Kicked In Door Repair

My house was a definite fixer upper when I got it.  Really it still is, but its a little more functional.  The back door is something I didn't get to till now.  I actually purchased a new back door, as close as I could get to the same size, but I'd have to cut it down.  Then your still looking at a weak ass door that anyone could kick in if they wanted.  So I fortified the original splintered door with the welder and good old steel plate.  Nobody is going to be kicking in my door again.  Click the link below to see the video.

Quick Wheel Alignment

This all happened just before the VW Jetta experienced some, hopefully electrical, catastrophic failure.  High mileage, and lots more mileage to go.

Astro Van Gets New Springs

The Astro Van has taken some serious abuse this year, hauling around a ton of copper, and towing the big trailer full of more copper and tools.  Until today I have put air bag suspension on everything I drive.  I got a few air leaks in a couple of air bags, and decided to go with a more permanent trailer hauling solution for the Chevy Astro Van.  I stopped in at the local Alberta Spring and Trailer, got myself a set of steal leaf springs, to replace the cracking fiberglass springs, and 4 extra 1/4" thick steel leafs.  I also picked up some coil over shock helper springs.  The over all result is very heavy rear suspension which can haul anything now.  The next area to address would be the tires.  Now I can get so much weight in the van the tires look low because they can't hold enough psi.

Wireless Volt meter

For Christmas I got this wifi wireless volt meter.  Its great for remote metering, monitoring, graphing, all this fun stuff.  This is a quick video to show how it measures voltage, and transmits the reading through wifi to my iphone app.  Of course it doesn't just measure voltage, but it measures ohms, amps, all that fun stuff.

Tire Machine Improvements

Nobody really thinks to mount their own tires, what a hassle.  When you do as much driving as me, have as many trucks, trailers, and ATVs as me, having your own tire machine is brilliant.  But also living out in the sticks as we did for 5 years, its not practical at all to take a tire for the 2 hour return trip to town for mounting.  The going rate for tire installation is about $20, at the reasonable shops, for one tire.  Most charge more than that, then they add $4 tire recycling fee,  plus valve stem, and wheel weight costs.

There was a point there, when my trailer suspension was bottomed out, I would go through a tire a week, on pot holes and curbs.  The suspension has been beefed up so it doesn't bottom out any more.  But back then, last summer, it was no big deal.  I have my own tire machine, auto wrecker sells me 15" tires for $15 each, I fix it.  Total cost $15 and a trip to the wrecker.

I just love this tire machine, it was well under $100 to buy, and I will easily mount 1000 tires with it in my life time, saving me a lot of driving around, and at minimum $20,000 in tire mounting fees.  The design is pretty good, but I recommend two improvements.  One improvement I had to do 5 years ago, the other I did today in this video.

Trailer Security

As contractors I know keep getting their trailers stolen around me, I search for new ways to step up trailer security.  This is one fairly inexpensive way I found to add another level of security.  This motion light only works at night, in the dark.  Because the trailer is parked in front of my house, I found my excessively bright LED house security light, lights up the same area enough to shut down Mr Beams.  But this trailer is parked at dark job sites enough to warrent the small cost of installing the battery security light.  A quick video of the install

LED Tail Lights

Had a burnt tail light in my van which inspired some new LED lights.  Sexy, bright and stylish.

BC Medical Refund

I guess there was really no cost involved in waiting to transfer my medical insurance to AB.  In fact I think I made money on the deal, unless it was Nov of 2008 that AB medical became free.  I think it was much later than that.  They want to give me back all my premiums, woo hoo, not like I even got any medical services out of them, just rapping my thumb up once when I severed the end off.  That would have been a $60 charge, $100 tops.  So if I had not paid for insurance and paid my own medical expenses I'd be $1400 ahead for those 4 years. No I am $1549 ahead, and they paid for my thumb bandage.

10,000 Amps, Vs Wood Screw

My blog is falling behind.
Well, been busy at work lately even though its cold.  This is the place I have spent most of my time lately.  I am starting to feel sorry for this contractor.  I pulled new service wires into this conduit, then the inspector came and failed all the conduit work, despite the fact that its existing, we have to change all of it.

They presumably put a screw through another wire effecting one plug, that we found so far, which I pulled a new wire to.  Then the add on, a naked loomex wire run on the outside of the house, and into the wall for a pool table light.  We switched this light with expensive remote switching, located in the basement near the panel.  The remote then sits on the interior wall at the entrance to the pool table, as any switch would.

They get a big glorious pool table light, doesn't work.  Sure enough switch doesn't work.  I replace it, second one doesn't work.  Short circuit, two switches toast, $300.  By now most of the siding is done, so running a new wire outside the house is tricky, I assumed they got a screw through this wire too.  I pull a new wire, and decide to wire this big expensive light always on so the boys can check periodicly that its still working, and know apx where, and when they put a nail through that wire.

Blam, breaker pops.  Wouldn't you know it the light fixture has a short circuit.  This was no cheap light fixture either.  Anyway the video is just of the service work, should have made one of the other drama, maybe tomorrow.

Chevy 700R4 Rebuild

My second Chevy automatic 700R4 transmission, bought strictly for one part, the rear sun gear.  The rear sun gear in my first rebuildable core has a broken tooth, and potentially ready to break off the rest of the teeth.  The rear sun gear is obsolete in the pre 86 Chevy transmissions.  That means I have to buy a whole new sprag and gear assembly, for only $200.  I knew I could buy another "core" transmission for $50.  Life threw me a curve ball, and sold me a Chevy diesel motor, torque converter, and good 700R4, for $300.  Best deal I have found in forever.

A quick vid today is a look at the inside of the automatic transmission.  I will do a video of the pump modifications I do, and some random portions of Assembly.

VW Strut Failure

Good news, I think old stinky might just have an electrical problem to the motor.   At the very least the diesel injector pump fuel solenoid, didn't have power.  I powered that up and got injection pumpage.  Still not running, but there are a few other electric wires on the motor I intend to check, the harness appears to be damaged.

Among the long list of things that need to be fixed on the 96 jetta, is a rear strut.  It looks to me like the shock absorber portion of the strut, has pushed through the top of the back seat.  It cracks me up to see, I should have gone over some serious bumps for this video but this is just along a city road, looking at the back seat of the VW.

Cheap Chev Truck

This is a "running chev diesel" truck I went to look at the other day.  Just needs a rad, and two batteries, drive it away.  It obviously hasn't been "running" for some time, but was parked where it sits, under its own power.

Sexy VW Bush Bar

I had almost retired the VW, for the winter, as a summer only vehicle in the fall.  Largely because its so lite.  It gets stuck a lot in the snow.  Its always easy to push out because its so lite.  I tried adding a large bumper with full size spare tire, on the front of the Vdub, to give me more front end weight.  Didn't help much, but did make it look really sexy.  The bumper started life as a full size Dodge truck bumper, which I cut into pieces and welded back together to make the beautiful VW bumper.

Old Stinky Died

Its a tragic day, 15 days short of a full year, and old stinky, the vegetable oil hybrid died.  At 11:06 this morning, rite down town Edmonton, on Jasper ave.  She still gets lots of fuel, but won't run.  That's the extent of my winter trouble shooting.  Fortunately she died in an intersection, one block from a metered parking spot.  Once pushed into legal parking, I was just two blocks from the LRT stop, which took me strait home, where I have a running van, a tow bar, and even the borrowed car dolly

Ironically I had just come up with the second vegetable oil hybrid plan.  #2 was inspired by the collection of waste motor oil I have.  A youtuber friend has found that when he mixes "black oil" with waste vegetable oil, his injectors get stuck closed.  He does run both all the time, but almost always has to change his injectors (6 times now).  So I thought I would make a "black oil hybrid".  Here is the vid.

Awesome Free Trailer

I don't think the free trailer vid made it on the blog.  We had a lot of fun this summer towing this trailer, a big dodge truck bush bar, and a large 60" three point hitch rototiller, from Randi Leigh's yard clean up.  Ironically someone stole the John Deer rototiller attachment from me, that we were going to use with the bobcat.  Easy come easy go.  The bumper I chopped into pieces and reassembled to fit the VW, vid to come. And the trailer I managed to build into a chicken coop (small city style), before it got below 0 this winter.  So first the "awesome free trailer vid", then the "free trailer chicken coop" vid.  One post, two videos.

