Some progress is being made.  All of the cabinets are stripped, re-stained and re-shellaced.  I am pleased with how they turned out.   Seems like I have been at this forever but slowly feeling like I'm getting somewhere...until the next thing pops up.

My fly fishing buddy, Mark, helped us by making a screen door that I never would have been able to achieve.  He's a cabinet maker and did some incredible work on a screen door made of birch.

 I am ready to get the tin off the front and replace the paneling and the braces which were rotted out.  There was only one obstacle...the PO had used three tubes of silicone on the window and the sides.

First I wiped the silicone remover on and then scraped with this little guy

Had to move very slowly as to not hurt the tin

I spent six hours getting the window free from the tin.  I ruined the eyebrow over the front window with my earlier and crude removal technique.  This time I have a product that removes silicone without ruining the paint and a bread knife from my camp box that I used to "fillet" the silicone away from the metal very slowly.

Whew!  Finally.

 Prying gently with my little pry tool and sawing slowing got the job done.
Very frustrating five hours.



Finally got the window off and will have another five hours invested just cleaning the residual silicone off both the window and the tin to reinstall it correctly.

Then it was up to the roof to remove and reset the little vent and the air vent.

 Both had copius amounts of silicone that was baked hard in the sun.  it was considerable fun to try and get those hex screws to start moving again and it took a pair of pliers to slowly get them started.

The PO put silicone everywhere!

Finally got it off and found another wasp nest inside of it.

The next job is to remove the main air vent frame that was, you guessed it, had more silicone gooped around it then made sense.  I will have to make a platform out of 2 X 6's and plywood so i can work on that.  Once that is off and cleaned, I can pull the front tin and start installing new birch and framing.

I think I need to do some more of this......

Before I do some of that.

The Weather Did A 180!

 The weather did a 180...going from the 90's down to 24 in the mornings for a few days as a British Columbia low barreled through.  We're back on track for high 90's every day and no rain in site until fall.   The brush and trees in the chaparral that surrounds us has a fuel moisture so low that any spark will set it ablaze and roar up the canyon.  Going to be a very tough year for wild fires and this is the last year I will be responding with a federal Fire management team and going around the country.  With the restrictions on our movement when we are on two hour, it's tough to get into the back country.

Here's a shot of the deville in the front yard with the pond and waterfall in the foreground.  We're thinking of having a permanent "camp" right there and use the trailer as a guest room.

The cactus are blooming and the hummingbirds are back in force.  Next...coveys of baby Quail running around the place.

Next up is taking the tin off and rebuilding the front end Birch and supporting wood.

For All The Folks Outside Of the US... 

If you are viewing and reading this from outside the US please take a moment and make a comment.  I am curious as to how you found us but would also like to hear about your interest in vintage trailers (or whatever you call them in your country)  I am amazed the the many locations around the world that have checked in to take a look.  Thanks and look forward to hearing from you.