Pouring Cement & Fixing the wall

Week before last had some pretty nice days and I got started on pouring cement between my shop and Patsi's greenhouse. I had to tear out the old garage floor first as you can see in the picture (even tho the picture isn't very good).

This is the old wall of the old garage. It wasn't on a foundation and the base boards of the wall were just sitting on top of the ground. Needless to say the wood was pretty rotten even though they used cedar. So I had to cut the studs and pour some concrete underneath them. 

Here and in the following shots you can see the footer that I poured under the wall.

I got started on recovering the wall after insulating it, but then it got cold so I had to put it on hold for about a week.

Yesterday it was pretty cold but I got the form built for my half circle step out of the back door of the shop with the intentions of pouring this morning. Luckily it was nice this morning and I did get the concrete poured.

It was still pretty nice about 9:30 this morning so I decided to go ahead and try to get the wall finished also. I did get it finished except for the two side trim pieces. Here is how it looks now....

Still have quite a bit of concrete to mix and pour, but I'll do a little at a time. Hopefully it will turn out looking nice.

Below is what I did last week while it was a little colder outside. We purchased some cabinets from Sutherland's in Carlsbad when they ran a good sale. They were unfinished oak cabinets so I had to paint them and finish the oak. I stained them with 'golden pecan' stain' and then sealed them with polyurethane.

Got them nearly ready to install. I have the upper corner cabinet left to get sealed with polyurethane. We have the corner cleaned out and ready for the new cabinets. It will sure help out on getting some of the stuff off the floor and stored out of the way. That's been one our biggest problems with trying to get the shop organized, not having enough shelf space to store things. I still have some shelves that I need to get moved in. A little at a time.

That's about all that we've been up to here lately. We're just hangin' out waiting on warmer weather.

Until next time......

Overthehump

2012.....The End or a New Beginning?

Wow!!! Was 2011 a great year or what!!

I retired last year and we have had more fun than the law allows! I started this blog to keep up with the progress on the New Mexi-Can (our 1968 Streamline travel trailer) that I'm rebuilding....among many other projects that I have going. To say this has been a whirlwind year is an understatement.

We didn't do quite as much traveling as we have in the past, but we still had tons of fun! We made 3 trips to Colorado, one to California, a couple to Arizona, one to Nebraska, one to Kansas, and a couple to Lubbock & Albuquerque. Other than traveling we worked on the New Mexi-Can, Patsi's greenhouse, the shop, and landscaping the property where we live.

Okay, so I haven't posted in a month or so, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. After a Thanksgiving dinner with our whole family together for the first time in quite a while, we then spent Christmas in Lubbock with my sister, Karen,  and her husband, Dean. I made a trip to see my mom in Comanche, Tx and spent the day and night with her.

January 31 we left for Payson, Az to visit Dr. Lalman, a homeopathic doctor that I've been seeing. Last year I was having some horrible sinus headaches and they didn't seem to be getting any better. A friend here in Lovington had recommended that we see him and after a few visits my headaches started disappearing. I rarely have them now except when I haul a load of horse manure or wood chips for our compost pile. The dust and the mold really get me. And I've been hauling quite a few loads of wood chips and a few of horse manure.

After spending the night in Payson and visiting the doc, we headed for Quartzite, Az. Quartzite is a winter haven for many RVer's and rock hounds. Starting in November they have a huge rock and gem show, then in January they have a large RV show. The RV show was just wrapping up as we got into town, but they were having an Arts & Craft show plus they have vendors of every kind in the many little flea market areas they have all over town. Through the summer months Quartzite has a normal population of about 4,000, but during the winter months until March or so the population swells to 500,000 - 1M. And most of them are in RVs. There are about 30 or so RV parks throughout the town and the BLM land bordering the town is full of RV's dry camping out in the desert. It is quite a sight.

We only spent a couple of days there but had a great relaxing time. We did the flea market and arts & craft thing and basically just chilled out for a couple of days. We got to stop in Scottsdale to visit my cousin on the way home. So, we had a great trip.

We have just about covered 1/3 of our back yard with composted wood chips and I have a new pile started. It should be composted enough soon to spread out and I'll start the process all over again. We plan to cover most of the useable ground in 6-8" of mulch or with raised beds.

Patsi still wants me to build a couple more raised beds before spring gets here so I have to get busy on that soon.

