When last we left you.....

We had just left "The Hermitage" in Fort Garland.

The next episode saw us heading toward Santa Fe in New Mexico...during a wind storm.

The camper managed the side wind well and we were able to stop at the targets for the day.

Our first stop was Taos, only to find that the only place open in the old town square before 10am was the coffee shops. After walking around and noticing that there were only two types of shops there, tourist crap and high-end galleries, we headed out to Chimayo.

We had only one stop in Chimayo which was Ortega Weaving. This is where Molesworth got the cloth used in his furniture upholstery. I picked up a blanket that will be part of the Club Chair project slated for later this year and Marlys got a purse. If you have an interest in Indian weaving this is place not to miss.

By this time, it was pass noon and the only place left on the way to Santa Fe was "The Black Hole" in Los Alamos. I had heard and read about this place for a number of years, and now with time to meander we could make what thought of a a pilgrimage. TBH is a surplus shop stocked with items from the Los Alamos National Laboratories, i.e. nuclear etc.

By the time we got the wind was really ramping up and Los Alamos is situated on the side of a mountain. The airport is one of those out of a James Bond movie in that it looks like you can only land and take-off in one direction as there is a mountain range at the other end.

I will make this short and sweet, ""The Black Hole" was a disappointment. I would rather spend time in Axeman Surplus. After the obligatory walk through we left for Santa Fe with nothing to show for our efforts.

In Santa Fe we stopped at our first official RV park of the trip and it was real nice other then being on top of a hill south of town. The wind was incredible.

The next morning we headed out for Roswell, another one of the obligatory stops when in New Mexico.

As with the day before we were rasil'en with a side wind all the way down.

The UFO Museum in Roswell appears to be in an old downtown theater. If had the requisite crowd and there was a notice on the door that two film crews were in attendance, so if you didn't want to chance appearing on TV, probably best not to visit.

It took us about an hour to make the circuit and the story does raise the question as to what happened here. I don't know if it was a UFO or not, but something seems have impacted a lot of people....and of course made for a great tourist attraction.

Leaving Roswell we were now heading east, a 90 degree turn which should have put the side wind now at our backs. Guess what the wind turned too and was still at our side.

We ended the day in Big Springs, TX at another RV Park. The office was closed so we paid via an envelope put into a slot in the door. These folks never saw us arrive or leave the next morning at 7am. A nice way to make $32 bucks.

So far this trip we have only been on a Interstate for 10 miles in Santa Fe.

Next stop Inks Lake State Park in Texas, but that will need to wait until tomorrow.

The Journey Begins

Yesterday we hit the road for the first camper trip.

Of course, it snowed the day before and the first stop was Gunnison for Dereks Art Exhibit. It was bright on top of Monarch Pass and the road wasn't too bad.

Derek's, exhibit was his senior show to complete the requirements for a BFA degree.

To actually see Derek in pants pulled up to his waist was a treat also.

We had three of his professors talk to us about what a future he will have especially if he gets into the right masters program.

His Art History Professor mentioned she wanted his Digi Man sculpture, but couldn't afford it. She may get a deal as he gets closer to needing to crate them up and ship them to PR.

We are being totally objective.

As a parent we were very proud of him.He had to give a short presentation to a packed auditorium on the exhibit. He seemed the most relaxed and has his grandfathers speaking voice.

Also in the gallery afterward, and being very objective his pieces got the most interest from the attendees and other students.

We of course got the proud parent picture.

Mid-afternoon we head out for Fort Garland and "The Hermitage", which would be our stop for the night. Leland was a very gracious host and answered my non-stop questions on building and living off grid.

We did see and experience the blue bottle wall. The LED lights in the bottle are a real treat.

We would like to copy the idea, but I am concerned that with the high altitude airway overPR that we may be mistaken for a airport taxiway. Maybe green bottles?

Leland's power system though is something we may need to consider though.

Spring Storm Aftermath

After about 12 hour the snow finally stopped.

