icehouse, yuengling, sparks, magic hat, natural ice, french broad wee-heavy-er (what we're drinking right now)

Worked for a while today and yesterday. Yesterday we tour out the back of the floor and built that section. We started today by continuing to rip out the floor and replacing the studs. We got about 2/3's the way through. We felt pretty good about that, and decided to try and continue tearing out and replacing the floor. We worked from 12 to about 6 thus far, and had one last beam to take out in the very front of the camper. This one was jammed in pretty tight. We spent another hour just trying to get it out, and we finally got it.
Taking that final beam in the front led to the biggest problem yet. The whole front caved in. I mean the whole front. We almost got crushed by the camper. It was all held up by the aluminum outer shell. We thought it was completely ruined, and it still may be. All our work in vain. We are hoping that we will be able to pull through it and redo the structural soundness. By this time it was pushing 8 o'clock, thus getting dark. We set in boards to push the weak roof up, and we might, just might, be able to get it structurally sound again. The picture to the right shows the supports in place (click to view larger). This picture had a 30 second shutter speed! Which basically means it was pitch black outside. Anyways, tomorrow we will have to go out and continue doing the floor and get some supports in the bottom of the walls. If we get a windstorm, that camper will inevitable fall over.

This last picture shows our progress thus far. Thanks for reading. Let us know what you think.

     -Morgan
       Earth & Hand

posed shots, productivity, arcade fire, the occasional beer.

Well, we had a very productive day today. At the days start, I woke up to our friend Ian coming over and taking a look at the bearings and breaks. He determined that we will have to pull the trailer to his shop to redo the breaking system and realign the bearings. But before we can do that, we must redo most of the framing. On the right of this top picture, you can see where we ripped out most of the frame. All that is gonna need replaced... BUT while I was tearing out that I noticed the bottom of it was no good, which led to the floor. So we determined that we needed to take a look at the floor, thus we began taking that apart. Systematically, we started from the back. We figured out quickly that the whole floor frame needs replaced. Each wood beam going across was saturated, and basically mush. This required a broom and shovel to pick it up.

Despite this, our spirits aren't dampened. We are so encouraged & blessed by our good friends helping us out. Etsy has and is helping us so much. We sold two items today, and we're so pumped on that. We really owe our immediate friends too. Ian and Meghan Cresawn coming out today was HUGE, and then we were able to go eat lunch together. Such an encouragement. Also we talked with good friend Jake Vroon today, and he is hooking us up by other means. When we are done we may be moving to Grand Rapids, MI for a little bit to find jobs and be with friends. There he is gonna help us find a place to move the camper. Keenan's grandfather is loaning us tools, and we are grateful for that. Granny is cooking us amazing dinners and we love to go over to her house to enjoy her & Ray's company. There we can be diligent about working on this blog and our etsy stuff.

Things seem to be coming together to some degree. We're figuring out where we are gonna put everything including guns, dogs, the wood stove, music equipment, and extra people. Remember, click to view larger. Thanks for reading.

Keep well,
    Earth & Hand
    -Morgan

AIR CONDITIONER OFF

We were so excited about this. I figured out a way to get on the roof that didn't involve scaffolding. I just made a small platform and set in on top. I didn't think it would support my weight, but it did just fine. This gave me access to the air conditioner which took me a while to get loose, but managed just fine. The thing weighed so much. After struggling, I was able to get it up and throw it off the roof. No more giant pieces of shit on the roof. The latter picture shows the roof with a massive hole.

slow, subtle, progress!

Yes, indeed we are progressing. Today we went to the local lumber yard and bought some wood and 3" nails. We are planning on going at it tomorrow. Are idea is to build scaffolding to get us on top of the roof. This will give us access to the holes and the air conditioner, which we are looking to remove. The amount of wood needed to make decent scaffolding is a fair amount. We also bought the wood needed to replace the roof frame. For this we bought 2x6's. We are going to use a table saw (when we have access to one) to cut these in half, making them 2x3's.

The following is a list of what we bought at tri-county builders supply (shop locally) today:

eight 2x4x10's
thirteen 2x4x8's
six 2x6x8's
1 lb/3"nails
total = 87$

I hammered out a saw horse today too using wood that made up a bed in the campers original state. It took about 20 minutes. Found some easy plans on the internet and went from there. the truck bed will act as a second saw horse.

After we finish with reinforcing the roof and patching the holes we have a greater problem, at least in my mind. The breaks are going to need work. We will have to replace the bad ones, and then figure out how to wire it appropriately. After our mechanic friend (thanks ian) observed it. He noticed that the old owner dismantled the breaks completely. This worried him (and us even more) that the breaks were unusable. I fear crossing that bridge. If we can't get that fixed then the trailer won't be mobile. The following picture shows its wiring mess in detail.

Etsy money helped get us this far! We also bought a great pot bellied wood stove the other day at a flee market for $150. It sure is nice. It has two burners on it, and a fresh black paint job. I'm posting pictures of that soon.

Remember that you can click any of these pictures to view a larger version. Please let us know if you what you think of our project. We want to hear from you. Whether it be a comment on here, on our etsy, or face to face.

Thanks for reading, and check back soon. Hopefully we will be working all day tomorrow, and at the days sunset I will take pictures of our progress. Will definitely be posting soon.

Cheers,
      -Morgan
       Earth & Hand

1978 Cree - A World of Trouble

First steps in the trailer!

We have been gutting the trailer for sometime now. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get photos from the beginning of the process. Prior to these photo's being shot, we had already taken the furniture out. That includes: a sink, stove, shower, a couple gross toilets, a few beds. With rust and holes galore, our trailer is a nothing less than a giant piece of work.

These photos were taken before we ripped out everything from the walls and ceiling, stripping it down to just the mostly rotten wood frame. We're trusting that God has us doing this, and that He will help us through this, but we are facing many problems. The major problem is the roof. There are many holes and this huge air conditioner on it. The roof won't support our weight because the frame is so rotten. We have to figure out how to get all of the old paint and rust off of the roof, and how to patch it all. It seems that the trailer is in fair enough condition for us to keep at it right now. We have just enough hope that we can get this mobile and in living condition; we are keeping at it.

We are tearing out all the piping, all the wiring, and seemingly everything else. The idea we have is that it will have no electric, and no water. For lights, we will use candles and lanterns. as for water, we are thinking about adding a tin roof with a slight decline that leads to a gutter. From there, we will funnel the water into a 50 gallon plastic barrel. For heat and cooking, we are installing a small pot bellied wood burner. We have some resources to begin this process, but we are unsure how to go about the roof. As soon as we repair the roof, we will be able to a lot more. That and it has been really cold and snowy.

I apologize for the poor quality pictures. Next time, I will actually take the time to set the proper white balance. Keep checking back for more updates on us developing our home. It is being funded by our online store at earthtohand.etsy.com. If you have any ideas for us as to how to fix the roof or any other matter, let us know.

Thanks for reading!
     -Morgan
     Earth & Hand