Tag Archives: Touch of Oranges wood care

2015/08/24 (M) Skimcoating

For a change of pace we had granola with vegan yogurt for breakfast. I made seven cups of the Cafe Europe / Columbian decaf blend but Linda only had one mug as she was meeting Diane at Kensington Metropark at 9 AM to walk. After she left I gathered up the laundry, sorted it, and started the first load. I then turned my attention to the bus.

My first task was to cut one of the 8″x8″ sheets of #80 sandpaper in half, put it on the orbital pad sander, and go over all of the Universal Patch and Skimcoat (UPS) that I applied yesterday. The 80 grit worked well and I only needed the one half sheet. I swept the floor clean of loose debris and then assembled my tools and materials to patch a few gouges I missed yesterday and then skimcoat the entire portion of the floor that used to have ceramic tile on it. I mixed 24 ounces (by volume) with 12 ounces of water (by volume), half as much UPS as I did yesterday. I tried to work more quickly and got most of it applied. I cleaned up my tools and let them dry while the compound cured. That also gave me an opportunity to move laundry from the washer to the dryer and start another load in the washing machine.

I had a call from Chuck so I took a break to chat with him. He and Barbara spent the weekend racing at the old Air Force base in Oscoda, Michigan. Their bus and race car both ran well and he turned in some very good times. He had installed a new turbo boost gauge in the bus and based on my experience had selected a 0 to 15, PSI VDO unit. Apparently 15 PSI is not high enough for his engine. I have seen the boost on my gauge, which is a 0 to 30 PSI model, go as high as 17, but not often. For most of our trip to Arizona and back this past winter it did not go over 15 PSI.

The only issue they have with their coach at the moment is their old Amana residential refrigerator. The freezer is apparently not keeping things as cold as it should and the ice maker is not working. They use a lot of ice and generally have the freezer stocked, so those are problems. They bought a bag of ice for the weekend but it appeared to get warm enough to develop surface moisture and then refroze into large chunks, inconvenient at best. I think they have decided to replace it and want to do so before they leave for the winter and while they still have the shop and the forklift.

Chuck is also going to contact the glass installer and see if he would be willing to install bus windshields. Both of his lower windshields need to be replaced as do both of ours. We have five replacements at his shop, two for him and three for me. I also have new gaskets but he needs to get two sets. We discussed late September as the best time for me and he will see if the windshield guy will do all four of them on the same day.

I mixed the remaining USP, about 12 ounces (by volume) with 6 ounces of water (by volume) and finished the skimcoating of the bus floor. I used the last little bit of compound to patch some screw holes and small gouges in the living room floor where carpet had been installed. There may be a few more but instead of opening another bag of UPS I will probably return it and buy a quart of the premixed compound. I then cleaned up my tools again and left them in the sun to dry.

Linda got home about this time. It was just after noon, so we had a light lunch of vegan deli slices with lettuce, onion, and Daiya non-dairy cheese, on thin buns. A pluot provided a nice, sweet finish to lunch.

We measured for wallpaper the other day so I took the notes and created an Excel spreadsheet to figure out how many rolls of wallpaper to order. While I did that Linda worked on cleaning and reconditioning drawer fronts with Touch of Oranges and Touch of Beeswax. After examining the wallpaper in the bathroom (of the bus) I think we need to replace it too. We took a few minutes to get those measurements and I added them to the spreadsheet.

The wallpaper we have selected is the Lamar (#699-3377R) from the Just Textures collection of Sellars and Josephson. It is an off-white color with a small texture pattern designed for reverse hang, random match installation. It is only sold in 2-roll bolts 27″ wide and 4.5 yards long. We will need more than six rolls to replace all of the wallpaper so we will have to order eight rolls even though we may defer doing part of the hallway and the bathroom for a while. Fortunately it is not too expensive (as wallpapers go) and is scrubable, which was one of our requirements for use in the bus. Linda will return the sample books to Delux Drapery and Shade Company in Ann Arbor on Wednesday morning and place the order.

Linda reheated the leftover fajita veggies from last night and fixed some white rice to go with them. We had fresh strawberries and a little Coconut Bliss non-dairy ice cream for dessert. Coconut Bliss ice creams are not too coconuty, and are appropriately named. They are as good as I remember Hagan-Daas being.

I took a little time to add lines to my floor tile layout drawing showing the location of the underlayment sheets. It looks like I may need at least eight sheets. I have four sheets in the garage and will install those before buying more. I spent the rest of the evening working on the article for Bus Conversion Magazine about Larry and Carol Hall’s GM4106 bus conversion and finished it around 10 PM. I spent another 1.5 hours catching up on e-mail and checking in on the status of Technomadia’s bus renovation project at MasterTech in Elkhart, Indiana. The weather has turned cool and should be perfect for working on the bus tomorrow. We need to have long, productive days, so I had a snack and got to bed at midnight, played a few games, and went to sleep.

2015/08/22 (S) Clean and Level

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We arrived at the SLAARC breakfast just before 8 AM. We took the last two seats at the end of the long row of tables, but had to add another one as six more people came in after us. We had a lively chat that lasted until almost 9:30. After breakfast we stopped at the Tractor Supply Company store in New Hudson to get a couple more deer blocks and then headed for home.

We took a few minutes to put away tools and straighten up the garage enough that we could set up a work surface for Linda to use for cleaning the walnut drawer fronts for all of the bus drawers. We set up the two sawhorses we got at Lowe’s yesterday, set two 8-foot 2x4s in the provided grooves, and set a 4’x8′ piece of 2″ rigid foam insulation across them to use as the work surface. I found an old package of 4/0 steel wool and Linda found some old terry cloth towels.

Foam insulation work surface in garage with walnut drawer fronts laid out for cleaning with Touch of Oranges.

