Every year, one of my friends hosts a pig roast for the Fourth of July. Cooking the pig is an all night endeavor, so about a half dozen of the guys come over the night before. We take shifts cooking and sleeping. Last year, he had a full house & I volunteered to sleep in Fessick.
Continue reading “Sleeping Platform (pt.1)”Belt & Suspenders & …
…..some other thing to hold up my pants.
This weekend I learned an important difference between my wife and I.
I take baby steps, she jumps in the deep end. Continue reading “Belt & Suspenders & …”
Build that Wall.
Not that wall. That wall is a stupid idea.
The wall I’m talking about is the one that keeps hundreds of pounds of camping equipment from crushing my children.
Continue reading “Build that Wall.”How to pack for a camping trip.
It’s been 11 years with the yurt. We’re still improving the yurt and the rest of of campsite. Also working on getting more efficient at pitching and striking camp.
The first few years, we had to unload both vehicles into a pile and then dig through the pile to find the bits we need. We can now be fully setup and enjoying our vacation about 90 minutes after arrival.
Probably the biggest mental hurdle was learning to pack the truck in the opposite order.
Continue reading “How to pack for a camping trip.”A Tour of Our Campsite
We built the ger in the early spring of 2007. For 15 years it’s been our home away from home.
Continue reading “A Tour of Our Campsite”Oil drain valve
Last oil change I installed this oil drain valve instead of the plug on the oil pan.
Fail to plan, plan to fail
So yeah, what exactly is the plan here?
Given the number of roles that Fessick has to fill, and my thin wallet, I need to be careful with how I go about the build. I don’t want to install something and learn later that I need to remove it because it interferes with another thing, or because I started cheap and later find I need a capability that I hadn’t prepared for.
Continue reading “Fail to plan, plan to fail”Roof rack
The factory roof rack on the Excursion is a joke. In order to keep the car garagable, the crossbars basically sit flat on the roof. Those crossbars flex under any sort of a load, so when you put anything on the roof, you’re denting the roof.
I used the factory rack once and vowed that I would never use it again.
Continue reading “Roof rack”Door lock actuators
When I bought Fessick, none of the power locks worked (as far as I knew). Meh, who cares?
When we got back from our first camping trip however, I couldn’t get into the hatch. I unloaded everything that would fit through the back doors and disassembled the hatch to get it open and finish unloading.
Apparently, one of my children (looking at you, youngest son) had pressed the 7 & 9 buttons and locked the hatch.
New Floor for the Yurt
This is a project I’ve wanted to do for at least eight years. I finally made a round floor for my round tent.
Continue reading “New Floor for the Yurt”
Modern Anachronist 