We bought some more tulips (4" pots this time) and put them out. Also planted a couple of dahlias and 24 crowns of asparagus. We have quite a few daffodils coming up already and a few tulips. I keep looking for more tulips to come up but so far there are only a few. I planted 400+ onions (red, yellow, white) and some garlic last month and they are already coming up. Patsi has some broccoli, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and some herbs started in the green house.

I busted out some old concrete where my old shop used to set (between the new shop and the greenhouse), to get it ready to pour some new concrete. The past few days I have poured a footing for the old west wall of my old shop that we used as one wall for the greenhouse. I had to dig down a bit, cut the studs off, and tear out the old wood frame that was setting on the ground. It should be much better now that the base plate is up off the ground setting on a concrete footing. Still have quite a bit of concrete to pour, but I'll do just a little at a time, so it won't be so intimidating.

We made a trip to Carlsbad the other day to pick up some kitchen cabinets that were on sale at Sutherlands for the shop. I bought enough to cover eight feet on the west wall and 5 feet on the north wall. They were unfinished cabinets so I have been busy painting them. I just painted the particle board to protect it from any water that might happen to find it way onto it. I plan to stain the fronts. So they should look fairly nice once I get through.

The New Mexi-Can has been sitting out in the cold all winter. One good thing that I realized is that the black water tank that had about 2" of 'you know what' still in it and the dump valve won't open....has (I hope) all dried up. I have to remove the tank and get a new tank since the old one is damaged where the toilet bolts to the tank. Plus, I want to install a grey water tank for the sink and shower.  So, hopefully when I get ready to cut the brackets off for the black water tank and unbolt the dump valve, nothing will come gushing out to see me. If it does, I will be one unhappy camper!!!!

Well, 2012 is supposed to be one heck of a year with all the prophecies of the Mayan calendar and all the stuff going on in the celestial bodies. So, no matter what you think might happen....some one will be right, and some one will be wrong. But, no matter what happens this year, I'm gonna live it to the fullest and plan on the best. It probably won't be enough time to get a fraction of my projects finished but it really isn't about finishing things, it's about the journey. And I plan to make my journey as interesting as possible.

Well, that about all for now. I'm ready for warmer weather and it should be getting here soon.

Until next time.....

Overthehump

Wood Chips, Horse Apples & The Year In Review

December 17, 2011

In addition to trying to get the rest of the bulbs in the ground, we've been trying to get more wood chips hauled in so we can have about a 4-6 inch layer over the areas we want to garden and make into flower beds. So far we've hauled in 3 loads of wood chips with our dump bed powerstroke. This has been one of the handiest trucks I've ever had. It isn't much to look at but it sure comes in handy when you want to haul off trash, or haul in a load of wood chips. Sure saves a lot of work.

I've been getting the wood chips from the Lovington Convenience center. I can get them from Hobbs also, but the ones in Hobbs traditionally have been quite large chips. I guess it's their chipper because the ones in Lovington are chipped into much smaller chips. The only disadvantage getting them in Lovington is that I have to load the truck by hand. But I look at it as my exercise time, because it is really quite a workout. It takes me about an hour or maybe a little over an hour to get the truck completely loaded. I still want to get about 3 to 4 more loads and then we should be just about through with the wood chips.

Yesterday we went to Hobbs' En Sueno Bed & Breakfast & Rockin' Horse Stables to get a load of horse apples (manure). I took the tractor with us so we could load the truck a little easier. Our Kubota is perfect for working around the house and just the right size to maneuver in tight spots, but is a wee bit short to be able to dump the front bucket into the truck easily. But, it can be done and we did it.

While in Hobbs I noticed the truck making a grinding noise when I brake to stop. Soooooo, I guess I have a brake job in the near future. I still need to get a couple more loads of wood chips and I'd like to get one more load of horse bullets, but I'll have to get the brakes fixed before I drive it anymore.

This is a picture of our wood chip & horse apple pile:

A few days ago I pruned our peach tree. Usually when I prune a tree, Patsi gives me a hard time for cutting so many branches off. But this time she didn't scold me because we did the same thing last year and had a good crop of peaches, which is kind of unusual for this area. Hopefully we'll have another good crop of peaches again this coming year. Here is what it looks like now:

I planted more tulips and daffodils today, about 120+ tulips and 120+ daffodils. I only have about 80 daffodils left and 20+ tulips. It's taken me about 3 months to get them all planted, planting them whenever I had the time and the inclination to do so. It's been fun and we anxiously await spring to see if they are going to all bloom. If they all bloom we'll have a beautiful sight. I can't wait......but it will get here soon enough. Seems like the older I get, the faster time flies. LOL

Christmas is nearly here and Thanksgiving is already gone. This year has flown by. We made a couple of trips to Payson, Az to see a homeopathic doctor. I had been having quite a few sinus headaches (or that's what I attributed it to) and upon a friends recommendation we decided to go see him. Glad we did, because he helped immensely and all without drugs. His wife and daughter are LMT massage therapists and along with Dr. Lalman you get a complete treatment. I no longer have headaches like I used to have. It's a long trip to Payson, but well worth it.