Ghetto Electrical

Lots of interest in my Ghetto Garage Electrical Panel, so here is a more detailed video about it.  It just has a 40 amp feed from my house, but has everything I could possibly want for power, I run lights, welder, plasma cutter, compressor, grinders, heaters, and the deep fryer

Heating The Floor Of My Ghetto Garage

After all this time I got a Youtube Partnership, so watch my videos lots.  I still haven't gone though all 150ish vids and declared them all music and copy write content free, but every new vid is definitely partnered.  Some of the old vids are getting remakes too.

I really want a heated space to work on the vehicles, but it looks like I will actually lose space if I build a real garage in the back yard.  As it stands rite now, the Ghetto garage pretty much up against the fence, I always have a trailer up against the other fence.  A real garage has to be a meter plus away from the property lines, there goes 2 useful meters of space, then there isn't nuff room for more than a trailer.

As usual, I have more solutions than problems.  I just heated the floor of my ghetto garage, and it is quite pleasant now.  Here is the video of how I did it.

Fussy Crabbing

One more vid of Fussy, crabbing this time, cause its such a weird sound she makes.

Fussy The Possum

I don't want to diss my old past ferret, but wow the Sugar Glider Possums are way better pets.  This little girl I got, sleeps all day.  She is just a little bigger than a mouse.  Being a marsupial, she is happiest in a pouch or pocket close to me.  I haven't taken her out on the motorcycle or snow mobile yet (because I haven't been out on them), but she is in my shirt all day, sleeping.  I am grinding, cutting steel, and wood, chainsaw, skill saw, sawzall, drill, sleeps through it all.  Then I have to get her up at 10pm, when I want to go to bed.

If I want to hang out with her a bit, I pretty much put her on some news paper, and lift her tail, and she makes little mouse size poops, on command.  We have been sort of discouraging her from flying, mostly cause Gus, our youngest dog, wants to eat her.  Our house isn't very fly friendly, she can't grip the walls, and so she hits the floor when she jumps for the wall.  She will jump off me into her cage, or from Michelle to me.

I named her Sheila, since she is native to Australia, and a girl.  But her name quickly evolved to Fussy Pants.   The name speaks for its self.  The fact that she has little hands, she can throw food if she doesn't like it, which she does all the time.  She also makes the oddest "crabbing" noise when she is disturbed and irritated.  A quick video of her eating a piece of apple on my arm.

Well I bought a possum.  I specifically went to look at one unprepared, so we couldn't take it home.  Next thing you know they have a cage, and a 6 month care package for us, wile the little cuddle monster has gone to sleep in my pocket.

I just got her tonight, after work.  Van is back in working action, with issues, another story.  No energy to make a vid, so the best two min vid on youtube I found of these little guys is the cool whip gliders.  A little research found the only possum that makes a good pet is the sugar glider marsupials from Australia.  Just to clarify, I have only one glider, there is 8 in the vid.  Here is the cool whip glider vid.

Winter Fun

The Astro pushed its servo out again, this time I know its retainer clip was well seated.  If my transmission wasn't made of aluminum, I would have that servo welded in by now.  It must have a damaged retaining clip grove or something.  So I will try to screw the retainer in, to get by for the winter.

Wouldn't you know it.  I buy brand new snow tires for the van.  Put new steal leaf springs with 4 extra leafs in er so I can LOAD it this winter and get lots of traction.  Almost bought an electric locker rear end, ($1500+).  And the van ends up basically up on blocks waiting for transmission parts from Louisiana, with no intention of putting the rebuild trans in till spring.  Wile the VW, had the intention of taking a mini retirement for winter with its currently bald tires, solidified fryer fat, and other problems.  Here is the start of winter fun this morning in my quick vid.  Incidentally, dis-spite the snapping sound inside the door, when the key turned (without unlocking anything), the door lock worked in the afternoon after driving around with the heat blasting, and some sun.

Had To Get Towed

My start at being my own transmission mechanic, hasn't gone well.  I tried to give a little more life to my old transmission, by giving it bigger serveros, to put more pressure on the burnt clutches.  I screwed that up, it was very difficult to get the servo in, wile the transmission was in the van.  I have now "sanded out" the damage I caused in the servo bore, and put the original servo back in.  The new servo will just be in the new transmission.

I will now ride out the transmission in the van, until I lose third and fourth, next spring or summer I am hoping, or maybe when I get my garage built.  (I now have spousal permission to build a real garage w heat :-)).  I got an 84 transmission, that also needs a rebuild, for $100.  The newest transmission I can use is 92, and that's 20 years old.  I figured I would rebuild whatever I get.  There is too many scammers out there that want $1000 for their "rebuilt" transmission.  Most of them haven't even cleaned the thing, what is to say its "rebuilt", and its not rebuilt the way I want anyway.

So this is a video of the servo screw up and the start of the rebuild of my 84 transmission.  Parts are on there way.  Although the 85-92 trans was better than 84 this one will be built for towing, and a future diesel conversion, better than anything 20 years old.

New Lokar Floor Shifter

With a lot of research I found that my Astro van transmission, the 700R4, is actually pretty good.  I think what sold me on it though, is there is adapter plates available to bolt up the 3.9L Cummins diesel 4 cylinder.  I also found I can rebuild the transmission to act more like a standard.

I hate the shifter on the the tree too.  I think twice I have been like "oh I'm not in drive (I'm in a low gear)" and I  go through the unnatural motion of shifting up, its all stuck, and next thing you know I threw it into reverse wile I am driving forward.  After I did that in the Ford Windstar it wouldn't shift into third or fourth.

I ordered some parts to make my existing transmission better, and to rebuild a second transmission, because I will eventually lose my 3rd and 4th gear on my present transmission.  That's great, because I will still have 2 foward gears, and revers.  I get away with out a tow truck again.  But with the  parts I ordered, I got a sweet floor shifter for the van.  Heres the vid of the shifter install, it got dark at the end sorry.

I finally got the story about the 111 st Univer Bottle Depot, behind our house.
The owner spent $100,000 having a structure built inside the building to support the condemned building, so they can re open for 3 months.  Because they have been closed for three months, basically another month they will lose their bottle depot licence, and someone else could get it.  They don't allow competition in the bottle depot world, only one Depot to this area.

In three months, they move to a new location, not far away, to a building 3 times as large.  Then the 6 lots that they occupy behind my house, one lot parking lot, 1 1/2 lots rebuilt structure, and 3 1/2 empty fenced in lots will go up for sale.  He says he paid $400k for the 3 empty lots, so he would sell one for $130k for sure, maybe less if he ends up hanging on to them a long time..

And just to prove that I am no more responsible than the last guy towing his truck with his lawn tractor, here is the free trailer vid.

Tractor Pull In Andrew

Things are slowing down for me at last, still have a good 5 days work ahead of me, but making plans to get the bobcat into the city to put it all together.  Really excited about the bobcat.

Building a chicken coop with a free trailer, yes another coop, the old one is too big, and too sketch to tow into the city.  There will be a vid of that soon.

Just going through my computer clearing some gigs, lots of sweet vids that never got published.  This one was just a typical day in Andrew, wish I got more of these.  The land the law, and perhaps common sense forgot, Andrew Alberta.  This guy isn't even a farmer, the farmers think they own the roads, you should see what they pull off.  "its my road" ask a farmer.

October Update

The bottle depot behind our house has been closed for sometime.

Residents hate it, happy they closed.

Construction workers working on it say it will be open in a few weeks.

Fire department has said there is no way we will let them re open that building.

Presumably, some angry residents caught wind of the depot re opening and lit the place on fire the other night.

The brick building was hardly damaged by the fire, but construction seems to have stopped, and the building sits basically scabby and empty.

Talked to the neighbor today, ironically after the bottle depot closed, his house got a serious mouse problem too.  I think our mouse problem really did come from the bottle depot.  He also has officially put his commercial building up for sale for $180k, expecting about $150k out of it.  That would be an expensive garage, but maybe the front could be rented to some business.

