VW love

Just loving my Jetta.  Waiting for a heat exchanger to come in and it will be running partly on vegetable oil, saving me thousands a year on fuel.  I got kind of cocky thinking with all the lock noises, the Jetta was locking all the doors and trunk for me.  The other morning 3am, my VW factory alarm went off.  CSI Edmonton came to the conclusion that someone opened the unlocked trunk.  So I started locking the trunk.  never another issue until today, and maybe before when it was parked in Andrew, and it had a dead battery upon my return.  Today it has decided to sound its alarm at random time increments after its locked.  I have dearmed it 5 times tonight.  I didn t think it was possible to lock the doors without arming the alarm, but at vwlemon.com, I found many others have the same problem, and the site explains how to lock up without arming the alarm.

The Diesel Voyager is taking shape, but its darn cold out, I still haven t even gotten the old gasser out.  

Here is a quick vid o the VW roof rack.

Youtube

Over 100,000 views of my youtube videos!  I am much more likely to be partnered up now, I just need to apply again.  If nothing else people that watch my videos have made me feel pretty smart.  I also get to help a lot of people.  Most of the help is in comments and emails, but this guy sent me a video, I thought was cool.  This will really tell me how many views my blog gets, cause he didn't have any views, till I watched his video.

In response to that, I have made the DIY Three Point hitch video, hopefully it turns out all rite.  It is of a lesser quality because of the little time I have to do it.

My youtube inspiration Davidsfarm, has been terminated, for violation of youtube's terms and conditions.  Last I heard he was making $14,000 in the summer months, w over 2 million views a month.  I have a ways to go to reach his level, but one day soon.

I got roof racks on the Jetta on Christmas day, wile it was warm.  I will build a trailer hitch this week, just for the flat deck trailer and the dune buggy tow bar.

We had Christmas dinner w a bunch of Andrew people.  The cook is now excited about doing up a rooster dinner, once all the Christmas turkey is eaten.  I have had the bylaw confirmed  "no roosters in the city".  Like the mice, nobody will even take roosters for free.  they are massive and violent.  2lb short of the 14lb turkey we had on christmas.  If all goes well rooster dinner will be next weekend.

I also met a guy from Didsbury who just finished a Lamborghini Diablo Kit car.  Now he is starting a "Little Big Rig".  These things would be a huge hit in AB.  Michelle wants me to build one, and I am of course rite into it, but need to clear up some projects first.

http://www.lilbigrig.com/

The Lilbigrig kit is somewhat disappointing to me, because it is made to "bolt together".  There is no fabrication, metal work, wiring, or innovation required.  Its something that could be built, and sold, without losing money on the materials, but maybe not making anything for your time.  The kit is a little over $15k, and it requires a donor mid 90's Ford F250 diesel.   Driving back and forth to Andrew with a 7.3L diesel isn't really my style.  When I figure out how to profit form this rig, I will build it.  It would make a great tow truck, or toy hauler.  Maybe I could sell it for a lot of money, it would be one of a kind, and therefor hard to know the value of it.

We have a local guy moving in with us this week, and we are on the list for any last min student to move in also.  Our roomate is a local guy,  Eric.  He is really excited about real estate investing, and wants to buy an income property w us.  I love his enthusiasm.  

Grease Car

Filled up w Diesel for the first time.  This car, same as my van, sits idle a lot here in winter.  It gets warmed up, before we go any where, and we are at a much higher altitude than most of Canada.  Plus with these winter conditions, there is a lot of spinning out, working it back and forth to get out of parking spaces its stuck in ect.  I still got 41 mpg, all that said.  Thats 2.4 times as good as the astro van.  One tank of fuel and I am already conspiring to run almost entirely on deep fryer fat.

The plan is to weld up a tire size tank and stick it in the spare tire spot in the trunk, with a gas cap beside the licence plate.  I want to do some cold weather experiments and stuff rite away, so I am going to start off with the 20 liter water jug behind the drivers seat full of fryer fat.  I will see if it can be pumped cold.  I am going to document it all in video pictures and writing, on my fuel miser blog, which I will link to from here.

It was -26 today, the VW wouldn't turn over.  I put my newest battery in and it started like nothing, not even plugged in.  Then I got to work and my cordless impact wouldn't work.  I tried 3 different batteries, tried the batteries in the drill and they were good,  I go through great effort to keep the batteries a bit warm, so they still work..  I couldn't recall ever dropping the impact gun or anything.   Around lunch time I decided to fix it.  Thought I'd make a video, start with the demonstration of the impact gun not working.  Blam it worked!  Good thing I didn't take it apart first.  It must have been frozen too.

Looks like I will be working through Christmas.  I have a 2 services to put up, outside, and its supposed to be like zero deg Christmas day, and boxing day.  Who knows if that will last any more than those 2 days.  That should be all I need.  Good thing I didn't go anywhere for Christmas.

The VW video

New car

So the other day I was emailing back and forth about this Turbo in Camrose, but it turned out I was confused and it was a whole 96 jetta, w 1.9L turbo diesel, that I had emailed in disbelief of the $1000 price, try 10,000 I thought.  An 86 w 750,000km on it is going for $2000.  When I figured it out it was basically sold, before I could drive to Andrew, pull the car dolly from the back, and drive to Camrose.  But then the worst storm of the year, like a foot of snow.  The seller emailed to say the buyer wasn't going to make it.
Do I really need a diesel jetta?
$16 for fuel, instead of $50 to drive out to Andrew.  1000L Free, once the biodiesel reactors going.
Even if I just sell it in the spring for $3500 or something.
It is a standard, which I have been missing.
So I decide I can't lose, the extra insurance cost is covered after 2 trips to Andrew every month.  Road trips to Victoria, and Mexico, fuel cost will be so min, the ferry will cost more to Victoria.
It took a long time, and a lot of work, but my poor 250 sled managed to get the car dolly out of Guy's back yard.  The GPS took me on some range roads to Camrose, you should have seen the snow drifts. You couldn't see the snow drifts really cause its all white, and no defining edge.  One poor Acura was half disappeared stuck in a snow drift.  I wish I got a picture, but I was really just happy to get through it in my heavy work van.  So it was a little terrifying, driving down there.  With the VW in tow coming back, I took a longer route on well plowed highways.  They were still a little sketch on icy corners and stopping, but visibility was good so no surprises, no accidents.  I got the Jetta home in darkness, and the seller pulled his add rite away, so I don't even have a picture to post yet.

OMG I love the Jetta.  I have only one complaint, which is fixable, but caught me off guard.  Being addicted to the large double doubles, and now having a standard, I need to put my coffee down, and it doesn't fit in the factory cup holder, arh.  But everything else, fabulous.  Electric locks all work, built in alarm, 5 speed, tires are acceptable in the snow, the body style is nice, its a dark blue.  Its not the greatest in the deep snow, but what is?  Now I am faced w the paradox of getting stuck on the street in front of my house, or digging "my spot" out nicely, to come home and see another small car owner from up the street parked there, so now my block heater plug doesn't reach.  Block heater is a little more important now w the diesel, so I will just make a big cloud o black smoke working it back and forth, until I can get on the "packed" part of the street.  Edmonton streets are a mess rite now.

We get an $85 fine if we don't shovel the side walk within 48 hours.  But its cheaper to not shovel it than shoveling it onto the street.  Its $170 if we get caught shoveling snow onto the street or alley.

