Building a Home-made Solar Powered Travel Trailer From the ground up!

Many friends coming to help getting the roofing ON! Also some scenes from the SCENE

2012-01-19T11:48:00.001-08:00

YEAH! PORT SIDE ROOFED!
Ben Austin, of Circus Athena, has been coming to help bit by bit, sanding the bath tub. Vic climbing down from the ladder
Vic Anderson, who I ran into @ the laundry mat, and asked if he could come and help....he's tall, over 6'... and incredibly good luck! We finished the entire port side, and the panels that covered the starboard side over the bedroom! The rest I can do on my own!
Tapping the screws
Jacob came to help on one of those days when everything is harder than it has to be, and I started off the work session by drilling into my finger.
Using my leg to hold the panels to the roof against the wind
Scoping where the worms will live over the bathroom floor, just a nice shot that clearly shows the under floor structure and the chassie
Ben Austin helping me sand the bath tub.
Getting started!
This guy, David, I met at The Waffle House. He came in to eat at about 2 in the morning, just as Pete, Ari and Daniel were getting ready to leave on road bound adventures in the green veggie powered school bus. David went on a quick tour of the bus, and then came in and volunteered to come help me on my project... and he showed up!

Quick walk around the neighborhood where I am building.. some shots from the scene

MONKEY!!! TORPEDO!!!

Art Bus Adventure!!!!

2012-01-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.artbusadventure.blogspot.com/

My new friends Pete and Ari from Vermont came down to Athens to convert their school bus to run on veggie oil. One day they came to help me work on the roof, Pete is a wizard with card board, and he put together the metal work for the back of the roof over the bay windows in a way that I could never have done. After we worked we went back to my friend's house where I was house sitting and Julian and I made a triple batch of home made pasta, I invited Jacob and my new friend Daniel over to eat, and we tucked in. Pete and Ari showed Daniel around on the bus, and he was really taken by it. He has been a student of The University of Georgia, but has recent;y become disillusioned with the field he was in, and the whole "system" in general. So, he dropped out of school and prayed to be open to the visions. We had gone on a walk a few days earlier, and he was talking about selling his car...and the next thing I know, he had! When he met Pete and Ari he asked them if he could hit the road with them, and this morning at about 2 am they all three left The Waffle House together, heading to Florida and then California! I can't wait to see the next blog post!

Wood, stained glass and copper

2012-01-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

Today I picked up the cherry bowls made by my friend Tim. Here they are along side the plates made by Jack Husdon. The bowls have been finished with mineral oil, the plates are still unfinished.
This is a hand hammered copper sink I bought through Craig's List to install in the bathroom. It will look so sweet along side the cedar tub and the copper in the stained glass in the window.
This is my friend Tim who I commissioned to turn the eating bowls for me.
My father gave me this hunk of cherry the other day, so I took it to Jack Hudson,who made my plates, to turn a serving dish for me.
Seven pointed star stained glass work by Brandon Shultz, to be installed in the bathroom door.
quarter-sawn oak and cherry for the bathroom door. Brent Swanson of Normal-town wood-works came and picked up everything to get started building it today!

Making progress, almost almost ready to install the roofing metal.

2012-01-04T14:30:00.001-08:00

Pete and Ari from Vermont in their big green veggie powered school bus!
Big Sky Hobo tower
Michael Baily helping me drill through the walls into the 2x4 rock ladder supports
I climbed right up and sat on the roof!
The rock ladder works like a charm

Pete and Ari are here from Vermont to convert their big green school bus to run on veggie oil. and they have been coming to help me on my home! and they dumpstered a lot of donuts!

Sanding the bath tub and thinking about peace
smiling behind my dust mask

compact cabinet ideas for later

2011-12-21T16:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.treehugger.com/eco-friendly-furniture/transformer-cupboard-uruguay-brilliantly-hides-table-and-seating-two.html

Friends come to help finish off the work on the gutter, and my new dog MONKEY!

2011-12-11T12:22:00.001-08:00

When Heidi got my email about Batiste having been stolen and then killed she came to visit me, and brought me the last puppy she had that she was looking for a good home for, so, now I have a new dog, named Monkey.

Sharmini, Tom and Jacob came to help me put the finishing work on the gutters. Now am ready to install the standing seam roofing!
The shadow of Jacob hammering the fold of the top flange of the gutter over the roof.
Sharmini started sanding the bath tub. There is lots more sanding to do.
Peace, always, peace.
It should be a nice tub to soak in, when it's done.

Bathing in the rays of the sun.
Tom and Jacob
Jacob the Over-seer

Tom used the rubber mallet and folded the gutter flanges over the roof on the port side.

fragile tummy skin
Lil' fella loves to cuddle, he's only 12 weeks old.

Sharmini finishing off the cuts to the tread plate that will be installed under the nose of the trailer. Using the angle grinder makes you feel like a bad-ass.
Putting the final screws into the port side gutters, ready to hammer the flanges over the edge of the roof, where they will be trapped under the roofing material.
The Shadow of Jacob.
Occupational Therapy. There is no better way to live a stress free life than to be physically active.
Tom making the final cuts with the angle grinder
Jacob did the pre-drilling and I hand tightened in the screws. The screws are stainless steel, a soft metal, and easily stripe if installed with the drill.

Yarn is not the ideal construction material to use, but it did the trick!

2011-12-04T12:53:00.001-08:00

the port side gutters still need to be fully attached to the wall, and then the top flange attached to the purlins under the roofing board... but it's coming along!
metal work under the bay windows
wind chimes
My friend Will Jackson bought me this set of ten climbing rocks for my birthday which I have installed on the side of the trailer as a ladder, so I can get up onto the lower side of the roof to work! Thank you Will!
A new friend I met eating Thanksgiving dinner at a church has come over lately to help me get the gutters up on the starboard side. THANK YOU TOM!!!
starting to get the gutters attached... 27 feet continuous on the port side
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you TOM!
tread plate around the nose, ready to be drilled for the gas line to enter the kitchen area, and I still have to put metal around the diagonal below the chassis. I also need to build some infrastructure to connect this diagonal exterior wall to the frame, and I got some scrap steel framing material from The Waffle House that is being built in downtown Athens, where I will be working in about 6 weeks.

left over oak flooring used to finish off the back doors of the utility closet. I was really at a loss as to how to finish these, as the hinges I need to use are steel and it would have reacted with aluminum as the skin.. but I think the wood looks nice. I put many coats of high gloss tung oil on it as a finish.
here is a bracket I welded to support the sheppard's crook for my wind chimes and as also an out door shower bag.
This is an angel, in homage to my sweet little dog Batiste,w as stolen and killed two weeks ago. His death has really been difficult to bear, and I have fallen lately into a state of despair, which, has made it hard to muster the strength to work...even more of a reason to say THANK YOU TOM! for coming to help me.
I used yarn to hold the sections of gutter together while screwing them in place. It wasn't the best ersatz twine material to use, but it worked eventually!

I nested the gutter together, punched holes in the with an old screw driver and then tied them together with yarn on the ground
here is a side view of the shape.. the top flange will fold over the edge of the roof and be anchored under the roofing material
I hand rolled each 2 foot section of gutter using this piece of trash pipe and a rubber mallet

Clear Story Windows and the gutters!

2011-11-19T10:49:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the long time lapse between posts> Been busy: Occupy Wall Street Solidairty Occupation here in Athens, GA! Sewing burlap pants and new collection of work for a fashion show (check out the images! It was a great show!) and I met SOMEONE I couldn't be more impressed with, and sometimes that takes a little bit of time to realize.. getting to know YOU!
But I did get the metal up around the clear story windows, and I realize there is other work that I have gotten done that isn't pictured here... and now I have a new camera!
This is a picture of Gregg, Lee and Dot, whom I met at Occupy Athens GA and they came and helped me hoist the line of my gutters up to the edge of the roof!

A Few New Photos

2011-10-05T13:21:00.001-07:00

I am sorry I haven't made any posts in a while: I have been with out camera. A friend came by the other evening and took some pictures, and I will make taking some more a priority in the coming days. Hope all is well with you and yours! Cheers
Along the ground are the many sections of gutter that I have hand formed, and it will need to be installed before the standing seam roofing goes on. Presently I am working on screwing to the frame under the ISO board the clips that hold the roofing panels in place. The skin is up on all the walls, the back doors are done and I have started working on the lights. It's cozy and dry in there!
The doors in the back are finished with some left over tongue and groove oak flooring from Watson Springs, because the steel hinges would have reacted with the dis-similar aluminum siding if I had finished them in metal.

What color should I paint the floor?

2011-08-09T17:53:00.001-07:00

Well this place is starting to look like a proper dwelling! I realized that the ladder I got wasn't tall enough to work on the roof from the ground, so I thought o install the sub flooring so I can put the ladder inside. I had been trying to buy super light weight and super strong honeycomb panels made from recycled nurses uniforms for the sub floor from a company called Nidacore that would not get back in touch with me after the initial sample box they sent. Maybe they thought the sale of ten panels just wasn't worth it. I have found it to be fairly common that after much research to find recycled/environmentally friendly construction products that they are not really ready or available for consumption by individuals. I have had much more sucess reusing conventional materials. So, instead I bought ten sheets of 1/2 plywood and have started painting it. The sub floor will show through around the edges of the openings in the floor for the storage hatches. Maybe an deep indigo blue weatherproof exterior paint.
Into the living room and the corner of the bathroom
The above the bathroom loft bedroom
Master bedroom
Interior storage area under the master bedroom.

View from the back, through the exterior storage area, past the back of the washer/dryer and all the way to the kitchen

Hand made Cherry Plates! Nearly finished

2011-08-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

Jack, ( see this previous post ) one of the wood turners I commissioned to make hand turned cherry dishes for the trailer sent me these images today! I am really excited to see them and start the finishing process. It seemed to me that trundling down the road might be a recipe for pottery breaking, so I bought two long thick cherry boards and took one of them to Tim to make bowls and the other to jack to make plates. The bowls are done, and I just need to pay up! The plates are almost done and I just need to pay up! and then build some cabinents to put them in. I know I kind of put the cart before the horse, but I figured I could eat off them while I am building. A girl's gotta eat, right?!

Why am I building a travel trailer?

