The Trip Blog

If you are interested, I am running a blog about the first big trip to the mainland at http://www.raysmainlandtrip.blogspot.com/

Have a look.

Ray

I think It's Done

I think It's done.  There is no way of knowing for sure, but for the best part the 9 month Odyssey is over.  Today I am just 2 days from leaving for the big adventure on the mainland.  I guess now is the time to go back over what I've learned over the last 9 months.

There's no doubt that I am much wiser now than I was when I started. I'm wiser in so many ways.  The main things that I learned are;

• Planning is the most important thing  -  you can save so much time and money by taking time to plan exactly what you are going to do,  but also how you're going to do it.  Next time I do this,  the whole layout will be planned well in advance.  Everything will be measured out and planned properly so there are no nasty surprises and things to fix after they've already been done.
• Do all of the wiring, plumbing a gas work first - As I've found doing all of the wiring, plumbing and gas work first will save a packet in labour costs. The benefit of doing this stuff up front before the furniture goes in is huge.  The amount of time I spent squeezing into tight places and trying to get pipes and wires through was just stupid.  If I'd done all of the 12 volt wiring first for example, I would have saved a heap of time and heartache.
• Use plywood instead of frames - instead of using the framing system, I would use plywood sheets to make the furniture and then clad it with pine.  This would make the construction, lining and finishing of the furniture so much easier.  Using chipboard should be avoided because of the weight factor.  The only problem with using plywood is that you need a good panel saw to make accurate cuts to size.
• Build furniture outside - As much as possible,  the furniture would be much easier built outside the vehicle and moved inside and assembled.  This adopts the modular concept and as far as possible should no only be constructed, but also finished prior to installation.
• Buy in bulk - I spent too much time and money buying materials bit by bit.  Far better to plan and buy everything you need up front and from one supplier where a good discount can be negotiated.  Motor home equipment is expensive so any discount you can get will be well worthwhile.
• Budget - I still don't know how much I've spent on the white monster,  and what's more I am frightened to add it all up.  I think that you need to work out what the main components cost and then double it and you will come somewhere to close to the mark.  It must be said though, that whatever you do, it will be much cheaper than having someone else do the job for you.
• Research - look at as many layouts and designs as you can.  The Internet is a wonderful thing you can get so many ideas from just taking time to look.

I took this project on for many reasons and it has been a real journey.  I am now at the point where the hard work is about to pay off.  I'm about to head off for 35 days to Victoria and New South Wales and really enjoy my first motor home.  Don't ever underestimate the satisfaction you get from doing a job like this.  I will be sorry to see the old girl go when I finally sell her to move on to the next one,  but that's why I spent so much time and money, to make sure that I had not only a comfortable motor home, but also an asset that I can on-sell to someone else.  Then I can move on to the next one.

It's been a fantastic journey and has done me a power of good personally.  Before I started this project I was not sailing too well, but it has helped me focus on what I really want in life and changed my life.

If you dream of doing what I've done, have a go for heaven's sake.  The end result is really satisfying and just like me you will end up with a fantastic recreational vehicle that really will mean that you can Work to Live, not Live to work.

Its been great having everyone along for the journey.  I hope that I've helped some people solve some problems and maybe inspired some of you to have a go at doing this for yourself.

I plan to run a blog of the upcoming trip if any of you are interested.  I'll add the address to this blog once I've set it up.  Cheers for now.  Ray

The Antenna Tuner is In and it Works!

What is all the fuss about an antenna tuner?  Well when you play around with HF radio, having a means to quickly tune an antenna to a given frequency is very important.  One of the things that I set about fitting out the bus was so that I could use is as a portable radio shack.

A few months ago when I went to Ross for an amateur radio weekend, and discovered the SGC-237 antenna tuner.  This unit is designed to tune antennas of all kinds and has a very good reputation.  I decided to take a chance given that if it works the way its supposed to, it would make life very easy when it came to carrying and erecting antennas for frequencies that usually require very long lengths of wire.

The specifications call for the usint (which is waterproof) to be mounted under a cover to keep the sun off it.  I decided to fit the unit inside a metal box on the back of the bus, but having done this, had to get heavy coaxial cable and a 12 volt line from the box to the front of the bus to the small bench that I made to hold the radio.