Linda removed the drawer fronts from seven of the drawer boxes and tagged them so they could be reunited later as each front is uniquely paired with its box. She then removed the handles from the drawer fronts and set them aside as they will be replaced with new ones once the cleaning is done. She started with the back sides of the drawer fronts. Following the directions she sprayed them liberally with Touch of Oranges wood cleaner, let them sit for 10 minutes, sprayed them again lightly, and rubbed them with the 4/0 steel wool. She then wiped them off with a terry cloth towel and applied Touch of Beeswax using 4/0 steel wool, always working with the grain, of course. The wax will have at least 24 hours to soak in before being wiped off. Once that is done she will flip them over and repeat the process on the front side.

While Linda was doing all of that I hauled the 15 gallon DeWalt portable air compressor out by the bus, plugged it in, and connected the air hose. I used the 4″ circular pneumatic sander on a few remaining high spots and decided I was done with it. I had found some old packs of 80 grit half sheets and tried using them on my orbital sander but the grit disappeared very quickly and the sheets snagged and tore on splinters in the plywood. I spent more time changing sheets than I did sanding with them so I abandoned this approach after the fifth sheet. I did, however, find a half dozen splintered areas and prepared those by making stop cuts with a utility knife and then peeling the splinter free with a putty knife, creating voids that will be filled with leveling compound.

I was tired of sanding and was clearly not going to get the floor back down to bare wood. I decided that the floor was as sanded and smooth as it was going to get and it was time to move to the next process; patching and leveling. Before I could do that, however, I needed to clean the coach. I vacuumed the floor three times and vacuumed all of the woodwork and wallpaper. As I worked from the bedroom forward Linda followed behind with a microfiber cloth wiping down all of the woodwork.

I assembled the tools I needed to apply the Universal Patch and Skimcoat; a 3″ putty knife, a 5″ putty knife, a combination smooth and toothed rectangular trowel, a mixing bucket, and a 2 foot long wooden stir stick and a mixing paddle designed to go in a drill. Each bag of UPS weighs 7 pounds and gets mixed with 1.75 quarts of water, which works out to 1 part water to 2 parts UPS.

The directions on the bag indicated that a full bag of UPS, properly mixed, would cover 20 to 25 square feet 1/8″ thick. That’s only a 5’x5′ area, but I only had a few gouges that were 1/8″ deep, so an entire bag was going to cover a lot more than 25 square feet when applied as a skim coat. Not having worked with this material before I had no idea how much working time I would have so I decided to mix half a bag. The recommended mixing method using a paddle in an electric drill turned out to be a bad idea so used the 2-foot long wooden stir stick to mix the compound.

TEC Universal Patch and Skimcoat applied to the floor in that hallway.

I started in the bathroom patching small depressions and then working out from the baseboards. By the time I got out into the hallway I had not even used half the compound and it was starting to set up. I hurried to use as much of it as I could, and tried adding a little extra water to extend its workability, but was only able to use about 60% of it before it was too stiff to spread and trowel off smoothly. I could have waited 1 hour and then mixed and applied more compound but I did not want to risk disturbing what I had already done and it has to set for 24 hours before I can sand it, which I will have to do.

Cleanup required warm soapy water for the tools. I then poured it into the 5 gallon compound bucket, topped it up with water, stirred it to dissolve the compound as much as possible, and let it sit.

For dinner Linda made Farro with mushrooms, onions garlic, glazed snow peas, and grated carrots. She needed some dry white wine for the Farro dish and opened a bottle of Pinot Grigio, so we had a glass with the meal. As rule if a wine is used in a dish it is also a good choice to drink with that meal.

After dinner I went to Lowe’s and got some more 4/0 steel wool and some 80 grit sandpaper sheets. I stopped at O’Reilly’s for a battery disconnect switch for the lawn tractor but they did not have one. I tried the Howell Tractor Supply Company but they did not have one either. I drove to the Brighton Shell station, topped off the fuel in the Element, and went home. We turned in at 9 PM and watched a 007 movie before going to sleep.

2015/05/25 (M) Memorial Day

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We spent the morning lounging around drinking coffee and enjoying the holiday. Hey, even retired people need a day off. Actually, we continued to research refrigerator, seating, and upholstery options for the bus, taking a break to have a tofu scramble and toast for breakfast.

We stumbled upon the Yale Appliance blog which proved to be very informative. Yale is a very large appliance store in the Boston area and maintains a blog about appliances. After reading what they had to say in some fairly recent postings we realized that we should probably not be looking for a “counter depth” refrigerator. It also appeared that our best bet in terms of case dimensions and interior volume might be a standard top freezer design and our best bet in terms of both price and reliability might be a Frigidaire.

We went to the Frigidaire website and found that the FFHT1621QB might fit our needs perfectly. It is a 16.3 cu. ft. top freezer design available in black, white, or stainless steel with doors that can be hinged left or right. (We need a fridge with doors the hinge on the left.) It is 28″ W x 30-1/8″ D x 64-3/8″ H and only needs 3/8″ clearance on the top and sides and 1″ in the rear. The depth includes the doors and handles; the depth of the case alone is only is 26-5/8″. Our refrigerator alcove is 33-3/4″ W x 29-1/2″ D x 66-3/4″ H so it will fit easily, recessing a bit more than our current 22.6 cu. ft. Jenn-Air and leaving 5″ to its left for a pull out pantry. The pantry will have be custom built and measure approximately 5″ W x 28″ D x 66″ H including top and bottom mounted slides/guides. Also of importance, we will not have to modify the cabinet above the refrigerator alcove.

