prairie life

As fate would have it, Uncle Hubert had about 3000 L of used vegetable oil that he had been collecting used veggie oil from the local restaurants around, figuring that he will have a use for t at some point. Uncle Hubert and Scott fltered about 30L of the used oil, that will be the first official batch of used oil that we use to fuel the 'bio-bus'

A batch of used 'veggie oil' - thanks Uncle Hubert!

Figuring we had a couple of days to rest up and since the weather had climbed into the single digits we decided to make a run for it – head to AB, to see our friend Clinton who recently moved to Canmore, AB. Driving through Saskatchewan has it moments – such as the film set the tv show Corner Gas. 

Clinton and Scott chillin' at one of Canmore's thrift stores.

 

'Corner Gas Set' located just south of Moose Jaw, SK.

friends and family along the way...

One of the advantages of heading across Canada is that you can visit friends that you haven't seen for awhile... 

Literally, moments before leaving London for Thunder Bay, we get a phone call from a friend we hadn't seen in two years, who had happened to 'see' our post on FB, about heading north. Recently moving from way up north (Moosonee, ON) to North Bay ON, Figuring it wasn't much out of the way, we decided to head north via North Bay and visit our friends and their new home in North Bay. Thanks for the laughs, warm bed and good food Connie, Keith and Josh!



Connie and Josh (photo stolen from Facebook)

Outside of Ontario, we met up with 'rawkin' Cy who lives just outside of Brandon, MB – and is one of the sweetest 'tough' guys around. Although a stereotypical bachelor, Cy made sure that we were well taken care of – he had some his sister deliver a turkey dinner (homemade gravy, mashed potatoes – the works) made by his mom – who cooks a whole turkey on a random Monday evening... apparently Cy's mom.



Crazy Cy (photo stolen from Facebook again)



Fortunately for us, my aunt and uncle only lived a few hours from Brandon, across the MB/SK border in Alameda SK Driving into the wind on a cold day makes for a long and cold ride. We spent a couple of days with Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Hubert who fed us well and kept us laughing. We also learned a few things... the difference between “mineral rights” as compared to the “surface rights” of your land. Not everyone owns the 'mineral rights' to their land – as you might just strikil as they did this past fall. We took a drive out to see the oil being pumped out of the ground – they sure don't look that large from a distance but up close, they are pretty large.

Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Hubert  Alameda, SK

  

Standing in front of their oil rig



  

headin' north and keepin' warm

Changing our plan to head north, meant we needed to make some changes to the bus. We decided to install a woodstove chimney through the roof of the bus that would be permanent (rather than before, where we piped it out the emergency window) - this change meant that we would not have to set it up and tear it down en route.  This was good thinking on our part, as the temperaturedrops significantly after the sun goesdown.  Most nights in Ontario have been in the -30C range...  

Keeping warm and collecting wood has been a quest of its own.  We've done quite well sourcing out wood where we can - the scrap wood pile outside the Bear Chair Co. in South River, ON is open most days as a source of free wood (Photo I).  Things were a little different in Thunder Bay where we were told of a place where we could find some old wooden skids - no one in the neighbourhood seemed to care that Scott pulled out his generator and skill-saw take what we needed.

denied access

After getting the "veggie conversion" up and running we finally headed for the border in hopes of heading south... Our plan was to head to the gulf coast of Florida and then to head west to New Mexico,  where we would participate in an 'earthshipinternship' with 'garbage warrior' Michael Reynolds... 

The border crossing turned out to be interesting experience - no surprise that we were pulled into their office and interogated for a frustrating few hours.  Little did we think that we would be assigned 'alien' status.  And since we were denied it would mean that we would have to be fingerprinted and photographed.  As we understood, the US Border Patrol were concerned that we didn't have enough funds to support ourselves for our travels south.  So, we spent the night in Sarnia and got together the proof we felt they needed and drove back to see our border 

friends from the night before.  

Again - we spent hours waiting while they searched through our bus and once again pelted us with questions about our intentions while travellng in their country... This time they were concerned that we were both unemployed and that we do not currently or rent a property in Canada.  This time sent us away again with the warning that if we tried to cross again without proofof these details that we would be banned from their country for five years.   Apparently it was necessary to finger print and photograph us for a second time...

