Hooniverse Weekend Edition – Wood Gas Vehicles via Low-tech Magazine


We have some of the best fans on the net, and here is another example. We received this tip from Andrew (Thanks man!) about another really interesting site called Low-tech Magazine, and one of their recent articles featured Wood Gas Vehicles.


According to the article:

During the Second World War, almost every motorised vehicle in continental Europe was converted to use firewood.

Wood gas cars (also known as producer gas cars) are a not-so-elegant but surprisingly efficient and ecological alternative to their petrol (gasoline) cousins, whilst their range is comparable to that of electric cars.

Rising fuel prices and global warming have caused renewed interest in this almost-forgotten technology: worldwide, dozens of handymen drive around in their home-made woodmobiles.


The article defines the history of these vehicles, as well as some newer Wood Fired vehicles. It is a fascinating read, so go over to the Low-tech Magazine site, and see for yourself.

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  1. Smells_Homeless Avatar
    Smells_Homeless

    Tsk tsk. All of that stainless could've been used making beer. You have to have priorities.

  2. facelvega Avatar
    facelvega

    Take that, biodiesel snobs. In the Volvo at top, the wood burning rig probably helps with snow traction, though I imagine it would probably be a pain in a collision. Even so, heads up Vermont!

  3. P161911 Avatar
    P161911

    Here are the official FEMA plans for a wood gassification unit: http://wood-gas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/wo
    I'm still not sure if this only works on carborated vehicles or if you can use it with some FI systems. I wouldn't mind keeping the plans handy and maybe an old carb, manifold, and set of points for my '88 F-150 with the 4.9L for what ever apocalypse scenario might arise.

    1. Lex Avatar
      Lex

      Yes, in a truck. Put it in a truck people…mostly because there's a good, stable platform for mounting all the doohickeys and whatnots.

  4. $kaycog Avatar
    $kaycog

    This is a wood-burning wood Citroen. Dutch artist and inventor Joost Conijn refitted his Citroen with wooden panels and installed a wood-burning boiler for propulsion.
    <img src="http://www.worldsstrangest.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/wscache23/7b104_4247887521_0e1ab17763.jpg"width="500"/&gt;

    1. Vavon Avatar
      Vavon

      What a horrible looking contraption!!!

      1. $kaycog Avatar
        $kaycog

        Do you like this one better?
        402 is a 1940 Peugeot 402 Gazogene Adventure. Wait……forget the first 402 part. I'm confused.
        <img src="http://www.islandbreath.org/2010Year/03/100327gazogene.jpg"width="500"/&gt;

      2. ptschett Avatar
        ptschett

        On the bright side, the car's fuel range is only limited by how much bodywork you can sacrifice.

    2. tonyola Avatar
      tonyola

      Looks like a 1930s Tatra dreamed by termites.

    3. ZomBee Racer Avatar

      Now THAT'S playing with fire.

      1. $kaycog Avatar
        $kaycog

        Well, some like it hot!

        1. $kaycog Avatar
          $kaycog

          smz, msz, moo…………Yeah, that was very sweet (you said sweat) of Racin to think of me in time of the CO fires. I've had a lot of friends call and email me even when they knew I was quite a ways South. Thoughtful friends. I did nothing special over the weekend. What did the weekend bring for you? Oh………that stupid Craiglist listing was yanked off.
          Yuck…….Monday.
          5402

        2. $kaycog Avatar
          $kaycog

          TowerofPower………..I can't believe all the buttons to learn in my new Escape. I've pretty much got things down pat, except for the MyFordTouch and Sync, but that will take a little time. I'm a hands on type person in learning new things. I can't just read the manual and get it. It's less overwhelming now that I know how to do some things. The CO Springs fire is now 55% contained and some areas have gotten back into their homes. There was a story on the news last night about a little 7-year old boy who set up a lemonade stand to raise money for the Red Cross. He made $1000 over the weekend. That's just one of so many heartwarming stories.
          5403

    4. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Thanks for finding the new place Tower!
      I have a list of ideas for the anniversary now, will see what Aga thinks. I have had Spotted Cow and think I enjoyed it. I used to see it available at Binny's but not in a long time now, so maybe I really do have to head to Wisconsin. The neighbors were not not done with new roof when I left for work this morning, I wonder if they finished or got tarps up in time? Will see soon, going home now. Any neat-o plans for the 4th?
      Hi BB!
      How are things? Any plans for the 4th? We always go for fireworks and Kevin wants to as well this year.
      Have a good one,
      5401
      PS: New neighbors move in on the other side today, I can't wait to meet them!

    5. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hey, eyes up here lady!
      <img src="http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/2012/images/Tevatron-Higgs-results-20120702-mr.jpg&quot; width="600"> That is heart touching story about lemonade stand boy. I have so much to write, but so little time! Aga got a deal for 4th at a waterpark/hotel in Wisconsin, so we are going there. Most of the prices were higher or booked already, it's a busy time, but she's done this before, calls a bunch of places and checks to see if any had openings and if the prices are better. So the great news is that it looks like I will get Spotted Cow 🙂 Anyway I have like four days of work to do in two suddenly. But it has been strange day here at work. My hunch is that on Wednesday CERN will announce discovery or very strong evidence of the Higgs boson. This morning here at work there have been talks detailing all the evidence that D0 and CDF have for the Higgs as well. It boils down to evidence for a two bottom quark decay with only one in 550 chance that it is some kind of statistical error, so that's pretty exciting: http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/… [PLEASE DO NOT BREAK LINK]
      <img src="http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/images12/thundercloud.jpg&quot; width="600"> Tower, the storms were pretty gnarly here all weekend. These images are all from that one on Friday that caused so much trouble out east. Yesterday I saw a neat thing. Aga was at a surprise baby shower and the women were parking on our driveway. One left her windows open and I went out there to cover them with plastic. I saw a bolt of lightening come from the east, almost horizontally over our house, and then down. It must have hit something at the lab. I could not see where touched down cause my house was in the way. I could not see where it originated from, but from the east the Fox river was along the way. I wonder why it did not strike there? Is it a wive's tale that lightening prefers to strike water? This morning I learned some buildings were struck here at work. Also on Saturday I was driving to Fairbury and along the way I saw some of the damage that the Friday stroms had done. One barn was blown over and in Yorkville there were real honest to goodness big fat trees cracked in half and laying on their sides. So I thought that it must have been like where we were the wind was higher up because of all the obstacles on the ground, but it turns-out that even though Sunday's storms were stronger S of us, two people that live about 20min by car north of me had a lot of wind damage. So I just don't understand weather at all. <img src="http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/images12/is-lightning-frightening.jpg&quot; width="600">

      1. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
        mr. mzs zsm msz esq

        <img src="https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/539744_861133215000_722894125_n.jpg&quot; width="600"> Okay, all stormies again. Anyway I took Gosia and Jake to the dirt track. It was a lot of fun, but Jake did get bored. The cool thing was we saw a UFO on the way home! I even woke Jake up for it. I don't think it was aliens, but I do not know what it was. I tried to record it, but you can't see anything really. At first I thought it was a meteorite, but it changed direction. We chased it for a while in the car to get a good photo but trees and houses kept getting in the way, and then it disappeared. I wonder if it was a balloon? They had a show the next day in Lisle with glowing hot air balloons. DuPage airport is not too far way, but why would that be up in the air at 11:30PM on Saturday? Anyway, one of the guys at work showed-up this just now. Ha ha ha, still don't think it's aliens, what a crack pot dude too 😉
        [youtube YXF9OwsKUx8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXF9OwsKUx8 youtube]
        Last thing, I got a chance to try the new jalopnik at home, whoa is it bad! Okay going back in time, that video of the Ukranian Playboy model and the ZAZ, that was awesome, seriously the funny expressions, it was oddly heartwarming to watch. Anyway though the commenting is terrible. It seems now that people are not even replying to anything except whatever the first one is that shows-up, that's a shame. Also there were lots of trollish comments from kids likely that came-up as that first one, in the old scene I think those would stay pink. The only reason I can think they want to do this is so that they know how long people are on a post more accurately.
        Have a good one,
        5403

