Good Morning! 64F @ 5:30AM. Mostly sunny. High 83F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
We'll have showers overnight and into tomorrow, along with much reduced temperatures. After yesterday's baking, I'm looking forward to cooler times.
Eric, I wonder if those desert wells ever were cleared of all that salt? And thanks again for sharing your Father's stories. What a treasure!
Hope you're feeling better Don. And yes, no water rescues, please!
Better make time for those strawberries, Farmer. No sense letting them spoil on the ground.
For years I had a bunch of twenty cent and one cent stamps laying around, back from the times before the "Forever" stamps. Yesterday morning I had a bunch of bills to pay for my Mom's boyfriend's estate, all by mail, so decided to use them. Two twenty cent stamps and seven one centers fit on the envelope easily, but when I got down to the last twenty center, twenty-seven one centers wouldn't have left enough room for the address! Guess I'll have to save 'em for something special. :laughing:
The inside of the pop up roof on the Vanagon came from VW with flocking to control condensation, but it also collected a lot of mildew and mold on the one I have. So yesterday I dove in trying to remove the stuff. The fuzz part came off easily with a dual action air sander, but the glue was another thing all together. Clogged the paper right now. So I got out a wire brush on the little angle grinder, and it was better but not very fast. Then tried a scraper blade on the vibrating cutter, but it either cut the flock or dug down into the fiberglass. Then I remembered the rubber wheels I bought to remove decals from an old motorhome, and thankfully never got a chance to use. Tried one of those, and the glue just laughed at it. Went back to the wire brush idea, and found a cup shaped one with knotted wire bristles. It cut well, but smeared the glue rather than removed it. Then spotted a straight wheel one with coarse unknotted wire, and stuck with that for the rest of the job as it didn't seem to smear the glue as badly. The top was broken into six panels by stiffening ribs, and each panel took about a half hour to strip. And out toward the center I was really having to lean out and stretch to reach, so my back was complaining pretty loudly in no time. So I'd do a section, take a break, then do some more, all the while the sun getting higher and hotter. At the half way point it was noon and I'd had enough. Oh, and the brushing was also releasing bits of fiberglass, and it was all over my arms, neck, and face, and you guessed it, I itched like crazy.
So I went in and cleaned up a little, then had some lunch, then the neighbor called saying he'd be around if I wanted to come down and pick up the car trailer again. He and his wife planted several acres of cherry trees a few years ago, and their big problem now is keeping the birds and foxes away from the fruit. She put a net on one tree, which kept the birds away, but a fox got up under it and broke several branches climbing up to get the fruit. They've live trapped and relocated several foxes at this point, but one seems clever enough to avoid getting caught. So the verdict is still out on how to deal with that one.
By the time I got back from that the sun had worked it's way to the other side of the house, and I noticed that the pop top was now in the shade. So I grabbed the grinder and knocked out another section of flock. Rubbing that stuff off is pretty mindless work, and I remembered seeing two deer spring up from underneath the 24' box trailer as I drove the truck up the driveway to get the trailer, and seeing them run away again as I came back. I don't have anything against deer trying to stay out of the sun, but I don't enjoy being startled every time I walk past the trailer by deer bolting out from under my nose. So I decided to spray some deer repellent under the trailer during my little break. I keep a pump sprayer with the stuff already mixed up, but of course the pump wasn't working. And pulling the pump out of the stinky stuff to fix was no fun, but I did, but not before just dumping what little was left onto the beds that the deer had scooped out of the gravel. Got the sprayer working again, but then found I'd used up all the liquid repellent, replacing it with Deer Scram, which is a powder of (I think) dried blood and pepper. So I put some more of that out, and now I have a sprayer that works and is empty for the next job that comes up. :confused2:
By then a nice breeze had come up, so it was back to the wire brushing. After another section my back was really talkin' to me, so I stretched a little to work the kinks out and it felt a little better. Had to remove the latch mechanism from the pop top to finish wire brushing, and that little break was enough to let the back relax a little more. Between that and being able to work the middle from the end and not have to stretch out so far I was able to get that nasty little job done. Wasn't really looking forward to getting all dirty and itchy for two days running!.
As I write this an entirely different kind of flock, this one made up of Canadian geese, has come up the canyon and made a bee line for the house. They're all catching up on the events of the past evening, or maybe they're encouraging each other to remain in formation, or maybe their eyes aren't so good and they have to keep track of each other by sound, but all that honking and squawking sure makes a lot of noise! Good thing I'm already up because I don't think I'd be able to sleep through that. :laughing:
This afternoon I'll take the trailer into town and pick up the other Vanagon, and run a few errands on the way there. Always fun trying to find a parking place when you're dragging a twenty foot trailer behind you. Before that, if it warms up enough, maybe I'll shoot the last coats of clear on those motorcycle parts I had pin striped a couple weeks ago. I finished color sanding them last night as well, and with rain and cold temps on the way, if I don't do it this morning it'll be a week or more before I get another chance.
Have a good 'un, guys!
