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