Campo Bungalow

After Ten Years, the Shop is (Almost) Done

2025-02-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

These two router cabinets are the last of the major furniture for the shop. There will always be more tinkering of course, but probably no more big cabinets. I'm out of room!

Here are a bunch of photos and the design drawings.

Next project on the agenda

Stay tuned!

More Woodworking (and Revealing the Secrets!)

2024-01-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

I decided I needed a couple little cabinets...

...in the bathroom, so I whipped up this pair.

They're only eight inches deep but they will free up some space in a storage closet that I need for other things. In a small house you have to get creative with storage

So How do You Get a Nice Balanced Photo in Such a Small Room?

It ain't easy.

First you take about a million shots...

Sometimes you have to get creative...

I don't have fancy professional lighting, so a couple cheap lamps have to suffice...

Why is There no Camera Reflected in the Mirror?

First I took a picture of the mirror from an angle. Then using Photoshop's wonderful "Distort" tool, I dragged the corners until it was square. That's also how I get rid of parallax in the main photo.

Then I cropped that new mirror and simply pasted it over the old one.

Pretty tricky, huh?

Speaking of the need to get Creative...

All I have is a crummy phone camera, and it only measures exposure from dead center. Unfortunately, dead center of this shot is a mirror, so it darkens the cabinets.

So since I was going to replace the mirror anyway, I gave the camera something dark to look at.

Like a real photographer would tell you...

Anything for the shot!

Staying Cool

2023-07-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

100 Degrees is no fun

I'm so lucky to have an air conditioner out here, but it's not "central air" - it's a mini-split in the front of the house that does a good job on the living room but doesn't always make it to the dining nook at the other end of the house. And if I'm baking in the kitchen, forget it.

So in my eighth year here, I finally got around to installing a small unit in the dining room.

Installing these things is not terribly difficult, but the last step requires some special equipment, so most folks hire a pro for that part. When I installed the unit for the shop, I decided that rather than pay big bucks to somebody else, I'd just go to Harbor Freight and buy the tools. So I was ready to go this time.

The special tools were the gauges and a vacuum pump - the thing with the red handle next to the yellow bucket.

Also sprung for the cover kit to hide the pipes and wire.

So now the house is cool, but you could bake a cake on the dashboard of the poor truck.

Shade for The Chief

This would probably be considered tacky in the city, but city folks have nice two-car garages...

Somewhere in there, a break for an outdoor concert with friends:

And a couple new cabinets for the shop.

Stay cool!

Muzzy is Finished! (more or less...)

2023-05-20T19:07:00.003-07:00

Walt Disney is supposed to have said that Disneyland would never be finished as long as there is imagination left in the world... That could be true of van projects too.

In case you don't remember my last post on the subject, Muzzy is the Dodge van my daughter Jami uses for work travel and to get away from work when she can. She rented one just like it during Covid and had Old Dad throw together a removable interior for an epic 6000-mile trip across the country. Muzzy was her grandmother's nickname.

Van 1.0 "Betty"

Over the last couple of years she has left the van here for anywhere from a weekend to three months, and after the last sprint, we are declaring her finished. Except for that imagination thing...

Muzzy got a solar panel

A new home-made toilet covered in white plastic

And a half-door on the bathroom

We had originally planned a full door to match the closet door, but decided it would make the van too claustrophobic.

Original plan was for a full door on the bathroom

A half-door is enough privacy for a solo..

..But there is a pull-down shade

Also added what every van needs: a roll-top desk.

Since most of her travel is (unfortunately) work-related, we decided to give her a place to work. Big enough for a monitor and a laptop, but compact enough to fit in the limited space.

The desk also supports the upper bunk on that bearing.

Swing-out monitor bracket and pull-out keyboard tray


Home-made roll top

The Star Wars theme lives on...


The bunk pivot got redesigned so the top bunk can now be a backrest.

Happy trails Jami and Muzzy!

Burning Man

2022-09-28T00:22:00.006-07:00

Yes it's true... this old man went to Burning Man. So is it a wild orgy of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll? Not exactly. It's an enormous dead-flat lake bed filled with art, music, and 80,000 dancing and bicycling people, 98 percent of whom were half my age.

Didn't see any sex or drugs, unless you count several scantily-clad folks, many of whom probably shouldn't have been, and that one good-grief parade of naked men on bicycles I had to get past to return to camp one sunny day. Not really sure what that was about, but just chalked it up to kids having fun, as Crocodile Dundee once said.

