Today I found some time to get to the lumber yard and get the plywood and cross braces. I’m using 3/4″ plywood for the sides and 1x4s for the cross braces. I’ll cut the roof curve into one of the sides of the cross braces to create the required shape once things start moving. Because we are fair weather campers and I’m trying to keep costs down, I’m not going to be using any rigid foam. I may have to add another one or two cross braces to support the roof skin, but that’s no big deal. I also found some vinyl decking at the lumber yard today that is a good colour and much cheaper than the EPDM. Remember, we won’t be keeping this trailer for ever and the vinyl decking will be just as easy to install and just as durable.

I’m increasing the height of the roof sides by 2.5″ in order to allow for thicker foam on the bunk-ends and allow a bit of extra space for flat storage.

I was able to finish stripping the old roof off the trailer tonight with a little hard labour. Surprisingly, there is a relatively decent structure to the roof, but still, it wasn’t enough to survive 30+ years. With the roof off, I’ll be able to bring the metal base that holds the canvas to the roof down and get it back together and start taking measurements.

I do plan to make the roof just a shade deeper to allow for thicker foam on the bunk ends. I was also able to save the original roof vent from the old roof, it’s not in bad shape and will save me some cash. I’ve got a quote of about $375 for the EPDM rubber and adhesive but I am still shopping around and looking at the various options. I’m also looking at the option of using some steel studs instead of wood for a few cross braces in the roof to save some weight, but we’ll see.

Here’s a quick video of the current status of the trailer. Note the one sideboard I was able to keep for measurements. I also have the front side as well. Both boards are very rotten, but enough to get measurements from. The other two sides disintegrated.

I finally had a chance to bleed the brakes and take the trailer out for a quick test drive last weekend. All functioned just fine so now it’s on to the roof rebuild project. Unfortunately it’s now May 1 and camping season is almost upon us. This project may take the trailer out of commission for this summer. Time will tell.

I’ve started ripping into the roof and found a heck of a lot more dry rot than I originally suspected was there. This is no big deal as I intend to build a new roof from scratch anyways. Here’s a few shots:

Althought I’m not an Olympic supporter, mostly due to the costs associated, and how many government programs will undoubtly suffer (education, health care), I am a patriot, and definitely support our athletes.

A few months back I became a big fan of WordPress. I am still a big fan but it certainly has its limitations. Pair that with several upcoming projects of mine that will be utilizing the Drupal platform, I plan to convert this site to Drupal in the coming weeks.

I have nothing against WordPress. It’s just that I have been working with Drupal far longer than WordPress, or even Joomla, and there are many reasons I continue to stick with it and recommend it.

I always take a step back when approaching a project in order to see what the final vision is, as well as where things may go from there. This helps to determine which platform I recommend/utilize.

My goal, in switching this site to Drupal, is to get a better understanding of future versions and custom development, of which I haven’t had a lot of time to focus on in the past.

As I write this on December 31, 2009, I am somewhat hard-pressed to come up with anything that made 2009 stand out. Yes, there was the worldwide recession, but technically that started in 2008, and, though many economists say we are out of it, I don’t think we’ll be completely out of it until sometime in 2010, perhaps later. There were many other things that happened in the world, but when I look back, I am only looking at the smaller scale of my life. Nothing really bad, nothing really great, status quo is always a good thing, and I am happy about that.

2010 is already shaping up to look like a good year, my wife and I will be turning 30, which, for me is not a huge issue, but for my wife I am sure it will be a grand event. The Olympics in Vancouver are coming fast, and I’m sure this will help the local economy, though we’ll be paying off the debt for years.

On a smaller scale, I’m looking forward to 2010, there are many ideas on the horizon, business related and other. So, here’s to a great finish of 2009 and a wonderful welcoming to 2010, of which we’ll be spending new year’s eve with great friends and family. I hope you feel the same.

As I currently have two webcams sitting unused in my office, I’ve put the second webcam back online. There really is no reason to run it other than in the cooler months to see the difference in weather between Cumberland and Courtenay.

This camera also does not have the pan/tilt/zoom functions my home-based camera does.

As a new feature for both cameras, I’m saving snapshots to our online Picasa albums.