Have decided to christen the tiny camper The NaNo Camper.
It's late and I'm up. I've learned with taking care of Old Mom, don't go to bed before midnight. Mom rarely rests well and usually needs something within the first few hours of going to bed. Instead of going to bed early and having to get up three or four times, I just stay up till midnight. Usually, she's asleep for the night by then.
Goodnight, Mom.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Mom's Good Dr. Report and Camper Plans Solidifying
A doctor visit for Mom. She is doing so good that the visit lasted fifteen minutes. We were in and out in an hour, too. Her blood pressure is good, her other vitals were good, and she made sure the doctor knew that she was in charge of her health care. Sometimes the doctor will ask me a question when he should be asking Mom. Makes her feel small. We both hate that sitting in the doctor's office for two hours or more, so to get out in an hour was like having the boss come out and tell us all to go home early with pay. We left quickly before they changed their minds.
Mom has a good appetite, is strong enough now to get in and out of the bathtub and bed on her own. I am there though, just in case. She is 93 years old and a bit wobbly.
We are both looking forward to the tiny camper I'm building this spring. Going to have electric lights (12 volt and 110 volt), a generator, comfy twin bed for her, a dinette that makes into a small bed for me, sink, stove, a flush toilet, food, water, storage, and a small wood burning heater because to burn propane all night would get really expensive very fast.
The camper can be classified in the unique category of post-modern, vintage, shabby chic rustic, fully self-contained, and WiFi capable , i.e., pecan-tinted varnish over unpainted sanded smooth pallet wood cabinets and bench seats (pallet wood is light, strong, sands well, and is FREE). Will use burlap curtains (not feed sack burlap, but hunter's burlap with a tighter weave and a nice, woodland print) to keep the weight off the axle. Clear coats of polyurethane on the 5/8" plywood floors or battleship gray porch floor paint (whichever is cheapest). The exterior walls will be of tough but flexible 1/4" plywood. Is going to be insulated with 1/2" thick 4'x8' Styrofoam panels and then covered with a tough cloth fabric (hitting Craig's list or local thrift stores for fabric I can cut and paint) glued to the back of the shiny insulation board. Trim work will be pallet wood cut, sanded, trimmed then varnished to hide the seams and such. Using the old laptop with WiFi because the desktop I had originally built for the camper is staying in the house (too heavy, too big). You can sometimes get free WiFi in parking lots of big box stores. Most of the fast food joints around here have free WiFi, too.
The exterior seams will be fiber glassed and epoxied for strength and to seal gaps before primer coating. The outer walls will be primer coated well with several coats of a new kind of water-proof primer I've never heard of before (has nano technology like the Terminator). Hmm, I wouldn't mind travelling back in time in the tiny camper.
Ought to call the camper The Nano Camper. "Nah. You can't borrow it. No. It's not for sale."
After sealing and primer painting, the hull will be painted over with a good quality house paint. Can't decide on the color scheme. Two tones of leaf green with dark gray pin stripping? Maybe a cheerful two-tone blue with brilliant white pin stripping? Or white over sea blue with silver pin stripping? How about dark primer gray splotches with light primer gray splotches with stencils of oak leaves taped to it. Flat black paint sprayed over the stencils for that "I'm a survivalist" look after the stencils are pulled off. Nah. Gun thieves would get the wrong idea if it had the survivalist look (not to mention the local law enforcement guys because it might look like a meth wagon). I'm going to stay cheerful and neutral in the final color selection.
Will be looking for affordable aluminum skin as the budget fattens back up a bit. The paint should last a few years before the temperature extremes cause the plywood to start loosening the adhesive binding the wood sections together.
All of this priming, painted, cutting, designing, and such packed under a tin roof (hail-stone resistant and scavenged off the old farm house I'm going to have to tear down before it falls in) with lots of overhead storage in the kitchenette, dinette, and bed area. Still trying to figure out how to put in a skylight of sorts that I can open to let out the excess heat from the wood stove and yet won't leak in a blowing rain storm. Those crank out plastic kind of roof vents wear out too fast and a low-lying tree branch will crack it. Hurricane Katrina's 110 MPH winds through the backyard literally ripped the roof vents off my old camper trailer. Metal roof vents rust out after a few years because of condensation or the crank mechanism seizes up or falls apart in your hand.