Projects are started

I have started working on my Diesel Voyager.  The Astro van mileage upsets me.  Besides that the Astro van is good, it needs a new block heater, and maybe ball joints, but it has more room and is very comfortable.  In the spring I will fix it up for my back up van, cause we really don't know how well a 1.6L non turbo diesel will pull a 16' 6000lb trailer do we.  I did see a Turbo for sale last night for the ol VW 1.6, if it wasn't in Camrose, I would be buying it this morning first thing, maybe I can get there this after noon, another $80 for gas on the turbo price, to pick it up.

My buddy has a nice 10' fully enclosed trailer, and he only wants $1000 for it, but it has a bent axle, it burns through tires.  Even still I was having trouble finding a 10' enclosed for under $3000.  Every time my 16' tries to kill me on icy roads I have a look.  I really want to buy his trailer, but I feel I shouldn't.  I really need a flat deck trailer for the trencher, or my truck.  Its really hard pull starting the 12hp trencher in a fully enclosed trailer.  My 16' has become a tool shed on the street in Edmonton.  I am even going to put a roof rack on it now for my conduit.  Its not going anywhere till the roads are warm and dry.

Turning the Andrew house into the "cabin" we have been on the hunt for "Antlers" to mount over the fire.  Our neighbor Metro has 4 large Moose racks, that belong to his son, he is working on that for us.  Then we came across a 45" rack in a field, on snowmobiles.  Looks like it was probably shot in November, and some lazy hunter didn't want to track it down.  In the snow, how hard can it be to track fresh foot prints from a bleeding animal, through fresh powder.  I do have a short video of that, when I upload my phone.

Where Do The Dead Mice Go?

Every day I go out to "the farm", I shoot me a mouse or 5 in the shop w the old Daisy BB gun.  I have laser sights now, the mice don't stand a chance.  In my highly organized shop, dead mice go on the floor.  But they never stay there.  Often within an hour they disappear.  I thought this was strange, a good 20 mice have vaporized without a trace, not like I misplaced them, they never show up again.  My only working camera, these days, is my Iphone.  I was able to live without my Iphone for 46 min today, but not a second longer.  Probably just as well, because it was just about to get gory, but I came back for my phone.

New Plasma Cutter

Months ago, I tried to get a bumper cut out of steel at the metal shop, for the new Possum Van.  I wanted them to just whip through it w the plasma cutter, so I could weld it together, around my new trailer hitch.  They wanted $300 set up fee, if they could even do it.  They can't follow a template, its all programmed CNC, through a computer.  So if they can't put angles and diameters to it, they can't even do it.  So I just bought myself a Plasma Cutter.  I have wanted one for years, and they have come down in price about 400%.  I found this Everlast Plasma Cutter advertised on Kijiji, which ultimately put me through to a dealer in Toronto.  I offered them $100 below their listed price, with shipping included, and they accepted.  I got the new plasma cutter for $550 shipped to my door, and they only charged GST, none of that Toronto HST PST BS.  So I was really happy with that, considering the $1000 price tag at Princess Auto and other discount retailers.
My poor compressor isn't keeping up very well, now its crank case clogged up with ice or something and it keeps blowing the oil fill cap off and spraying oil everywhere.  I'll have to bring my good compressor out to the ghetto garage.  But I got a half dozen bed frames cut up for usable angle iron.  Actually I didn't cut them up, but just blew all the rivets out, holding the pieces together.

Stackable Washer Drier DIY

We got this washer and drier just before we bought the new house in Edmonton.  I didn't even get to pull them out of the trailer before we made the unexpected second house purchase.  So they were the first things to come to Edmonton, but they obviously didn't fit in the space provided.  No problem, only solutions here, and I am full of em.  This was my favorite solution, something I have never seen done before.  After months of taunting me on the living room floor, actually having to hang my wet laundry on my drier, I can now dry my clothes.

I just fixed the video, no more 13 secs of darkness

I hate Generators

It looks like I got the 1.5 million dollar house in Glenora, to wire.  He said he was only getting 2 quotes, and was waiting on the second, then he recently said "I have no doubt now that you will be doing the work." inferring that the other quote was outrageous.

We got the furnace going at the duplex, one of them anyway.  Pretty funny really, I'm like "really, Atco hooked you up with this rusty pile o crap furnace."  But I guess they didn't look at it, just turned the gas on.
I have so many heaters now, from my 5 years, the cold doesn't even bother me any more.  I have 240v construction heaters, diesel blower Herman Nelson, all sorts of propane heaters, wood stoves, and coal furnace.  Last night I put my diesel jet engine, Herman in the Ghetto Garage, with the big trailer, and I stickered it up in -16c.  I figure if I can get so much work in Andrew w a crappy broke down minivan in the drive way (video to come) I can get some work in Edmonton w a van and trailer on the street.

I have to bite my tongue w WCB.  I have to get that to do this Glenora job.  Apparently it just eliminates the possibility of me suing the property owner, if I hurt my self wile working on it.  I'm going to be pissed if I have to start wearing steel towed boots again.  I had a momentous burning of them when I quit McMurray and started working for my self.

There is a lot of things going on rite now that I really hate, but don't have time to deal with.  Hopefully I can weasel a little time off to fix them, my van being a big one.  And not having any time for anything being another.

We turned the power off in Andrew, thinking the $80+ monthly distribution fee (whether they distribute any power to you or not) is a little much, and not needed.  I have a 5000 watt Honda Generator, probably has a clogged carb, will not even sputter.  With no time to fix it, I bought a 1000w 4 stroke genny for $100, basically brand new, off a guy.  This thing is truly amazing.  I have my whole house powered by it, lights anyway.  I work in the garage, w grinder, saws, and drills.  But the best part is 4 liters of fuel lasts bout 10 hours or something, I have never even stayed up to see when it runs out of gas.  Anyway, the last night we ran it, it self destructed, leaking oil everywhere.  There is still a little oil in the 2.5 hp motor, so it should be easy to fix, I hope, do you think I have even had time to look to see where all the oil came from.

I will say the 12v charging system on the 1000w genny is next to useless.  charging anything more than an already charged car batter, blows its 12 breaker.  I have blown the 120v breaker cutting thick wood w the skill saw and such, but I find it fascinating that we can function as a house with 1000w, no well pump, fridge, or electric heat, but otherwise, as we were.  Less than $4 in gas often powers the house for 2 nights.   We hope to run the house off batteries soon, but no time to deal w frozen batterys at this point, thats a spring project.

Michelle looks amazing after losing some 60ish lb, and you can see the sexy generator just behind her on the table, before it self destructed.

New Neighbors, Not

We had someone moving in next door!!!  Totally weird, they were moving from the "drug house" 6 doors down. So it was a chain of sketchy dudes walking by the  house w stuff in arms.  We actually sat out on the deck to watch once the entertainment started.  totally random, the land lords daughter pulls up, asks one sketchy dude, "are you moving in here?" he says "yeh"  "oh really?".  Not the guy on the lease agreement apparently.  Well she was just fuming mad.  She came to to let off some steam talking to me "They are so not moving in there?" she says. "that was the guy we evicted last time".  And the drama starts.  Sounds like bout 6 guys wanted to move into the 3 bedroom house.  So after some sweet disputes, daughter yelling at dad "you gave them the keys, let them move in, and you haven't even got the damage deposit yet?" the sketchy dudes were left to move their stuff out.  That was somewhat entertaining, watching them pretty much throw stuff down the stairs, banging and smashing.  So still actually 2 vacant houses on both sides of us, total of 4.   Nobody to complain about our over height fences and roosters crowing.