 We also met a young couple renting a bit of commercial space across the street.  They have a big heated garage, turning it into a doggy day care.  they offered to rent me a bit of space for a project or two.  They rent the whole building, including the semmi truck trailer garage for $3200 month.  I don't know how doggy daycare will pay for that, but I hope they can stay there.

The Mercedese van I looked at this morning is not worth fixing up.  It shows its age.  But the motor and trans would be sweet in anything else.  I have checked with the local wrecker to see how much for a sprinter motor and trans, newer, electronic, and automatic, they want $9000.  So getting the ultimate mercedese motor and standard trans for $1200 would be a steal of a deal.

I Hate Automatics

I spent lil over $1000 on my van gettin it ready for winter.  It rides so much nicer with the extra four leaf springs and coil over shocks.  Very happy.  New snow tires and all.  Thought I would address the black transmission fluid today.

First lube change place I went to said a transmission fluid change isn't recommended w oil that dirty.  Kinda like washing a dirty car, when the dirt is holding it together.
Second place said they could put my dirty trans into transmission fluid shock, if they put clean fluid in it.
So I went to mr transmission, thinking thats all they do and they can clear this fluid change up for me.

Mr Transmission said my fluid is simply burnt, very burnt, and there is probably a lot of clutch material mixed in there, caked to various parts.  You put clean fluid in, which has new detergents, and it cleans all that grit out, and runs it through the trans like a bunch of sand.  That will be the end of your transmission, "don't change your fluid".  At this point I could put used diesel motor oil in it and it wouldn't get any darker.

In Conclusion, my transmission will fail, its just running on borrowed time now.  Not a big deal, the local shop will change it for $700, if I pick up a used one for $500 (funny how a transmission costs as much as another van).  $1200 if I don't want to do any work, but you know I don't roll like that, maybe if its -40 I'll pay the heated shop to do it.  But how will this be any better?  Am I looking at just another years service before I need to put another trans in?  What is wrong with automatics?  The RWD Astro is rated for towing 5500lb, and I am sure I am not towing more than 4000lb, rarely ever even up hill.

So I started looking again at options.  I love the Astro's size, and the power has been all I need, just wish it was standard, and diesel would be sweet too.  I had an opportunity to buy a sprinter van half price from a carpenter buddy.  He ran it 5 years, and is trading it in.  Paying $60k for his new one, they will only give him $30k for his old one, only 70,000km on it too, but its just too big for me.  And thirty thousand dollars buys a lot of gas.

Then today I found a 1982 mercedese sprinter van.  The geniuses broke the windshield, so they thought they would take the motor out to put in their boat.  The classic mercedese 5 cylinder mechanical injection that is well known to start and run off used deep frier fat.  Oh also standard 5 speed, under $2000.  Did I mention the trans shop wants $2000 to fix my astro trans that hasn't even failed yet, doesn't even slip.

I haven't seen the van yet, that is tomorrows mission first thing in daylight.  Unfortunately they were no better at photography than they were at removing the motor for their boat.  So this is the back of the gold sprinter cargo van.  I don't know if the motor and trans will go in the Astro or I will fix the Sprinter, but work has finally settled down to allow for such crazyness to happen.  I was going to make the VW the "Environmentally friendly service vehicle", but maybe I will get my diesel van after all.

Vehicle Drama

Almost October and we haven't had any snow, or even cold weather yet her in Edmonton.  But you know its coming.  I'm in a panic to get the vehicles ready for winter, somehow still working 12 hour days wiring stuff for other people.

I made a list of vehicle problems and required maintenance issues.  The VW list is 2 pages long, so its just getting parked for the winter.  I don't want to be changing bearings and CV joints on the side of the highway in the winter, for an example.  The VW saves me a lot of money on fuel, but the van makes money, plus its better in deep snow.

Edmonton has announced they will not be plowing roads down to bare pavement this year.  Its too expensive, and last year the piles got so high you couldn't see round corners, and roads got too narrow.  So if I understand that correctly they will just be grading roads, as if they were dirt roads, but snow.  Look out for the new show, Ice Road Truckers Edmonton.

So I got new steel leaf springs for the van, along with 4 extra leafs, and coil over shocks.  My van should be good for a ton plus when I am done with it.  Then new brakes for the back, I need to get a new block heater in it, heavy lug snow tires with studs, and I think its good to go for winter, for maybe under $1000.  Sounds simple when I write it down.  Its getting those leaf spring bolts and stuff off that takes forever.

The VW will live on.  We will see what comes up for sale over the winter, probably no diesel station wagons for under $3000, in which case the Jetta will get fixed in spring, or I will put its motor into the first possum van.  Oddly enough, that would be a lot cheaper than fixing the jetta.  The total required Jetta repairs will be close to $2000, if you count a new set of tires at $800, not so much needed for summer.  But I got the whole car for $1000 and got almost 40,000km out of it, saving me almost $4,000 for fuel.  Plus I still have the perfectly good turbo diesel, which, with a new clutch, could go in a bigger vehicle, haul more, tow more, and save another $10,000 in fuel over a couple of years.  That makes me more excited somehow.

We are going to put Michelle's Hyundai on the road so we have the "personal" vehicle, and I don't have to drive the company van everywhere.  I will be declining work out of the city for the winter.  My favorite out of town builder leaves for Arizona for the winter anyway.

I will be sure to get some videos of my new van springs and stuff.  When the snow falls work will probably slow down and I can find some time to post those videos.

Bow Hunting Gophers

Some how this 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, has carried over longer than it perhaps should have.  Though much of that time is unbillable hours, driving between places, fixing equipment, and cleaning the trailer up.

No rats in Alberta still, but we have lots of gophers and mice.
We still have a mouse in the house, and I have terminated about 6 of them since Sept 7.  They have probably lived here longer than me, then the population got to be a little much.

A customer was so excited when I said I could take care of his gopher problem.  I haven't really shot my bow all summer, I have been so busy.  But I took less than 10 min to set a target up in Andrew, shot 6 arrows into the center hole of a roll of electrical tape, called the bow still good.  so without making a special trip, I took the bow to my customers house to do some electrical work.  I shot 3 gophers in less than 5 min on my way to his back door.  Then another 3 every time I had to go for electrical supplies in the van.  I obviously need to get some blunt force trauma tips, it is surprisingly hard to kill gophers with target points.

Its much more satisfying hunting with the bow, for a lot of reasons.  If I had shot a gopher with a 22, that would be it, I wouldn't have got the other 2 at the same time, and even the shot gopher would have made it down the hole, leaving no evidence that I even hit it, unless it was a head shot.  Maybe next time I can get a bow cam set up, you can see my perfect shots, never missed once, but for now this is a short vid of the first 3 kills, sparing you the gory kill shots.  If you don't know what a gopher looks like its a must see. I didn't know before I moved to Alberta.  But wow can they dig holes.

Mice

Last night, was triumphant victory for me.
After every type of mouse trap and poison failed me, I put the poison out in the open, and they feed on it every night, in my bedroom, watching me watch them, knowing they are out of reach.  Until last night.  I don't really care if we have mice, if they stay out of my bedroom and out of my cereal.

I brought all 3 bb guns to the city last night, never know where there will be a mouse sighting in the house, need one on each floor.  I stayed up to watch the mice feed from bed.  No video, but I sniped two of them out, one at a time, hours apart.  I am so happy with myself.  I've now cleaned the mess they made, and we will see if there is any more evidence of them in the near future.

Coincidentally I am really surprised at how seriously Alberta takes their rat control.  Like you call 911 if you see a rat in Alberta, and they take care of it.  Don't really call 911, you get fire trucks and everything, but you call the rat hot line, in the front of the phone book, if you can find a phone book, they are pretty scarce these days.

Awesome Tire Explosion

I have been unloading the ol Possum Van, into the trailer,
in an attempt to avoid air bagging the van suspension.
Now the trailer is bottomed out, which had no ill
effects, until today.

I hit the curb lots with the trailer, it is a foot wider than
the van, and it cuts corners tigher than the van does.  I am
very aware of that in traffic, I am just not very aware of
curbs.  Today I hit the curb w my bottomed out suspension, for
the first time, and a lot more weight in the trailer too
obviously, and there was some catasrauphic tire failure.  The
video says it all.  I probably shouldn't do this stuff on the job sight any more.