In terms of seating we checked out Gilbreath Upholstery’s website but then concentrated on the Bradd & Hall website. Bradd & Hall is a well-known RV (& marine) furniture supplier in Elkhart, Indiana. They handle the Flexsteel RV and marine product lines and also sell the Lambright Comfort Chair product line, although the latter is available directly from Lambright in Shipshewana, Indiana. We have sat in the Lambright Lazy Relaxor Lite swivel recliner (wall hugger) at RV rallies and found it nicely sized and very comfortable for us. It is 24″ W x 33″ D x 38″ H and needs 2.4″ clearance from the wall. It is normally a free-standing chair so we are unclear whether it can be secured to the floor or be used with seat belts. We plan to visit Bradd & Hall on Monday, June 1 before we check into the GLAMARAMA rally and this is one of the things we will ask about.

Bradd & Hall also sells a Flexsteel Barrel Chair with a bolt down pedestal base that locks in different positions and includes a bar for attaching seat belts. It is 26″ W x 30″ D x 34″ high and might be a better fit for our bus and what we are trying to accomplish with our remodeling project. Last, but not least, they sell Flexsteel Captain’s Chairs (which Flexsteel calls “bucket seats” on its website). We need a chair of this type to replace the oversized front passenger chair and possibly to replace the driver’s chair. My hope, however, is to get an ISRI 6800 seat for the driver’s position. These are the seats that are normally installed on tour buses.

An advantage to getting everything from Bradd & Hall, except for the ISRI driver’s seat, is that we can get the same fabric on the passenger Captain’s chair and living room chairs and buy additional materials to have the seat and back cushions made for the sofa that I will build (with storage underneath). We will probably find a folding chair for the desk and can have the seat recovered in the same material so that everything is coordinated.

Linda called the J. C. Penney’s salon to see if Renee was working and had openings. She was, and she did, so Linda booked a time, grabbed her car keys, and headed to Twelve Oaks Mall. That seemed like an opportune time for me to head to the bus to double check measurements and ponder design solutions. I checked the dimensions of our refrigerator alcove and the Frigidaire FFHT1621QB will definitely fit very nicely. The front part of the passenger side of the bus has 13′ 3″ of flat floor space available for a desk and two chairs with a small dining table between them. On the driver side of the bus the aft end of the sofa nook is 7′ 2″ from the entrance step. If I can fit both chairs and the table in the first 7′ 2″ on the passenger side we will have room for a 6′ long desk that is 26-1/2″ deep. That’s long enough to have a file drawer on one end and a printer shelf on the other end with plenty of room in between for a chair.

We have been planning on reusing the Corian top from the old dinette table so I decided to disassemble the top from its base. I had never really looked at the construction before now and discovered that the Corian is glued to a wood panel that is secured to the two massive posts that are screwed to the base. I was able to disconnect the base from the posts easily enough but there did not appear to be any way to separate the Corian from the support structure. I took a few whacks at it with a pry bar and small sledge hammer and it was clearly not going to come loose.

The good news is that we can now select a new table top in whatever size, shape, and material suits us and use the same material for the desk top, which will double as additional kitchen counter space. Our assumption has been that we will use Corian, but Corian is heavy so we will consider other options before making a final decision. We discussed extending the desk top all the way down the wall to the front of the living room, although it would only be about 6″ deep at most, and building shallow cabinetry to go under it and fill in the space above the HVAC chase and below the window trim. That space will essentially be wasted otherwise, and have to be finished in some way, so building small storage spaces is worth considering with or without the extended desk top.

What all of this comes down to is that we have to select the two chairs we want to use in conjunction with figuring out the table size and support system, and then finalize the design of the desk. We plan to recondition all of the woodwork (with Touch of Oranges and Touch of Beeswax) and replace the refrigerator before we install the new floor, which has to go in before the furniture. That’s the order in which decisions have to be made and the work has to be done. Chairs and custom woodwork are potentially long lead items so we need to get them finalized and ordered, but they are the last things to get installed, so it should work out OK in the end.

It rained hard for a brief time mid-afternoon, after which Linda went for a long walk. She was walking almost daily this winter in Quartzsite, Arizona but has not walked much since we got home. That gave me time to work on this blog post.

Earlier in the day we snacked on nuts instead of having lunch. Linda made whole wheat capellini for dinner using the Portobello mushrooms and some of the asparagus we bought yesterday at the Howell Farmers Market. It was delicious.

I had intended to work at my computer most of the day but that obviously did not happen. When I finally went to my office after dinner I had a long chat on the phone with Butch about hardware for the slide out pantry and other bus-related things and then checked a few websites that he suggested as good sources of specialized hardware. I then e-mailed GLCC members about parking with the chapter and took care of some other e-mail. In addition to computer-based work I need to keep working on the bus but I am also at the point where I need to order some things and then settle in and work on drawings for the desk, pantry, and sofa.

2015/05/14 (R) Deconstructing the Bus

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The entry stairwell and passenger seat area of our H3-40. Note the two mounting channels for the passenger seat

I spent most of the day continuing to disassemble the inside front half of our motorcoach while Linda split her time between working in the yard and helping me. But before we got started on that work I made a follow-up appointment with the endodontist who did my root canal last fall. I also indicated that I had been having some issues with my teeth in that area and they scheduled me for an evaluation as well. I got my weekly follow up call from Diane at SteelMaster. She was not very happy when I told her I wanted to consider an arched metal roof for a pole barn type structure and started to argue with me about foundations and poles.

Driver side sleeper sofa unscrewed from the floor and laying on its back. Both end panels are off and the drawer and slides have been removed.

Wrong move. If you are not going to give me the information I need to make a decision then you are not going to sell me any of your products. She did admit, however, that I could purchase the stamped engineered design drawings without putting a deposit on a materials order. The drawings would cost about $500 which I think is still unreasonable. If the County denies my building permit SteelMaster will not take the drawings back and give me a refund. It makes me wonder how they have ever sell a single building. It’s not like I can take their drawings to another company and have them fabricate the materials at lower cost. I can understand charging something, perhaps $200, just to keep people who are not serious from wasting their time, but $500 seems excessive to me.