2011-08-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

I need to find a new sewing studio PRONTO! The building I have been working in has drug addicts living in a storage unit up the hall, at whose request I have called 911 when one of their party was ODing, and who, since the toilet broke have been using plastic bags and putting it in the regular garbage. The plumbing burst and the hallway has flooded, and the legit tenants have piled up garbage and old furniture around the building so that it looks like they are building a fort of crap. The aging landlord refuses to do anything I have even cleaned up the bagged garbage and cleared the halls, and offered to help him load the piles of furniture, old mattresses, etc in his truck and take it to the dump! I have called the housing authority and his son... what a waste of time, and a public safety nightmare! However, this is just one example of the crazy crap that I have had to deal with in rental situations that inspires me to build my own home:

- I was bitten by a rabid cat while pregnant, an animal that came into one rented house and incurred $11,000 in medical debt. I sued the land lady and lost.

- I have had 2 rented houses sold while I was a tenant and been forced to move, once when my son was only 3 months old and while my ex-husband was away in Japan, and the other when I lived on an island that had no regular car service or other rental options, so I had to move everything off on a pontoon barge.

-I have lived in many places infested with mice and other pest, places that were about as insulated as a card board box, and places that were just plain old falling apart. It seems like most landlords just think all they have to do is sit back and collect the checks, and do nothing to maintain their property and provide a safe environment to live/work in.

-I have had to move suddenly because of toxic mold creeping up the walls and causing dramatic and terrifying asthma attacks.

-I have had the rent for my work space raised 600% in one month and been forced to move.

-I have had two relationships go south that have forced me to leave the home we shared together.

- I have had to move suddenly on several occasions and not had the $$ set aside and had to move all my things almost one piece at a time in my bike trailer or a plastic children's wagon... like when I had to leave my ex-husband in the night.

-I was raised in a household that had a lot of tension and conflict. My family has told me to get out on many occasions, the first time when I was still a teenager, which is why I left home @ 17.

-I have lived with people who have wanted me to make more money or "get a real job" and made life intolerable in my own home in order to force me to do what they wanted me to do, even though I have never borrowed any money from someone I haven't paid back or short changed anyone on the rent or bills... most people are just so hung up about money that they see an erractic income as a threat and the person who earns erractically as nearly criminal.

- I have lived with people who have had drug problems/sex addictions and become violent, including my ex-husband.

-I am sick and tired of the pollution created to provide electricity to on the grid homes.

- Buying a house/land to build on is really really expensive, and then you are stuck with a mortgage with a bank that is crooked and greedy, slaving away to pay off interest on a loan while they pay you pennies on the dollar in interest on deposits, and in the mean time get bailed out with tax payer money!!!!! Crooks!

MY BROTHER'S LOVE IS HOT! 100+ DEGREES!

2011-07-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

Putting up the ISO board in this heat has been really difficult, the adhesive of the tape isn't sticking very well. I bought a baton of fiber glass insulation to stuff in between the studs in the nose and around this back window, as it is assembled a little differently than the others and in both cases once the siding is up I won't have access to these spaces again.
So the past days have been spent in major heat playing with fiber glass ( in long sleeves and long pants and gloves!) I finally got the rest of the starboard wall covered with board after three hours of fitting. Yesterday was similarly frustrating. I spent three hours cutting, fitting, taping, and then caulking the ISO board with liquid nails around the nose where the water jugs that feed the kitchen sink go. Then I stood back with my hands on my hips to look at my work: and then I watched it all fall off onto the ground! What a hot *&%^~$#@ mess !!!!!!! I ended up propping it with 2 x 4's, tape, and bungee cords, hoping that it would hold over night, through a thunder storm, until I find someone willing and able to help hold it and the metal in place so I could fasten it up there with screws.
MY BROTHER DANIEL CAME OVER TODAY, AT THE HOTTEST PART OF THE DAY, UPWARDS OF 100 DEGREES, AND CROUCHED ON THE TOP OF THE WALL AND HELD THE METAL IN PLACE WHILE I DRILLED AND SCREWED IT!

HE ALSO USED HIS KARATE TO HELP SHAPE THE METAL AROUND THE CORNERS!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Duration and Continuing

2011-07-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

This blog has been mostly a photo blog, with some text, but as I can be very verbose I try and keep the internal musing to a minimum; the learning curve of this project has been more like a learning switch-back path up a mountain. I have observed many phenomena; physical, chemical, psychological, metaphorical and personal along the way so far, all of which have given me ample subjects to ponder.

I consult the I-Ching frequently, and for the last month or more I have drawn the hexagram 32: Duration/Continuing

*Duration. Success. No blame.
Perseverance furthers.
It furthers one to have somewhere to go.

Duration is a state whose movement is not worn down by hindrances. It is not a state of rest, for mere standstill is regression. Duration is rather the self-contained and therefore self-renewing movement of an organized, firmly integrated whole, taking place in accordance with immutable laws and beginning anew at every ending. The end is reached by an inward movement, by inhalation, systole, contraction, and this movement turns into a new beginning, in which the movement is directed outward, in exhalation, diastole, expansion.

Heavenly bodies exemplify duration. They move in their fixed orbits, and because of this their light-giving power endures. The seasons of the year follow a fixed law of change and transformation, hence can produce effects that endure.

So likewise a dedicated woman embodies an enduring meaning in her way of life, and thereby the world is formed. In that which gives things their duration, we can come to understand the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.

Thunder and wind: the image of DURATION.
Thus a superior woman stands firm
And does not change her direction.

Thunder rolls, and the wind blows; both are examples of extreme mobility and so are seemingly the very opposite of duration, but the laws governing their appearance and subsidence, their coming and going, endure. In the same way the independence of a superior woman is not based on rigidity and immobility of character. She always keeps abreast of the time and changes with it. What endures is the unswerving directive, the inner law of her being, which determines all her actions.*

I read this and am reminded of what I can count on in life, what force I can draw on, and what can make life seem so easy as to allow for an endurance that is easy on the nerves. I also tell myself all the time: " It isn't going to build itself". I am building it. Then I am going to live in it,travel in it, take care of a dog, raise my son, have more children, and hopefully share my life with an amazing man! I won't owe anyone any money, I won't have to burn any fossil fuels for energy, and I won't waste water! My home will produce compost, it will produce clean water, and in it I can produce the works of art that the personality and talents of this life have given me to use to be best advantage for all.

Lately people have been contacting me from all over the place, lending me their inspiration in the form of praise and support. I just want to say "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you thank you."

"Hello, my name is recycled retractable utility sink"

2011-07-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

out
in

This little feature has been months in the works... I found this hand washing sink behind an abandoned Mexican restaurant beside the Waffle House I worked at in Cartersville about a year and a half ago. I cut off the back-splash, had it TIG welded back on, and then took it to an engine re builders here in Athens to cut holes for the new fixture. I had it put on the far right because it will be fed directly from the used grey water from the bathroom, the same tank that will feed the washing machine. The sink hangs a little too low to be included in the interior insulating, and don't want to have long lengths of un-insulated water hose.

Slowly but surely... progress on the siding

2011-07-24T16:01:00.001-07:00

As seems to be the pace of this project I can't get it built fast enough to keep my belongings dry.. been living in my tent on and off for two years this August, but slowly but surely I am getting the siding installed. The stainless steel screws I need to use to attach the aluminum siding through to the steel framing are quite expensive.. so I am on hold until some more funds come to buy them.
This is one of two "designer/custom/fancy-shamncy" gas door people with trucks are buying for decoration. I bought two to use as openings in the sides of the trailer behind which will be spigots for getting water out of the in-board tanks. This one will tap the kitchen grey water tank, and I have an extra pump I can install inside too so if one day I have some plants, or a garden on the low side of the roof I can water with the grey water. The other door will go at the back to get cleaned water from the final tank. They do look good.
In the meantime I got the start of the copper panels back from Julie Merrill in Asheville. I need to get some money to her also to keep working, but I love the texture she embossed into the scraps I had collected.

How to: flashing doors, and vents in aluminum siding

2011-06-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

This type of flashing is totally new to me. As I understand it the basic idea is the design the exterior siding and attach it in such a way that water would have to fight gravity to penetrate the wall/roof, and that the flashing channels water away from doors and windows, which are holes in your walls. So here are some pictures of my attempts to install flashing around the doors and vents for the solar batteries.
Battery compartment vents ready for flashing.
I cut on side of a piece of aluminum angle and folded it into the opening in the foam, between the foam and the siding.
Next I took a piece of Z-channel aluminum
and fitted it under the over-lapping sheet of siding. I cut notches in the siding so the z channel would extend beyond the edges of the vent opening.
Next I cut three more pieces of angle and fitted them into the openings, covering the layers of siding and interior angle.
And then I screwed it all into place! The rubber mallet has been a very important tool, and also the tin snips.
Here a piece of aluminum angle has been sandwiched between the insulation board and the siding, with the door frame on the back of the exposed angle. The notched the angle so that it bent over the top of the door frame, and a third piece runs across the top of the door which the siding covers.
The ISO board is attached using double sided fiberglass tape and either liquid nails or caulk (see previous post), and the aluminum siding and flashing it attached using stainless steel screws and rubber backed washers into the steel framing under neither. All of the holes for the screws are pre-drilled, and the screws hand tightened as stainless steel is rather soft and the power tools strip the heads. A dab of caulk has been applied to the backs of all the screws to prevent them from backing out.
Here is a shot of the batteries in situ under the floor on their supports. They are resting on steel covered by three layers of cork padding.

How to attaching ISO board to steel framing

2011-06-15T12:01:00.001-07:00

I have been searching ye old internet for helpful photos and information about this phase of construction, and I found little aside from product ads. Maybe that's just how Google has tailored by internet searches based on algorithmically interpreted preferences: but I am going to put up some post of what I was looking for and didn't quite find:

How to attach ISO board to structural steel framing.
ISO board is a foam insulating board with a layer of fiber glass on both sides. I chose it because it offers more structural integrity than a traditional foam insulating board, it will hold up after being shot through with multiple screws a bit better than straight foam and it has a slightly higher R-value. I bought these sheets from a surplus building supply yard. This board will act as a structural sheeting for the exterior of the trailer, it will isolate the steel from the aluminum siding to prevent galvanic corrosion and will also cover the raised hexagonal heads of the screws used to join the framing material together.
Here is the portion of wall I am ready to cover with insulating board
The next step is to draw and cut the ISO board to cover the intended area. I used a Sharpie and a box cutting utility knife.
Okay, simple enough. Next I used a exterior double sided fiberglass carpet tape made by a company called Shurtape. I bought it @ Lowe's.
I put a few strips of the tape along the surfaces of the wall to hold the board in place while I get the siding up. It is good strong tape and has held up full 9' X 4' board for more than a week.I put the boards up into place, careful not to let it touch the tape until I was sure I had it in the right position, and then a hammered it into place with my rubber mallet, pictured on the door sill.....and then I ran a line of Liquid nails along the seams where one board meets another! Caulk works too. I have been using both.