I'll post pictures. It won't be as ugly as it sounds, but it will be very functional. Not typical (you should see the latest design I've drawn out today in my notebook on the desk). And warm. It has to be warm. Old Mom can't take the cold at all. And Zeb, the spoiled rotten cause he's a beautiful nearly 20 pound cat. He hates cold, too.
I forgot...a cat door, too. Pilgrim's habit of waking me at 2:30 AM so she could go outside got old quick last week. I can't let Zeb go outside though at night. He picks fights with dogs. A neighbor's pit bull was on his radar last week. Oh, man. Zeb just about gave me a heart attack stalking that large dangerous confirmed cat killing dog. That dog killed Zeb's brother Abby last December. That got that dog's owner into a lot of expensive trouble, too. Now that pit bull runs around the neighborhood with all of it's back, rear end, and back legs covered in mange.
Anyhow...
We're going to practice camping out in the back yard in it a few times to see what else it needs before we go spending the night on my farm in it. Her comfort and safety is the #1 priority. Might put a tiny AC in there, too. My generator can handle a small AC.
Mom has a good appetite, is strong enough now to get in and out of the bathtub and bed on her own. I am there though, just in case. She is 93 years old and a bit wobbly.
We are both looking forward to the tiny camper I'm building this spring. Going to have electric lights (12 volt and 110 volt), a generator, comfy twin bed for her, a dinette that makes into a small bed for me, sink, stove, a flush toilet, food, water, storage, and a small wood burning heater because to burn propane all night would get really expensive very fast.
The camper can be classified in the unique category of post-modern, vintage, shabby chic rustic, fully self-contained, and WiFi capable , i.e., pecan-tinted varnish over unpainted sanded smooth pallet wood cabinets and bench seats (pallet wood is light, strong, sands well, and is FREE). Will use burlap curtains (not feed sack burlap, but hunter's burlap with a tighter weave and a nice, woodland print) to keep the weight off the axle. Clear coats of polyurethane on the 5/8" plywood floors or battleship gray porch floor paint (whichever is cheapest). The exterior walls will be of tough but flexible 1/4" plywood. Is going to be insulated with 1/2" thick 4'x8' Styrofoam panels and then covered with a tough cloth fabric (hitting Craig's list or local thrift stores for fabric I can cut and paint) glued to the back of the shiny insulation board. Trim work will be pallet wood cut, sanded, trimmed then varnished to hide the seams and such. Using the old laptop with WiFi because the desktop I had originally built for the camper is staying in the house (too heavy, too big). You can sometimes get free WiFi in parking lots of big box stores. Most of the fast food joints around here have free WiFi, too.
The exterior seams will be fiber glassed and epoxied for strength and to seal gaps before primer coating. The outer walls will be primer coated well with several coats of a new kind of water-proof primer I've never heard of before (has nano technology like the Terminator). Hmm, I wouldn't mind travelling back in time in the tiny camper.
Ought to call the camper The Nano Camper. "Nah. You can't borrow it. No. It's not for sale."
After sealing and primer painting, the hull will be painted over with a good quality house paint. Can't decide on the color scheme. Two tones of leaf green with dark gray pin stripping? Maybe a cheerful two-tone blue with brilliant white pin stripping? Or white over sea blue with silver pin stripping? How about dark primer gray splotches with light primer gray splotches with stencils of oak leaves taped to it. Flat black paint sprayed over the stencils for that "I'm a survivalist" look after the stencils are pulled off. Nah. Gun thieves would get the wrong idea if it had the survivalist look (not to mention the local law enforcement guys because it might look like a meth wagon). I'm going to stay cheerful and neutral in the final color selection.
Will be looking for affordable aluminum skin as the budget fattens back up a bit. The paint should last a few years before the temperature extremes cause the plywood to start loosening the adhesive binding the wood sections together.
