Fun filled days

I've been trying to whittle down the project list. Results are mixed. One of the first things I did was to install a complete tune up kit in my generator. However, there was still no spark. Might be a bad coil. Fortunately, I've friends. I loaded up the generator into the veggie van and dropped it off at my buddy's place. He has lots of small engine parts and thinks he can get it going again. In the mean time, he's loaned me one of his generators. That's allowed me to top off the house batteries.

The hot water project is moving forward. I wound a coil around a piece of 6 inch stovepipe. In the morning when the stove is cold, I'll slip it over the woodstove stovepipe and hook it up to my water tank. If all goes well we should have wood fired hot water soon.

My van was running badly and I was afraid it was a clogged diesel fuel filter. Replacing one of those takes at least an hour and is a knuckle busting job. Before doing that, I checked the veggie tank. A piece of French fry had lodged in the fuel line and it only took 10 minutes to find and fix the problem. The van still runs badly on diesel, but there's been a lot of bad fuel delivered to our area. Plenty of diesels are running poorly. Of course, I only run diesel until the engine heats up, allowing me to flip the switch to veggie. On veggie, it runs great. Go figure, my home brew fuel system runs better than fuel from the major oil companies.

The days are getting warmer, melting our snow. My lovely wife and I were invited to my daughter's for some grilled burgers. It's a good sign when it's warm enough to fire up the grill. While we were there we took advantage of their hot tub. Nothing like a good soak in the tub for over worked muscles.

I hope the hot water project goes well. I've a refrigeration project/experiment to do. Then there's my lovely wife's car that won't start. It started earlier, but now it won't. The battery's all charged up, so it's something else. There's evidence that squirrels were living in the engine compartment, so the problem could be something odd.

There's lots of interesting things to do. Sure beats watching the news. Things are crazy out there.

-Sixbears