A Gorgeous Day @ TC

Temperatures:  High of 70 / Sunny
Black Flies Status:  Slightly annoying, but not bad...
Grass Situation:  Floatman's side winning by a large margin
Fern Growth:  6-10" sprouts
Foliage:  50% forestation transparency

The family and I arrived at TC around 11AM.  The slight breeze and overall enjoyable warmth of late morning made finishing up the fascia trim on the rakes and eaves of the Shed-Mahal an easy going experience.   It has been quite a long time since the Xb has been "burdened" with the job of hauling us up to camp, but the little guy handled the trek nicely.  He was forced into service when I recognized a possible wheel bearing issue on the Mountaineer and put her into the shop for repairs.  The roads were manageable and although it rained a few days ago (a decent amount I read) they were dry and hard packed.  The gravel that Floatman and I laid down at the beginning of spring last year is still doing a good job although it is due for a good raking and re-leveling.

This time up I noticed that the trees are really starting to sprout and the foliage is filling in the forest nicely.  The more green we get, the more difficult it is to be seen by others from the private road that passes camp.  The colors we chose for the roof and the "forest service" brown we selected for the walls blends extremely well with nature's color scheme.

Because we traveled in the Xb, there was a very restrictive limit to what tools I could bring and therefore a limit to the overall chores I could tackle.  I did pack the "trunk" like a jig saw puzzle full with camping supplies from our pop-up.  Speaking of which, the 1988 Coleman Columbia that we've taken camping a bunch of times over the past 4 years has found itself a new home, sold to a nice couple in Rock Creek.  Within a few hours of listing it on CL, I had enough inquiries to pull the advert. and consider it sold.  Anyway...  So Sunday, a few days late I might add, my work concentrated on finishing the trim and covering the unpainted wood of the eaves and rakes.  My contact at Oil City Metal Roofing was kind enough to drop off the necessary supplies a day earlier which allowed me to get straight to work.

I began with the lower portions of the ridge rakes and worked myself toward the peak.  The few youtube videos I watched were a big help on the proper installation/nailing procedures to follow.  It went very well until it came to installing the eave cladding on the lower pitched side.  Apparently I had made a mistake on measuring and the vertical portion of the material wasn't tall enough to tuck under the drip edge.  In fact, it was the exact height of the exposed boarding.  Irritation set in and I decided to go to the other side (the east wall) and see if something was amiss.  This is where and when I discovered my measuring mistake.  The higher pitched side of the shed has a shorter vertical eave than the lower pitched side.  The drip edge comes down onto the eave fascia about an 1/2" further on the steep side.  This is the measurement I gave to the metal fabricator.   I realized that the lengths of aluminum had a 1/2" fold over on either side that runs the length of them.  It was a pain in the butt, but I delicately unfolded (OK, not really delicately) the extra steel and in doing so had enough material to tuck under the drip edge.  The fact that I had to jerry-rig it to work is barely noticeable and the fold line that runs the length of the fascia sits just below the drip edge and is further disguised by their proximity to one another.  So- disaster averted I guess.  It helps that this area is also on the forest side and doesn't face the activities area of camp making it that much less noticeable anyways.

My last video had a comment of displeasure surrounding the capped areas on the four corners of the roof edges.  I had ordered some extra material to dispatch these unsightly areas.  Using the metal shears, I was able to create caps that disguise these areas nicely.  While they're not what a "pro" would consider perfect, they look a heck of a lot better than what was there.  Overall, I'm extremely pleased with how the Shed-Mahal has turned out.  I'm also relieved that the majority of hard work associated with its construction is behind me as well.

Over the next several weeks...I will video capture the work on the Banner camper and its trek up to camp.  Look for the updates!

Until then...