Fun Neighbors

Yeh check out this pile of crap.  Why do I look at these things.  This Astro van, exactly the same as mine, except the paint and suspension, is up for sale, with a blown motor.  This combined with my Astro crap van, would make the Super Possum Van.  But we all know, I have a truck waiting for its motor thats in the garage, still not completely together, and the Voyager van waiting for its rebuilt diesel motor and trans, sitting in the drive way.  Last thing I need to be doing is buying ANOTHER vehicle that needs a motor install.  I'm still easily sold, hopefully he doesn't call me back, its a sexy van and cheep.

Gas prices are approaching a dollar a liter here, and the Astro van uses almost twice the fuel of the front wheel drive gasoline counterpart minivans.  So I have to get on repairing that old Voyager with the diesel.  That is moving up on my priority list.

I have had a few days off of the duplex, cause someones grandmother died, and the whole crew is related, except me.  Its been nice, I cleaned my van, shot the bow, hunted mice w the BB gun.  Nothing has really changed since I was 15 except I had a pellet gun and I was hunting big rats back then.  I have to get lazer sights for my BB gun, the mice are too fast to get in optical sights, I shoot them off the hip typically

My neighbor Metro gave me a bunch of 1x4's off his farm, now all the canola has been harvested, we could get into the barn.  He was hysterical, at 88, he's going strong.  The guy drives 11 miles out to his farm, alone, with no cell phone, no power out there, 2 wheel drive truck, getting stuck in snow everywhere.  He's losing his balance walking, swinging hammers, prying w prybars, throwing wood around w nails all sticking out, lifting with his back, all at 88 year old speed, but effectively.  I had to really laugh when he told me the wife won't let him go fishing by himself.  This is the same guy, that got his 1920's Catapillar running in the city there, but the clutch was sticky, so when it fired up it started driving, and drove rite over his starter setup trailer, and rolled off the side, planting its self in the lawn like a meteor, and fortunately throwing him 30'.  He didn't find his glasses for a week.  I'll see if I can't put the video of his tractor from before on here.  I got some video of his old farm house too, just another abandoned home stead.  Would you believe we don't have any neighbors in Edmonton, the houses on both sides of us are abandoned, or "for rent", same thing.  Here is Metro and his hand cranking tractor driven starter contraption, again, now totally destroyed, after the cat drove over it.

Hunting Season Is Over

It looks like, if I work my ass off, I can get this duplex wired for the 15th of Dec, then the next big job doesn't start till Jan 15th.  Thats a big 1.5 million dollar house in Glenora, by the way, which I don't officially have yet, but my chances are good.

So we were going to fly to Mexico for that 30ish days.  But I only have enough air miles for 1.25 return tickets, and its all so rushed, and I really just want some time off here.  Work on the house has stalled, so we live in a construction zone, unsuitable to show the university housing.  It seems like we could spend  a month just working on the house, easily.  I still haven't taken the bow to the Sherwood Park Archery Lanes, just 10 min away.  I really want to try my new bamboo arrows, before I make more.  My service van has never been finished.  I got my proximity door lock/alarm screwed up under the dash with the bazillion wires hanging down on the floor, and then the inspector I was waiting for showed up.  I haven't made any shelving in the new van so its on a precarious piling system, that makes it hard to find stuff at the bottom.  

I bought a new plazma cutter, and I have not even had a chance to try it yet. 

Plus its really kind of warm, a pleasant -10.

I invested in the big forced air diesel heater this year, affectionately called Herman Nelson.  I am looking forward to putting that in my ghetto garage, wire up the new plazma cutter, and try not to start a fire.

I went hunting another couple of times, including the last hour of the last day.  Desperate times with 3 tags, and nothing shot all season.  The tag holder almost shot a small doe, which was no baby, but probably young.  It was really down to the last min, we even went 5 min into overtime hunting season, before the bullets were pulled from the gun.  But the Doe never came close enough, and he wasn't confident with the long range accuracy of the rifle.  Although it should have been good for a km away, the scope needed to be dialed in better.  So we never shot anything.

I found a sweet trailer lock on Ebay, but the seller won't ship it to me in Canada.  I have found ways between the Iphone ebay app, and the computer to bid on stuff in Canada, where I am not supposed to, because they don't ship to Canada.  Sometimes they will just figure out the shipping, probably put an extra irritated charge on it, whatever, but send it out to me anyway.   The trailer lock is a guy that will just refund my money, as soon as I pay, with my Canadian address, restating that he doesn't ship to Canada.  One day I will coordinate with one of Kim and Katy's trips to the states and get it shipped to their parents or something.  Until then I will have to do some welding mods to my trailer lock, cause it is really useless.

Scrap Steel

Those cheesy videos got me the "rough in" inspection passed, approved for drywall.
I have a tremendous energy to get what I want.  If only I wanted great riches and fame.  I said, 2 days ago, I totally want that sexy old panel that I had never seen before.  well now I have another service change booked for Dec 8, with a crazy old panel I have never seen before.  Not as cool as the one pictured below, they resemble standard breakers from a distance, but still an interesting bit of history.  If only it was worth something more than 5lb of scrap steel.

Chickens are laying crazy eggs, like 2 a day, but we only have 2 chickens.

Work, Work, Work

et, 

I have never seen a panel like this.  I love it.  I want it.  I want to add it to my museum of old panels, though this is the only unique one.  I haven't got the job yet, but I put a fair price on it, and it is in Lamont County, where it seems impossible to get an electrician to actually do work for you.  So if they have the money, I'm sure I have the job.

Kijiji seems like a good place to find an inexpensive electrician.  I get a lot of calls from that, and everybody is getting 3 quotes.   Rite now I couldn't care less if I get more work, but today was a fun quote.  The landlord obviously put the service in himself, and needed a permit, plus $2800 more work in the commercial building.  I broke it all down for him, with the first thing being the permit, for $600, so we can get power, the last thing being a $400 discount, if I do all the work, and the bill is paid same day the job is finished.  I didn't get my masters to pull permits for work that other people have done, and been paid for.  He was quick to point out that the $600 was unreasonable, if I can adjust that, he would like me to go ahead with the rest of the work, except some outdoor electric sign work I wanted $800 for, he said it was out of his budget, and it could be done any time, for much less in warmer weather.  Before I could get back to him to say, "Consider the $400 discount for paying quickly, a discount from the permit fee",   He emailed me to say another quote came in and he has given the job to them.  Now I have emailed to see what the winning quote is, if he will tell me.  

The whole lot of work I have is messing with my cheap relaxed self.  Spending $50 a day on gas, for the Astro Possum van, getting $10,000 Visa bills for materials and gas.  The van, with a failed block heater, barely starting some mornings.  Driving to work with an accident, and police on every fifth corner, and a few hairy black ice maneuvers my self.  I can't wait to get the Possum Voyager Diesel van done, so I can save like $40 a day in fuel.