    6. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      smz, msz #@&……….Geez, I got confused here with my last two comments. Sorry about that. First of all………….I made 5402 and 5403, so yours would be 5404, and this one will be 5405…..GOT IT……or shall we argue about that for forth replies? 😉 That's a cute picture of Jake……I love the sunglasses. You found out how ridiculous 6.0 on J. is to follow. I find that I go to the front page much less because it takes too much time. Yes, it is a shame. I don't know anymore than I did earlier.
      Did I put this in the right place?
      5405

    7. Buickboy92 Avatar
      Buickboy92

      @MZS: Good morning MZS 🙂 It's a beautiful day here today, as it finally rained/still is, and our grass out back really needed it. I mean it looked like a cross between a straw field at the Petting Zoo and the Rub' al Khali Desert!! Well not much going on with myself, but I did help my Mother make the most delicious pie ever! An Oreo Pie!!! 🙂 It was sooo good. I hope we'll make one again soon.
      <img src="http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t326/buickboy92/019-1.jpg&quot; border="0" alt="Photobucket">
      5406 – Photo's a bit big, sorry.

    8. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      BB………..Hi! Did you get my reply to you in the last thread? Anyway, good to see you, and that pie looks delicious. I made an Oreo Pie once. The basic ingredients were instant vanilla pudding and Cool Whip…..of course, Oreos. It was really easy and yummy.
      An improvement in J. The images are no longer thumbnail size, but the way they should be. Now if they'd just change that front page format.
      Good to see you.
      5407

    9. Buickboy92 Avatar
      Buickboy92

      Happy 4th of July everyone!!!!!! 🙂 hope everyone has a great day!!!! 🙂
      5408

    10. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      <img src="http://www.atlas.ch/news/images/stories/3-plot.jpg"&gt;
      Hi Stormies!
      That plot is a link but the gist is that there is preliminary discovery of a new boson at 125-126GeV. It's likely the Higgs. There is a big conference next week, ATLAS and CMS would do more scrutiny before an announcement of a discovery, but it was just so danged exciting they wanted to get it out to kick off the conference, that's why they say preliminary. Likely enough review will have happened by the end of the summer to remove the preliminary aspect of it. It's discovery since they have excluded to 5 standard deviations anything else. So anyway, in that plot that's what you see. It's from ATLAS results, almost to 5 sigma (they got to that by combining all channels at both CMS and ATLAS for two years worth of data). Basically the Higgs does not last very long, so you only detect other things like two photons or four leptons at ATLAS. That's what channel means, a particular way the boson decays. Now there are lots of ways that you can get a signal like that to occur without a new boson being the cause, but you predict a certain amount to occur of each from what is already accounted for, when you slam enough together and you see more than you expected, that means the explanation is that there was that new boson at a higher energy in there temporarily that decayed. Now they know (well preliminarily) it's a boson cause of what is detected in the decay channels, they still don't know for sure it's Higgs. That is most likely since it is predicted, but they do not know yet charge, spin, and to high enough precision the ratios of the different decays. The best guess is that in this year and the next before the shutdown, they will have enough info. So for example they might have 5 sigma results for decay channels like two photons or four electrons at both CMS and ATLAS and if the ratios are right of how often each kind of decay happens, then they can claim discovery of Higgs boson. So exciting!

      1. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
        mr. mzs zsm msz esq

        Hi BB,
        Man that looks delicious, all I have at work is ramen left over from vacation 🙁 The room (actually was really sweat place, two bedrooms) we had came with a fridge and microwave. I got a bunch of food before we left and 'cooked' most of the meals. I like to be the cook on vacations, Aga appreciates it too. It was a nice way to save time and cash. We did go out to Culvers, Moose Jaw, and an ice cream place too. The 4th was nice, it was vacation time, but no fireworks for us in Wisconsin due to the dryness. I hope you had a good one too, did you catch any fireworks display?
        Hi Tower,
        I got lots of beer and cheese in Wisconsin. I got two growlers at Moose Jaw, had 50oz of various beers there, lots of Spotted Cow, and three other New Glarus beers! On the way home we stopped at my parents' house and some more of my family came over. We had a big beer tasting there too. Also we gave lots of people cheese as gifts. The Car Valley place yo suggested long ago is where we went again. The funniest thing was how disgusting the cheese was that the lady that worked there recommended was, apple smoked, it tasted like wood chips 🙁 But we went there twice to get cheese for during the vacation and then for after. I had two big coolers with ice for the beers and cheeses! About half the cheese is no given away and a quarter of the beers 🙂
        Hi Skay,
        I wonder if I have the right number, close enough. We got a lot of funny photos in the vacation, I'm sure Aga will put them up. I went this time on a waterslide that I was too scared to go on years ago. Jake went, so the last day I decided I just had too. And somehow I willed myself. Probably never will again, not that fun, just plain scary. I also had a clogged-up ear, but it's fine again. Michelle though, she's going to the doctor cause hers is still bad. What was it you were unsure about? Jalopnik? I'll tell you COTD is like a ghost of what it used to be. They just are not good at all like before. That's a big shame cause even when I left they were often really special. It's like it is forced now.
        Have a good one,
        5409

    11. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      smz, szm, xyz……..It sounds like you had a nice cheesey trip to Wisconsin. I don't think I want to go on a water slide, but kudos to you for doing so. I'm not sure what I was unsure of either……can't find it. My 4th was relaxing with a barbecue with friends. Cooking outdoors with charcoal is banned here, and that's what they have, so she did pulled pork in a crock pot. Of course, she had all the sides, and I made a quickie pie for dessert. It was so quiet the night of the 4th with the fireworks ban. I'm sure people with dogs didn't mind that at all. Peter Orosz will no longer do articles for Jalopnik. He was promoted within the Gawker realm. Peter wrote all the articles on July 4th with his first one being his good bye to everyone. It was funny that the articles were about mostly Europe with it being July 4th. He's an excellent writer and will be missed.
      Have a great weekend whatever you do!
      5410

    12. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      <img src="https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/582797_863938458270_1264537391_n.jpg"&gt; Mmmmmm pie and pulled pork… Aga fixed some really dry pork my mom made today for dinner, was great now. It was in sauce with mushrooms. Anyway, here's some more from the trip. There was a watermelon eating contest. I won! People were really competitive, was kind of upsetting to see. I was accused of cheating, whatever. I had no idea there were any prizes but there were. Michelle got an airbrush tattoo and the boys got to see a magic show, Kevin even got picked from the audience to participate! Water slides are not that bad, roller coasters make me suffer more the next day, with my back and head. Here's that water slide I got the nerve to go on that Jake had no trouble with. Thanks for letting me know about Peter. I had assumed he was gone already honestly. I could not post even with that burner account from home, so I sent him an email thanking him and wishing him well. <img src="https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/544377_863938323540_645379091_n.jpg"&gt;
      Have a good one,
      5411

