New Years

Check out this old VW van, there is no spair tire on the front.
But there is a grill, radiator and electric fan, in a steel ring
with a vinyl tire cover. Investigating further, climbing
under the back end, I see it has some water cooled V6.
For those that don't know, these old vans were stricktly air
cooled, which was both the best, and their downfall at the same
time. Although more power required more cooling, air cooling
is limited, especially in Mexico temperatures. I can see why they
did this here, and it is a very good disguise.

Funny my computer has switched its self to spanish, wile I
am here, without doing anything. As long as it switches
its self back I guess it is kind of cool.

We got some good sun today on the beach all morning
watching the surfers. I am going to try to surf tomorrow.

I love how the bathrooms here don't even give you an option
to dry your hands, or especailly hot water. It is so hot
you don't need eather.

The morning Lattes ended up costing just about as much as
lunch at $2.50. We found a very nice resteraunt we have
been regulars at, with the $3 chicken burger and fries, or
monster barito and salad.

For the afternoon we looked at realestate in Sayulita. It
all seems over priced, even on the outskirts of town, where
it smells like there is no sewer system, it can cost $85k
for just a few thousand square feet of land. This is a real
hot surfing destination though.

Every place we look at, I get excited about the potential of
having a place to lock the dune buggy up and leave it down
here. Sayulita there are so many cars you really appreciate
the quads and golf carts when your walking. With cars parked
on both sides of the street, there really isn't room for
the traffic. Then store owners have taken over the side
walks and so you are forced to walk on the street, and stop
between parked cars to let cars pass.

I acctually don't even like it much here, but Michelle
loves the ocean, so I will put in anoter day here. If I can
surf it might be more fun.

We met a friend from 2 years ago, I think it was the first
day we were here. He was camping in his van 2 years ago,
But he liked it so much he bought a place 2 houses from the
ocean, and he has been here ever since. He isn't having a
new years party, but we shouldn't have much trouble finding
one.

6pm now and we are already half way through our liter of rum,
so we did an emergency run to get another liter. They stop
selling here at 9pm, the way we are going we won't be in any
shape to go at 8:30.

Been hangin out w our brit freinds and an Ausy. The brits
bought their motor home in the states, for their 365 day tour
now they want to sell and go home. Very tempting for us.
Regaurdless they are lots of fun. Think we will be sticking
w them for our last night in Sayulita.

Sounds like Josh might not make it now, work calls. I borrowed
his surf board today, and kicked ass. Got the shit kicked out
o me too. Our friend said today is not a day to learn, waves
are way too steep, but I caught one which was total vicotry.

One Way To Keep The Chicken In Your Yard

A chicken we found on a walk, notice the tether.

Funny my computer has switched its self to spanish, wile I
am here, without doing anything. As long as it switches
its self back I guess it is kind of cool.

We got some good sun today on the beach all morning
watching the surfers. I am going to try to surf tomorrow.

I love how the bathrooms here don't even give you an option
to dry your hands, or especailly hot water. It is so hot
you don't need eather.

The morning Lattes ended up costing just about as much as
lunch at $2.50. We found a very nice resteraunt we have
been regulars at, with the $3 chicken burger and fries, or
monster barito and salad.

For the afternoon we looked at realestate in Sayulita. It
all seems over priced, even on the outskirts of town, where
it smells like there is no sewer system, it can cost $85k
for just a few thousand square feet of land. This is a real
hot surfing destination though.

Every place we look at, I get excited about the potential of
having a place to lock the dune buggy up and leave it down
here. Sayulita there are so many cars you really appreciate
the quads and golf carts when your walking. With cars parked
on both sides of the street, there really isn't room for
the traffic. Then store owners have taken over the side
walks and so you are forced to walk on the street, and stop
between parked cars to let cars pass.

I acctually don't even like it much here, but Michelle
loves the ocean, so I will put in anoter day here. If I can
surf it might be more fun.

We met a friend from 2 years ago, I think it was the first
day we were here. He was camping in his van 2 years ago,
But he liked it so much he bought a place 2 houses from the
ocean, and he has been here ever since. He isn't having a
new years party, but we shouldn't have much trouble finding
one.

Sand Castles in Peurto Vallarta

Pictures are a little behind, but that is some sand sculptures in Peurto Vallarta we saw last week.

This morning we woke up in Sayulita in the camp site. We are in the grass well off the sand, but some campers on the high sand, got waves within a foot of their tents this morning. Big waves and high tide I guess.

We got a whole water melon last night, out of a truck, for $1. This morning we got what we call the soup can muffins for $1. I took some pictures of my banana muffin, because it looks like a soup can, I love it.

Now I will probably go get a Latte at the americanized shop for an unreasonable price, and look at some local realestate w an agent.

Sayulita

Little Gus Gus hiding under the camper cause its so hot.

Michelle wants to spend a couple of days camping on the
beach in Sayulita. Joe was nice enough to drive us out
there this morning. We got the same camp site we had 2
years ago for our honney moon.

The price however is double, at $10 a night, per person,
and another $3 for internet. Our tent is far more
glorious with all the tent poles, and the front "patio".
The beach they want $50 a day to sitin 3 beach chairs
with an umbrella,can you imagine? Pina Coladas are $6
each this year. I won't be drinking much here.

Another Camera Down

The Picture is just Michelle and I walking out into the
ocean. Shortly after we came in a 15 ish year old nearly
drowned. He was swept out to sea, or walked off an edge.
He was popping out of the water screaming every 20-30
seconds. Life gaurds showed up on a quad long after he
was rescued.

The only internet we have is over at Joe's appartment
we can plug the lap tops in to a cable from the inernet
cafe next door. Or pay at the cafe if we don't want to
disturb the father inlaw at his place. So far it looks
like I go on line every 2 days for a few min, check email
update the blog and that is it.

I went over my truck cooling system very carefully, with
primitave tools. The crappy 12v compressor I got on sale
for $10 years ago has been priceless here. The whole
radiator presure test, with minimal tools will be another
blog post for a day in Canada. My discoveries were no
surprise. First of all the radiator temperature fan
switch failed at some point, so I will need to wire a
switch there or something. I found the fan is always on
this far south any way.

The head gasket appears to be not too serious. A head
retorque should fix it. I am having a hard time
getting even a torque wrench, so each bolt might just get a
1/8 turn. The worst case I will need to add water every
100km, which is just over 15 stops to get to Nevada,
where I can get a new rebuilt motor for less than $2000.

The plan is to stop and get a new motor in Nevada,
because it is half the price of Canada, and doesn'
require a core. In Alberta, they wan to charge me $100s
more still on top of that if there is anything wrong w my
core motor I am returning, on top of the $4000 price tag.
So if I am having to add water more than every 400 km I
will likely pay another $2000 to have them install the
motor there too. But I am sure that the water consumption
will only be a huge burden going through the mountains.

We parked the camper rite near some shugar type ants nest.
It didn't take even 2 hours to have a noticable ant
"problem" in the camper. However not 10' away are some
fire ant hills, with that in mind I am happy to welcome
the shugar ants.

At least 1 coconut falls on Joe's property every 48 hours,
that I have noticed. But the fallen coconuts are always
bad. We had to climb the tree and we got down 4 coconuts
a few days ago. I ate them all because Joe is sick of
them and Michelle wasn't interested. 2 of them were
not ripe at all, just coconut milk inside, wile 2 were
nearly ripe with lots of meat and milk.

I had scoped out the neighbors palm tree, because it hangs
over Joe's property and is full of ripe coconuts, easily
100 or more. It has never been harvested, until today. I
get the idea, and the neighbors read my mind and climb the
tree. So I went over and asked them "uno coco por u",
and they gave me 3 coconuts.

It was the Sunday market today. I had fun just walking
the streets with my new favorite beer, "Indio", and
negotiating prices. I did buy matches $2, 3 pairs of
jeans $12, a belt $2, a second pair of flip flops $2, a
12v transformer to run 12v camper accessories $5, and
a long sleave shirt to weld in $2.