Besides that fun, I am crazy busy working.  I also came up
with a lot of work I need the bobcat for.  I don't know how I
lived without one before.  I will dig a basement under the
Andrew house, and I also need a second floor deck in Edmonton
to put the hot tub outside our bedroom.  The bobcat will lift
the hot tub up a storey onto the deck for me.

But the bobcat project has run in to a nasty snag.  The vw
starter is on the transmision bell housing, where the
hydraulic pump should be.  So I will have to do some red neck
engineering to fix that up so the starter mounts on the motor.
Love the problems.

Car Air Conditioning

A video for Joe, how to put AC in a non AC car
Not my video, but well done just the same.

Our New Baby

With no intervention this time, one of 15  hatched.  14 were so close to hatching, one little guy had his beak poked through.  But then the first born thought she could fly, and walked rite off the edge, exactly what we were worried about before.  I came into the coop, who knows how many days later and mom is sitting in the middle of the floor, w her chick and there are 10 stone cold eggs up in the roost.  Lots of time left in summer for more chicks still.

Looks like Momma Hen will have to raise this one cause we are leaving for Victoria in about a week.

New Addition To The Possum Fleet

Found a Bobcat wrecker sort of place in New Septra Alberta.  But they didn't have much.  Only a burnt Bobcat, that already had the motor replaced, they wanted $9000, for.  A rusty piece that needs sand blasting and paint.  Everything else everywhere is over $10,000, especially if your looking at diesel.

I finally materialized what I specifically wanted.  A complete bobcat, that needs motor work, for $1500.  It was a little south of Calgary, so we had to pull an all nighter going to get it.  It is great working for yourself, took the next day off.   

The Bobcat still sits on Rons trailer, I have to try to get it hauled out to Andrew, and  unloaded before I go to Victoria.  

 This was an unbelievable great deal.  I had planned to make a little 10hp unit, that wouldn't be worth as much as the materials cost to build.  Plus very upset the designer will not sell plans, but only a "kit" with the more complicated pieces of steel cut out for you, for as much as I paid for this Bobcat.  Plans and some steel, cost $1500, then you have to spend another $3500 to have a running home built machine.

The machine I bought is a bobcat 632.  Originally a water cooled 30hp 1600cc gasser.  Its safe working load is 1000lb, but tipping weight is 2000lb.  That is a lot of weight.  Can you imagine moving 1500lb of dirt by hand, this thing can do it in one scoop.  It will be a money machine if we get another snowy winter.  They couldn't get enough snow clearing machines this last winter, if you owned a bobcat and wanted to work, you were doing 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Vegtable Oil Hybrid Tour Of Victoria

The ol VW had some problems this week. I have put over 6000 diesel free kilometers on it in the last few months, bringing the total kilometers up towards 600,000.  And would you believe, no fuel problems at all, besides the odd leak, and clogged filter every 2000km.  But the back wheel nearly fell off this week.  In Fort Saskatchewan, 75km from home in Edmonton, the back wheel went all wobbly Saturday evening.

We were acctually 5km out of the Fort, when we got the wobble, so we turned around and went back to Fort Saskatchewan, with hopes to make it to Nappa before they close.  We made it to Nappa, and got what they said were the correct bearings.  We thought of doing the Nappa parking lot bearing change, but the job goes much faster with Beer, and a bigger selection of tools than the VW holds, helps too.

Because most of the roads are strait, and there isn't many lights, the wheel would get a nice gyro effect and roll really well, until I hit pot holes, slowed below 50km/h or turned a corner.  After a few pot holes, corners, and stop lights, the rear wheel cylinder blew out.  Would you believe the 96 VW has only a single brake fluid reservoir?  I updated the 57 with 1969 brakes, that had a double reservoir, cause running out of brake fluid sucks.  (I did notice VW has a fluid level sensor, that either doesn't work on mine, or the warning light was behind my electrical tape collection on the dash)

The brakes died just before Nappa closed, and they didn't have any wheel cylinders.  So I drove the 75km without brakes..  There was only one sketchy hill stop start, which I obviously couldn't stop at, but only do an impatient style shuffle forward and back riding the clutch, praying I don't stall, and fortunately no down hill stops, that would have been bad.  I was ready to sacrifice the VW at any moment, to the ditch, pole, or what ever meant not hitting another car, but the drive went really well.

Now I really only want to drive a standard diesel.  Made me really happy about putting all this money into the old diesel Ranger, because its perfect.  I pretty much work out of my cargo trailer these days, so my van is somewhat obsolete, except that the poor VW can't haul the trailer.  And I will use the van without the trailer all winter, but we'll have the diesel possum van finished, as soon as I get some time.

So family fun works out, in Victoria, for Aug 4, 5, and 6th.  I have been telling all my custies (customers), I will be gone that week, and it seems to be going over pretty well.  I am more upset that I can't, so far, carry enough WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) to make it all the way there and back, therefore I might have to break my 6000km diesel free run.  But a couple of jerry cans would get me there, and I am sure I can collect some there, or even along the way.  Maybe I can scab a tank on the roof, I have a couple of days yet.

A quick old video, didn't require much editing (time), of my VW graphics.

Possum Fleet Needs A Skid Steer Loader

Looked at the skid steer in Millet.  (Love the VW for road trips, 40 liters of fuel, no big deal, not coming out of my bank account.)  The bobcat was both better and worse than I expected.  It had bigger tires than I expected for a 16hp bobcat, and the whole thing is bigger than other "small" bobcats.  I liked the size, but it came with extra weight, which I am not set up to haul at this point.

The bad is its potentially pre hydrostatic drive (invented in 1970).  Even worse than the skid steer chain clutches, which he says are brand new, it has the cursed CVT sled type belt clutch. We burn up enough belts just towing a dune buggy with another dune buggy, could you imagine pushing dirt all day?  Shure you never replaced the belt scooping cow shit out of the barn, but digging is a different story.

Even offering to let him keep his $1000 in new over priced Onan parts, and his pile of thick black grease covered engine parts,  he won't take $2000 for the bobcat chassis.  I can't believe he paid so much for virtually no motor parts at all, but he won't take less than $3000 for everything.

So it is looking like I might be building a bobcat, after the backhoe is finished.  It would just be a small unit, for snow removal and filling bigger trenches I do for underground cables.  It is either that, or I can go to the states and buy a small running skidsteer for about $3000, they seem to have too much value in Alberta, with all the acreages and money here.  In fact I constantly think I should get a big flat deck trailer capable of hauling 3 skidsteers, and haul 3 into Canada from the states.  That could make me $10,000 easily, but it would cost me $10,000 for the truck and trailer for sure, so first trip I don't make anything.  Plus I hate borrowing money in the first place

The Possum Hitch Fix

I have to give special thanks to the plasma cutter for this fix.  Without it, I would never be able to cut the oddly shaped piece of 1/4" plate steel.  Lots of trailer drama lately.  The trencher trailer is almost permanently attached to the VW, but it does fit in the back yard when not in use.  The enclosed Possum trailer is attached to the van, until winter.  I am not allowed to disconnect it in the city, nowhere to put it in the city, so it goes everywhere.  The Possum Trailer has been eating tires.  The tire machine I bought 5 years ago has paid for itself 10 times already with all the tires I change.  Then the trencher trailer axle fail, that was an all day affair, with lots of video to sort through, and pull the best 2 min of.

Long Weekend

I am more than a week behind publishing videos, with so much electrical work to do.  So today just a short clip of Ty, who we met after the bull riding at the Harry Hill Rodeo, last weekend.  He asked us to put this vid on Youtube for him.

