Stove In

This is the old one.
It may look fine here, but if you get a closer look, a few problems will become apparent.
You will notice that the burner elements don't appear to be exactly level.
This is because they are all pretty much "tore up".
You will also notice that there appears to be a knob missing.
And there's a reason this knob is not there.
It seems that if one were to attempt to use the burner controlled by this particular knob, this stove had a tendency to "bite".
This was not an ideal situation, and was the reason The Fuzz's Sweetie had removed this knob.
This situation, and the fact that the burners had a tendency to fall though the top of this thing, seemed like a good reason for The Fuzz to bring the relatively new stove from the old place.
So, The Fuzz and His Sweetie pulled this thing out of it's place and loaded it onto the trailer and hauled it though town, back to the old place. Then they dragged the thing into the kitchen, and then pulled the good one out. It was then that it was discovered that one stove had a 3 prong plug, whist the other had 4 prongs.
This did complicate things. But The Fuzz is not one to let minor complications stop him, and he figured he could simply swap the "pigtails", assuming the extra wire was some sort of "ground".
So he pulled the back off of the "good" stove to get to the wires. This was when he discovered this (arrow at left) situation. It seems that the terminal block was somewhat melted. This was probably caused by a loose connection, which could get a little hot.
This thing would clearly need to be replaced. Unfortunatly at this time on the weekend there was no way to obtain the necessary replacement part. So there was nothing left for it, (unless we wanted to eat cold food for a while!) but to load the old stove back on the trailer, and take them both home. And so, the old stove was re-installed.
The Fuzz's Sweetie did point out that we had actually achieved our goal for the day of moving the good stove out to the trailer, and it must be admitted that this was, in fact, the truth.
Well, The Fuzz removed the bad part and purchased a replacement after work this evening. And using it, he switched those pigtails and swapped out the stoves.
And so, we present, our spiffy "new" cookstove.

Old & New

Here's a look a the old landfill. As you can see, it's quite a hill now. Note the tiny trucks* up there. That hill was once a pretty deep hole.
It does have it's good points, there's a pretty good view from the top.And here's a look at the new one. The Fuzz has added a few notes here. At A is another look at the old one, as seen from the new. That structure at B actually has nothing to do with either landfill. It is a chicken feed place over by the railroad. And at C you can see some of the liner.
The Fuzz got these pix the other day, before all the rain started. But it looks like we might see the sun a little in a couple days.
We are pretty much moved into our new place now. It's starting to seem like home. It seems just a little strange to be at the old house now.
Wow, a new landfill and a new home. Odd that it's happening at the same time, but I don't think it means anything in particular.

*As usual, click on the pix for a closer look!

Rain vs Windows

As we were learning the ins & outs of this new sort of life, we found that we couldn't keep our windows open during rain storms. Unlike our old house, the trailer has no eaves, and so the water ran down the walls and into the windows. I suppose this is because the extra width would preclude towing on narrow roads. This probably wouldn't matter much under drought conditions, but thankfully we are not under drought conditions these days.
This was "unacceptable", but unlike in politics, we actually tend to do something about "unacceptable" situations besides talk.
So once again The Fuzz went to work.
We had a fair amount of this flashing left from when we did the skirting, so he decided to use it to make some awnings over these windows.
*First, he cut some triangle pieces of scrap 2x6, and mounted them over the windows. Next he took a piece of a discarded (it was very ugly) cabinetry and made a cross piece to support the flashing.
He smeared "tar" on the area where the flashing would meet the wall and cut some flashing to fit. He then made the appropriate bend in it and stapled & nailed it in place. On the narrower window (left) he dispensed with the cross piece and simply added a bottom crease to hold it in shape. He then went back and added another coating of "tar" to seal and reinforce it all.
There are still a couple more to do, but so far it seems to be working out pretty good and we can leave these windows open when it rains.Here's a look at some of them. We are hoping to put a new roof with some eaves on soon. That should keep most of the rain off of the walls.
The Fuzz's Sweetie has been doing some unique work on the floors. We'll try to get some pix up soon. We are slowly moving in, but it will be a process, some days at the old place, and some at the new. But we are getting used to being out there, and soon we hope to be posting from our New Home in the Woods.

*As usual you can click on the pix for a closer look

Dog Daze

We moved the dogs out to the trailer.

This one seems to be making himself right at home out here in the woods.

Home Impovements: Lighting 3

That Fuzz has been a busy fella these days doing his part to make this Trailer in the Woods into our new home. His Sweetie has been busy too.
It may have been noticed, in some older pix of the kitchen, these wires hanging out of the ceiling. Originally there was a hideous wooden box up there containing a equally hideous florescent light fixture.
The Fuzz removed this, although not without incident (it dropped on his poor bald spot) but it had not yet been replaced. Now it was time to tackle this job.
His Sweetie wanted to replace it with one of these Track Lighting Fixtures, similar to what she had seen in the Local Daughter's kitchen. It seemed like a good idea to The Fuzz, although it did take a while to pick one out at the Home Improvement Store.
Now that it had finally been purchased, it was time for the installation. Since that hideous old light had been attached to the rafters, there was no electrical-box-thing there to mount this Elegant New Light to. The Fuzz got one from that handy Home Improvement Store and went to work.
First, he had to enlarge the hole in the ceiling to fit this new box. (Those interested, can follow the procedure with these included pix.) This was accomplished with that always handy, little Dremel Tool, that he has used for similar jobs in the past.
Once that was accomplished, he attached this Elegant New Fixture to said box. Here's a look at it. But now he had to locate and attach the remaining supports as well. This was a little tricky since everything would have to line up just right.
First, he lightly traced the outline of these supports onto the ceiling and determined the direction the mounting bracket would have to be turned. Then, he took a deep breath and began to drill.
Next, since there was nothing there but sheetrock, he inserted a couple of those little screw things and hoped for the best.
If everything lined up, he could attach the light to these, and perhaps it would stay up there.
Next he screwed those little brackets to the ceiling and tried the fit. To his amazement, it fit. This process was repeated on the other side with equal success and he secured the whole Assembly up there where it belonged.
All that remained was to install the actual light "bulbs".
The Fuzz has learned through painful experience that it is bad luck to actually touch these little lights with one's fingers. He found that the manufactures (Chinese of course) had thoughtfully provided one of these small, suction-cup-things, just for this purpose.

And now, with everything hooked up it was time to turn on the juice for a test run.Pretty nice.
And here's a Night Shot.

There's still lots more to do, but things are coming along. We have actually been staying there quite a bit. We hope to have the internet up before too long, and then maybe y'all will hear a bit more from The Fuzz.