Michelle wanted and got Guinea pigs.  In negotiatoins for them, she loses the mice.  I tried to give the mice away to a big snake owner on Kijiji, but they pulled my add saying "in Ontario you can not feed found rodents to snakes."  That was the official answer, when I complained that my add "Mice for snake food" was unfairly pulled.  Its not illegals, you simply "can not" feed snakes wild rodents.

Andrew is one of very few towns north of Reddear, that still use Permit Pro.  Permit Pro is out of Calgary, and they come out to Andrew less than once a month.  We need a rough in inspection to do drywall.  So they are now accepting pictures for the rough in.  I made them a couple of videos for fun.  they are nothing too exciting, but I will post them here anyway.  This is for the duplex in Andrew, I have been wiring.

Iphone Is Still Smashed

My touch screen on the Iphone 4 works surprisingly well still, wile all cracked.  It is only $220 to have Apple replace the screen for me, but it takes an hour, and they are at West Ed Mall.  I hate the WEM.  The thought of spending an hour there, even if I had an hour, I think I just swallowed vomit.

Had a sweet black ice recovery in the old astro van last week.  Hauling the big trailer, and trencher, up the hill out of Fort Saskatchewan's river valley, I hit black Ice and did the van ever kick out, wile the trailer helped push it along.  A little excessive fish tailing, and I recovered.  There was no other traffic at the time.  I had to use all of my lane, half of the oncoming lane, and the shoulder to regain control of the old rear wheel drive piece.  That's with feet rite off the pedals, and going up hill.  Good times.  The trencher was tied down, somewhat poorly, cause its in a fully enclosed trailer, but it was still exactly where I tied it.

I went out hunting w a friend from Andrew, Saturday morning.  Rifle hunting is only for the month of Nov out here.  I was surprised how many people were driving around early morning hunting for dear.  We scoped out a couple of Doe, but wanted a buck, for the rack I think, and only had one tag.  So no bullets fired.

Its darn cold here now.  Somehow a lot of my jobs are outside.  I am going to change that rite away.  I think I will just have to charge more to do outside work in the winter, cause it ends up being really slow, and uncomfortable.  The trencher stopped digging last week, cause the ground froze.  It really happened over night, would dig one day, then not the next.  I have got 2 weeks of work ahead of me, and still more coming.  I would like to shut it off for some time to go to Mexico, but I don't quite know how to turn it back on again.  The flow of work that is.  I haven't gotten to do anything cool lately, besides wire stuff, for other people.  Thats not that cool.  I am taking Monday off, and I still have to meet a difficult inspector.  Maybe I can get my "proximity" alarm wired in the driveway wile I wait for him.

Work Crazyness

You know you've made it when you get the haters, they say.
I am putting a bid on new house construction.  Talking to the builder, I knew exactly where he was coming from.  He said he used to do renovations, but he just got sick of opening places up, finding lots of crap, pointing it out, saying he'll fix it for extra, then the customer doesn't necessarily feel ripped off, but isn't happy about giving up a lot more money than he or she had budgeted for.  Its so much nicer to bring people joy, by taking them out on dune buggies or something.

A fine example was a panel box I moved for a friends sister.  I gave her a fair estimate,  high enough, to account for a little unexpected.  Well the place was full of unexpected time consuming BS.  That all just takes time, if I end up only getting $20 an hour for the gig, oh well, I'm still making some money.  Then I need to call Epcor to disconnect the power.  After I change the supply conductors over, I need to get an inspection, and have Epor come and reconnect.  Little did I know, Epcor won't reconnect the crappy old meter bases.  The customers mast is too low, which I did know, but we weren't messing with.  Now we need to put a new meter base in, we had better put a new mast in, or it probably wont pass the inspection, and won't get hooked back up.  Well that is $500 in materials, I charged $300 to put it in, a total of $800, really cheap.  Well did I ever hear about that, from her, and her brother.  I had told her before hand, $500 extra in materials, I will put it in for $300, normally that would be $1500 installed.  "I thought you said the extras were $500".  This was already practically charity work, but I know she doesn't have a lot of money, so I took another $150 off, whatever.

Almost the same day, after 2 weeks of calling a contractor I did work for, to get paid, I get this email:

Mr. Smith,

As per the recommendation from my solicitor, I am forwarding this response to this invoice. As of this date, this invoice has not been paid for the following reason:
- Wiring for under cabinet lighting run outside of cabinets, and it was stated as being incorrect by the customer.
- Differing plug heights, which was stated as being incorrect by the customer.

Due to the above comments, we have not been paid for the job yet, and until the electrical is fixed by a licensed contractor, at our cost, we will not be paid. The amount for the invoice will be paid within 30 days, as stated as the timeframe in which to pay on the invoice. A GST number and WCB number shall also be forwarded to our office as well, before payment will be processed.


That ruined my night.  What the hell do I need a WCB number for, with no employees.  It was never specified to put the under counter lighting wires in the cupboard, where you can see them, and where plates will rock on them.  Or maybe the lighting wires were supposed to magically disappear, like wireless under counter lights.  The plug height difference must be an eighth of an inch or less.  I offered to fix it, I offered my furniture buddy to buff out any staple marks from under the cupboards, who I would happily pay the $80 an hour to.  He said "the tile back splash hid all the staple marks, don't worry"  That means the wires would have been easily hidden in grout.  With just short of offering my soul to make this better, the contractor admitted these were just 2 complaints on a long list, which the customer wants fixed before he pays.  That is to say, my responsibility is minimum.  Customer is being difficult.  But I still think he has every right to have it made the way he wants it before he pays.  Its not a big deal to put the lighting wires in the cupboards, or adjust the plug height.  But you know if I had put the wires in the cupboard to start with, that would be a complaint, only then I had drilled holes in his new cabinets.  I feel I did the best job I could.

Then I have a big trenching job, out near Andrew, and the trencher just won't dig through the hard soil.  We were standing on it, and all kinds of sketchyness, it just rides up and out of the hard soil.  I put it down to dull blades.  In 2 days I can get back out there, replace the teeth, and try again.

The ultimate upset, bothered me very little, as I have a half dozen checks in my vehicle safe, waiting to be deposited into the bank.  I was at a crappy little service call in Andrew.  "my husband pulled the light fixture down in our bedroom, it sparked and now nothing in that room works, no plugs, or anything."  I said I would look at it for $60, if its an easy fix I would have it fixed, if not, I still expect $60 and I will give a quote and how I would go about fixing it.  I am already late for another job at this point.  the wife is happy with that.  I call the husband, I have to make sure he's home, and has $60, this is Andrew.  He says "I'll give you $60 if you fix it"  I explained the deal, and went ahead anyway.  he had pretty much disconnected everything in the ceiling JB, so it was just a matter of figuring out the switch leg, power wire, and feeder wires and connecting them all accordingly.  Then he brings me a monsterous ceiling fan, the cause of all the problems, he wanted to put a fan up.  I pretty much put my hand out for $60, "your not going to put the fan up" he says.  I simply said I don't have time for that, I would be happy to come back, but I would never put a fan in a ceiling like that, above your bed, without first going in the attic, and backing it up with 2x4 blocking.  I got away with that excuse, and made $60 in 20 min, but dropped my Iphone in the driveway, which shattered the touch screen, grr.  Cost of doing business, but it upsets me because it was at irritating job, that I probably should have said no to, but I somehow sadistically enjoy the challenge, and entertainment of their cheapness.  Had I not stopped there, would my Iphone be broken?  Had I dropped it at the job I'm making $6000 at, the profit margin is still there.

