Falling Angel Drama

Angel, our German Spitz.

We had quite a scare Sunday afternoon, after Sharon came home from work around 3:30. I was outside working on cabinets for the trailer, and Sharon was in the laundry room. Angel had been laying on the top of the couch, in his usual spot to see out the front windows. We heard Angel let out several cries, and Sharon came running from the laundry room to the living room, and immediately called for me to come in from outside.

We aren't sure what happened, as neither of us saw it, but we can only assume one of two things. We had an old cross-stitched afghan over the couch to protect it from Angel's claws and it had become quite frayed. There were a couple of spots where it had loops pulled in the fabric, one of which was large enough for Angel to catch his claws in, or even a foot.

The other thing that could have happened is that he might have gotten his foot caught between the couch, and the ottoman part of the love seat, which sits very near the couch at one corner. Either of these instances could have caused him to twist his leg or pull a foot.

When I got in the house, he was holding his right rear leg up close to his body, and couldn't put weight on it. We immediately feared the worst, that he might have knocked his hip out of place, and that's never a good thing for dogs...or anyone else!

We got him to lay down and we checked his back and hip, but could feel nothing wrong...but then...we aren't experts, either. We laid him on his back and felt around his leg, and he could move it and extend it without pain. In fact, we could move all parts of his leg with no signs of pain from him, so we figured he might have just strained a muscle. He just wouldn't put weight on it.

With it being Sunday, no vet around here was open, but we called on Monday, and got an appointment for him on Tuesday morning. Sharon worked all day Monday, but was off Tuesday, and since it could take both of us to carry him, open doors, etc., this worked out better for all of us.

The doctor checked him over, and we noticed that his right foot, from his ankle down, was slightly swollen, but nothing appeared to be broken. It appears that he might have strained a ligament on the top of his ankle. Think of it as the top of a human arch, just in front of the leg. They decided that they wouldn't do X-rays, but gave him some anti-inflammatory medicine to help take the swelling down.

We were greatly relieved that nothing was broken, and even more so, that Angel wasn't in constant pain, although that's hard to tell with a dog. He was obviously lethargic for the first couple of days, and didn't even want to go out to potty. When he did, he tried to lift his good leg, and it took him awhile to figure out that he needed to turn the other direction! I carried him outside and down the steps and back again so he wouldn't have to get out there on his own.

However, going #2 was another story, since he couldn't squat down on his sore leg, and couldn't balance himself. He didn't go #2 at all on Monday morning, or even Tuesday morning, and we felt bad for him, but the doctor said Angel would figure it out on his own when he had to go bad enough.

By Tuesday morning, after the vet visit, Angel seemed to be doing better, and was at least touching the ground with his right foot. After lunch, we went outside with him while I showed Sharon the progress on the trailer, and we noticed Angel finally figured out how to squat. He wasn't his usual graceful self, but he got the job done, and acted like he was feeling much better.

Since yesterday, we have noticed that he is attempting to put a little weight on his foot, so we think he will be fine, although it may take up to a month to get back to normal again.

While we were at the vet, we also got all of Angel's shots and medical needs up to date, and also put him on a heart worm and flea and tick regimen, to be taken internally once a month. With our future travels, he will need all of that. We had never worried about that stuff before, because he is inside most of the time, and when he does go out, we usually go out with him, or at least keep an eye on him.

After all, he is our "baby", and what parent does not keep an eye on their child? Having a dog around is like having a two year old, autistic child around. When you think about it, their intellect is about the same, as is their mannerisms, i.e., they hear but don't always acknowledge it, they like routine and are happy with the same food all the time, among other things. Any parent who does not watch over their child doesn't deserve to have a pet!

We also went up to the city, and spent another $15 for the city tag for him. Being with us all the time, we had never felt a need to have it before, and looked at it as more of a revenue stream for the city, but we figured as long as we were making everything else legal, we might as well do that, too, even though we will be leaving here in another 70 days or so, and probably have to renew them in our new state of residence.

Since we will be roaming all over the country, we also plan to order a custom tag for him with our web information on it, and our phone number. These days, the quickest way to get in touch with a traveler is through a web site, which is why any traveler with a pet should have at least a free blog. If they don't have a blog, then an email address is the next best thing. Some people are too tight to call a number if it isn't toll free, but they can always go to a web site or email and make (nearly) immediate contact.

So between the incessant rain that we have been tolerating, and having to care for Angel, I still managed to get a couple of the overhead cabinet frames done. Below, is the cabinet that will go immediately to the right of the microwave cabinet, This one will hold the computer printer that we currently have, and to the right of it will be the Perma Power line filter that protects all of our computer equipment. We may add another shelf above the equipment later.