Driver side sleeper-sofa with everything removed so I can disassemble it to get it out of the bus.

Diane passed me off to Greg who handles the arched steel roof systems. He has not dealt with me before so he was not frustrated with me. For a 25′ wide x 50′ long building with a 25″ snow load he figured the roof system would be $10k to $13k. The roof profile would be similar to their “Q” style building, which is shaped more like a Quonset hut, and attached to the top of the wall with plates that are similar to the base plates they use for their metal buildings. The stamped drawings only would be $575, so if we decide to pursue this we will just have to spend that money to get these and hope the County Building Department approves the plans. Of course, Diane was willing to sell Chuck and me two complete S Model buildings 32’ x 56’ without end walls for $20,400 total, so $10K – $13K for a roof seems expensive by comparison.

Passenger side of the bus looking towards the rear from the cockpit. All of the furniture is out.

We needed the space in garage where the lawn tractor is parked to store the furniture from the bus until we can dispose of it. The tractor hasn’t been started since last fall (or summer?) so I hooked up the battery charger and let it charge while we worked.

This motor (center) was used to drive two geared pullies via flexible drive shafts (green) to open/close the drawer under the sleeper-sofa. (One of the pullies is visible upper left.)

By the time we quit working around 6 PM we had disassembled the sleeper-sofa and unbolted the passenger chair. We got the chair, both parts of the sleeper sofa, and both parts of the J-lounge out of the bus and into the driveway. I started the lawn tractor and moved it out of the garage and parked it outside behind a thick grove of large trees and dense undergrowth so it was mostly hidden from view. Once we got everything into the garage I removed the flexible HVAC ducts and threw them away. I then started pulling up the old carpet and padding from the living room floor and steps, and removing the carpet from the walls in the entry stairwell and cockpit areas.

The base of the passenger side J-lounge. This was a complicated piece of custom furniture.

[p6 R] I got all of the old material out and into the trash or garage and then removed one of the two filler panels from passenger side front floor and took that to the garage. I could not remove the other filler panel because it had a hole drilled in it with an electrical wire running through it. I will have to cut a slot to get it out and eventually shut off the power to that circuit and reroute the wire as it also passes through one of the HVAC 4” flexible duct adapters and into the HVAC chase. A never cease to be amazed by the things that bus converters do in places they think you will never look.

The upper portion of the passenger side J-lounge sitting in the driveway waiting go in the garage.

We spent some time in the bus considering our remodeling plans. With all of the furniture out we were finally able to see what we had to work with and some new possibilities emerged. The wall paper is badly stained behind the sleeper-sofa area and the wall behind the J-lounge/dinette is unfinished as it was never visible or intended to be. A lot of the woodwork needs to be cleaned and reconditioned. We will do that with the Touch of Oranges Wood Cleaner and steel wool, after which we will apply a nice coat of Touch of Beeswax.

Passenger chair and drawers waiting to go into the garage.

We have assumed from the beginning that we would replace the sleeper sofa with a new one custom designed and built to fit the available space, including a notch for the HVAC chase that would allow it to go all the way to the wall and fit under the window trim. The only way we would be likely to get such a sofa is from Villa and their furniture is very expensive and takes an unreasonably long time to get. Most of the furniture we removed from the bus was Villa, but it was all worn out. We are now considering putting two barrel chairs where the sleeper-sofa was located, perhaps with a small cabinet between them. We need to cut cardboard or heavy paper to match the footprint of possible chairs, cabinets, and the custom desk and set them in the bus to see how they will fit.

The “living room” of the bus looking forward from the kitchen. All of the seating has been removed. Note the black ceramic tile at te bottom of the frame.

Sooner rather than later we will have to make some final decisions so I can draw up final plans for the desk and floor cabinets and get them to Jaral Beaty in Logansport, Indiana to build. We are also going to have to settle on chairs and fabrics and get them on order. Besides the floor we are going to replace the driver and passenger seats, and the refrigerator, so this is a major remodeling project. I also have to rebuild the water bay, but that’s a different project for a different day and blog post.

Driver side alcove where the sleeper-sofa was installed. Note the HVAC chase and flexible ducts used to get air out through the front of the sofa.

It was a very physical day with a few bumps and scrapes but no serious damage to us or the bus. I went to the gas station to top up my fuel tank while Linda fixed dinner. She had some left over white rice and ended up adding it to barley, lentils, split peas, carrots, mushrooms, red onions, garlic, greens, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Everything except the greens was sautéed. The greens were cooked separately and added at the end. It was a delicious and complex combination of flavored and textures. We watched Season 3 Episode 1 of Sherlock and turned in early as we needed to be up very early tomorrow and on the road to the Dayton Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio.

Passenger side HVAC chase with AC cable passing through 4″ flexible duct adapter and then through the floor. Really? Really.

2015/05/05 (T) BAF & MEF3 Visit

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Today was a family visit day. We were up a bit earlier than usual and enjoyed a light breakfast and a quiet first half of the morning. One of the things I’ve had on my to-do list is ordering Touch of Oranges Wood Cleaner and Touch of Beeswax Wood Preservative. I finally got those ordered today directly from the company with free ground shipping. I checked Amazon but the prices were no better and the products were not eligible for Amazon Prime. I also found what I think is an exact replacement for my iPad2 flip cover and put it in our Amazon shopping cart.

Our son (Brendan) and grand-daughter (Madeline) arrived around 10 AM. Madeline knows her way around the main floor of our house at this point and headed directly for the pantry to see what snacks we might have. We tend to have dried fruit on hand, especially raisins and cranberries, as a tasty but healthy choice. She is very fond of dried cranberries. We spent the morning playing and talking and having a drawn out snacky lunch. Somewhere in there Brendan setup the Pack-n-Play.

