A few weeks ago, I wrote about Mosquito Repellent. At the time, I pointed out that I had not had to deal with too many mosquitoes but discussed a few different suggestions for dealing with the nasty biters.  Since then, I still haven’t had any serious problems with mosquitoes although they have increased their numbers in the past few weeks.

I’ve noticed though that others seem to have mosquitoes biting at them more than they are at me. I think I know why. It’s the soap that I use.

One thing that you can do to lessen your attraction to mosquitoes is to refrain from using scents. Although I enjoy splashing on a cologne that my girlfriend likes when we are heading out somewhere together in the city, a campsite really has no place for perfumes and colognes if you want to avoid mosquitoes and other flying critters like bees and wasps.  This also includes the use of scented soaps.  I also like using a scented soap like Irish Spring when I’m in the city, but when camping, I stick to a non-scented glycerine soap.

Less Attraction To Mosquitoes, Bees, Wasps

There are benefits to using non-scented glycerine soap. As far as mosquitoes, bees and wasps are concerned, there is no lingering scent on your skin that will be an added attraction to them.

Good For The Environment

Further, glycerine soap is biodegradable and is very good for the environment. This is of course a huge concern when camping and where sewage cannot be processed like it is in the city.

Glycerine Soap For Shampoo

Forget the expensive bottles of shampoo. I haven’t used shampoo in my hair since April of 2010. I had read some things about people cutting out the use of shampoo – and guess what? They’re hair actually improved! Shampoo is made in such a way that when you start using it, you need to keep using it until you stop and let your scalp regain its own natural balance. Shampoo strips the hair of natural oils and then applies other agents to make it seem soft or thicker. If you just let your hair adjust to not using shampoo, in a week or so you might be amazed. So what to use to clean your hair?  I’ve been using glycerine soap and my girlfriend thinks my hair is just fine. It’s not greasy, I’ve had no bouts with dandruff, it’s clean, and it’s become less expensive after giving up shampoo.

I’ve used a few different glycerine soap brands including Neutrogena® and The Soap Works. The Neutrogena® claims to be scent free and I guess it is as I can’t smell anything, but it does hurt my eyes and it does not lather as well as the glycerine soap made by The Soap Works. As well, bars from Soap Works seem to last longer even though they lather up better too.

I get my bars from a local “Bulk Food Store,” a chain here in Ontario. If you can’t find it, you can get Soap Works glycerine soap here.

The RV plumbing leak in the Glendale trailer saga continues. I thought I would investigate how I could get access to the plumbing that comes out from under the tub.  I’m not against removing the tub all together and just making that into storage space, but I would have thought there would be an easier way to get to plumbing that could possibly leak in the future when they designed this bathroom.

But then maybe I’m missing something.

Here’s a photo of the hoses where they come out from under the tub:

That’s looking down at the floor. There was some trim that went along that wall and covered the hose.

There is no way to get at that end of the tub through the other side of the wall. I’ve checked. On the other side of the wall, where the water enters the bathroom, there is a hot and cold water hose that fits into a brass fitting that goes through the wall.  And this is in a tiny space where the bedroom drawers are. There is no way to access any secret or hidden panels even if there were any there.

So it seems that the next best way to access those pipes would be to remove the bathtub skirt. Here’s a photo of that:

If you look closely, you can see two holes along the bottom. There are actually three; one is hidden by the toilet. Those holes had screws in them which I removed. Along the top are more holes that had screws that I removed.  Someone did a lot of screwing when they installed this – there were quite a few screws along the top.

I figured if I removed the screws, I could remove that entire panel and pull it away and get access to the underside of the tub. No such luck yet.

That panel or skirt or whatever it is called seems to also have a flange or something on the left side that must be screwed into the wall.  I can put a screw driver under the panel in the centre and it moves away from the tub. But it won’t pull away from the wall. On the right side, it actually extends beyond the bathtub and along a small wall between the tub and back of the toilet.

So it looks like I really only have a couple of options:

1. Cut the bathtub skirt to make the hole larger where the hoses come out and see if I can get access to the T-junctions where it is most likely the water is leaking from.

2. Completely remove the tub to get access. Which as I wrote, I’m not against doing, but it seems like an awfully big job to get at a leak, especially for someone that did want to keep the tub there.

But I’m not sure. Maybe there is something else I am missing all together.

I did try to pull the hoses out to see if maybe there was enough length of the hose back there to pull out to get access to where they split off, but there was no play in the hoses at all. They are tight.

