Flip it. Break it. Fix it. Rub it down....oh nooooo

*Written 07.30.2015*

Always stuff breaking, always stuff to fix. The past couple of days have been busy, needless to say. We're still assessing all of the damage that was done due to the trailer flipping. Even though we fixed the arm, to be able to tow it, there are still some things Jamie wants to do to make it stronger. He is going to place some metal brackets/angle irons at the front, back and down the middle of the wood on the trailer, then bolt them down into the metal arm, so it has less chance of twisting or moving around on its own. We found the Specialized (bicycle) has a split where the brake meets the hydraulic cord, so when you pull the brake, hydraulic fluid squirts out. The back tire rim is majorly bent along with the back bike rack and the handlebars and seat are scuffed up. It's interesting that the Specialized got so much damage and was the inside bike on the main rack and the Hyper was on the outside and barely got a ding. Figures! 

The bike is NOT supposed to pointed up to the sky like that! Guess the rack is bent too!

One of our heavy duty bins broke apart from the bottom to the top, but for now is fixed with gorilla tape. A couple of lids on the other bins got scratched up but are still usable. 

 Our big white "Lifetime" table has a hole in the corner. 

My scooter got hit as the trailer flipped, so she now has a broken taillight, a piece of the side & the license plate holder broke off. 

Other than all of that, I think the tarps and the TV antennae got the worst of it. There are huge, gaping holes in both the canvas and plastic tarps that go over the bins, I'm pretty sure I can sew the canvas one but the plastic one looks pretty beat up. The TV antennae looks like it was ran over several times, it's pretty rough. 

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it a million more times, but I'm very thankful and appreciative that Jamie is so handy and is willing to fix pretty much everything. I think if I would have been alone, I would have totally freaked out and probably just sat and cried somewhere and his frame of mind is, "It might take some hardware or a certain tool (or whatever), but I think I can fix it." He is in town right now getting some more hardware, etc. to have on hand and also to fix the trailer, antennae and the bicycle. A word to my fellow woman (or person who doesn't understand or want to lug a bunch of tools around), just go with it, don't get on them about too many tools. If we hadn't had all of our tools, especially power tools, it would have taken us either much much longer &/or a lot more money to do what we did in the gas station parking lot, than the 3 hours and $6.00 it took. Let your handy person keep their tools, it might really be worth it one day.
So, as I started this post with, it always seems like we're fixing stuff...we wake up to our 9 1/2 year old 1,000 watt inverter not working. It went kaput! We use this inverter for all of the "heavy lifting"; to inflate/deflate our air pads that lay under the mattress, to power the coffee maker and to run the big power tools, for things like fixing the trailer.  Then as we were trying to figure out what was going on, Jamie also found a kink/split in the cord on the air pump, so after deflating the bed with one of our small 150 watt inverters, Jamie took the pump apart and fixed the wiring so it wouldn't spark when turned on and now it works for pumping up the bed tonight!

It just seems like everything is breaking at once and while we try to have a good attitude about it, there are many moments of frustration, plus this 107+ degree heat adds a little misery to all of these projects. I try to help with getting tools and holding things for him but I'm just not as creatively witty and handy like my main squeeze. I do keep him fed, keep the van and living space clean and take care of the dogs as he fixes everything. I think all in all, it's a win win!

*UPDATE*

The bicycle tire and rack have been fixed and roll just like there was never any accident. As well as the hydraulic cord to the brake...all fixed!

We found another piece of metal at the dumpsters to fix the antennae with and it works just fine, it may not look very pretty but it works!

The inverter has been fixed, it needed a new switch, which Jamie found on a vacuum at the dump.

I have yet to take pictures of the finished trailer just because we have been moving around a lot lately and the bins have not been off of it, so when we tear everything off at the next camp, I'll be sure to get some pics for those of you that are interested in how Jamie made it stronger.

Until then...
PEACE

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