On To The Next Thing

Confirmation was on Sunday. Church was packed (wish that was true every week!). Almost anti-climatic after the Faith Statement dinner, but it was a nice service, and we actually went to a friend's graduation party that afternoon. One of John's sisters was also invited, and his other sister in the area couldn't come up for the service, so rather than try to have a party for JC, we went to someone else's. Dancing, food, and three desserts. It was a fun time!

After we got home from the party in the afternoon, we pulled the trailer out from beside the house to prep for camping next weekend. Now, realize, the trailer hasn't moved for 6 months. And it rained on Friday. And on Sunday - yes, while we were at the party, it was pouring rain. But it stopped by the time we came home. So, since John is traveling this week, and we're leaving for camping on Friday, we really needed to get it out. Despite the fact that there was MUD. Lots of mud.

It's a tight spot next to the house, and the mud didn't help. Nor did the tire that went completely flat during the process. Somehow, the valve stem broke. I don't know how far we dragged it on the flat tire until I noticed it - I was actually watching the top of the trailer scrape the corner of the house. Fortunately by then it was far enough forward to tape the stem and get air into the tire at least temporarily. We squished a downspout a little bit, then realized that the trailer was sinking in the mud and leaning toward the house. Ok, boards under the wheels, and just keep going. The whole rig was kind of sliding down the hill towards the house, and every time John tried to back up and get farther from the house, the opposite happened.

But we got it out. I should have taken a picture of the ruts, but the kids already raked the dirt back before it dried out. John got the bad tire off and the spare on, and today got new tires. He took one off, took it down to the tire place, went back and picked it up, brought that home, changed tires, and took another old one down. We didn't want to pull it too far with bad tires, and he decide it wasn't so hard to change them himself.

So on top of our other summer projects (deck! deck!), we need to clean up and add more gravel to the trailer parking space. And dig out the hill a little more to have more room to maneuver. I think we might rent a space to put the trailer for a couple of months, just to make it all easier. There's always something.

And now comes the annual rehab of the trailer. The kids and I pulled everything out of the storage compartment, which was pretty musty. But we opened everything up and aired out for a while, so it's smelling better. I think we'll be ready by Friday.