Happy New Year 2008

Santa visited

and was to lose his beard:

Jubileum batch of organic Finnish mustard

On the eve of the day of independence a batch of organic Finnish mustard was made in Maustaja Pyhäntä Finland. It looked like:


The package was nostalgic - the same as 20 years ago.
The craftsman Veijo Lampela is taking the first sample of the batch:

Twenty years ago

A new mustard was introduced to the consumers.
Today it looks like:

Fathers day

Father got new casual outfit:


The family has two new fathers
Matti and Iheanyi.

First snow

We got first snow today. It came gently opposite to the forecast:

Summertime over

Today clocks were set one hour backwards at 4 o'clock in the morning.
A candle was lit at the gravestone of my father Uuno Laiho in honour of his long singing period in the church's choir.

To the left the vice-president of the choir Arto Nurmi and to the right the chairman of the local brassband Väinö Laiho.

Jetta got winter tyres

Twenty years ago

I started harvesting mustard on my farm in southern-western part of Finland. November 15th 1987 the first batch of my table mustard ( trade mark YTYÄ ) was presented to audience-

Preparing for winter

Motor oil was changed to Jetta at 620342 kms - fully synthetic rally formula ( to ensure the easier starting at low temperatures to come.)

Testserie ended

Since March 22th 2007 Jetta was running by virtue of unestherized biofuelmix till Sept 30th 2007. Total kms were 17857 eg. more than 11000 miles. At 620030 kms Jetta was tanked by pure dieselfuel.

In spite of high total kms and hard testseries the motor goes strong and smokevalue was below the official limit 2,50.

Smoke values sank

Using fresh canola oil helped the smoke value to sink to 2,33.

After a half-year testperiod we are prepared to stop the tests and be ready for the winter.

New test started

Because of the rising smokevalues and the high meltingpoint of WVO ( around + 10 degrees Centigrade) the waste vegetable oil test was finished.
The new testseries started 17th Aug 2007 at 616600 kilometers by a mixture of 30% fresly pressed canola oil and 70 % dieselfuel. The pressed oil had not time enough to settle down - so the coarse filter glogged at 617852 kms.

2000 miles with WVO

Last 20 days without bigger problems.
Latest tankful of biofuelmix was able to carry Jetta 1117 kilometers.

The day that the flax was blooming

my mother Silja died:

Problems with fuel filter

Only 657 kms and change the fuel filter:

New test started with WVO

At 613000kms Jetta was tanked by mixture, consisting 30 % WVO = waste vegetable oil and 70% dieselfuel. The oil was NOT estherized.

The test with canola oil went quite nice more than 6500 miles.

Forest church

Traditionally the Second World War Veterans arrange a forest church in Pöytyä Kyrö.
Our brassband has been there every time:

Grandpa again !

My daughter Anna-Maija got a son !

Even higher !

Changing motor oil and oil filter plus diluting the fuel with normal dieselfuel did'nt help the situation - k-value was 2.7.

Smoke value rising !

After ten thousand testkilometers and 612280 kms total drive the smoke value keeps on rising:


Value 2.6 is high and standard deviation 0,13 is low.

The day of Finnish flag

The midsummer day is devoted to Finnish flag. It is mounted midsummer eve and is up there overnight till the evening of midsummer day.

Midsummer eve

We use to burn fire for midsummer eve:

This fire started at 21.00 o'clock - sun is shinig - normally fire will be ignited at midnight.
Our brassband Pöytyän puhaltajat plays some Finnish melodies by the river Aura.

10 000 testkilometers

The longest day of the year and a new milestone:

No problems.

Man power

Photo taken in black mustard field 1989:

Now the twins Esko and Tuomo celebrate their 19. anniversary.

Five foot two

Organic rye has grown fast:

9000 kms

testdrive today:

Forty years ago

My parents sold their farm to me. This how the field looks today:

To work for 40 years for the farm makes a man look like this
Next generation looks much better:

Thirty years ago

And today Monday 4th June at 16.00 o'clock

Matriculation party and 5000 miles

Upper secondary school was over yesterday and Esko had his matriculation party with family and friends. Our brassband Pöytyän puhaltajat playd and
the conductor congratulated the french horn player for his medal for music art:

Jetta reached the first etap in the test series with canola oil; 5000 miles:

Weather was beatiful as the pride ( a Finnish saying ) and rye was growing strong.

Back to Pöytyä

from Loimaa - nearest city to Pöytyä.

Look at the reading of kms and the pointer of fuel tank.

Dad's birthday

A bit rainy but nice day. Dad got a new shirt as birthday present ( 61 years ).

Apple tree - almost 100 years - is blooming.

Approval

Yesterday my youngest son got a letter from the Technical University of Helsinki. It told that he was invited to start studies there. No extra entrance examination was needed. His father had to go through a 4-week testperiod to achieve the same situation 41 years ago. At that time the University was called the Institute of Thechnology of Otaniemi.

Wood anemones blooming - appletrees starting

It is spring

Second Sunday of May and 7000 kms

What a weekend ! ; Silver medal in ice-hockey and succesful European song contest. And of course the day for mothers
Two day earlier we visited Helsinki to check the city and the tourists who had come to see the contest.
The photo is taken in a tram where we met some American cruising tourists and had great time fof 10 minutes. Jetta - our test car - has gained now 7000 kms testdrive - no bigger problems.
We also visited the local hospital to see my mother, who was resting there for some days.