It was also the end of my camera today. Ironically it died
exactly as my first good camera died a few years ago, in
Mexico. I had taken it to the beach and been so careful
with it. I went swimming in the warm ocean and hung my
shorts to dry over night. Then today I wore the same
shorts, took my camera wallet and keys. Well just enough
sand was left in the pocket from the ocean, and it got in
the camera, now it doesn't focus zoom or even open without
manual force. I still have the $40 video camera, so I can
take some pics w that. I was Eyeing up a DSLR camera in
Arizona too, that could replace mine.

The set up in Vallarta

Mission Successful, sort of

We got to Peurto Vallarta with the trailer in one piece. There was a few casualties on the way, including the GPS rite at the start. Then towards the end of the trip, the last 100km, we cooked the trailer brakes coming down the mountain. Presumably the brake pads are gone and they are metal on metal, as the brake controller on the lowest setting locks the wheels up now. That was entertaining. Worst of all we blew the head gasket out on the truck sometime in the last 400km, I think it was up a climb in the last 100km, but can't be sure. It has started the random over heatin, and there is 3 x the oil in the engine rite now, along with lack of antifreeze. That is going to be some adventure trying to get this thing fixed here.

Last night we got pulled over by the Policia, wile we were driving on coble stone. The trailer was bouncing around like crazy on the coble stones, and the Policia said we were driving too fast, and he was going to write us a ticket. We paid him off, $140 pecos, about $14 Canadian, I couldn't stop laughing, it was hysterical. I will get pictures of our camp set up today.

Update in Arizona

Were held up just less than 2 hours at the border. They didn't like the for sale sign on the trcuk and
the fact that i had some of my tools in the truck. But otherwise we are harmless. I had a good laugh because my tail
gate is broken, and when they questioned me about my tools, I said "no no my tools are mostly all in the drawers that you
didn't see were removed, behind the tail gate, because the tail gate is broken." They are like "yeh, it wasn't that hard
to open." I thought that was funny cause it took me a lot longer to figure out how to open it, but I assumed it was broken
worse than it really was.

Just stopped 140km into the states to use a rest stop and make Lattes. Well all the milk and egg nog was frozen. I mannaged to squeeze a couple of drinks
out of it, and wow did it make fabulous foam. Maybe it really does help to make the milk really cold before you steam it?

We slept really well last night at the Tim Hortons, and woke up to our favourate comercial coffee. That was brilliant.
Except I am sure we pissed at least one person off as we took up 4 semi prime parking spots. Iwoke up at 8:30 and the
first thing I heard was "look at this penis" from somebody walking by.

That was the first night in the states, Then...

We stopped in Beaver Utah for gas, and had a good laugh there. First of all the sign, "Beaver, Mountains Of Fun". Then a woman
in a crazy 80's track suit, walking little white dogs with big red bows. Even Arbies was comical there.

We stayed in a Wallmart Parking lot in Grand Falls. The first time I ever pulled into a Wallmart parking lot and it was
almost empty, but it was 2am. And guess what, Wallmart was open, at 2am. We pulled in the back with 2 other massive campers
and a tent trailer. I got a picture of the tent trailer behind us at 10am when we got up. They look like they were camped out
there for a wile.

It is Friday now, we are about half way, so we are staying in Mistique Navada, at a casino/hotel/pool/shower. Basically just
a shower, the rest is a bonus. They gave us $10 to gamble with "free". I am a champ gambler, I won half my money back
over 100 times.

It's Saturday night, and we found internet at the Dennys in a little town half hour from Pheonex. So here is the update. Things have been going slow since the south end of Navada during the day. The heat just doesn't help us pull the old trailer, which I weighed in Canada, and

Camping Outside Tim Hortons

Just about at Lethbridge, and camping outside Tim Hortons. This could be the last post until we find some internet access in the states.

One definite advantage of a motor home "Bus" is it is warm inside when you stop. Our camper seems to be well insulated cause it is about 0 deg here, and the camper is still -30 inside. Good thing the furnace works.

3 Hours To The Border

Just the after math of the fire from the other day, guess they pulled this truck out after it all cooled down. Nothing to do w our trip, just a fun pic.

My Magelin GPS died. That is # 4 on the GPS count. This one didn't recover from being foze in the truck all night. I happened to have the reciept and packaging in the truck and so I took it back. Well it was 31 days, if there was 31 days in Nov, and they only have a 30 day return policy. But because it was the 15th I bot it and the 15th today they took it back, yeh $220. Thats the last battery op thing that gets left outside.

Just in Red Deer eatin dinner now, and headed into the states, hopefully to somewhere that is no less than - 20, so the truck starts in the morn.

Got 9mpg towing the very heavy camper this far, which is good cause I only got 10mpg on the last tank, from the cold starts, idle time and such.

On The Road

Yesterday my truck wouldn't start. I kinda lost hope and it went from getting in the cold truck to putting an arm in the door to try and turn it over. Somewhere along there I forgot that I need to hit the brake to start the thing. After reading the manual I realized rite away, but before that I was sure I needed a new starter.

Last Night I got it running, and unplugged the truck to plug Michelle's car in. The cord was plenty long but all frozen in some sort of zig zag formation and so, unknowingly to me, the cord unplugged itself from the wall. Then the Hyundi didn't want to start this morning. Michelle's car never did start this morning, but I plugged the truck in at the same time, and the truck started before the car would. Michelle was 2 hours late.

I came home, got her car started, hooked up the trailer, loaded the dogs, and now I am on the road. Headed to pick Michelle up for 4pm.

Fire in Andrew

Saw this smoke, rite by my house, and had to check it out this morning. Sure enough, there was a fire in Andrew. I expect it was from some heater gone bad. Looks like the fire was pretty much contained to the garage.

It is still ridiculously cold. I really need to get these vehicles started and put away, going to be fun making that happen today.

Too cold

I just realized, as I was called by Carol, that I give too much. Carol was calling, and I can plainly see on call display, and I knew rite away why. Was it last year she called when it got this cold, to help her start her car? I answered anyway to confirm my suspicion. "I have called everyone I know in town trying to get a jump" she says. Then the confession, "I could call Jerry but he will charge me". I simply told her that nothing here will start, and she needs more than a jump. I will buy a propane blower heater, but I am not going to bring it over to your car up for fun I thought. She has one last Ukranian to call, and then she will be walking to work on Monday if he says no. Funny thing is she lives not even a block from her work, and its Sunday today, she doesn't have to be at work, she just starts her truck every few hours for piece of mind. I have to start admiring and maybe following the people that can do a favor, and then drop a bill in the mail. Like the new owner of Ron's bobcat. I said how long does it take to clear out the gas station w the bobcat, he said "20 min, the thing is awesome". But what was funny was he said the police station is snowed in and they are all humming and hawwing about hiring the snow removal out. So he just did it and dropped a bill in the door. What does he care if they don't pay it? If they do pay it he has a new income stream.

A slightly modified story, for ease of explanation, I wasn't interested in plowing the driveway, but rather just moving all the vehicles around. I am going to see if I can reach the first page for my lawn tractor block heater post on the Possum Electric Blog.

One day left in Alberta

A pick of Gus Gus after he found his place to be and settled down in the truck. We are going to get his Rabies shot in the City.

The dune buggy deal is postponed. I really think it will happen, but today being the day we were going to do it, its -39 deg C out and I am not driving no dune buggy two hours home in minus anything. It can wait for a warm day in February.

Today I do the preparation for leaving. First of all find someones passport, which is in the car hopefully. Then move the work trailer in the garage. Drain the hot tub, and unload all the tools from my truck. Then whatever doesn't happen today will be finished tomorrow, if we both have our passports.

The Glorious Latte

Yes I think the glass mugs make the morning Latte even better!

-33ish, can't wait to leave. We are actually leaving on Tuesday afternoon, not Wednesday, so just 2 more full days here in Andrew.

My truck mileage has dropped down to 10mpg again, which is no surprise with the cold weather. I found a way to adjust the fuel air mixture, and everything else with a programmable ECU called Megasquirt. Check it out here here

Dogs on Leash

How boring is that picture? The dogs are starting to learn to walk together. More Gus Gus is starting to learn to walk on his leash.