Having fun is mostly what it's about. Outlandish clothing is expected and "House" music is everywhere. Everyone camps, either individually or in organized camps, arranged in 7-square mile semi-circle surrounding a central "Playa" that is 5000 feet in diameter.

Internet photo

For a so-called hipster event, it's remarkably structured and organized. Camp spaces are assigned on a system of streets; the radials are hours on a clock (i.e. the street running south is called 6:00) and the circles are lettered, "A Street" being closest to the center. Our camp address was 7:00 C.

It is a Leave-No-Trace event. Everything that is brought in has to be hauled out, including all trash, and even grey water. Nothing can be bought or sold, and no advertising or branding is allowed.

It is a gift-giving economy, and a large number of the organized camps give things free for the asking, including food and alcohol. Everyone carries their own cup, and a copy of your driver's license needs to be taped on it, because camps offering alcohol require ID of everyone, even 77-year-old dudes.

Drugs? With 80,000 happy dancing young people? Without doubt. But I suspect they were mostly of the "enhancing-the-experience" variety (I'm no expert) and I personally never saw anyone obviously under the influence of anything.

There are police and other emergency services there, but their presence is low-key.

The Man is located at the center of the circle, a huge wooden structure lit up at night with gaudy lights. This event started in 1986 on a beach in San Francisco when a bunch of friends added a nailed-together "Man" to their bonfire. The official explanation for this is apparently "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

The Playa, the circle surrounding The Man and separating him from the rings of camps is littered with randomly spaced art installations from the simple to the mind-boggling. Since I was trying to resist seeing the event through the lens of a camera, I didn't take a lot of pictures of the art, so I'll include some from the Internet.


From the simple...


...To the amazing


That's not paint; those are individual inlaid pieces of wood

Our camp was called Hotel California. It was solar-powered and vegan. The camp provided two meals a day to about 60 people. We were in little ad-hoc teams (there were five of us in the group I came with) and each group provided and served the meals for one day.

Hotel California

In addition to meals and a shady place to hang out, the camp provided music and even showers, in the form of sun-heated bags of water. One day they even served breakfast and gourmet coffee to anyone passing by, as part of the gift-giving tradition.

Good buddy Brian was my sponsor, champion, and guru, and he and his sweetie Nikki took good care of me. Also in our group were Brian's friend Jesse, and Jesse's dad, Ramesh.

Jesse decided to shave off his beard, but not
before Nikki had some fun "sculpting" it.

Nikki, Jesse, and Ramesh

Burning Man is a whole different place at night, and the kids stay out all night. I stayed up one or two nights until about 3AM, riding my bike around the Playa with Brian and Nikki.

At 12:00 on the Playa, north of The Man, they built an elaborate structure called The Temple. This was the serious part of Burning Man. A beautiful building built of wood, The Temple is a place for remembrances and reflection. Markers were provided inside for people to write personal notes to lost loved ones, memories, apologies, or whatever they were moved to write on the boards making up the building. People hung photos, drawings, and other mementos personal to them, and it all went up in smoke on the last night of the event.

Volunteers hung lanterns on these posts every night

On Saturday night, with loud music, fireworks, pyrotechnics, and cheers, they burn The Man. He's actually ignited with an explosion in the middle of the fireworks display. Quite a spectacle.

And on Sunday night, the last night, they burn the Temple. No fireworks, no explosions, no music, and with thousands of people standing around watching, not a word. Not a sound.

It was an amazing experience, but it wasn't all fun and games. The dry lake bed is not dirt or sand, it's alkaline sediment from the ancient lake water and it's like moon dust. When the wind comes up, so does the dust, and it gets all over everything and everyone. Sometimes there are actually whiteouts when you can't see anything. Ramesh and I tried to hide out in my trailer whenever that happened.

Getting in and out is an eight-hour process as 80,000 people have to funnel to a single-lane road. We left Reno at 9:30 at night because the gates opened at midnight. We got to our camp at 5:30 the next morning. Same thing on leaving day. You really have to want to come to this event!

As far as the eye can see...

For this old man, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I'm glad I went and I'm very grateful to Brian Anglin for making it possible.

What Gets Me Through the Night

2022-06-07T20:40:00.004-07:00

Summer is here and the sky is full of sunshine.