The first of May and 5000 kms

To day we were at a concert in Turku . Turku Philharmonic Orchestra had their traditional the First of May concert. A capella singing sextet Rajattomat sang with the orchestra.
Jetta had run more than 5000 kms - wthout problems after changing the fuel filter.

Now it is 18.54 o'clock

National veteran day April 27Th 2007

Nice day

and Jetta is going strong again.

Troubles began at 3000 miles

Thirty miles before reaching 3000 miles Jetta's motor lost almost all of its power and we had to run Jetta slowly back home from the motorway.

The reason was clogged fuel filter ( as could be expected ).
The reason for clogging the filter is vegetable oil's ability to work as detergent. Also Jetta was run empty of fuel tank a day before the troubles arose.
Just change it and go on.
The new filter should last years ( according the experience by Valmet fieldtractor 1993 - 2002 )

Concert at Hotel Ruissalo

Our brassband Pöytyän puhaltajat had a concert at Hotel Ruissalo yesterday afternoon.

We had good feeling and we hope that our audience had the same feeling.
Now it is Monday 9.07 o'clock in the morning.

Winter came back

After very long dry period we got snow:

Local time is 11.43

An interesting day

To day I had the pleasure to tell about my mustard seed oil projects to students of
SEINÄJOKI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES (SeAMK) agricultural department.

They have started to make their own biodiesel from canola oil.
Local time is 20.15

Neither poor, nor sick

To day Jetta was going strong on test road up to 145 kms/hour. No problems with getting fuel to motor.

Three thousand kilometers

Yesterday Jetta had been running 3000 kms:

without any problems. In higher speeds - over 110 kms/hour - you can find some kind of lazyness ( perhaps due to fuel filter, that has not been changed yet )

Brassmusic

Friday 13. April our brassband Pöytyän puhaltajat performed in a evening show fo the veterans of WWII - members of 10 different veteran clubs were participating.

Rising k-value !

Surprisingly the k-value was rising as shown:

Questions arise: is Jetta getting old - just after 600 000 kms ?

Summer tyres

After winter testcar Jetta got summertyres at 604900 kms-
At 605000 tank was filled with 36 litres dieselfuel and to top with canola oli 17,1 litres. Consumption was 5,31 litres / 100 kms and percantage of biocomponent in the tank 32 % till next tankingpoint.

Local time is 21.44
P.S.
Oilchange happened next morning.

Jetta for a trombonist

To day - ( Thursday )- Jetta was given for a "civilian" motorist for normal use between Helsinki and Turku. This ensures rapid growth of testkilometers.

Local time is 9.13

Minus 6 degrees

Frosty morning after a warm period but no troubles with Jetta - normal starting without extra motor heating.
Local time is 12.26

One thousand miles

Jetta has now been busy running Finnish highways and byways one thousand miles by virtue of fuelblend consisting of 30%canola oil and rest normal diesel fuel.
No extra alterations has been done but changing the fuel. Fuel filter has been bought for the rainy day.
Local time is 19.21

Biocomponent

In the previous chapter the biocomponent used is of course canola oil ( coldpressed in May 2006).
Local time is 12.33

April Fool ?

This morning my Jetta started smoothly at temperature - 3 degrees Centigrade without extra motor heating.
It seems that dilution to 30% ( biokomponent/normal diesel fuel ) is OK for reliable use of biofuelcar.
This is NOT fooling though it is 1st of April 2007 at 10.03 local time in Finland

First 1000 kilometres OK

Jetta has worked nice the first thousand biokilometres. Consumption of the mixture was 5,7 liters/100 kilometres
- a bit high due to running the motor idle.
Local time is 19.02

Summertime

Yesterday clocks were changed to summertime. So did the weather too - almost 15 degrees Centigrade. I trimmed the appletrees.
Now the local time is 08.25 ( Monday)

Yesterday the smoke value of Jetta diesel was measured:

The k-value rised instead of sinking 30% that was expected.
The man in the cabin is Mr. Rami Wahlsten, who is responsible for the measurements in Turku Polytechnics.

The reason for the unexpected behaviour is probably the temperetaure of the test car. We had to wait almost half an hour before starting the measurement.

Local time 22.40

Cold starting Jetta succeeded nice - temperature was +2 degrees Centigrade this morning. Expected smoke was lower after start and vanished almost totally after 5 minutes run. The happening is on videotape for more detailed information.
Local time is 7.54

I try to give the link to my homepage www.ekolaiho.fi/sivut/rypsi2.html another time.
Klick here and read in Finnish.

Today I started to use cold pressed canola oil as dieselfuel in my old Jetta. The reading was 602173 kms in the panel of the car.
You can follow the technical data of the test in my homepage here .
I added 20 litres of canola oil to tank and filled the tank to top by diesel fuel - so it contains around 33% bio-oil.
Local time is now 20.00

We had our Parliament election last Sunday. It went OK.
Today I have planted a new appletree. In our garden there is an old appletree that my grandma planted almost one hundred years ago. I like the the taste of the fruit and want to multiplicate the tree for generations to come. The name of the species is " Santra" according to my grammy.
Local time is 15.58

I decided to write in English in this blog and in Finnish in my ytya-blog.
In this blog I try to tell about my biodiesel test. My idea is to start a new series of test with my old Volkswagen Jetta. This ancient car from the year 1987 has run more than 600 000 kilometers and the fuel will be changed to cold-pressed canola oil.

Starting this blog
Local time is 22.03 in the evening.