The computer printer cabinet for our cargo trailer conversion.

Because this cabinet fits into the rounded front corner of the trailer, it took a little more work than just a square cabinet. No side could be used on the right-hand side of it, so other ways to secure it had to be designed into it.

The back side of the printer cabinet.

In order to find the right radius for the corner, I first cut a slightly longer piece of scrap plywood to the same depth as the shelf, for a template. I then held the edge of that against the back wall (left outside wall of the trailer), and used a simple mechanical drawing compass, set at the widest point of the difference in shape, and scribed around the front corner. After cutting that first cut, I tested the fit again, and made the final adjustment, using the belt sander, to the pattern so that it fit tight on both the side wall as well as front wall.

Notice in the photo that there is a large plywood panel across the top of the left (printer) compartment. That is 3/4-inch plywood and was made extra wide because these cabinets (the microwave cabinet, too) are 15 inches deep, rather than the standard 12 inches of most overhead cabinets. In order to secure the cabinet to the blocking that I installed down both sides of the ceiling at 12 inches out from the side wall, the wider piece was necessary to reach it.

Also, on the back of each divider wall, I attached 3/4-inch-square cleats, and also on the right-hand side, behind the face frame. There will be screws run through these into the outside wall of the trailer. Under the bottom shelf is also a piece to support the shelf, and it will also get screws through it into the outside walls of the trailer. All parts are glued, as well as having the longest staples or nails possible to put in them...and plenty of them. After all, these are going to be holding up to 30 pounds in each cabinet, and have to sustain bouncing down the road. The printer cabinet will also be secured through the side of the face frame to the microwave cabinet...so each helps to support the other.

The angled corners on the tops of the dividers are for the wiring chase that will run along both sides of the trailer. It will eventually be covered with flat pieces of paneling installed inside the cabinets and closet, and above the entry door. In fact, the one above the entry door may also provide a place for the monitor panels and switches. We'll see.

As luck would have it, I happened to have in stock some primed 3/8-inch AC plywood, that I am reserving for the bottom shelves in the cabinets. After we get on the road, I will prime and paint all the cabinets, both inside and out, but at least this will provide a nice clean shelf to start with. I didn't get a photo of the microwave cabinet, but they are both built the same way, except that I didn't need any curves on the microwave cabinet, other than at the top (for the ceiling curvature). It's basically just a rectangular box. When I get them hung, I will take a photo of them both together, in place on the wall. 

Before any of the overhead cabinets can be attached, though, I have another problem to solve. The upper wall of the front of the trailer is open at the top. My intention was to leave an accessible space up there as a wiring chase, which I still plan to use. There are connections up there for the clearance lights on the trailer, also, and as per wiring codes, no connection should ever be buried in a wall and made "non-accessible". If anything should ever fail, you have to be able to get to those connections for troubleshooting and repairs.

As a cover for the upper part of the wall, I figured on installing another piece of paneling or plywood over it...something that could be removed if a problem ever came up. Originally, I had thought of using thin luan plywood for the cover, but the truth is, I ran out of pieces large enough to do the job!

The only answer was to use a piece of the same 3/8-inch plywood that covers the walls of the trailer. But even after making a template and cutting the piece to shape, it is too stiff to push it into the curvature of the front of the trailer! Although the height of such a piece was going to be short, I decided to make it extend down to the bottoms of the cabinets on either side...otherwise it would be a pain to try to trim around it.

I am a big fan of ratchet straps. I probably have at least twenty of them in various sizes, up to 2-inch width, that I have actually used to pull a vehicle with. So, I came up with the idea to use one to create a bow effect...to bend the plywood to the approximate shape that I need for the front wall. To keep the hooks from cupping the ends, I also added a couple of braces, secured with clamps, just to keep the ends relatively straight.

The plywood cover for the top of the front wall, being "pre-bent".

Such a task could be accomplished by steaming the wood, as most curved wooden pieces are made. The problem is that I don't have a steamer, let alone one this big! So all I can do is try to "over-bend" the plywood, and leave it set for a few days to (hopefully) retain some of that curvature.

I will add some extra tension every day for awhile and test it from time to time, to see how far it remains bent, and when it becomes sufficiently bent to be able to anchor it in place, I will do so, and then it will remain that way. If I need to fish wires behind it, I have steel electrical fish tapes to poke through the insulation from either corner, hook the wiring onto it, and then pull the wires through. God forbid I should ever have to remove it completely, but it could still be done. I hope to never have to! I will make sure all the front lights work before I install it! In the meantime, I have plenty of other things to work on.