    13. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      smz, mzs, zzz……….How can you cheat at an eating watermelon contest? That's funny. Congrats on your win. Cooler weather has been here for several days, and it's wonderful. Highs are in the low 80's. We've also had several rain showers which were badly needed, and we need more. Of course, the burn areas don't need a lot of rain due to the possible flooding. My weekend was relatively quiet. I went to dinner once at Mexican restaurant where I had (always get it) a chicken avocado salad which is loaded with umpteen pieces of fresh fruit. Very healthy (except for Ranch dressing) and tasty.
      There's evidently an add-on "fix" the Gawker commenting system back to 5.0 format. They've been posting a Chrome fix in Oppo for about a week. Now they're posting a Firefox add-on "fix". I have FF. This link says that the add-on has not been reviewed by Mozilla. They say "use caution when installing these add-ons, as they could harm your computer or violate your privacy. We recommend that you only install reviewed add-ons." I'm cautious Clara when it comes to doing anything like this, but the 6.0 commenting system on the front page of Jalopnik is the worst thing ever. What do you think of this add-on? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ko
      5412

    14. Tower_Of_Power Avatar
      Tower_Of_Power

      $kaycog…
      That Firefox add on seems interesting. I can't stand the new system. It's very non-user friendly and slow to read comments compared to scrolling through like before. At least I understand how it works now though!
      That's a bummer you didn't have any fireworks, but to spare another fire, I'm sure it was worth it. Most were cancelled in southern Wisconsin due to dryness but I did manage to catch some in Dubuque where they launch them over the Mississippi River and thus have a drastically reduced fire danger.
      It sounds like you are coming along with all your new Ford gadgets. I'm a hands on learner too. Gotta get in there and play with all of the menus and settings to understand things like that, owners manuals do almost nothing for me.
      Have a good one!
      5413

    15. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      Glad to hear that you got some rain and good food. It was a very pleasant day weather wise (and all wise) here yesterday. It was our anniversary (12 years) yesterday. The last thing we did was "Rock Around The Block" http://starevents.com/events/rock-around-the-bloc… We watched the band named "Wedding Band" and they were very funny. We also bought some gifts there, most notable glow in the dark jellyfish in epoxy. One for Aga as anniversary gift for the ocean themed bathroom and one as a necklace for her sister. I met the guy that came-up with the idea, he's from AL, and complimented him. He told me it took him five years of trial and error to get the kinks-out! Good work man! I was accused of everything. That I was eating too many at the same time (I would grab two to three slices at a time since they were thinly sliced), that I did not get close enough to the rind, that too much dribbled over my chest (you can see photo at agamama, Jake did really well too BTW. I'd bet he was the fastest eater that was a kid), that the last slices should not count since I swallowed after the time was called, etc. People sometimes surprise me how annoying they can be. We cleaned-up after ourselves, thanked the ladies running the competition for the funny game, while some other people were complaining like, "wash the tables better kids are touching them." I tried to DL that extension to see what it did, but FF complained that it did not match what it expected. A broken DL link or something like that I guess. I only use a few very well vetted extensions myself and honestly I don't think it can fix the real problem which is that so many of the interesting comments just don't get made over there anymore.
      Hi Tower,
      I always learn so much from you when you comment, thanks! That video with the sort of directed-maze-walking-like behavior of the negative vs the positive charged from the ground was not what I expected, neato! I've seen a strange thing at work where needles grow out of solder joints. They call them whiskers, but they things look straight not curved. Supposedly the new solder is better now about that, electricity does peculiar things. We got that cheese that you mention, with the sheep, cow, and goat milk. I think it was called arica. It is surprisingly good. Michelle likes it a lot. I liked the mild cheddar better myself than the 5 year one, or at least I think it was that one, I ate a lot of cheese. Moose Jaw had beer cheese soup, that was great! I had them make for me a pizza with bacon, alfredo, cheese, potato, and shrimp. The waiter said they might add it to the menu minus the shrimp, call it the baked potato pizza.
      Have a good one,
      5415

    16. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      zms, msz, zap………..Belated Happy Anniversary! It sounds like you had a very nice celebration. The glow-in-the-dark jellyfish sound like a lot of fun. I love "stuff" like that. People can really take the fun out of things, especially contests like the watermelon-eating one. What is supposed to be just plain fun is ruined by people like that. Racin' posted more videos of his dirt track racing on YouTube. It's pretty much the same thing each time, but I watch a little.
      I saw a guy friend at the Post Office this morning, and we hugged. Now I smell like his cologne. I hate it when people use too much of it. A lady at church overdoes it too, and after a hug from her, I can only smell her cologne. A little is good, but more is not better.
      Happy Taco Tuesday!
      5416

    17. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      TowerofPower………….We had a wonderful rain last night, and the trees are so happy now. I think we might have had close to an inch. It wasn't good for the burn area in the Waldo Canyon fire area in Colorado Springs. They had to close one lane of US 24 because of a mud/rock slide. It has also been cooler for the past three/four days in the very low 80's. But the heat returns tomorrow, I guess. They are saying that the Waldo Canyon fire containment is 98% now (or it was last night anyway). Hot spots keep flaring up.
      Later!
      5417

    18. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      Ha, my browser is all slow and for a long while I could not scroll past "Now I smell" hee hee hee, it's the little things. Anyway been a crazy two days here. On Friday there will not be computer room due to UPS upgrades, but they will be treating cancer patients. So a bunch of us were working to make it so that the stations would run on local control and classic protocol. It took some doing, was worth it though, families counting on it. Then today I got a call from Aga, pretty frantic, "I have to leave right now! But there is water coming out of the faucet and it will not stop!" I raced home and it turned-out to be the rear outside one. When I replaced it not too long ago I added a valve, so was not a such a big deal. Now I need to head home. Hope yo had a great day and got the smell out.
      Have a good one,
      5418

      1. $kaycog Avatar
        $kaycog

        zms, msz, cab……..I did get the smell out, LOL! Did you get your faucet fixed? Being a homeowner is always a challenge, it seems. I had an interesting evening last night in that I got a reverse 911 call stating that the police were looking for a Hispanic male, about 5'7", wearing all black and a doo-rag, and he was armed. The call recommended to lock doors and stay inside. The dumbest thing though was that in giving the police phone number, the voice said the numbers like billion, millions, thousands, etc. That really threw me, as I wasn't even sure what kind of call it was at that time. A few friends in this end of town called, and they too got the reverse 911 call. After a couple of hours, I got another reverse 911 stating that the police were still hunting for this person and repeated those stupid numbers. Anyway, what happened was that that guy pulled a gun at a lady in the WalMart parking lot and demanded everything she had. She started screaming, and the guy took off running. So far today, he hasn't been caught. They need to fix that phone number thing. Our Police Department was inundated with calls from people last night not understanding what was going on.
        Happy Hump Day!
        5419

