Been a busy three days. I finally got all the articles finished that were due. I need to send out some more queries. I've been holding off a little until I see how much time I'm going to have to give to the book editing. We had two nice days since my last post so we finally got a few things done outside.
Susan painted the little stove we're putting in the U-Haul.
We carried it into the camper and set it where we thought it should go. We then measured where to cut the hole for the chimney. Then I moved the stove over and began cutting. I broke the end of the blade off of a metal cutting blade on the jig saw so that it wouldn't cut too deep and go through the roof. I had to move the hole over and forward about an inch compared to where I wanted it in order to clear some attaching hardware.
Once it was marked I drilled a hole through the roof then cut out the opening for the chimney using the jig saw. In this photo I'm anchoring the chimney and brackets to the roof of the camper.
This photo should have been ahead of the previous one. I have the roof support kit up with me and I'm getting ready to attach the brackets.
When the roof support kit was in and firmly anchored I moved the stove back into position and installed the four in. pipe in the stove's vent. I ran the pipe through the metalbestos pipe and out the roof. I attached the four inch pipe to the metalbestos chimney using pipe hangers and steel pop rivets.
Now I need to put a cover over the hole in the roof! This is a piece of sheet metal for some kind of ventilation system. We found it in the dump and brought it home to keep until we had a use for it. I'm going to use part of it for the chimney cover. The dog has to check it out of course.
I cut the top off to use as a cover then cut a hole through where the four inch chimney will pass through. I trimmed off the tabs until they were about an inch long. Then I shoved it onto the four inch pipe and down over the metalbestos roof support/chimney pipe.
I did some cutting and bending and pop riveting until I had it anchored to the roof. We planned on using roofing tar to seal the edges but we can't find it at the moment. (We got into a discussion once trying to decide whether we actually "had" something if, even though we'd seen it recently, we couldn't find it!) I had a roll of aluminum tape so I used it to cover the edges and hopefully seal them against rain/snow. As I write this it's 11:30 pm and pouring rain so we'll know in the morning if it's watertight. The tin can over the four inch pipe is to keep rain and dust out when we travel.
The stove in place! I still need to anchor the legs to the floor but I can do that tomorrow.
Scott went shopping in my room and found one of my old cameras in it's case. He grabbed it and took off running in case I wanted to take it away from him. He carried it around all day yesterday.
We actually had a couple of semi-dry days where we could get more planted in the garden. Susan is putting in corn. We covered the ground with plastic about a week ago. That helps the ground heat up. Corn especially, likes warm soil.
I planted more potatoes. I use the Garden Way walk-behind seed planter to mark the rows.
Then I take a bucket of seed potatoes and go down the row with a trowel. I dig a quick hole, drop in a spud section then do it all over again. With a little practice you can go pretty quick. Some people cut their seed potatoes a few days in advance to let the cut parts seal up a bit. I've tried it and it didn't work any better than the way I do it and my way takes less time. I just cut the potato in quarters at the time I plant them.
Susan using the hand trimmers around the water tank.
I ran out of space in tilled ground so scattered a thin layer of straw int he ground. Then I tossed in some seed potatoes and covered it all with another bale of straw. I grew them this way in Kansas but haven't tried it in MT yet. Our growing season is so much shorter here that I'm not sure it will work. We'll see!
The baby chickens are growing fast. They have pin feathers on their wings now. These two were getting a drink when I snapped this picture.
Stephen and Emily came up and Stephen brought a box of clay targets and four boxes of shotgun shells. We helped him shoot them all up!
They also brought some hamburgers for an early Father's day feast! This is my favorite food.
Scott was making his rounds this afternoon and stumbled across this unique little chair. The previous owners of the property cut it out of a log using a shain saw. I think Scott has claimed it for his own now though!
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