At Pinon Rock we received just over 12 inches of snow.

The camper looks pretty frozen, but is actually nice and warm inside.

Even though the road was plowed yesterday about noon the cleanup will take me a few hours.

Tomorrow the forecast is for the mid-40's and mid-50's by Monday. It took about a day for the 8 inches that feel last Sunday to melt, so I give this until Monday and most of it will be gone and we can get back to shorts, at least until the next storm which is forecast for Wednesday, but it may be more rain then snow.

Spring Storm Update- Most snow I have experienced up here in my 13 years!

As they say at the ski areas, we are getting bombed...with snow!

It started at around 6am and now at 4pm we are at ~12".

There are no signs of a let up.

The NWS is forecasting the snow to continue into tomorrow.

The Load Out

Jackson Browne, in his song of the same name, had "roadies" to pack up after the concert, we have Marlys...and me.

Next week, we are taking off on the inaugural truck camper trip. Marlys started loading it up today and cleaning it up, since it has sat since last October.

She quickly found out that it has less storage space then our old travel trailer. She even had the audacity to ask about putting HER items in the basement storage spaces...of course I said no, but we will see how long I can stay with that answer.

I also had time to mark the camper for the laser back up alignment system, that I read about on the Truck Camper Forum.

The loading of the camper on the truck probably seems pretty straightforward, but in fact with all things that seem simple it is not.

The object is to center the camper in the trailer bed, so that the weight distribution is somewhat equal on both sides.

Jim, from whom we bought the camper, had a pretty good method using a string and a couple of reference points in the truck bed. I will not remove the string from the truck and camper until I have validated the laser method, which if it works removes the string and requires the driver to only look out of the drivers side mirror to make the docking possible. Kinda like the shuttle docking with the space station.

The laser is mounted on the truck bed rail and while backing I only need to keep the light on the two lines in the pic to the right.

We will see how well I do. Using Jim's method I did it on my first try, in a rain.

One of the other things we accomplished this week was the replacement of the awning on the camper. It had been previously damaged, so we ordered a new one from Carefree Colorado via the AwningDepot.com.

This was a task we approached with a little trepidation, since I had images of a big gust of wind catching the awning in mid-install and destroying it.

I went to a few sources for instructions, but actually ended up using those that came with the replacement awning, word for word. This is one of those tasks where you should read the instructions BEFORE you start rather then mid-stream, when something is going wrong.

It took us right around an hour to remove and re-install the awning. I used the part number on the original one when ordering so it is an exact replacement.

It worked our well, just remember if you attempt this that there is a spring wound up inside the awning tube that has a little power to it. SO FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS on releasing the tension and re-applying it.

I also got around to installing the gate leg table in the camper. There was only one snafu...it was three inches too tall. After some surgery in the shop it fit real nice.

BTW, yesterday when these pictures were taken it was close to 60 degrees up here and I was wearing shorts.

...Today I just got done calling to get the Associations roads plowed as we have 5" of an expected 12" of snow already on the ground.

I get to plow our road starting in about an hour.

Ahhh, springtime in Colorado.

What's a "Little Nicky"?

What's a "little nicky"?

Adam Sandler and his movie came to mind, but this wasn't while watching TV or picking out a movie.

This was during a very vulnerable moment...while sitting getting my hair cut. Marlys was handling the duties and the RAZOR.

All I heard was "Oops, a little nicky".

Dreaded words.

Now I have the start of a Vanilla Ice chevron over my left ear.

At least I can be thankful it wasn't what Bill had to live through at the hands of his LOHL, Cathy.

Luckily hair grows back. Only not so much, or as fast in my case.

The Mystery of the Blue Bottle Solved...I Think.

Amanda and John left a mysterious comment on last week's "The First Day" post about the appropriate gift to bring to Leland at the Hermitage as "wine in a blue bottle".

Other then knowing of Leland, via a friend we have in common, we have never met, nor have I met Amanda or John, but all three are building/living in the San Luis Valley or south central Colorado.

