RX 400h Trailer Wiring

Well it has been a funny week.  Some snow and mud.  Doing lots of misc things.  Got the RX400h wired no thanks to etrailer.com since they send me a complicated harness to wire the trailer lights and all it needed was a pig tail for a four way light system.  (The car was pre-wired for a trailer light system including the 30 amp fuse already in the car.  Had to cut the plug off and solder the 4 wires to it and it worked perfect the first time.  Yaw!  Off to Home Depot for some roofing and some more wood to test out the new trailer hitch and the cars wiring.

Woke up to a little snow just to slow down the project for a little while.  Sorry about you guys in the East Coast!

The New Barn Roof Framing

Eric and I had fun this weekend getting the framing done.  Once again the precision was awesome for a pole barn.  Check out the addition you can see on the left side of the barn (picture to the right).   As you can tell Tucker (the Golden Retriever) was helping by giving us a ball anytime he could.

I guess I was a little off kilter when I made this shot!  Taylor is helping putting boards together that were scraps.  He also helped pulling out nails from old boards.  It will be a little slower this week since Eric is working quite a bit.  Then the next time I post anything about the barn project we should have a roof on it.  Yay!!

Can you see the model to the right of the new barn we are using!  Ha ha!

Trailor Hitch for my '06 RX400h

Trailer hitch arrived yesterday and Eric and I decided to install it.  We watched the video on www.etrailer.com and it looked simple enough.  Took off the panel they showed and took of the one on the passenger side of the car too.  Everything was going just fine and we got the hitch up there hanging with all six bolts.  Lets put those panels back up.  So we started to do it on the passenger side of the car.  No they don't fit. Take the bolts off the that side and loosen the bolts on the drivers side so the hitch would lower down a bit.  got it back in there.  The video doesn't show it and I don't think they mentioned it but you don't have to really remove the panel on the passenger side of the car.  Finally got it back in place and got the bolts all put back and tighten down.  Upon reviewing the video again it sort of sounds like they just throw away the driver side panel but we aren't sure.  Looking for answers to this now.  As you can tell it looks great from the outside.

Hopefully the underside will look great again too.  Maybe tomorrow or Sunday we will get to the wiring harness.  An RX400h uses LED lights so we have a special harness that has to be installed which is fed from the battery!  Lots of wires to work with but I am confident we will succeed!

Added a little more to the barn with new posts and wall plate on the outside part of the barn.  Also put in the ridge board on the main part of the barn.  Should be able to make some progress in the next couple days.  Lots of nice weather is in store here.

Celilo Restaurant and Bar

Today I had lunch at Celilo Restaurant.  Yummy to say the least.   http://www.celilorestaurant.com.  While I was there I inquired about the cooking classes that Ben Stenn the chef and managing partner is planning on having.

Found out the first one will be 'Cooking Up Winter's Bounty' that is scheduled for February 8th.  This class will include cooking with mushrooms, root vegetables, hearty greens, seafood and meat.  It is a three hour class limited to 12 people.  We will prepare all the goodies and then have a wonderful meal of what we cooked plus a glass of wine.

So far only seven people have signed up for it but I am sure it will be full by the time the class happens.  I'm looking forward to this opportunity.  Ben buys eggs from us when the hens are laying good.

Mt Hood -- Skiing at the Meadows

Stopped raining down here and the Meadows had 6" of new snow.  Eric and I went up there and found wonderful snow.  Had a great time.  As you can tell from the last picture down low it was still foggy and overcast.  Perfect time to be up here.  Middle picture is at the base of the mountain.  Notice how not crowded it is!  Fun for all.  Scenic shot shows Mt Adams in the distance!

Barn roof framing part 1

We finally have a good day and Eric put up the initial ridge board. Then we made the roof rafters to perfect spects. ya! Eric made a little jig to get the right angles to the ridge board for our first cut and then the second cut for where it sats on the wall plate. This is time consuming and it is an art to old craftsman. At least that's my thought. At least making this way allows us to have a nice storage area in the barn.

Pigs are becoming more friendly, especially when it is time for feeding!

Cool standing up here!  Just making sure it is level!

Hunter and the Winter Dance

Saturday night was a big night around here.  Hunter was going to the Winter Dance.  She went to a friends to get all dressed up and beautified as you can tell from her picture.

While she was doing that Taylor and I went out and had sushi.  Eric would have gone but he was working and Liesl doesn't like it.  Taylor of course is a very serious sushi eater (from the picture) and I had to work to keep up with him if I were to get any.  Desert came and Taylor certainly was going to really like it!  (sorry for the glass of water in the way.

Picked up Hunter after our dinner and her beautification to get pictures at home and also to get a picture of her date.

Angel with the new visitors

Angel was much better with these than when the goats came back.  She came around the house and walked pretty clear of the pig pen into the back half acer and then slowly came back to see what was behind the new fence.  Of course it isn't easy to disturb a pig when it is eating but two of them looked up.  Rosolyn is behind Angel and being fed in a seperate bowl since she tries to hog everything.  She actually gets into the trough to try and stop the other 3 from eathing.  Doesn't work but she does keep pushing them aside.