I still have to make the dividers for the bottom of the wardrobe closet to separate the battery compartment from the porta-potty, etc., and I need to start on the front couch framework, as well as the bed platform at the rear of the trailer. But I figure the cabinets and frames are about half done at this point, so it will get there in plenty of time. I'll do the drawers and cabinet doors last. I also need to free up the other two steel pegboard panels from the garage and those will be hung in the storage compartment...two on the back of the bulkhead wall and one on the right side wall.

I was hoping I had a couple more to hang on either side of the wardrobe closet, but it appears I won't have enough. I want to add pegboard there to hang things like the broom, vacuum attachments, shoe bags, and other things on. I have plenty of various hooks, and those plastic clips that keep the hooks from falling out, so I may have to buy a half sheet of regular pegboard (also cut in half) to use on each side in the closet.

We had rain again this morning until noon, and only three days of clearing before we have yet again another five days of at least 50% chance. The yard is a muddy mess again, and trying to get back and forth from the deck to the trailer just creates more mud. But I will keep at it as much as I can, in between the showers and "life" getting in my way.

As always, thank you for reading, and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Addendum 5/21/15: It has been brought to my attention twice already, that some people with Yahoo email accounts are being blocked from making comments. They get the following message back from the server:

The error that the other server returned was:
550-5.7.1 Unauthenticated email from yahoo.com is not accepted due to domain's
550-5.7.1 DMARC policy. Please contact administrator of yahoo.com domain if
550-5.7.1 this was a legitimate mail. Please visit
550-5.7.1 http://support.google.com/mail/answer/2451690 to learn about DMARC
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Please know that I have been trying to resolve this issue, but as it clearly states in the error message, you must resolve this with Yahoo. I find nothing in the settings on Blogger that will correct it from my end. If you have another email account, try to register with a different account. If I find any other information on this, I will update it here.

Modifying the Wardrobe Closet Doors...

Continuing with the build out of our cargo trailer camper, we are having to modify the closet doors for height. Many smaller campers simply use plywood or particle board with a photographed plastic finish to look like wood, but solid wood comes with a price...weight. In order to keep weight down, we decided to use stock bi-fold, hollow-core interior doors. Any builder store carries them in several designs, but we wanted plain old luan smooth finish doors, as they are the lightest.

There's only one problem, and I will explain. A normal interior doorway for a house is framed at 82-inches high, with the bottom of the jamb header at 80-inches. Stock doors are normally around 79 inches tall, which allows for most flooring under them. For exceptionally high floors, such as heavy padding and carpet, or solid hardwood floors, sometimes some extra clearance is needed. There are two choices...either raise the jamb slightly, or cut off the bottoms of the doors.

Our trailer is one of the "oddball" heights, where the finished wardrobe closet door opening is less than 71 inches.

Some construction basics on doors...hollow core doors are exactly that...hollow. They are typically built with nothing more than a honey-comb cardboard web glued to both sides of the inner side of the outer panel, mainly to add solidity to it without the extra weight of solid wood. The only solid wood that they contain is a small band around the perimeter of the door...barely enough to fasten hinges to.

You can't simply cut off the ends of hollow-core doors, as it leaves nothing to keep the doors strong, and they can warp. The empty void also allows places for insects (like spiders) to hide. An accidental bump of the foot can easily damage the skin of the door. All these are reasons to add a filler to put the strength back in the door.

The cut-off portions of the doors, showing the cardboard interior.

In the photo above, you can see what little bit of cardboard there really is in these doors. The pieces shown are the portion I had to cut off the tops and bottoms of the doors I used.

Typically, you would normally only cut off one end of the doors, but after measuring where I would have needed to make the cut, it fell smack dab in the middle of one of the hinges, no matter which end I measured from. I didn't want to move the hinge, and have extra screw holes to fill. Also, it would have thrown off the spacing between the hinges. So I decided to measure to the center, and then divide the length by two and measure that far each direction. It resulted in cutting off exactly 4-1/4 inches from each end. What you see above are what was cut off. 

For accurate cutting of any door, some kind of straight edge should be used to guide your saw, especially when using a power saw. They can wander off the cut line faster than you can correct for it. To cut bi-fold doors, it is always best to leave them fastened together by the hinges. I marked my cut lines first, using a straight edge. Then I moved the straight edge back about 1/16th of an inch, clamped it in place, and then used a utility knife to score just behind the cut line. This should always be done on the side of the outgoing cut of the saw blade, to prevent splintering. A hand-held circular saw cuts upward, so the score should be on the top. If using a hand saw, the score should be on the bottom.