If I have to pull the tub out, I guess I’ll also have to get a drain strainer wrench. Which probably won’t be for a couple of days or so. Hate to have to buy one of those just to remove a bathtub in an RV. I used to have one years ago when I did some house renovations but didn’t need it again and gave it away.

Maybe I’ll go have another look and a brainwave will hit me as to how to fix this leak. After a wee nip of Black Bush.

Water heater hose and clamp over spigot that's leaking

As I’ve written earlier, there is some water leaking in the old 1983 Glendale camper trailer. There is  dripping from the inlet and outlet hoses on the MorFlo 6 gallon water heater that is causing some problems.  It’s obviously been an ongoing problem in the past – the previous owners have tried clamping the hose where it fits over a spigot many times.  There are about six clamps on the hose itself, several old clamps on the floor of the space where the water heater is, and plenty of water marks in the area.  I’m not sure if the previous owners ever did get the leak to stop; perhaps they just kept trying to throw new clamps on the hose.

But I thought I’d give it a go and tried a brand new clamp.  Tightened it up as much as possible, and it still leaks. So now I’m  thinking it’s actually the spigot that comes out of the water heater that is leaking. It appears that this spigot thing could be removed with a wrench, but I’m not sure. And even if it can be, I don’t know if I can get a replacement part for it. Or perhaps all it needs is some plumber’s tape on the threads, if indeed it can be removed.  I don’t want to mess around with it too much until I know for sure.  Hate to damage something that isn’t the problem and can’t be fixed.  The water heater itself works as far as its function: heating water.  From what I’ve found, water heaters to purchase new for RV’s and camp trailers can be expensive – $600.00+. I don’t have that kind of money to spend.

As you can see from the image, the floor under the water drip is pretty gross – and appears that this leak is old. I want to clean up the mess there, but there’s probably no point until I get the leak fixed.

The other water leak is in the bathroom. I removed a piece of trim that I figured were covering up some of the water hose, and sure enough it was. The hoses come out from the front of the bathtub. After I removed the trim, I could see that the water is leaking underneath the front of the bathtub and likely there are two 2-way connecters under there – one for hot, and one for cold water.  I’m surmising that one or both of them are leaking at the 2-way joints. The hot and cold water hoses enter the bathroom under the tub and then provide water to the bathtub/shower faucets and then carry on to provide water to the toilet and sink.

I’m not sure the best way to access this part of the RV’s plumbing. There are screws on the side panel of the bathtub which I have n0t yet tried to remove. I’m not sure that would offer enough room or access to the water hose.

My other idea is that perhaps I should remove the tub completely if that is not a big job. I doubt I’d ever want to use the tub or shower as there are showers in the park’s public washrooms just a 30 second walk away. If I remove the tub completely, perhaps I could build in some storage space with doors where the tub presently is.  But I need more information before I make that decision.

If you have any advice or suggestions, please leave a comment! I’d love to know what I’m dealing with here as far as both problems – the water heater drip and the bathroom water leak in this old trailer.

Last evening, I could see sheet lightning in the sky to the west and heard the odd distant thunder clap for about 45 minutes.  However, around midnight the sky seemed to clear up and there were stars twinkling when I looked up. I thought I was probably safe from any rain.

When I awoke however, the rains had come – and stayed. There’s a light drizzle going on and I’m glad that I got most of my gear under cover.  However, I forgot to pull the tarp over the firewood and also left our bikes out.  It looks like the rain could be with me for the entire day, which means I will probably get lots of work done without the temptation of the sunshine and the pool to call off in. The thermometer right now is reading  19.3C in the shade (all there is today is shade with no sunshine through the clouds).

Along with my regular work that goes with my business (and hoping my internet connection stays solid), I have a few other jobs today.  The water leak in the Glendale trailer is getting worse with water seeping onto the bathroom floor. I had one of the park staff guys come by to take a look hoping he’d be able to advise me where to start looking or what to suspect in regard to the water leak. He pointed to the “drip….. drip…. drip….” (once every five seconds)  from the water heater tank. But I don’t think that is the main problem. A “drip… drip… drip…” does not cause that much water to seep onto the floor and then cause a “drip drip drip drip” (about two or three drips per second) out of the corner of the trailer. The trailer park guy was not all that helpful in regards to the water leak.

He was helpful however in regard to another problem I had the other day. The toilet in the trailer had backed up which I thought was weird as it’s not used for any solid waste at all. Instead, we all use the park washrooms for that which are only a 30 second walk away. So I couldn’t understand how the toilet would be backed up or plugged. When I purchased the trailer, I had the staff tow it to the site and when I saw that they had hooked up the water, electricity and sewer, I assumed that everything was done that needed to be done.

