The sweet smell of French fries

This story goes back a while. It started on a Saturday afternoon, working on Rose's car. Without going into details, the car had a list of things it needed done, and I was having trouble justifying it all. The car didn't owe us a thing, and with Rose on the hiway all the time, I didn't want to push our luck going into winter. So, Rose started car shopping.

Yes, there was a lot of debate, but really there was only one choice. It had to be diesel, and that meant ein Deutsches Auto (a German car). There were not many to be found, but Rose finaly bought a wonderful 2001 VW Golf TDI.

Yeah! She even lets me drive it! (But only if I'm good, and I can come up with a really good reason)

So now it's time to get on the Bio-Diesel band wagon. With the falling temperatures of winter, and the fact that the little car hardly uses any fuel at the best of times, I'm not jumping the gun to start collecting waste oil just yet. For now, we have been using the Costco bulk canola oil. Just a touch over $1/L so it's not too spendy. A little left-over methaol and lye, and boom, we have some home-made bio-diesel. With just 1 liter in the tank, you could smell the diffrence at the tail pipe. Stick it to the man! The first steps to getting off the juice.

I'm working on improving my "stil", but that will come with a little time, and a shopping trip in town. For now, I can still do small batches.

The new Biodiesel decal has arrived for the back of the car. When it warms up, I'll have to put it on.

Okay, I've only made a few liters, and at best we're only talking a B5 blend in the car. Compare that to my neigbour who runs his truck for 1/2 hour before he goes to work every morning, I'm saving the world.

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Sorry I haven't said too much here in the last little while. Sometimes life get's in the way. But I hope that when the dust settles from the last few weeks, it will all be worth it.