The paloverdes are in gorgeous yellow bloom providing a feast for the neighborhood little bees, big bees, and hummingbirds.

The buckwheat is in bloom all over the property

The manzanitas are loaded with berries

The children of the big old sage in the background are now teenagers

Even this half dead manzanita is giving it another go with a fresh branch

My young fruit trees are strong and healthy

The tomatoes in the vault are looking promising

Unfortunately, I accidentally left the electric fence turned off last night and I'm pretty sure this guy helped himself to my new little strawberries...

But this is not what gets me through the night...

This is what gets me through the night.

Because I am not connected to the electric company, my power comes from the sun in the daytime and batteries at night.

My faithful old lead-acid batteries were about at the end of their useful life, and it was time for some new ones.

It took sixteen of these big guys (over twice the size of a car battery) to get me through the night.

I replaced them with six lithium iron units and will have more capacity than ever.

While I was doing the wiring and building the new box, eight of the old guard remained on duty to keep the lights on.

This box, like the old one, is sheathed in fireproof cement board

Those of you who care about such things will notice that the batteries are connected in parallel, so if one should fail, there are five backups.

And yes, that's copper pipe that the batteries are connected to. Seemed like a good solution, plus I think it looks cool...

With Rancher Rick's big green tractor doing the heavy lifting, my pal Andy and I loaded the retirees in the truck. They weigh over 120 pounds apiece!

Tomorrow I will drive them 85 miles to a recycling place that promises me actual money for them. (Considerably more than the gas I'll be burning if you were wondering...)

Then it's back to enjoy the summer, even when the sun doesn't shine!

Have a great summer!

Mater Vault

2022-04-25T20:01:00.000-07:00

The last time I tried to grow tomatoes, I got exactly one ripe tomato the entire season. The plants produced plenty, but the damn squirrels would wait until they were almost ready to pick and then snatch 'em.

I built chicken wire walls around them, gopher baskets under them, and finally a squirrel-height electric fence, but I always lost the arms race.

I gave up for a couple years, because I decided that if I ever tried again, they would be completely enclosed, top bottom and sides, in an impenetrable tomato fortress.

Finally got around to it, and just finished today.

The dirt box is removable so it can be replaced when it rots, assuming this works and I ever try to grow tomatoes again...

The door latches with simple screen-door hooks.

The chicken wire was leftover from the last attempt, but between the lumber and all the soil I bought, not to mention the plants themselves, I figure any tomatoes I get will have cost me about 25 bucks apiece, but there's nothing like home-grown tomatoes!

My favorite neighbors gave me some strawberry plants, along with some great soil amendments and some magic algae potion that the plants will love.

Strawberries are inside the "Cold War era" electric fence, so fingers crossed.

This yummy stuff should make all the plants happy, and hopefully not the squirrels!

I'll report back this summer. If you know any 'mater prayers...

What I've been doing for the last year and a half

2022-03-29T17:44:00.004-07:00

I haven't mentioned this in the blog because it's been a work-in-progress, and in fact it still is. But it's getting close to done, and I'll be taking a couple months off from the project, so here it is: Jami's van "Muzzy" (named after her grandmother).

She bought the van brand new and drove it directly here, handed Dad a credit card and said "Get to work!" (She didn't really say that, but I like to tell people she did...)

Drawings

First I did drawings in Adobe Illustrator. They evolved as we went along, but these are pretty close to the final product.

Mockup

Next came layout and mockups

We added sound deadening and insulation

Walls and ceiling

We copied an idea from a great van builder named Quinn to line the walls and ceiling with black, covered by slats. We call them "Quinn slats."

Tanks

I made fresh- and grey-water tanks out of sheet ABS plastic.

Bunks

Jami and I made home-made bunks using upholstery webbing.

The top bunk tilts up out of the way when not needed.

Even Cousin Karen got involved making custom sheets.

Toilet

We made a home-made "composting" toilet.

I'll let you figure out how it works...

Seat height tester

Counter top

Our good friends Sarah and Scott had to have a large dead elm tree removed from their yard, so we fired up the chainsaw and started the process of making a "live-edge" countertop.

I filled all the cracks and holes with black epoxy.

Refrigerator

I had talked Jami into buying a huge heavy refrigerator, and then had the task of shoe-horning it into a very narrow space.