Starting on the exterior aluminum siding

2011-06-10T01:49:00.001-07:00

If there is one way to learn how to do something it's to try and do it by yourself in 100+ degree heat! I bought some double sided fiberglass interior/exterior carpet tape and liquid nails to hold the ISO board in place.. it has held for five days while I have worked on getting started putting up the aluminum sheet metal siding. To do that I have clamped a board to the top of the siding after pre-measuring and cutting the apertures for the wheels and tops of the trusses, then I have used ropes tied to the clamps to hoist the siding up onto the wall while standing on the floor of the bathroom/bedroom loft platform. Then I clamp roughly the middle of the metal panel and tie the clamp with rope to the roof purlins. I make pen marks every foot along the line where the stud is behind the siding and pre-drill the holes ( the 1st hole I drilled was too big and so, being COMPLETELY SLAP FLAT BROKE, and un-willing to give up, I rode around on my bike for an hour until I found enough change to buy a smaller drill bit which broke on the FIRST hole I tried to drill with it! So then I borrowed a drill bit from a friend and put up the two panels you see pictured, until that drill bit was too dull and the generator ran out of gas.) On the places where I have made mistakes, such as drilling the hole too large, or missing the stud behind, I have made some star shaped metal cut outs to cover the holes and caulked from inside. So, assuming that I will be making more mistakes, the trailer will be spattered with stars.
I got a check in the mail from The Honeypot in Asheville, NC yesterday and I borrowed a my friend Kristen of Treehouse Kid and Craft's car to go to Lowe's and buy some more drill bits, more liquid nails, tape, aluminum angle to put flashing above the windows and doors, and also some metal paint to re-paint the large white window frames. That will be a job for when I make a wee bit more money to buy another gallon of gas for the generator. This is the house that recycled hand-made fashion built.
June 15th..
It's a few days after the original post, and here are some more in progress pictures:
Self portraits with bathroom window.
All of my blankets and clothing were soaked in a recent rain-storm, so I stretched a line of bungee cords for a clothes line and put my blankets up on the roof to dry.
Full moon rising

One Year later

2011-05-29T12:38:00.001-07:00

Julie Merrill of Steel Zebra

2011-05-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the beginning!
Julie Merrill in action!
small montage of her work
copper scraps I have been collecting
quick sketch of the gist of the kitchen panel project

A few weekends ago I produced a Swap-o-rama-rama @ the Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa. There I met Asheville blacksmith and artist Julie Merrill, and I have commissioned her to create copper panels that will be built into the cabinet doors in the kitchen, and also a fire place screen and reflecting plate for the area around the wood stove. Here are some of the rudimentary drawings I have made to help guide her in the work. I was walking up the street last week and I found $200 on the ground, so I sent the money and the copper scraps I have been collecting to Julie to get her started! Please check out her work, it's beautiful!

Steel Zebra on Etsy

Finished with the structure.

2011-05-28T10:56:00.001-07:00

These photos were taken by Jillian Guarco, whom I have met through her work with I Art Athens, a community arts organization that relies on community support to provide our services to Athens’ youth. Donations will help them provide low cost and free classes to teens of all social, ethnic, and economical backgrounds. I am going to teach a class in textile recycling and sewing this summer and through out the fall. She is a photographer by profession. I cleaned up the site before she came out to take these pictures of the finished (but for one more level of furring channel in the front and back).

trusty generator and chop saw. Here are pictured the doors to the back utility storage area.
The ceiling over the living room
the nose above the kitchen. I need to install one more level of furring channel, and that's it!
the bathroom and above the bathroom loft walls

the kitchen in the nose
The window in the bathroom, stained glass by Brandon Shultz. He is also making a piece for the bathroom door, with a 7 pointed star. I am going to make seven pointed star rubber backed washers for the siding using flashing and a yoga mat.

I bought a pair of Vibram's 5 fingered shoes which have really helped me keep my footing while crawling around and working
inside the above the bathroom bedroom loft

the master bedroom. There is a wall that exists here now that wasn't installed when the pictures were taken.

standing seam roofing panels
axles
into the living room, showing the 2 pitches of the roof
the curved wall in the bathroom, making it easier to get into the ladder to climb into the loft.

I thought this was cool for the reflection

Still working on the roof... almost done! In the Mean time: Cross Country Bike Ride & PEACE WALK!

2011-05-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted any new trailer photos in a while. There are on going pictures of the roof under construction in the post before WE NEED TO END THESE WARS NOW! I have finished installing the roof, and I have worked out a trade with a lady: clothing for her kids in exchange for photos of the trailer. The relationship between Scott and I is kapput, and he owned the camera... so that's that. Still, work has been going on, and in the mean time I went on a bike trip from Athens, GA to Asheville, NC, and then joined a Peace Walk to Oakridge Tennessee, where the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Facility is. I went on a Pilgrimage for Nuclear Free Future. Here are some photos of the trip, and Ansley and I will meet to take some pictures of the the competed roof!

Just before leaving Athens on my bike

hanging my peace crane on the barbed wire fence @ Y-12

walking through Tennessee spreading the word. Peace, coming by popular demand.

erecting the banner @ Y-12

A rainbow on the morning we left the Great Smoky Mountain Peace Pagoda

Inside the temple @ The Great Smoky Mountain Peace Pagoda

The gang in Hot Springs North Carolina

Cool mural in Marshall, North Carolina

following the French Broad River, with the train

A poem I loved in the kitchen of the Great Tree Zen Temple in Alexander North Carolina.

Leaving Asheville.

On my way up Cowee Mountain in North Carolina

You can see more in the albums I posted on Facebook @ these links

One and Two

Here are images of the pop up cards I sent to all three of my representatives regarding the bill before the House now HR 1334, I also sent on to the Blue Ribbon Energy Commissioner, the Secretary of Energy, The Secretary of Defense, and Nuclear Energy Commission and Southern Company, the company here in GA that owns many nuclear power plants.
Cheers!

WE NEED TO END THE WARS NOW!!!!

2011-03-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

My personal projects would not be possible if I weren't in this part of the world. Some people can't even gather fire wood to heat their homes with out being killed.. like the nine boys attacked and killed yesterday in NATO air strikes.

The boys were killed while gathering fire wood.
9 young boys deliberately killed by helicopter gun ships in Afghanistan... we here in this country need to end these wars, tell the DOD, call them @ 703 697 5131, call the White House: 202 456 1111.. here in Athens we protest every Tuesday from 5-6 @ the Arch. there is a protest in Washington with Veterans for Peace on March 19th. These wars need to end NOW!!!! We have to stop them!!
Please, I beg anyone with a conscience: take some time out of your life, a life that is not riddled with mortar shells through your living room, where you can go to a wedding with out being afraid you will be bombed for assembling....take some time and do what you can here to end these rapacious wars. The people there can't bring our military home, we Americans are the only ones who can. Please, invest some time in Peace, Love and Compassion and make our democracy work!!

Assmebling the roof trusses and installing the roof!!

2011-03-02T06:27:00.000-08:00

We have 1/2 the roof installed! The hardest part, over the living room where we have had to crawl around on the tops of the walls done!

It has been raining a lot these past few days, and so we have been working in between the weather and Scott's crazy/busy schedule. He is working + going to school @ night + doing his clinical, and I am getting ready to leave for North Carolina, to meet with a group of Buddhists from The Great Smokey mountain Peace Pagoda, to walk with them from Asheville, NC to Oakridge Tenn. where there is a proposed new nuclear weapons plants being developed. The rally in opposition is on the 16th of April if anyone reading this is interested in coming. These weapons are not only in violation of numerous anti-proliferation treaties the USA has signed, but they are a blasphemy to all life, as they would kill everything living thing on the planet. http://orepa.org/
I am get the trusses up on top of the wall and installing as much as I can, the horizontal bracing and windows, before sliding the completed portions of the roof further down to make room on the staging platform ( the upper bathroom loft floor), to work on ganging the next set of trusses together. It's coming along, no major hitches yet!

I bought this generator from the coolest cop EVER! I said he was a skateboard kid and the cops would always hassle him and pull a huge power trip all the time, and so he wanted to grow up to be a cop so that he could actually help people, and be cool, and not just walk around being a sycophant and putting the heavy on every body. After my experience with the police in Virginia, where I was arrested while peacefully protesting outside the Quantico Marine base I was so impressed to meet someone like him!

We have mad a little mock up of the top of the walls on the ground and have been aligning the trusses and pre-drilling them, and attaching the angle stock like book ends, so they will stand up, then lifting them on top of the walls for ganging.

Cutting the horizontal bracing.
It's so nice to have power @ the site.

I have been working for the past month on filling an order of burlap clothes for a shop in Arizona, Paris Montana.
Burlap is rather messy to work with so had transformed the garage into a sewing studio, sewing away and just looking at the roof trusses all in a nice pile. But now that the work is done and off to the wild west I got back to work yesterday, cutting the angle stock that will anchor the trusses to the top of the wall, and leveling the bottoms of the trusses where they will meet the top of the wall.
The next step is a lot of pre-drilling for through bolting the angle stock through the trusses, and also points where the wood is enclosed by the metal. We think it will be less stressful to through bolt these joints rather than bite into the wood with screws on both side. I used my friend John's drill press to pre-drill the 1/4" and 5/8th" holes in the angle stock.

Building a home made bath tub

2011-03-02T06:21:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of the cedar I got from Landus of Watson Spring. It was a fallen tree in a small town near Athens. Landus milled it, dried it in his home made kiln, and then milled it to 2" x 2" pieces,, and now I am going to start building the bath tub with it!
and... I have finally gotten started. I used a piece of card board to cover the floor of the bathroom in the trailer, and then drew the area that the tub would fit into, and a rough outline of the rim. I then did some math to figure the amount of water that it would take to fill a tub of various dimensions, @ first forgetting to figure in the displacement of volume when my body will be inside ( I freaked when I thought I would need 85 gallons of water!), and then once I had a good idea of the size and shape of the rim I cut it out of the cardboard and traced it in chalk on the floor. I then cut the wood at various angles to create the curve of the shape of the tub, and glued/nailed the piece together to create the first layer of the wall.
The solar batteries have come in handy as weights to press the rings of the tub together. It is hard to tell from this picture because it is shown here upside down, but each ring gets a bit smaller. Next I will start sanding the outside to smooth off the uneven rough edges, and kind of grind away inside so it is a bit more even before I putty it.Here is the bottom of the tub. I'll sand it and then glue it in place.
I bought my first, and I hope last tub of BONDO to putty the inside of the wooden shell of the tub, after I get it sanded. What nasty stuff!

