Saturday Jobs
Our day started having breakfast with friends at Hot Shott Cafe for our allocated hour from 8 to 9am. Blue came with us and enjoyed watching the other dogs walk by. He is easily spooked by loud noises or dogs approaching him too quickly. He stops and sits and has to be enticed to keep walking. It is easier with two people as one of us walks in front and Blue follows while the other person holds his lead.
Back at home I managed to make progress on a few jobs. I collected our caravan cushions from the upholsterer who had replaced the foam. The original foam had collapsed on one side. The hospital grade replacement foam is meant to stay firm for 10 years. The Toyota tow hitch and spring bars have stone chips and rust so I scraped and brushed this off then painted on rust converter. The residue had to be washed off so I left them out in the sun to dry ready for priming tomorrow.
As we are planning to take a road trip with the caravan I decided to clean off the residual dust on the Toyota from last year's trip to WA. I started with the back doors and pulled the rubber seal loose to give it a clean in a bucket of water. I needed an old toothbrush and cloths to get into small spaces to remove dirt, kitty litter, leaves and dog hair. Fortunately I was able to refit the rubber seal - it is always a risk these things don't go back on as easily as they come off! I reminded myself how to lower the spare wheel under the Toyota and tested the tyre pressure. That exercise took about two hours so I will have to work my way around the vehicle in stages.
Finally I ventured into my little tool room to deal with the accumulated jobs on the workbench. I had taken all of the battery powered devices from the caravan in to remove and test the batteries, but neither of my multi meters worked so that job sat cluttering the bench for some time. My newer meter had a flat battery so that was easily fixed. The older one dating back to the 1970s had batteries that still have good power and are not leaking - amazing. They don't make them like that any more. I checked the fuse and finally the leads and realised they were not plugged into the right slots for testing DC voltage, so that was easily fixed as well. I then tested all of the batteries stored in the tool room, then all of the caravan batteries because they are at risk of being affected by heat. After dinner I was knitting and Tilly and Blue started playing in the bed I bought for them to share. They gently mouth and paw each other. Tilly interupted the game and came looking for my knitting bag. She loves to get inside so once she had I put her back on the bed with Blue. He retired under the dining table but she followed him and got into this compromising position.