All of this priming, painted, cutting, designing, and such packed under a tin roof (hail-stone resistant and scavenged off the old farm house I'm going to have to tear down before it falls in) with lots of overhead storage in the kitchenette, dinette, and bed area. Still trying to figure out how to put in a skylight of sorts that I can open to let out the excess heat from the wood stove and yet won't leak in a blowing rain storm. Those crank out plastic kind of roof vents wear out too fast and a low-lying tree branch will crack it. Hurricane Katrina's 110 MPH winds through the backyard literally ripped the roof vents off my old camper trailer. Metal roof vents rust out after a few years because of condensation or the crank mechanism seizes up or falls apart in your hand.
I'll post pictures. It won't be as ugly as it sounds, but it will be very functional. Not typical (you should see the latest design I've drawn out today in my notebook on the desk). And warm. It has to be warm. Old Mom can't take the cold at all. And Zeb, the spoiled rotten cause he's a beautiful nearly 20 pound cat. He hates cold, too.
I forgot...a cat door, too. Pilgrim's habit of waking me at 2:30 AM so she could go outside got old quick last week. I can't let Zeb go outside though at night. He picks fights with dogs. A neighbor's pit bull was on his radar last week. Oh, man. Zeb just about gave me a heart attack stalking that large dangerous confirmed cat killing dog. That dog killed Zeb's brother Abby last December. That got that dog's owner into a lot of expensive trouble, too. Now that pit bull runs around the neighborhood with all of it's back, rear end, and back legs covered in mange.
Anyhow...
We're going to practice camping out in the back yard in it a few times to see what else it needs before we go spending the night on my farm in it. Her comfort and safety is the #1 priority. Might put a tiny AC in there, too. My generator can handle a small AC.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sportsman's Guide sells this little beauty of a wood stove.
This little beauty costs around $80 and comes with stove pipe.
Weighs 20 pounds and about the size of a mail box but a little taller. Item # WX2172631
Sunday, December 11, 2011
(Nice looking) Homemade Ammo Box Woodburner Stove
This is more like it. Looks nice, too. Very little welding.
DIY wood stove from a surplus ammo can.
Here's another option to heating the tiny camper. This kind of wood burning heater would be very very light when compared to the weight of an empty 5-gallon propane tank. Just another idea tossed into the hat.
Weight is so critical concerning the camper. I don't want to drag a heavy camper across a muddy field and wound up getting stuck. Been there and done that. Used up a roll of roll roofing to get out. A wrecker to pull me out would have been real expensive that far out in the sticks. A roll of asphalt roofing was about $20 back then.
How To Steam Bend Wood
This is a very interesting project. I could make one of these steam benders out of PVC pipe and a piece of 1" pipe.
The Propane Tank Wood Burning Stove - DIY
I wanted to put a small wood burning heater into the tiny camper, but after pricing even the cheapest ones on the Internet, am wondering if there is a cheaper alternative that actually works. Plus the cast iron ones are really heavy, too. My goal is a 1000 pound limit when the camper is built and supplied. The lightest cast iron stove weighed in around fifty pounds.
Been living in small campers since late 1995 and have accumulated several old-style propane tanks. They are currently used as shelf supports. But, viola! I have a better use for them. And it's doable and not that hard, i.e., falls within my skill set level. A few days work at the most. Even found a YouTube video showing me the basics of how to do it, too.
jjaayypp963's YouTube site -- He's into homesteading skills, too.
I've got a small stick welder, but if necessary, I'll pay to have the pieces welded together if I can keep the price below $50. Unless I can rent a larger welder cheaper, of course. Wouldn't have to leave the parking lot because the job shouldn't take an hour at most.
Paying someone to weld it together with heavier sticks is still cheaper than the $180 Harbor Freight cast iron 100 pound wood burning stove with $100 shipping. Plus their smallest stove was too long at 30" and too wide at 24" to fit in the tiny camper I'm building. And their stove pipe would add another $100 easy with the damper (have one already) and pipe cap (can make one from tin roofing).