Composting Toilets... any experience? reviews? comments?

2011-02-19T08:46:00.000-08:00

This is an image of the Envirolet Tiolet
this image of a Sun Mar Composting Toilet is from Betty's Eco Bus!
I had a line on a used Incinolet toilet in TX, which fell through, and it got me thinking, maybe it's not he right choice and fate is intervening. I have read lots of conflicting reviews, and I am starting to get the idea that they more trouble than they are worth, in energy, time spent to incinerate waste, and also the smell!: most strongly because of the advice of Peggy hall, who wrote the book!

So I have started thinking about composting toilets instead. There seems to be several tried and true tested models for mobile units that have been around since the '70's, and I looking for more first person reviews. I found some great starting out info on this site.

Does any one have any thoughts? Experiences? Reviews? Comments? I'm all ears!

a few days after this post, here I found this great forum ... more info, and also a recommendation of this book: The Humanure Handbook

Or maybe I could biuld my own!
OR ! I found this guy who makes water-less toilets! Cotuit Dry Self-Contained Toilets!
I also found this great link to Oasis Design.. and Ecological Design and Consulting forum

Kevin Cyr: camper bike + Camper shopping kart!

2011-02-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

This artist, Kevin Cyr in Brooklyn has made a camper bike + a camper kart! very cool! Props!

The octagonal window for the bathroom, stained glass work by Brandon Shultz

2011-02-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

This is the opening window I bought from Nu Englander Windows, and the mirror stained glass piece that Brandon Shultz made for us! Scott designed a seven pointed star design to be made and installed in the door to the bathroom! So Beautiful!

Relentless Optimism

2011-02-09T16:57:00.000-08:00

I must be stubborn as a moose to go find jobs I'm not cut out for, that are totally outside my field, where I am under-paid and that takes time away from what I am meant to be doing: making recycled clothes (see www.egretion.com and www.egretion.blogspot.com)....
I did my taxes, working these 4 crappy jobs I made $8,000.00 last year.

But! that's money into roof over my head that I don't owe anybody for, that will be self sufficient, not be fueled by destructive forces, and shelter my creative talents, my family and I hope much generosity, humanitarian and environmental work for the rest of my life!

Relentless Optimism!!!

I have also been working on an order of my signature burlap pants
for a shop in Arizona called Paris Montana, and since burlap is so messy to work with I have been set up in the garage, just looking @ the trusses that are waiting to be through bolted. Pretty much all the supplies are acquired to assemble the trusses and then the roof, and the siding, I just need to make a trip to Cartersville to buy the furring channel we will use to gang them together. I have been chronically under-estimating time required lately, which is rather dis-heartening. The boring routine of a straight job is like a cherry on the top of the perseverance Sunday..... everyday .

amazing Canadian wood working for engineers link!!!

2011-01-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

http://woodgears.ca/

A Craig's List "no-no"

2011-01-28T14:36:00.000-08:00

Today I went to tiny Carlton Georgia:
nearly nothing left of it on the side of the road but three dilapidated buildings, rusty implements, and a shiny white post office.

I was met by man I have spoken to a number of times on the phone named "Johnny", who met me @ the PO. Then I followed him into the woods on a dirt road to his shop,

where he had this little magic chef gas oven for sale.
He had helped a neighbor stripe a travel trailer she bought of the interior, she wants to retro fit it with a new interior. In payment she gave him this and a number of other appliances. I know Craig's List advices never to meet an unknown person through an internet connection alone, and DEFIANTLY!!! never follow them off into the woods, along a winding dirt path!!!!!! Well, today is a day to be thankful that I am not paranoid by nature, that I got a good deal, and that we have our little oven now!

All the pumps and spigot doors

2011-01-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

Finally we have all the pumps needed for the TRLR. The biggest one is for the supplying water top the bathroom. The smallest one is for drawing water through the first filter when we load water in from an "other than city water/hose" source. One of the medium sized pumps is for supplying water to the washing machine, and the other is for pumping water through the reverse osmosis system and UV light into the final holding tank, where the water we use will be clean and drinkable.
There is an ostentatious trend going on right now where by people are buying these fancy looking gas port doors. I bought two to install into the side of the trailer, and behind them will be the spigots out of which will come water from the gray tank under the kitchen sink in the front, and in the back clean and drinkable water that has passed through the RV/UV system.

Tiny House Blogs Links!

2011-01-27T06:46:00.000-08:00

click to link to the articles:

Saw Dust Burning Stove Stove Instructions

Wood Burning stoves for Tiny Houses!

18 Brilliant Storage Ideas for Tiny Houses

How to Scale Down in Comfort and Style">Tiny House Essentials:
How to Scale Down in Comfort and Style

Putting the wood +metal truss assembies together

2011-01-26T16:59:00.000-08:00

all the trusses together, in order

the front truss, which will be tethered to the nose, and which will establish the shape of the roof
living room trusses
cool shape. these go in the loft above the bathroom
quick photo of my only two welding clamps... nothing would be possible with out them
i came home from work and built the bathroom trusses and one of the living room trusses while listening to Al Jazeera Live online... listening to the news coverage of the revolution in Egypt!

chalk drawing to match to, lay the pieces down and position
join the apex of the both the fore and aft sections of metal framing

grinding some of the flange away just to get the fit right

place the wood into the metal
put the second section into the first and clamps the wood in place
join the flanges with pan heads on the interior surface so they will be more flush and make mounting the interior paneling easier
hex heads on the exterior... they are stronger and will be covered by foam board wich will give around their shape
all three trusses for the master bedroom steel assembled. Next to through drill the metal wood and fasten with bolts.

Windy Smithy Wood Stove came today!

2011-01-21T15:14:00.000-08:00

Click the blog title to visit the Windy Smithy web site!

....AND while I was @ the habitat for humanity Restore looking for draw hardware and a new faucet for a utility sink I am modifying and will install in the next few days... (posts to come).... I also found these black and white tiles for the hearth!

kitchen idea

2011-01-19T16:52:00.001-08:00

found on the tiny house blog

cherry for plates and cedar in the home-made kiln for the bath tub!

2011-01-19T02:00:00.000-08:00

This is Jack. He is a local wood turner I met @ x-mas craft fair, and he is going to make the plates
this is the piece of cedar I bought. It came from a tree some where right around this area. It is 3" thicj, by 9 5/8th" wide and six-ish feet long.
Ayer yo fui al la Farmington a comprara la medera de cerezo a hacer platos para la cabana!
Farming Depot Gallery on the way to Watson Springs
Old rusty stuff. this metal was made to survive, like plastic. I wonder if we will display all the old drinking straws and single use creamer cups in the future, when that stuff is still around
Landus took me inside the wood drying kiln he and Richard made to dry out lumber they re-claim and want to work with in the near future. I knew from my time living with wood heat that wood needs to sit for @ least a year to dry before it will burn well. The same is true for lumber a person wants to build with.. it needs to have time to dry and set itself in place, so that the object you make will not warp over time as the grain of the wood contracts as it drys
They even made the hinges! This is the answer to my ?? of how to install the two back doors of the utility closet.
the winch
Landus Bennett
pile o wood, all reclaimed urban lumber
my cedar came out of somebodies yard... down in a ditch...fallen in a winter storm more than a year ago... see the tree?
pile o wood, all reclaimed urban lumber: our four cedar board on the top. the fans draw the warm air up and over the tent like roof hanging above the wood. the air meets to doors, which are heavy and well insulated, and then falls down around the wood. The pile is inside a circulating current of warm air, with occasional added moisture to help the wood keep it's shape and not dry out too fast.
the water sprayer just to give the wood a little moisture while it dried, and "help it relax"
the fans
the heater
the cedar for my bath tub!
snow guardian
"hey, what's going on?!"
snow on the hill side
old farm house
corner store in a tiny southern town
more rusty old stuff
old cemetary

Tankless Hot Water Heater buying guide

2011-01-12T05:47:00.001-08:00

http://www.tanklesswaterheaterguide.com/

Water purifaction on the small scale... humaniarian inspired life saver bottle

2011-01-10T16:57:00.000-08:00

Check this out!
http://www.lifesaversystems.com/

snow day, going's on...

2011-01-10T14:07:00.001-08:00

Today there is snow again.... nice day to stay inside and put another layer of tung oil on the trusses. hoy yo pongo la capa siguiente de barniz en el roble rojo. yo aprende muy bien frase otra dia: yo lo voy a lograr. nosotros hacemos una cabana con quatro llantes. Cuando lo acabado quiermos a viajar.

Also I have two of the @ least three pumps we will use: a big one for pumping water from the tank below the bathroom up through a filter and then through an on demand hot water heater, then out through the faucets and shower head, and a small one for pumping water through a filtration system....some where along the line. The big one is a Shurflo industrial pump, and the little one is a Flojet. I need to buy one more, medium sized pump, to bring water from the tank below the washing machine. I am also going to install a small sink accessible from the outside that is fed by this second tank for utility purposes.and this is a picture of the temperature controller made by Mikey Skylar of Holy Scrap Hot Springs!!! www.holyscraphotsprings.com
and finally, the last part of this blog post is about some research I have done: Here are some of the things I am working towards getting for our general uses..
I am saving for two of these replacement car gas port doors to create an opening to access water spigots, one for clean water coming out of the water filtration system in the back, and one for gray water from the kitchen in the front.
This is the second Eemax point of use water heater I am saving for: Series Two, model ## EX 120TWater pressure regulator and back flow protector city water inlet which will be installed in the gas bungs pictured in a previous post... this is where a hose will connect to allow for water to be put into the trailer from an outside pressurized connection.and also the outlet to be mounted on the side for electricity from an outside source
But the thing I am most stoked about finding is the Windy Smithy in Sommerset England. They make wood burning stoves for caravans, cabins, trailer, van conversions... you get the idea. Here is the model we are going to get. I hope to get the $$ off to him in the next few days! next work to be done is to finish the staining process, and to start cutting the flanges off for the c-track, which will form the upper cords of the trusses Here is my Zapatista laying out on the hard cold steel.. and it's a nice shot of the card board pattern piece I made from a piano box... I lay it down and draw the lines for where to cut... I have to day, building this home with such a creative, hard working and amazing man is a dream come true for me. Here is Scott removing a part of the flange of the c-track, so that the metal will wrap around the wood assemblies.

insulation board and plumbing parts saving for water tanks

2010-12-23T19:08:00.001-08:00

Habitat for Humnaity here in Athens!!!