Because of the countertop overhang and the fridge's swing-up lid, I had to use extra long drawer guides. To fully open, it goes all the way to the bed on the other side of the van. Working this out took longer than just about any other part of the project, and one more inch would have been big trouble.

Special vented drawer front for the fridge

TV

A dream vacation van has to have a smart TV, and this one folds up out of the way and even swivels around for watching from outside.

The beat-up looking edges are just the new-product plastic film that needs to be removed.

Movies by the campfire - sacrilege? you be the judge...

DVD player tucked up above the TV

Galley

The galley is pretty much finished now...

Including a pull-out table

Closet

...and so is the closet

Hidden away inside the closet: an ice maker! because why not?

Last-minute addition the morning she pulled out, a fold-down cook top.

There's still plenty to do, including flooring, covering more of the metal with wood, and the bathroom/shower, but that will have to wait until after the summer van-life season!

Stay tuned!

Novelty

2022-02-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

If you haven't read my novel about the hapless pilots who stumble into an international conspiracy to smuggle stolen nuclear weapons, it's been revised, re-titled, and re-released on Amazon.

And for the next 5 days, starting today, the Kindle version is FREE. Please download, enjoy, and comment on Amazon.

Lizzy gets some new duds!

2022-01-26T19:12:00.005-08:00

After I got the Triumph I took her to a British car repair shop for new brakes, some front end work, and general safety and reliability freshening up. Next it was time to make her prettier. The carpet was all there but tired, and the seats left a lot to be desired.

So I took her "down to the metal" as the saying goes...

Those black rubber circles on each side cover holes for the jack lifting points. You can actually jack this car up from inside! Could come in handy on a rainy day.

That's concrete visible through the hole

Found a great upholsterer named Ernie Romero, and located a nice big leather hide on line.

The skin had a big hole right in the middle, but Ernie carefully laid out all the parts and was able to get everything he needed, in spite of the hole. When the car came from the factory, only the parts touching your body were leather; the tops, backs, sides, and bases were all matching vinyl. None of that for Lizzy! She's all leather.

The results were everything I could have wished for.

Carpet kits for this car can cost up to $500, so I went to my friendly neighborhood Lowes (an hour away, but that's life in the sticks) and picked up a 6'x8' piece of carpet that the clerk marked down to $13 for some reason. I used the old pieces for patterns, sewed some edgebanding where needed, and voila!

Homemade, but... 13 bucks.

And this came in the mail today

Needless to say, I'm a happy guy...

Hi Honey... I'm home!

2021-12-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

Lizzy's back from the car doc (Mel's Auto in San Marcos. Recommended) with all kinds of new running gear, brakes, tires etc. to make sure she's safe to drive, since she's nearly as old as the driver. Well, not really...

She's tucked away in her new "pole barn" carport, protected from the rain that's supposed to hit us for Christmas.

The gap to the ground is intentional, to avoid dark corners. There will also be a light inside all night, to help in the ongoing battle with mice who love to build nests and chew on things, like $1100 worth of wiring when I first got my truck.

The carport started with some pressure treated poles, which got another dose of wood preservative before being set in concrete.

The poles actually sit on gravel and are surrounded by concrete. The gravel allows any moisture that gets into the pole to drain out the bottom, to help avoid rot.

Please ignore the mess... all in good time...

Can you be too old for a mid-life crisis?

2021-11-15T00:48:00.001-08:00

I'm 76 years old. I decided that if I'm gonna have (another) mid-life crisis, I'd better get on with it.

So I fulfilled a fantasy that goes back to when I was about 12 years old:

I bought a little English sportscar called a Triumph TR3.

Built in 1959, the car is original and unrestored, and the odometer reads a few miles over 50,000. No rust or accidents. The man I bought it from said he bought it 8 years ago from the original owner, and the car has apparently always been stored inside.

I consider it an investment, because since it's a classic and an extremely rare find in this pristine condition, it will only increase in value (in spite of what a certain smart-aleck friend who shall remain named Eric says: "Yeah, yeah, Gary... you keep believing that...")

So far, it seems to run great, but when I get time I'll check it out more thoroughly. I took my first ride in it today, a mile and a half up to the Malt Shop and back. A pretty different experience from driving a full-size pickup truck, but so much fun.

Now I have to build a carport for it to continue the tradition of inside storage. I've ordered the building materials from Lowes, and good old Eric came over to drill post holes for me.