We made three trips to Colorado this past summer. The first and last trip were 4 wheeling trips to South Fork and Ouray. They were really fun trips and we got to see some fantastic country, good friends and family.

The crew at South Fork

Going downhill near Ouray

In between the two 4 wheeling trips we met Patsi's brother Rodney and his wife Hiroko at Idaho Springs, Co. We took our 5th wheel camper and stayed at a very nice campground, right next to a stream. Beautiful place. Her other brother Stanley, and his son Kiichi also met us there. The whole reason for the trip was the Harada family reunion which was held in Fort Collins. So, we got to see most the family.

On top of Mt. Evans, Elevation 14,265'

We bought the New Mexi-Can, a 1968 Streamline travel trailer, from a guy in Sacramento, Ca. Went to pick it up the last part of August. Got it home and went to work on it. I had to strip the inside to replace the floor and possibly the black water tank. I spent about 3 weeks drilling out thousands of rivets to get the inside cleaned out so I could begin replacing the floor and rebuilding the inside.

After getting the inside stripped out, I had lots of other projects waiting on me that I needed to attend to, so I had to drop the trailer and begin to work on some other things. Such as:

• Wire Patsi's greenhouse with wall sockets, and install ceiling fan
• Get my welders hooked up
• Rearrange the shop
• Winterize our faucets
• Plant 1000+ tulips and daffodils
• Haul wood chips for garden mulch
• Build a stove for the shop

I got most everything on the list accomplished and maybe a few other things thrown in there for good measure. I even found a 1941 Chevy COE (cab over engine) truck on the internet. I drove to Plattsmouth, Ne, which is just south of Omaha to pick it up. I left on a Monday, October 24 and made it back by Wednesday morning. It was a long fast trip but we have the cab to use on our Powerstroke when I get ready to build our hauler for the 4 wheelers & vintage travel trailer.

Loading the 41 Chevy near Plattsmouth, Ne

I don't think I'll run out of projects anytime soon as I have a few waiting in the wings. So, as long as my health is good and the good Lord lets me, I'll keep busy working in the yard, garden, shop and house doing things I love. 

Until next time............

Overthehump

Gosh, it's already winter!!!!

Normally for the past 20+ years or so it hasn't really become very cold until January and February. But not this winter. MAN...it started getting cold the latter part of October. And this past week we've had two winter blasts which have really put us in the deep freeze.

Patsi and I have been trying to get all the plants put up, her greenhouse warm and cozy for the plants to spend the winter, and spreading wood chip mulch over all the flower beds, plant tulips and daffodils, and generally just getting ready for winter. We sure didn't expect to have to endure this cold this quick. Luckily we have everything nearly all buttoned up for winter.

Our new tulip beds (this was before it got cold)

Garlic is planted in the spot where the trunk shadow falls. Across the rock bed on the hill there are 300+ tulips and daffodils planted.

Daffodills left of the mums (that don't have any blooms now) and tulips on the right.

Tulips & daffodils planted between curb and sidewalk (450-500).

and yes.....it gonna cover the whole east side of our lot. Sure hope they all come up.

Early this morning after it got down to 12 F, it finally dawned on me that I had not done anything for the water manifold that I have in the shop. I was really expecting to open the shop door and see water spraying up in the air. Luckily that wasn't the case, so now I have a heater near the water pipes until this cold spell passes. The only trouble is that it is projected to be below freezing for the next week or so. So I guess winter is really here.

Started working on the 96 Ford PowerStroke this afternoon....changing out the water pump. I should have already had this done but kept putting it off for one reason or another. I've had the new water pump for 4 months or so, but just never could seem to get motivated to get it put in. I guess I finally got tired of it taking up space in my shop.

I should finish it tomorrow. I'll get the anti-freeze back in it and then it will relegated to the drive way....outside - again.

The New Mexi-Can will take its place and I'll get started back to work on it again. I really need to get the  tanks replaced and repaired, get the floor replaced and start putting the inside back together. It's gonna be FUN!!

