I’ve been watching this show lately on the Science Channel
called Invention Nation. These 3 guys are on a road trip
around the whole country in a green commuter bus converted
to run on used vegetable oil. I wonder if the exhaust has
that french fry smell? … ok, Im sorry.

Anyway, these guys run around visiting ordinary people
making their ingenious dreams and ideas a reality.
All green..all great..all steps in the right direction.

Completely off the grid homes in New Mexico made from used
tires and recycled scrap.

A man who converts gas powered cars and trucks to electric
power.

Two young women in New York who is tapping into the free
energy created by revolving doors.

A company in Colorado developing cheaper, more efficient
solar cells.

And on and on..

Just in this country!

I’d like to see these boys jump in a vegetable oil
converted jet, take off around the world and see
what everybody else is doing. Because this is
exactly what it’s going to take. Face it, We’re all not
going to wake up in the morning and suddenly be living
in a Star Trek utopia, Scotty.

Its going to be be one diverse step at at time. By one
ordinary enlightened person at a time. Scattered all over
this planet, there are more of us than we imagined, everyday
people, going green, inventing, creating, sharing ideas. All
with a common goal:

Protecting the ONLY home we’ve got. Because as for as living
conditions are concerned, the rest of the neighborhood sucks,
especially for us humans. I don’t think most of the animals
would be too crazy about it either.

New project

The free sunshine that we are given everyday causes
us a wee bit of a problem. It causes the rv to heat
up very quickly…and stay that way from mid April thru
September. The poor little rv air conditioner starts
panting and foaming at the mouth around the 1st of June.

So, we have decided the rv needs a cover. What to use?
chop down some trees or do something unique. We chose
unique. Even tho we live in a rural area, on a dirt road, deep in
east Texas, we do NOT like the rustic look!

We decided on a curved top with round pvc pipes. Instead of the
typical ‘A’ frame top with the typical 4×4 square post. The top
will be 26 gauge steel 3′ x 17′ with a natural curve that works
to our advantage. Total overall length will be 40′.

Have you ever heard of a RV cover using pvc pipe for poles and
making trusses out of pvc? Well, apparently NOBODY else has either.
Because when we were first mulling over this idea, we approached
construction / carpenter types about this concept. Once the
convulsive laughter dies down and the “have you lost your
cotton-pickin’ minds?”, “can’t wait to see a 40 ft. kite!”,
or “it’s all gonna fall down and kill ya’ll!” comments
started flying, we shut up.

But, decided to do it anyway.

Having no guidelines to go by, the initial plans we drew have
changed during the build. For instance, with a pole height of 16 ft we
originally called for 8ft. of 3″ into 8 ft of 1 1\2″ pvc (thick wall).
But for the past 3 weeks we have had sustained winds of 20 – 25+ mph.
All that free energy, gone with the wind – pardon the pun.
So now, the vertical poles are 13′ of 3″ into 3′ of 1 1/2″ pvc.

We are painting the pipes for uv protection and the appeal. It’s
advisable to get some pvc cleaner to remove the lettering on the
pipes as it does tend to bleed through.

We researched long and hard for the cheapest and best paint for pvc.
All that research resulted in only one, Krylon Fusion. It’s not cheap,
and it only comes in spray cans but, it’s good.

Let’s end it here for today so I can gather some of my comparison data
between pvc and wood for yall.

Later