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.