    19. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      Oh man I see I missed a pun thread, dang. Something like that happened to my parents once. There is a case to be made that the guy was hiding in the escape window of their basement since the cover was ripped off and their dog went nuts. But my mom likes to make everything sound dramatic, could have been a squirrel and wind too. I wonder what a doo-rag is… Anyway I got everything fixed-up. I think I wrote about this before, but when we bought the house a pipe burst. The previous owners hired some people to fix everything including the burst pipe. When I went to replace a leaky faucet I was not pleased with the slip shod work, convinced it was just a matter of time the pipe would burst again. So with the help of my uncle I rerouted the pipes. In the process I added some valves to make repairs like this easier in the future. So yesterday I shut-off the valve that went to that faucet.
      The only trouble was that is also shut off water to a portion of the house, including water to the dishwasher. So last night I replaced the faucet, or something. I took it out, again glad I was clever this time it just unscrewed. I even had a little cover in the ceiling for access 🙂 So then I went to the hardware store, drat the shortest they had was 10", I'll check another so it does not stick-out. Next store, crap none have threaded pipes there, but I could sweet (I'm doing this deliberately now BTW) on a threaded piece of copper, but my dad is in IN and we keep all the plumbing stuff at his place, who knows where exactly. Okay third store, crap they are all the wrong diameter for the threads! But the guy that was helping me said he thought I should be able to fix the old one. Just in case I went back to the first store to get a 10" long one since it was getting late. There when I was looking for one again I noticed that they were scattered all in wrong boxes, ha! So I did find an 8" one. I got home, but it was really dark, I was able to disassemble the old one and put it back together right. My hunch is that one of the kids opened it too far (actually Aga was last to use it and in a rush….). The thing was made in MO, I liked that it fixable like that, gives me a warm feeling when stuff is still like that. So this morning I put it back, was like ten minutes work.
      But something is up with water at our place. Aga called and said most of the water from the pool was gone, mysteriously, and she has no idea where it went o_O I'm excited to investigate, hope it is not a hole in the bottom somewhere.
      Have a good one,
      5420

    20. Buickboy92 Avatar
      Buickboy92

      @MZS: Good afternoon MZS, Hope You're doing well 🙂 I've been meaning to ask you, is that photo of the lighting over your work place, your photo? If so it's really really amazing! 🙂 Anyway, I don't know If I mentioned it before, but the little bunny family we had, moved out(over near the Church behind my house, too noisy our place) but we have another little animal. A Chipmunk! The little guy(or girl? how do you tell them apart?) is the cuteist little thing, It's fun to see watch him come out and look for nuts. We've set some peanuts out for him and he comes out and nibbles on them and gets the nut, and scampers away. He's very fast! Also I haven't gotten a photo yet, but my Dad said he's brought some Squirrel to help eat as well. I'm sure it's quite the sight.
      <img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7110/7552493580_c0cf98577c.jpg&quot; width="500" height="332" alt="026">
      I've got a few more of him, It's really funny to see his checks get bigger and bigger with more peanuts 😉
      5421

    21. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi BB,
      Oh no I've never had a photo good enough that my work puts it on the web! Those were from here a little while back:
      http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/
      I'm sorry I cannot remember who took them, but there is an archive link. Pretty often there are neat photos on there. It really is a great photo though!
      That's a cute photo of the little guy/gal and yes it must be something to see the cheeks get bigger. We had hamsters and they did the same, was phenomenal how much they could cram in there! Also they would take it in their mouths and then bring it to a hiding spot and bury it there. I thought that was silly.
      Have a good one,
      5422

    22. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      smz, szm, hop…………Did you find out where the water in the pool went? Fun and games. I just got back from out-of-town and Chinese buffet………I am happy. It was the first time I took my Escape on the highway, and I was very impressed with its performance and nice ride. I also learned more about some of the buttons and switches. Before long, I'll know all about it……..or most of it anyway. While looking at the food on the Chinese buffet, I couldn't but help think of that pickup with all the dead animals on it that you got the h/t for today. I giggled to myself. A doo-rag, or durag or do-rag is this:
      <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Dorag.jpg/220px-Dorag.jpg"width="500"/&gt;
      5423
      BUICK BOY………That chipmunk is darling. What fun you're having with all the cute critters. How is your summer going? Are you still going to college this Fall? I periodically check on the Stormchaser thread on Jalopnik….."No Comments Found." It looks like that is history. Good to see you!
      5423

    23. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      Speaking of food… Aga is dieting again, so that means she makes awesome stuff she does not eat. Apparently fresh homemade chocolate truffles are waiting for me, unless the kids and her sister devour them all before I get home. It's making this stupid paperwork (annual review stuff) I'm doing here at work really tedious just thinking about that. The water I ave not figured-out. I filled the pool some more and drew a mark. In the morning the water was at the same level. I have the filter off maybe it leaks from there? But I found only a little wet spot near the drain. Only other thought was that when I was filling it it was leaking at the same rate so I did not in fact fill it. So I had Aga fill it all the ay up. It's still there. Maybe a construction people came with a hose and connected to the drain. It's happened before they used our water when working on a neighbor's house. It's also peculiar that the rear faucet was broken right before water disappeared from the pool… There are trucks at the new neighbor's house all the time. Strange. I would tell the new neighbors, but they have not moved it, just trucks with people show-up. I assume they are remodeling the inside. They might have no gas, water, phone, electricity for a month, that sort of thing. I am wildly speculating all of this, man is this fun!
      They moved that power outage a week down, so all that work for NTF (cancer treatment) might not have been necessary! I had another funny evening. Best part was I played tennis with Aga and Kev. But my bicycle the crank came apart a bit on the way home and I think most of the grease/oil came out. I was trying to take it apart to pack the bearings after work and could not figure it out. I talked to a guy here, he had a good ideas to try. So this morning I pieced together a working enough bike from the three I had on the walls of the garage, no rear brakes hee hee hee 😉 It's been a funny week with silly things coming-up!
      Glad you had a nice trip with the Escape! Escape needs a name though. Sorry about lunch related truck thing. I emailed the tip and suggested Last Call, but Kamil said Truck Thursday. Aga is the one that found it though! I'm supposed to take Aga's sis to art museums this Sunday, she's art student, should be fun!
      Have a good one,
      5424

    24. Buickboy92 Avatar
      Buickboy92

      @Skaycog: I'm glad You're leaning every new aspect of your Escape! It can be a fun exercise to learn something new. I can't believe it's Thursday already!!!!! The week flew by! Nothing really new with me, just enjoying our nice hot weather, not too hot and not cold at all 🙂 Here's another photo of our Chipmunk eating nuts, this is from the same photo I posted yesterday. It's a set. I have more too.
      <img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7254/7552491982_b6aea8aa0d.jpg&quot; width="500" height="332" alt="033">
      5425

    25. Tower_Of_Power Avatar
      Tower_Of_Power

      Hi BB…
      Those are some neat pictures of the chipmunk. His cheeks are huge in the second one! I can't say I've ever watch a chipmonk up close. They are very skiddish around my parents house so you could never get close to them and they wouldn't come up on the deck.
      I put up a wren house this spring and a wren moved in and had some babies and moved out. Then just last week some big fat sparrow decided she was going to move in. Except that she doesn't hardly fit in the hole. I watched her try to shove herself in there 6 times before she finally made it. She's still hanging around the house so I'm not sure what her plan is, but I really want to get a picture of her trying to cram into there again…she has dedication!
      5426

    26. Tower_Of_Power Avatar
      Tower_Of_Power

      Detective mzs…
      It sounds like you quite enjoy hunting down problems. That is strange how your pool water disappeared but at least you got the faucet fixed! I find things like your pipes now and then that weren't created with the best of thought or care. My porch flooring started coming apart recently. It turns out that the previous owner put new flooring down with small finishing nails and they were breaking and thus the boards were pulling up from the frame. I got some nice woodscrews and screwed them all down last week. The thing is now as solid as concrete. Just need to get to painting it now! But not this weekend, I'm heading to a friends for an apartment warming get together.\
      5427

