Birthday, Easter and Egg-hunts

On Sunday we celebrated Stephanie's birthday with her parents, my parents, her sister's family and Kathleen.

Stephanie made the cake and was excited about the piping. (Is 'piping' that green stuff on her dress?)

Harper and Adelaide beautifying.

 

Easter wouldn't be Easter without an egg-hunt so some of our neighbors joined our kids for a grand multi-yard hunt. And the men-folk had an egg-hunt of their own when someone (not to be named) tried hiding an egg on the edge of the new (used) raised air intake on the Landcruiser. The hunt took on many different iterations as we sifted through ideas.

Reaching in from the top didn't work even when Bailey tried, nor reaching from the bottom despite our encouragement that there were no spiders inside waiting to bite him.

  Someone thought to use the shop-vac to try to suck it out and that did eventually work.

 Broken-armed, I (Jesse) pretty much took a backseat and "supervised" as the antics ensued.

      Unfortunately we never quite made it around to trying my idea: find very steep hill, engage 4 wheel drive, drive up said steep hill and wait for egg to roll out. I even knew where to find such a hill!

     On another note, we were on holiday Monday, so I met up with Tommy Ellis who did some welding on the front bumper for me. I finished painting it today and installed it and the used lights that Marshall picked up for me in Oregon.

  By the end of the day we were all plum-tuckered out. Harper's face says it all.

Land Cruiser Update:
-Drawer/sleep platform built for rear cargo area. It's not finished: still lacks drawer front, tie-downs    for cargo on top and, well, finish (probably an oil finish).
-Pelican cases, fuel and water cans test fitted to roof rack. They survived a test run, but on pavement.
-Water tank fitted to belly of frame. Hopefully welded in place next week.

Here is what I've done so far for the drawer/platform. I have a ways to go.

 

And lots of thanks to my third helper. She's holding a drill!

I snapped a few more photos that you can see here. 

Spring Break starts this week and I hope to put a lot of time in on the Cruiser and on the house (the real house). I should be able to install both the winch and tent. Who knows, maybe I can even start fabricating the rear tire carrier and get the auxiliary headlights mounted.

Roof Rack

I spent Friday evening at my friends shop tacking the roof rack together and mostly installed it today. The rain cleared out and the temperature dropped quite a bit but we managed to work through it. Bailey sat on top and helped me for a solid two hours and actually turned a few bolts while up there. He's a good helper.

Of course I didn't finish working until dark so the pictures are taken in the dark again. Below you see the awning unfurled. I also finally repainted the fender flares black from the Halloween accident.