Came home on a trailer

Four cylinders, dual carbs, 100HP

Ain't she cute??

Temporary carport

Spare tire compartment with lid removed

1970 whitewall spare tire! It will get replaced, but I will keep it in the attic.

Original toolkit

Lead hammer for the "knockoff" hubs

Beginnings of the carport

Been there, done that, got the T shirt...

Stay tuned!

The High and Low of it

2021-09-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

More Power, Part Deux

I already had a pole for the little radio-based internet antenna, so I connected a stainless steel cable with some turnbuckles and zip tied the solar wires to it.

Finalized the wiring with metal clips instead of the cheesy plastic ones.

Eric came over with the trencher and laid a nice ditch to bury the wire from the pole to the panels.

It rained yesterday, so the Bobcat got a little mired down in the last few feet...

...But the same soft ground that gave us trouble also made the shovel work easy.


Had to hand dig the last few feet, but no sweat.

A little smoothing with the old Ford tractor, and job done!

More Power!

2021-09-19T16:08:00.001-07:00

Who couldn't use a little more energy...? My good neighbors Eric and Ofelia have been so generous with me since they moved in, and recently they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. They are building a shipping container temporary tiny home, and needed 8 window/door frames built and installed.

In exchange, they gave me 10, count'em TEN solar panels, and the steel frame they are mounted on, plus a brand new charge controller, a bunch of wire, connectors, etc.

The array started life as an emergency response trailer that could bring power wherever it was needed in a disaster situation. Our deal was that I would get the solar unit and Eric would keep the trailer.

For travel, the panels are locked upright, but they can be tilted to whatever angle is best when in use.

I drove the trailer to my place, and using their Bobcat in the front and my "cherry picker" lift at the back, we raised the whole assembly so I could pull the trailer out.

Today I'm doing wiring. I've had to order a few more parts and some more wire, so that won't be finished for a few days. Eric has a trencher attachment for the bobcat and has offered to come over soon to bury the wire underground.

Old guy sitting in the shade working on wire.

Hopefully I'll be able to use all the air conditioning I want, and the batteries will get charged even on hazy days. Molly appears to approve.

A New Gadget

2021-05-15T22:57:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite memories from my Navy days is a bus ride I took up into the French Alps. It was 55 years ago, so I don't remember much about it, other than how beautiful and quiet it was, but one memory that has stayed with me for some reason is butter.

I remember going into a little café in the mountains for coffee and some kind of roll or croissant, and I just remember beautiful creamy butter. Perfectly spreadable, not too hard, not too soft. It must have been pretty special to stay with me all these years. Might have just been the atmosphere or the fact that all I had had for months was Navy butter, which, like most destroyer chow, was far from memorable.

Since then, like everybody else, I've had to make do with rock-hard stuff from the fridge, which is worthless, or a soggy mess from sitting out on the counter in Southern California heat.

No more!

Somebody must have come up with a solution to this First-World problem, and sure enough, someone has. An internet search led me to a company in England called Alfillé. The genius behind this company formerly ran an ice cream factory, and he invented the Temperature-Controlled Butter dish. It uses some fancy technology called the peltier effect that can seamlessly switch back and forth between heating and cooling as necessary to maintain the ideal temperature.

It's the little things...

It's sized for European butter, but they don't carry that in the Campo "Green Store."

There's a little knob for fine-tuning the temperature.

This new gadget will partner nicely with the new small-size Dutch oven given to me by my good friends Gary and Margo Warner.

At $88 US (nearly half of which was shipping) it's a little pricey, but for a trip to the French Alps, it was a bargain!

The dumbest kid in the world... or is he?

2021-01-24T01:06:00.000-08:00

My new favorite joke:

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer "This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you."

The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks "Which do you want son?" The boy takes the quarters and leaves.

"What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns."

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. "Hey son, can I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?"

The boy licked his cone and replied "Because the day I take the dollar, the game is over!"

You never miss the water...

2021-01-12T00:57:00.005-08:00

It's been a hard day. The sun has gone down and I'm enjoying a long hot shower after a full day in the shop. Reluctantly, I reach to turn off the water when that suddenly becomes unnecessary. The water stops all by itself.

That cannot be good.