Once the ends are cut off, there will be some cardboard filler strips in the opening that will have to be pushed out of the way. I use a sharp chisel, and carefully skim along between the cardboard and the door skin to break through the glue. Then I push the cardboard back far enough to be out of the way of the filler strip that I will be inserting. In this case, I used pieces of "one by" stock, which is nominally 3/4-inch thick, so that is all I had to push the cardboard back. If using "2 x 2" stock as a filler, which is nominally 1-1/2 inches thick, you would have to push the cardboard back 1-1/2 inches.

The next step is to ACCURATELY measure the interior thickness of the space you need to fill. This is where being able to measure with a ruler down to less than 1/64th of an inch is mandatory. You don't want the piece to be too thin, nor do you want it to bulge the skin of the door out. It must fit perfectly. The length isn't quite as important, as long as the piece fits into the opening without binding, you can be a 16th of an inch short without hurting anything. I always try to cut to fit exactly.

Each filler piece should be measured individually. Even though the thickness of the doors are pretty consistent, the filler pieces installed at the factory are not. In this case the pieces varied between 13-1/8th inches, and 13-3/16th inches. It's not much, but if cut short, the glue that is applied to the ends of the fillers may not hold anything.

In the photo below, you can see a properly cut filler piece being inserted in the end of the door for a test fit. ALWAYS test the fit before applying glue to it!

A test fit of the filler piece before applying the glue to it.

Once you know that the filler fits properly, spread glue on the surfaces contacting the door skin, as well as to the ends, and then push it into place until it is just flush with the ends of the door. If you accidentally push it in too far, you can use the sharp point of a knife along the edge to pull it back a little bit.

Once you have it in place, use a couple of scrap blocks of wood and some clamps to clamp everything into place until the glue sets. Clamping is important, because it also adds pressure, which squeezes the excess glue out, as well as forcing it into the fibers of the wood to create a better bond. If you don't clamp it, the glue will actually add excessive thickness to the door which might be visible afterward.

If you get bubbles of glue oozing out, you can wipe off the excess, but even so, you will probably want to sand the end of the door after the glue is all set up. I use a belt sander for this purpose, with a 120-grit sanding belt on it. That removes the beads of glue and smooths out any irregularities in the joint very quickly and makes the joints smooth enough for our purposes.

Clamps applied to the door filler.

After the fillers are all installed in the doors, I decided to attach a "continuous hinge", often called a "piano hinge" to the closet door. This will make a much stronger hinge for the bouncing down the road that the trailer will get. The normal hinges that come with the doors are only three "2-screw" hinges, for a total of six screws in each door panel to hold the weight of the doors. The piano hinges can accept more than 24 screws in their pre-drilled holes.

For right now, I am leaving the flimsy hinges that came with the doors, but if they work loose later, I can always change them out to piano hinges after we get on the road. Besides, I only had enough piano hinges in stock to do the outer sides, where the doors hinge to the jamb.

Fillers and piano hinge installed on the wardrobe closet doors.

In the photo above, you'll see that the door is "doubled up". Typically this would be "a" bi-fold door assembly, which can be used by itself on one side of a jamb, or added to another bi-fold door on the other side of the jamb, for wider openings. But our case is a little unusual, in that we are combining two of these doors into one narrow opening. This is why we needed the extra thick jamb in the trailer. The two doors back to back are 3-1/8-inches thick. You will see why in a minute.

Below is shown one of the bi-folds setting in the jamb (not yet installed) just to see how it will fit. Instead of mounting the door inset beyond the casing, I decided to purposely allow it to be flush with the casing, to allow more interior space in the closet. I know 3/4-inch isn't much, but when working in small spaces, every little bit makes a difference.

One of the bi-folds being test fit into the door jamb.

Once the doors are installed into the opening, they will first open like a normal door, and then the inside will fold out...forming an extra depth to the closet (which will also contain the porta-potty) to make for a larger privacy enclosure as well as to keep unpleasant odors contained and directed up to the Fantastic fan directly above the enclosure.

The closet doors folded out into "enclosure mode" as seen from the front.

The fan will draw air in from under the door, through the hinge openings, and from above the door, and immediately exhaust it outside. The added depth to the closet will also aid in sitting and standing, as well as dressing, and provide better privacy than a single bi-fold door. Due to the narrow aisle in the center of the trailer, a single door would simply never work, as it wouldn't open all the way.

