Putting Up A New Fence

I bought all the materials the roof of the van could handle, 56, 10' boards. It will just about do 30' of fence. We will cut the top off nice and strait when it is all done, so far we have just been painting boards, and tackin em into place.

The 6v motorbike battery is taking longer to recover than I would expect, but I doubled the amperage on it today, so if its not recovered tomorrow it may not recover. I did get the bike to turn over with a couple of 6v gel cells from the cheap Canadian Tire cordless spotlights. But wile Michelle is off for spring break we are going to get this fence up, so the dogs can't run off any more.

I made 3 vids today, so far. That is the editing of 3 vids. I could make many more vids each day but editing, converting, then uploading just takes too long. I will just put the most exciting vid up here. That is my manganese sulfate experiment. It seems to have worked. It will be very exciting to see if the little battery will crank the bike over tomorrow.


If you want to see all my videos you can go to my pacificcloud channel here

Vegas Pro

I got a hold of Vegas Pro 9, and loving it. I can spend way more time editing video now, but make serious quality. I am disappointed that windows 7 Movie Maker, doesn't have the ability to change the speed of videos. You used to be able to in XP. Anyway with Vegas, I can do that and a whole lot more. I made a brief little intro. So my first vid w the new software, pulling the bikes out of the barn in my "mad scientist" lab coat.

Boring Day

The snow is back, like it was never gone, and its back down to -10 outside. I have to be seriously motivated to work outside in the cold. Instead I went to town to do some banking and get my brake parts. Michelle had booked me in at her school for a hair cut with the "Cosmetology" teacher. They also had a perogy lunch.

Positive Influence

I have positively influenced at least one person! Talking to someone the other day, he said "I wish I could accomplish half of what you do! I took my big screen TV and X-box, and put them away in boxes, so they aren't even an option any more. It was so easy to lose 4 hours a night to them." That was nice to hear. Hopefully, with my growing youtube account, and blog, I can be an inspiration to more people.

Today I got the last 3 electric remote locks installed on the minivan. The sliding door was a real bee-otch. It never did unlock well, and surprise, surprise, it didn't unlock well with electric solenoids. See how I scabbed that up to make it work, in the video. Hopefully it keeps working.

Advertising On My Van

By painting my van, this is what I mean. Its not nearly finished, but it requires above freezing temperatures. This is one of those vids that needs music, but youtube isn't co operating rite now, so it will be quiet for a few days.

The 110cc buggy runs again

Today was unreasonably cold, -8 deg C. I couldn't finish painting the van in the cold, so I continued w the spring cleaning. I took the quonset down, and under that was my dune buggy waiting for its new piston and cylinder. There is no available shop space for the buggy rite now so I thought I would just put it together. I had been procrastinating because of the unknown. I don't know what to align where on the timing marks, nor where this timing chain roller was exactly supposed to go.

I basically didn't turn the motor over, and didn't take the timing chain off the sprockets. I figured out where the roller went, though it was a bit sloppy. I just now realized where the left over bushing goes, it goes on the chain roller, oops. I think I should order a new chain roller anyway. Back when we wrecked the engine, I got it so hot it melted most of the plastic parts. The chain roller was also affected. It will be ok for a few short trips around breaking it in. It should be a 2 hour job in warm weather to replace that.


I have been planning a tracked lawn tractor snow plow, for some time. A fellow youtuber has a great idea for making tracks, and he even started production on his idea. But he hasn't posted anything for months, so I think he might have failed, or given up. I was going to copy his idea, but I just spoke to Dave and he probably has 2 matching sled tracks I can have for cheap. So I think I will make a seriously tracked machine, which will have to be a skid steer. Skid steering will work way better in the snow anyway. Skid steering is how the Bob Cats turn if you didn't know. Makes a mess of the grass, but very effective. This unit will get a bucket and a blade, and hopefully eliminate my desire for a tractor, cause I am not really allowed to have "tractor". Lawn tractors are ok though. It will also be a big video effort to see if I can make a really popular youtube video making something different and unique.

Spring Clean Up

A lot of the snow has melted, so its time to put the sleds away, and clean up the yard. My $50 Quansit collapsed in the wind, I will take it down, and build the fence to keep the dogs in. There was a fence but it looked like crap and was all falling down, looking at selling the place in the nearish future we need a nice appearance at least initially as you walk in to the yard. I will fix the back yard, out of sight fence with the $0.10 bark cuts from the mill, just to keep the dogs in. But the fence up to the garden we are going to do in 1x4s probably painted white, screwed to horizontal 2x4s that are screwed to 6" cedar fence posts in cement. The fence posts and cement were done last year.