The previous Andrew service call, to "disconnect a dishwasher" you wouldn't believe.  I should have taken a picture.  About 4 layers of flooring up to the dishwasher.  She has got it wedged up at an angle, over the flooring but stuck against the counter.  I got distracted, and tried to help, I actually tried to cut the old dishwasher in half for her with a sawzall, but got too close to her precious cupboards and aborted that mission.  then I focused on the disconnect, yup, rite in front, just on the edge of the raised flooring.  Good luck getting the dishwasher out, your going to have to remove the counter, or the flooring, neither of which were an option in her mind.

I am utterly disappointed we can't shoot the bow in the back yard in Edmonton.  I was joking when I mentioned bb guns, but it got Michelle excited, so I bought us BB guns, that were on sale at Princess Auto.  She got a pink one, and I got a camouflage one.  So there are bb's all over our basement floor now from Michelle missing the target.  I am surprised they don't penetrate drywall.  Our basement drywall already needs a lot of love, and redoing, so no harm done.

Swamp gas

Do people really believe "swamp gas" blew up potentially the most profitable hotel in Mexico. We were supposed to be at Rons wedding at that very same resort in march. Pretty happy we didn't go for the advance purchase "deal". We'd have tickets to stay in the crater or something.
Yet another strike against staying at all inclusive resorts

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The Possum Fleet

Buggy's Last Day In The City

We recieved our parking passes today, one for the van, and one for the trailer.   They are strict, limit 2, non transferable, licence plate printed on them and all.

We successfully towed the sand rail out to Andrew, dispite a wheel falling off on the highway, and having to chase after it on foot  It would have been a brilliant video.  I said "oh shiznit, the wheel" (thought I had a flat acctually), and I pulled over.  As I pull over, Michelle says, "its OK, I can see the back wheel in the mirror."  I said, "its not the rear wheel I am worried about, THATS OUR FRONT TIRE PASSING US"  Stupid VW lug bolts, they are always too tight and break, or too loose and falling off.   It made a very graceful journey at 90 km/h crossing 3 lanes of traffic, getting rite up on some unsuspecting rear bumpers, but no contact as it crossed the lanes.
A pic of buggy's last day in the city

The "racist" town of Andrew just threw a big surprise party for a black Muslim store owner who just got his citizenship to Canada. That was very nonracist of them. Tho there was one lady that obviously didn't realize the party was for "the colored boy" as she put it. I think she was a bit horrified. It was amusing for us to watch as she would play musical chairs. Once an "undesirable" sat at her table, she would pick her chair up and move to a new table. It got difficult for her cause half the business owners are not white Ukrainian, and being social. .

No time to make an action packed vid.  some 3 days after I started this post, I have my, larger, astro van packed with materials, top to bottom, and passenger seat, just for the next weeks installs, then another week of worked booked after that too.  I have lost all comprehension of "what I'm doing tomorrow".  Check the calendar.  Going out to Andrew to get the trailer next week, I can't even get to my tools currently, without pulling out a half dozen rolls of wire, 20 pot lights, cases of electrical boxes, ridiculousness.

City Life

City life is soooo busy.  To top that off, I have the dead "possum van" in the Andrew driveway, and I keep getting calls in Andrew.  So much for enjoying my weekends off, in Andrew, putting the Ranger back together and stuff, I have to work.  I pulled my Kijiji adds, when the van died.  I am not putting them back up any time soon either.  Oh one guy, in Andrew, saw my van, remembered the catchy name, but not the phone number.  He googled me and got my website, possumelectric.com, and emailed me (no search engine optimization needed with a name like that)  I haven't updated that website in like 12 months, and I wasn't really serious back then.

I got a $50 ticket for parking in front of my house last weekend.  I had asked the realestate agent, if the previous owner would pass on the parking permit, he said we didn't need one, but I'll be getting one this week

I got the stickers made and put on the new "possum van".  I just decided to get it done one night, and emailed a dozen places online late at night.  The first two responses, at 7am were the greatest.  One was $135, and another $200 installed.  After 7am the quotes went for a crap, they ranged from $300 to $650.  Truly amazing.  I got top quality 7 year vinyl and installed them myself for the $135.  I'll be getting many more stickers made by this guy.

I am not allowed to build a garage behind the Edmonton house, cause frankly The ere isn't room, and it will be up against the living room window, or kitchen window, and probably the back door.  So I just built a garage, a temporary one anyway.  It went over surprisingly well.  The new sand rail is in the new garage rite now, but I will drive that to Andrew, as soon as I get plates on it, and bring the ranger motor to Edmonton, where I can plan some time to work on it.  I have told myself, "no working on the sand rail until the Ranger runs".  Its only been like 5+ years and $4500 to get this far on the Ranger, I should get it together already.  It will be a great trenching truck.  Almost needed a 4x4 to pull the trencher out of some mud today.



We were really excited about Halloween this year.  We bought apx 300 individual candies for the trick or treaters.  We dressed up and hung out in the living room at our new dinning table.  We got 4 trick or treaters, and one of them stole the cool skull ornaments in the front yard.  Here is us in costumes, with our friends we had over.  I am in the alien mask.

Halloween neighbor

One of our many crazy neighbors, in Edmonton.

The new van is getting outfitted slowly but surely.  When I got it, the back end was relitively high compared to the front.  Its pretty much loaded now and its just leveled out, so I shouldn't have to add air bags to it.  If I wasn't so desperate for a van same day I would have got the Astro van for a lot less than $1000.  It blows fuses like popcorn.  No big deal, electrical issues, but it is a big deal when its night time and I have no lights, its raining and I have no wipers.  Thats all fixed now, but sheesh.  The gas mileage is half that of the minivan. I always wanted an astro van, now I can't wait to fix the Voyager, to get my good (VW diesel) mileage. 

I made a trailer hitch, out on the street, till 4 am, welding and grinding away.  No complaints yet.  I had to get a hitch welded up so I could do a trenching job I booked before the Catastrophic Voyager failure.  I'm trying to get vinyl cut out for the new van, I feel like the name on the van is where I get all my work from, though I don't really know where it all comes from, but I keep getting more.  Flat out this week.

The new van

Sunday Morning, the Voyager gave up completely, no surprise.  I almost shelled out $6500 for a 2005 Astrovan, with shelving and all, but I was really disgusted with the white paint roller job over the previous company stickers.  I didn't feel I should have to do paint work for that kind of money.  I also had trouble getting $6500 out of the bank machine on Sunday.  That put me on the Astrovan kick again, I always wanted one.  If this guy wasn't lying to me, I really have no way of knowing, I got a way better deal anyway.  The Astro van I found, 1989, got a new engine 2 years ago, has mag wheels, blah, blah, blah.  20,000km on the engine is pretty sweet, no way of proving that though.

There are some issues with the van, broken door handle, key doesn't seem to work in the back door and stuff.  But over all it seems like it will be better than the old Voyager.  And most importantly I can get to work this morning, being Monday.

