I finally got the story about the 111 st Univer Bottle Depot, behind our house.
The owner spent $100,000 having a structure built inside the building to support the condemned building, so they can re open for 3 months.  Because they have been closed for three months, basically another month they will lose their bottle depot licence, and someone else could get it.  They don't allow competition in the bottle depot world, only one Depot to this area.

In three months, they move to a new location, not far away, to a building 3 times as large.  Then the 6 lots that they occupy behind my house, one lot parking lot, 1 1/2 lots rebuilt structure, and 3 1/2 empty fenced in lots will go up for sale.  He says he paid $400k for the 3 empty lots, so he would sell one for $130k for sure, maybe less if he ends up hanging on to them a long time..

And just to prove that I am no more responsible than the last guy towing his truck with his lawn tractor, here is the free trailer vid.

Tractor Pull In Andrew

Things are slowing down for me at last, still have a good 5 days work ahead of me, but making plans to get the bobcat into the city to put it all together.  Really excited about the bobcat.

Building a chicken coop with a free trailer, yes another coop, the old one is too big, and too sketch to tow into the city.  There will be a vid of that soon.

Just going through my computer clearing some gigs, lots of sweet vids that never got published.  This one was just a typical day in Andrew, wish I got more of these.  The land the law, and perhaps common sense forgot, Andrew Alberta.  This guy isn't even a farmer, the farmers think they own the roads, you should see what they pull off.  "its my road" ask a farmer.

October Update

The bottle depot behind our house has been closed for sometime.

Residents hate it, happy they closed.

Construction workers working on it say it will be open in a few weeks.

Fire department has said there is no way we will let them re open that building.

Presumably, some angry residents caught wind of the depot re opening and lit the place on fire the other night.

The brick building was hardly damaged by the fire, but construction seems to have stopped, and the building sits basically scabby and empty.

Talked to the neighbor today, ironically after the bottle depot closed, his house got a serious mouse problem too.  I think our mouse problem really did come from the bottle depot.  He also has officially put his commercial building up for sale for $180k, expecting about $150k out of it.  That would be an expensive garage, but maybe the front could be rented to some business.

 We also met a young couple renting a bit of commercial space across the street.  They have a big heated garage, turning it into a doggy day care.  they offered to rent me a bit of space for a project or two.  They rent the whole building, including the semmi truck trailer garage for $3200 month.  I don't know how doggy daycare will pay for that, but I hope they can stay there.

The Mercedese van I looked at this morning is not worth fixing up.  It shows its age.  But the motor and trans would be sweet in anything else.  I have checked with the local wrecker to see how much for a sprinter motor and trans, newer, electronic, and automatic, they want $9000.  So getting the ultimate mercedese motor and standard trans for $1200 would be a steal of a deal.

I Hate Automatics

I spent lil over $1000 on my van gettin it ready for winter.  It rides so much nicer with the extra four leaf springs and coil over shocks.  Very happy.  New snow tires and all.  Thought I would address the black transmission fluid today.

First lube change place I went to said a transmission fluid change isn't recommended w oil that dirty.  Kinda like washing a dirty car, when the dirt is holding it together.
Second place said they could put my dirty trans into transmission fluid shock, if they put clean fluid in it.
So I went to mr transmission, thinking thats all they do and they can clear this fluid change up for me.

Mr Transmission said my fluid is simply burnt, very burnt, and there is probably a lot of clutch material mixed in there, caked to various parts.  You put clean fluid in, which has new detergents, and it cleans all that grit out, and runs it through the trans like a bunch of sand.  That will be the end of your transmission, "don't change your fluid".  At this point I could put used diesel motor oil in it and it wouldn't get any darker.

In Conclusion, my transmission will fail, its just running on borrowed time now.  Not a big deal, the local shop will change it for $700, if I pick up a used one for $500 (funny how a transmission costs as much as another van).  $1200 if I don't want to do any work, but you know I don't roll like that, maybe if its -40 I'll pay the heated shop to do it.  But how will this be any better?  Am I looking at just another years service before I need to put another trans in?  What is wrong with automatics?  The RWD Astro is rated for towing 5500lb, and I am sure I am not towing more than 4000lb, rarely ever even up hill.

So I started looking again at options.  I love the Astro's size, and the power has been all I need, just wish it was standard, and diesel would be sweet too.  I had an opportunity to buy a sprinter van half price from a carpenter buddy.  He ran it 5 years, and is trading it in.  Paying $60k for his new one, they will only give him $30k for his old one, only 70,000km on it too, but its just too big for me.  And thirty thousand dollars buys a lot of gas.

Then today I found a 1982 mercedese sprinter van.  The geniuses broke the windshield, so they thought they would take the motor out to put in their boat.  The classic mercedese 5 cylinder mechanical injection that is well known to start and run off used deep frier fat.  Oh also standard 5 speed, under $2000.  Did I mention the trans shop wants $2000 to fix my astro trans that hasn't even failed yet, doesn't even slip.

I haven't seen the van yet, that is tomorrows mission first thing in daylight.  Unfortunately they were no better at photography than they were at removing the motor for their boat.  So this is the back of the gold sprinter cargo van.  I don't know if the motor and trans will go in the Astro or I will fix the Sprinter, but work has finally settled down to allow for such crazyness to happen.  I was going to make the VW the "Environmentally friendly service vehicle", but maybe I will get my diesel van after all.