2010-12-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

This is me and JP!!!!!!
Check out this link to an article in the Athens Banner Hearld about the Habitat for Humanity ReStore here in Athens!
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/121310/new_755798534.shtml

Watson Spring: our source for locally harvested wood

2010-12-13T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Landus Bennett of Watson Spring, out in Farmington. We drove out there today to see some cedar for use in building our bathtub. There is a fallen tree down the hill that they are going to mill to specs for us, and I will pick the wood up a few days. In the mean time I bought a piece of cherry to give to my friend Tim, a wood turner, who is going to make us a set of plates and bowls. Wooden kitchen wear seems like the most light-weight and non-breakable option for a home where weight is an issue.
Landus and his partner Richard ( who is also a blacksmith) do some amazing work for high end designer homes. Here are some pictures of a staircase banister with iron vines and leaves,

a lamp made from apple wood that Landus is working on, and their super mellow and sweet shop dog Ben!
And last but not least: here is Scott using the metal detector they sue to find nails and such in wood they re-claim from old barns and the like.

Point of use Hot water heater #1

2010-12-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

I bought our first of two point of use on demand hot water heaters today! used, as in uninstalled and has been sitting around Mercury Art Works for a year! $50!! Isn't it pretty!

Score @ Habitat...scavenger hunting for water filtration system supplies

2010-12-08T08:51:00.001-08:00

SCORE @ THE HABITAT FOR HUMANITY RE-STORE TODAY!!!
The third of four padded toilet seats we need to cushion the kitchen water jugs!
HINGES for the back utility closet doors!! I have been wanting to build these two doors, but waiting to find the right hinges!!
This I will use to make the form for the hole in the bottom of the bath tub. Once I get the wood frame built I will cut a hole, fit this into it and then wrap the fiberglass resin embedded cloth down into the hole and out to accept the plumbing.
This will mount to the underside of the TRLR and provide more ventilation for the solar batteries.
While I have been working away for 2 months now on the red oak portions of the roof trusses I have realized something about the order of operations with regards to construction. While I have been really frustrated at how long and cumbersome wood working can be (especially when you are working primarily with chisels, a back saw and sand paper...) I am kind of glad because it has given me time to think through some other design issues and start finding the supplies and where-with-all for building the water filtration system. The gist is that once the roof trusses go up the oak will need to be protected by the roofing and siding, but once I put the siding up it will be more difficult to install some parts of the water system (like the tanks in the sub floor). Also, I will need to build the intake and out-take ports into the siding as I go.. and to do that, and choose the right hardware, etc. so that all the pipes and tubes fit together, I need to know what supplies I will be using, from start to finish, even before I install the final system. That has brought the question to my attention " How can it be that I could pour "contaminated water" from a river or creek even, into the trailer, and have it come out clean and even drinkable?! Filters and UV light.

Water will enter the TRLR through ports built into the side, using these motorcycle gas caps and bungs I found on eBay and @ the Harley store. The bung will be welded in the siding itself, and the body of the gas cap screws tight into place, then center part unscrews to allow access to the water system. I chose these style caps because they are tamper proof, to a point. I will build a box that locks to house the spigot for getting water out after it has been cleaned. After water has been poured into the TRLR it will pass through a filter like this:
and it will either go to one of two 30 gallon tanks like this ( from DM Plastics in Alberta)There will be one tank for the bathroom and one tank for the washing machine. At the point of use in the bathroom there will be other filters like these:
used in conjunction with a point of use hot water heater, so that water used for bathing will be filtered twice and water used for washing clothes will be filtered once. Then, after it drains from either the bathroom sink, bathtub/shower, or washing machine it will enter a system that is designed to clean the water to make it drinkable.

These are UV light tubes that people use in koi pond, and it will be connected to a series of filters of a reverse osmosis system for removal of particles and heavy metals:
and then into a 60 gallon tank like this from DM Plastics.ca
This tank will also be receiving rain water from gutters that will be fed into the UV/filtration system.... and the hope is that once water has passed through the trailer and comes out the spigot at the back it could be used to refill the water jugs, taken to the front of the trailer and used for cooking and washing dishes... maybe even shared with neighbors if we are in someplace that doesn't have clean drinking water. I am saving up for the water tanks right now.

Dan Phillips: Creative houses from reclaimed stuff

2010-12-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

www.TED.com, Ideas Worth Spreading.
Please watch this talk by Dan Phillips, and please visit Phoenix Commotion in Huntsville, TX!!!

I wrote tyo him to ask some advice about how to makema bath tub, and here is what he wrote back!!!! I am over the moon!

Hi, Gretchen,

Quite likely there is an article out there somewhere, but I don't know where. The choice of wood needs to be something resistant to rot--cedar, osage orange, black locust, cypress, are a few. Glue and nail the wood together in the shape you want. On the inside of the tub grind off lumps and bumps with a belt sander, and fill in the voids with auto-body putty (i.e., Bondo--directions on the can and available at your local auto parts store). Drill a hole for the drain with a hole saw (One and one fourth inches in diameter so that standard plumbing parts will fit). Then acquire some fiberglass resin and cloth (available at auto parts stores), read the directions, and apply two coats. Sand smooth. Then go to your local paint store and get a bathtub paint kit (Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, etc.). Give it two coats of bathtub paint. Install the plumbing parts, and... get ready for a bath.

Good luck.

Dan
Here is the bath tub Dan built for two!

Some professional wood working advice

2010-11-13T12:11:00.000-08:00

the quarter sawn grain of the wood is really starting to come out with the sanding! with a few layers of tung oil it will be lustrous and shiny!

"The Grizzly" home of "wally the wandering sanding belt"
Brent Swanson
Feeding the grizzly

I went out to visit Brent Swanson of Normaltown Woodworks out in Winterville the other day, and showed him everything I had done here to fore. He said I can work with what I've got, and offered some next steps to take to add structural integrity to my joints, as well as covering up my shoddy fitting. Today I finished cutting all the mortises, and by tomorrow I will have all the joints glued and ready to sand, which he offered to let me do in his big sander. Thanks Brent!

I went down stairs and took the last of four similar trusses out of the clamps, then made to start on the next mortises, which are quite a bit trickier...anyways, here are some pictures of what I have done, and what I have left to do. The fit of the pieces I have made thus far is.. not too good, and I also took pictures of the gouges I mentioned that were made when the pieces I was cutting the tenons in got away from me when the saw caught in the wood. I guess what I want to know is: should I continue with what I have already done, try to fill in the gaps with epoxy and through fasten it with dowels, or should I just scrap it, buy some more wood and hire someone to help me start over and do it right/tight fitting?
I know there are more boards out there in Bishop... and I didn't get a chance to Landus' picture last time.

this is the marked for the mortise I need to work, it's 3 5/8th" deep.. and an acute angle, the X is the material that need to be removed, down to the pencil line you see running across the board.

poor fit up @ the base of the four joints I have made so far.

It was hard for me to hold the line when I cut the tenons with the radial arm saw, so the other boards don't fit snuggly.

cutting the tenons along the bias of the grain of a hard wood, sometimes the saw bit into the wood, and I wasn't strong enough to hold it, so big chunks were torn away, on the edges of the tenons.. I don't know if thse can be filled with epoxy or not.
when cutting the mortises, I have started by removing wood with the circular saw, and then a chisel, but my cuts are quite un-even, so the fit inside the joint is not so good.
the joints are angled, and it seems that my angels are too deep on one side, or another, usually both! and/or, since the inside of the mortise is uneven the tenon piece doesn't fit well, or fit all the way down into the joint....so there is space @ the bottom
more gouges where I lost control of the wod

Loft floor platform and interior wall,, ready for the trusses!

2010-10-31T11:02:00.001-07:00

We bought another batch of steel this past Thursday, and so i spent the next day and yesterday (Saturday) building the above the bathroom/bedroom loft platform and it's accompanying supporting wall. The platform will be helpful when it comes time to install the roof trusses, as it can be used as a staging area.

The little wall is built with 20 gauge material and a light gauge non structural c-track that is 1 5/8th inches wide, so i could turn the studs sideways and save a little bit of room.
This is a good shot of the place where the floor and the walls meet, the studs are fastened to the top of the wall with angle clips.
another good shot of the assembly from the bottom...
Scott is stoked

local red oak.. starting on the roof trusses!

2010-10-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

I ended up deciding to just give it a go and experiment with the circular saw, reciprocating saw, hand held back saw, chisle and rasps... and I got one of 10 done....

So I used a radial arm saw for the first time today, with a dado blade, to cut the tenons for the trusses. think I will need some help using a able saw to cut the mortises.. I just don't have a lot of upper body strength,. and oak is hard enough that when the blade catches it really wants to go! Anyways: step one finished with out any loss of limb!!

Bob and I cut the 15" wide boards down to 3 5/8th inches wide, and then I used the card board patterns I made to mark them for length. I borrowed my friend Chris' Purcell's circular saw, bought a new blade and cut the boards to the various lengths and angles needed. I had a very girly moment when Scott heard the saw over working, and came down to see what my trouble was, and pointed out gently that I had put the saw blade on backwards. He went away to get the camera laughing. Tomorrow I will go over to my land lord's house and use his radial arm saw to start on the mortise and tenon joints.
My friend Bob Fernandez helped me man handle and cut the boards down to 3 5/8th" wide, helping get them to right dimensions and also taking some of the bowing out.

lots of flying sawdust in the air! Go BOB!