Apparently not.

The pin or whatever it is called that opens up the holding tank to release its contents had not been opened. So the toilet back up was because the holding tank in the Glendale camp trailer was full.  The staff guy showed me how to pull the holding tank release pin and we heard the gross sound of everything in the tank being drained away into the sewer pipe. As well, there was some spillage through the connection that is clamped to the trailer pipe – the staff guy didn’t seem to care about the small amount that emptied on the ground.  I think I’ll try to tighten that up though.

Or plant some rhubarb in the vicinity of the drain.

Today, I’m going to try to fix the leak from the hot water tank. I picked up some clamps from Home Hardware the other day. I turned the water off last night so hopefully the leak will have drained the hot water tank over night and I can get at that soon.

I’m also going to try to figure out how to get the trim along the back of the bathroom wall removed and check the plumbing under it as that is where it seems the water is seeping from in the bathroom. Not sure how I’ll do it as there is not much room to work without getting my head stuck in the toilet.  Hopefully I’ll figure something out and it will be an easy repair.

The other problem that requires attention has to do with the propane. The other day, I got whiffs of propane odour but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I wasn’t even sure it was coming from my trailer, but about an hour later, there was no propane left in my tank that is connected. So I’m pretty sure I do have a propane leak somewhere. I checked under the trailer and the main gas line does have some surface rust on it – perhaps somewhere in the pipe there is enough rust that there is a perforation and propane is leaking.

It could also be the regulator which appears to be original equipment of the 1983 Glendale Glendette Cottager. One of the rubber hoses of the regulator unit that connects to a propane tank does have a hole in it, so I have that tank shut off.  But the other rubber hoses do appear to be old and probably the unit should be replaced to be on the safe side.  I’ll give Home Hardware a call and see if they can order me a new propane regulator unit.

If that is not the problem, I’ll replace the gas pipe under the trailer. That shouldn’t be an expensive job – it’s all standard pipe and I have a friend that is a pipe fitter who can probably make me up the correct size of pipe.  Hopefully either of those two fixes should fix any propane leaks as I don’t really want to get into replacing the smaller gas pipes to the stove, oven and hot water tank.

I do have a couple of Coleman stoves with plenty of naptha fuel so I don’t absolutely need the propane water heater and stove in the trailer. My first priority really is to try to fix the water leak to prevent any rotting of the floor. When we took the carpet out of the bedroom last week, we discovered that there was some rot in the bedroom floor and I’ll have to fix that up at some point.

Off to work I go! And hoping the Bell Mobility broadband is dependable today.

I know in my home country of Northern Ireland, right now there are bon fires going on.  Ah, the 11th night of July – and sad to say, many of those who are participating have never experienced the ability to celebrate much else with bonfires other than celebrations of events that ocurred over 300 years ago.  But I do understand… and have some feelings and pride myself.

I just hope it is a good “11th night” – safe, not too rowdy, and somewhere deep down those celebrating will also realize the ideals of the times – freedom and tolerance. I’ve got my little bonfire going, and am thinking of family and friends back home … and thinking of my little big country – and am grateful for what occurred in 1690 – with the idea that it was meant.. and folks died for liberty and freedom… for all.

And that includes freedom of association – I can be proud of my heritage, and recognize others are proud of theirs, but what is is what is. No one can tell me here.. not a Prod, nor a Mic, who my friends should be.

My wee bonfire is one that symbolizes freedom of all individuals,  to think, test, examine, and be friends with whom I choose, not based on prejudicial nonsense.

Happy 11th night to all!

I’ve spent years and years – decades – looking for a four leaf clover.  It was supposed to be “lucky” to discover a four leaf clover.  Everyone talked about them, but no one I knew could ever prove to me that they had actually seen one.

A couple of times I thought I had found a four leaf clover, and it turned out that it was a mirage of a three leaf clover with another three leaf clover behind it, and what appeared to be the fourth leaf was just the leaf of the one behind it.

My trailer is surrounded by clover. Not much grows here but dandelions and clover. And you might be able to imagine my thoughts when I heard my wee man, almost 8 year old David exclaim, “Dad, I found a four leaf clover!”

“Yeah right,” I thought, but not wanting to disappoint him… I took a look.  As if some kid of 8 years old could find something his auld man of almost 48 years old has never found with a lot of looking. It’s a myth.

David pointed it out.

“Huh?  What the….”  I turned the leaf stem over.  Nope, not a mirage. It really is a four leaf clover!

