Estimated time to departure... 2 weeks

So whats new you ask?

Here is a list of things that have been completed in the last week and a half or so.
1. Cork flooring has been installed
2. The kitchen cabinets were build and installed with some help from Amos. We built them in a workshop that he had access to in gas town.
3. The luggage compartments where also fabricated in the shop with Amos. these go the length of the bus and have 14 doors. The bus feels a little like a plane now, but the style of the doors with the rounded edges reminds me of a boat.
4. We built a frame for the refrigerator to sit in and installed the refrigerator(don't have in hooked up the 12volt yet.
5. installed the cabinet at attached to the bed.
6. Re-sealed the windows with a marine grade silicon, the bus has been leaking a little when it rains really hard.
7. Rebuilt the brackets that the filters and pump for the vegi system. We moved them further away from the seats to give more leg room.
8. Don fabricated the steel frame that the wood stove will sit on.

Now here is a list of things that we are working on at the moment.

1. We moved the next stop bell up and now Joyee is working on sewing the curtains.
2. creating a latching system for the drawer.
3. building a table for the front facing seats that folds up.
4. getting handles for the kitchen cabinets and maybe the luggage compartments.
5. Looking into a solar system for charging batteries
6. Pricing out the cost to put on a hitch and basket at the back of the bus for the propane and tools to sit on.
7. covering the passanger side wheel well.
8. installing the woodstove.

I wish that I had more time to expand each one of these points because there is a story behind each one, but maybe when its all complete I can give the low down on the entire bus.

Today working on the latch for the drawer and covering the wheel well.

Progress and plant driven

Busy Busy Busy,

The bus is now powered by not only diesel but also vegetable oil thanks to Geoff and Scott at www.switchover.ca . We drove the dart over to his shop in south vancouver at around noon on the 25th. The coversion proved to be very challenging and we all worked until the wee hours to get it finished(I left around 12:30am and they continued to work until 2:30am!!!) The conversion was a success and we are burning vegetable oil at least 1/2 of the time. The large V8 engine in the bus takes a long time to heat up this time of year so sometimes it takes a while to get hot enough to burn oil. It will be perfect for traveling because we will be driving long distances without cooling down the engine allowing us to use mostly vegetable oil.

Our collection method is going to be via 12v electric pump and wand. We have just ordered these recently and are awaiting their arrival. Looking forward to grease bin diving in the near future!!