    27. Tower_Of_Power Avatar
      Tower_Of_Power

      $kaycog…
      That's got to be creepy having some gun toting dude running around your area. Did they ever find him?
      It sounds like you are still enjoying your car, learning little things here and there. Have you washed it yet? That's where I always learn the most. And during the first oil change. It's fun to see how some automakers decide to put things together.
      My girlfriend's mom bought her new car. It's a used 2010 Mazda Miata! I'm pretty excited to go and check it out. It's like the polar opposite of the huge GMC Envoy XUV she has for hauling dogs around.
      Have a good weekend!
      5428

    28. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      zms, msz, bow……..What a busy Friday, and the day is flying by. I have a trip to the mountains planned for tomorrow. I can't wait to see how my Escape does. I'll be trying out the transmission S (Sport) feature for the first time. When gearshift lever is in S, it provides additional grade (engine) braking and extends lower gear operation to enhance performance for uphill climbs, and, I assume downhill grades. Also, I look forward to 20-degree cooler temps and beautiful mountain scenery.
      Your plans?
      BuickBoy………..Colorado has a lot of chipmunks, and people feed them out of their hands. I've never done it because the cute little critters have been known to bite. I just like to watch them. My weekend plans are above. Oh yes, Papa Murphy's chicken, bacon, artichoke, spinach pizza tonight. I LOVE IT!
      TowerofPower……….As I said above, I'm going to be learning more about my Escape this weekend. I found out today when I filled it with gas that it doesn't have a gas cap. It has an "Easy Fuel" system. You just stick the nozzle through a black flexible barrier-like thing and squeeze the handle. Have fun at your apartment-warming this weekend! Stay cool!
      5429

    29. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Tower,
      Enjoy the homewarming! The miata is going to be great! It's a fantastic summer for it! We have a pretty freaky storm here right now with hail even, came out of nowhere. Weather forecast was clear for another 6 hours according to safety group here, ha! I was able to finish all the bikes yesterday, there where three since I needed to fix my kids' too it turned-out. I do enjoy stuff like this, yes and good work on the floor!
      Hi Skay,
      "You just stick the nozzle through a black flexible barrier-like thing and squeeze…" ha ha ha hahhhahhahah!!!! Oh man out of context, that's funny. Tonight we have a fund raiser for the scouts. Aga is volunteering at the brat dinner, I eat. Tomorrow I am going to the nearby speedway with buddies. Oh and drink. And Sunday I take Aga's sister to some art museums in Chicago. Enjoy your drive and destination!
      Have a good one,
      5230

    30. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      zms, smz, cab……..What I said about my new gas tank was funny out of context. I hope your weekend was as much fun as it sounded like it might be. Brats……….yum! I had a great Saturday driving in the mountains, and I'm so very impressed with the performance of my 1.6L EcoBoost Escape. I even learned out to manually downshift with the S gear. Being used to a 4.6L V8, I really thought the Escape would seem gutless, but I was totally wrong. I can't praise it enough. It was a fun day in the beautiful Rocky Mountains and 20 degrees cooler too. Sunday was church, then home cleaning, paperwork, etc with NASCAR on TV in the background. And here it is Monday again.
      5231

    31. Buickboy92 Avatar
      Buickboy92

      Good Afternoon Skaycog 🙂 I'm glad your really like the performance of your Escape. How was the Turbo up that high? Well happy Monday, I hope you're doing well.
      Here's one more of the little Chipmunk.
      <img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7265/7552490174_1456ae1378.jpg&quot; width="500" height="332" alt="034">
      5232 – Oh and did you hear about this?
      http://www.autoblog.com/2012/07/16/ford-recalls-1
      <a href="http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/results.cfm?rcl_id=12V319000&searchtype=quicksearch&summary=true&refurl=rss” target=”_blank”>http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/results.cfm?rcl_id=12V319000&searchtype=quicksearch&summary=true&refurl=rss

    32. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      Buickboy…………Yes, I heard about the recall early this morning from Morning Shift and also my Ford Store. I've looked at my carpet, and I don't know what they are talking about. I don't know if ALL the Escapes will be recalled or just some of them. That Turbo did excellent in the mountains………..it sure made a EcoBoost believer out of me.
      That chipmunk's cheeks are so full. It looks like they're going to explode. So cute.
      5433………CORRECTION…….we were off by 200, thanks to *cough* mzs and me directly below *cough*

    33. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      <img src="https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/534526_866808212260_1456580024_n.jpg&quot; width="600"> Oh man sorry about the misnumbering, good catch! Now seriously that fuel door thing is pretty neat, like F1 or something. I want to see one now. Astrid has 1.8L engine, so yes very adequate in my not very humble opinionated opinion. It's funny I was listening to the guy that was in charge of Volvo 850 and he mentioned how the 444 had a very smooth engine in comparison to the later ones like B18 and B20. The trick was that it was .4L per cylinder was so gutless no balance shafts or anything were needed 😉 The weekend was pretty good one. Instead of me going I convinced Aga to go with her sister. I thought it would be sweater them being sisters and all. It seemed they had good time, though Aga was beat. I took the kids to DQ, a sprinkle park, and the quarry to swim. Also had a good time, but man they were slow leaving, kids the live their life at their own pace, ha ha ha. With the guys I convinced them to go to a circle dirt track 🙂 😀 !!! It was $1 Old Milwaukee night! I think I had eight at least – lost count. At one point I brought back twelve to the stands in two boxes with a buddy! Then I could not convince them to go to tilted kilt, but instead they went to two bars. Oh well, but I did convince one of them to do a burn-out in his mustang when leaving 🙂 Was a fun night.
      Hi BB,
      Oh man I hope the eventual last image is not a cheek explosion! So cute 😉
      Have a good one,
      5434

    34. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      smz, szm, fax…………..It sounds like you had a real fun night out with the guys and really put away the beer. What's tilted kilt? That stock car is really flat looking, and has really been around the track a few times. It's a lovely day here with not much new. I had dinner last night with a girlfriend who is a teller at a bank and was working the drive-thru window yesterday. A gal pulled up and put her deposit in the box and while my friend was processing it, the gal put her right leg up on the dash and started shaving her leg. That's unbelievable………what class. It takes all kinds, doesn't it? How much longer is your SIL going to be there?
      Happy Taco Tuesday!
      5435

