On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:19:29 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

On Jul 17, 12:06*pm, H the K wrote:
Frogwatch wrote:
On Jul 17, 11:49 am, Frogwatch wrote:
My slide-in truck camper based on a design from Glen-L is nearing
completion. *This project has taken far longer than expected and has
not been as much fun as I expected. *For awhile I was trying to build
the framing to boat building standards until I realized this was a
waste of epoxy. *The Glen-L design is from the late 70s and you have
to do some re-thinking for newer materials but seems to work.
The metal siding was more expensive than I expected. *I used actual RV
siding from an RV siding company and cutting it was a serious PITA
resulting in some wicked looking edges. *Fortunately, trim has covered
my most serious flaws. *Unfortunately, there are a few places where my
saber saw slipped and the blade punctured the skin where trim does not
cover it but I will try to seal these with epoxy and touch-up paint.
The windows will be installed this weekend and then the outside will
be finished. *Then the fun starts because my wife insists on doing the
interior her way. *This will mean endlessly looking at samples of
fabric and linoleum till I am ready to pick something at random.
Originally, I thought the camper would be ready for our annual
pilgrimage to Wyoming because the bears mountain lions and now wolves
have become a problem for campers. *There was a story yesterday about
a family camping near Cody being attacked by a mountain lion.

Many years ago (Early 80s) we were camped near Hole-In-the -Wall
(Butch Cassiday's hideout) in the middle of nowhere (southern end of
the Bighorn Mountains) and could hear a mountain lion at night. *My
wife and I (childless then) slept in our friends hard sided slide in
camper. *In the morning, we found mountain lion tracks all over in the
snow around our camp.

Well, you were in its backyard...and it came out to investigate.
Wouldn't you do the same if you hear noises or smelled something strange
in your backyard?

We're still occasionally feeding the critters who walk through the
forest at the edge of our back yard. Foxes, raccoons, the occasional
possum, squirrels, groundhogs, birds, deer. It's getting tougher for
animals every day everywhere. And of course our helping them out a bit
really ****es off some of the posters in rec.boats. That alone makes it
* worthwhile. I've been hoping for years that Reggie would have a stroke
over this.

Raccoons and foxes are just beautiful animals. So far, we haven't
encountered any that are "interested" in people. The deer remain skittish.

Cougars, by the way, are wonderful animals. An atypical example:
snipped

Harry seems not to realize that he is training raccoons to approach
humans, or that raccoons are the most frequent carriers of rabies in
the mid-Atlantic states (and probably others).

"Over 75% of the animals reported rabid in the mid-Atlantic area have
been raccoons; other affected wildlife include: skunks, bats, foxes,
and groundhogs, in decreasing order of frequency."

From: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001255.htm

Even when rabid, raccoons and foxes are beautiful animals. Be careful.

Have you, during this construction project, thought that you may have
been better off with one of these?

http://www.travelizmo.com/archives/000931.html
--

John H