I'll remove the valves off the tanks with a heavy pipe wrench and six foot cheater bar and wash out the residual propane first. Will let the water soak into the steel for a couple of days before the final flush. Then take the grinder with a cutting wheel to cut out the door on one tank and stove pipe hole. Will take steel from a second washed propane bottle to make the actual door, so it seals tighter. Will buy new stove pipe, if I don't have any good used ones I can find locally dirt cheap. Maybe on Craig's List, I can find good, used stove pipe dirt cheap.
His stove doesn't have an ash collector, so I'd modify his design a bit with a cast iron grate on the bottom. Will be about three inches from the bottom, so the ashes can fall though. Too much ash build up can literally put out the fire because it will block the air vent flow. Will make a small ash rake and rake out the ashes. Would use a heavy steel hinge to put a door on it that seals tight and gives it better draft from the draft holes I'll drill into it. Will make adjustable air vent holes for better draft, too. No draft equals a fire that burns too poorly and is smokey and too much draft means the fire will burn too hot and fast and burn up the wood too fast.
After burning off the paint, the stove is painted with something called stove black so it looks better and will stop rusting. Will be mounted to a large 1979 Sportster steel brake wheel so it has a low center of gravity when fresh wood is added.
I'll flatten roofing tin and mount the pieces to the wall behind the stove so the wall doesn't heat up and catch fire. I had a cast iron wood stove roaring hot once too close to a window and it literally melted the pine pitch out of the wood framing the window.
Times are going to get tougher before they get better, folks. Time to use what you got, if it's cheaper to build it than buy it. "USE WHAT YOU GOT" is a motto around here. Propane keeps getting more expensive every year. Cost $6 to fill a 5-gallon propane tank in 1995. Cost $14 in 2010 to fill a 5-gallon propane tank. I have access to free firewood in the form of small, thick oak tree branches from a neighbor who cuts down trees for a living and dumps the branches from cleaning up nearby. Also have access to free pallets, too.
I'm making all kinds of plans for the tiny camper. Writing them down and saving them. Ideas like taut wall curtain made of camo burlap. Or using polyurethane to glue the camo burlap to the wall for a very light wall covering over the insulation board. Must keep it in mind at all times, less than 1000 pounds on the tires. After building the hull of the camper, the plan that works the most efficiently and keeps the weight low (below 1000 pounds) gets built into the camper. It's a bug out camper and not a behemoth RV with the works.
Small, light, and fast. That's a bug out camper.
I can tell now that 2012 is going to be one very busy year for me.
Been living in small campers since late 1995 and have accumulated several old-style propane tanks. They are currently used as shelf supports. But, viola! I have a better use for them. And it's doable and not that hard, i.e., falls within my skill set level. A few days work at the most. Even found a YouTube video showing me the basics of how to do it, too.
jjaayypp963's YouTube site -- He's into homesteading skills, too.
I've got a small stick welder, but if necessary, I'll pay to have the pieces welded together if I can keep the price below $50. Unless I can rent a larger welder cheaper, of course. Wouldn't have to leave the parking lot because the job shouldn't take an hour at most.
Paying someone to weld it together with heavier sticks is still cheaper than the $180 Harbor Freight cast iron 100 pound wood burning stove with $100 shipping. Plus their smallest stove was too long at 30" and too wide at 24" to fit in the tiny camper I'm building. And their stove pipe would add another $100 easy with the damper (have one already) and pipe cap (can make one from tin roofing).
I'll remove the valves off the tanks with a heavy pipe wrench and six foot cheater bar and wash out the residual propane first. Will let the water soak into the steel for a couple of days before the final flush. Then take the grinder with a cutting wheel to cut out the door on one tank and stove pipe hole. Will take steel from a second washed propane bottle to make the actual door, so it seals tighter. Will buy new stove pipe, if I don't have any good used ones I can find locally dirt cheap. Maybe on Craig's List, I can find good, used stove pipe dirt cheap.
His stove doesn't have an ash collector, so I'd modify his design a bit with a cast iron grate on the bottom. Will be about three inches from the bottom, so the ashes can fall though. Too much ash build up can literally put out the fire because it will block the air vent flow. Will make a small ash rake and rake out the ashes. Would use a heavy steel hinge to put a door on it that seals tight and gives it better draft from the draft holes I'll drill into it. Will make adjustable air vent holes for better draft, too. No draft equals a fire that burns too poorly and is smokey and too much draft means the fire will burn too hot and fast and burn up the wood too fast.