We went to meet Landus Bennett of a local reclaiming lumber, wood craft outfit Watson Springs, and we drove out to Bishop Ga and bought 4 15' pieces of local red oak that had been sitting in a pile air dried for four years. Then I took it to my friend Bob Fernandez's house and he helped me with his skill saw and table saw to cut the boards down to the size we need to incorporate them into the lower cords of out roof trusses! We drive and bought the amount of steel we need yesterday, so today I am going to start building the bedroom loft platform floor, which will be a staging platform for the truss erection.
Landus helped us cut the boards in 1/2 so we could load them in our little truck. 120 board feet to be had in all.
nothing like drawing it out life size in chalk to get the feel for how it will look and what to do.
these two pictures kind of show the layered structure of the roof once it is complete. The wide pieces of cardboard represent the metal cords of the truss itself, then they will be ganged together by perpendicular lengths of furring channel, then on top of that we will attach a layer of foam backed fiber glass insulation board, represented here by what is seen as a cross section of card board. Finally we will attach the aluminum standing seam roofing material with stainless steel fasteners.
and this is where the window goes...

I have FINALLY! gotten really good @ doing proportional drawings!

2010-09-27T09:56:00.001-07:00

Up till now we have been "stick building", kind of taking general measurements on site and cutting to fit as we go...drawing in chalk to size on concrete driveways and parking lots... because I am not very good at working in 2-D. I can't really paint or draw, or make architectural drawings. But FINALLY now that I have been working on designing the roof trusses for months, and not that we are ready to build the roof trusses.. I have finally got the hang of designing things ahead of time, making sure everything will fit, and all the measurements are correct....so. onto th3e roof trusses! I had a dream a few nights ago of two sueful design considerations: one is of the way to make beautiful embroidered curatins, and the otehr is to use wood for the lower cords of the trussed, so they can be exposed, and metal cords above that, to attach, first 18 gauge furring channel, then the roofing material and the interiour paneling on the inside. Anyways, here are the hand drawings for the bathroom/bedroom floor platform, the four different roof trusses we will be making, and the two interior walls that will enclose the master bedroom. The drawings are on a scale of 2":1'

Scott found a program that will design roof trusses for you, and you know how much it costs? $7,000. I asked an architect for help, and they wanted $1,500. YIKES! No wonder I have been working on these drawings for months!

These two drawings/charts are first for the amount of materailw e will need to finish ALL framing, some 1'x 3 5/8 18gauage C-track, 18 gauge studs, 1"x 1 5/8" c-track, and hard wood beams, 1" x 2". The second drawings is a a little sketch od how we are going to attach the trsusses to the tops of the walls. We will enclose the C-track that the wall studs are fastened into with another piece of c-track to make a box, and the on all four sides of the truss and stud we will use 14 gauage angle stock, through bolted across through the truss and the wall stud, and also through the c-track. At four locations, denotedf by spirlas in the last image aboove, the through bolts will be tubular, hollow through the center, and through the bolts we will thread a piece of steel wire, which will be fastened diagonally across the 2' span between the wall studs, fatened at the floor. This will provide diagonal stability for the roof, to with-stand wind sheer and also to diagonally brace the walls.

Building the bay window back wall of the TRLR

2010-09-22T14:36:00.001-07:00

Since I am kind-a not able to hold anything with my hands ( I tried to assemble the horizontal sills, holding the drill with my injured hand, and it slipped and I drilled into the top of my right foot) I did all the cutting for the assembly pieces, and then I got to play farkie to Scott while he assembled the back wall. It's almost done! I'll post more pictures when we get the windows in.
Scott is happy lately.

Bathroom walls

2010-09-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I am standing where the toilet will be.
The bathroom walls will support the bedroom loft platform, which will etxend to about where my blue shoulder is. The walls are 74", and the room is 48" X 75".
TEE HEE!
Straight and true.
bathroom and bedroom coming together
curve and ladder infrastructure. The curve is to make it easier to get into the bedroom, closet area, and to the ladder that will go up into the loft.
the bath tub will fit into the curve.. 30" by 48"

Blood on steel

2010-09-17T11:04:00.001-07:00

This really isn't that big of a deal, except that these are the first injuries that even remotely affect daily life sustained while build le TRLR. I had gotten all the parts of the bathrom walls onto the floor joist deck inside the trailer, and I was man handling them into a position where I could join them with the flexi C-track. I was holding one of the wall studs when I missed my footing on a joist and fell through the floor, and the flange of the stud gave me a deep cut to my middle finger and gouged out some flesh on my right finger. I almost fainted while I was pouring the hydrogen peroxide on. So I cleaned myself up, bandaged my fingers and took a juice break before coming back to work... and then I raked my thumb over an edge of steel while hanging over the top of the wall, having just clamped the stud into the c-track and reaching for the drill. I dribbled blood all over the trailer as I slunk away... ready to come home and feed myself a brownie. It's a good thing I am making a red coat right now, so I can spend the rest of the afternoon sewing.TRLR: 2! G:0

Pictures of the bedroom floor platform, and the three knee walls

2010-09-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

Next up goes the bathroom walls along that flat strapping you see anchored to the floor joists there. It is for the sub flooring to rest on as it runs around the walls. Normally one would put the sub floor down and then build the walls on top right? Well, for this trailer the total skeleton being anchored together adds greater wracking stability.. and we also don't have the sub floor materiel yet. We are going to use plastic honey comb paneling, super light weight and super strong, it's the kind of thing they use in airplane structures.
Here is a shot of the bathroom wall components laid out and ready to be assembled!
Ahh tomorrow!

Lady Gaga dance party (in my head) helps me dance/build our bedroom!

2010-09-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

OHHH BOY!!!! It's been a while since I made a construction post, and since Scott is out of town with the camera I can't post recent trailer pictures just yet. Maybe there has not been much building going on these past months, but there has been a lot of planning and a whole lot else!

From June to August Julian was here in Georgia. We did many many things:
Motor-cycle riding,

camping,
kayaking,

went to the Salvador Dali exhibit,

he and Scott went to the aquarium

the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial,

and Six Flags theme park, we watched the entire series of TWIN PEAKS!!!, and we went hunting for the giant mutant crickets that live in the historic neighborhood of town. They were an freak entomology project gone wacky from years past, let loose in the "wild" and still thriving today. We caught one, named it Henry, and brought it home for a few days.

I quit my Waffle House job to go back to sewing full time, and I started a new blog about my work, and also selling on eBay, search EGRETION. I sold three pop-up books to a collector in Ohio, and with part of that money we bought more steel to build the bedroom!

I went to pick it up two days ago, and have been out on the site building the knee walls and bedroom floor platform, singing Lady Gaga songs and taking dance breaks. Her music isn't all that much to write about, but it's so catchy, and the basic idea of it is only 12 seconds long, so singing it over and over again makes you feel like you have only been working for about... 12 seconds.. and look how much I got done!!! Her style can be so barely nude, and it's been so hot I have been working al fresco... it seems fitting... no pun intended;-)

The main walls are much more stable now, and tomorrow I am going to incorporate that flexible c-track into the bathroom walls, and then start building the bay window exterior walls at the very back of the trailer. Scott bought the clear-story awning windows and the bay casement windows, a special order from Lowe's... a weird size: 17.5" x 36". Once I finish these interior walls it will be time to build the infamous off-set scissors trusses and gang them together!!! I will post pictures tomorrow!

"Blacksmith Bill" Speaks

2010-09-08T17:49:00.001-07:00

This post is the resolution that Blacksmith Bill and I agreed upon in front of the judge of magistrate court in Clarke County on August the 18th. Bill was willing to dismiss his libel suit if I agreed to publish a piece of writing generated by him here on the blog.

Bill mailed it to me certified mail, I received it two days ago, and Scott, who is a speed demon typist, transcribed it into a word document... so, *drum roll please!* Direct to you from "Blacksmith Bill of Cartersville":

"Bill Sproat’s Enablement of Gretchen Elsner’s Travel Trailer Project

The following narrative describes the setting which enabled Gretchen’s building of a chassis and walls for her envisioned travel trailer; a habitat on wheels from the ground-up with my enablement at no cost to her.

Bill’s Introduction: I am a semi-retired Aerospace Engineer with a background in aircraft full-scale structural test department management at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company (now Lockheed Martin) facilities in Marietta, GA. Further, I built a metal framed house. As such, I was able to design Gretchen’s travel trailer chassis for loads and stability, along with steel wall framing configurations.

Fabrication and Assembly of the Trailer Chassis and Walls: I have a fully equipped facility with metal working hand and power tools, hydraulic handling equipment, and a blacksmith forge for parts fabrication. Major power tools include: portable band saw, friction chop saw, metal inert gas (MIG)/flux coated electrode (stick) welding, and oxy-acetylene cutting/welding equipment.

Workspace and Housing: A concrete staging area for assembly was provided, along with personal housing in a ground floor suite as needed during the fabrication process.

Design: The mainstay in concept definition was afforded by my computer aided design; examples shown in reduced scale as a header for her blog. I provided these to Gretchen for guidance in detailed layout of the floor plan and side elevations.

Beginning the Project, September 2009-April 2010: It began with my 55 mile transport of Gretchen’s items from Athens, GA to my home at 192 Ridgeview Trail SE, Cartersville in Bartow County, GA. Items in Athens included: a combination washer/dryer, 4 steel framed windows, a 300 lb. combination door window unit, a mobile home tandem axle set, and a number o lead-acid batteries for solar energy storage. Gretchen and I off-loaded these items from my utility trailer to basement storage.

Next was purchase and transport of chassis steel from Steel Materials in Cartersville. Gretchen had limited money for these materials and I sprung for the purchase, with reimbursement forthcoming as she earned more. Scot Points was now on the scene and assisted off-loading the chassis steel, 4”X6”X1/4” wall, from my utility trailer. At a later visit, Gretchen learned to weld and proceeded to MIG weld chassis elements. I recommended bar joist cross frames be fabricated and affixed to the chassis, fore and aft of the axles. Gretchen got experience with stick welding the bar joists and welded them to the chassis. Next was her chassis painting; my positioning of the chassis with the invaluable engine hoist used in all large-scale materials handling.

Gretchen acquired the suspension components; leaf springs with chassis mount shackles. I drilled and tapped threads in to the chassis, followed by fastening shackles with stainless steel cap screws. The chassis was then positioned on blocks to commence wall framing. Floor joists, steel framing 1-5/8”X5-1/2” – 18 gauge channels, were cut to fit a 7’ – 8” outside width framing width and assembled with “close-out – C” channels along sides. Wall framing, 1-5/8”X3-1/2” – 18 gauge studs, and floor joists were acquired by me and most framing items transported in my truck to the construction side. During absence of Gretchen and Scot, I fabricated and installed attachment clips and brackets to affix the floor joists to the chassis. Wall framing commenced with Gretchen and Scott under my guidance and hands-on participation.