Its looking like Larry is getting a huge 4 plex, which he plans to turn into an 8 plex. This is new construction, someone started, got it to lock up but couldn't finish. Larry is getting smarter, he is going to take bids on this one, instead of hiring people by the hour. By the hour everyone is waiting for some one, some thing, or some material, and they don't get much done during the day. I feel good today, I actually had coffee w Larry, and he told me not to tell the other guys about this new building. So yet again with the next project it will be me, with potentially another raise, if my bid goes well, and a whole new crew of carpenters and other tradesmen. I got paid more than the other guys too, but I never hung around waiting for anything.

I put my truck in the ditch today, which was really kinda fun. I just slid on some ice, and the front wheels just went off the road, and I felt committed, like I wasn't going to be able to back out, and I was likely to slide all the way down the bank. So I pinned it, and drove down the bank, and just spun out down the ditch, gaining enough speed to get up the bank where the next drive way was. There was probably only 6 inches of snow in the ditch. I feel I wouldn't have slid in if there was more snow, with some hard packed on the road edge.

Buggy Trade

Was surfing the Swap/Trade section of Kijiji a few days ago, and came across this yellow VW in the picture. He wants to trade his VW for a "side by side" to do more off roading with his kid. A side by side is the newer style ATVs where you can sit side by side. I love the hammerhead, and it is great fun, but I don't get to use it that much. In the last year, I have only put 500km on it. I have had some funny dreams, of putting a VW engine in the Hammerhead too. It really isn't fast enough, part of the reason it doesn't get driven so much out here. I can drive the truck, be there in 30 min, or the buggy and be there in 60 min, be cold, somewhat covered in mud, but I will have saved 2 liters of gas, and had a ball. So that trade is in the works, and has great potential, the VW owner seems interested. When needed I will throw in the flat deck buggy trailer that I made, to sweeten the pot, and I might just end up with a VW again after some 18 years of being VWless. The hammerhead in the pic is just a random pulled off the internet for those that don't recall, but it is exactly the same as mine, being a 2008.

weather is warming up. The decorative frost on the windows actually melted off the south windows yesterday, with the sun. I think today is only supposed to be -20.

Christmas Decorations

All our windows are now decorated nicely, with authentic frost on the lower corners, for Christmas. That is about the extent of our Christmas decorating this year. I was thinking we might do the camper up for the road trip, with Christmas lights. Might still do that if I get out to buy some lights, and the temperature comes up to something tolerable outside.

I have done some work on my blog, including making several other blogs. You have no idea what a challenge it was for me to make the Ranger header there, but I feel a fair bit smarter now I figured it out. Still learning every day about the blogs and HTML.

I had put an exciting countdown timer on this blog, counting down to the Mexico trip, but I couldn't get it to keep the deadline. It would go to zero whenever I reopened the page. If anyone wants a list of my blogs just let me know. Otherwise there will be the odd link to my other blogs and even outside blogs.

One of the latest inspirational and cool finds is the pedal powered buick. All my links from now on will be designed to open in a new page, so that you don't have to lose your place on the blog. Any feedback is appreciated, I have only tested my limited HTML on Google Chrome so far, so outcome could vary.

- 30 blues

Thats right, over night the temperature dropped another 10 deg celcius, and everything went for a crap, except the well pump, it is still working so far. But Michelle's 2008 Hyundi Accent would not start, at all. It took 2 hours with the block heater, a battery warmer, a battery charger, and a magnetic heater on it before it would even sputter. I am totally disappointed in new cars again. For all that effort I could have easily started my 18 year old truck. I tried to put an 8' extension cord on Michelle's car so she could plug it in at school. I wrapped it around her passenger mirror, and all the insulation shattered off the cord like it was ice.
I had put 2 of the gas shocks on our screen door, so that the wind could never rip it out of your hands when you open it. Well both the gas shocks are frozen and now the back door makes horrible screeching sounds as you force it open and closed.

I am missing the old barrel stove this morning.

We are going to look for an apartment in Lamont, hence the picture on yesterdays post "city living, country style". Mostly because Michelle doesn't like driving in the snow, so she could walk to work.

Now it is too cold to go outside, I will start blogging more, you can expect daily posts on here, and I will make a small blog empire to complement this, with the odd link to interesting stuff on the other blogs.

Auto Emails Off

This is the sign for Lamont, where Michelle works.

The results of the blogger email notifications were not as expected, and have, therefore, been canceled.

Today, Sunday, has been a somewhat lazy day. I was reading up on "blogging for a living" most of the day. Its -20 outside, and it has snowed lots in the last 3 days. Can't wait to go to Mexico, just one week left.

Fire wood stock is hardly dented this winter, and I was sure we wouldn't have enough. That is because of the attic insulation I expect.

Lots Of Snow

Super happy w my snow plow I made. I don't even really need the bucket for snow, I manage to drag the snow wherever I want it. You may not notice my prototype heated steering wheel and heated vest keeping me warm rite there, its good stuff.

Not sure if this post will get emailed to everyone again, that is not quite what I expected to happen, maybe it happened because I sent it from my email to Blogger I don't know, but it seems redundant to email everyone AND put it on the blog.

I started messing around w HTML, making a more profitable blog. It is just messing about w a free Blogger template, I will have to pay for a server when I have some HTML experience, but I just made a couple of HTML links. That Blog is possumpower.blogspot.com and I get paid about $35 if you buy the best 13" computer of 2009 through my link on there. To check out that blog
Click Here

Blogging Email

I am making some moves towards internet domination.  Firstly I will do HTML1 when I get back from Mexico.  I have been dialing up stuff for the smith blog, including email and sms posts.  This is the first email post, if it works.  The SMS (text messaging) service isn't working or it is slow.  One thing people might notice, if it works is an automated email when there is a new post, which has potential to be much more frequent.  There is still no urgency to this blog, and you can check it whenever you feel like it.  I can remove anybody from the mailing list just fire me an email with the request, but they should make viewing the blog easier, don't know for sure, but I expect you will be emailed the address every time there is a post.

I will start a weekly news letter, with free DIY, Hacks and cool gadgets.  That will work as an email with a list of cool things that caught my eye wile I was online.  The list will be written as links, and one can click on a link of interest.  Through that link they are directed to another blog with pictures and a summary of  the plans I found.  That gets me 1 traffic point, plus the potential customer is then exposed to a bunch of google advertising which I am paid per clicking on.  If my summary isn't enough there is a further link to the original sight in a new window.  That is the end of my relationship with the viewer if there was nothing offered for sale, which would be the case most of the time.  But google will always offer the advertising related to the blog post.  I believe people will stop opening your emails if you continuously try and sell stuff.  Once I get the traffic up to 10,000 per day plus, which won't take long, my web space will be premium advertising ground.  Then I can charge thousands per month to post adds in my space.  So watch out for an email subscription form on my blogs.  They will all be the same, so no need to join more than one, and the option is always given to unsubscribe.

I got tubes for both the front tires on the dune buggy.  I got them on today, that was a challenge in the -18ish that it is outside.  I am not even interested in going outside.  I want to make my prototype heated steering wheel on the buggy too, maybe it will go into the garage tomorrow, and I will have a nice fire in there.  There still isn't enough snow to go out on the sled, something exciting and crazy about showing up on a dune buggy in this weather.  I have to put a volt meter on the old buggy now too, make sure the alternator keeps up with the extra roof lights, heated wheel, and heated vests.

I went to the Salvation Army today, after I took Michelle out for lunch in Lamont.  I bought 7 vests, for the price of one, $5.  They won't all make great heated vests, but I can do different stuff on each of them and take pictures for the plans I am making.  Then we will never have to go out on the buggy or bikes without a heated vest.  With the exception of the lil red Honda, we will only make one 6 volt vest, and it will be vest or headlight, not both.

