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.