A couple of unpublished videos include:
-The 2008 fully enclosed trailer eating tires, you should see the wear patterns on these, down to the threads w only about 4000 km on them.
-The "dump find" flat deck trailer, I paid off the dump police $50 for, completely self destructed an axle hub on the highway.  Did a little highway side axle welding replacement
-Sick of my superior fabrication skills going to waste on the lawn tractor, looked at a Bobcat thats been for sale for ever, because the motor is in a pile of disassembled pieces.  I will make him an insulting low ball offer on Saturday.
-To go with the bobcat, and superior fabrication skills, I picked up a huge, free rototiller attachment.  I don't even know how that will work with a bobcat yet
-My Possum Van hitch has been bending every week, hauling the big enclosed trailer.  So I did some glorious 1/4 checkerplate fabrication, so that it will never bend again.
-The chicken eggs that were alive, and had fully developed chicks at one point, turned into explosive eggs w just a bit of creamy goo in them.
-Getting a farm style gravity feed fuel tank, painted pink, with a big pig face on it, to store all the vegtable oil I collect.  Also would allow pump free gravity fill and filtering.
-VW gone 4000km on just WVO, Waste Vegetable Oil

I Started The Trailerable Backhoe

Picked up supplies today, for various jobs.  Also spent a few hours at the scrap yard, picking out usable steel for my back hoe project.  I purchased over 800lb of steel, and the thing is only supposed to weigh 1000 lb.  Anyway, my plasma cutter is just brilliant.  I don't know why anybody uses the old oxy acetylene torches any more.

A fellow Youtuber built a similar trailer able back hoe, I tried to embed his video, but he doesn't allow embeding.  Anyway he says he spent $5600 and 25 weeks building his hoe.  I haven't priced out the bronze bushings and mechanical tubing, but I keep coming up with a price of $2000 for almost all the steel and hydraulics.  I was a little shocked at his estimated cost, but we will see what mine costs in the end.  I expect it to take me a good 6 months to build too.  Welding is about the only thing I can do in winter, outside in my ghetto garage, helps me stay warm.

Another Chicken Vid

Our tenant moved out, no time to make videos, busy working to pay the mortgage.  A brief update on things.
The VW has gone 2000km with out a drop of diesel fuel, just strait used waste vegetable oil.
I am collecting parts (steel and hydraulics) to build a trailerable back hoe.

Still no chicks.  Our other chicken has gone broody in the fire pit basically.  The first chicken has, I think been sitting for more than 30 days.  At one point, two weeks ago, the eggs tapped back when we tapped on them.  There definitely was chicks in her dozen eggs.  Maybe we'll take the eggs away later this week.

Toro Stunt Driver

I have a lot of work to do, wiring expensive houses.
We just trenched the longest most difficult trench ever.  650' through rocks and clay.  Every day the trencher broke, and I was off to the tractor shop at 8pm spending another $100 on it.  It was a good thing it was a work shop we were wiring, because we put it to good use fixing the trencher in there every day.  I got to know the trencher quite well, we had it in little pieces.  If I had replaced the cutting chain ($1000) I'd say I have a new trencher now after all we replaced.  Perhaps I will get time to put a video of those repairs later.

For now a fun video, cutting the grass in Andrew.  The video started with Michelle hitching a ride on the hood of the tractor from the back yard, then she just carried on cutting the grass.

Dead Chicks On The Floor?

Somehow, really not trying, I got a lot of work to do for random customers that saw my sign somewhere.  I'm supposed to be in Victoria tomorrow, but I have to keep my few customers happy.  My trencher self destructed today, and I have 3 customers waiting for trenches, including the site its on rite now with a 650 foot trench.  As if that wasn't enough, we have tenants that want to move in to the Andrew house in 30ish days, which is not nearly ready.

Michelle has opened a new Youtube account, so I am posting one of her videos here, since I don't even have time to upload from my Iphone, let alone edit and upload to Youtube.  So this is the video I have affectionately renamed "Dead Chicks On The Floor" but don't tell Michelle I named it that.

New Used Windows

No long weekend for Possum Electric!
But then the suppliers were closed so we ran out to Andrew to try and get the hardest window replaced.  I have almost a dozen good wood frame double pane windows, salvaged from various places, all for free.  I found two of the biggest ones together was the same width as our living room window in Andrew, so Joe and I custom made a pressure treated window frame.  We had to cut down the wall another 2', but it will be a glorious window.

Neighbor Guy saved the day with his table saw.  We had measured, 2 panes will fit, but then we only had 2 extra inches from side to side with the windows.  So we ripped our 2x4 down with guys table saw, so we have a quarter inch between the windows and and they both obviously fit.  We didn't realize we needed to do that until we had the huge hole in the wall.

Dune Buggy disaster

What a Saturday, to start off the long weekend.  Drove out to Andrew with Joe, the Father in law.  Joe helped me get three dune buggy's running.  Then we went for a crazy dune buggy ride w a friend on a quad.  Quad was the first to break the rear end, or transmision, we don't know.  Then Michelle blew out two front tires on the buggy.  So with the buggy in tow, lifted in the air towtruck style, and 3 passengers, I blew a belt on my tow truck buggy.  3 out of 4 ATVs broke.   I really don't feel bad about owning 6 dune buggys.

So as Joe was driving me back to the house in the last workin buggy, I got some video of the dirt road and the Iron horse trail, as I am sure people wonder about the Iron Horse trail.  I had said we  could do  buggy tours down the Iron Horse, very soon, because it wouldn't require transportation.  Being out of Andrew would be its downfall.

Carter Buggy Repairs Completed

Non stop calls for electrical work.  It is going to be hard to get away to Victoria for June 1, but we are going to try.

I got the Carter buggy put back together for Cliff.  I put together another video for him, but it worked out to be 9 min of high definition excitement, which equals about a 6 hour upload.  So he's not going to see the video till he is riding the buggy around.  I have to have a bid ready for another commercial shop in Lamont, and do a 4 hour job in the morning.  Cliff is picking the buggy up at noon tomorrow.  Here is the 9 min of riveting buggy repair frustration.

Another Buggy

Looks like these repairs to the Carter cost me money after all that work.  Only because he mentioned the 2007, black Hammerhead SS for sale in Maidstone Saskatchewan for $1700.  This was hard to believe, since there is only one other SS for sale on Kijiji for less than $4000, and its $3500.

Even though these people didn't have a digital camera to send me a picture, it was worth 7 hours of driving and filtering some 60 liters of stinky old used vegetable oil, to drive down and take a look.  As it turned out, the machine was pretty beat, needs some cosmetic welding work, and needs some tuning, but 4 tires hold air, its got a good battery, and it starts rite up.   It seems all three of my existing 250's need a new battery this spring.

Just to recap, we now own 4, 250cc buggies, one 110cc buggy, and one 1500cc buggy.  The 110 has got to go, and the 1500 has got to be put back together.  But we pretty much have 4 good working 250s, after this last weekend of buggy repairs.  I do need to go buy 3 buggy batteries.  I feel really good about this last purchase.  Not only was it the best deal yet, but it brings my average cost per 250cc buggy down to $2275.  That puts me in a position to easily make back 100% of the original purchase price when I decide to sell them.

Until that day, all that holds me back from doing buggy tours today, is transportation to the sand dunes.  I realized that the Andrew house is rite on the "Iron Horse Trail", the old train tracks, which is a point of much confusion.  This trail is advertised and well used as an ATV trail, but then there is a sign on it saying "no motorized vehicles". Once I get that clarified by the po po, we could be looking at some Iron Horse weekend tours.  Not nearly as exciting as the sand dunes, but fun still.  The Father in law is coming up from Mexico this Friday to be the first dune buggy tour victim.

Carter Dune Buggy Repairs

Took a well deserved break from Electrical work this week.  Cliff finally brought his kids broken Carter buggy over, from Athabaska.  It has been broken for years, and "nobody can fix it."  I had said it is not a big deal, just weld it up, without a clear understanding of the problem.  But it looks like it really is that simple.

Cliff also pointed out there is a "divorce sale" hammerhead in Saskatchewan for $1700, which happens to be black, the one colour I don't own.  So that would complete my buggy collection.  If she gets back to me today, I will probably drive out and buy another dune buggy, complete the rental fleet.  A closer look on Kijiji reveals the next cheapest Hammerhead 250SS is $4000, so there is some good resale potential there too.

Break In Next Door

Now all the snow is melted, seems the baddies are on the prowl.  I have spent over $200 on padlocks, for everything in our yard, and my van.  A quick video of next door, two more of her windows gone now, she needs a total of 6 windows replaced.  It seems she is just postponing the inevitable $70,000 plus loss she has to take when she sells the house next door.  Her loss is just getting bigger and bigger.