In the meantime, I examined the mobile home axle spindles in dimensional detail and determined that it was problematic to fit bearings to that set. Gretchen further pursued this issue and found that mobile home axles are not suited for sustained highway use. Consequently, she ordered a highway suitable axle set which was later installed. With wheels and mounte4d tires, the chassis assembly was complete. Next, a mock-up of the roof trusses was assembled and temporarily affixed to the exterior walls. The vertical dimension from grade level to roof maximum height was excessive. Gretchen changed-out tires to a 3” smaller diameter (1-1/2” radius which affects overall height accordingly by 1-1/2”), but there remained a 13’ overhead clearance issue. That issue awaited detailed design and fabrication at a later date. Roof trusses were to be fabricated and installed after roll-out of the chassis and side walls from Ridgeview Trail to Athens.

Roll-out April 2010: I proceeded with a solo act to ready the trailer for roll-out during the month of April 2010. Readiness entailed adjustments of wall framing and setting the remaining 3 window units, along with the 300 lb. door/window unit. My engine lift allowed for this solo work and the trailer assembly was ready for transit to Athens before the end of April. Gretchen and Scott rented a U-Haul box truck for trailer towing and hauling of siding, roofing, and additional framing/fastener materials to Athens. Gretchen installed temporary wiring for highway transport lights and the trailer was ready for the long awaited roll-out. Owing to the long wheelbase of the U-Haul truck, I towed the trailer up my dog legged drive and right-angled onto Ridgeview Trail with my pickup. Hitch transition to the U-Haul on Ridgeview Trail accomplished roll-out completion for transit to Athens. End of the Ridgeview Trail construction phase.

Blacksmith Bill"

Thank you everything Bill. I learned a great deal.

Best of luck, health and peace to you and yours,

Gretchen

Magistrate Court with Bill: libelous statements and assault and battery counter-claim.

2010-08-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been waiting on the windows to come and I am trying to scratch up some cash to buy more C-track. ( please visit eBay and search for EGRETION, or my new blog egretion.blogspot.com! to see what kinds of items I have that might be just what you are looking for!) and in the mean time we went to court to try and settle the legal matter of libel statements made on this blog with Blacksmith Bill.

There is an audio file of the judge's words to us, which were, in a nut shell, that there were some very serious implications that couldcme out of this lawsuit, and did Bill really want to proceed, was there some way we could ettle this matter out of court. Bill said that he would like to write his own version of the events and would I conesnt to publish them here on this blog. I agreed that after proof reading, and as long as it was plainly clear that they were his words, not mine, sure I would be willing to try that. So, some time in the next few weeks he will send me his two cents, I have a week to proof-read it, and you will see it up here, for all to see.

All in all I learned a lot. I learned how to write a cracker-jack legal document, I learned how to find information about laws and procedures in legal publications, search legal libraries for precedents, and I learned that when someone is hurt they almost immediately lash out in anger. Bill admitted that he had been very very angry, and came right straight to Clarke-county to file a lawsuit, to let me know that "this isn't gonna a fly". It was good to see him, albeit an un-usual circumstance, but isn't the whole situation unusual?! The judge remarked, I don't know how you two met, or came to be in this situation together, and I have know idea where this hearing is gonna lead!"

I will a,also ;publish the legal document I wrote in answer to Bills claim. I found some very useful sites in how to write a legal document, and it's just good to have template.

Flexible C-track!

2010-07-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Some Mexican guys who are remodeling the new yogurt shop up the street gave me some of the flexible C-tack they have been using. We want to make one corner of the bathroom wall rounded to go around the bathtub, to give more room for the person to get into the second floor bedroom loft! They gave me several nice long pieces!

On another note: I have had a show up @ White Tiger Gourmet here in Athens this month, and last night, to celebrate the full moon I wore my new board game costume, " The house of John King" down there and let people who came to eat play the game! It was a lot of fun.

We are currently working on all the interior walls and bedroom floors... and then the roof trusses. Another trip to Cartersville for steel is in the future, just a few more pieces!

Solar battery vents and our 1st Party!

2010-07-15T20:07:00.001-07:00

The last "little thing" to do before starting on the interior walls and roof trusses was install the six vents for the solar battery compartment: two interior vents,

and two sets of exterior vents.

And today we had our first party @ the TRLR: by request of the kids we went to the trailer and threw rocks over the wall, passion fruit at the wall, and played hide-and-seek. Me, Scott, Julian, Scott friend Wes's daughter Nyima, Professor Purwick (Chris Purcell) and his son Spike!

Gravity feed kitchen water nose furring

2010-07-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

building the nose furring that will jut out from the front of the TRLR and house four 5 gallon re use-able water jugs.. to gravity feed the kitchen sink. Scott had the brilliant idea to mount padded toilet seats on the shelves to hold the jugs and also keep them from knocking around too much. At present count we have two toilet seats and one jug.

It's hard to see from the pictures, but it is slightly rounded.

And here it is all installed. It was really a bear to get the top one up. I strained all my muscles, legs and arms.. and have been sore for two days. that's how you get bigger muscles though! Scott did the bottom two.

Here is the full assembly, all complete: with one of the four toilet seats + water jug combos.

The White Tiger

2010-07-05T06:55:00.001-07:00

The month of June was spent not working on the TRLR, but sewing new work which is now visiting The White Tiger Gourmet, a restaurant on Hiawasee St. here in Athens for the month of July. Check out the ad in the Athens Secret Admirer for a 15% off coupon... and check back next week here for pictures of the installation by Steven Trimmer.

In the past month Scott has re-built and installed the second door, and I wen to British Columbia to spend a week and a half with my son. e went on two field trips with his class, and I spent an afternoon sewing their "Ugly Dolls" with them, I went to Nanaimo to see my friend Allie and her beautiful little daughter Verity,

I went back to Gambier island to see the house I used to live in there, and visit with Alice and Sylvia. Sylvia has always been really quiet, but I was wearing magenta tights, and she took to me like a duck to water, and we spent the afternoon playing. She asked me, while we were sitting together ton the dock. what kind of spirit I was, and what spirit was. I told her that spirit was the power given to each thing that is the gift of it's life and movement and change, and I that I had a happy, healthy and strong spirit. She told me she was a star spirit. It was the high light of the trip.

and my dear, beautiful friend Ann.
No one has lived in the house since I left in July of 2008.

The other little piece of new from June was that Blacksmith Bill served me with paper for a libel suit against me for the previous blog post. After having spent many hours at the law library in the court house, and learning a lot about both Georgia libel and slander laws, and also civil battery laws before I left, I decided to wait and deal with the issue when I got back from Canada. I will be filing my response and counterclaim with in the next week.

Next project to work on for the TRLR is building the nose ferring that will hold the water jugs, four 5 gallon jugs that will gravity feed the kitchen sink! My son Julian is here with us for the summer,. so he will be here to "over-see" the work.

steel 101 and roof truss design

2010-05-28T14:32:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of the steel material we are using to build the walls,and roof of the trailer. pictures is the 1 5/8 x 3 5/8" material,we used 18 gauge 1 5/8 x 5 5/8" for the floor joists. the different gauges just mean the different thickness and strength of the material. I am taking a week or two off the sew and ponder the construction of the roof trusses and save money for some windows that will need to be installed soon.

Just hanging out @ home

2010-05-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today I spent some time just hanging out and reading away a part of the afternoon in the living room, for the first time! I am reading In Search of the Miraculous, by P.D. Ouspensky, about the teaching of Georges Gurdjieff. We had a great meeting with Drew Bowen the solar engineer today. He is stoked to install some little wind generators on the roof too. I still want to learn more about bi-facial solar panels. Taking two weeks off from TRLR work to sew, then it's time to build the interior walls and the roof trusses!

Flora and Fauna

2010-05-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

Scott took some amazing gopher pictures today! 6/2/2010

This is the wind catcher tree.

There are rabbits and cats that live around the work site as well. A moth emerged from it's cocoon, installed inside the flange of on the horizontal braces, and it's soft wet wings were so delicate in my hand as I took it away from the work area.

The kudzu grows over everything.

There is a hickory tree, and an old old mulberry tree in one corner, remnant of the colonizing pioneer's desire to establish Georgia as a silk producing colony.

The weather is too humid to separate the threads. When it is terribly hot out and I am there to work I often just take off my clothes and hang out with the critters in this little corner of the world.

two baby starlings, and their parent on the wall screaming at me to leave them alone!

I managed to take some pictures of the gophers!

Sub-fllor support assemblies, and horizontal bracing

2010-05-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

This job, that I thought would only take me a week at most has taken a month, mostly because I have been working the night shift, and it's hard to live when you work 10 hour nights. I go back on Days this week, and now that this part of the job is done I am going to take two weeks off and sew. A lady around the corner from the work site, a potter, made me a batch of hand made buttons, and I am excited to incorporate them into some new work.

What we have built is a support structure, made from various assemblies, that hangs down from the main floor joists. This sub-floor assembly will support the water tanks, and solar batteries, and the under floor storage areas through out the dwelling. While I was at it I also made horizontal bracing for the spaces between the wall studs.
Here you can see the bracing between each main floor joist, and the sub floor below.

Also the outside edge of the vertical supports for this sub floor have a piece of furring channel attached to the ends, for fastening the siding to.

I just got this hammock today. I look forward to sitting in it while scheming about what do next. Here I am attaching secondary floor joist pieces at the location of up-coming interior walls: notice the horizontal bracing between the wall studs.

My friends Chris and Andy gave me these sails to make clothes from, but before we get the roof up we needed some shade..it is really cool being under them, rain or shine!

Old Habits Die Hard

2010-05-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

For many years I have hauled all manner of steel contraptions for my clothing displays on and off planes, trains and automobiles, around various towns and cities, islands and highways, in my bike trailer. There is no power @ the TRLR site, so I take the battery operated drill and reciprocating saw there, do what I need to do, and bring materials back home to use the chop saw and do sub assemblies... and I have been using our sweet little pick up truck until yesterday when it really died. It just needs new fuses, no big deal, but it will have to wait until after this weekend's work. So, today, in the spirit of my true nature, I rode Scott's recumbent bike over to the TRLR, worked for a while, took all the measurements for the horizontal bracing I am building now. Then I loaded about 150 lbs of steel into the bike trailer, and very slowly rode it back home, down one of the main streets of town. Some people laughed, some people were annoyed, and some people just stared, like I was crazy. I guess we are building a bigger and better version of the bike + trailer combo I have loved for so long.