Been playing with the youtube videos, titles and thumbnails. I don't have much control over thumbnails until I am a youtube partner, which will require more subscribers. But the titles, I put 3 Ft Mac videos up at the same time, and what I consider to be the crappiest video, but with perhaps the most interesting title, in fact gets 3x the views. Thats this one.


My latest air bag video has had explosive views (for me) and got rated with 5 stars. I had sent it to airbagit.com offering them to use it on their web site, with just the simple thanks to them in the credits. My first youtube video was the airbag vid that they featured, it is my crappiest all time video, and gets more views than everything I have published put together. It took them several days, but I think they must have finally featured my new air bag video.

When I get 100 subscribers, I can apply for a youtube partnership. When I get a partnership, I get more youtube tools, and I get 50% of revenue they make advertising on my videos. I find people all the time like me that suck at videos, and I see they got thousands of views on a video, lets see why. Well its always either exploiting sex, showing irrelevant cleavage as the thumbnail, or its "the bong hit" or a pirated video that they don't own. The non partners are always the last 2, because its only the partners that can put irrelevant thumbnails on their vidoes. just a short rant of my youtube findings.

Driving With Sketchy Brakes

I am really glad I broke that brake line. I had checked the drum brake on the other rear wheel, and it was all good, good pads, good contact, I was satisfied with my rear brake condition. Breaking this brake line installing the air bag I got a new line, that is the wrong thread. Thinking I could get it in there and tight anyway I had to take the wheel and drum off to really wrench on it. Well look at this, there are NO BRAKE PADS on this side. There is no contact either, which means a seized wheel cylinder.

I am not really sure how power brakes are supposed to perform with half the brakes out. In my case I expect the power is lost in the bad back brakes, because most of the pedal pressure is gone without the rear brakes. I inspected the front brakes, and they are in perfect working condition. At the point that I realized I needed a new wheel cylinder, brake pads, and brake line on the one back wheel it was too late to make it to Nappa before they closed. I really hate to do the 2 hour trip, for just one thing, and so I wanted to restore my brakes to seemingly perfect as they were when I got the van. That way I can more safely go to an electrical job, or whatever else I might do in the city, and buy my brake parts then. This is where my tig welder saved the day. A mig with Argon would have worked too, but my mig only uses flux core wire. I cleaned up the end of the broken brake line and welded it up. Then I bled the working rear brake, and now have what feels like good brakes again, even with one wheel not working. This will just be for one trip to the city, and then the rear brakes will get replaced

First Rain Of The Year

I was just getting into working outside on the minivan. Then this morning we had crazy rain, for the first time in six plus months. I hate the rain. Its warmer out, because its raining, but I was freezing cold in less than an hour, just packing stuff up and putting it away. Thank goodness I got the hot tub working again, it earned its keep today.

I am more than happy with the minivan. The last tank got a respectable 26 mpg, 3 mpg better than the first tank. The motor seems to consume a bit of oil, but in a stupid way I think that is good, cause I would have trouble changing out a perfectly good gas motor for the newer diesel, and that was the original plan. I am hoping to double my gas mileage with the new smaller diesel and standard transmission. Plus I can make biodiesel for 1/3 the cost of diesel, and run a thinned out fryer oil in the summer.

Today I just went to the city I was so fed up with the rain. It stopped rite away and it was a beautiful sunny day the rest of the day of course. I am glad I cautiously took the van out to the city, with no back brakes. It has alerted me of a potential problem with the passenger side front brake. Without the rear brakes it really wants to pull to the left, which tells me that maybe only the left brake is working.

In the city I got bolts I need to finish the hitch, I got colored paper to make some fliers, got smaller stencils for my logo, and I got yellow paint to paint the name on the van.

I was thinking of making fliers, and hitting up post office boxes in new developments, since thats where all my work usually is. I kind of hate flyers myself, and without paying the post office a fare chunk of change I am forced to go door to door or put fliers under wipers. Both tactics seem obtrusive to me. So I will try putting posters with pull tab numbers on them, but otherwise I was thinking fridge magnet business cards would be cool to get on your windshield if you were parked in a targeted subdivision. I never discriminate when it comes to putting magnets on the fridge, even if it was annoyingly placed on my windshield. The fridge would give my cards near eternal life. Lets hope I can keep a phone number for more than a year.

The rain and thaw has tricked me. I have been so used to rock hard frozen ground, I forgot I need to use a piece of plywood whenever I raise a vehicle. Here is the latest catastrophic failure.

