New-to-me truck

My old Ford that I have been rebuilding was not up to the task of hauling the camper. When Allen took the camper to the Badlands with his truck and had no problems with it, I knew I needed to replace my truck. So I got this one.

It's a 2012 extended cab Chevy Silverado 4x4. The main issue the Ford was having was the front end was too light and the camper "walked" the truck all over the road. This truck should do the job just fine.
 

Trip to the Badlands

I took a road trip to the Badlands last week. It is a place I have wanted to see, and it did not disappoint. Absolutely beautiful countryside.

The Black Hills area was also visited. Also spectacular.

The Iron Horse Road near Custer Park has some interesting sights like these small tunnels. All the bore marks from the digging of them are still visible inside. There are several of them along the road.

The road comes out near Mt. Rushmore. Quite a sight to see.

Since there was a full moon while there, I got some pictures of the moon setting. I love the layers of color.

The layers of color were also visible in the hills. Truly awe-inspiring scenery.

Local inhabitants were these bighorn sheep, along with mule deer, antelope, prairie dog towns and others.

Like the bison. They were wandering around and not concerned with human presence. I saw them every day I was there.
 

Concrete party at the Warner's

We had a concrete party at Lisa and Jim's this morning. We started with a full pallet and a few extra bags. Heather brought her wheelbarrow so we could do 4 bags at once. That helps speed things up.

Heather and I did most of the mixing and transporting. Jim and Bill worked on the spreading and smoothing, Lisa did the water and tool maintenance and Kathy helped all over the place.

We got two squares done instead of the normal one. We were finished in about two hours. Great job, everyone!

 

Lighting is installed

When I got home from work today, I got the lights put up in the new room.

 They look nice and they put out a good amount of light. I think they will be fine.

Wall is complete

In a nice surprise, I got out of work early today, so I used the time to finish the wall in the new room. Jessica helped hold the panels in place while I got enough nails in them to stay put.

I did both end pieces first to make the center one smaller. That way, if I screwed up the notch, I would have enough wood left to try again. I didn't mess it up, though.

It is now ready for painting. Jess gave the walls and ceiling a quick wipedown with a damp cloth to help get rid of some of the drywall dust. Lisa is going to start on the painting tomorrow. The walls are going to be blue and the ceiling will be white.
 

Bottom half of the wall put up

Heather and I cut the boards a few days ago. I finally got a little time to get them marked and cut for the new room. I used some painters' tape to mark the wall studs to make it a lot easier to find them after they were covered by the plywood.

Next to be done is the top. No outlets up there! That should make it a bit easier.
 

Drywall is finished

The drywall is now finished. He used a lot more mud than I thought he would. Maybe that is why my attempts look so poor compared to this.

I still have to get the 4th wall done, but that is going to be wood, not drywall.

The room is getting closer to being done.
 

Drywall is hung

The drywall is now hung in the new room. It really brightened it up a lot.

The guys will be back tomorrow to do the tape and mud. It's really shaping up now.
 

Room progressing

Allen got the boxes tacked into place and the wires strung around the room.

There are 2 on each of the shorter walls and 4 on the long wall.

It took us a day and a half to get the insulation put in. This is Allen stapling in the LAST piece in the wall before we started the ceiling. It was in the 90's for this job and miserably hot working. We consumed a lot of fluids.

The pieces in the ceiling are 4 ft. batts. Jessica helped hold them in place while I fastened them to the joists.

The floor still has to be done, but the walls and ceiling are complete. We're trying to get someone to come do the drywall next. I'm not very good at doing that.
 

New room started

The materials for the new room were delivered on May 19 and they started work a couple days later.

The concrete supports were dug and framed in the following Monday. They were left for a couple days to cure before any more was done.

The crew got the entire shell assembled in just one day.

Then they put the roofing on. We chose white metal for the longer lifespan of the material.

I liked this shade, so we used it for the siding. We have a watertight shell up now. The HVAC guys were here on Friday and installed a vent in the new room for the heat and A/C. I'm still working on getting an electrician out to run all the new outlets. If I can't get one soon enough, Allen will wire it for me. Then we can insulate and put in the drywall.

This morning, I broke in the new fire ring. I got all the storm damage pulled down and burned. It took most of the morning. There was a lot of it.
 

New front brakes for Heather's car

This was from last Saturday morning. I put new pads and rotors on Heather's Camry. It only took a little over an hour.

As you can see, the rotors needed replacing. They were getting really thin. With the mileage on the car when she bought it, and the fact we have not replaced them, my guess is that were original parts from 1998.

 The pads were also down to the last millimeter. She said they made a scraping squawk last week, so we checked them out. Just in time, it looks like.

New work truck

 My new work truck was brought into the lot in Clays Ferry today. It is still waiting on decals, plates, a tool box and that kind of stuff. It's an 18 speed.

Gravel pile all spread

I called the quarry in Frenchburg on Monday and got a load of rock delivered for the driveway. It was a good sized load - just over 26 tons.

I borrowed Harry's tractor to fill in the area right next to the shed. Jessica will be parking there now. I intend to move the camper out onto the driveway and needed more driveway for that.

The tractor is a smaller one, but has a bucket and did the job very well.

I filled in across the back wall during the week with a shovel and 5 gallon pails. I was working very close to the wall and the boat and didn't want any damage. Heather helped me clear out the rest of the carport this morning.

It didn't take very long to get it filled in and smoothed out. We won't be sinking in the mud now.

We also put out the frame Allen built for the horses' water trough when he was here. We filled it with gravel and Heather put stall mats over it to help protect their feet. The last remaining part of the pile was spread across the driveway. I tried to fill in some low spots and got it all smoothed out. I think it looks good.