The pic below shows the box mounted on the rear of the bus.  You can see the cables coming out the bottom of the box. The white insulator on the top was made for me by David Wilson of ttssystems.  David also sold me the SGC tuner and when I couldn't find the high voltage insulator I needed to get the antenna wire out of the box, made it for me.  Thanks Dave.

The metal loop to the right of the box is where the 10 metre telescopic fibreglass squid pole slips into.  The squid pole support 65 feet of antenna wire which the tuner makes resonant.

The pic below is a close-up of the antenna tuner in the box.

This unit has 12 volts to it from the front of the bus.  The reason for this is that it needs to be switched off when not in use to save the battery.   The running of the coax cable and the 12 volt cable was an 'under the bus' job, so I called upon one of the best 'under the bus' people I know, Lucy.  she spent a couple of hours trying to avoid getting stuck again like she did before.  Managed OK this time, but there was a fair bit of complaining.

The pic below shows the location of the switch.  I ran the 12 volts from the panel that I made earlier un the cupboard that he radio sits on.

Earlier today, we put the squid pole up and gave the tuner a test run,  On 40 metres a contact S9 to Queensland, then to the US Canada border on 20 metres, also S9.  The antenna and the tuner work really well. 

Only 5 days to go before I leave.  Still lots of little jobs to do including the installation of the voltage sensetive relay to charge the house battery off the alternator.  That's tomorrow, we'll see how I go.

The Shower is Done

The shower is finally done.  What a job.  When I think about it, it was almost the first thing I built in the bus.  It has definitely taken the most work.  The steps were the framing, followed by the cladding, then the plywood lining.  That was followed by the PVC lining, then the sealing, then lastly the fitting of the door.  Anyway, its done and looking really good, even if I do say so myself.  I will let the pics do the talking.

The above pic is the end of the day yesterday.  I bought the 1mm PVC sheeting from Access Plastics in Moonah for $49.00 for a 2.4 x 1.2mm sheets.  It took 2 sheets which wasn't enough to do all of it.  In then end , I had to have a 500 x 600mm piece of 2mm acrylic cut to go in the bottom of the shower.  It was either that or buy another big sheet of PVC.  The 2mm acrylic is stronger and should be harder wearing too.  Being thicker also made the install of the drain easier too.

The pic below shows the acrylic sheet in the bottom of the shower.

I cut the PVC with a big pair of scissors.  It is coated on both sides with a coarse paper to protect the surfaces.  This makes it easy to mark out the outlines of the pieces and cut them to size. There was a lot of measuring and drawing which I transferred from a simple drawing I did in the bus.  The drawing and cutting was done on the lounge room floor.  Much easier to get on top of the sheet to work on it.

The PVC sheeting was stuck to the plywood with liquid nails.  This adhesive sticks quite quickly,  but allows enough time to move the sheet if needed. The next job was to seal the edges and joints.  For this I used a product for Crown which is similar to Sikaflex, but claims to resist mould more.   The sealer doubles as an adhesive and once it is cured helps hold all of the edges together.  It is strong and adheres very well to the PVC and acrylic.

The pic below shows the waterproof LED light on the wall of the shower. This light was $50.00 from the RV Superstore in Fern tree Gully.  It has 48 LED's and casts quite a bright light especially reflecting off the white walls.

The shower head and taps re-installed on the back wall of the shower.

The pic below shows the toilet installed.  I have got to tie is down with some waterproof self adhesive hooks on the floor.  The flush water is in the top and it makes it a little top heavy.  I've put some anti slip matting under the toilet to prevent it from moving around.

The pic below shows the folding door installed.  I bought this a few months ago at Bunnings.  It is made from plastic and is waterproof.  I had to cut it down and shorten it, but it now fits really well and looks good too.  I decided to go this way rather than a hinged door just to save room.  Even though it fits, I'm planning on fitting a shower curtain on the inside to stop any water from leaking out.  I think it will work fine.

This last pic is an overall update of the interior taken today from the cab.

The Seats Are In

I know I'm getting to the final stages now that the refinished seats are back in.  The whole seating thing has been a worry since I started.  I had planned to buy two replacement seats and fit them into the bus.  The more I looked into it the harder I saw that it was going to be.  Any replacement seats were going to require a fair amount of metal fabrication to make them fit.

