today marks nine years since we started our lives as homeless, unemployed, full time RV'ing vagabonds. Now, we're no longer homeless, still unemployed, and only "half time" ( six months per year ) RV'ing vagabonds. It's been a great nine years ! ! ! Over 265,000 km. / 165,000 miles of travel ! I consider us to be extremely privileged to have been able to already experience nine years of healthy retirement, something none of our parents experienced. And something many of our contemporaries won't either.

I continued work on the bathroom trailer ceiling replacement project. Almost ready for the installation of the new ceiling panel. I will test fit it tomorrow. I'm hopeful that I can bend and squeeze the panel into position over the shower stall without having to cut it into two pieces. The original bathroom ceiling was two pieces, with a seam, and that seam contributed greatly to the rot problem by allowing steam from the shower to enter the cavity above the ceiling.

This afternoon we planted two Saskatoon bushes at the top of our front yard rocked slope. I hope they do as well as the two Saskatoon bushes that we planted a couple of years ago on lot 89. Those two bushes are bearing fruit, one quite a bit more than the other. We are eagerly awaiting the berries to be ripe in a just another couple of weeks. We are planning to allow Bo to "harvest" the berries himself since the bushes are still small and low, right at his level.

I went into town late in the afternoon to adjust the air pressure in one of the truck tires and to buy a tube of Liquid Nails adhesive for the bathroom ceiling project.

Wednesday ; Another cloudy, cool, rainy day.

Another day of working on the trailer bathroom ceiling project. Again ... not much accomplished, but ... lots of learning, and good ideas for improvement. Most trailer repair / refurbishment projects that I do result in improvements over original. This one will be the same. Although ... I won't be winning any prizes for quickness ! Or carpentry self-confidence !

Thursday ; Too wet and cold to accomplish anything !

Well ... we had sex ! I suppose ... at our ages ... that's somewhat of an accomplishment. HA HA HA !

Friday ; Today was cloudy and cool.

To make up for yesterday's lack of productivity, I wanted to get a lot accomplished today on the trailer bathroom ceiling replacement project. And I did ! I removed the original, and now somewhat ratty fiberglass insulation in the ceiling. I replaced it with new, more, and better insulation.
I installed vapour barrier, which did not exist before. And vapour barrier should prevent a recurrence of the rot problem, I hope. And I got the new, one piece ceiling panel installed. That was the second of the two very difficult, scary parts of this project. The original ceiling panel was in two pieces, with a seam. So ... with the ceiling now seamless, and backed by a vapour barrier, it's much better than original. Well done, Daniel !

There is still a lot to do. The shower stall top moulding, skylight, fan vent, and a new light fixture need to be reinstalled. Cupboard doors, towel bars, and clothes hooks need to be reinstalled. They needed to be removed to allow room for the one piece ceiling panel to be lifted and fit into place. The sliding pocket door header panel needs to be reinstalled. Most importantly the entire perimeter of the ceiling must be finished with new moulding, then caulked. So ... lots of work still to do. BUT ... < YIPPEE > ... the really difficult parts are done !

When I opened my e-mail at 6:20 PM, I discovered that I had won a local newspaper contest. The prize was two free tickets to a live theatre production. WOO-HOO ! A live theatre production ... tonight ! In Cawston, At 7:30 PM. YIKES ! Not much time. Joanne was preparing supper. I had just showered because my arms were itchy from handling fiberglass insulation. Partially prepared supper got put aside, the dog got walked, I got dressed, and away we went.

Well ! This was a travelling theatre production by a Lower Mainland ( Vancouver area ) "avant garde" theatre production company called "Theatre In The Raw". Tonight's presentation was three one act plays, with a blues singer performing before each play, entitled "The Blue Western Sky Tour Of One Acts". I suppose ... well ... we got our money's worth. HA HA HA ! Actually, while all three plays were "weird", I liked two of the three. Joanne liked them all. And the blues singer was good. I thank the Keremeos Review newspaper for the two free tickets.

Saturday ; Today was partially sunny, sometimes cloudy, occasionally raining lightly.

We started the day by going to SunKatchers, the RV and manufactured home park "next door", for their annual park wide yard sale. We bought a few small items, and picked up a few free items. I returned home and Joanne went into Keremeos to run some errands.

I did some minor maintenance work on a neighbour's utility trailer. And I did some miscellaneous minor maintenance work at home. I wanted a day off from working on the trailer bathroom ceiling project.

DSK