Pat Davidson from Apex Roofing showed up around noon to look at our roof and give us a quote. Apex has done two roofs for us on the previous house and did excellent work at a fair price both times. The quote was about what I expected and I gave Pat the verbal go ahead to put us in the schedule. They are scheduling out about six weeks, so mid -June looks like the timeframe. That potentially runs into the SKP Tri-Chapter Rally or the ARRL Field Day, as well as bus and bus barn projects, so we will have to see exactly where things fall. We like to be around while this sort of work is going on. This time, however, I also need to build a dormer on the back side of the roof to provide better access to the attic, generally, and the air-conditioner evaporator/air-handler, specifically.

The quote is for a new roof, with new underpayment and ice shield, so it is a “tear off” where they first remove all of the old roofing and repair any damaged/missing roof decking or boards. They always look for at least a three day window with a dry weather forecast. Pat said they would work with me relative to the dormer. Specifically, they would start the tear off in the area where I want to build the former and then move to a different part of the roof so I can do the carpentry. Linda and I need to visit ABC Supply Co. in new Hudson to pick out the specific shingle we want, and we plan to do that sooner rather than later.

The dormer is simple in concept but a bit trickier in execution. I would build two tapered walls on the ground that look like right triangles. The hypotenuse would attach to the roof with the long leg on top and horizontal and the shirt leg facing out and vertical. Joists would be installed across the two walls, tying the together. The front wall would be framed for an access door between the two short legs. Two rafters would be installed at the end wall. The ridge board would be set in place and cut to tie into the roof. Two backer boards would be installed on the roof running at an angle from the ends of the side walls up to the ridge board. The rest of the rafters would then be installed. The walls and roof would then get plywood sheeting and decking. The final carpentry would be fascia boards and siding. Fortunately we have a pile of Hardy Board left over from when the house was sided. Hopefully there is enough to side the dormer and it is in good enough shape to use. I would then install the door, which I might have to build. Apex would then roof the dormer, including continuous ridge venting. The final steps would be painting the door and door trim and installing fascia and vented soffit material to match what is already on the house if I can find a supplier. We would like the dormer to blend in and look like it belongs there.

Brendan got Madeline down for her nap at 1 PM and then spent a little time looking at what we plan to do with the floor in the bus before heading back to Ann Arbor. I gathered up the Armstrong vinyl floor tile samples and drove to Lynch Carpet in Howell to return them and see what else they might have. Clint let me keep the one we like for a couple more days and gave me a grout color chart. I then headed to Best Buy in Brighton to pick up a Sony Blue-Ray/DVD player and a couple of flash drives, all of which were on sale. I stopped for gas and got back to the house just as Madeline was waking up from her nap.

I was able to spend a little time researching a potential new vehicle. As much as we are enamored with the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited the Consumer Reports data on them is very discouraging, especially the reliability data. Viable alternatives may be the Nissan Frontier Pickup Truck or the Nissan Xterra SUV, both of which are available in 4×4 configurations. Even the Ford F-150 might be a possibility as it is available in a 4-door, short-bed, 4×4 version. They all have much better CR reliability data that the Jeeps. The problem is, they are not Jeeps. If we can wait a year, Ford is releasing an F-150 Raptor in fall 2016 that will feature a 10-speed transmission with six selectable driving modes including rock, mud & sand, and Baja (high speed desert racing). It will probably also feature a ridiculously high price, but then none of these vehicles are inexpensive.

We got a phone call from XPO around 4:20 PM to let us know they would be delivering our box spring mattress foundation around 5 PM. They showed up right on time and carried it to our bedroom. Linda signed the delivery slip and they were gone as quick as they arrived. We will wait until Brendan retrieves Madeline tomorrow to disassemble and reassemble the bed.

I entertained Madeline while Linda prepared dinner, but Madeline was very interested in what her Grandma Linda was doing, so we kept going to the kitchen to check on the work. Linda served some “mock” chicken tenders, but she also fixed fresh green beans and homemade mashed potatoes, reheated some frozen edamame, and set out fresh black grapes and pineapple chunks. Madeline is a good eater and we all enjoyed our meal.

Madeline is “potty trained” and very proud of the fact that she is no longer wearing a diaper. She had a very successful day letting us know she needed to use the toilet. We have a booster ring for the hall bathroom and put a stool in there for her. She uses the stool to get up in the toilet seat and then uses it to stand up at the sink and wash her hands. The hall bathroom sink/counter is lower than normal and turns out to be a great height for Madeline with the use of the stool.

We played after dinner until Madeline was tired. She has always been comfortable staying with us but at 29 months of age is starting to have some anxiety about being away from her parents. She wanted her daddy, and was briefly a little bit teary, but it wasn’t anything Grandma Linda couldn’t handle. Linda followed the usual routine of looking at the rug (wall art) and all of the pictures in the hallway, the small bedroom, and finally the middle bedroom where Madeline’s Pack-n-Play is set up. She selected the Construction Kitties book (again) for a bedtime story. It was one of the books we got from the library yesterday and was her favorite choice all day today. She fell asleep easily as she usually does. We are active, busy people, but it’s a different kind of busy from having a 2-year old in the house. We were tired, and turned in about an hour after our grand-daughter, but it was a good kind of tired.

We were so busy today that we failed to notice that it was Cinco de Mayo until it was almost over.

2015/02/19-23 (R-M) Solo in Q

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2015/02/19 (R) Over-Cranked

I have been busy cleaning/waxing the outside of the bus and writing articles so I have not been able to spend much time writing my blog posts or uploading them to our website. A couple of weeks ago I uploaded the posts through the end of December 2014 but then we got busy and I have not uploaded anything since then.