Pigeon Holocaust

Andreashyk invited us over for dinner last night, cause I volunteered to help her w her pigeon problem. I took the dune buggy over during the day in some -10 ish cold and tested a prototype $1 DIY heated vest. The vest was great, but I realized great discomfort in my frozen hands, even with my thick winter mittens. I realized there is nothing available besides awkward heated gloves, to keep your hand warm on a go kart/dune buggy with a steering wheel. I will have the entire market when I release my heated steering wheel plans, which I thought of at that second with my frozen fingers. That is so exciting, because those plans will not only have the market, but most of the work is already done with the heated vest plans.

When I was at Michelle's during the day I unloaded 15 of her bullets on the 30 ish pigeons, but they all got away unscathed. But later at night Probably because of owls stalking them, the pigeons would not leave the garage at night. I managed to snipe out 18 of them before dinner, after dark. Got a little carried away, intended to just hang a couple o dead carcases to prevent the rest from coming back, but then only 10ish of them left the garage in the dark.

Then going home I got a flat tire. Thank goodness I have been carrying a spare around on the buggy, it would have sucked to walk home in -10 in snow boots. The rim just cracked, for no apparent reason, besides beating the crap out of the whole machine, no specific rim trauma or damage. But that is both front rims cracked and broken on the old Hammerhead now. I am not going to pay $100 for another Chinese aluminum wheel. I can get away with a tube in this one, until the rim actuality breaks all the way in half.

Moved the camper to the front yard in preparation for driving to Mexico, and possible snow in the next week.

Steam Punk

This isn't my toilet, I just like it. One day when there is water in my shop I will build one.
I spent today working on my vest plans, and doing a bit of research on line for cool ideas. I discovered Steampunk, and Teslapunk, which is a modern style I am quite fond of. I think there is a lot of interpretation to the style so I won't attempt to describe it, and leave it to anyone to google it and come up with their own theory. But it got me to thinking about my anoying cell phone that I am always losing, and don't really use much. I still think the 80s brick phones were better. Until I get an Iphone, I would like to get another brick phone, and embed my "digital" motorolla into it. Just for a good laugh, and fun. Sort of make a fully functional modern brick phone. Well you should see what brick phones are going for on Ebay! I feel a bit sick that I threw mine out... I think. Anyway, if anybody still has a brick phone, hook me up. I might be able to snipe one on ebay for as little as $50, otherwise the "buy it now" prices are $100-$400.

I am terribly disorganized without my office/man cave, so I will note this on the blog, where I know I can find it again. Guaranteed I will want to build something cool when I get back from Mexico, and I won't be able to remember the stuff I need. I found this cool stuff for making plastic things. It is called Shape lock. It is like play dough plastic. I think you boil it, then its play dough like, and when it cools it is plastic. This is next level for creating cool stuff. I haven't looked into it for years, but it was $20,000 to get a plastic mold made 10 years ago. Now one off inventions can be formed on their own, with a tub of Shape Lock, that costs less than $14. Very exciting, maybe I am easily excitable these days. I'll blame it on the egg nog lattes, I have been over dosing on. If I wind down after christmas I will have to find a spring source for egg nog.

Birthday

Seems the new Blogger version has "better image handling" but the add image link is missing, so back to the old blogger.

Michelle got me a super cool tractor cake, for my birthday, and a bunch of work pants, and jeans, along w a nice new pair of jeans. Seems I gained 20lb over the last 4 years and my plethora of jeans don't fit and rip constantly. I was down to one pair, until today. But thats not all. Since my new tig welder I have found it more difficult handling a torch and welding rod in different hands. It makes some sexy welds and I love it, but the other day I flipped my welding helmet up, with my work still red hot, torch tip red hot, and rod red hot. I was distracted by the beauty of my new weld in the day light. and wanted to continue it, after I got my torch aligned, and then my rod aligned, my helmet wouldn't go down. So I used my gloved hand and put my visor down, but I was also holding the, previously red hot, tig rod in that hand, and somehow it tagged my nose as I put the visor down. So I had a burnt red nose for a week. So Michelle bought me an auto tinting welding helmet with flames on it. I Tigged up a broken light stand this morning, so we can make videos of making electric vests. The helmet was amazing, so happy w it.

My jogging 3 times a week program quickly turned into once a week, if the weather is nice. So I have been jogging twice so far. Both times I got the hick ups from running. Very aggravating. Into my second day of the hick ups today, they usually last a couple of days. Still kind of confused as to what causes them, but previously they were just caused by drinking, which I believed caused heat burn, which seems to go along w hick ups for me. Maybe I should drink more water when I run.

Very exciting

Blogger has new webmaster tools, and I can see how my blog rates in searches. Number two for a "possum killer" search. Thats amazing, but I can see why, being slightly educated in the art of Search engine optimization.

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Malcolm/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/possumanimation3.JPG
I upgraded Blogger, now I am not sure how to put pics in, but this is a pic of the edited possum, tried to put more life in him and move his hand so it doesn't look like his tung stickin out. If the pic shows up.

I have been talking to the plasma cutter guy. This is very exciting, how many people do you think are going to buy plasma cutter plans? I mean how many people even know what a plasma cutter is? He has been selling plans for one year, sold 700, without the affiliate programs. That is amazing! If a guy can come up with 10 different plans, directed at tiny markets like the plasma cutter, your making $70,000 a year. So I am even more focussed on the heated vest plans I am making. Then Electric bike plans, they will sell for more, but we will see if that effects the number of sales. But its all relative, you can buy a vest for $100 or buy plans for $10. You can buy an electric bike for I think $400 these days, but so I think $40 is an appropriate price for plans, and that will branch off into several different plans $40 each or 2 for $60 kind of thing. I have so much to say about electric bikes. Wow exciting.
Then I think it plans to build a kayak from 2x4s would be appropriate, and I will make a beautiful spruce strip kayak with that how to plans.
By then my truck should be back together, although I havnt even taken it appart yet, I can make the "how to run your truck on waste vegtable oil plans, have to just undercut the market on them, at around $40, or just make basic plans for $10 even, for those who have skills to figure stuff out.
"how to chop a yamaha special 650"
"10 modifications you can do to your car to get 20-50% better gas mileage"
"how to chop 3" out of the roof of an old dodge truck"
"how to shoot 10' flames out the exhaust of your hot rod"
"How to make a motorbike run on diesel and get 70mpg"
"How to fix old lawn tractors" I think I have 3 in the yard for examples.
All stuff I enjoy doing, and its kind of fun to film, and write about. If a guy is thinking of changing his breaker panel to a bigger panel, to get more breaker spaces, by himself, he would jump at the chance to buy a $10 video of qualified electrician doing the same job, with commentary. All stuff that takes time, and effort, potentially small markets, but I know I would buy every one of those plans for $10 just for the entertainment value, to see how someone else does it. Whats $10, nothing, till you sell 1000 plans, then you got $10,000. Thats just 30 sales a day to make $10k a month.

Near Disaster

Some art work I am playing with for the side of the truck and trailer. Any opinions are appreciated.

Yesterday was almost a disaster. I went to tie in the garage, and some other electrical work in South Edmonton, and electricuted my pliers. I didn't even get a shock w the nicely insulated handle, but I hate having a big notch out of the cutters of my pliers now I have to buy another pair. That wasn't the worst of it though. I pulled in to Tim Hortons for lunch, and I couldn't get into my parking spot. It was slightly up hill to park by the door, the parking lot was slopped up to the building, and the parking lot was sheer ice. With a little back and forth action, spinning the tires like mad, I eventually got up to an acceptable point, and decided this is as good as it gets. I think I just took my foot off the gas and threw it in park, which is normally acceptable when the truck is stopped as it was. But this time the back wheels were doing some 80ish km an hour, when I threw it into park. Well it made a lot of angry grinding noises and then felt like it engaged. I got out and it was rolling backward out of its parking spot. I went through my truck and found the dead low voltage heat control transformer from Kim's place, so I jammed it under the front wheel till I could have something to eat. After eating the truck hadn't made any ground down the hill, and it let me pull the transformer out without effort. So I opened the door and tried pushing it back wile watching the back tire, sure enough it just rolled, wile it was in park. I BLEW PARK OUT OF MY TRANSMISSION! No surprise, it pissed me off that I own 3 broken trucks now, and I was kicking myself for not getting on the Ranger rebuild faster. I drove back to the job and finished it, then drove home, and only in Andrew do I know of another hill, at the railway crossing, where I could try Park again. In hind sight, The differential works the same in Park as it does in drive, only locks one wheel, and so the passenger side wheel was locked and sliding down the ice, wile the drivers wheel rolled over the ice at Tim Hortons. I think its time to fix the emergency brake, and the Ranger.

