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Day 11
Today is day 11 and we are still in Armidale.
The problems with the diesel heater have finally been rectified. I called the company who supplied and installed the diesel heater and they put me in contact with the manufacturer in Sydney. The contact there suggested the problem was most likely either a blockage in the air intake or in the exhaust that was resulting in the diesel not combusting. Several hours and with me looking as dirty as a seasoned diesel mechanic we were able to eliminate the exhaust and air intake pipes as the cause. This wasn't necessarily great news as had this been the problem it would have been a relatively easy fix... unblock the blockage and all should be good.
As the problem was not in the pipes the next job was to remove the combustion unit to send off to Sydney.... not an easy job when working in cramped spaces on damp ground with the assistance of Wobbles the pet lamb (who you will no doubt hear more about later). After a few of hours and a few expletives later the combustions unit was out and on its way via Express Post to Sydney.
The report back from Sydney the next day was that the unit was very coked up and appeared to have been caused from back pressure from the exhaust. To cut a long story short when the unit was installed the exhaust pipe ran on the underside of the chasis rails and then dipped up to the outside of the van. This effectively created a goose neck at the end of the exhaust that was causing condensation to build up in the pipe of time and eventually built up so much that there was a fluid blockage in the exhaust causing a back-up of exhaust back to the main unit.
After the unit was cleaned up and returned it was another couple of hours to reinstall it and then test it. The goose neck at the end of the exhaust has been removed to hopefully avoid the problem re-occurring. Of course now that the heater has been fixed the nights are much warmer with the last few nights only getting down to 8 degrees.
Amongst the diesel heater issues I've manged to fit in quite a lot of work with the internet setup in the van working well. I just have to keep an eye on data usage to see if we need to upgrade the plan which I expect we will soon as we didn't upgrade it before we left.
Last Sunday was Cottee's birthday party. She is only a couple of weeks older than Sophie and was turning 4. The party was held at an indoor play center and the kids had a great time.
Yesterday was Scott and Lascinda's wedding. We went to the ceremony and canapes but then came home after that. The wedding was in a lovely setting (some picture in the Armidale album) and it sounds like a great night was had by all! I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures while we were out at the property where the wedding was held to take a few photos. I'll be editing these soon and uploading them to Facebook and Flickr.
The kids are still having a ball and when we do finally move on from Armidale I think they are really going to miss the company of all the other kids here.
The latest news from today as that Dao has taken in another orphan lamb. It was the second of two twins born late this morning and the mother accepted the first twin but rejected the second twin. The kids have named this one Wiggles. Wiggles is not drinking as well as Wobbles did at this age and doesn't appear as strong so there is a chance he won't make it through the next few days... but it won't be through lack of trying on Dao's part!! I'll keep you posted and also upload some picture of Wiggles.
That's about it for now.... I should go an be social instead of sitting in the van typing this.
I hope you are all well.
Jonathan.
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