If you live in the city, you take for granted that when you turn on the tap, water comes out. But when you live on a well, you don't take that for granted. First thing I did when I bought this property was drill a well. Without water, it's game over.

My first thought was that there must be an electrical problem. It takes two pumps, two tanks, a lot of pipe, and an aquifer 350 feet down in the ground to get water to my shower.

There are three circuit breakers between the groundwater and me, so I get dressed, grab a flashlight and head outside to check. There's one breaker on the back porch, one at the pump house, and a third one out on the well head itself.

None of the breakers are blown.

This cannot be good.

Nothing to do tonight but put on the jammies and go to bed. In the morning, one of two things will happen. If there's water in the storage tank, I need to call the pump guy. If there's no water in the tank, I need to call the well guy.

Either way, I'm gonna need to call my banker...

As I'm about to climb into bed, another thought hits me. There is another part of this system I had forgotten about. I had installed a timer to control when the well pump comes on. The pump down in the ground comes on when a float in the tank tells it we're about 500 gallons down (out of 5000), and when the float gets down that low, it turns on the well pump.

Because I can't take electricity for granted out here either, I want the well pump to run only at predictable times, because it draws a lot of power and it runs for an hour.

So I put on a coat over the PJs and get out the flashlight again.

Sure enough, the dial on this digital timer was blank. I don't know why, but it had shut itself off.

I flipped the switch to "Manual" and immediately heard the lovely sound of water splashing into the tank from far under the soil of Sábado.

I don't know how many hours the well pump ran that night to refill the tank, but it used up all my battery reserve. That wasn't a problem, because as soon as the sun comes up, the sky goes to work on my solar panels and gives me the gift of power, so by the afternoon of the next day my batteries were full, and so was my water tank.

Normally, I feel the tank to check the water level.

The metal is cold until my hand gets up to the water level, and from there up, the metal is warm from the sun. But I had neglected to do this check for several days.

Never take things for granted in the country...

Today, I rigged up a device that will keep me informed of the water situation by sight.

I drilled a hole in the tank's manhole cover, and inserted some fittings that will allow a rod to slide up and down freely. To the bottom end of the rod I attached a copper toilet float, and to the top, a bright yellow rubber ball.

Now I can see at a glance, even from the house, how high the water is.

Hopefully I won't be having my shower water dry up suddenly any more. Next time I could have shampoo on my head and soap in my eyes!

Two Birds With One Arrow

2020-11-22T17:24:00.000-08:00

Archery has been an off-and-on hobby of mine since I was a kid; back when the bow and arrow were state-of-the-art weapons...

Over the years I've used straw bales for targets, but they eventually rot and fall apart, so I started looking around for a better solution. I found several posts by people who have used this type of thing, so I built myself one. It has plastic tarp pieces for the front and back, and it's mostly stuffed with used shrinkwrap that my pals at the farm supply save for me.

The other cool thing about this setup, on top of the fact that it's pretty impervious to weather, rot, and mice, is that I now have a place to put all those plastic bags that the grocery store sells me and won't recycle. I can just open the lid and stuff them in. Eventually it will get too full, but I'm hoping that as the plastic gets shredded by arrows, it will compact even more.

Hinges on the back, bungees on the front

The plastic stops arrows really well, but they are not at all hard to pull out.

The nice thing about being your own photographer is that you can remove all 'extraneous elements' from the subject before you take the picture...😁

Getting to be that time of year

2020-11-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

I save my dryer lint. To a mental health professional, that could be cause for concern. Unless the good doctor heats her house with wood. Then it makes just as much sense as saving your egg cartons...

About this time each year, I get out the lint, the egg cartons, and a couple blocks of paraffin wax, and make my handy fire starters for the woodstove.

A pinch of lint in each egg cup...

A pot of melted wax...

A cup of coffee and maybe a bit of homemade bread...

A little rainy-day Norah Jones on the Alexa...

Ready for winter.

In other news, my 'new' 1954 tractor Myrtle was kind of a hillbilly when I got her, because she only had two teeth. Rancher Rick up the road gave me two more out of his goodie pile. Had to modify them a bit, but now the Old Girl looks a little more respectable.

Another annual chore has been replacing the windsock on top of the water tank. They last about a year before rotting and falling apart. Got tired of doing that this year, so bought me another nifty weathervane.

Dragonfly design

Couple more shop cabinets...

And it's time to relax by the fire.