My Tig welder works great. And now I am thinking next level, had I paid 3x as much I could have gotten a name brand inverter welder, that also does plasma cutting. The tig torch is essentially manipulating a plasma arc, so why can't I just buy a $50 plasma torch, hook it up to my welder and an air supply. Well there seems to be a potential problem starting the arc. Research found a guy, after my own heart, that made his own plasma cutter, and sells the plans for $10 with an affiliate program. I will buy these plans and feature them in the glorious web sight that I haven't made yet. But it got me thinking about cool stuff I could do, and make money doing it.

So I wanted to see if anybody had made a cool heated shirt like me, and tells how to do it. I found a kit available for $35, heated wire and plug, build your own, I am sure I can put th kit together for less than $10. And with a lot of lengthy research I did find a few home made vests, but they don't go into much depth. Now this is probably because the demand isn't there, and therefore the money isn't there. But I am going to give it a go anyway, it is something that I am passionate about and I could not live in a better market than northern AB. Detailed plans for $9.99 or the whole kit for $35. That would be really easy to search engine optimize and be the first to come up in google. With digital delivery, the world is my market. The real fun is essentially getting paid to go on biker forums post my opinions and a link to my cheap plans. This research has also spawned the possible cheap heated floor, and the heated coffee mug that is not in the form of irritating deep hard to clean plastic travel mug. Also the USB heated mug. Exciting stuff. Plus its all electrical, so its all Possum Electric work.

Jogging

Monday
I did a second trip to the mall this year, that almost killed me, I hate the mall. But I was really not sure where else to find running shoes. I am very upset that the apple store is in the West Ed mall and will probably require another trip to the mall, to check out the Macs. Hopefully I can postpone that till next year. Point is I got running shoes this weekend. I went for my first run this morning, and wow it was harder than I expected. I ran 2 of the 3 country blocks to the post office. I was out of breath my lungs hurt, and I could feel joggers nipple coming on. On Wednesday I will run all the way to the post office. I feel a lot more out of shape after my run than I did before. It even gave me the hick ups for a few min, not the 5 day hick ups that drinking gives me.

talked to Larry today, asked if I could get paid for work done, and he said "no". Money is too tight till the end of the month, then he intends to get a mortgage on the property, and pay everybody w borrowed money. This the same day as my EI claim ends. I am going to go against my better judgement and put another day in working for Larry and just have his bill ready for the end of the month.

Tuesday
I registered my electrical business. PK Electric was taken, I didn't want to always be stuck w Possum Killer Electric, so I registered Possum Electric, kind of random. The woman at registries didn't believe that it was me on my drivers licence at first. I have gaind 20lb in the last 4 years. But I got er registered. Then I went to the bank and got a business account. And the money starts going out. Business account fees, $0.95 for each deposit even. Then checks are $150 for 100, its $250 for the ability to accept visa/mastercard and thats not including the monthly fees, and the extra .9% they tack on to the 1.9% because I am not paying $70 a month for a machine, and I will do the credit cards over the phone. I feel I should have done all this when I get back from Mexico, but it is done now, kind of exciting. I worked last night, and I will work again tonight, for Larry, I told him I will need 2 checks, since he can't pay me yet. One personal, for up to today, and one business for today and after. I have a visa application in, but I should get a company master card, since Tim Hortons doesn't take visa. Now I have to get new business cards, paint the name on the truck and trailer. I am thinking I will go door to door in a local new subdivision and pass out cards and fliers for finishing basement wiring. The contractors that are building are not interested in finishing basements at all. If I get limited business because the basements aren't framed, I might get into the framing and wiring, might just do it all, but hire out the mud and taping, I know a few guys that do the drywall finishing. But first things first, I still have finishing to do on Larrys place, and mad paper work for accounts everywhere, plus I have to find paper work for the bank. I will include a pic o Larrys house in Veg, that is just about finished.

Tom Tom Problems

Tom Tom GPSs are garbage. I paid a little more for a Tom Tom at Wallmart. That is compaired to the Nextar that failed me with a software issue. The Tom Tom pissed me off rite away, firstly because it wouldn't turn itself on when the car turns on.
It wouldn't set its own time, I had to manually set it. I put in 50 street Edmonton and it said there are no addresses on 50 street, that is the biggest bunch of bull I ever heard. Tom Tom wouldn't let me set the voice to british, I had to listen to an american telling me where to go, which makes it all worse. All this and Canadian tire telling me they won't take GPSs back, made me want to return it. The experience was painless and smooth at wallmart, they had no problem, and I even told them about Canadian Tires polocy. The Wallmart GPS guy said there is no problem returning anything there, even if you want to return a GPS after a road trip. So I bought a nice Garmin, which is 10x better than Tom Tom. I also decided to boycott Canadian Tire. There is no reason to go there w their half ass customer service, and "customer is NOT rite" attitude. I need a new tire for my truck, and they are pretty much the only gig in Vegrevill here, but I will wait till I get to any other store to replace it.

My possum killer postal van sold for $9266.00 in the end. That makes me more certain that I will do the same paint job on the old Dodge. Today I have painted the spare rally wheel a similar burnt orange, we'll see what it looks like tomorrow, and paint another one.

Test drove a Nissan Cube today. I was very unimpressed with the dealer, and their pressure sales bull. They wanted a down payment to hold the brand new cube. We didn't even specially pick it or anything. We were there for 2 hours and left still not knowing what the cash sticker price was, what the gas mileage is and what the towing capacity is. Just the run around on all the questions, "but how much can you afford to pay per month?". I will not be going back to that dealership, or any other 25 owned by the "go auto group", which I believe is the culprit here.

New hot tub toy

I made my steam engine, and boat to put it in. It is very impressive. It just runs off a birthday candle. When I have the cover off the tub I will measure it and time the boat to see how fast it goes.

My oil furnace experaments are going ok. All that is holding me back from making the perfect oil burner, is a small metal lathe. And my favorate store, Princess Auto, puts them on sale all the time. But for the Lathing I need done, I should just find a machinist. The home made burner works a lot like a fuel injector, and is called
a babbington burner.

I noticed a commonality, between all the "hot" furnaces that you can shut off, and my wood stove. Simply put, they have a forced air feed. So why not put a forced air feed in the wood stove, and I could shovel coal, wood, oil, whatever I want in there. 20-25psi seems like a resonable presure. I thought the old "Cambell Hause...whatever" Canadian tire compressor would be great for this job. It was a freebie, as it couldn't keep up at the jobsight on Parker, Thanks Sarah. It has been made obsolete w the new Dewalt compressor that failed multiple times on the jobsight for Ron. Then he moved and couldn't bring himself to haul the broken equipment, another freebe. I fixed it, and I don't have a crew of guys waiting on it if it breaks again. Off on a small tangent there, but I was shocked at how poorly
the Cambell keeps up, even at 20psi. I tried to dial its pressure down from 130psi to a simple 40-60psi but the factory regulator screws don't really adjust anything. Screwed all the way out, its still 130psi. In order to run my new furnace
system I will use a bigger air tank, and a new pump switch.

I put together the brake drum oil burner tonight, and it kinda failed, just burned like a kerosene lantern. I think maybe if I make an oil preheat, and preheat the burner w alcohol this time instead of crumpled paper, I might have more success. Also not sure of my air inlet angle, I have it coming in on the side, so it spirals the flames around. But not sure if it is really helping. Shall play with that more another day.

The airbagit.com guys really loved my cheasy vid. They have it posted on their websight, and they are sending me a
bunch of free fittings.

