gerry gainford
Looking for this?
This is an old blog where I rambled a lot about nothing. I may ramble about more here in the future but more recently I wrote a book and moved everything to gerrygainford.com
New book is After the Fall and it’s a post apocalyptic love story with Haley, a MacGyver type engineering her way across a destroyed world. Buy it here
A final update?
It’s time I think to list the trailer for sale. I’ve used it quite a bit and it’s almost finished. Who am I kidding, I will keep changing it around and it will never be done. Anyway, here are some photos.
The dining area is pretty comfortable and the table can hold many beers.
A new gas 3 burner stove and a sink. Lots of storage. My first time building kitchen cabinets from scratch.
Having a real bed makes camping so much nicer. It’s an almost king bed. Took a proper mattress and chopped a few inches off to fit. Also lifts to storage underneath.
A cassette toilet. No more getting out of a sleeping bag to freeze my balls off at 2am on the walk to the campground jacks.
Missing a few updates
Looks like I haven’t updated this since back when the pandemic was still a thing that was happening in other countries. I’ve been using it a few times so should probably update. It has an almost king size bed, it has a toilet, a table, chairs, lights. It’s a fancy tent.
I’ll post pictures.
But for now, here is the new signage on the front that Ursula found for me.
Catio
So this has been sitting in drafts for 2 years…
Nacho has been especially loud of late so I decided he needed to be able to go outside when he wanted. This led to the catio. Urs has wanted one for ages, but she didn’t whine about it as much as Nacho, so it didn’t get done until now.
Basically a large frame (8’x4’x3′) with a roof, a middle floor, a shelf and a ramp.
Build a cat flap for a window.
Put it all together and let the testers out.
Facial Acupuncture
Ursula has started her acupuncture business here in Van Nuys and is doing amazing things with facial acupuncture. She’s getting great results and everyone so far is wowed by it.
So check her out at Luminous Acupuncture here in the San Fernando Valley.
It’s coming along
While I haven’t updated the blog, I’ve been working on the trailer.
First of all I got in a floor. I didn’t do this myself, there were too many things that were way beyond my skill level (I should point out, all of this trailer is beyond my skill level, but I have youtube and optimism). It looks pretty good, eh?
Once that was done we sealed the trailer. Herself went to town with the garden hose while I found the leaks by getting wet. Several cans of spray foam and spray rubber later and the thing is dry as a bone. Survived the worst of California storms (about 2 minutes of a light drizzle).
Next I knew I’d need lights, and before I started, I created a very technical and very detailed diagram.
A few hundred feet of cable and I had lights. They work. There are switches. That hang down on wires from the ceiling, but they all work. I’ll mount things later.
This next set of wires looks messy for a very specific reason, it is messy. I will get to the cable tying and taping later. One of the blocks connect the interior wiring to uses, for lights, fans, fridge etc. The other connects to all the other lights, brakes, running lights and these things called turn signals (never seen in LA, but maybe if I take it to Canada the RCMP would like to see a light flashing to show which way I intend to go).
And then I started with the insulation. After much searching I couldn’t find 2″ thick insulation (well I could, but the stuff designed for aircraft is horrifically expensive, and the wool option is none to cheap either). Instead I got R13 insulation which pulls apart into about R6.5 easily enough and started getting that up. Here a spray can of Gorilla glue is your best friend.
Next up is finishing the insulation and putting back up the interior aluminum skin, while mounting all the lights correctly.
Yet another fucking website
So blog number twenty two or something, I have another website. I wrote a book (After the Fall) and seemingly need to promote it before I can find an agent to promote it to publishers who will promote it to readers but only after I’ve sold a bazillion copies.
The new website for said promotion is here – Gerry Gainford, a writer.
Kittens, kittens, kittens
We’ve fostered kittens before and Urs has been wanting to do it again. So say hello to this little guy, Bruce Wayne. Here he is with his bestest friend, a brush.
Then his siblings got trapped and since he could use some non-brush company we have these lot.
Still at it
Things went pretty slowly on the trailer this year. There was more to do on the house, there was a whole issue with the garden and some gardeners and then it was three million degrees in the valley.
I’ve been back to it and finally the floor is gone.
Back to it
Buying a house really interrupted any work on the trailer. Plus having a pool when it’s over 40 degrees out really kills any motivation. So I got back to it this weekend. One large hole in the floor is now gone, a hundred feet of wire is gone and then there’s the water tank.
This hulk was taking up too much space. The remains of a Soviet submarine from the Cold War and repurposed to hold enough water to survive the apocalypse in my trailer. Also bolted to the floor and steel pipes built into the trailer, running underneath the trailer and held in so as to survive a nuclear blast without moving.
So I got to play with power tools. The pictures don’t do it justice. Think of all the sparklers you have have seen on the 4th or at Halloween and multiply that by loads.
After much sparking, no eye protection (but a fire extinguisher since this is California), a wrench, some vice grips, some swearing, ok, a lot of swearing, this is out.