I still have lots to organize, stuff to move around, cabinets to build and still have to install some more outlets, but I'll get a little bit here and a little bit there until....someday it might all be done.

Naw....doubt that day will ever come. LOL

Until next time......

Overthehump

Smoking the bird & infusing the pig

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE......

We're spending the day at home and doing all the cooking because we'll be having Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at my sister, Karen's house. I'm smoking a turkey today and just got it on this morning about 8am. 

The old fireplace isn't part of the smoker. A friend of mine gave me this old fireplace and I envisioned it being a great piece as an outdoor fireplace on our patio that we still have to build.

Turkey is wrapped to steam for a few hours. I'll take the foil off later and let the turkey get a little crispiness on the skin. I used the recipe from this site to brine the bird,  

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/out-of-this-world-turkey-brine/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 2 gallons water
• 1 1/2 cups canning salt
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 
  
• Directions

1. In a large bucket or container large enough to hold your turkey, mix together the water, salt, garlic, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Store in a refrigerator, and soak turkey for 2 days before smoking or roasting.

I'll put on the spiral cut ham later today just to infuse a little extra flavor into it. I'll probably make a couple of Buttermilk Chess pies later today also. So, we're just having a laid back Thanksgiving day watching the tube and cooking a few things for tomorrow.


Patsi & I have a lot to be thankful for. We have been so blessed. I met Patsi 31 years ago and we've been together ever since. We dated 3 years before we got married. We are best friends, love to do things together, but we also have our own likes and dislikes. 


I like to go to the races and get into all the action, noise, and dirt. Patsi is more content working on crafts of puttering in her garden or the yard. Patsi likes crafts and art as do I, but our crafts and art are completely different. We have similar tastes. I'm so thankful to have been blessed with a beautiful wife that I get along with and she is the most understanding person. 


A couple of years ago we built a shop in our backyard which has been dubbed as my man cave. We have a house across the alley that we bought for Patsi's parents. Since they have both passed, Patsi uses that house as her woman cave. She is Stampin' Up representative and holds custom card classes over there. She can go over there and work on cards for hours on end, just as I can get lost in projects in the shop.


We've both been blessed with being able to retire. Patsi retired from Chevron 3 1/2 years ago and I retired in March of this year. Patsi thought she'd probably be off about 6 months or so and then go back to work. But, according to her, she hasn't even thought about going to work again. She keeps busy, being on the board of Faith In Action, a local non profit organization that helps people with prescription drugs they can't afford, card making, member of Master Gardener, and busy landscaping in our yard.

This is the rock planter Patsi built this past summer

  

Here it is with flowers and morning glories climbing up the side

Here is the flowers by the mail box that Patsi planted

This is the other bed that she planted and takes care of

Here is the hill I built earlier this spring. Just a few flowers on it at this time.

Here's a couple of shots above with it in full bloom

This is how it looks today with a new cover of wood chip mulch. I've planted in the neighborhood of 300 or so tulips and daffodils on the hill and in the new bed in front of the tree.

This bed just north of the hill is one I've just nearly finished working on. I plan on planting about 500 bulbs of tulips, daffodils, crocus, and iris's. So, if they all come up this spring, we should have quite a show of color on the east side of our house.

I guess to sum it all up, we love working around our house, working on our projects, love to travel, love spending time with our friends and family, and at times we love to do nothing. We are very grateful for all of our blessings and our wish is for everyone to be as blessed as we are. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Until next time.........

Overthehump

Rocket Heater for the Shop?????

11/20/2011

The truck pictured at the top of this blog is inspiration for the 41 Chevy COE I went to pick up last month. For the moment I've parked the 41 Chevy in my old shop and will tackle that project in due time. In the mean time we have plenty to do.

I've been mulling over and over in my head about what kind of heat to have in the shop. It is beginning to get cold and I'm going to need some heat in there. I want to move the New Mexi-Can into the shop to work on it this winter, and will need some warmth.

Last week after seeing them on the internet and researching, watching videos on youtube, I decided to build a rocket stove heater for the shop. The concept is that the air draws in at the top of the J-tube, pull the air and flame into the bottom of the J and up the chimney. It sort of gives it a blow torch effect which in turn, heats up the top of the outside barrel and radiates the heat to all the surrounding areas.

The cool thing about the rocket stove is that the exhaust gas out of the bottom of the heat chamber and out the exhaust tube is fairly cool, which makes the fire hazard from hot gases and sparks negligible.

The above is the J-tube I built. I added the barrel (which was an old piece of casing a friend had given me. Below is the j-tube with the outer barrel (casing) installed.