    35. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      Tilted Kilt is a bar something like Twin Peaks or Hooters. The waitresses wear kilts. I know it's stupid sounding cuase kilts are for Scottish men. But these friends of mine are always so boisterous and boastful and then they never actually go. I've never been there but online I have seen pictures with the waitresses posing with customer cars. You can see where this is going, an email to my father in law titled "Only in America" with a photo of Astrid 😉
      Okay that shaving thing was peculiar, it's like people get in their cars and think it's their own personal space, but it has windows. I probably pick my nose more than I should in a car when I am alone, so I'm guilty of it I'm sure 🙁 It's like people don't connect what they are doing in a car. My SiL leaves not this weekend but the next, I think. I'm never too sure about details. On Thursday they are going to a amusement park and there is a car show in the next town over (the one with so many Swedes). There is a decent chance a guy with a '56 PV444 will show-up, if he can fix his car in time. I so hope so, it's supposed to be hot and not much shade. I've never seen that particular car in person yet.
      <img src="https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/s720x720/205330_10151916744580046_1789711458_n.jpg&quot; width="600"> That car it was something, driver too 🙂 See how he is waving at me. Anyway sometimes drivers when they get a new engine they go to not their usual track to try it out the first time. My hunch is this car was from Rockford. At the track we went to it was called Super Late Model, but it looks like more Sportsman at the track Racin goes to. The suspension was all different than the other cars there, that's why I think he was not from Sycamore. you can see it has a pretty new fangled chassis, something was going on. For the feature he was supposed to be like in 4th (I thought he qualified second fastest), but they put it at the back. Then he drove up many places until he got tangled-up with no way out five cars collision. Then track officials said he can't be in the feature anymore, but it was only the body. They let him back on, again at the back. Once again he kept climbing positions until the 30 laps were over, maybe to fourth. I was really impressed with the car and the driver. I wish I knew the back story. Oh yeah the photo, it's when they let him back on the track and I ran down the stands to get a good photo. I think he really got a kick out of me, I gave him a thumbs-up and then he waved 🙂 Oh does the pace car in the back look familiar to you? 😉 Finally, Racin did some work on his car over the weekend (he did not want me to help on account of my having all the kids, or so I assume he did not call back). You can see the difference in a 2000 vs 2012 (I assume) car here.
      Have a good one,
      5436
      PS: <img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/6885437792_32c94ef724.jpg"&gt;Stumbled on this stream of photos, wow. That's a PV444 BTW, not a Ford, I swear. The link is to the photostream, with the engine I have never seen which I hope that one has.

      1. $kaycog Avatar
        $kaycog

        smz, mzs, aah…………..That's a pretty neat Volvo ad. I like it. We had a great rain shower last night. It cooled down so much that I turned the a/c off and opened my house up. Then after it quit, the sun came out, and it got a little muggy. I closed the house down and turned a/c back on. Did I understand you correctly that you're going to a car show tomorrow?
        I forgot to tell you that Tom Joslin isn't a writer at Jalopnik anymore. He wrote a good by post Saturday morning. He has other things in life to do. I understand that. There's a new guy, but I forgot his name.
        Happy Hump Day!
        5437

    36. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      Well that emailing did not work. On this one post here I get this error after a while something like xpcomgobbledeegoo.jsm not responding or something like it, sorry. Is it slow for you or anything either? Thanks for the heads-up on Tom, i liked him on the weekends, he was pretty positive and I never know much what he would post except for the old ads. I found a really old photo of me today: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/53161… Here's what I tried before:
      I am having trouble to get to our thread, trying reply by email, sorry this will go in the wrong spot, if it works at all. But I won't be able to prove I linked the Duett this way 😉 I got a bit of a stick in my butt there in the Duett post, whoops. I have been working on licensing and it's always frustrating and time consuming, then I got an email about a meeting sent less than seven minutes before it was to start at a different part of the lab which I missed but others that sit closer together in another building all knew about it. That's frustrating 🙁
      There are a lot of great old images on that photostream, like the one of the lady sleeping in the car. The Mazda MPV would do that with the seats we had, was neat feature. I do not know about tomorrow car show yet. Weather is up in the air now and Gordon might have a front mail seal leak. The neat-o thing is that on the 4th I am going to the shop that will be worked on it. It might be there then, but there is something even more amazing there. I will ask the owner if I can send it in to hooniverse. It's a car that infatuated me but never have seen one in person yet 🙂
      Yesterday was fun. There was a museum that Aga and Gosia did not make it to, so I took her there last evening – Museum of Contemporary Art. Also I walked her around the north side and then drove her to the House of Blues where she walked around and took photos. Finally I drove her to Buckingham fountain where she was able to walk around and take photos with the night skyline and lights. Was nice. I'm pretty glad it worked-out. See kids are different than adults, different things seem important. I look back on it, like back then it was not about spending time with family when traveling, to see things that seemed important to me back then. What I planned never panned-out when I grew-up, no complaints I love it, just seems not important now. So I saw a sculpture of Able the famous Norwegian mathematician, but I could have spent a day more with my cousin by getting to his house earlier. Now I am different, but she is studying art and seeing that is
      important to her. She said she got some inspiration from some of the things she saw, so that's good, maybe she will be a famous artist against all odds someday and it help some little way.
      Have a good one,
      5438

    37. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      smz, zms, pup……….I don't find any errors here, and it doesn't run slow for me either. That was fun on the Duett post yesterday, and I wonder if anybody took us seriously. Ha! That's a great picture of you when you were younger. You looked like a teenager.
      Well, my Escape is being recalled. I heard about it first on Jalopnik this morning. I talked to my Ford Store, and Ford Motor Co. called them and told them to come and pick up my Escape and rent me a car. The recall is only for the 1.6L engine, and mine is the only one sold in this small town. It's kind of scary that I took it to the mountains over the weekend. http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article
      Who is Gordon?
      5439

    38. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      I'm glad nothing happened on your trip! I keep a fire extinguisher with me in the Volvo just in case. Gordon is the owner of the PV. It was funny yesterday 😉 Today I am not feeling all that well. We had some severe thunderstorms and Gosia kept waking me up afraid, like there is something banging on house (was some branches) or that there would be tornado 🙁 Tornadoes are very uncommon in Poland and she has this irrational fear of them. Oh and Max freaked at one point from the thunder and lightening. Maybe 1:30AM I was finally able to get a good sleep without interruptions. Then they woke-up early cause they went to the amusement park. So I am pretty tired. For lunch now I am going home to give Max a walk. I'll make myself one of those good cups of joe there.
      Have a good one,
      5440

    39. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      mzs, szm, mop………The car that FoMoCo rented for me is a 2011 Mazda 3, and I'm not impressed with its comfort or its ride. I haven't driven it long enough to comment on its performance. It was hard to find a rental car because of the Waldo Canyon fire in CO Springs. I guess I'm lucky to have anything to drive. Life goes on. Remember that reverse 911 call I had last week? The attempted armed robbery at WalMart was a hoax, and the woman has been arrested for false reporting. What is wrong with people? That shooting in Denver area made me cry. That young man is sick in the head.
      Well, it's Friday. I have no big plans for the weekend. Same-o, same-o.
      5441

    40. Tower_Of_Power Avatar
      Tower_Of_Power

      $kaycog…
      I just read about a shooting at a batman screening last night. A terrible sounding thing! That must be a very disturbed individual.
      I'm sorry to hear about your recall, but I think car companies have been quick with recalls ever since the Toyota deal. Get ahead of the problem before it causes damage is good for everyone anyways and it's nice that Ford is being so quick about it. I hope you get your Escape back soon! It doesn't sound like the Mazda is quite to your liking.
      Have a good weekend!
      5442

    41. Tower_Of_Power Avatar
      Tower_Of_Power

      mzs…
      I've been to the Tilted Kilt in Madison a couple of times. It's since closed but it was a neat place. Much better food and atmosphere than compared to Hooters, but in the grand scheme of restaurants it really just like 90% of other sports bars. And the girls don't really wear kilts so much as just plaid cheer-leading skirts, very disappointing, kilts would be much cooler.
      We had some crazy storms Wednesday. I was visiting my parents after work in Mount Horeb and ended up in the worst place for the storm. My parents lost a large 2.5 foot diameter willow tree and the neighboring farm across the street had a similar sized tree fall into their house. Everyone is ok, it hit the garage portion on the roof and kind of rolled off to the side ripping up some shingles, plywood and siding but nothing too terrible. It was so windy the house kind of shook with this low rumbling sound. I estimate the winds were a solid 60-65mph. I think it's funny how most dogs get afraid during storms, yet my parents little dog could care less.
      Have a good weekend!
      5443

