WVO Filtering System

I mentioned in yesterday's post about the daughter's use of WVO (waste vegetable oil) in her '82 Benz diesel. Thought y'all might want to see the very nifty contraption the hubby built to filter the oil before pumping it into the tank. I cannot explain how it works or what he used in the construction. But he wanted to make it as easy as possible for the daughter to use after we're gone and she doesn't have his help. I do know she pours the 5 gallon containers of WVO through that big blue bucket on the top that has sieve made from several layers of screen attached to the underside to filter out the big chunks. To get the oil into the bucket, she usually stands in her car trunk (where she's stored the WVO for the trip home from the restaurant) so she's high enough to pour without getting a hernia from the heavy lifting. Once it's drained through, she turns on the electric filter that brings it down to 10 microns, then 5 microns**, which is then ready to use. And the hubby installed a system to pump it right into the car so it's almost like pulling into a gas station.

No, she hasn't converted her car to use WVO exclusively. The hubby researched quite a bit and that's an expensive proposition AND not practical during the cold Midwestern winters. It's perfectly fine to run the half and half mixture that she does and she can do that about 8 months out of the year. Which is how long our friend's drive-in restaurant is open so it all works out quite nicely. And being a college student who's paying her own way through, the savings in auto fuel is a very sweet deal.

Speaking of sweet. The hubby talked me out of the handful of chocolate chips last night, pointing out the last thing I needed before going to bed was a handful of caffeine. I tend to be sensitive to the caffeine. So, clutching my bag of Ghiradelli through the night (I'm kidding! I merely kept them close at hand), I dreamed of chocolate scones (much nicer than dreaming about packing!). And woke up eager to bake. Which I did. But forgot to put the chocolate chips INTO the batter :-( [But if you carefully open a hot scone, sprinkle some chocolate chips on and put the top back on, the chips melt and you get the same effect.]

I'm very forgetful these days. The prayer letter I was going to get out in regular mail once we got back to Indiana (and the envelopes, labels and stamps)? I forgot to bring the computer with the label document on it :-( I know we have a lot going on, but this is ridiculous. I remembered it when we were more than halfway back to my in-laws yesterday. So... today we're printing the letter, stuffing and stamping the envelopes, taking them back to Michigan on Saturday, THEN printing the labels and slapping 'em on before finally dropping them into the mail.

**For those who thirst after technical info, a micron refers to the size of particulates left in the oil. The smaller the number, the smaller the particulate. And we want the particulates remaining in the WVO to be small indeed so it doesn't clog up the fuel line.