Needless to say we were both pretty bummed out and furious that we were turned away for

a second time. We've been so focused on getting this bus on the road and were eager to see it actually run on 'used veggie oil' - a system that is not built for Canadian winters. After seeking the opinion of our MP, and a few phone calls we decided our plan B would be to head west to beautiful BC to explore Canada's west coast.

veggin' out

Just to give you some perspective, we thought that we include an "under the hood" photo so that you can see the difference between 'before' and 'after'.

 

Scott has mounted a metal cooler that he picked up at a second-hand store.  In order to it fit under the hood, he had to cut part of the hood that goes around the wheel well... The best thing about this is the little sticker on the front of the cooler that reads "AS IS"...

 

Inside the cooler... three filters have been attached inside the cooler which will further filter out any remaining particles in the veggie oil.  The third filter(far right - yellowish colour) is for removing excess water from the oil before it goes into the engine.  

The black rad hose running through the cooler, houses copper piping which contains  the veggie oil.  We chose to use copper piping inside the rad hose because metal conducts heat efficiently.  So, inside the copper piping there is veggie oil, and inside the rad hose, surrounding the copper piping is coolant which becomes hot as the bus runs.  As the coolant heats up, so does the veggie oil - which enables the veggie oil to flow through the 'fuel lines' much easier.  Unfortunately this system does not work so well in colder climates, which is why we are headed south to try it out. 

Once the veggie oil has left the cooler it flows through the engine and back to the return lines which run the length of the bus  (34ft long), circulating the fuel back to our veggie fuel tank (big blue barrel located in the back of the bus).  It took two full days to "shove" 50ft of 1/2"copper pipe through 50 ft of 1" rad hose...

Here is a close up shot of the barrel; notice the fuel pump on the left which will pump the oil through the lines; From the gray line (the right hand line) the vegetable oil goes to the engine through the copper pipe which is fitted inside of the black "rad hose" that you see in the picture.  We used copper piping so that it would heat easily and efficiently.  In a diesel engine all of the fuel is never all used and has to circulate back to the diesel tank, this is why we have a 'return line' for the veggie oil (on the left) and because we are heating the lines with hot coolant from the engine we need to return the coolant to the engine.  You may also notice that the rad hose goes "into" the tank we did this so that it would heat the oil in the tank before pumping it back into the "fuel" lines.

from the inside out

Scott began the renovations early on in October (2010).  To the right is the hallway which leads to the toilet (straight back) and to the "back workshop area" which is to left of  the toilet.  The large space to the left is where we now sleep...

Scott painting the new 'skoolie' what Martha Stewart calls  "Gypsy Caravan" blue... with the threat of the cold weather setting in we began painting the bus late September... Roughly four gallons of paint - which amounted to about three coats of paint.  We were able to complete most of the painting before the cold weather caught up with us...

Painted and parked with friends (Rick and Carla) near Mono Cliffs provincial park, just north of Orangeville, ON... the bus was our home for the few months (October - December) while we did the renovations.  

raw bus material

 

Once we decided that we wanted to travel using veggie oil - we had to go diesel.  The idea of buying an old diesel school bus seemed to suit our needs.  I believe that this was one of the first 'skoolies' we came across on Kijiji; Purchased in August 2010 in Norfolk County from a lovely retired couple - the Kozacks for $900.

   

(Front to back) Lucky for us the bus was already "gutted"with a toilet installed the back right-hand corner.  Formerly a "fruit stand bus" the seats inside the bus had already been removed.  According to the couple that we bought the bus from, the former owner was also hoping to convert it from a "fruit stand" to an RV, but wasn't able to finish it and sold it for money.

(Back to front) To the left - you can see a bunk area that the last owner had built for himself - we ripped this out and used the wood to build a larger sleeping area.  We also removed the partial wall at the front of the bus and moved this to the back to create a "workshop space" where we could store our tools as well as the veggie oil system and supplies.