Minivans, Sheesh

Well maybe my transmission shudder was a little more than fluid.  Its finally gone bad on me.  Its about time the way I treat the thing, hauling the 6000lb trailer around and such.  That trailer is parked for winter now, unless I get brakes for it.  Its supposed to snow Monday.  Hauling the 1000lb trencher around today, on the feather lite flat deck, out of the river valley, the only hills in Edmonton.  Get a green light, and it didn't want to go.  I'm thinking thats normal, I don't really live in a reality, with hills, first hill I have hauled a trailer up in months.  I had to really step on it, and it went up the hill, but now it doesn't want to shift out of first, irritating.  Its getting that VW motor ASAP.  In the mean time, dozens of late 90's caravans for $500-1000.  It looks like I can even be picky, and hold out for white, needing a vehicle, like tomorrow.

I am getting busy, especially for not trying to be.  I want to fix this new house, build the fences, blah, blah, blah.  Phone doesn't stop ringing.  I am going to hire a call center or get Michelle on that.  I get kids looking for work all the time too, I am thinking 2 vans will be an asset, and likely in use soon.  So I have to go through the whole 2 week van construction process again now, and install:
Power locks
alarm
axillary batteries
1500 watt inverter (temporary power)
tool drawers
2000lb airbag suspension
trailer hitch
trailer light wiring
brake controller
satellite radio hard wired
GPS hard wired
excessive interior lights (off aux batteries)
locking roof ladder racks
Amber beacon strobe lights
seat covers
head ache rack
conduit compartment
electrical tape hooks
rear step/spare tire mount
the name painted, or stickers on the sides and back
an extra 6 cigarette lighter 12v plugs
Lap top suspension mount
Printer suspension mount
mobile attached filing system
combination floor safe (welded in)
Extra 2 cup holders (total 4)
business card holder
Iphone cradle/FM transmitter
Overhead console
Remote starter
interior shelving for wire and everything
Blah, blah, blah
And you ask why I don't lease a vehicle.  Don't ask again.  All that takes a long time to put in, and I consider it all as needed.  I don't think any of it "increases the value" to any mortal human, only me.

On the more fun side, I played a little hooky last week to look at a cheap sand rail, for Mexico.  Everybody wants me to take a dune buggy to Mexico.  I have Michelle's approval, for the open concept kitchen, with dune buggy parking when we come back to Canada, so I simply have to get a dune buggy down there.  the hammerheads are limited in speed to 65km/h unless I really spend a lot more money on them, and they start eating drive belts when you do that.  The drive belt breaks enough as it is.  So I looked at this machine.  I will probably buy just after Halloween, when The owner gets back from work.  I pretty much had to skip out from work, to catch him before he flew off to McMurray at 3pm last week.  I am a little worried about the flywheel thing.  I remember people always wanted the 66 and 1967 beetle transmissions, cause they are the only non CV joint (old style) that fit the 12v flywheel.  So I'm just going to assume this has that year trans in it.  Comes with a "running" 1500, ready to bolt in.  There are a good half dozen around here for sale, all over $6000, this one $1000.  I'll just get it running, rip up the neighbors grass, and finish it in Mexico.

Mice!

There was a point I was looking forward to rototilling garden plots in the spring w the tractor. Just $60 a plot would prolly average a lil over $60 an hour.

Now I got the trencher, and I charge $2.50 a foot, it easily makes me $200 an hour.  But it doesn't seem like enough. The $2000 dirt chain is streaching fast.  I did get it used, but if I only get 10 $200 jobs out of it, before I have to replace the $2000 chain, well then I didn't make anything.

I upped my minimum rate to $200. So I might make $400 an hour this week with a quick half hour trench. I am going to call around and see what everyone else charges. If my rates are not too low, I will just assume I got a bit duped on the unit, and it's pretty worn out. Nothing $2000 and a bit of welding won't fix.

I am broke this month. Conditions to get our mortgage included "paying off my line of credit, and my credit cards". I sincerely said," no problem, I pay off my credit cards every month in full.". I was so sincere that he took the credit cards off the condition. That is good they did, cause I am just about $8k short this month to pay them off.

I have a lot of work this week.  It's mostly people that see my van. I park in the contractors parking at home depot, and buddy asks me to rewire his house.  Contractor building a house next door to our Edmonton house, wants me to wire the next one he has started building.

Our neighborhood is pretty entertaining. We have a prostitute that works the corner rite by our house. I don't even need to watch her, I can listen to Michelle watch her for entertainment. "that guy is driving a minivan, I bet he has a wife n kids at home"

I canceled the Andrew internet.  That was a great moment for me. "why are you cancelling our service?" "Because I hate you, my service didn't work for 6 months, you were suposed to credit my account, never did, you have been debiting my bank account for 5 years, which I never gave permision to do, dispite multiple calls to the billing department that I never get through to, and trying to charge me $80 for a service call for you to come out and fix your equipment is so BS"

That bank repo condo wiring gig I did, where I felt guilty, bidding $1200 for 6 hours work.  Well I found out today that my electrical bid, after the contractor added his 10%, still came in $3500 below the lowest bid.  People are gouging out there like crazy.

I catch 3-4 mice a week, live and dead, in my shop.  We tried keeping 2 in the hamster cage after Chester died, but they escaped at night.  We sealed up the weak points and a new mouse climbed through the 1/4" space in the bars right in front of us.  So we now have 3 mice in the fish tank.  Michelle loves them.

I did a short confusing video to show the new mice and the bucket they got stuck in.  They also get stuck in the deep fryer fat buckets, I am getting sick of filtering them out.  Trying to keep a lid on the fryer fat these days.

This is a picture from the back door of our new house, "the alley".  There is a semi truck picking up bottles from the shantytown bottle depot behind us.  I just took the fence down, because it was rotten and leaning at about 45 degrees.  Here in the picture, you have paving stones to the edge of our property line.  My trailer is backed in rite against the side fence, and just fits, with this "chicken coop"/ tool shed.  We were going to haul the shed out to Andrew, cause it is half our back yard, but it weighs a ton.  Three of us could not lift one side, so it stays, or gets destroyed.  It will be our new "urban chicken coop".  The roosters can stay in Andrew.

I salvaged the top half of the 6'6" back fence, to make a 4' fence in the front yard, to keep the dogs in.  That is almost done, I painted all the boards after work the last few days, put the posts in this evening.  Michelle has been busy pulling up the "cat pee" carpet, and painting upstairs.  We are talking about making a steel fence in the back yard, Mexico style.  We will see if I can get some cheap steel somewhere.

Redwater Trails

A Map Of Redwater Dunes

Did say I  that I got the Dazon buggy locally here, for half the price of new?  We insured and registered that machine, and took it out to the Redwater sand dunes yesterday.  The dunes were great, and better than I expected for tours.  There was well marked trails, with a map in the parking lot.  I tried a different "staging area" in the sand, and got the van stuck.  I almost had to pull the van out with the dune buggy.  But some back and forth, getting a run at the soft stuff, got us out.

I went over a scale the other day, within 20lb of maximum capacity :).  I had a Hub failure on the back of the minivan anyway.  I purchased new bearings, and they told me, "Voyager, Caravan, exact same bearings, hubs ll be the same".  It was a beautiful day, with the van on blocks, I took the motorbike to the wrecker.  There are a lot more Caravans, and that was the first thing I came across, so I pulled a rear hub.  It came off with the drum and wouldn't separate without a hammer (limited tools on the bike).  So I purchased it as a drum, $20.  Got it home, put it on, fit like a glove.  went to put the wheel on, nope, caravans have a bigger bolt pattern.  Fortunately it was the same as the ol Ford Ranger, so I got the Ranger spare to fit.