    42. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Stormies,
      I'm sick, staying at home right now in case they call from work. They ARE doing cancer treatments even with the computer room powered-off. But after that I'm going to the doctor. I'll write more in a few days. Kids are now selling lemonade, I'm going to go lay (lie? lye?) down.
      Have a good one,
      5443.1

    43. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Stormies,
      Still not well 🙁 But I came into work early since I was so worried that things would not get back right after the power outage. I think I will go back soon to rest more. Only two boards misbehaved, oh crap I just heard an alarm 🙁 Well that was not too bad, just a restore that glitched an SRM. Doctor gave me some antibiotics because I was supposed to take Kevin to the STP300 on Sunday. I really really tried to get better in time, but failed 🙁 It's a bad flu. It's funny, now my cranky demeanor Thursday makes sense. Aga took them, it was a small disaster, whatever, the people that sell tickets are not very clear in my opinion. In the end they could not go to the pits 🙁 But they still had good time, but they got bored. Kevin said, "They just went around and around." Well duh! Aga shot some video, amazingly awesome to me, so fast, and the noise, the glorious noise! I can only imagine the smells 😀
      Skay,
      The Mazda3 is a car I really liked, isn't that funny! But it was too expensive, especially so for the hatchback. I expect that I like my cars to ride more firmly than you. The gearbox is very nice, hard to describe, just natural to go from gear to gear and fast seeming. Clutch very easy to feel and straight forward as well. And everything inside was so simple, I always like that, I'm one of those goofballs that dislikes confusing tech. The Aurora thing threw me too, because we live two towns over from Aurora IL. Then I also have a friend who is from there, but he is in Europe right now, I'm pretty sure but I haven't heard back from him. His friends and family that I know about have not been in the news thankfully either. That's just awful, and now all the annoying portion of the guns and religion people doing what they always do 🙁 You know about my brother right? I helped him to get help when he really needed it. I read that the mom was not surprised, I wish families would help before things like this happened. It's very sad.
      Hi Tower,
      I think you must have been very excited to be in that storm! I'm glad no very bad damage occurred. Someday I will have to go to a Tilted Kilt. While sick I have been watch Cosmos on netflix. It is very good, but not in the way I expected. It's so hopeful, sort of like the Seasame Street of science documentary if that makes sense. And Sagan makes these very strange but interesting segues, like a bit of legend from 1100s Japan in a round-a-bout artificial selection example in the end. I also had no idea really about the history of Kepler and Brache was so interesting, it's something like a little about astronomy, maybe mostly, but more like a philosphy like we really are not much, have not been around much, are similar to everything else, and hopefully we make good decisions for the future. But the flu might be affecting me, I started noticing how various things look so trippy yesterday, like clouds and fish, ha!
      Have a good one,
      5444

    44. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      smz, szm, sun………So sorry about you having the flu. When you wrote last week how tired you were from lack of sleep, I suspected you might be coming down with something. Does anybody else in the family have it? It sounds like you were really down with it. I hope everyday shows an improvement for you. I also hope that nobody else gets it.
      My weekend was uneventful. It seems like whenever I saw or heard anything about that Aurora shooting, I'd start crying. Some of the stories about the victims are heart-wrenching. A young man who graduated from high school at a nearby town was shot in the face and has had several surgeries. He lost an eye. Here I am, crying again.
      I have already found our next place for this. We're going to visit Alff again.
      TowerofPower……I don't know when part will come in to fix my Escape. Ford Motor Co. called me Friday to tell me about the recall. I told them I heard about it the day before and that my Escape was already at the dealership, and that a car was rented for me from Hertz. I was pretty impressed with them calling. I got license plates this morning…………..GAAAH! $634…….I was figuring about $500, so I was pretty close.
      When time comes, I have new place picked out.
      5445

    45. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      Hi Skay,
      I just noticed that 402 that is not a 402 that you showed to Vavon in this post. That's a weird car, it looks like half of a Volvo PV36 and half a PV60 that was changed into a wood gas car. Volvo in fact made PV5x cars during WWII that were wood gas right from the factory, they came with a trailer though not built in the back like that. Anyway, they all used the basically the same inline six engine (with SEVEN main bearings – Volvo was part of a bearing manufacturer back then after all). Maybe there was a model like the 36 for taxicab use that this is based on?
      <img src="https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/484427_870199560970_1137807609_n.jpg&quot; width="490"> I'm feeling a lot better now, not well, but almost great. It's hard to sleep in the night though when I sleep during the day though. After work Kevin has an outdoor orchestra concert I am pretty excited to go to. I had to leave work after about six hours yesterday and I went home to take a nap. I hope to make the whole day today. My ears feel normal again, yippie! And I lost 6.x lb! Though the diarrhea was really terrible 🙁 I got secondary ear infection but warded-off bronchitis thankfully. After the fact I can tell when I am getting sick from my writing of all things! I wish I would be able to figure it out as it's happening, oh well. Here's a really great cartoon Gosia did of Aga, and yes Aga made pancakes for her 😉
      Hi Tower,
      <img src="https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/487375_10151133234550030_277925922_n.jpg&quot; width="600"> We had some storms again, last night. It was not too bad here, but some branches were down all the way on my bike ride to work. On the night between M-Tu there was a bigger one. "Susan Stephens took this pic on N. 1st St., DeKalb" from the WNIJ facebook page. My friends out in Sycamore and DeKalb had a lot more damage. They got lucky though as the fallen trees only took out parts of a fence and not the house or siding right next to that in the worst case.
      I missed you stormies 🙁 have a good one,
      5446

    46. Buickboy92 Avatar
      Buickboy92

      @MZS: Hello MZS, I hope you're having a having a great Friday! Mine is nice, I've just started watching Mad Men on Netflix (just signed up again), and I'm only on the 4th Episode, so no spoilers if you've seen it!!! 😉 I don't know why I've just started to watch the show, as it's been on since 2007. Aga is a great drawer, really neat looking. What else does she draw? I hope you're feeling better, I haven't heard of getting the flu in Summer, mostly seems like a Fall or Winter thing. Also sorry all for not coming back here sooner as my Internet was down for a while, mostly on and off.
      5447

    47. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      zms, smz, flu……….Gosia is quite an artist! I'm very impressed. That crown is very fitting for Aga. You really had a nasty flu. Did anybody else in the family have it? Here it is Friday……yay! I got my Escape back Wed. It was washed and filled with gas as Ford Motor Co. said they would do. My fuel line didn't have a crease in it, but they replaced it anyway. I'm sure loving having it back.
      I'm going to get a new place now and will post it after this one.
      5448

    48. $kaycog Avatar
      $kaycog

      Wait till ya'll see the image I posted in new place.
      http://hooniverse.info/2010/07/01/last-call-purple
      5449

  5. Age_of_Aerostar Avatar
    Age_of_Aerostar

    It's hard to tell, is that white wagon a Chevrolet, Buick, or Pontiac?
    From what I found:
    Pontiac: reverse lights on the bottom of the tail lamp cluster.
    Buick: Chrome(ish) strip went through the reverse light in the middle of the tail lamp cluster
    Chevy: The reverse light was surrouded by red plastic of the tail light lens.
    I'll say Chevy.

