The long and arduous winter is coming to a close. Snow is starting to melt, the birds are beginning to sing, and the temperature is staying above freezing for the most part. This winter has been particularily taxing. It was an extremely cold winter, and my batteries actually froze and bulged. Now I need to purchase new ones for the van, and begin my upgrading soon as well to insulate, and self-contain the old girl. On the list for this year:

• New isolator. It turns out the current one is no good, one battery drained, froze, and drained the other which then froze.
• New batteries
• Insulation
• Furnace Repair
• Tune up
• New Upholstery (I really don’t care for the 70’s look)
• Better curtains for blocking out the light
• Build a permanent drawer system to house both clothing and food
• Look ito increasing the size of the “closet” to hold more than 4 or 5 shirts
• Solar Panels
• Battery Bank
• Paint the interior so I stop looking at all that brown
• Insulate the underside of the floor (Thinking so sort of spray foam)
• Build a cage onto the back door to house propane and water
• Fix the cupboard that has detached itself from the ceiling in one corner

Fanciful Ideas:

• I’d love to get a completely new roof. One that isn’t made out of fiberglass that can break because it is so flimsy. That way I can get the solar panels up on it and not worry that they’ll come crashing through the roof. Been trying to think of something that could be done. Being able to support the weight of a human would be great. Any ideas on what would be good material to use? I basically want to use the current roof as a mold, and build something stronger, yet professional looking.
• It would be nice to paint the van outside as well. Make it look a bit more modern. I apologise for the long delay in posting the next blog post, but I did warn you it would happen! The blog postings should start getting more frequent now that it’s getting warmer.