Here is a picture of the new Dazon buggy on my "tent trailer" flat deck, and the van with a Ford Ranger wheel and tire on the back.

 

Other recent events:

I am almost recovered from hanging on to a telephone pole with enough strength to hurt myself.

Michelle hit a fox on the highway, totaled the front bumper of her car.

The 2 seater for single seater buggy trade has fallen through.

The new house has an MMA place across the street, I will take some classes.

ATV Swapping

Thats it, no more accepting work up poles.   I have trouble saying "no".  I want to help everybody.  I did say no to someone that wanted your standard city light changed out on a steel pole.  I simply can't carry a ladder long enough.  The minivan back door has to open, and over a 20' extension ladder hangs over the front too far and caves the roof in.  But people keep having these 30' wood telephone poles I need to get to the top of.  My eyes lit up when Shane said he had a set of spurs.  I was really excited to try them out.  Not being familiar with them, I still don't understand what was going on with the belt, I could not get it tight enough.  I nearly slid down the pole like a fire man.  Funny how it didn't really hurt, hanging on for dear life, but when I got to the ground, I was pretty soar, I feel pretty alive now though.  So I am not sure that I will be buying a set of spurs at this point.  A little practice, they would be sweet, and replace a 40' ladder, at 1/5 the cost, and weight.  I got my mishap on video, but it is really just a silhouette.  I'll post it up next time.  For today...

I am focusing my energy on buggy tours.  What kind of dreamy life would I have, to be paid to take the dune buggy out on the weekend, and paid well.  I have been in comunication with a gentleman that owns a Carter 250, for some time.  He has serious axle problems.  I feel like a jerk, not telling him where to get an axle, maximumparts.com, but we don't know that a hammerhead axle would fit for sure anyway, and he is a layman that can't weld.  He has been trying to fix it (get parts) for 2 years.  I said I would fix it for $1000, no go.  So I finally offered to trade him the 110 single seater for his broken 250 two seater.  He is very interested in that.  Here is the vid I just made for him.



Once that deal goes through, I have another trade w another dude, the new $50 110cc quad we got last weekend, for this dudes hardly used 150cc dirt bike.  What do I need another dirt bike for you ask?  What do I need a quad for?  At least the dirt bike will make a pair, with the 125cc dirt bike I got last weekend.  The quad is sort of odd man out there.

We take possession of our new house tomorrow.  Insurance has been a real dickaround.  I have gotten 7 quotes, from $1800 to $400 for house insurance we need before we take possession.  The average price was $800, they say we are insured for $300k, contents, blah, blah, blah.  The $1800 and $400 were ironically the same broker.  I said, as I said to all the others, "look, I'm not interested in content insurance, the house isn't worth $300k, its $135k, lot value, if it burns down, I will be selling the lot and on my marry way, I don't want you to rebuild the place, but the bank wants you to pay them the mortgage money before I can do that, so insure me for $135k."  The other 5 brokers all said "it will cost $300,000 to rebuild, its illegal to under insure a place, contents are automatically included."  Except small town Andrew, "sure $400"  of that $40 is my 1 million dollar liability insurance.  I said you add a million liability on my Andrew house for $40.  Thats next on the agenda.  They want to inspect fire places, and there is boxes everywhere w moving and all.

The Dune Buggy Tour Business Plan

I have been working on the business plan, and all that goes with it.  I checked out the Redwater sand dunes, they are awesome.  I am very disappointed that I haven't found any maps of the ATV park.  My insurance company outright refused to give me insurance for "such a risky business", but I am sure someone will want to take my money to insure me.

Here is what I have so far for my business plan.:

Executive Summary

There is a possibility for an exciting and profitable new business Alberta.  M&M Outdoor Adventures will provide guided dune buggy tours, through the 5000 acre ATV park of Red Water

For slightly more than $200 customers (custies for short) can come for a 2-3 hour guided tour of the ATV park.  The advantages for them would include, not getting lost in the 5000 acres alone.  Not worrying about breakdowns.  Not needing an ATV nor a truck to haul it with, we don’t care if custies show up on bicycles.

The target market for this business would be the approximately 780,000 Edmonton residents and beyond.  Locals to Red Water most likely own ATVs and are familiar with the park.  We are targeting city folk, and foreigners that don’t have, or didn’t bring their ATVs out to Alberta.

Even fewer people have driven dune buggy “side by side” style ATVs.  We make it possible to truly experience them in a serious off road, but safe environment.  We would start off buying used buggies, for approximately $3500.  The average buggy would be paid for in its first summer of tours..

In year one, M&M Outdoor Adventures would attempt to do 50 tours with 4 buggies plus guide, a tour, grossing $50,000.  Year two we would build another truck and trailer, with another 5 ATVs, possibly quads, for another tour group.

Assuming an average purchase price of $3500,  a 50 tour season, $300 for the tour guide (me J), a 6-7 month riding season would gross $50,000.  Driver/tour guid costs $15000.  Dune buggy cost $17500.   Labor and repairs are volunteer work (by me J), and the company makes $17500, less maintanence parts, gas, insurance, helmets, water bottles, truck and trailer.

1.1 Objectives

1.     Do 50, 4 buggy tours in year one, possibly build a 4 buggy trailer, and expand that.

2.     M&M Outdoor adventures will be fully self sufficient and profitable by year 2.

3.     Possibly expand to  8 buggies, two of which are driven by tour guides, by year two.  From there add another truck and trailer, or a three ton car hauler style.

1.2 Mission

M&M Outdoor Adventures will provide exciting dune buggy tours at a very competitive price. M&M Outdoor Adventures will service its customers first. M&M Outdoor Adventures will be a profitable business which will treat its employees fairly, and provide financially for its owners.

1.3 Keys to Success

1.     Good customer service and value.

2.     Affordable tour prices.

3.     Reaching the target market.

4.     Integrity in serving our customers; resulting in repeat business.

Company Summary

M&M Outdoor Adventures will provide guided buggy tours to locals and tourists alike.  Allowing an affordable alternative to buying an expensive high maintenance dune bugy . M&M Outdoor Adventures will provide the tours for little more than the monthly payment of the expensive ATVs.  There is no current business like this I know of in ‘alberta.  The target market would be the approximately 780,000 residents of Edmonton to start with.

There are thousands of workers that come to Edmonton for a week off, looking for adventure, from Fort McMurray.  This would be just one of the other possibly thousands of potential target markets.

Keeping to used Hammerheads, or new Geovanni buggies, M&M Outdoor Adventures would be profitable in its first year, even if we decided to hire tour guide drivers.

2.1 Start-up Summary

M&M Outdoor Adventures will be funded by a small loan to Michelle, Malcolm Smith, and volunteer labor by Malcolm Smith. The majority of the funding will come from past buggy and truck purchases, plus possibly loans backed by starting assets, and or the Andrew shop/house. The cost of the start-up, including inventory, legal expenses, and advertising, will total $10,000ish. We anticipate that this company will start generating immediate cash flow.