The two main issues were that the steering wheel in these busses it quite close to the seat (made for small drivers) and the other is that the passenger's seat has to be narrow enough for the engine box to still lift up.   There is a small flap next to the engine box on the passener's side which has to lift up to allow access to the radiator water reservior.  If any replacement seat was too wide it would'nt allow this to happen.  It would mean building the pasenger seat across the top of the engine box cover.

So,  the decision was to make do with the original seats,  but to have them recovered.  I took them to a busniess in Moonah called Supertrim.  A guy named Tony looked at them and reassured me that he had done seats from a Mazda T3500 before and he had some ideas on how to improve them.

There were two problems; the driver's seat was flat and had no shape on the part where your bum goes.  The foam was flat and not very confortable.  The problem with the passenger's seat was that it was very narrow on the back, had no lumbar support and the base had no shape in it.

After refinishing,  not only do the seats look better, they are also much more confortable.  Tony has built up the seats, improved the width of the passenger's seat, put some lumbar support in, and generally made the seats look much more alike than they did.  The pics below show the story. 

They've turned out OK I think, and I jagged the colour to match the other upholstery too.  I had the sides and backs of the seats done in vynil to save money and to make them more hard wearing too.  The frames of the seats and the brown of the cab generally looks a bit out of place now,  but I can live with it.

Yesterday I spent all day on the shower.  It should be finished today,  so I'll see if I can post some pics of the finished job tonight.

Engine Box Cover

When I began building the furniture behind the engine box, I didn't take into account the fact that the hinges on the box cover made it move backwards when it was opened.  This meant that after the cover was opened several times, the hinges bent in the wrong place and eventually broke.  It was too late to even think about changing the furniture so I had to come up with another way of hinging the cover.

The answer was these rubber engine cover catches which I found at Repco for $12.00 each.  The box opens and hinges OK, but isn't ideal because the box wants to move backwards when its propped up,  but I have a plan to fix it by putting an aluminium plate behind the cover so that it rests against it when open.

Gas Installed, Radios Fitted, Table Fixed

Back after a break and now with only two weekends left before the big trip to the mainland.  One of the major things that had to be done was the gas fitting.  The gas box was installed several months ago and I've been looking for someone to do the gas fitting and issue the safety certificate.  All done now though.  Not cheap however, $700.00 to install the regulator, and pipes to each of the cooktop and the hot water system.  To say I was shocked at the price is an understatement.  Anyway it had to be done and I guess that's what gas fitters charge these days.

The pic below is of the gas box door which I installed last weekend.  I had a few issues with making it fit and had to cut the door down with the angle grinder. The sticker on the box cover was $9.80, what a rip off.

Being a Ham Radio nut, it was essential that I had not only the UHF CB installed, but also the 2 metre/70 centimetre transceriver.  The radios were always intemded to be installed on the shelf over the cab, but the issue was always where the antennas would be mounted.  The answer was to use gutter mounts.  I found the mounts at http://www.andrewscom.com.au/ for $19.00 each.

Before I could install the VHF/UHF rig, I needed to run 15amp power cables from the battery of the bus.  To do this I installed 2 heavy cables from the battery to a distribution board under the small cupboard behind the passenger's seat. I also added a double cigarette lighter socket for things likr phone chargers, TV etc. ($12.00 from www.jaycar.com.au )

The following pics show the radios installed on the shelf and the antenna mounts on the front of the motorhome.

The pic below shows the UHF CB antenna on the gutter mount.

The Table

My original plans for the table didn't work out the way I's hoped.  Put simply the table was too low and the drop down wings on it were way too long.  It was impossible to sit at the table comfortably, so I had to shorten the wings.  The pics below show the 'new' modified table with the wings down and raised.

Now I have to finish lining the shower, and by the way, the seats are at the motor trimmers being completely overhauled, new padding, reshaping and recovering.  I've been promised big things, we'll see later in the week.

The House Battery and Mains Systems All Done

I remembered this week that I had not posted any pics of the house battery.  There was a fair bit of agonising over which battery to install.

I really wanted to have the house battery under the dinette seat behind the driver because of the ease of wiring and access.  The problem is that having batteries that are not completely sealed means that hydrogen gas can be generated while the battery is charging.  Hydrogen is of course highly flammable and having a build up of it in a confined space is asking for trouble.