I smell something new around here!

So many animals I have to take care of!

New Additions to the farm

Yesterday afternoon we got gate and fixed the fences in the old pig pen.  Then around  4:15 we drove in the Defender (all 5 of us) to Carson, WA to see some pigs.   It was raining most of the way there but did stop as we arrived in the dark.  Hunter is going to raise three pigs to help pay for her NYC trip to Teen Ink Summer Writing Program.  I forgot my camera and tried to take pictures in the dark with the IPhone and it just didn't do the job!  It was fun seeing the farmer grab these no so little squealers by the back legs and hand them off to Eric.  Eric would then bring them to the Defender and Liesl would grab the front end and toss them into the back of the defender.  The second one they did this too jumped right back out and started running around the yard.  After just a short time it found the trailer where the rest of the pigs were and jumped back in only to be caught again.  Got the three of them for $75 each (Emelia, Juliet and Ophelia).  Eric and Liesl wanted one more for them to have for food so the farmer grabbed Rosolyn by the rear legs and tried to lift her up but her nose drudged the ground.  Eric got her and the farmer helped lift her into the back of the Defender!  Rosolyn is bigger and the price for her was $95.  I don't know if the farmer felt sorry for us with 4 pigs or just was laughing at us hauling them off but he gave her to us for $75 too.  Names are from Shakespeare.

Snow, Freezing, and Rain

Angel had a wonderful day yesterday in something she had never seen before.  We had 5-6" of snow and then it rained and the snow got a 1/2" crust on it.  Wish I had a picture the first time she jumped off the porch into the snow only to fine it made funny noises and crunched below her paws.  Here is a unedited video of her after I found my cheapie video camera I bought for $49.  Didn't want to use the zoom on it since it puts everything out of focus (all digital).  Camera is going back and I will get a better one for my next adventure.

Rained all night last night and it is very mushy today.  Not near as interesting as yesterday for Angel.

Pitman arm and Maytag dishwasher

Today we got busy working on the Maytag Quietseries 300 dishwasher that wasn't cleaning all the dishes.  Seemed to get the ones that were rinsed off but not all the ones with lots of food on them.  It use to work fine for putting all that carp through it.  Well I decided to at least see if I could find anything maybe not working.  Should have taken some pictures of this but I only have one when we had it all apart.

We found lots of gunk in it grinder part of the dishwasher as well as the pump area.  On the spinners for the lower and top rack some of the nozzles were clogged with more crap.  Also found glass pieces wedged in there as well as some tiny round rocks?  No idea where they came from.  Haven't run the dishwasher yet but tonight will be the first test drive.  Had to order a couple parts that were broken but we are just ignoring that they are broken right now.  Eric helped a lot with this chore.

Next came the Defender with snow falling.  Eric had it in the garage up on stands to replace the Pitman arm since it didn't look good.  He recently got the parts for this and then had to buy a special Pitman puller that everyone says works every time.  Seems with the regular puller will break before it gives up the pieces.

Well the puller worked like a charm and then just the normal stuff of getting it all apart and cleaned up.  Well to clean it up we had to buy some special cleaner (Stoddard solvent) for his cleaner that he has never used before that was his father in laws.  He's had it for quite a number of years but look fine.  We got 4 gallons of the cleaner and probably should of had 5 gallons.  Had to put the pump into the cleaner to get it to work right instead of on the side where it belongs.  Got it all done and only close to the end did he have some problems the 'C' clamp holding it into the arm didn't seem to want to seat properly.  Finally decided it was really seated OK because the back part of the 'C' clamp was bigger than the front part.  Just looked like it wasn't in right.

Drove Taylor off to swim practice at 3:10.  Picked up Hunter at 3:35 at the pool.  Came back to work on the Defender with Eric.  He was doing all the work and I was supervising.  Hunter called and said she needed a ride to the ballet practice at 5.  The Defender was back in business so we drove it to Ballet practice and went to Walmart to get a new bigger snow shovel.  Then drove back to picked up Taylor from swimming.  He is never real quick about getting out of there.  Got home at 5:35 and called Liesl who was driving home to pick up Hunter from Ballet practice.  Eric got some frozen Mommy soup out and we started it up on the stove.  He also prepared some great red and yellow beets.  Liesl got home had she needed to eat something other than the soup so she fixed up a pound of hamburger and onions and we all sat down for dinner.  Eric had to leave in the snow to go to work at 7pm.   It's been a busy day.

Still on the barn today.

Traveled to Parkdale today looking for a house that I saw on MLS.  Never did find it an my GPS said it didn't exist.  Interesting.  Put in another address for another place in Lyle, WA and it couldn't find it either.  Put in a number closest to the one for the listing and the GPS asked me if I wanted to use toll roads?  I said 'no' and it ran me down into Portland.  Know I should have crossed the bridge in Hood River and pay the toll. $0.75!  Only realized that I wasn't going to get across the Columbia River.  Decided to make the most of it even though it was raining hard.  Took the scenic bypass and stopped at a couple water falls.

This was Horsetail Falls.  Hard to take pictures when it is raining especially with my IPhone.









