Trailer frame painted

After I primed the trailer frame,

I painted it with 2 coats of gloss black rustoleum paint.

Most Harborfreight trailers come with brackets that bolt to the outside of the frame.

They fit a 2x4 near perfect, this trailer did not come with them, 

In the shadow you can see the pockets in the frame that it does have

Those pockets are only 1 1/2 x 3 1/2.

I decided to get the brackets for a 2x4.

course this trailer is not pre drilled for them,

 so I am going to drill 12 - 3/8" hols for the brackets. 

Then touch up my new paint job.

Louis Cat

He was having his way with the scratching toy with attached birdie.

trailer is back from welder.

Since they put an extra piece of steel in and welded it, it looks right.

They straightened the side that was bent also.

Good thing I took this pic, I noticed they did not tighten the bolt on the side.

Got to thinking the trailer is 10 years old now.  

Tires are getting old.  

Looking at them there are cracks between the treads.

Since we are getting new tires,

 I am going to rattle can paint the rims.

They were a bit pitted from rust so we decided to use hammered paint.

Here is the before shot of a wheel.

It is wet because I was washing them with dawn soap before painting.

Here is the after shot of the painted wheel with the new tires.

Since the trailer had some rust 

I sanded it down and primed it.

Trailer problems

We have a little Harborfreight trailer.

I am getting ready to put a plywood box on my trailer for hauling my trike when we camp.

I noticed it is missing 2 bolts, one on each side.

The frame is made out of C channel steel.

Turns out the frame is cracked.  

Good thing this did not break all the way while on the road. 

The other side has 2 cracks, 

you are not supposed to be able to see daylight above and to the right of the bolt in pic below.

The metal has just bent that far.

I took the trailer to a weld shop in town, they have it now.  

Dump run

Going to the dump is different in MT than the Puget Sound area.

Here you get to actually go to the land fill area and delight in all the smells etc that are associated with it.

In WA you get to pull into a parking stall and throw your stuff into a hole 

where an awaiting trailer is accepting your deposit.  

They have a back hoe handy to make more room into the trailer bed below.

Also, Bellevue even has a covered area for you to unload your trash out of the rain...  

course they charge $22 min where in MT they charge $9 minimum.

I was disappointed, they had signs saying no picking : (  

Takes 1/2 the fun out of going to the dump.  : )

Daily routine

Each day Gator and Bailey word diligently on cleaning Bear dog up.

Morning routine

Natasha cat has her morning routine down to a science.

Bear dog Rainbow Falls trail

Bear is getting used to the trail we take the dogs on.  

Suzi takes Gator and Bailey further down the trail,

and Bear and I wait at the bench.  

He seems to really like doing it this way.

He gets up to greet anyone who passes by on the trail. 

(except bikes)

Natasha

Caught Natasha working on a potential escape route on the fence.

You can see here how she got a gap between the 2 pieces of pvc pipe.

She likes that I still have not put any pipe glue on any of the pipes.

I like to think of it as cat entertainment.

Louis cat

Choteau, MT

Took the pups up to the folks.

Had to stop at Eureka Lake for some swimming, or wading in Bears case.

Then we did what we call the dry cycle, and walked the dogs on the dam.

Caron did the sausage ritual with the dogs.

Once again we were concerned that Bear would not be able to keep his eyes in his head.

After all the excitement Bear made himself at home and took a nap on the couch.

This is the moment we realized he ALWAYS wants a pillow under his head.

Skip the raven came by and starred in the window at us while we got lunch together.

blooming cactus

Went to see if the cactus survived the winter.  

There was so little snow this year some plants were lost when we had a cold snap.

Imagine our surprise when we saw it was blooming!  

The plant has been here for around 20 years, and has only bloomed a couple of times.

This was taken with our Canon SX600 camera

for comparison, I took this shot with my motorola droid mini phone camera.

The bleeding hearts flowers are just about done for the year.

Natasha

Natasha is showing me she still appreciates the cat tree I made her.

I have been asked how Bear gets along with the cats.

Well, when we first came into the yard, the cats were out.  

They looked curiously at Bear dog, but he did not care at all about Them, 

too many good smells.  

They have been in the 5th wheel together on occasion previously though.

Bear gets all the attention

The blonde twins often let Bear dog know how much they like having him around.

Bear dog

Bear making himself at home.

Bear has claimed the couch downstairs as his bed.

When we moved in we never put the feet back on the couch.  

It makes the basement ceiling feel higher to us.

This works great for Bear dog, easy to get onto.

We brought his bed from Joe's house with us, but Bailey is spending more time in it than Bear is.