For this reason,  I was heading for 'Gel' cells or Absorbed Glass Mat batteries (AGM) rather than the traditional wet cell deep cycle batteries which need to topped up and are vented through the caps.  The cost of the Gel batteries was huge in the size that I wanted (200A/Hr).

Finally this battery was suggested as an alternative.  It is a traditional lead acid battery,  however it is sealed and maintenace free, and instead of venting though the caps,  any build up of gasses is vented through two small vents, one on either side of the battery.

The pics below show the battery and how I used irrigation fittings and clamps to vent the battery to the outside of the bus through the floor.  This has worked out just fine.  The only thing to do now is to clamp the battery down to the floor.  This thing is HEAVY.  I did my back in trying to shift it myself.  This is 200A/Hr deep cycle battery from Marshall Batteries in Hobart for $240.00.

This pic shows the vents where they go through the floor.  It's still messy in there,  must clean it up.

The 240 volt mains system has been waiting for months to be installed.  I just could not find an electrician who was interested in doing the job.  I guess it was quite small and they are really busy at the moment.  Anyway, its done.  Pics following are of the Double Pole outlets, one on each end of the kitchen bench and one in the back of the cupboard under the sink to run the power supply for the fridge and the battery charger.

The last pic shows the mandatory earth leakage detector inside the kitchen cupboard.  A very neat job done by Leigh from VanDeiman Electrical in Hobart  Phone 0418 121 489.  Guess what,  they even cleaned up their mess before they left.  I just have to wait for the certification to come back from Aurora Energy so that I can send it to the insurance company.

There was one other small job that I did get done this weekend too,  that was the cup holder/tray to go on the engine box to hold drinks and maps etc.  Pic below.

Shower Lining Started

Hi Again.  Well the lining of the shower with ply was completed this weekend.  The whole job has been on hold for months waiting to get the mains electrical install done.  With that job done, I got to work putting plywood onto the remaining walls to support the plastic sheeting which will waterproof the shower/toilet.  The following pic will give an idea of how it looks at this stage. All of the plywood is in,  just got the cut the plastic to size and glue to the ply.

The other job that I got done this weekend was to finally get all of the curtains up and working properly. I was intending to have a venetian blind made for the windows behind the kitchen bench,  but was talked out of it because they rattle when you're driving apparently.  I had curtains made,  so I decided to make use of them.

Sorry about the mess.  As you can see,  work is still in progress  I have been doing all of those little jobs that need to be done so I can say the job is finally finished. A post on the mains and 12 volt systems now that they are all done is next.

The Kitchen Drawer, The Shelf in the Cab and the New Stereo

I've been putting this one off for some time because I've never used drawer runners before.  First off I had to make the drawer itself.  This wasn't too bad.  I made the bottom out of 13mm ply and the sides out of 7mm ply, glueing and nailing all of the sides.  Because I hadn't done this before,  I made the drawer too high and couldn't get the thing into place.  A quick bit of work with the jig saw fixed that though.  I had some throuble with getting the runners straight,  but sorted that after some mucking around.  The pic below shows the finished job with the front panel I made months ago fitted in place.

The pic above shows how I had to build out the side of the draw to leave a gap. This is so that it leaves room on both sides at the top for the catches.

The pic above shows the finished job.  All looks good I think.

The next job was to build and install a shelf over the top of the dashboard to house some new speakers.  The ones in the back of the bus can't be heard from the driver's seat.  The other reason is to make a shelf for the UHF CB transceiver to go onto as well as maps, books etc.

I made the shelf out of ply and a piece or masonite that I found at the dump.  Waste no want not.  The pic below gives an idea of what it looked like when the woodwork was finished.

You can see that I have used the small metal angles inside the boxes at each end to screw it to the panel above the dashboard.

The pic below shows the shelf covered in carpet and fixed into position.  You can see the new speakers mounted in the boxes in the shelf.  The pieces of ply that the speakers are mounted on are removeable and covered in carpet separately. The black conduit running down the left side has the speaker cables and a power cable for the UHF radio in it. This has got to be fixed back out of the way into the corner near the windscreen.

The pic below is of the new stereo which was installed today.  It is a Kenwood with an Aux unput which was on special at AutoBarn for $88.00.  It has been installed with the existing speakers connected as well and it sounds really good.  A good days work.  More tomorrow.  The blank plate and the bracket are for the Yaesu FT-857 transceiver face plate.