Here is how my day went. I Got up at 7:30 AM and had granola with fresh blueberries for breakfast. It was cloudy and cool most of the morning, so I tried to focus on the bus cleaning/waxing and was able to clean and wax the passenger side of the bus from the front to the back edge of the dinette fixed window.

Another dramatic sunset reflected off the recently waxed driver’s side of our coach.

The whole house generator at home runs a self-test every Thursday at 11 AM (EST) and e-mails its status to us. Instead of getting a message at 9 AM I got one at 9:10 AM (MST). The message was an Over Crank fault indicating that the Genset had failed to start, had dropped out of Auto mode, and would not attempt to restart until the controller was reset to clear the fault. I did not assume that Linda had paid any attention to the details of the message so I called her. She called Bratcher Electric and they told her how to reset the controller. They also said they had received similar notifications/calls from other customers. Sure, the temperatures have been below negative 10 degrees F, but the whole reason we have the generator is to protect us against power loss which usually occurs under the worst weather conditions. The service technician is coming out on Wednesday to check the unit, which is still under warranty.

I took a lunch break at 2PM and had a jumbo tofu hot dog and some hummus with a few Fritos corn chips. For most of the rest of the day I worked at my laptop selecting and editing photos for my Quartzsite 2015 BCM article. I made a quick trip to the Road Runner market for some 26 ounce containers of salt and stopped at Herb’s Hardware store looking for a clear filter housing, but they did not have any.

I made a nice, large salad for dinner and finished up the box of Franzia Refreshing White wine. I continued to process photos for my article late into the evening, taking an occasional break to check e-mail and check out the SteelMasters website. They sell steel Quonset hut style building kits and this might be a more economical way to build our bus barn, and easier as a do-it-ourselves project.

2015/02/20 (F) Touch of Oranges

I was up late last night so I slept in until 8 AM this morning. I awoke to cloudy skies and cool temperatures so I skipped breakfast and got right to work cleaning/waxing the passenger side of the bus, which faces south and gets a lot of sun. I have been working front to back but decided to reverse direction. The reason was to do as much of the side aft of the patio awning as possible while it was cloudy. The area under the patio awning is shaded (by the awning) so I can work there anytime I feel like it.

Butch was working on their new VDO electronic speedometer and needed to borrow my air-over-hydraulic bottle jack so I dug it out of the front bay for him. Mid-morning Lou and Donna Rice stopped by to say “hi.” They were in town looking for newspapers that Lou could use to mask off their motorhome so he could spray some paint. It just so happened that there was a large box of newspapers over by the trash container and they were able to get all that they needed at our campsite.

The sunset in Q backlights Saguaro cactus, a palm, and a Palo Verde tree.

I quit cleaning/waxing around 11:45 AM and turned my attention to the water softener. I have regenerated it twice this week, first with solar salt and then with non-iodized table salt, but the water coming out of it is still testing in the 3 – 7 gpg range. A reading of 7 is considered ‘hard’ so at this point I am not very happy with our water softener.

I filled the filter housing with yet another 26 ounces of finely ground non-iodized table salt and started the regen process for the third time this week. This time I ran the water more vigorously for a short time and then slowly (two minutes per gallon) and checked for salty water from the outlet of the softener. When I got very salty water I shut off the flow and let it sit for an hour. I repeated this a couple more times. When I took the filter housing off there was very little salt left in the bottom. I rinsed it out, reinstalled it, and ran water through the unit at the rate of four minutes per gallon for one hour, figuring 15 gallons of filtered water should be enough to flush the saltiness out of the softener. I tested the discharge water from the softener and it measured somewhere between zero and 1.5 gpg TH. It should have been zero, but I do not know if the test strips are sensitive to residual salinity. This process took all afternoon, intermixed with my computer and bus waxing work.

I had granola with fresh blueberries for lunch and then finished yesterday’s post and started this one. I settled in to work on photographs for my article with periodic breaks to check the water softener. It was more sunny than cloudy from noon to 2 PM at which point the clouds thickened and filled in. The air was warm but not hot and the conditions were ideal for cleaning/waxing the “sunny” side of the bus. That is what I did until 5:45 PM, with a short break to talk to Linda on the phone. I should be able to finish the waxing tomorrow, put a second coat of Carnu-B Coconut Creme on the passenger side tires, and put a first coat on the driver side tires.

I cleaned up all of my supplies and materials, washed up, and had a few corn chips and hummus as an appetizer. I washed some red grapes for later and got out an orange. I have a lot of grapefruit and oranges on board at the moment and try to at least one of each every day.

This was a very dramatic sunset.

Speaking of oranges, Barb has been using a pair of products from Touch of Oranges; Touch of Oranges Wood Cleaner & Re-conditioner, and Touch of Beeswax Wood Preserver; http://www.TouchOfOranges.com. I went to their motorhome yesterday to see how it works and the results were quite impressive. I thought about ordering some but decided not to for several reasons. For one, we already have Murphy’s Oil Soap Wood Cleaner on board. It has orange oil in it and I would like to do a side-by-side test. For another, we are getting too close to our departure date to risk a delayed delivery. Finally, we don’t have time to use it before we get home anyway. I might order some in May if I like the way it works better than the Murphy’s product.

I made a fancy salad for dinner. We bought a large container of mixed salad greens on Monday and I need to have salad every day in order to use it up before it goes bad. I found carrots and mushrooms in the fridge that needed to be used, so those went on the salad along with dried fruits, peanuts, Daiya pepper jack “cheese” and other yummies.

I continued processing photos after dinner. By 10:30 PM I was too tired to concentrate and went to bed.