...and then we went to buy eight more pieces of steel in Cartersvile, and loaded them onto.. the scooter trailer!

Roll-Home in the bay in Athens!

2010-05-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

It's been an eventful few weeks. Scott and I went up to Cartersville three weeks ago, and we found Bill quite hostile after a long day of drinking. With-in 15 minutes of our being there he had attacked me, grabbing me by the face and jacket. I put my cigarette out in his face in an attempt to back him off, to no avail. He didn't release me until Scott had separated us. He was all hot and bothered because when he had clamped the roof truss pattern we had made into place and taken some measurements the top of the trailer exceeded the 13' allowance, and he wanted to talk about re-designing the whole structure. I told him we should take some more measurements and think about the best way to proceed. He became angry very quickly, and under the influence of the booze he went quite insane. Scott and I went down the hill and confronted Mary, his estranged wife, with the incident, and it was a long needed conversation between us all, really clearing the air, and also extending our help to her in a situation she has been steadily watching worsen for many many years. When we all three went up the hill to confront Bill we found the house empty and his gun missing. Mary got a hold of him on the cell phone (after dark) to find that he had gone off into the woods with his gun.

I find it interesting, confusing, alarming and poignant that I have had two very open incidents in the past six months where I have had to confront and defend my boundaries with regards to people and their drug abuse, an issue I still face in my immediate family and have not found a way to constructively deal with. Early in March, while drunk, Bill had made two sexual passes at me, both of which I rejected forcefully at the time, but had not found a way to talk to him about after the incidents were over and while he was seemingly sober. It is very very difficult to talk to people who are in denial about their drug abuse and enabling, behaviors and indiscretions committed while using, or behaviors that perpetuate denial of the truth of the situation that no one wants to deal with. I wish I had spoken openly to Mary sooner rather than later, and I wish I had found the courage to deal with Bill's transgressions and drinking sooner. I just didn't know the severity of his addiction until I got there at the end of January, and in the last six weeks I have not wanted to sabbatoge the work to be done, humiliate Bill for his behavior, and also, if someone doesn't want help, or is unwilling to accept the truth, there is nothing to be said. I think the hardest thing to over come in conversation is that the person with the problem almost always wants to blame you for the incidents that erupted, and the people who are around the situation and in denial about it can't handle open confrontation or communication about a very complicated situation. There are always two sides to every story, and everyone needs to be able to communicate and accept their part and the points of view of others, but no other problems can be worked out until the drug abuse is addressed. When I came back to American from Canada a year ago I was very much in a state of delusion about my own family's problems, but through the help of the Al-anon family groups and Alcoholics Anonymous I am slowly coming to better terms in my own mind and heart with a situation that I am quite powerless to improve, and because of which I have had no contact with anyone in my immediate family for many many months. Drug addiction is "a cunning and baffling disease".

Anyways, the incident catalyzed for Scott and I a deep and urgent need to get le trailer to Athens as soon as possible. We solved the height problem by swapping out the tires we had for a smaller tire, saving about 3.5"! I took out another bank loan for $3000, we rented a U-haul and drove to Cartersville and camped for three days at Red Top Mountain State Park. We bought all the rest of the steel framing material we will need, as well as the aluminum siding and roofing material, plus all the fasteners, the lights and some needed tools. We finished the installation of the doors and windows, I put the wiring in for the lights and brakes in a very windy afternoon, and away we went! The trailer towed like a dream, straight and even, a totally smooth ride, and as I drove behind in the little white pick up I just cried with happiness! A big bright low close white full moon rose in front of us, and we arrived in Athens just as the sun was setting. We have rented a storage unit at Chase Street Self Storage for all the metals and materials, and a lot in an old brick bay for the trailer to sit while we work on it. There is no power there, so for the time being (until we get a welder/generator) we are shuttling materials back to the apartment to build sub-assemblies here at home, and then taking them to the site with the battery operated drill for installation. I am hoping to have the structure all but complete by the middle of June, and then I am off to Canada to be with Julian and then bring him here for the summer!

Walls

2010-04-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Looking into the trailer!!

Looking into the kitchen

We have started installing the pre-assembled wall sections, and building the nose walls as well!

Coco-Rosie, where are you?!

2010-03-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

We have a frustratingly sad piece of news!
I went back to Athens to take a photograph for Young, Foxy and Free magazine, and on the afternoon of March 12th Coco-Rosie went off exploring!! A lady in the neighborhood found her, tied her up and removed her tag to take it inside and call me, and while in progress Coco escaped again. She was found by another neighbor, not even two blocks from Scott's apartment, who called the Circle of Friends Animal Society number, they came and picked her and and amongst themselves made a unilateral decision to re-possess her, the boyfriend of her foster mother was given Coco as a birthday present because, according to the director, she was going to adopt Coco before I came along and adopted her! They have been totally unwilling to even meet and talk about the issue, will not let me see my dog, and will not relent in their assertion that "she is better off with them". I have been trying to call and make arrangements to meet with them at their usual adoption site in Athens, and I went there this past weekend, to find the Oconee County Animal Rescue there instead, who helped me get the director who won't return or answer my calls on the phone. She told me to stop harassing her. I believe we will be filing a civil suit this coming week.

Floor Joists, Scissors Jacks and Running Gear!

2010-03-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

We are making good progress getting the trailer up on it's own jacks and wheels, and in the mean while assembling walls. It will really be something getting the cage finished, **hopefully**, including the siding, by the end of APRIL! We are coming up Sunday thru Tuesday, I have kept my job here in Cartersville, and also working full time morning shifts in Athens, getting ready for a show @ The White Tiger in Athens in May, ans creating spring clothes for the stores I sell in. I am featured in this season's issue of Young Foxy and Free magazine, and photo/image magazine. I am wearing a costume made from recycled kimono, that changes into t board game I dreamt up when I was a kid. In the image I have met my long lost friend, a pyramid of gold!

Trial fit up of the tire on the hub...there is plenty of clearance between the tire wall and the chassis frame, and only little 3" interference with the floor joist, so we will only have to make small wheel wells. "whew!"
The new axle set + brake + hub assemblies all ready to mount to the springs and chassis!
Home made floor joist cobbled together from scraps

Shackles and leaf springs in place, the chassis and floor up on it's new frog legs!

Scott working on the sub-assemblies
Measuring for the shackle brackets to be welded in place.
Scott screwing together the nose section

the angle clips that join the joists to the C-channeling
Getting started
The floor assembled!

It's amazing, after five months of scarfing, torch cutting, black-smithing and welding to create the chassis, the floor sub-structure went together in about 2 hours! We drilled and bolted the scissors jacks in place, drilled and tapped the holes for the shackles and bolted the leaf springs and shackles together! Bill made all the joists clips and the end brackets too while I was working in Athens this past week!

I ran on these axles never the less..relentless optimism

2010-03-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, finally, after a lot of work we have realized that the free axle set was not really a gift after all, unless I consider how much the gift helped to inspire and embolden me to start this project. As it turns out the spindles are too short to interface with the hubs that have the right bolt pattern to match up with the rims that I needed to carry the tires that are properly rated for the weight of the unit.. so I am going to try and sell this amazing re-furbished axle set. Really, new axles are not that expensive if all you need is the tubes welded up, so it's not a huge deal in the end.. just a major learning experience and exercise in RELENTLESS OPTIMISM!!! So, here is the deal: These would be great for a utility trailer!!
FOR SALE: $250.00
I have a 7000lb capacity each tandem axle set.
They are a beefy and clean set of axles, 3" diameter 1/4" thick tubing. The hubs are a five bolt pattern, 12"x2". I have made new brake flange plates for mounting new brakes assemblies to, all they need is to be welded in place. The existing spring seats are on 76" centers, but I needed them @ 74" so I made new spring seats to weld on as well. Both the spring seats and flanges are made with 1/4" steel stock. The spindles are 5" long, inner bearing cone dimensions are 1 3/8", outer 1 1/4", I have all inner and outer bearings, and they are in good shape, just need new grease. I have all four nuts. The total length of the set, hub outside to outside is 97".

Tires and Paint!

2010-03-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Before and After! What a big difference!

I went to pick up the tires and rims today, before the truck nearly croaked in desperate need for a new water pump! Also got the chassis painted this week! Looks great, eh?!

The new welder works like a CHAMP!

2010-02-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

We have been with out a welder for two weeks, but yesterday Bill and I went over to Northern Tool and Equipment and picked up the new welder, which doubles as a MIG and stick, AND has a high frequency transformer/switching power supply in it, so it only weights about 40 lbs! I got started using it today to make the bar joists that will go between the arms of the under-carriage, on the inside. They will provide wracking stability, and probably help support the water tanks and batteries as well. The batteries weight 520 lbs, and we will have capacity to carry/collect 100 gallons of water. Since water weights 8 lbs/gallon it's gonna be heavy! These are a very efficient way of bearing loads with out adding a lot of weight to the structure.

Using my friend, the hoist, to move the aft end member into position.
Sweet bead!
Splice plates clamped and ready to be tack welded.
Stack of coins.

Whip-stitch
Under-side
Port side
Starboard side

By the end of the day...
...there is a 32' long object in the drive way.
Tomorrow, welding the bar joists and bumper into place!
The chassis is finished! Ready to paint!

"Getting everything out of the pig but the squeal."

2010-02-24T16:56:00.000-08:00

We decided not to spend $100 on pre-made spring seats and brake flange plates for the axle modifications. Instead we used some of the remaining 10" of tubing from the chassis , so in the end there are only some small scraps of un-used metal, that perhaps will find a place in the mix. Scott cut the pieces and we bent them in the forge, and I cut the saddles with the torch, and will weld them to the axles in the proper place. Scott also cut the brake flanges with the torch, and I filed them down flush with the axle tubing diameter. We also started wall framing this past weekend. The new welder is here! The brakes are here! The weather is getting warmer!

Alittle soot smeared, but ready to hit it.
Heating the work piece in the coal fire.
Coco really is shagrinned at not being quite human.
She is right beside us for every task.

Cutting the new brake flange plates
Getting started with the layout out of the port side wall for fabrication.

Torching off the old brake flange plates.
The plate post torching
The axles pre-grinding.
The axles with brake flanges removed and ground down flush, ready for the new flange plates!
This is the one we ruined.

And here is all that is left from 4 20' lengths of steel tubing!