Snow Is All Gone

We got back from Toronto a few days ago, been going 12 hours a day catching up since we got home.
Our flight was somewhat eventful, because we were 24 hours late for it.  2 new tickets were $1400, but Westjet just charged us the $50 flight change fee.  They were so helpful, we will no longer fly on any other domestic airline.  Even to Mexico, Westjet has direct flights, competitively priced, but I am happy to pay more to fly with them.

One of our chickens went broody.  She found her way into a ceiling cupboard in the camper they live in and she has been sitting on 12 eggs.  We don't get   quite enough eggs from the 2 chickens, so we'll take a shot at raising some chicks.  We can sell them, or sell eggs, or eat them.  We can't lose.  Except we might be taking chicks in some sketchy 12v incubator on our road trip to Victoria in June.  If that happens you know we're building a chicken coop on Parker island, and leaving three behind.

Our room mate has found a better deal, and is moving out in June.  Besides having to pay our own mortgage, we won't be able to just leave for a week or two to go here or there, because someone needs to take care of the dogs, G-pigs, and potentially baby chicks. 

Looks like I am going to have to sweep my own street, since the street sweeper must have come by wile we were in Toronto, and I didn't get to move the van and VW.  A video of that.

The Calls Don't Stop

Tried to get away for 2 weeks to Toronto, but I keep getting calls, from my signs, seeing my van, my crappy google add campaign.  What would happen if I actually paid for some real advertising?  I will have a packed couple of weeks when I get back, besides a few jobs that I had to turn down because they need electrical help now.

My other stairway lighting idea, didn't work out as sexy as the ones in the first video, but perfectly functional.

Stairway lighting

I published my filtering fryer fat vid for old stinky, on my http://fuelmiser.blogspot.com/ blog.
I decided to use that blog for the publication of my vegtable oil adventures, just because its older than my new website, www.vegtableoilhybrid.com  So for now, Vegtableoilhybrid.com, is forwarded to fuelmiser.blogspot.com.  More on that whole deal later.

On another note
I haven‘t had time to finish the project yet, but here is a quick video of the stairway lights I made recently.  Understand our house is old, with no three way switches, nor even stairway lights.  I have some really cool Lutron switches to  fix that, I'll get a vid of that up eventually.  But for now this will get us up and down the stairs in the dark.

Possum Van Brings Joy

Yes I got several calls the other night from people seeing the Possum Van on TV.  Everyone was excited, high fivin, yelling "Possum Van" wile they were watching Canadian Pickers, and the stopped the camera on the Possum Van, wile the narrator something like "Possum, Weird".  I am sure I will get a copy of that episode, and violate all copy rights by posting it up here.

The latest Possum Van keeps on truckin, but is getting its own issues.  I refuse to give it too much love cause I am so excited with my latest discovery of the VW starting, with little protest, on what I call D20.  thats 20% diesel and 80% fryer fat rite out of the old deep fryer, filtered through an over sized coffee filter.  I will have a video of that operation up next week.  Point being, I am motivated to finish the VW diesel Possum Van, then fix the biodiesel reactor, and never stop at another gas station to buy gas again.  I will refer to them as bathroom stations, cause they aren't good to me for anything else.

Trouble w Old Stinky

Old stinky, the diesel Jetta, gave us a scare today.  I had heard that Randy from Canadian EV ran his truck on strait fryer fat.  I worked up to this, did diesel/fryer fat mixing tests, ran the car on 50% fryer fat 50% diesel mixed together, until today.

Today I just dumped 40 liters of golden brown french fry goodness in the tank.  I then topped the tank up with a whole 2 liters of diesel fuel.  Yes thats 565mpg on paid for diesel, ridiculousness.

The plan was to drive back to Edmonton, and run a few errands, at that point it would take another 15 liters of diesel to dilute it the golden goodness down a bit.  Well we didn't get 5 min out of Andrew, when Ol Stinky quit.

Really, it won't run on strait canola oil without excessive heat?  No that wasn't the problem, although it was first suspect.  A quick walk back to the gas station for a jerry can of diesel, and a quick fuel filter change, primed w diesel, and she fired rite up.  We were going to go back to the house, drain 20 liters of fryer oil out the tank, and top it up w diesel, but when there was no more problem I wrote it off as a clogged filter.  problem solved.

Google

We are both sick w the flu.  We fly to Toronto in a week for a wedding, hope we're better by then.

I have had a Google addwords campaign running for about a month now.  I got more people calling me looking for work, than I did looking to have me do work.  So just as my "free trial" was about to expire, I get an email from someone who found my possumelectric.com blog.  

It was the perfect email, all my questions where answered, because I asked them all in the latest post at possumelectric.com.  It was very easy for me to reply to the email, and say yes I can do your work, for this much, available in 2 weeks.  

That was on a Sunday, I looked at the job and had it by Wednesday.  Google adwords came through.  But it appears I have a low quality score for "edmonton electrician", so that will require some work to fix.  The quality is not in my work, but Googles automated relevance of those key words to my web site. First I will have to figure out how to fix it.

Oh Oh, We Stopped At a Chicken Farm

Now I think we have to put a little incubator in the basement for some new Silky chicks.  If that works out we will probably bread our Australorp chickens at some point.  How much fun will that be?

Plans are in the works to build a small 5 x 8 chicken coop on the old tent trailer chassis.  Then the existing camper coop will get hauled to the dump, where they can knock the camper off its wheels, and I can take the heavier duty trailer frame home to make a 2 or three dune buggy trailer out of it.
  

Bike Season

I got the trailer hitch welded on the VW finally.  So we have been moving to Edmonton, on our weekly trip out to Andrew.

I am very happy with my results running 50% used deep fryer fat rite in the diesel tank.  I have not had any trouble starting the car since.  There is just some fittings I can't find, holding me up from making the strait fryer oil tank, but there is still a lot of work I can do in preparation for that system.

Hauling the flat deck trailer back and forth from Andrew to Edmonton, with probably 1000lb on it both ways, I get 65 mpg on the paid for fuel.  So I am really only getting 33mpg, but paying for 65 mpg with the free fryer oil.

Just a quick video to show how awesome the VW is, and Michelle on her bike.  She hasn't forgotten a thing from her biking days last summer.

VW suspension lift, and Fryer Oil

Loving the weather, even though its just 8 degrees or so.
I started on some of the vehicle maintenance.  Air bags were a bit pricey for the stinky ol VW, so I got these $2 spring separators.  I got them at like a dollar store.  They seem to be a failed retail item, sold off to the dollar stores.  But they do work, so far.  I have driven a good 40km and they stayed in place, giving the vw a stiffer ride, without ever bottoming out like it used to.

The stinky VW also got some expensive fuel on the week end.  $1.29 a liter.  That was enough to spur some radical action.  20 liters of filtered used fryer fat went strait into the diesel fuel tank.  No pre heaters, or fryer oil burner apparatus, tanks switches ect, have been installed yet.

I have been a bit disappointed with my VW mileage over the winter.  I believe the constant -30 deg celcius, and the high altitude of Alberta is what spoils it.  I was only getting 40 mpg.  This last tank, which hauled the trailer and lumber on the roof the whole time, would have probably been around 30mpg, But I put 20 liters of frier fat, with 17 liters of diesel in the tank getting 65 mpg on paid for fuel.  I will bring that up to 80mpg, then phase the fryer oil out of my tank, keeping it in a separate tank for next winter, and bing my mileage up to 200+ mpg on paid for fuel.

How is this sustainable you ask?  I drive the VW to Andrew every weekend.  Just that return trip uses about 20 liters of fuel.  Wile in Andrew, I stop at just 2 of the 6 restaurants, and pick up their weeks worth of fryer oil, placed on their back step, for the garbage man.  That alone, virtually no effort, gives me 45 liters of fryer oil fuel every week.  The other restaurants want me to take their fuel, but I need to pump it out of the ol collection dumpsters.

Buggy Repairs

I have been comunicating with this guy Cliff since last May.  He contacted me, wanted to buy the orange dune buggy.  Talking to him more I found out he had a Carter Buggy that didn't work, it has a broken axle, and he has been trying to get it fixed for well over a year now.  I told him I would take it as a trade in, then I said I would fix it for him  That was last summer, when I had the time.  He sent me this email today:

I appreciate your help. I believe you are our only hope of ever using this buggy again. Last year I brought it to a mechanic friends of mine and he now has it stored at his acreage. I would like to move it out to your place so you can look at it and wrap your creative mind around it. This way you could figure out exactly what you can do to save it and what the end cost would be to me. I need to know when I could bring it down as I need to arrange for a trailer.