The Many Personalities of the LRT*

2020-11-04T20:58:00.005-08:00

*Little Red Tractor

Most people mow with their yard tractors. I do too. Five acres, several times a year, just to keep the weeds down for fire protection.

But this LRT isn't content with just mowing...

She's almost never this clean

Today, I installed a trailer hitch for moving the boat around.

But she can still tow her own trailer

And haul the trash out to the street

And carry a spray rig

With her headlights and a couple cool added LED lights, she can do all this stuff at night too!

She's also good for running down to the mailbox when I'm too lazy to walk, and maybe even making hay... Click on the video!

Betty - 30 days, 6600 Miles in a rented van

2020-10-18T22:08:00.003-07:00

First of all, it wasn't me. I ain't that crazy. Or young. But Daughter number 1 Jami is. Every year she goes to Saranac Lake in upstate New York to visit good friends. This year, covid19 made airplane travel and staying in hotels problematic, so she came up with the brilliant (or insane) scheme of renting a van for a month, having dear old dad throw something together to make it livable, and setting off.

Betty

Named for the beloved, fearless, and somewhat wacky Betty White, this Dodge rental van is about to undergo a fast transformation.

Since the furniture had to be installed quickly and removed even more quickly, we had to come up with a unit that could be pre-built and attached to the van framing with velcro straps.

The rental agreement was for 30 days, and not a moment more. The Hertz pricing algorithm wanted to add hundreds of dollars to the price if she was one day late returning the van.

Here's what we came up with.

And here's the real thing. Fresh water pumps out of the Sparklets bottle and the sink drains into a five-gallon jug. Jami's brilliant idea of plastic tubs meant secure storage on the road without the need for cupboards, drawers, and doors.

The white thing in front is a wastebasket

The trip was not all play. She works mostly remotely in this covid time, so with this little workstation setup, she could get some work done using a WIFI hotspot.

The plan was for a standard twin bed to be placed opposite the cabinet, made up all the time so she could just flop in after a long day's driving, but at the last minute, sweet cousin, housemate, and fellow adventure traveler Lisa offered to come along and keep her company on at least part of the trip... .

...So the twin bed became bunk beds.

This presented a little problem, because that upper bunk really limited elbow room and the ability for two adults to move around in the van, so...

We came up with a solution. In the daytime, the upper bunk swiveled up and hooked to the ceiling beams with rope clips. Made moving around much easier.

The Master bathroom

Somehow all this needed to fit...

In this...

But she made it work.

Can you tell this is a girl's van? Hint: the rack on the door is for shoes! 😍

With Chewie for a privacy curtain...

And R2D2 for a mascot.

The two road warriors had a cozy little home.

3700 miles out

2900 miles home

Across Lake Michigan on the ferry

Destination: Saranac Lake New York

In the words of songwriter Robert Earl Keen,

The road goes on forever, but the party never ends.

Campo Grape Harvest 2020

2020-10-08T19:06:00.003-07:00

When the grapes are ready, friend and local winemaker Richard Westfall somehow charms a few of us unemployed seniors into showing up at his vineyard at the ungodly hour of 6:45 AM for the harvest. We do it for the experience, for fun, and to see the process, but basically we're slaving away picking grapes for eight hours.

This year we picked Grenache. We pressed about 30 gallons of it to make rosé, but it all went through the stemmer/crusher, and the rest will ferment for a while with the skins on.

Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Not bad for low-grade field labor.

Stemmer/crusher

Some people, (not me!) have referred to rosé as "garbage wine." But in this winery, garbage cans (clean and new of course) do get used in the process...

They made me use the press because my feet weren't clean enough...

Didn't go home empty-handed. Two bottles of Westfall Winery's famous Blue-Label Wine!

They actually do have fancy labels, but the ones I got were "sneak previews." I really shouldn't drink the Zin for at least a year, but I probably will ignore that rule...

Dreams do come true... an air-conditioned shop!

2020-10-06T19:52:00.001-07:00

I've been doing woodworking for 50 years. My first projects got done in the living room of an apartment. Most of the rest of the time, my shop was the garage. My poor wife never parked a car in a garage the whole time we were married.

Never have I had the luxury of air conditioning. Until today.

I bought what's called a 'mini-split' system, which is the same thing installed in the house. It's halfway between a window air conditioner and a full-house central air unit. It's really designed for one room or open space, but it's silent and very kind to the electric system.