So I was stumped what wine comes in a blue bottle...Blue Nun?

Leland has a blog/website call "The Hermitage" where he has covered the building of his off-grid home. If you haven't read it you should.

Anyway Amanda and John are acquaintances of Leland's and when I threatened to drop in on him last week the "Blue Bottle" mystery arose.

I have asked a number of people around here for help...as I am a beer drinker and I know of only two types of wine; red and white, or maybe its bottled or boxed, anyway I had no idea.

So I went to our common friend PP, who just like Amanda and John said any wine in a blue bottle.

I asked for an explanation.

Leland is building a blue glass bottle wall at the Hermitage and needs all of the building materials he can get.

So there you have it mystery solved.

Golden Mean-Ratio-Section and the Fibonacci Gauge

When I finished the bedroom side tables I noticed that something didn't quite seem right...the drawer pull didn't appear to be the right size for the drawer fronts. I experimented a bit by changing the size, but I kept thinking there had to be a better or more formal way to figure the sizes/proportions for different aspects of a piece of furniture.

Derek had mentioned on occasion when looking at a piece the use of the golden mean formula in sculpture in proportioning pointing to Da Vinci's use of it in his works .

So the search was on for how this formula was used in woodworking. At the time I had just added a blog to my Google Reader list called Design Matters by George Walker. Most of what George writes about in his blog and in Woodworking magazine is way over my head, but his practical method of using the golden mean seemed to led me to finding the tool ( yes there is a new tool involved ) to help in my building projects. My next big one being the dresser for the bedroom ( Read George's post on figuring drawer size).

All of this lead me to the Fibonacci Sequence. In reading about the Fibonacci Sequence I came across a gauge used in design along with golden mean rulers in proportioning called (dramatic pause) a Fibonacci Gauge. Now this could be purchased, but as I searched a number of interesting plans to build one came up. I printed out one of the simpler ones from goldennumber.net .

So I had a plan in hand, now it needed to be built.

As you may recall, I retired earlier this week and most of the time since then has been taken up with consolidating and moving items from the Denver crash pad to Pinon Rock, yesterday was the soonest I spent anytime in the shop, but the objective was to build a modified ski back Adirondack chair...this one would be more of a love seat.

As I sat contemplating what I would need to do to my current templates I was a bit befuddled in how to get started. So I decided I needed a warm up project to get in the right mind...the Fibonacci Gauge.

I used scrap luan plywood and pop rivets for the pivots.

To understand how to use it, I recommend watching this YouTube video.

It only took about 30 minutes to build, but it was a rewarding project, it put me in the right mind.

Which is good since I am left handed.

Gate Leg Table is ready to be installed.

We purchased our truck camper (Okanagan 117DBL) last October it has been sitting in the driveway waiting for its shakedown cruise, which since I retired on Monday will be coming up soon. Even though we haven't been using it, we have been thinking about it.

The need for a table to use while sitting on the sofa was one of the main objects that either needed to be purchased or built.

Being especially lazy, I went to eBay and was out bid for a new cherry folding table coming out of a Class A being retrofitted for wheelchair access.

So it looked like I would end up building it myself. I started a exhaustive (you bet) search and fold a plan on Popular Mechanics site for a Gate Leg Table.

After measuring the space that was available and knowing that I wanted it to be secured to the wall behind the buffet and at the end of the sofa with the slide in or out I adapted the plan. It is built out of Home Depot oak and finished to match the interior. It will go right under the window at the right rear of the camper.

It is pretty skinny so that the slide can close in front of it.

The gate leg will swing out to stabilize it, when in use.

We will be leaving for a month on the road starting later this month.

First Day

This is the first official day of retirement.

The Team at work had a real nice going away at a local Irish Pub on Friday evening, thank you everyone.

The next couple of days are about getting the crash pad in Parker closed down and everything consolidated up to PR. Wouldn't you know it would be kinda snowing today.