Shasta Twenty

Here's a picture of our 'newest' Shasta. She'll be going in for rebuild either this fall or next spring.

Getting Ready to go Camping

No weeding for me today. Today will be spent cleaning house and reloading the Shasta. One week after returning home from an 8 day trip and we'll be heading out for 4 more days. This time we'll be sticking closer to home and going to Dolan Lake. It's a small state lake about 30 miles from home. It's always very quiet as most people forget it's there or don't realize it is in the first place.

I really, really want to camp on the water. I wouldn't want to camp this close to the lake in a tent as the lake has LOTS of water snakes but I'll feel safe sleeping in the trailer and the dogs will sound the alarm if a snake gets too close for my comfort.

We may be taking both Shastas on this trip but that is not yet decided. Here's the problem, my youngest daughter and her family want to camp with us this weekend. The husband has already told her that they could use the Shasta Twenty once this year before we start the rebuild on her. Daughter has asked me if they could use it this weekend and I told her not to get her hopes up. The hubby has already told me that they aren't using it this weekend. Why? Who knows? What I do know is that I'll most likely get stuck in the middle and I've told her I don't want to be there. So, we'll see. I don't see what the problem would be and I think it would be kinda cool to see the old gal in her element before we tear her to pieces. Since I'm totally ate up about taking pics and documenting the trailers anyway I think it would be a great photo op. More on this subject later.

These pics were taken on our vacation and at the mini rally that wasn't.

After yesterdays work

Should have taken some before pics yesterday but didn't think about it. Anyway here are a few after pictures showing the fruits of my labor the last couple of days. Also decided to showcase the payoff of why I spent the morning working my tush off (not a bad thing).

Before and After

Having spent 2 hours on the wrong end of a hoe, progress has been made. The bed I cleaned out this morning had to be the worst. It still needs fresh mulch but looks so much better than it did.

Why seven flower beds?

This one will placed on my husbands shoulders. His mother is all about her flowers and I must admit she has a beautiful yard. Before Mark and I married I did tinker with gardening but was never very successful. Fact is, gardening is a lot of work. This year I was so happy because our flowers came in without much effort on our part. Most of our flower beds are relatively young and we always to to add, remove, split, mulch, etc. to get the look we were after. Spring arrived and it didn't seem we were going to have to do much. We knew that we needed to add mulch to all the beds but wasn't overly concerned about it. Why? Because we had the Shasta to think about.

Now vacation and the maiden voyage is over and boy am I paying for not thinking more about that extra layer of mulch. Since returning from vacation I have spent many hours in my flower beds. Even though I enjoy our flowers very much I'm wondering if we really NEED 7 flower beds. Couldn't we have stopped at at 3 or 4? Granted we do have a very large yard compared to most but my goodness. Guess I need to quit complaining and continue my battle with the weeds. Two down and five to go.

Why two Shastas?

Well, like most Shasta enthusiasts I want a canned ham. Since our 1400 is a seventies model it is considered ‘toaster’ shaped and is not a canned ham. It’s true that when we first looked for a Shasta we waited till we found a 72 model to match our truck. Unfortunately it didn’t quite satisfy my Shasta yearning. After working along side my husband inside our 1400 we realized that even for the two of us it’s a bit tight inside. Why couldn’t I be satisfied? It’s small enough to tow with just about any vehicle and doesn’t affect the gas mileage too bad. But..it didn’t have birch interior and still left me wanting. Don’t get me wrong, I do love my trailer. Even though the 70’s trailer didn’t come out with birch walls my trailer now has them. In the late 60’s Shasta went from birch walls to paneling, not my favorite. I didn’t have to worry about keeping it original because even the original paneling was long gone from my trailer when we got her. Anyway, I kept my eyes open and found a 1964 Shasta Twenty. Even though it is larger it does have the canned ham shape. This is a fairly rare trailer and difficult to find info on. At this time I still have not found another owner who has one of these. Walking into this trailer compared to my 1400 is as different as night and day. The first thing you notice is how much space is inside. There is a ton of storage and the birch interior is intact. The down side of this trailer is the outer skin. It appears to have been damaged by hail and eventually we will replace it. This is next year’s project and one that will be spread over a few years. We want to restore it to original condition with a few modifications for safety. The up side of this trailer is that I got a great deal on it. We paid less for the Twenty than the 1400 and it was only two hours away.

Why five Miniature Schnauzers?

Why can't I settle for one? One dog four years ago and now I have five. One vintage trailer last year and now I have two. In some ways I've came to realize it has to do with being a mother. If my son hadn't wanted one of my dog's pups I wouldn't have bred her. If I hadn't bred her I wouldn't have been too soft hearted not to sell the remaining two pups. If I didn't have two females I wouldn't have considered getting another male to breed them with. If I hadn't accepted the fourth pup as a gift from my son then I wouldn't have been too soft hearted to return the pup to the breeder when he didn't pass his puppy exam. Noooo, when the breeder said I could keep him and pick out another pup did I pass on the offer? Of course not, that would have made sense. Ironically I have now decided not to breed any of the dogs. Having become more educated in pet population and puppy mills, I just don't think I need to add to the problem. The thought of one of my dog's off spring not being taken care of and loved the way it deserves was enough to stop me in my tracks. Now I am considering opening a doggie day care this fall. Since I live in a rural area I'm not sure how it would go over, still lots of thinking to do on this subject.

Why The Fin and Feather Inn?

Let's just say that the name was fitting when we first purchased the trailer. Our baby was a ebay find and about 3 hours north of us. The person we bought her from used it as a fry house for his church. From the amount of grease that ran from the floor when the door was open, it was obvious that it had housed many fish and chicken feeds. An industrial exhaust fan had been installed near the rear of the trailer and nothing remained of the original trailer except a fairly good exterior skin and lots of cooking grease and a very strong oder. The condition of the outside is what sealed her fate. We knew that we could fix anything that had taken place on the inside as long as the outside was in good condition.

Why a Shasta?

My father bought a Shasta in the mid 70's and kept it a long time. That old trailer went from Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Wyoming, New Mexico and then to Illinois with my family as my Dad never stayed in one place for long. Heck, it even served as my bedroom when I was a senior in high school in Wyoming (bad decision on my Dad's part). After joining my family in Illinois it's where I conceived my first child. So, Shasta's have been a long standing part of my family and when I decided to start looking for vintage it had to be a Shasta. My husband already had a 1972 F100 truck that he had restored. It was just an old farm truck that Mark's grandfather had but it was Mark's first vehicle. After lot's of love it turn out to be a very cool truck. So the search began for a 1972 Shasta travel trailer.

Why a blog?

Honestly, I don't really know. This seems to be a good place to put thoughts, share ideas and talk to myself. My life's not all that interesting, I'm a wife, a mother, and a grandmother (still trying to get use to that one). We live outside a small rural town in Southern Illinois and not much happens around here. There are a few things that keeps my interest though and I'm sure these subjects are what this blog will consist of.

Right now our "project" is a rebuilding a 1972 Shasta 1400 travel trailer. There will be many posts on this subject as it is what is consuming most of our time. I have five Mini Schnauzers and they take up most of what's left of my time. Most people think I'm crazy for having five dogs and I don't disagree with them.

We also enjoy gardening and landscaping. Right now both the garden and the flower beds are in sorry shape. We spent so much time getting the Shasta ready to take on vacation that we let the weeds get away from us. Since weeding isn't my favorite thing to do please excuse any gripping I may do on the subject. June is almost over and Mark just finished the remaining vegetables and the first planting of corn yesterday. So much outside work to catch up on and Mark wants to leave Thursday for four days. We'll see.