Puting Air Bags In The Voyager Minivan

I was a little unsure how I was going to get air bags in the minivan to start with, it doesn't have the space a full size pickup has to mount them and it was keeping me up at night wondering where they were going to fit. I just decided to get to it, I got 48" of steel 5" wide, the width of the air bags and figured it out along the way. It all worked out in the end. It was a full day 8am to 8pm making mounts and all, but its $500 US to order the shocks with air bags on em, and I don't think that the shock air bags are as good.


Tomorrow I will have to go to the city to get a brake line, some paint for my lettering, and some smaller stencils to finish the slogan on the van. Hopefully I get enough time in the evening to fabricate a trailer hitch.

More Electrical Van Work

The video changing the drivers door lock, didn't really work out. I need a camera man. The beginning will contribute to the installing electric door locks video, when I get them in from China. I can't wait.

I put my new tire on the van, and found the leak in the old tire.


I tinted the sliding door window, and more than half the back window. The other half the back window I painted black, along with the other 3 side windows. I have no use for any windows, but the sliding door window can be handy merging with traffic on the rite, and since I have a back window, I will keep it somewhat functional.


I started painting the name on the van with paint pens, its still too cold to be holding a paint brush and getting real detailed. The black windows help the name stand out.

Work Van Gets An Overhead Console

Working like mad on the van this weekend. Visa has gotten a little out of hand, so I have to get to work. For comfort and convenience I put in an over head console, from the wrecker, $9. I added 2 12v outlets for the GPS and Satellite radio, as I prefer them overhead, and they both need their adapters to change to their 5 volts.

Making a Gasket For My New Thermostat

I made this video a wile back when I changed the thermostat.
Nappa pisses me off, I paid $10 for a new thermostat, and
they gave me the wrong gasket with it. I got it all figured
out without their gasket. I think from now on I will just
go to the wrecker to get my parts, thermostats are $1 there.
I was also dissapointed with the temperature, I got the
hottest thermostat available, and it just puts my temperature
gauge dead center between hot and cold. Better than the cold
side where it was I guess.

First Job With The Free Van

Talk about desperate clients. I was on page 28 of Kijiji, with my electrical add. I was working on making my van so I haven't advertised for a whole week. The same old story, it has to happen this week end, obviously nobody else could do it. So I got up at 5am Saturday, hoping for day light, to finish welding the roof rack together and go wire this basement. I had a problem bolting the roof rack on the roof, so I went to work with only the front rail bolted down. Here is the video when I got home:

Catastrophic Thermostat Failure

Had some problems with the free minivan. Thought the temperature gauge didn't work, till I turned the heat on and that didn't work, and it gets really bad gas mileage. I don't have the actual mpg yet, but I barely got to the closest gas station with half a tank of gas. This was all a result of a failed thermostat. I paid $10 for a new thermostat, and then cracked the aluminum housing bolting it back together.

I drove Michelle to work yesterday, and borrowed her car to go to the wrecker to get a new thermostat housing. I bought 2, since they were only $2. I also got a brand new winter tire on the correct rim, and balanced, for $18, and the best score of all were shaw cable truck ladder racks. They just got a whole fleet of Shaw Cable vans in. I wanted the roof rack off one, and was up there taking it off when I realized the big rectangle shape that it was I could fit Michelle's car inside the rack. Or at least it would only be transportable by resting the front rail on the front bumper, and back rail on the back bumper, and the sides would be clearly hanging out each end of the car. I was going to cut it up, so I could modify it to fit my van, but its all aluminum, so I abandoned it.

I did find some really nice steel side racks ($20), that can be reworked to roof racks. They involved some cordless saws all action to remove, but I got them off, and I am so excited about not having to bungee my ladder down. There were 2 vans with large hydraulic bucket lifts on them, people were freaking out about how awesome they were, but nobody could get one off solo. There was one duo that tag teamed one bucket lift off the truck, for $150, everyone else was just full of cheap talk.

I really believe I have some amazing ability to make stuff happen. I go to this wrecker all the time. Never once have I seen even one key in a car, anywhere. My van, now with all my tools, has a key broken off in the drivers door, so unlocking it involves climbing through the passenger side. I ordered electric lock solenoids with remote from china, but they will be weeks getting here. Out of the thousands of cars at the wrecker I found 2 Plymouth Voyagers, which is what my van is. One had the key hanging out the door lock. $10, new door handle and lock, no visit to the lock smith.