The only problem was it didn't work well enough to heat up our huge shop. So back to the drawing board.

After studying more, I decided I didn't make the chimney large enough. I probably should have used 8" pipe. But I don't really want to tear this one apart or make a larger one, so I'm trying to figure out how to make this one work. When I figure out a way to make it work for our needs I'll post it here.

Last week I also had to finish planting all our tulip bulbs. I had planted 200+/- tulips on the hill I built this past spring and had another 100 or so to plant. I thought I'd have some left for another bed I'm preparing but I used all of them on the hill. I think I've got 50 daffodils planted on the hill also. So, this coming spring it should be covered in blooms.

Patsi was in Hobbs last Wednesday when I was planting them. Realizing I would need some more for the other bed I'm preparing, I called her and asked her to stop by Lowe's to see if they still had some tulip bulbs on sale. They still had some and they were still on sale, only now they were on sale @ 85% off. So, she picked up another 200 tulip bulbs and another 100 daffodil bulbs.

Hopefully, we'll have a splash of color on the east side of our house come this spring.

It's Sunday and we just returned from a day trip to Albuquerque to visit with Patsi's brother, Stanley and his family. We had a great time visiting with Stan & Suki and even got to visit with Kiichi in Socorro on the way home. Kiichi is enrolled in New Mexico Tech studying materials engineering. This is his second semester and it has to be a killer one. He is taking 18 hours. I don't think he has any spare time at the moment.

Today I went to Hobbs to look for a burner so I could test the rocket stove out and see if it would work with a different type of fuel. I ended up buying a plain old weed burner. Got it home and had to go buy some propane so I could test it. When I got it all hooked up and lit the burner, it roared to life. The burner put out tons of heat. I had it blowing fire into the bottom of the j-tube and after 30 minutes the thermometer I had on top of the stove was at 550 degrees and climbing. The bottom of the j-tube was cherry red, so I believe this will heat the shop fairly well. I'll work on getting my waste oil burner built and try it also. At any rate, I should be able to have some heat in the shop when it really gets cold. Yea!!!!

We plan on spending Thanksgiving with family and more than likely eat toooooo muuuucccchhh!!!!

We wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and all those that have to travel we pray you have a safe journey.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Until next time.....

Overthehump

Stone carving in a trailer???

This past weekend I attended a stone carving workshop in Hobbs sponsored by Southwest Stone Carving Association at Sadler and Son Monument Works. Stone carving doesn't have a thing to do with rebuilding a trailer but I have never done any carving of any sort and have always wanted to learn. So, when the opportunity arose, I signed up and had a blast.

Class started Friday at 8:00am. We had 6 students to start but by the end of the day we 9 or ten with a couple more planning on showing up on Saturday. Edward Fleming from Galesteo, NM, John Griffin from Albuquerque, NM, and Kat Watson from Questa, NM were our instructors. All were accomplished sculptors and were a great help for all of our questions and blank looks on our faces as we began our workshop. Well, at least I had a blank look on my face.

For my project I was going to try to carve a Chachapoya Indian stone face like this one

I got my piece of stone and started carving, chipping and filing. It ended up looking like this

Well, it's sort of close. I think mine has been on an American diet. He turned out a little obese. LOL  I even carve a surprise on the bottom of the stone. The only problem is that I finished this one the first day and we still had two more days to go. So, I had to find another project to take up the next two days. 

After searching on the net for different ideas, I found an owl that Patsi really liked, so I thought I'd try that is a piece of alabaster. The owl that was my pattern looked like this

The piece of alabaster that I picked wasn't quite thick enough to get the barrel shape of my model, so I ended up doing a double sided owl that turned out like this

He turned into a horned owl and I left him with a couple of rough edges, so he is smooth on both sides and one edge with the left side raw stone and some of the raw stone showing on the top as well.  I still need to sand him quite a bit and polish him but I think both turned out ok for my 1st try. The stone will look really cool once it is polished, plus I had a great time and met some great people. David and his wife, Cindy, were great hosts. The instructors, Ed, Kat, and John were great and were always ready to help with any problem you had. A fantastic weekend and I learned that stone carving isn't quite as complicated or hard as I thought it might be. That's not to say that it is easy, it just seems to be a little easier once you learn some of the techniques. Before the workshop I assumed it was all hammer and chisel, but that is far from the case.

Tomorrow it's back to work on my projects, here around the house, getting ready for winter and getting back on the trailer.

Until next time.......

Overthehump