After burning off the paint, the stove is painted with something called stove black so it looks better and will stop rusting. Will be mounted to a large 1979 Sportster steel brake wheel so it has a low center of gravity when fresh wood is added.
I'll flatten roofing tin and mount the pieces to the wall behind the stove so the wall doesn't heat up and catch fire. I had a cast iron wood stove roaring hot once too close to a window and it literally melted the pine pitch out of the wood framing the window.
Times are going to get tougher before they get better, folks. Time to use what you got, if it's cheaper to build it than buy it. "USE WHAT YOU GOT" is a motto around here. Propane keeps getting more expensive every year. Cost $6 to fill a 5-gallon propane tank in 1995. Cost $14 in 2010 to fill a 5-gallon propane tank. I have access to free firewood in the form of small, thick oak tree branches from a neighbor who cuts down trees for a living and dumps the branches from cleaning up nearby. Also have access to free pallets, too.
I'm making all kinds of plans for the tiny camper. Writing them down and saving them. Ideas like taut wall curtain made of camo burlap. Or using polyurethane to glue the camo burlap to the wall for a very light wall covering over the insulation board. Must keep it in mind at all times, less than 1000 pounds on the tires. After building the hull of the camper, the plan that works the most efficiently and keeps the weight low (below 1000 pounds) gets built into the camper. It's a bug out camper and not a behemoth RV with the works.
Small, light, and fast. That's a bug out camper.
I can tell now that 2012 is going to be one very busy year for me.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
In Other Words, We're Screwed.
Chemtrail analysis and other crap being put into the world's drinking water. The planet and all of it's inhabitants are being made into something else unnatural.
I see chemtrails so often now over Jackson, MS that today when I didn't see any I thought it was odd. A beautiful, blue sky day. A bit chilly with light breezes. Great day to do anything outside. Had I been down on my farm, I would have gone deer hunting or started the fence work at the back of the place.
No chemtrails. Odd.
Sometimes to know something new makes you wish for your old troubles.
I see chemtrails so often now over Jackson, MS that today when I didn't see any I thought it was odd. A beautiful, blue sky day. A bit chilly with light breezes. Great day to do anything outside. Had I been down on my farm, I would have gone deer hunting or started the fence work at the back of the place.
No chemtrails. Odd.
Sometimes to know something new makes you wish for your old troubles.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Redneck Outdoor Furniture --- $1 per bench
Here's a quick video on how to make a discarded pallet into a comfy bench.
Actually, if you have a camp where the security is not that great, you could spend an afternoon making a few of these benches and leave them at your camp. If they wound up stolen, all you lost was an afternoon. But, you gained a valuable skill in furniture making...well, sort of.
Single-sheet Plywood Tiny Boat
Here is a cute video on how to make a tiny boat out of a single sheet of plywood. Would weigh around forty pounds, more or less. Keep it painted with a good latex exterior paint and store out of the weather when not in use and it should last a while.
I would take a sheet of roofing tin and flatten it out. Would epoxy it to the bottom of the tiny boat and fill in any gaps with silicone sealant. Would carefully bend the tin's edges upward to close in the bottom of the hull to the sides and use rust proof screws to hold in place. Lots of epoxy or silicone sealant to stop leaks in seams and in between the tin and wooden hull.
Where I fish in the Pearl River, there are large rip rap stones just below the surface of the water all around the boat landing. These jagged rocks are tough on plastic kayak hulls, I know this first hand. Had to take JB Weld epoxy and fill in the nicks and cuts many a time after a day's fishing on the Rez in the kayak.
The tin bottom on the wooden boat would stop deep cuts and give the boat a little protection when you have to drag it up a sandy, rocky river bank. If a hail storm comes up, you can flip the boat over and have a fairly hail-proof cover over your body after you crawl under it. A piece of tin necessary to cover the lower hull wouldn't add that much weight either.
Hmm, I might be on to something here in the summer project planned after the garden gets settled and doesn't need me as much.
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