Did I mention I bought a back up camera for the truck. It does work slick for hooking the trailer up, but i wanted it for the back of the trailer. Its a joke being "wireless" because it still needs to be wired to 12 volts, and then the
wireless doesn't work well at 30' back on the end of the trailer. I am taking that back today, wat a waste of money. I will buy a $10 'wired' webcam for the back of the truck to hook up the trailer, and just not back up the trailer in
busy areas.

New gate

An attempt at embedding my first youtube vid. Made this for Tom at airbagit.com, just cause I accidentally typed their name into youtube when I wanted to bring up their web site, and there was a negative vid on there about them. But they were so helpful to me, and I am so happy w my airbags, I had to make a positive vid. I picked up another package from the post office today, and the "Post Master" didn't say a word to me.

More related to my life, lets see if I can put my new gate vid on here after this paragraph. Its kinda boring, but I made it for Michelle wile she is in Kelowna.


I am finding it is not too cold yet, but it is still cold to be working in my shop. I love the new extra large fire place in there, Thanks Kim, but I hate leaving it burning when I am done in the shop, and I never spend that long in the shop. That whole shop is a big tinder box and asphalt shingles to boot. Plus I would like more heat. So I am going to make a used oil burner "furnace" that goes inside the fireplace. It will be made from large brake drums, and will get red hot, thats why its going in the fire place, to minimize fire hazards. But it won't throw sparks out the chimney, it won't create a lot of ash, and when I go inside to eat I can shut the fuel off, and hazard is eliminated. I have to work tomorrow afternoon in Vegreville but in the morning I am going to Darelle's wrecking yard, to find some drums, get a hood pin latch for my tractor loader dump, and pull the windshield from the bronco, being in better shape than the Rangers.

I got my steam engine half done today, I need to pick up a couple parts for it in Veg tomorrow, and I can finish it. So excited, which is silly cause it is a simple engine made from beer cans, but it is so cool.

Possom Killer

Why am I attracted to these old project vehicles? This one is being sold on Ebay, as a project, not sure what all is wrong w it, but its stated that it has no heater, and no wipers. It looks cool though, I really like the look. Hopefully its not the square postal look of this truck that I like, because I can replicate most of its look on my ol dodge quite easily and inexpensively. Not sure how best to change the square trim lines to fit the dodge, but I just have to learn to do the faux wood texture and I can paint over the white that I really don't like on my truck. Its funny I never really liked the red and white paint job, and here I have 2 trucks w identical paint jobs, the dodge and the ranger. Once I have another truck going (Ranger), I will retire the dodge to the garage for new paint and motor for a summer. Should be very exciting, I want to start it today, but I have to drive it.

I like this old ice cream truck name too, "Possum Killer Garage". Maybe I will name my company "Possum Killer Electric" and I can do a little drawing of a cute little possum, or possum pelts. I might have a chance at getting that name anyway, and I think it is a bit catchy. It demands a double take.

I have always wanted to make a steam engine, and finally found a simple candle powered steam engine that is used in toy boats and it doesn't take too long to build. Very excited about that, and a new hot tub toy to race back and forth.

I bought new glass latte mugs, which are really nice. Makes the latte feel even more fancy, seeing the distinked layer of foam and coffee. But it really shows what a bad dishwasher I am too, w spots.

Exciting update.

Just for the sake of having a picture, this is from the Toronto Zoo, from this summer. The sting ray/shark petting zoo. Called something like "Manta Ray Bay" Guess its only the sharks and rays that don't have scales, and can be petted.

I got my air bags from the post office on Saturday, without a bribe or fake ID. Of coarse the saturday woman didn't know me, and I hadn't alerted her to the issue at hand. So the truck is all fixed up now, no more axle hits frame bang, on the bumps.

I decided to pull the engine in the Ranger, and called the blockshop to order up a new motor, and they told me they can't even get parts to rebuild my old motor. I got all discouraged and didn't pull the motor. But not all hope is lost. They figure that Mitsubishi probably used a similar motor in a european car of some sort. Because Mitsubishi made the motor for Ford, for just 2 years, and it didn't sell that well, Ford and other supliers have stopped carrying parts. So it is going to take a bit of leg work to track down the parts, and no doubt they will be expensive. I did find some on Ebay, water pump and crank bearings. But I am not going to spend any more money on it till I get the motor out, get the #'s off it and see what Mitsubishi can do for me. If the European diesel trucks and delivery wagons make it to Canada before that happens, the Ranger might get scrapped, or get a 302 V8 or something silly. I'll start that when I finish the lawn tractor loader this week probably.

Michelle has gone to Kelona for 4 days, this week to visit Shireen. She took the bus, a 15 hour drive, kinda crappy, but same price as driving, just a few more hours. Plus her car really needs new front tires, they are rite down to the steel belts. I will take care of that this week, I had thought they were brand new tires when we bought the car, but they must be the original tires the car came with, cause I don't think she quite has 100,000km on it even yet, and no more than 40,000 since she bought it.

Tractor implements.

A week ago, Michelle came home from School on Friday all wheezy and having trouble breathing, so I took her to the hospital. Well they admitted her all weekend, and had her on breathing masks most of the weekend. She came home all better Sunday night, but word had got to her boss, so she had Monday off. She wakes up on Monday morning having trouble breathing, and says "I want my mom to take care of me". So we called her mom to see what she would do to take care of Michelle in this case. She says, "cook a goose, collect the grease, and rub the stinky grease on her chest." After getting cooking instructions I failed to fine a Goose for sale anywhere. Two people had said to talk to the Hutterites, and so I did. On the phone a gentleman said to go to the Hutterite kitchen and ask for Goose Lard, but they could not sell me a goose cause they were not government certified. So I went to the Kitchen, and the Ladies are like "What on earth are you going to cook w goose lard?" I said "My wife has really bad bronchitis" and they got all excited "oooh, I will give you some fresh chicken broth for her to sip on too." So that worked out well, and maybe it even helped clear Michelle's lungs at night.

I almost sold my little Ranger truck for $1000, then the guy talked to a mechanic, and was told any motor w a blown head gasket should have a complete rebuild. So I think I will have to do that, completely rebuild it. I worked out how much fuel I used in my big dodge, and it is quite sick, 28 liters a day, on average. It costs me only $500 a month, because its propane @ $0.60 a liter, and it is hard to compete with that. Anything else I drive would have to get better than 20mpg on gas to cost less. With the ability to tow the new work trailer, a sprinter van is the only competitor. The Ranger only gets 20mpg, but maybe if it was rebuilt it would do better, subsidized w some biofuel, thats big savings. I am going to pull the motor before we leave for Mexico, then put the Ranger back in back yard storage, and park the new trailer in the garage.

Some how I came across front end loader plans for lawn tractors. How cool is that? But after putting a hydraulic pump, and rams on the lawn tractor your looking at $1200+ in cost, not so cool any more. Plus you need rear weights, and the front wheels and spindles need to be replaced w heavy duty ones. I thought a rear loader would be the way to go. I found a "Johny bucket" available online, but it is still a front end deal, and doesn't lift very high at all, plus an $1800 US price tag. It is neat though, theres a 16 sec vid here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DPRnmqv8LY
I had made a 6' blade for the bronco, but never installed it. Since taking 5 hours to try and start the old bronco the other day, I got it hauled away cause it pissed me off not starting. for a test, and functional implement, I cut the blade down to 4' and made a 2 point "sleeve hitch" type thing on the back o my tractor. Last night I had it all spot welded together w my new welding inverter, and I load tested it to 200lb. That is good enough to start building the bucket, though I am hoping it will be good for to lift at least 300lb, I broke one spot weld last night, so with the finishing welds this morning we will see.