Another Test Trip

Another trip away to test things out, mainly how the solar panels and the battery would cope with the fridge and lights.  The good news is that it all worked just fine and the panels kept the battery over 12 volts for the whole weekend.  I took the pic below of the camp, just for the record.

What the trip did do was allow me to make a list of things that I want to add, and jobs that I want to do before the big trip in June.  On Sunday, I took Ben to the Berry farm for a treat before we left to come home.  The pic below is the motorhome parked there.

                           

The jobs start now in earnest before the big trip,

Solar Panels Fitted

As promised,  the solar panels are now fitted to the roof.

It really is amazing how necessity is the mother of invention and further that nothing ever really goes as planned.  It was my plan to fit the panels running alongside each other and running down the length of the vehicle.  This was all good until I realised even though the roof looked quite flat, ot was far from it.  Fitting the panels lengthways on the roof was just not going to happen,  the curve was too much.

Of great importance was getting the terminals on the panels within as short a distance as possible from the point where I'd run the wires to from the battery box.  The other main consideration was that the panels were fitted so that air coulod flow under them.  Solar panels get hot and the hotter they get the less efficient they are, so by allowing air to flow under them - better efficiency.  I think sometimes perople forget that they use light not heat to create electricity. Apparently they work best in freezing climates when there is bright sunshine.

In the end there was only one option and that was to fit the panels across the roof.  To compensate for the curve I had to be a little inventive.  Rather than buy commercially made mounts (too expensive) I used aluminium 40mm x 20mm angle which I cut to length before drilling and screwing it to both ends of each panel.  I used stainless steel, heavy guage screws and Sikaflex sealant/adhesive under all of the joints.  I then had to mount the fabricated brackets onto the roof and the only way to compensate for the curve was to cut 25mm box section and fix these to the roof like rails, then fix the panel brackets to them.

All of the joints have been sealed and glued,  I will give it all a thorough strength test once the adhesive has had a proper time to cure.  The pics below give an idea of how it all came together.

I had just finished and it started to rain,  so there is water all beaded on the glass oin the above pics.  While the sun was shining,  I measured 20 plus volts on each panel.  Yesterday it was really dark and overcast in the afternoon,  and I measured 18.9 volts plus or minus.  They appear to be working to specification.  Those of you who have been reading this blog for sometime will remember that these panels came direct from China at less than the price of one purchased locally.  I note that the prices in Australia have come down alot in the last few months.

The pic below shows the electrical junction box I used to join the heavy guage wire that runs to the battery box to the 4mm wire that goes onto the panel terminals.

The First Trip Away - A New Radiator and the Fridge Works!

Its been awhile since the last blog,  and in that time I've taken the white monster on a trip to Ross (about 100 k's) from home for the weekend.

On the way up the temperature guage was on the hot side of normal.  I wasn't sure if it was the strong headwind or if there was a problem with the cooling system.

When I got back to Hobart,  I booked the vehicle in to Autorad in Argyle Street and they pulled out the radiator with the intention of cleaning it and flushing the engine.  Once the thing was out, trouble.  The core was badly blocked and the core was just about stuffed.  The end result was $770.00 for a new core, bronzed up cracks in the top tank, a repaint and refit.

A rather expensive exercise amd money that I hadn't counted on spending,  but if I hadn't got it done,  the experts reckon I wouldn't have got as far as Devonport.  The hoses all look good aparently, so she shouldn't have anymore problems.  Expensive but very necessary.

Next job is to get the solar panels on the roof, otherwise no fridge for Easter.  By the way the trip to Ross was otherwise uneventful and I had a great time. Pic below is the main street of Ross.  Nice place to visit. 

By the way, even though I didn't have the 12volt sytem connected up,  I used the Waeco power supply to run the ridge from the mains while away.  I just ran a mains lead through the window to the power supply.  The fridge works really well and gets cold really quick.  Once cold,  and kept closed,  it cycled on and off very seldom.  So far I'm very pleased with the Waeco MDC-90, we'll see how it goes on the battery and solar panels. The beds were very comfortable too and plenty of room. The whole things feels really homely, I just can't wait to use it more.

The Floorcovering

This post covers the floorcovering and some pics of thow the vehicle looks at the moment.  For all purposes it looks finished,  but of course it isn't.  There's still plenty to do.