I guess my wee son is a lucky wee son. Or my camping trailer is a lucky trailer!

I received a phone call on my cell phone about 10:30 AM.

“Hi there, it’s Adam K. I’m here with a load of wood for you. Where’s your site?”

I end up walking out to the trailer park public parking area and meet Adam, looking forward to my bush cord of wood being delivered.  But.. Adam is driving a pick up truck and that’s no bush cord!

Well, to give Adam credit, he tells me that he was on his way from his farm the day before with the wood in a dump trailer – when the tongue of the trailer broke ten minutes away from the farm.  But rather than disappoint me with no wood, he thought he’d get me almost a third of it – the amount he could put in the back of the pickup truck – so that at least I’d have some firewood.

I have to give him credit. A lot of credit. It is an hour and a half drive to where I am from where Adam is from – and it would have been easy for him to save on his fuel costs to postpone the delivery – but he decided to get me a partial delivery.  And I’ve paid him a partial amount on the full amount we agreed to.

Adam even helped me stalk the wood – and my almost 8 year old son David was a big help too!

It’s good looking wood. Can’t wait to try it out in the campfire asap!

If you are in southwestern Ontario and are looking for firewood – give Adam or Walter a call – 519-301-5001 or email Adam-K@live.com. Tell them the camping trailer man sent you!

My National Geographic thermometer reports it hit 43C today. Admittedly, that was before I put the temperature guage in full shade. Even still, where it was sitting was not in direct sunlight – but partial shade.

C. decided she needed a fan! There it is, turned on with power, on the picnic table. Imagine camping outdoors and being so hot you need an electric fan!

Actually, as much as it was incredibly hot and humid today, we didn’t use the fan. Prior to picking David up, we went to Canadian Tire to get a few things, and C. wanted a fan for her apartment. There was the very nice model above on sale and we tested it out at the trailer before she took it back the apartment. It worked.  Almost provided enough breeze to make us more comfortable with the breeze from it in the almost unbearable heat and humidity. But the fan is not staying at the trailer. C. is leaving with the fan, and David and I are going to “rough it” in the heat and humidity without air conditioning – but with a pool nearby!

Admittedly, I do envy at times the folk with camp trailers that have air conditioning.  But we’ll be fine and this heatwave of early July will pass.

As I wrote earlier, the delivery of the bush cord of firewood is due tomorrow (Thursday, July 8, 2010).  But I whad several bags of the more expensive stuff that I had purchased before making arrangements for the wood delivery.  Ah, we decided we may as well have a warm and long campfire knowing we don’t really have to conserve what we have – we can enjoy it all night long if we wanted to.

And indeed we did! I discovered that there might not be anything more amorous than a campfire, knowing no one else is around, being in love, and staying up to the wee hours of the morning, laughing, holding hands, some teasing, and a few dares going on.

Yes, I’ve seen and looked at the stars many a night and enjoy them. But I saw them in a completely different light last night…. ah, it was a beautiful – and fun – night! Perhaps the best campfire I’ve ever had.

I am still smiling, C. is still smiling, and soon we are off to pick up my almost 8 year old son David after getting some supplies and groceries for the next few days. Sadly, C. needs to leave for a couple of days, but I’ll have some time with David which I’ll also value.

I’m getting tired of buying a small bag of firewood for over 8 bucks a bag, and have been hoping to get the phone number of a local guy that will deliver firewood to me. One of my trailer park neighbours told me that this local guy will deliver two bush cords of softwood for about 300.00.  Problem is – it’s pretty soft and not exactly what I want. On one of our bike trips, C. and I saw a flyer for someone that will deliver a full bush cord (32″ X 4′ X 12′) of hardwood – maple and ash for $380.00.  A little more than what I wanted to spend, but at this point, I just want to get some here.  Not having it is costing me to much to as I buy from the bags from the local gas station ten minutes away.

I called the number on the flyer and it turns out the guy is on holidays, but he had his son give me a call. And he is going to bring me a bush cord on Thursday for $350.00. Apparently he’s an hour and a half away, but they are willing to deliver it to me for that price of $350.00.

I am looking forward to having firewood on site, and not having to worry about buying it before I come out if I’ve been away for a few days. In fact, I can’t wait!! It’s been a few years since I stacked wood – sometime ago, I owned a house that was entirely heated with a wood stove. One of the things I enjoyed and looked forward to was the day the 3 bush cords would be delivered in late October for the winter season. Stacking it up in the garage was good hard work that I loved – and then getting out the heavy maul to split some of it as needed. No better stress reliever than that!