New Trailer

I bought a new trailer. I put it in the back yard, but when I went to haul it around front in the little 11hp lawn tractor, I almost went over backwards. I figured I would put a trailer ball on the new hydrostatic 20hp, and I would be able to move it with no problem. Then I thought it would kind of make a funny video with the 11hp popping into gear, doing a wheelie, dumping the trailer off its hitch and returning to 4 wheels on the ground. So I set up for the video, and the 11hp moved the trailer fine, it was somewhat terrifying just about going over backwards anyway.
The trailer is a 2008 6x12 fully enclosed. At 1/10 the cost of a new van, it puts out the same impresion with some good advertising on it. I will start to look like an employee, in my old truck. This trailer will also be helpful for any move we might do. I haven't figured out what I can possiby use the dune buggy for at jobsights, but I wil take it with me everywhere, until I fill the trailer more than half full of electrical goodies.
I think I will paint the name on my trailer myself. If I can find time to go to the sticker place, and see how much it would cost for them to make stickers, I will, but I am sure it will be hundreds of dollars.

Looked closer into new motors for the Dodge, and motor producers agree that I need a different, more expensive engine to run prpane. That just about doubles the cost because I needmore expensive parts in the motor, and it increases the chances
that my heads are not rebuildable, and I won't get core rebates for em. Thats all interesting because from what I read online you can just throw a propane manifold on anything, and that was happening I am sure.

I am looking at a maintanence gig in smoky lake, not sure exactly what it involves yet, but it is looking like 1 hour every day, plus the 1 hour retrun drive. That works out to about $55 an hour, at $40k a year. The wage is acceptable, and it allows for hiring someone to do it at times that I am in mexico and such. There isn't much electrical invoved, it is more like stoking the coal furnace, and changin filters n stuff. Checking all the systems are working. There are
lights everywhere that need replacing but most all of em require scafold to get to, being 20' in the air, and over bleachers n stuff. The job would also allow for me to make electrical offers or proposals on the side, and get great advertising
w my trailer in a busy parking lot up there.

Whats new

What all is new...
Ron has sold his house out here in Andrew, for $240k, which is more than $100k less than they were asking for it initially. Brand new house, brand new garage, and full 9'basement. He was just wining to me about putting his brand new 20hp lawn tractor on Kijiji for $250 cause he doesn't want to move it. Well I gave him $250 rite there. I think he is throwing in a bunch of other bonuses with it too. I'll see tomorrow. I may well make chains and a blade for this lawn tractor, we'll see when I get it in the light, I just saw it in the dark garage over a beer.

Work is slowing rite down, think I might need to advertise or something, if I want to keep working through the winter. I have been trading my one min Bollinger band stratagy for one week, and it does alright. I make more money doing Electrical, but that is all relative to capital. My intention was to make a fancy web site about the trading, wile I traded, because my attention is only needed a couple times an hour. But I get too distracted by facebook and email and never get anywhere w the web site.

I have to decide if I want to be driving into the city every day to do electrical work, and what type of work I want to focus on, where I should advertise. I should look in Lamont, then I could drive in to work with Michelle every day, that would be fun.

I made another drawer in my truck that slides the whole box out, and a small roof over the box to keep most of the snow off. So now I don't have to climb in my truck for anything, which is so nice, almost nicer than a van.

Friend of a friend can't make the last payments on his $15,000 2008 Yamaha V Star, thats a nice bike. I might be able to save his credit and take the bike for the $3000 he owes, which is really exciting, love the bad economy.

We need to go shopping for snow tires. We had a big snow fall already, but it is starting to melt now. Hopefully we are ok for another month or more. I got the sled out. I had put it away w a broken fuel line. I replaced the fuel line, the thing fired up first pull. I love that little sled. I need a 3 car garage these days just for the toys, and my new lawn tractor can't stay outside.

I ordered the air bag to fix my truck suspension, on Ebay, and mistakenly left Katys dads address on my paypall. I eventually got them to send the package to me, but they left Katys dads name on the package. I am putting the energy out there that I won't have to sign for it. I went and checked and they said that they won't give it to me w/o his signature if it is required. Maybe I can pay them $100, is that legal? It will be a real headache and cost me $100 more if I have to order another one just to get it here before my drive to Mexico.

First Real Snow

The snow we got yesterday pretty much melted rite away, but not today. In fact it is still coming down, at 9:30am. Friend from the city just called to say the roads are a nightmare, going 5km/h everywhere. Think I will stay home today, keep the house warm, and trade the Japanese Yen.

Egg nog is in stores already, and I bought a carton out of habit. Then I was totally disappointed w nog n coffee. Did I mention our Espresso machine exploded? So I thought I could will Wallmart to have a cheap espresso machine for me, but it didn't quite work like that. I was in the city yesterday anyway, so i looked up the biggest wallmart on the computer. They had a machine for $60, double what I wanted to pay, but half what the local wallmart sells the cheapest one for. I bought it up and for the first time in years, I read the instructions, which was VERY interesting. We are supposed to "descale" the machine w vinigar, every month basically. A moment of clarity, thats why machines bung up after a year, then we have to CLR em and that probably corodes more than it should. So even our more expensive stove top unit that was sent to Katy in the states, will likely need the descaling after 40 uses. I am enjoying an Egg nog latte today anyway.

I would like to tell Katy there is no rush on the new stove top espresso machine now, but there is still the tentative plan to tow the camper to Mexico for Christmas and the camper is what I bought the stove topper for. That trip will be made solo by me, and I can see if I limit my driving to 8ish hours a day, break it up a bit, and sleep in the camper bed, if I can get away w/o swollen feet. The trip home will still be somewhat of an issue, as I won't take the camper back. This is one place the new king cab trucks are a little better, cause there is a small bench seat in the back that one can sleep on. Perhaps I will take the rear side seats out of my truck and put foam behind the front seats to sleep on. I think the swollen feet are entirely caused by the pressure behind the knee from the front seats.

I think I will have to unpack the sled from the lean to, and see if I put it away broken, I think I did. If I remember correctly it just needs a fuel line or something.

Truck Blog?

Ok I am going to have to change the blog name to my truck blog, I just need a cool old truck to make it interesting.
I actually purchased ed new sheet metal, cut the shape of my fender and welded it on w the new welder, in Arc welding mode. My only complaint is the low amperage rods don't have much metal in em, and they have a lot of flux, so a lot of welds look good untill you sand blast the flux off, then there is no connection between the sheet metal. I ended up doing my own hybrid welding, by using the arc welder and feeding tig rods at the same time, which worded brilliantly, just took a lil more concentration to feed the arc rod wile feeding the tig rod. I have not got the gas or regulator yet for tig, so the arc flux does that job somewhat. Hopefully no welder ever reads this, ha ha.

My knee is 100% again, it bothers me sometimes at the end of a 12+ hour day climbing ladders and running around. I decided to take up running wile I am in AB, entirely for my knee, and the cardio as a bonus. I would like to cycle, but out here in the country at least, there are just too many drunk drivers, and now the first snow fall of the year, cyclists are done for the season. So I have been shopping for runners, haven't got any yet, but I believe Michelle has some, and she wants to run w me so that will make it easier.

Winter is here

First time ever, we get home from work, its freezing outside, no fire in the house, and its above 20 degrees inside. That would be mostly the new attic insulation, but also the hot tub I expect. The heat would never get through the house, like it does now, without the insulation.

Today is Saturday, and I wired a garage today. Michelle Volunteered at the Pumpkin Festival, where the largest pumpkin was 1160 LB. I was rite on w my estimate for the garage, it took the full 10 hours, to wire a 60A load center, door opener, 2 outside plugs, 3 outside lights, 4 counter top plugs, 40A welder, 8 lights, 2 plugs, and a separate light and switch over the bench, along w 4 switches at the man door. It wouldn't have taken so long if the garage wasn't so full of stuff.

I went to Chevy to see what the $8500 cash back was about. Only on new trucks, pretty much over $50k, in the range of the Sprinter Van. I was totally unimpressed w Chevy's truck, and even more w their selection. They aren't even making extended cabs any more. Wanting an 8' box, and room behind the seat, I would need to buy a crew cab, just short of 23' long. One day I will get around to the Dodge dealer to test drive a Sprinter.

I got sheet metal yesterday to repair the rust on my Dodge fenders. I just need to buy a "nibler" to cut it, then make templates and try my new welder.