That was kind of cool.  I had told him I didn't really have time to do it now, but how can I say no to that email.  I had sent him this neat video, from aussikartman, to better explain how we would rebuild the back end of the kart, removing the independent rear suspension, with CV joints and the failed tri joint, and 2 axles. Once removed I would have to basically hinge the back of the cart, with the motor in it, put a solid axle in and remount everything.  Aussikartman does it well here making a new back end of his kart to take a bigger motorbike motor.  

Alberta's Photo Radar.

When I was in BC they had photo radar vans, that you could see from a mile away.  In Alberta they use the well suited pickup truck.  They park inconspicuously on the side of the road, drivers window down, and camera equipment on the drivers seat, wile an officer sits in the passenger seat.  They change the truck colors up all the time, and sometimes even hide in the ditch.  In the sense that they always park at 90 degrees to traffic, they are very conspicuous, and easy to spot.  Also no front plates in AB so you know they are only getting you as you pass them.  I made this video for my friends that say, "I don't know where I got the photo radar ticket from?".  Look around, they are everywhere.

Evil Skull Helmet

I have been trying to get an Ebay partnership, but they won't let  me sell Ebay products on Blogger, cause I don't actually own the "code" for blogger nor Youtube.  So if you want a skull helmet, your on your own to find it, I can't put links to them on here.

That said, this is my sick, evil, skull helmet.  I have not seen anything like this in Canada.  I saw the one person wearing one in Mexico, then we found a store that sold these helmets in Mexico, and they were importing them from Bali.

Probably the reason I  don't see everybody wearing these helmets in Canada, is they are not DOT approved.   That means that I can really only wear this helmet in the dune buggy, where we are buckled in, like a car, and really don't need a helmet.

So until I get DOT stickers printed up, I'll be the only guy in Andrew driving the orange dune buggy, wearing a skull helmet.

Ghetto Fabulous Fridge

As previously stated, the way to furnish a home is with free furniture.
This represents decorating problems with the available free colors.

In the Kitchen, the free fridges are always almond or mustard.   We were going for the new black and stainless steel look in our new kitchen.  We did find a free stainless steel microwave, and a free white stove, but we got a mustard colored fridge.

More solutions than problems here, my solution for this was to make the fridge stylish, and add more function to it.  We made it one big note pad, painting it with chalk board paint.  It is fabulous.  The first three months, we didn't even have chalk, so we broke off bits of drywall from construction zones in the house.

Drywall makes great chalk, as seen in the last bit of this video.

The Dune Dune Buggy Fail

Well everyone knows what its like, trying to get ready for spring.

Trying to make the motorbikes road worthy again, and chop my ol Shadow w 45 deg rake.

Putting the dune buggies back together, seems like they were all parked broken, some disassembled.

Doing all the renovations that I have been dieing to do all winter, replacing windows, insulation, bathroom fans, vinyl siding, and exterior doors.

Vehicle maintenance, don't know where to begin there.

The legendary diesel minivan project, and the diesel Ranger project.

Thats just to name a few.  Plus the standard maintenance of owning and paying for two homes.  So I haven't had time to do any exciting videos.  I do have a good Terra-byte of old material, all numerically organized in the order it was filmed.  It is kind of fun and inspiring to go through the videos and play some randoms that didn't make the cut originally.  video quality has been going down hill proportional to time spent editing.  

This is a vid o the ol VW dune buggy, when we hauled it out to Andrew, and the wheel fell off, cause the darn VW lug nuts weren't tight enough.  VW's style of lug bolts is a perpetual problem.  I was surprised the 96 Jetta has the same lug bolts.  

Slow Fill Wall Foam

Installing some bathroom fans in our Edmonton home, I confirmed there is now insulation in the walls.  Until today I expected I would board the exterior walls with 2" insulation, and vinyl siding.  The attic already has well done blow in insulation.

Today I found a unique, and better solution for wall insulation.  I've heard of cutting holes in your walls and blowing in the attic style insulation, but it always settles, and is far from perfect.  Today I realized there is a slow fill rigid spray foam

Not only does this foam fill all the cavities, have the best r value per inch, best sound proofing, never settles, makes a solid thick vapor barrier, but it stiffens the whole structure considerably.  This means less wall cracking, and a stiffer structure for the eventual sketchy basement dig out or house lift, to get our 8' basement.

You can see a video of the slow fill DIY here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCNa6zb6x4U
I expect I can have it done for the same price as ordering the kit, but we will do it from the outside walls.  Then the house will get a new color vinyl siding, our neighborhood doesn't warrant the more expensive labor intensive sidings.

Garbage Issues

The garbage man in the city is really picky.  

When we first got here, they refused to empty the garbage cans.  They took the garbage bags beside the cans, but left the cans.  I double checked them, they were way under the maximum 40lbs, I don't know why they were never emptied.  

So we have been putting the garbage in the alley in black garbage bags. 

I suspect bums were cutting the bags open and going through it, making a mess.  So we wait till garbage day, or the night before.  Thats tonight.  I put out 4 full garbage bags, just before dark.  

9:00pm rolls around and I manage to fill another garbage bag, so I haul it out to the alley.  My four full garbage bags are gone without a trace, creepy.

Wife Tames The 250 Everest

The city is quickly becoming the place to work, wile we get out to Andrew to have fun.

I take care of Michelle here, sending her off in the cold deep snow, on the sled she has never driven before.  This is the ultra reliable 250cc Ski doo Everest, from like 1986 or something.  I should be in the 80's I have trouble letting go.  I am even loving the new 80's metal radio station I found.

Ticket Parking On My Street With Permit

My fully enclosed 16' trailer is so snowed and iced in, on the street in Edmonton, I don't want to think about moving it.  But I got a ticket for having it parked in front of my house, last week.  I got a parking permit for it, clearly taped to the front and all.  It seems there is a bylaw about unhitched trailers in the city, but yet they gave me one of my two, non transferable, limit of two, very strict parking passes, for the trailer.  If I wanted to hook it to the van every night it wouldn't need a parking pass.  So I actually got the ticket "suspended" for 3 weeks, wile they figure out who's at fault, and what the hell is going on.

I completed the Lutron light control course today.  That was really exciting, very high  roller, wow factor stuff.  It is very expensive, but its going into our house in April.  From doing our own house, I can quote new jobs in the higher end neighborhoods, and maybe even get a new dodge minivan, to drop the pre fitted stinky VW diesel into.  But seriously, I made a brief blog post on possumelectric.com, about the Lutron light controls.  You can see it here

Another Ticket On My Street

My fully enclosed 16' trailer is so snowed and iced in, on the street in Edmonton, I don't want to think about moving it.  But I got a ticket for having it parked in front of my house, last week.  I got a parking permit for it, clearly taped to the front and all.  It seems there is a bylaw about unhitched trailers in the city, but yet they gave me one of my two, non transferable, limit of two, very strict parking passes, for the trailer.  If I wanted to hook it to the van every night it wouldn't need a parking pass.  So I actually got the ticket "suspended" for 3 weeks, wile they figure out who's at fault, and what the hell is going on.

I completed the Lutron light control course today.  That was really exciting, very high  roller, wow factor stuff.  It is very expensive, but its going into our house in April.  From doing our own house, I can quote new jobs in the higher end neighborhoods, and maybe even get a new dodge minivan, to drop the pre fitted stinky VW diesel into.  But seriously, I made a brief blog post on possumelectric.com, about the Lutron light controls.  You can see it here

Ranger Gets New Mag Wheels

Sort of spring cleaning.  It was above zero Celsius today, so I worked on getting rid of the 2001 Ford Explorer, that I bought for the mag wheels.  Its priced for a quick resell, at $200, same as I paid for it.  The Explorer just needs a new reverse gear, and back window.  Some one was supposed to come out for it today, but never did.

