Been a long time since the last post...New adventures at the Zumm Zumm's!

It's been a long time since I posted!  The camper is doing well - we took the front end apart because it was also rotted out, so DH and a couple of friends took it apart and fixed it all up.  Camped this summer at a State Forest in Indiana. GORGEOUS!!! Sites right on the lake, just beautiful there.

It's always something fun and adventurous here.....our family has decided to become the parents of chickens! We were going to take this endeavor on in the spring but the town we live in wants to banish chickens in back yards!  Why would they try to take a way from families being more self sustainable?  Soooooo....quick build a coop DH because I'm driving an hour to get some chickens, I can't wait for the ones coming in the mail!

Now, let me start off with telling you I'm a lucky girl!  I do get hair brained ideas....and DH has never rained on my parade.  He accepts my wanting to do things like make homemade laundry soap for example (proved to be really rough on our clothes...don't do that anymore).  Sooooo, we have a girl in town who has chickens and I was totally interested.  My Dad had great stories of going to his Aunt Pat's as a boy and how wonderful farm fresh eggs were. Well I don't live on a farm, but I raised rabbits as a kid, how hard can chickens be?

And so our family adventure begins-

DH and I looked at building and designing a coop. We had all these great ideas and plans and then at Menard's in the outdoor area (where it's October but Christmas has already taken over!!!!) Ahhhhhhh like the golden harps we see a REALLY cool plastic shed in the same 6x4 dimension we want on sale. They have one put together all the way up above and I'm trying to look and check it out. Finally I ask if they can take it down (hey I'm spending $250 on this thing, if it doesn't work, it's a total waste). They sure can and did! It's perfect!!!!! The plastic has air pockets in it so being that we get wonderful Chicago winters, I think it will act as insulation and work a little better than just a wood box.

Yea!!!! Let the building begin! 

It's kind of like a tractor, and we made the pen run detachable so that when we want to move it we just take it off, move the coop and re-attach.

 And we have chicks!!!!  Look how cute. These are Rhode Island Reds

 Who as you can tell don't like to stay in their box where they are supposed to be!

 Making a door for the run!

 We used Dryer vents to make ventilation in the coop.

 The start of their door to go in and out.

 Door all finished up

 The dryer vents

 Their finished door

 New Babies!!! New Babies!!! They came in the mail all safe and sound. Phew!

 Soooo Tiny!!!

 Getting used to the new digs, finding their food =)

 DH making my water heater. We bought one but after reading that it could burn the chickens (?! REALLY ?! Why would I use it?), project time!

 Simple =)

 It was nice out, we finished the run and Hardwear Meshing it, so they got to check it out.

 I think they like it!

 All Done!!!!  DH did a great job!!!!  Thanks Honey!

In the spring we will add a couple more windows but for now, she's ready and waiting for her girls!!!

Follow us while we take this new adventure!!!  Have a great day!!!

Our Maiden Voyage

We went out a few weeks on our Campers Maiden Voyage. We went our on a Thursday-Sunday. We went back to a place we had been before. We are generally state park campers, but needed to be close to home for DD and DS to do weigh ins and get their pictures taken for football and cheer. A couple of families joined us for this trip. It was so much fun!!!!

We went to Fair Oaks, IN to Oak Lake campground. It was purchased a few years ago and the improvements they have made there were outstanding!!!! They have stuff in the water for kids to play on, a jump pillow and super cool bikes for the kids to borrow. We really really enjoyed ourselves there.

Some pics:
Here is a picture of our new baby on its first trip out :) DS and Niece being silly and building a fire like the Indian's. Cool new bathroom shower curtain. Our new bedding. Good friends and good times! Wonderful farm fresh eggs bought at the farmers market on site! Cooking our last breakfast!

We are excited because we have a couple trips in October planned. Didn't do to many of those before, it was to cold. Now we can!!!!!!

Our Travel Trailer Roof Replacement

Took the Travel Trailer out for her Maiden Voyage this weekend. We went Thursday - Sunday to a nice private park. Generally we only camp at State Parks but because we had to bring Studs and Lama Ding to weigh ins for Pop Warner so we needed to keep close.  We had been there prior when new owners took over in May of 2010 and WOW did they make lots of improvements from then!  They have done a GREAT job of making a wonderful kid friendly place. 

So here is what we did to make our new to us Travel Trailer livable! LOL!  Well, this is what we found when we looked up there (with the vents on it, we had already started de-constructing at this point.  Notice the "white roof?" Yea....it's not white at all. 

Here is DH pulling the "white" rubber roof off the front of the trailer. 

Here is what the back looked like when we opened her up.  Can you see all the wet rotten wood. The last picture shows that even the ceiling was wet and soaked and we ended up pulling out the back ceiling too.  The luan was just rotted out and crumbled in our hands.  OH BOY what did we get ourselves into! Deep breath - OK well, let's figure this out!  After finding the wet ceiling here is what we look like with no ceiling =0)

Nice dry warm summer day to help dry out the wood and 2x2's that weren't completely rotted out.  Now off to Menard's to get what we THINK we need!

 DH doing a little more cleaning out and investigating!

Look Mom, no ceiling!

 Yep....little more has to go!

 Certainly a messy job!

 Whoooo Hooooo! Look at that! A new ceiling!!!!!

 YEA!!!! So much prettier!!!!

New insulation in the back and new luan wood starting to go up!

All new and pretty now!!!!  

 Next day our friend blowing the top off so that there is no dust or anything to roll the new rubber roof!

 DH putting down the adhesive for the rubber roof.  The black side goes down onto the luan.

Our friend putting adhesive on his side.

 Looking Pretty!!!!!!!

 Rubber all laid out!!! Now time to replace the vents and bathroom skylight.

 Two more vents that have to go back in

 Looking like a travel trailer should look like!!!!

 Putting the vents back in on the inside!

 Adding the side and rear strips to finish off the ends and edges

 Lap Seal....Lots and Lots of Lap Seal!!! We aren't going to let what happened to her happen again!

 Lap Seal around all the vents and skylight

 

 All the sides and back trimmed up and almost done

 This is what a roof is supposed to look like. White!!!!

We found the rubber roof at Gary Hobart Roofing company in Hobart along with the lap seal we needed.  They were awesome there, it was priced great and it was the 6 mil heavier roof that we needed. Thankfully it was only 20 min away!  Menard's is where we got the luan, 2x2's and the ceiling piece. Myself, DH and our friend all worked on it, we pulled it off on Sunday and had it done by Tuesday.  We certainly didn't think that was to bad!  So now our camper is nice and sturdy up top!!!