    1. timbill Avatar
      timbill

      i think its an oldsmobile, but not for sure

      1. Age_of_Aerostar Avatar
        Age_of_Aerostar

        OK, Since for some reason I have a fasination on how pretty much the exact same car was "varied" for each different brand by barely noticable changes, I've assembled the compilation of 1980's GM station wagon tail light lenses. (And I can't believe I forgot Oldsmobile)
        Olds
        <img src="http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/1632/2461/4078730010_large.jpg&quot; width="300">
        Pontiac
        <img src="http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/11/CC-38-042-800.jpg&quot; width="300">
        Buick
        <img src="http://www.m43.narod.ru/us_cars/gm_corp/buick/buick_estate_wag_90_01.JPG&quot; width="300">
        Chevy
        <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4231579884_6aee44f0a1.jpg&quot; width="300">

      2. Age_of_Aerostar Avatar
        Age_of_Aerostar

        Soooo, upon further investigation, it has the chrome stripe across the tailgate, which is a Buick feature, but the taillights do not have the chrome surronding the reverse light, and that's a Chevy feature.
        (for something that was not the point of the article, I know, I spent too much time on this already)

        1. Lotte Avatar
          Lotte

          Also, look at the moulding on the bottom of the rear window; it creates a sharp corner on the Buick while the Chevy one keeps the rounded profile;
          Buick:
          <img src="http://www.aswoa.com/ASWOA/www.aswoa.com/wpe10.jpg&quot; width=300">
          Chev:
          <img src="http://www.imcdb.org/i008303.jpg&quot; width="300">
          Looking at the one in question it looks like it's got those mouldings, albeit in white, which is strange. Also, all your examples have CHMSLs, maybe there's a year difference as well? Also, were there any Buick Electra estates sold without wood paneling?
          (Without the powers of the Internets I would not have known about any of this. I swear my knowledge and awareness of old American iron has bajillioupled since I started reading this site.)

          1. Age_of_Aerostar Avatar
            Age_of_Aerostar

            I really am intrigued by all of this…. and think it's pretty cool that someone else looked into it too.
            Good point about the trim around the rear window, I hadn't looked at that. I think you were saying that both the Buick and Chevy have the rounded molding, but the Buick adds additional trim below that, to form the sharp corner. At least that's how I see it.
            So when I look at the white wagon in the post (which has now apparantly become my white whale), it has the additional molding, which points to Buick, which would match up with the chrome strip in the tailgate, but not the taillights.
            Maybe it's the year of the wagon too, good point. I'll have to see if I can find a Buick wagon without wood siding, as that'd be another clue. (or make the mystery deeper).
            Also, perhaps, the wagon was not sold in the US. (Not sure if that ever happened) but the added reflectors, and the non-English on the trailer makes it a possibility at least. In that case, an export version may have had different parts on it from what was assembled for US sales.

          2. Age_of_Aerostar Avatar
            Age_of_Aerostar

            Looks like you could get it without the wood paneling, at least maybe, because who knows what's happened to these cars, but I didn't find anything quickly in writing.
            <img src="http://img1.classistatic.com/cps/po/101220/049r2/37979f2_27.jpeg&quot; width="300">
            <img src="http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/2308/4301/30769650002_large.jpg&quot; width="300">

          3. Lotte Avatar
            Lotte

            So it seems my knowledge of this type of car has jumped from zero to suspiciously well versed…
            It seems like the Buick version wasn't exported (no results), so I'm only guessing Chevys made it officially overseas. However, when they did, they looked like this:
            <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4498310895_1c28979349.jpg&quot; width="350">
            Note the missing sharp-corner-making moulding! And another set of tails! O, the mystery!
            I think this would be an American Buick refugee that has gotten a repaint, and somebody either couldn't take off the rear window moulding or just forgot (it's ALL white, including the stuff that's supposed to be chrome). It could be an export Chevy with sourced taillights and trim pieces, but who would go out of their way to do that? My 'p's are on it being a displaced Buick.

          4. Age_of_Aerostar Avatar
            Age_of_Aerostar

            should I suggest that the tailgate got damaged at one point, and was replaced (with another brand)? Would explain the painting over the molding.
            OK, I think we've worked this one to death… but it was fun!!!

          5. Lotte Avatar
            Lotte

            Yes, that seems valid.
            We've done this one to death, but I'm sure sometime in the future someone would have a fuzzy picture of a current Buick Terraza and we'd be trying to figure out which brand it was from.

          6. Age_of_Aerostar Avatar
            Age_of_Aerostar

            somehow, I can't wait for that day…. because I think this kind of shit is fun.

  6. TurboBrick Avatar
    TurboBrick

    LOL… B-body wagon with a wood burner in the back, go Finland! Looks like it's also registered as a tax-evasion van.

  7. Black Steelies Avatar

    There was a show on History called Apocalypse PA that built a wood gas Ford pickup truck. It's a pretty corny show but interesting. I can't find much in video but google it and there were lots of forums chatting about it.
    The guy also made his own weapons and ammunition and a still for corn liquor.

  8. Jim-Bob Avatar
    Jim-Bob

    I have wanted to build one of these ever since I read up on the Serbian wood gas powered Yugo 45. In my case, I would probably use a 1.3 liter 4 cylinder Metro or Swift augmented with the manual trans from a 3 cylinder Metro and a shaved head to give it a bit more power off the line. I wonder how many miles per log I could get?

  9. Mad_Hungarian Avatar
    Mad_Hungarian

    Isn't there something inherently self-contradictory about "Low-Tech Magazine" being on the Internet?

  10. jim mason Avatar
    jim mason

    wood gas cars are good diy hot rodding fun. not terribly relevant for large scale deployment though. here's one i made in the trunk of a honda civic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JyazgRBtq8 still don't drive it daily though.
    more relevantly, gasification is a better fit for stationary power generation. we offer free wood gas gasifier plans to make your own. also sheet metal kits to weld together kits to make making your own a little easier.
    if you want it done and easy, here's our individual scale biomass gasification machine. it is called the GEK Power Pallet. it offers a complete biomass power generation solution that converts woody biomass to electricity, heat, and PTO shaft power. it is a compact, integrated and fully automated system –from wood chips in, to power out.
    no, it is not yet fuel agnostic. it requires a reasonable consideration of fuel shape, size and moisture content, though less than historic requirements. future improvements will move towards progressive fuel agnosticism, and thus closer to the "washing machine" solution of "lift lid, put in junk, and out comes useful things" that we all really want.

  11. jim mason Avatar
    jim mason

    lost the links on the last post. the plans and sheet metal kits are at http://www.gekgasifier.com

  12. packratmatt Avatar
    packratmatt

    There's a Traction Avant in Nashville that's a coal/wood burner.
    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3512/3231213776_b0

    1. citroen67 Avatar

      Wow. That actually looks somewhat good! It appears as though they put thought and engineering into how the vehicle would look when finished, as opposed to just strapping a bunch of stainless steel bins in the trunk.

  13. west_coaster Avatar
    west_coaster

    Wait until NHTSA and the IIHS want to crash test these things. Can you rate vehicles with "negative stars"?

  14. FuzzyPlushroom Avatar
    FuzzyPlushroom

    My currently-non-running Volvo 244 is taunting me. This is a terrible, awful, hilarious idea.