I got a nice over head console off the more fancy dodge grand caravan, which gives me a place for my glasses, extra lights, and a place to plug in the ceiling mounted satelite radio and GPS, $10.

Since Michelle's curling game last weekend, I have had the hickups. Its been about 4 days, off and on hickups and heart burn. I did drink less than 6 beers over the whole day curling event. I do love beer, and I did know that it messed me up, which is why I chose to not bring any home from Mexico or the US. But the 4 days of hickups, that I am still not over is enough for me to say I am not drinking beer again. So if I am visiting, don't offer me a beer, cause I do want one, but its not worth 6 days of torturous hickups.

Hacked Blog

My Blog was corrupted for a couple of days there. Turns out the hit counter gadget was hacked, and completely redirected traffic from my sight to some advertising. The gadget is removed, now the blog seems to be back to normal.


I thought it is kinda silly to go out and spend $2000 on a 5x8 trailer, especially when they don't have 6' of head room. I might as well use a minivan. I really wanted to do this Chrysler minvan up w the VW diesel for road trips, but fact is it has more space than the Ranger, so it just makes sense to use it for work.

On the way home I found it needed a new drivers seat. Everything else is great, one low beam headlight burnt out. I put a new seat in, had to weld some mounts. I have gutted the cargo area, and I will weld up shelving and a head ache rack in the next couple of days. I might need to make some air bag mounts under the back end to help support all the weight.

If it keeps warming up I will paint the company name on the side too, with my number and the infamous "dead" looking possum. Probably paint that stuff in yellow, then maybe paint the rims yellow, or that might look tacky, I don't know, it would get more attention though.

Michelle The Curling Champion

.


Yes Michelle had her first womens curling game today. I edited
a short video of her progress from her first shot to getting a
"bulls eye" with the rock. I can't load the video from my cellular
stick so I will upload it later

I was horrified to realize my tool box drawers that I made
for muy truck, specifically only 4' wide, so one day they could
go in the ranger, don't fit in the Ranger. How did I not account
for the wheel wells? Not to worrie, I will cut the wheel wells out
and put wheel spacers on if I have to, to fit the drawers
in the bottom of the bed. My ranger is much smaller, and it
will be hard to carry all the electrical stuff I need.
I already have a shortage of truck realestate.

Its become apperant that my sexy new trailer is too big
to haul around to do electrical work. It is kinda too small
to move people, but it moves a single person out of an
appartment. The trailer doesn't have any anual costs, no trailer
insurance needed in AB, and it makes me money when I am motivated
and moving people.

I looked at what I call the "Telus service body" canopys
today. All they are is a canopy, with tool boxes on both sides.
$3500 for a small one to fit the Ranger, and they have it
in stock. That is way too much money.

I decided the way to go is a small trailer, maybe 4x8. I
thought maybe I would make one, cause I love making things,
but it would brobably not be a good look for the company,
looking home made. Then, on the drive home today
I was thinking something areo dinamic, that trailed in the
Rangers draft, and looks good. Another Ranger box, I can paint
to match the truck, would give me all the room I need, and look
sharp. I thought I could cut it down to 6' even and have enough
room, then I though I can use the Bronco back, I know Daryl hasn't
crushed it yet, and it will match the truck perfectly.

Then I looked online, 5x8 fully enclosed trailers are only
about $2000, so maybe I will just buy one, wile I start my
home made trailer build.

I am finding almost all my work is in new subdivisions, with
lots of dead ends, narrow streets, and limited parking.
At some point I will poster a subdivision up, and go door
to door, but rite now, I can't manuver my trailer efficeintly
in the subdivisions, and I am constantly running to Home
Depot to get stuff in just the truck, so I will buy a
little trailer.

I just found the video that inspired my leaving Ft McMurray,
which just proves, I had fun making videos, even before I
realized it. I will post that later, I don't think its that
incriminating, but it got me and my apprentice grounded for
an indefinite period of time at work.

Kijiji Deleted My Adds

The video says it all. I got the Ranger engine out, ready to receive some love. I put the ranger rite back where it was before it went in the garage. I wish I could pull it into the garage w the other truck, I need a pass through garage. As usual all this took 100 times longer than the video suggests.

Kijiji deleted all my adds. You aren't allowed to put more than one similar add in, at the same time, which is bull. I probably had like 6 electrical and 6 moving adds in, all on different pages. So I might have to pay for advertising now. I can still put an add or 2 in Kijiji, but I am on page 6 in 24 hours if I don't pay $30 a week to stay at the top. Thing is I don't think that even gets you on the first page for sure, but we'll see, I will pay them for a week or 2.