Requirements
Start-up Expenses
Legal	$500
Stationery etc.	$150
Brochures	$?
Consultants	$?
Insurance	$500
Rent	$0
Registration	$550
Expensed equipment	?
Truck	$1500
Total Start-up Expenses	?
Start-up Assets
Cash Required	$10,000
Start-up Inventory	$10,000
Other Current Assets	$60,000
Long-term Assets	?
Total Assets	?
Total Requirements	?

Start-up Funding
Start-up Expenses to Fund	?
Start-up Assets to Fund	?
Total Funding Required	?

2.2 Company Ownership

The official name of this company will be M&M Outdoor Adventures incorporated. It will be a corporation. The reason that the company will incorporate will be for tax advantages and to decrease liability.

2.3 Company Locations and Facilities

The company will be located in Andrew, AB. This location is ideal because of the need for inexpensive shop space, and storage. When M&M Outdoor Adventures is successful, which we believe that it will be, more buggies can be added to the tour, and possibly old buggies could be rented out.

Services

The main service that this company will provide will be weekend dune buggy tours. In addition to this, the company's secondary services will include such things as ATV safety classes and accessories.

3.1 Competitive Comparison

There are currently no other competitors in this market. The only competition that M&M Outdoor Adventures expects will be from high overhead ATV stores, and awkward, uncomfortable quads. It would be very difficult for anyone to offer such exciting tours at a price competitive to ours, with the large easy to handle hammerhead buggies we have.  If we find there is a weekday market we will start offering tours every sunny day.

3.2 Sales Literature

The only sales literature that M&M Outdoor Adventures will distribute will be via newspaper publications. We have no plans for a direct mailing plan, although one is possible in the future.  Also a website targeted to Edmonton, and some well searched atv key words.  Expect the website to be finished, with action pictures, by June 2011. 

Paraphernalia such as bumper stickers, fridge magnets, and Tee shirts will be printed, with a custom logo, website address and 1800 phone number, tied to Malcolm’s phone, but could easily be changed to tie to any ones phone.

3.3 Future Services

It is possible for M&M Outdoor Adventures to expand into the electric vehicle market in the future if some clapped out buggies are suited to conversion.  We believe that this will be positive for us because we already will have an established customer base who is interested in low cost or environment friendly ATV adventures.  Also the shop has plans to be self sufficient and off the grid with its own solar and wind power, the summer of 2011.

 Market Analysis Summary

We see this market as mainly made up of city folk looking for adventure.  Since the majority live 70km from the 5000 acre ATV park, its not too far to drive out for an unbeatable adventure. We also anticipate getting a small amount of customers that are tourists to Edmonton, and outlying areas.

4.2 Market Growth

We anticipate that this market will grow in two ways. First, it will grow as more people hear about us, and spread the word about what an exciting time they had at such a reasonable price. Second, it will grow with the SEO (search engine optimization) of our website.  The longer the site is up, and linked to, the more interested people find it, without even looking for it.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

The following sections will outline the Strategy and Implementation plan for M&M Out Door Adventures.

5.1 Marketing Strategy

The main marketing strategy that we will pursue will be to make potential customers aware of us via internet. We will advertise in papers as the budget allows, and advertise online with the website, Teeshirts, fridge magnets and stickers.  All customers will get an M&M Outdoor Adventures bumper sticker, with the website address and 1800 #.

5.1.1 Distribution Strategy

The method of distribution for this business would be to transport the buggies every nice weekend to the ATV park, via 1 ton pickup and trailer.  5 buggies, 4 on the truck, one on the trailer, until we get a bigger trailer.

5.1.2 Marketing Programs

In order for M&M Outdoor Adventures to reach its first year goals, it needs to show people how much fun the dune buggies are.  We will do this through youtube videos, also branded to our site.  People must see others on our dune buggies having a great time.

5.1.3 Pricing Strategy

We will price our products at a level that is affordable for the working class and that provides financial substinence for the company and its owners. The tours will be priced at $214, or $292 with a passenger over the age of 16, consider that an average price of $250.  We would offer some group rates when we get more buggies, at $1000 for a tour with all the buggies loaded.  Accessories would be offered above cost, but at a reasonable level, including tee shirts, hats, stickers and fridge magnets .

5.1.4 Promotion Strategy

This business will be successful only if the target market knows about M&M Outdoor Adventures how affordable Buggy tours can be. M&M Outdoor Adventures  will advertise online, at ATV stores, West Edmonton Mall,  on local bill boards and papers.  We will try some promotions such as  free buggy tour contests and free safety courses.

5.2 Sales Strategy

Since the main part of the business will come from customers ready to ride, there will not have to be much direct selling. We will use knowledgeable sales people to assist any customers who have doubts regarding driving dune buggies in dirt and sand.  The sales staff will know the benefits of the dune buggies and explain this to the potential customer. Some customers will worry about the safety and whether or not they can drive buggies with no experience. We will service this customer with safety and instructional classes before each tour.

5.2.1 Sales Forecast

We predict that there will be variation in monthly sales forecasts, but we expect to do 50 tours our first year of operation.

5.3 Milestones

In order for M&M Outdoor Adventures to be successful, we must have attainable goals for the business. When looking to the future and growing the business, we can look at these goals and milestones as an indicator of where the company has been, is going, and the path that it is taking. They can guide the future of the business. These are detailed in the Milestones section.

Milestones
Milestone	Start Date
Open Shop For Business	3/1/2011
First Tour	3/1/2011
Average month	$8333
Be debt free	9/1/2011
Totals

Management Summary

As this is a small business, there will be no real management structure except for the owners. They will run the business on a weekend basis and oversee all facets of the operation. Assisting Them could be various employees who will work the shop, and do tours on a part time basis.

6.1 Personnel Plan

There is really no plans to hire until the demand for our tours exceed our willingness to go ATVing.  When that is the case we would probably get another set of buggies, truck and trailer, maybe even shop space in Redwater.  At that point, and even to start, I think the company putting on tours can easily pay wages close to minimum wage, with some sort of profit sharing.

Drivers duty includes driving truck n trailer to redwater atv park.  Unloading ATVs, greeting customers, and taking payment. Sorting out helmets. Giving a brief safety instruction before the tour. Guiding the tour, stopping frequently to let people catch up. If any buggies fail, lock them up, give up the guides buggy n continue guiding on the pit bike off the back of the guide buggy.. Then at the end, inform custies if there is an opening next tour, they can go again for half price. If someone had a breakdown give them, or possibly everyone a free tee shirt, maybe a tour voucher, depending on how badly the tour was interupted. Then with 1 hour to the next tour, retrieve any broken buggy,clean any muddy seats, and prep for the next group. We could do up to 4 tours a day. 9am, noon, 3pm, and 6pm. In between tours, and in empty slots, buggies get fueled up, fluid checks, and washed. At the end of the day, the buggies are hauled back to Andrew, where they are washed, the seats at least, on Saturday nights. They get a good going over on Monday.

After we get more than 4 buggies in the tour, we will have another person bring up the rear. The rear guy (caboose) would carry the pit bike and have mechanical knowledge of the buggies. The caboose would give up their buggy to anyone broke down, then attempt to repair their breakdown. Or take the pit bike back to the truck, where he takes any available buggy out to tow the break down back to the truck.

Financial Plan

All of the monies necessary for the start-up of this business will come from the owners, and possibly a small loan.