The Brand New Diesel Generator First And Last Start

As many know, Direct Energy, and others electricity retailers in Alberta are absolute criminals.  As if our rates aren't already the most expensive in Canada, they add an apx $80 monthly "distribution charge" to the bill every month.  Since we now own two homes, we cut the bills down by shutting off the electricity at the "cottage".  We have been running the cottage off 12v car batteries, and the little 1000w generator.

The 1000w genny has been really efficient.  I can't get over that it runs for 8 hours on $4 of gas.  Wile running it is working to power all the lights in the house and battery chargers for the car battery lights.  Video of them to come, no I don't have headlights duck taped to the walls.  There is an old vid of the generator here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K6jGNRNBhE

I really bought that generator for work, so I almost need to replace it with something.  I have always wanted one of those 10hp diesel motors they sell at Princess Auto.  They cost about $800, but go on sale for $500, and I keep thinking I will buy one to power my tank track garden tractor, as seen here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HAMf_rgfZA

So when Princess Auto put the diesel generator on sale, powered by my beloved diesel engine all for $800, there was no losing.  I have a new generator and my much wanted air cooled diesel!  I could make the tank track garden tractor a "diesel electric" like the 400 ton heavy haulers, and trains.  In the summer when my tank track diesel electric snow plow (thats a mouth full) isn't needed, I pop the generator off for work.

Wow was I wrong.  Maybe I got the one bad unit, but it didn't work right.  Besides the somewhat expected ridiculously hard to start in the cold.  I had to recharge the starter battery so many times I didn't turn the camera on for the time it actually started.  But I did get some of the madness on film.  It makes me sad editing this video together, I really wanted this generator.  Put I am really happy I got it from Princess Auto, because I know they will take it back with no problem, unlike like Canadian Tire, and a lot of other retail bee-otches out there.

The Edmonton Back Yard

Just another look at our back yard in Edmonton, from our bedroom window.  Everybody thinks this bottle depot is bringing our neighborhood down.  They do have plans to rebuild but who knows if or when that will happen.  We spoke to a neighborhood zoning planning guy, on a dog walk, who was most disgusted by the bottle depot.  He even said "I would set the place on fire, but the building is made of concrete."

I finally got into an early morning fender bender. Very minor, the street wasn't wide enough for 2 w the snow piled both sides, and we made contact. The woman, and her insurance company tried to blame me. Fortunately I took pictures, and you can see she could have moved over another 8", putting her out of harms way. So as I expected from the beginning it's 50 50 blame. We both got dents, prolly $2000 each for repairs. I wasn't even going to mention mine but if your going to hold me 50% responsible, her company can pay for half my damage, and we go home even, just call it even, in my world. But no... The other company wants to come assess the, very small, dent and scratch in my van. They have told me my van will most likely be a rite off, once they see it, and decide it's worth more to fix than it's worth, they report it to the government and it can no longer be registered until it gets a "rebuilt" inspection. A little over the top don't you think. I never really liked the van much anyway, but do I take all the stuff out n let them haul it away? Do I pay for the inspection and have whatever bs fixed? Or do I say "I'm not claiming any damage to my van?

Sent from my iPhone4

Canadian Picker

The TV show Canadian Picker, airs in April.  Canadian Picker is the show that found my Youtube vids of Daves sleds, and wanted to film an episode at his farm.  Dave, turned 48 today, is looking to me for help making himself  "findable" after the show airs.  Because blogger is free, and his youtube videos are among my most popular, I offered to make him a blog.  This way I have a gallery to display all my up and coming Davids Farm videos, and he has... his home phone number on the internet.  It can only add to the pennies a day I make from add revenue too.  I thought the advertising would take off like the doubling penny, but been doing this family blog for a few years now, made a total of $24.  I have had $0.20 days recently though, in the beginning that was unheard of.  Be the first to see and comment on my new blog at
http://canadianpicker.blogspot.com/

The Car Dolly Rescue Fail

A quick video of my evening project, trying to get the car dolly out to bring the VW to the city.  Yes I was going to ask before I used it, Guy, I pretty much can't use it without going next door for the straps anyway.  It appears the snow slid off the roof, see previous video of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR0cTXKr1ZY
Then the snow off the roof buried the car dolly, that was sitting neatly beside the drive way, waiting for the snow to melt a bit so my poor 250cc Everest Sled could tow it back over to Guy's house.  The 250 wasn't doing very well on its own in the deep snow this winter, towing the low trailer became impossible.  At least you know nobody can steal the car dolly, wile its in my care.

More Cold

Used to be my favorite excuse, its too cold to pull wire, lets take the day off.  Now working for myself, i need to finish the job.  I pay extra for the "Freeze Flex" wire, and it seems to pull in ok.  But hit it with the hammer wile stapling, or try to strip it w a knife, and it shatters, causing me more work w the tape, which also doesn't stick in -30.

I can only work till I lose feeling in a couple fingers, then I have to warm up.  I brought my 80,000 btu propane construction heater.  Since the diesel Herman Nelson gave me carbon monoxide poisoning at the last job, now I can't stand the smell of burning diesel.  Anyway I was having mad difficulty with the propane heater, its been great in the past, cause it doesn't need electricity.  Today in -30c it won't stay lit.  I read it more closely, "minimum ambient temp of 0 F".  Are you joking me?  What good is that.  So I packed it in early today.  Here's a pic of the heater label, I am still in disbelief.

I did get my sign powered up with batteries and LEDs.  It is glorious.  I put one on the Glenora site today, the idea is that I will turn it on when I leave at night, and off in the morning when I return.  Not sure how long the batteries will last yet.  The signs are 32" x48".  The plastic pieces were about $5, the vinyl cut out prepped to stick on was about $33, the LEDs were about $5 from china, and the batteries to run it another $5, an ongoing expense until there is power on site.  You can see the LEDs in this vid.

New Signs

My vinyl guy made me up some sweet sign vinyl.  I got some coragated plastic, from some plastic warehouse for cheap.  Some labor and I have my self some real catchy $45 signs.  The pic didn't come out very good, poor lighting, but they are big too, 24" x 32",  The plastic is navy blue, and they look sharp.  You may notice I have a 1800 number, good for anywhere in Canada.  It costs me $0.6 a min, but I have got to phase my cell phone out, it gets ridiculous on the phone all day.  The 1800# can be forwarded to a call center, secretary, whoever I want. 

I am working on "electrifying" the signs, with LEDs but I don't have the necessary wire, solder ect here in the city.  And now today, at some gas stations, gas is over $1 a liter.  So I can no longer even drive my van out to Andrew for less than $50 in gas, its well over that.  In this cold I am going out there no more than once a week, in the van.  I tried to get the car dolly out of the snow today, to haul the VW to the city, but its iced in, the poor possum van couldn't pull it out with a good run at it.  I have video, but don't have my iphone cord, I had to email myself this picture even.

New Appliances

We've gone through 2 washing machines in Edmonton. So this weekend I hooked up the flat deck and searched out 2 washing machines, a fridge and one drier. We picked it all up Sunday morning for a total cost of $105, about $26 each. Now we can furnish both houses with washer drier and fridge. My highly modified stackable drier is still working great.  On closer examination I think the washing machines were freezing.  Our house has the washing machine/drier closet built in the outside corner.  So wile the washing machine was out I insulated that corner with some hard foam.  Then I thought I would do the floor, and found a furnace vent under the sub floor.  Some idiot never cut a hole in the sub floor.  Hopefully there is no more freezing washing machine issues.
But wile looking for a fridge we came across this add. I must say our ghetto really isn't that bad.  We find this add now searching "aids scabs", instead of fridges.

If you can't read it, the add says:

"I live in BAYWOOD PARK and we have had trouble with sick neighbours who come into suites to contaminate the food with their aids scabs -I need help to get out of here, but am first of all looking for a lockable fridge/freezer to keep my food supply safe."

Sayulita's Flooded River

Work on Glenora has started. The house is pretty sweet, I love the half barrel roof on the front.  You can see the picture at possumelectric.com

Wile we were in Mexico, we visited Sayulita.  Last year their river had a nasty flood, and washed all the bridges out and some roads beside the river.  Here is a look at some of the damage, and a new bridge they are constructing.  Its very strange that they didn't dredge the sand out from the river bed before they built the bridge. There is only about 4' under the bridge, and the river bottom is artificially high with essentially the river sides all eroded into the bottom.