This lever is for the fuel purge valve which during a “hot start” is opened to allow cool fuel into the the fuel injection system  to replace hot fuel.  It will also kill the engine if engaged since the fuel is drained from the system.  I built a lock to prevent the pilot from inadvertently activating the fuel dump.  I would hate to be flying along and kill the engine at the wrong time. 

While looking at the instrument cover (which I had taken great care to get the carbon fiber to line up ..just right..)  I decided it just didnt look right so it was painted a flat black to match the dash.  It looks MUCH better now.

The wiring is all tidied up and ready to go!

The dash is starting really come together now.

David stopped by to check out my work, have a beer and get a small circuit repair (broken LED).  It was a nice distraction to my busy days.

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Today I worked on “Earth Buckets”.  I got the idea from my buddy Jerry who is growing lots of veggies in “Earth boxes“.   It is a very cool product which mirrors natural hydrology principles to create a self watering growing eco-system.

I have terrible soil and sparse rain so I wanted to do some experimentation with grown veggies in such a system.  Didnt want to pay the money to buy a bunch of Earth Boxes, so I came up with my own solution from a landfill waste stream.   Earth Buckets.

The principal is:  Water is stored in the bottom section,  you fill the water reserve via a tube, water is wicked up to the main growing area via capillary action and you put GOOD grown soil in the top secton of the bucket.  Easy.

I have been collection old 5 gal buckets on the side of the road to use  as supports for the soil.  I also purchased a bunch of buckets from Lowe’s because I wanted my garden to look consistent.

Drill a large hole in the bottom of the old bucket, then saw off most of the bucket to make the shelf and using some scrap PVC to make the tube for the wick and filler.

The assemble bucket.  Simple.  Be sure to drill a hole in the side of the bucket just below the soil shelf to allow excess water to drain out.

A bunch of the read for dirt and planting!

Last night while working on the plane, I knocked out my front tooth.  Shit….   I had a temporary crown on it and luckily I didnt swallow it! 

A quick trip to my local dentist to have him re-bond it to my tooth and I was back at work!    Hopefully the temporary will stay on until I get the plane to California and get the permanent crown intalled by Pat. 

I have also decided that if the tooth comes out again, I will NOT have it re-bonded in and just go around with a hole in my smile, looking like a local southern boy.  I want to see how people react to me as it should be fun and quite entertaining!  Besides, not having my tooth in will motivate me to work harder and get the plane done.  Certainly wont be able to get a date looking like this….

Gerhardt wanted to filter some more WVO for our cars….  The problem is the waste oil is cold and my propane powered heater just didnt seem to work well.  The best I could get out of was 0.5 g/m.

I decided to try an electric heater instead.  Since the oil is non-conductive there is no risk of shock.

A quick trip to Lowe’s resulted in a $15, 1500 watt 120v hot water heater.  An old extension cord was sacrificed and in 20 minutes I built a electric tank heater.

 This showes the starting temp of the tank. 

In 24 hours we went from 65 f to 137 f.   I was able to pump 4.5 h/m through the filter with ease!  What a great system.  I was able to filter 300 gal in about an hour or so.  A quick calculation showed that at the current utility rate, heating up the tank cost about $4 which means the it only cost me about 1.3 cents per gal of oil to run my car. 

All that time I wasted with making the copper propane  heater…..oya what a waste.  Maybe I can use it to make some moon shine.

Today was fun.  I wanted to shorten the GTR antenna to remove a bunch of extra wire which wasnt needed.

To put on the new connector, I had to solder a very tiny post on a very tiny connector inside a hole…   Fortunately I had some dental tools to clean up the inside of the connector from the excess solder.

Done.  On to more antenna connections and finish up the wiring.

Today was spent wiring up the back part of the radio stack.  Sure is nice to tidy things up a bit.

Looking good now.

Last night some moose made the rounds in the parking lot and licked all the cars.  Apparently they like the road salt which collect on the cars in the winter.  All the cars in the in lot were ‘attacked’.

This is the last day (Thursday) of skiing for us.  We woke to 4 inches of fresh snow!  What a great way to end the trip.

The ski areas were just beautiful.

Driving was a bit of a challenge for me as it has been a long time since I have experienced lots of snow.

This is the condo where I spent the week.

I was a bit worried about driving over the pass to get back to the interstate, but as it turned out, I didnt have any issues at all and made really good time back to the airport for the flight back to Charleston. 

After skiing for two days, I wanted to do something different today.  I decided to drive back over the pass to Idaho Spring, Co.

Idaho Springs was famous for the discovery of gold in the 1800’s.  A big tourist draw is Argo Gold Mine.    Construction begin in 1893 of the Argo Tunnel which took 17 years before it would reach Central City, over 4.5 miles away. The tunnel would provide water drainage, ventilation and economical transportation of the gold bearing ore from the many mines it would intersect along the way.

The Argo Mill was constructed to process the gold bearing ore from these mines.  Now it is just is a tourist spot with lots of really cool old equipment outside

A tunnel train.

Some really old equipment.

Unfortrunately, the freaking place was wasnt open!  I knocked on the door but the gentlemen who met me said they were having sewer problems and the place was closed.  Shit.

A quick visit to the town, a Starbucks coffee and I was ready to drive back to the condo.  Bummer.

Today was a great day skiing…

I climbed to the top of the highest point of Winter Park.  It was a bit of a tough hike as the air is very thin at this altitude.

In the distance I can see Fraser Co (where we are staying) which is 12 miles away.

The snow is a bit sparse here as the wind blows most of it off. 

The highest point at the ski area, 12, 063 Ft