2015/02/21 (S) Facetime with Madeline

I was awake off and on starting at 6 AM and finally got up at 7:15 AM. The Yuma Hamfest started yesterday and runs through tomorrow but I have too much to do here to spend three hours driving just to window shop. Besides, Butch had to leave early this morning for a rock and mineral swap meet to try selling some of the equipment they have purchased and decided not to keep.

I did not have coffee yesterday so that was my second task this morning. My first task was getting the cats their food and water and cleaning their litter tray. I had granola with raisins and fresh blueberries for breakfast and then sat and enjoyed my coffee while Jasper sat beside me on the couch and groomed himself.

The sunsets in Q were usually good but this one was better than usual.

It was cool again this morning with a thin cloud layer so as soon as I finished my coffee and checked my e-mail I got to work on the outside of the bus. That was at 9:15 AM. It took me until 11:45 AM to finish the passenger side of the bus and apply a coat of Carnu-B Coconut Creme to the driver side tires.

I finished the hummus for lunch with the help of a few Fritos corn chips. Afterwards I called Jeff to check on our coffee order. He said it was in the mail but went out a few days later than expected. He said he expedited the shipping because of that and was supposed to e-mail the USPS tracking number to me. I then went over to Jim and Barb’s rig and asked if I could test their Touch of Oranges products. Barb lent me both the wood cleaner/restorer and the beeswax wood preserver along with pieces of terry cloth for each and a piece of 0000 steel wool. I set those aside and worked on my Quartzsite 2015 article for a while.

I took a break from working at my computer to test the cleaning products. Following the directions, I sprayed the left side of the kitchen base cabinets with the cleaner/restorer, waited two minutes, rubbed it with steel wool (with the grain), and wiped it off. I then applied the beeswax preserver with a piece of terry cloth and let it sit for one hour. While the beeswax product was soaking in I went over and visited with Butch and Fonda. While I was doing that I got a TXT message from Linda asking if I wanted to Facetime. That meant she was back at the house and had grand-daughter Madeline with her. I indicated that a little bit later would be better.

My one hour wait was up so I excused myself, went back to my coach, and wiped down the left side of the cabinet. I then used the Murphy’s Oil Soap Wood Cleaner (with orange oil) on the right side of the cabinet. The results did not compare favorably with the Touch of Oranges products which definitely improved the appearance of the wood.

I turned on our Verizon MiFi, switched my iPad to it, and then called Linda to set up the Facetime session. Either I never configured the Facetime app or failed to reconfigure it but it would not let me log in. Once I got the correct e-mail address and password set up it worked fine. I called Linda’s iPad and when she answered I got to see Madeline. When Linda picked her up earlier today Madeline said she was going to grandma and grandpa’s house to see grandma and grandpa. Linda explained that I wasn’t at the house but Madeline could still see me in the bus using the iPad. It is a fabulous technology, and fascinating to see how completely natural it is for a 2-year old.

I have enjoyed creating panorama images this winter using MS-ICE.

Bill Stewart from our FMCA Freethinkers Chapter had requested to see some photos from the recent gathering at the Peg Leg boondocking area near Borrego Springs, California. Last night I selected seven images, re-sized and processed them, uploaded them to the Freethinkers folder in my Dropbox, generated the “share” link, and e-mailed it to our open forum e-mail reflector. While I was working on that it occurred to me that Lou Petkus is always looking for images for the SKP Photographers BOF newsletter and member album and I had not sent him anything in a while. I was too tired by then to do the work so I put that on my “to do” list for today.

I spent most of the rest of the afternoon and evening working on my article and the photos that go with it except for a break to photograph a beautiful sunset. Linda called around 6 PM (8 PM at home) to chat. She suggested that we wait to see if someone at Escapade is selling the Touch of Oranges products. She also suggested that I check to see if Carnu-B is going to be at any car shows near us as they sell the product for a lot less at shows than they do online.

I took a break for dinner and microwaved a jumbo tofu hotdog and a potato. The potato had started sprouting so I figured I needed to eat it or plant it. I had been accumulating dishes and utensils for the last few days so I washed, rinsed, and dried all of them. By the time I finished my chores, played a few games on my iPad, and finished this post it was midnight. Completing the waxing of the bus was an important milestone, and although I have a lot more to get done on the bus this coming week I plan to take it easy tomorrow and try to wrap up my Quartzsite 2015 article and perhaps some other writing. The most I may do to the bus is apply some more Carnu-B Coconut Creme to the tires.

2015/02/22 (N) Q 2015

I did not use up the second package of blueberries fast enough and they started to go bad. I picked out the bad ones, rinsed off the rest, and had some granola with my blueberries for breakfast. I worked for a little while finishing up yesterday’s blog post and then got to work at my computer. It was cloudy and windy when I got up and the winds continued to strengthen during the day. I had closed the vent fan domes last night so I would not have to listen to them rattle. The patio awning was flapping more than I liked so I got Butch to hold the strap while I released the rafters and then rolled it up and latched it. I was able to retract the small passenger side bedroom awning by myself. In the light of day I discovered that I had not wiped the Carnu-B wax off of the body as completely as I thought. That, however, will be a task for another day.

I wanted to make a sandwich for lunch but I was out of onion so I went to the Road Runner Market to get one. I also wanted pretzels and hummus. They did not have any hummus and they did not have the kind of pretzels I like but I was able to get two large sweet onions. Sourdough bread with Tofurkey brand mock deli slices, Daiya cheddar “cheese” slices, veganaise, honey mustard, fresh onion, and salad greens made a tasty treat.

I finally finished my Quartzsite 2015 article for Bus Conversion Magazine, including the 95 photos and captions, and uploaded it to my Dropbox for proofreading. I had an e-mail back from Gary indicating that they would probably use it for the February issue, so very late this evening I uploaded all of the photo files.