Attic insulated

The insulation guys just don't have time to come out here to Andrew, and if they came for just our small job there would be a $200 transportation charge, which is understandable, they are coming from Camrose. Very soon you won't be able to get a 2wd truck into the back yard, so I had no choice but to do it myself. I got 50 bags, and a blower on my truck, hired a local kid, it was going to be easy.
Well the local kid didn't show up, so I called him at 10am, and woke him up. He said he would be rite over. Then I had to call him again at noon, when he still wasn't here. He said, "well, your only paying me $15 an hour, and it will prolly only take 2 hours, its not even worth me coming over for that." I told him I had $50 for him and that still wasn't good enough, he said he would be rite over if I gave him $70, lil bastard. So I agreed. Then he comes over and he's all talkin about feeding the machine slow, and I am like, "I am paying you $35 an hour at this point, you are going in the attic" I was kinda pissed, that he had said he would come, and then just pulled that "I want more money, a lot more money" on me.
We got it all done in 2 hours and he went home.
I am lighting the first fire of the year today, I wonder if it will heat the house much faster?

I found a solution to my Lenovo sound card issue. Was actually from a windows media trouble shooting suggestion. My Lenovo won't even play DVDs silently, as it has a sound card warning, it just says there is a problem w the sound device, and won't play. But I found a USB sound card that might work. I ordered one on Ebay for about $6 I really hope it works, then I don't need to buy a new computer yet.

My truck had another suspension air bag rub through and leak, now it sits all crooked with one bag inflated. They don't contact when they are inflated all the way, but then when they are deflated they rub, and perhaps with a big load on the truck they squish out and rub even worse. Maybe I will have to make new mounts for em. I will have to get on that if I want to tow the camper anywhere.

Looking at houses in Victoria, we can't seem to agree on much. We will have to go to the bank and see what we can get for financing. I am not really excited to move to an apartment, so we are trying to avoid that, and looking for a house we can buy.

More talk about Mexico, and bringing the camper down there. That would be an immediate solution to having a place to stay. So we might do that, and leave the camper on the lot in Porta Vallarta. If that was the case, I would leave a week or two before Michelle, in the truck and trailer. Then probablly stay a week after her too.

Its hard coming up w entertaining photos daily

Nothing new and exciting to report. I took an impressive load to the dump today, but I am sure everyone is sick of seeing my poor truck all over loaded.
I find the dump entertaining, seeing all the stuff people throw away. Both our washing machine and drier have failed us now, and were headed for the dump today. Drier first, I did a quick autopsy, to find what caused flames to shoot out the front of the machine and burn up the controls. I found excessive lint on the heater element, had caught fire. Unfortunately the controls were too burnt to bother with.
Then the washing machine. I had already repaired the washing machine once, as the inlet filter was clogged w random scale and bits. Now the problem was the drain cycle, we just get the "locked rotor" buzz, and the water sits there in the machine. We have decided to reclaim the laundry room for spa type space now, with the hot tub, and massage table in there, instead of washer drier, laundry and such. So this washer is going somewhere, whether it is to someone else, or the dump, I had thought the water pump would make a great circulating pump for a hot water heating system too. I found great access to the pump from underneath, and a great big access port, w no tools required to open the pump rite up. Only to find the same culprit, a great big wad off lint, stuck in the pump impeller. So the washer didn't go to the dump. Wile at the dump I jumped off my truck tail gate onto the flat ground and my knee bent the wrong way, causing me the most pain I have ever been in. After sitting down for a wile I unloaded the last of the stuff and went home for a hot tub. My knee has never felt as good as it did in the hot tub, it was nice. It is a little swollen now, and won't go strait, I am walking w a cane, but a tenser bandage will make a huge difference. I do this about once every year or 2, but its never been from a jump, usually just stepping the wrong way. I think I need to start riding a bicycle again to bring the muscle back to my legs.

I had a hysterical time making up a face book profile for our puppy "Gus Gus Smith", because he is so quarrky. He like sorts his kibble into different colors and eats the red ones first. I had to lie and make him 18 cause apparently 2 month olds aren't allowed to have a face book account. Then I just couldn't stop laughing as I invited Michelle to "be my friend" as Gus Gus, I thought it was all hysterical. I have to find more ways to make myself laugh like that.

My jobs are coming along good, they will be boarding the Vegreville house early next week, and they will be painting the Edmonton house rite now prolly done on Friday. Friday I will most likely go to Edmonton and put plugs on and finish wiring the basement and garage there. Same thing in Vegreville but a weekish behind, and a much bigger house. Once they are both sold I am sure Larry has some fun new projects up hi sleeve, but he won't talk about them, cause it distracts from the current projects.

I had a brief worry about this hot tub, "what am I going to do with it when I sell the house?". That was solved so randomly. Because the "current" plan is to "rent to own" our house out to somebody w bad credit, in 9 months, when Michelle is done at te school. So I am on the job talking to the dry waller, telling him how great the hot tub is I just got. He says, "Yeh rite on, me and the wife plan on getting one in a year" Sold rite there, done deal. I don't want renters to have it cause they will turn it into a wave pool, having sex in it or something, rot the whole laundry room floor out and walk

I broke down and got a cell phone. just starting out w the most basic plan, but that will have to change quick, as I pretty much used all my min the first day, calling the gas company to mark their lines so we could dig, and the insulation guys to come do my attic. Plan is to master the cell phone internet, and get rid of this stupid expensive air card for my computer. I got a motorola version of the "Keybo" cell, so I have a full keyboard and all, really liking it. Michelle is having "hello kitty" cell phone drama. She needs to get a real phone. I don't know my # yet, only that it starts w 780-887-xxxx, so if you get a call from that # its prolly me.

I feel way behind on my electrical jobs, since I went to Victoria for 2 weeks. Back to 10 hour days for a wile.

1200km home and all I broke was a strap, then backing the truck into the back yard w the bikes on it I broke my fancy chopper mirrors, w the fancy LED signals, under the pine tree, cause the branches were too low. Oh well its all replaceable.

I pushed Michelle around on the lil red bike and she loves it. I haven't tried to start any of the bikes yet, I've been too busy playing catch up for my boss essentially. That is the contractor that I do all the electrical work for.

Kim's old fire place is much bigger than ours, which is what we wanted, but it looks too big for the hearth that the lil one sits on presently. So for the trouble of building a new hearth and new chimney pipe, I am just going to put the big fire place in the office, or get new glass for the second small one, and sell the big one, I don't know. The big one might even be over powering for my man cave / office.

I got the tig welding kit for my new inverter welder, which is very exciting. But now it looks like I have to buy C02 or Argon, not sure which, the instructions that came with it say "where safety gear". I opened all the unadulterated boxes to see if mine was missing something, but they were all the same. If I find the time I will cut some sheet metal and weld new fender lips on the ol dodge.

Hot Tub

Not a very good pic, but this is the hot tub crammed onto the stucco part of the laundry room/mud room, where the old Barrel stove used to be. We got it in place the same night I got in, and the idea was to fill it from the hot water tank and have a hot tub rite away, but it emptied the hot water tank and took a lot of cold water as well, so it wasn't really warm enough. Michelle got up extra early and had a rushed hot tub before she left for work in the morning though. I even got in the tub tonight w a cold beer, and it was glorious.

I am very happy about the bikes being here, even though I will probably haul them back to Victoria in the spring, at least I can have them all fixed and polished, ready to ride. I feel like I haven't done anything really creative since I moved to Alberta. I feel like my electric bike especially is a masterpiece of engineering genius. My chopper too,and I got a lot of positive comments on the chopper, at the ferries and gas stations, on the trip out. A gas jockey even wanted to buy it from me.
Making my truck run on fryer fat, and building wood strip kayaks from construction 2x4s all ripped down were all very creative and exciting projects. Only the Kayak was with a friend in Victoria, so I can't blame Albertans. I think it is the old house that I always need to work on, and the fact that we drive so much and I always need to do maintenance on the vehicles. I need to fix my bikes up and then come up with a new exciting project. I don't think I will even bother w the 650 chop if we go back to Victoria in the spring.