I have just crawled under the van (Yes in the snow) and cut the pipe right next to where it exits the floor of the van.  Unfortunately the only place I could lie to cut it was right underneath it so I got my arms absolutely soaking in freezing cold water.  However I now have 2 working.  The kitchen sink and the shower are now fully operational.  Just need to do the bathroom sink tomorrow.

When I do the rebuild I will be rerouting the interior pipes to exit the van close to the tanks.  I will then put a t piece where it exits and fit a drain valve.  Then in the winter I can turn the valve to open and the waste will come straight out rather than going to the underslung tank.  I unfortunately can’t do this for the shower but the shower disconnects easily enough underneath.

Fortunately I am on gravel over loose soil.  I have disconnected the waste pipe from under the shower so that water flows straight out of the van into a waste hog.  I will have to cut the kitchen and bathroom sink pipes though but daren’t do this until the straight through connectors arrive hopefully monday.   So for now I have to use a bowl and empty it into the shower after.  Not much of a hardship but I would guess it would grate a bit after a few days.

I have just realised that because I have built this van myself I don’t panic when things go wrong and a  solution is never more than a few minutes away.  That cheered me back up….  If this had happened in the Hymer I would have been up the creek so to speak….

The tooth literally took a few seconds to remove.  The longest part of the procedure was waiting for the anesthetic to take effect.

There was no pain during or after the procedure and up till now there has only been the odd slightly naggy ache which ibuprofen sorts out quickly enough.

I am now starting to work on the job list for the Van as I can now concentrate ok.

I have been petrified of Dentists all my adult life and have never found one I liked until now.  If you need a good dentist Frederico at Lincoln Dental Care on Newark road is excellent.

I am aiming for setting off in early March and just trying to work out the route now.

I need to get the MOT done.  I need to go to Magnums in Grimsby.  I want to visit Artona in Caistor.  I need to visit Retford and would like to drop in to Louth for a week.  There is also a potential trip to Ferry Meadows near Peterboro on the cards.  After all that I will pop back to see mother before getting over to France (finally)

Blog entries should start appearing again over the next month or so….

At about 01.16am on Wednesday 7th December the alarm sounded at the Lloyds TSB Bank, High Street, Coningsby. Police attended and discovered that the ATM/cash point machine had been attacked by a Bobcat teleporter / forklift. Serious structural damage was caused to the front of the bank. The ATM was damaged but remains at the scene.

Four people were seen in the vicinity of the bank. Three wore dark clothing with hooded tops and scarves over their faces. One another person is thought to have remained in a white Audi car with a ’61′ plate registration. It is thought that the offenders were disturbed by passing members of the public. They left the scene in the white Audi travelling towards Tattershall. The Bobcat is believed to have been stolen from a building site on Ackrill Close, Coningsby. It was left at the scene along with an abandoned silver Mitsubishi L200 pick-up truck. At this stage it is unclear what, if anything has been stolen.

At about 01.35am a silver Ford transit was stopped by the police in the Hubberts Bridge area. Two men aged 48 and 43 were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the burglary. They will be questioned later today.

The officer in the case is Detective Sergeant Andy Harwood, of Louth CID. He is appealing for witnesses, or anyone with any information to contact him via the new 101 non-emergency number, quoting incident 18 of 7th December 2011. Alternatively, contact the charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

I really need to finish fitting the Gaslow system but that requires the screws which were the wrong size (again).  An 8 mm adapter for the regulator.  No one seems to have them in stock or if they do seem to be incapable of delivering them.  I now have a bunch of adapters that will allow me to fit it but both are bodges in my opinion and I don’t want to bodge this job just to have to do it again later.  This means that I am working off one cylinder which ran out in the night so a cold night ensued.

My shoulder is playing up again so I am paying one of the lads from the local pub to do the manual parts of the last deadlock install,  we ran out of daylight so only got the first hole cut.

I have not had a beer in 10 days and can’t have one till Sunday.   That’s not too bad on it’s own but means I can’t go to the pub either.  I know I would be tempted….  Looking forward to getting back to the pub for some social time.

I can’t plan my next move or where to go for Christmas until mothers hip has recovered enough so that I am happy to get off and leave her to fend for herself again….  I am looking at the weather forecast and it looks like I am ok till the end of this month though.  I don’t mind helping her but I do miss moving around every week or so.

I have just re-read the above and WOW!!!  I can whinge with the best of them ……

On the upside.  Tonight 19:50 I am at the dentist and fingers crossed will cure my toothache once and for all…  I will be back to my cheerful self then if a few quid lighter.

Pub Sign

Just in case you can’t read it.

Husband Creche,

Is he getting on your nerves and under your feet??

Why not leave him here.

You can shop in peace,
Free Creche – Just pay for his drinks and we’ll look after him

Bargain

I have re-sprayed all the plastic trim and ordered a new decal

These will run for most of the sliding door and back panel and the same on the opposite side.

The trailer looked like it was some sort of cleaning or sorting machine for vegetables possibly Sugar Beet?  If you know what this trailer is for please let me know?

I was wondering how the hell they were going to sort this out.  The answer came much later that night when a HUGE trailer pulled up outside.  I wandered out to have a nose and saw that a large crane was parked round the corner and they were attaching 4 straps to the trailer.

Here are some pictures.  Sorry about the quality but my camera just couldn’t handle it so had to take them on my Blackberry.  There was only one place to stand and that meant lots of high brightness lights shining directly at me and two streelights in view.

Just after the initial lift to allow the tractor to get free.

They were trying to stop the back end swinging into the house to the right.   Looked a bit dicey for a minute or so.

Over the road and trailer in place.

You can see the wheel buckled underneath now….

Getting it on the trailer

The guy near the buckled wheel has the top half of his body under the wheel putting great chunks of wood in to support this side.  Health and safety my arse :p

I apologise for the quality of the pictures and that they don’t give an idea of the true scale of the size of this bit of machinery.