A panorama created using MS-ICE from handheld images.

About the time I needed to take a break Fonda left for church and I saw Butch sitting outside with his camera. Another beautiful Quartzsite sunset was taking form so I grabbed my camera and shirt jacket and went out to join him. It had been cloudy and windy all day and was rather brisk. We both worked the sunset until it was played out and got some nice photos considering that they were all handheld in low-light conditions.

For dinner I made a Thai Kitchen Noodle Bowl and added some honey roasted peanuts. I closed all of the bus windows to a crack and made some hot tea. Tea is still my beverage of choice with any type of Asian cuisine and was very satisfying on a chilly evening.

With the Quartzsite 2015 article done (except for corrections) I started pulling together the “featured bus” article on Byron Pigg’s 1985 Model 15 Eagle bus conversion. I went through the photos I took last month of his coach at the Eagles International Bus Rally and was pleased that I had a good variety with good technical quality to choose from. I made my selections, post-processed all of them, and inserted the small versions into the Word doc. The article narrative itself was less than one page in length as I do not know very much about Byron and his wife Betty or their bus. The Word doc template I use for featured bus articles includes two “Specifications” pages, one for the bus and one for the conversion, so the article was three pages. I e-mailed the Word doc (with embedded photos) to Byron and cc:d Gary at BCM. In order to complete the article I need Byron to fill in a lot of the details about his bus and conversion.

2015/02/23 (M) Seizure

Toast with apricot preserves is as close as I get anymore to the Danish pastries that were once one of my favorite treats, but I am OK with that. I am absolutely enjoying retirement more as a result of being much healthier and more active, both of which are a direct consequence of eating better, weighing less, and not having to take a cocktail of drugs every day. Toast, coffee, and a little fruit juice makes a very agreeable breakfast.

I finished up yesterday’s blog post after breakfast and then got into my computer-based work. I had planned to work on the photos of Larry and Carol Hall’s GM PD4106 bus conversion and write a brief narrative, similar to the one I did on Byron and Betty’s Eagle bus, but other things kept interfering with the work. Except for lunch and dinner breaks, and brief chats with Barb, Butch, and Fonda, I sat on my butt most of the day working away at my computer on a template for featured bus articles but had very little to show for it at the end of the day.

I have learned over the years to stick with sunsets until it is dark. Panorama stitched together with MS-ICE.

For lunch I had the last jumbo vegan hotdog in the open pack. They microwave nicely, so they are quick and easy to fix, and are so yummy with honey mustard, pickle relish, and chopped sweet onion.

I had not yet seen the e-mail from Jeff at Teeko’s Coffee and Tea in Howell, Michigan with the USPS tracking number for my coffee order so I call them at noon (2 PM EST) and Mary gave the number to me over the phone. It only occurred to me much later that the e-mail may have gotten trapped by our spam filter. I direct all of the notifications from the spam filter to a special inbox and I have not made a habit of checking that inbox or going into the filter to release or delete the e-mails that are being held.

Butch and Fonda drove over to Bouse this morning to talk with the General Manager and park managers of an RV Park about working there next season. They stopped at our shared P. O. Box on their way back and then went to the main office downtown. When they got back to camp they had my coffee shipment and an envelope from Dan Fregin, the treasurer of our FMCA Freethinkers chapter.

At one point in the afternoon I looked out the picture window by the dinette, where I sit and work at my computer, and Roho was lying on the ground with Jim and Barb and Jim L. gathered around him. He appeared to be twitching and Barb confirmed that he was having a seizure and typically has one once a month like clockwork. We had a dog with Epilepsy (Scout) and it did not turn out well. The standard treatment at the time (18 years ago?) was phenobarbital, the same drug used to control the condition in humans. Scout did not respond to small doses and the amount we had to give him eventually destroyed his liver. But we had no choice; he went into a grand mall seizure one night and would not come out of it. We had to take him to an emergency veterinary clinic at 2 AM and they had to inject him with phenobarbital and something else to get the seizure to stop.

We had just started him on an experimental treatment using potassium bromide (KBr) dissolved in flavored pancake syrup when his liver failed and he died. I told Barb about this but I did not know if the KBr treatment had become standard practice or not. The apparent effect of the KBr was to mediate the uptake of the phenobarbital, allowing much smaller doses to be much more effective. I searched online later and found that KBr has, indeed, become part of the standard treatment arsenal for canine and feline seizures.

For dinner I made a big green salad. While pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator I found a bunch of asparagus that was spoiled so I threw it out. That was too bad because I really like asparagus and this bunch probably came from the farmers market where we have bought very good produce. I also had to throw away some blueberries and carrots this week but managed to salvage some of each. I did, however, finish up the mushrooms in my salad.

Atmospheric conditions make all the difference in sunrise and sunset photography. Panorama stitched with MS-ICE.

Linda called around 7 PM (my time) and we brought each other up to date on how our days went. Around 8 PM I prepped the remaining strawberries for later and then heated an Amy’s vegan tamale with Mexican rice.

I finally put aside the featured bus article template I worked on much of the day and started selecting and processing the photos for the article on the Hall’s bus. By that point, however, I was tired and frustrated and making mistakes so I went to bed. The southerly winds that brought the rain had shifted to the northwest bringing cool, clear air with them. It had cooled off enough in the bus that I turned on the electric heating pad for the first time in quite a while.

The Phase Place

Welcome to the next phase (hosted by QTH.com)

Tag Archives: Touch of Oranges wood care

2015/08/24 (M) Skimcoating

2015/08/22 (S) Clean and Level

2015/05/25 (M) Memorial Day

2015/05/14 (R) Deconstructing the Bus

2015/05/05 (T) BAF & MEF3 Visit

2015/02/19-23 (R-M) Solo in Q