Today I installed the vynil tiles on the floor.  What a difference this has made to the look of the motorhome.  I chose a colour which sort of matches the curtains.  I had seriously considered using a woodgrain vynil tile, but when I thought about it,  it would have been too much 'wood'.

I'm really pleased with the way it's all looking.  The tiles have a rich gloss and blend in really well.  They were $1.30 each at Bunnings which has a reasonable selection.  I think the tiles are supposed to look like ceramic tiles.

This above pic gives a good idea of how the floor looks now.  You can see how the tiles are lighter on the edges and give the impression of ceramic tiles.  I decided not to use carpet on the floor becuase it is really hard to keep clean when camping out.  With the vynil it is just a sweep out and a quick wash and it's back to new.  I will get a couple of mats for in front of the sink and where I have to step out of bed onto the floor.

The above view is from the cab and shows the floor, the table and the seats.  It is looking good I think and as I said earlier, looks finished,  but it's not.  I still have to make a drawer (you can see the opening in the kitchen cupboards), finish the shower, connect the 12V electrical and solar panels and of course the mains electrical, the gas and the flyscreens.  Still plenty to do.  Stay tuned.

The Knobs

Hi again.  This post will be a short one just to show the cupboards withe the hardware fited.  The knobs are brass and I found them at a shop in Elizabeth Street in Hobart which specialises in antique reproduction hardware etc.  They were going out for just $2.50 each.  A bargain. They were about $6.50 in Bunnings.

The knobs come with a surround which finishes them off nicely.  The next post will deal with the floorcovering and some pics of how the vehicle looks at the moment.

The Carpeting

The next step in the process was to cover the engine box, walls and the overhead shelves.  The pic below are self explanatory.  I found the carpet which almost exactly matches the laminex and has all of the coloursin the olour scheme.  I have noticed that the carpet on the engine box cover has really reduced the noise.  The carpet is indoor outdoors type from carpet warehous in Kingston which was the cheapest around at 28.50 per metres for a 2 metre width.  I did everything I needed with just 2 metres with very little left over.

The pic above shows the overhead shelves covered in the carpet.  I was going to cover these with the same fabric as the seats,  but it was just too hard.  This has come up very well and has been much easier.  The only problem was spreading the contact adhesive on the carpet.  It just soaks it up like crazy.

The above pic shows the lighter carpet on the walls of the steps and a darker version of the carpet on the steps.  The darker colour will handle the dirt better.  I only stuck the carpet on the steps around the edges so it can be removed and changed if it gets too bad.  The carpet is supposed to be outdoor so it should be OK.

I don't have a specific pic of the engine box but the next post will show it.

Curtains

Well, after a delay, due mainly to everything going on including work on the motorhome,  I've finally got around to doing a few posts to update you all on the progress. The curtains have been a real learning curve and if anyone things they are easy, think again.

I purchased the fabric from Decorama in Moonah for $20.00 per metre (down from $30.00) together with the gathering tape.  I asked how much they wanted to make the curtains and it would have doubled the cost so I decided to have a go making them (with some help).

The fabric is not cheap stuff is is triple layered total block-out that is supposed to refelect some heat too,  so it should do the job.

Anyway on to the making.  The shop told me that usually when you make curtains you measure the width of the window,  then double the length of the fabric.  I thought that this was too much so I chose to go for 1.5 times the fabric.  When the curtains were made we tried to fit the double witdth to the windows and found that they were just too bulky,  so it ended up with being about being just about 1.25% the width of the window.  This gathers up nicely when open and covers the window well when closed.  the pick below best explains.  The Mazda already has a curtain track above the windows,  so I used this together with some small runners found at Decorama.  These little darlings were 25 cents each which quite frankly is a ripoff.

This pic is the curtain over the left front window.  You can see that when closed the curtain is hardly gathered at all.  This is because this is where the beds are and you need the windows covered and light excluded.  Too much gather, too much light comes in.

The pic below shows the same curtain once the curtain  across the cab has been fitted and gathered.  I have made tie-backs for these curtains which will bunch them together and keep them out of the way when not being used

The front and rear curtains are hung from the top and on tracks that I got from the local caravan parts supplier.  The  tapes on these curtains were placed very close to the top to allow them to move freely.  The runners are much cheaper only 5 cents each.

I have moved ahead quite a bit since the last post,  so I will do a few tonight to bring you up to date.  Thanks for reading.