Like the central air system you may have in your house, it has an outside unit, but it's so quiet you can barely hear it, and it only runs as fast as it needs to, as opposed to being full-on/full-off like a central air unit.

The inside unit needs to be connected to the outside part with insulated pipes, and since I had already closed in the wall where the pipes needed to go, I cut out a section of sheetrock.

But I saved the piece, so it will go back.

Voila! Tomorrow I'll texture and repaint

Also, eventually another large cabinet will go on that wall, just like the one on the other side of the door.

You're supposed to hire a professional to install these things, but being a "senior on a fixed income" (read "cheap."), I decided to do it myself.

The main reason to hire a professional is that some special equipment is needed. A vacuum pump and special gauges to suck all the air out of the pipes before letting the freon flow through them. I just bought the equipment for less than a pro would have charged me, and now I have them for when I add another one of these little air conditioners for my dining room! (Stay tuned for that.)

Flaring the pipes

All hooked up and ready to go. The tubes on the ground are drains.
Molly is unimpressed. More interested in the box.

Moment of truth (AKA the Blinding Flash Test)

It displays the temperature setting

Whaddaya know... it works!

INSIDE

OUTSIDE

After weeks of 100+ degree weather, this week we're getting a cold snap. By Saturday, it's supposed to get down to 72! You're welcome, Campo.

Luckily, this unit is a heat pump, which means it becomes a heater in winter.

More Power!

2020-09-22T20:28:00.000-07:00

Tim the Tool Man Taylor's got nothin' on me!

Good neighbor Eric has come through for me again. Back in March, he generously gave me two great solar panels to add to my system. I installed them on the shop roof, and they gave the batteries a nice boost. It's been so hot this summer that I started dreaming about putting an air conditioner in the shop, but that would mean even more solar panels, so I contacted Eric again.

Not only did he find four more panels for me at a great price, he dug into his own stock again and gave me virtually everything I needed to install them, including the rails, roof mounts, wire, and a few other goodies.

It takes a lot of stuff to install solar panels

Another good friend, and well-known Campo fixture "Rat Rod" Andy came over to help me hoist the panels up on the roof and get them fastened down. He doesn't share my terror of heights, so his help was much appreciated.

I installed a "weather head" to get the wires down into the shop...

... and a small breaker box in the shop to act as a combiner. All the panel wires come in, with one breaker for each set, then two wires go back up and out, to connect to the house.

Fourth breaker arrived broken. Didn't need it.

E, C, W for East, Center, and West.

The wires connecting to the house are cleverly (sez I) disguised by piggybacking on party lights.

Still waiting to actually use those lights for a party.

The astute among you will notice that I am also using my solar clothes-drying system...

As well as my patent-pending laundry cart and manly clothespin carrier.

Sign of the times...

This won't mean much unless you're a nerd, but the new array is putting 25 amps into the batteries. That's about a 50% increase over what I had, so now I'm definitely thinking air conditioning! I'll give the system a while to prove itself first.

A Visitor

2020-08-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I opened my back door to do something, I forget what, and found Molly's twin on my porch. Surprised the hell out of me. I asked her what the heck she was doing there, but got only a blank stare and a couple cautious yips. I was able to sweet-talk her into coming in the house, she wasn't interested in water or food, and she and Molly just sniffed each other. A couple attempts to mark my rug, but I barked at her and she stopped. She was well-groomed and healthy, but no collar or tags, so I put her in the truck and went to visit the nearest neighbors. Only two were home and they didn't recognize her, so I posted on a community Facebook page and sat on the couch to wait, with one little white dog curled up on each side of me.

Within a few minutes I saw a frantic post from the owner and arranged to meet her at the gas station. She was teary-eyed with gratitude. I like that in a woman...😁

Just looked at the map, and the little critter had come nearly two miles to my doorstep. And I don't think it was the first time. A long time ago, maybe a year or two, I had Molly in the truck under the oak tree and had gone back to the house for something, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but Molly, way over south of the house! WTF? How did she get out of the truck and over there so quickly? Using my best dog-whisperer techniques, I screamed bloody murder at her for being a naughty girl, and of course she took off, never to be seen again. Turned around to look back at the truck, and there was the real Molly, wondering what all the fuss was about.

My visitor. A well-groomed version of Molly

A shortcut would have been over coyote-infested hills.