Going further on the road I came to Multnomah Falls.  Really pretty and very tall.  Now I am trying new ways to use my camera.

Raining a lot.  Some people hiked to the bridge.

Can you tell how tall it is?

Hydrant installation

Forgot to show the finished Hydrant installation.

Warmer today so we were able to keep working on the barn.  Bolted in the rest of the outside frame called girds.  We went and got more wood to build the truss carrier by nailing two boards together and then mounted them on the sides to support the roof structure.

Eric is drilling the holes to put the bolts through the post and the truss we built.

I'm hanging off the ladder at the other end.

Angel's big day

Today Angel went to the groomer.  She was excited to get in the car to go.  When we arrived at the place they were not there.  Went to the Vet next door and they said that they didn't call to get the place warmed up.  Gave me a phone number for them in the Dalles and called them.  They didn't realize that I was in Hood River.  Since we were going to go to The Dalles we continued to make the appointment.  Went back to the house and picked up the Defender since we were pulling a trailer for more wood.   Angel got to ride in the back seat and panted the whole way there.  Seat is a little short for her.  Got there and they were real nice and very apologetic.

Eric needed to drop something off at the hospital there and then we went to his base to pick up a package to be UPS'd.  We then went to Home Depot to get some sheeting for the floor of the barn and some lag bolts to secure it better.

No rain and we worked on the barn some more.  Went at 3:45 to get Angel.  She come running into the house and drank both her water and Tuckers water!

Boy am I tired.  It was a long day. 

Look how beautiful I am with all my clean white fur.

 What do you mean I have to leave the kitchen floor!  YES you do!

Great diner of pork steak that Liesl made for us.  Off to the cooled off hot tub to relax for a good nights sleep.

The New Barn

Yesterday Eric and I put up one board on the new barn, leveled it and precisely nailed it up. We admired our work and called it quits.  Pretty cold yesterday.  

Today we got back out there on the new barn and got the upstairs platform and sides put up.  Well the sides were the 2X8's on the outside of the frame for the platform.  Check out the great Defender 110!  In some circles called the "Beast".

Good Job Eric!  

The Chicken were all interested in our work on the barn until it got boring for them.

Over night the outside freeze proof yard hydrant wouldn't shut off so we decided that had to be fixed because we are expecting some snow/rain tomorrow.  Looked like it could be done easily but coming off was very difficult.  Had to use some super liquid wrench on the pipes and then extensions on the pipes before we were able to get the inside out to try our repair. 

Nice ice structure from the dripping water!

We worked at using a repair kit to just rebuild it but it just didn't work out.  Decided we would need to get a new one so we started digging up around it to get to the base area.  Boy the ground was frozen and the rocks needed a sleigh hammer to get them lose.  We had to go pick up Taylor from swimming and get a new hydrant.  Of course it was dark now and we couldn't see very well into the hole we dug to get this 5' hydrant out!  Finally got it done and water was again flowing into the house and all the toilets!  (get my drift)  It was another great day just being around doing small things.  Everything was working by the time Liesl got home except for some of the smell remaining from the super liquid wrench product we had used to try and loosen the bolts etc.  Happy days, Dinner!

OMSI visit with Taylor and his friend Will

Left this morning with Taylor and his very talkative friend Will.  Asked Taylor to bring a DVD to play in the car and he took AVATAR.  What a lucky movie to bring Will hadn't seen it yet.  Traveling 60 miles into Portland could be a long trip.  I listened to my music and the boys sat in silence watching with only a few comments.

Reached OMSI (http://www.omsi.edu) and went in following the boys up two stories of stairs.  When I got to the top they had decided they wanted to go to some of the new exhibits back on the first floor.  Down the two stories back to the entrance and off in a new direction.  The kids were great talking and talking and talking.  I just followed them around and finally asked if they were hungry.  No not now.   I said I was hungry so I went to the cafe and had a nice lunch.  Found the boys trying to put eight wooden blocks together into a square. Never did succeeded in the puzzle  Now they were hungry and we went back to the cafe.  They both had a pizza and Taylor had fruit smoothie which was real good.  Watched them make it with lots of fresh fruit.

Taylor being told exactly how to put the sail on the sailboat but Will.  They had a wind generator at the other end of this water tank.

Taylor do it this way!  No I can do it without your help!  

They had a ball with this rubber band power boat especially with extra rubber bands and the added paddle wheel.  

Making a earthquake structure.  Where should I put this piece?  

Can't see it but both of the boys have water all over the front of them from the boats.

Left OMSI 30 minutes before they were closing.  Boys had a great time.  I did too.  The 60 miles back home was also very peaceful with Avatar running and it finished in Will's driveway (after we sat there for about 3 minutes).  What great planning and back to the house at 6:15PM

Roamin' around with the chickens

Catch me if you can!  Love those feet!  I wonder if they are laying in the pig house?

Happy New Year!

The New Year in Hood River is beautiful.  Sun is shining and it is 23 degrees.  Water froze in the water trough for the goats and Hunter had to take an ax to it to get it broken up.  Taylor went out and tried to smash the water feeder for the rabbit on the tree before I caught him and had him bring it in to defrost.  It was frozen all the way through!