                          The right side bi-fold in "enclosure mode".

By using the doors this way, it will effectively add additional space of roughly 30 inches wide by 15 inches deep to the porta-potty closet, and provide both privacy as well as odor control. They may also have an added benefit of sound control, even while sleeping. By opening the left door in front of the rear bunk, it might help with minimizing snoring noise from the other bunk.

(I won't comment on who does the snoring or who is going to occupy which bunk.) (:>)

So other than some piddly finish work, this is as far as I can go right now until I go buy some more "one by" boards, to be ripped into the necessary face frames and other parts for the other cabinets, beginning with the kitchen cabinet. That will be my next project. Then will come the couch frame.

The weather is gradually starting to warm up, and I may soon need some air conditioning in the trailer. For now, the ceiling insulation does a nice job of keeping the roof from radiating the sun's heat into the trailer. I am finding that if I open both the side door as well as the rear ramp door, I get a nice breeze in there. But as I finish the rear bunk and wall behind it, that breeze will go away. And the humidity here in Arkansas in the summer is terrible! So I am sure I will need that air conditioning sooner or later! 

And as indicated in the previous post, there are more things coming besides just cabinet work, even though we still have to build all the overhead cabinets yet.. We are going to have to finish off the roof work soon, so we can install the roof racks and solar panels, plus we have the rest of the wiring and electrical distribution to finish. We already discussed the hint of a solar water heater concept, to be detailed in a later post, plus, we have a few things to do on the van before we leave.

We're sure that you want us to get on with some travel adventures, as do we, but all of that will come soon enough. Our deadline for getting out of here is still July 28th, if all goes as planned. We're not too concerned about things that can be done after we get on the road. It's the more immediate things that could delay us.

We still have a lot of things to sort through, to sell off, or to go to storage yet. We have already said that whatever doesn't sell by the time we get ready to leave, probably isn't worth much anyway, so whatever is left will likely go to someone who buys up "left over" stuff. We know they will only pay about ten cents on the dollar for it, but we aren't concerned about that. It's likely all it will be worth. We are pulling the more expensive or unusual items to go on eBay, the intermediate value items, or difficult to ship items for garage sale. 

Certain items that we want to keep but don't need to take along on this first trip will go to temporary storage, hopefully to be absorbed into future travels as we can make room for them, maybe in a larger RV at some point. We have a LOT of stuff to be converted to digital...LP record albums. cassette tapes, print photos, photo slides, 8-track tapes (believe it or not, there are some of those that we want to preserve)...and of course, paper records. As we go forward we are gradually going "paperless", with many things being done online, but we will have a ton of scanning to do, also. We aren't going to have time to do all that before we leave, so some of it will go to storage, and we may have to pull a little at a time, to work at during our travels.

The house itself is not an issue, because our leaving here is not dependent upon selling it. In reality, we aren't even going to be in a position to show it, with all of our stuff still in here and being sorted. In fact, whatever hasn't sold or been disposed of by the time we leave here, we may sell at the very last minute, or else let the realtor deal with getting someone over here to take it, and THEN they can sell the house after we leave here and it is emptied out and cleaned. Paperwork can always be mailed. Dealing with real estate by "long distance" is done every day. There's no reason in the world to stick around until paperwork is signed!

We will make sure the realtor has our phone number, and if they need to send us something by overnight mail, we will have them send it to "general delivery" at whatever PO we plan to be closest to on the day it arrives. We can pick it up, sign it, and immediately put it right back in the mail again! Or if legalities and their technology allows, they can send it to us on signable PDF forms on the computer, and we can email it back to them. Whatever works!

But at least we won't have a house to maintain after we leave here, other than payments and taxes! (The insurance is included in the payments now.) We plan to turn the utilities off.  That will free up a BUNCH of time and money to get rid of this money-pit!

If we ever get too old to travel, we'll just rent a place and let someone else have the hassles with maintenance. We are gradually getting to the point where we can't do many of the things we used to anyway, and would have to pay someone to do it. The costs won't change that much. But by letting someone else own it, the element of surprise expenses is eliminated. No more of this having to pay out over $9000 for a complete septic system replacement! No sir! Never again!

Anyway, that's my thoughts for now. I might have an update after we pick up our solar panels. This will be the first "road trip" this far away (about three hours) that we have been on since our trip to Indiana two years ago! It will be good to "see the road" again, even if it is a route we have been on many times before!

As always, let me know your thoughts, or what questions you have. Thanks for reading.