I met Raven at Starbucks as usual on a Saturday. We headed over to the farmers market, ooh pineapple guavas, yes please. A couple tomatoes for a chutney recipe I’m making. A zucchini intended for lunch. I quickly hit up Shelton’s for a lemon and butter, met Raven’s car on the street and met again at Garrett’s hardware. We need a lot as the gas system needs to work today. They don’t have the 5/16 to 1/2″ hose barb to pipe thread brass fittings I hoped for to match what’s in the vardo minus the iron. We’ll go with 3/8″ they have and 10 feet of hose to match. I’m not sure, but 4 half to 3/8 and a couple 3/8 joiners. We need to extend the running lights wires, 12 feet of 16 gauge wire. Lets head for home.
I need to remove the iron piping and use the same valves. This starts out OK as I remove the pieces with difficulty as they are bound on the studs. Down to the last long pipe, oh no. It’s stuck in the wall and the insulation (I hate insulation, it itches) is holding it from moving. I can’t find the vice grips and my hands are tired from the pliers and hammer.
Raven whips up a couple tuna sandwiches with bread and butter pickle relish, very tasty. After lunch I find the vice grips and nudge the insulation away from outside with a dowel and finally punch it through, whew, that was hard. The new tube goes in easily using a dowel fit tight into it and threaded down the stud holes, bending the dowel to make the last stud, in. I found the yellow gas Teflon tape, sealed all connections half inch to hose barb wrenched tight. I secured the inside emergency valve with hose clamps after much difficulty and reinserted the aluminum shield.
Raven had gone off to Isis Oasis to check it out, returning just in time as I need the receipt to exchange 2 hose menders for a 3/8 Tee. The price matched a penny owed from the penny jar. Back home it all fit together in 15 minutes, so easy with rubber hoses. I turn the gas on and it all works.
I made some pipe strap connectors to hold the parts down.
The water system is going to need to be chlorinated to purify it. I buy some concentrated bleach at the corner store. Raven pulls the water bottles, we dose them with pure bleach, adding the empty to the other then filling it strong on bleach. Inserting it into the cabinet with the pump on, we push high chlorine water into all the lines, hot and cold. I’m outside feeding hoses as Raven opens and closes the faucets. The whole system is full. We’ll rinse it all out tomorrow morning to insure a clean system. I used to do this with my Dad to clean the schools in the summer.
Raven scored some new curtains from a friend, they are really nice, hung, may need some adjustments on the sewing machine.
I build a couple brackets to secure the outer fittings above using plumbers tape. A good day with more to do tomorrow as next week the vardo goes locally live.
8shotoflove8 