Renewable energy- figuratively and literally!

So.  The truck's going to be as green as I hoped for, sooner than I thought!  Just a couple of days after a casual conversation with my brother in which I mentioned I dreamed of running the electrical off of solar power on the truck one day, my awesome little bro hit upon a kijiji ad listing solar panels with everything that we need to connect them, plus a wind turbine I can sell, for a pretty darn reasonable price. He's even going to help me set it up- he rocks my world!  So we bought them.  Whoa. It's a money spending month here at the Stone Soup Headquarters on St. Francis St.  You gotta spend it to make it, right?  And everything so far is an investment. Well, except the iPhone.  Which rocks my world, by the way.

I'd be able to run a fridge if I had this many panels... Sweet.

I'll be able to run my small appliances, exhaust system and lights off of the sunshine and batteries, but still have to figure out the fridge issue so I don't have to plug into anything.  It may have to be propane- expensive, though!


The business plan is almost done and looking profitable, the website is almost ready, the bank account rapidly emptying and ready for refilling with a little credit (and then a lot of other people's hard earned cash) the ten days of upcoming cooking at the Dharma Center planned for (but how to take the time out? argh!), and the social life still ticks along, with my most amazing friends and family keeping my energy relatively renewed... Even after the great retox weekend of 2010...Plenty of time for renewed detox while cooking clean and light and meditating loads for the next ten days, I suppose. 

Who's got a little wee truck?

 Me!  I gots a wee little chip truck!

This morning I drove to Stormont Glengarry and Dundas Township, straight down Bank Street, through Winchester, with a car full of the smell of strawberries (thanks Rob!) to see the cheapest chip truck that's been on the market all spring- and the only one that has actually run out of the six I've visited. 

It ain't as flashy as the trailers, and it's gonna need some pretty fierce cleaning and a new ventilation hood and an extra water tank, and a paint job (but handily, the auto shop teacher who sold it to me knows a guy in the neighbourhood who will do it and who loves the Dodge Lime Green from the 1970's, and since I quite like the Sublime Green, I think that we'll get along just fine).  It needs work, but it's $25 000 less than the one that doesn't need work, and I can work for that kind of money. 

She's a littler truck than what I was planning on- 10' of cargo space vs. 14' like I'd hoped for, but I can work it for the year and get a bigger truck next summer.  I mean this baby DRIVES- and I can leave it down south until the beginning of August and work on it there until I have a place to put it- and I can leave it there for free...1979 GMC Grumman, originally owned by Eaton's as a delivery truck when I was a wee girl. Aluminum body, 4 cylinder inline, no idea how many klics, but the driving is really secondary.

Business plan and website are still on the workload, and feeling a bit wiped out today, but boy oh boy, am I glad to have an adorable little truck! Photos to follow!

Trucks, Permits and Doing Everything at Once

A couple weeks back, JoAnn and I were talking about how, when you get the right idea, you get obsessed.  I sorta thought to myself that I'm not really that kind of person, that kind of person who gets really focused and just does one thing.  You know.  I'm a generalist.

Well, who knew?

I'm obsessed.  I'm getting a truck, making it a kitchen, and selling soup, and all I can think of is truck, spot to park truck (the laws are crazed), menu, sourcing, license, sell my house to finance business, old chip truck or renovate delivery truck, really, sell my house?

So I'm a little spinny, cuz it's all decisions all the time, and the house thing makes sense since:
a) the house is a four hour drive away and requires regular work, which I won't have time to do
b) it would give me some financial breathing room and mean I wouldn't have to borrow for the business
c) if I want to avoid capital gains taxes, I have to sell it by Dec. 2011 anyways
d) My friend Jer and Brad, both of whom are pretty darn smart and into economics, think that we are heading for some kind of serious deflation that will make credit unavailable and lead to a precipitous drop in housing prices, which would mean I had no equity.
e) it's springtime, and houses sell well in the springtime.

But then
a) the house brings in money on a monthly basis, and I can use money coming in on a regular basis
b) I like having a connection to Peterborough. I love Peterborough.
c) even if everything collapses, i can go live in my house. But I guess I could buy another house with the money I make from the house sale.
d) if the economy doesn't collapse, I am still making money from my house and it's value continues to rise slowly the way house values have for a long long time.
e) isn't there enough chaos in my life?

I think I'm leaning towards selling it and buying a delivery truck with the cash, then making a ton of money and buying a little land in Wakefield. Brokeness is getting really old for me.  I should probably number crunch first.

That said, I also got recommended to the Self Employment Benefits Plan today (yay!) which will probably get me a course and extend my EI benefits, plus had a very informative conversation with Brad Campeau, who runs a cookie truck called B. Goods about getting it up and running and making a truck, and making a living being a mobile food vendor.  So I'm back to the idea of wholesaling and delivering, which is good, and will be in addition to the street vending/ festival vending, which will be irregular.  And a space.  I have to find a space- so some phone calls tomorrow, and some sleep tonight, possibly without the sudden awakening with a menu idea or a way of contacting vendors or the jaw clenching realization that I need to write a business plan right NOW and get a cell phone (oh god, but I'll need one) and the desperate question of location, without which all else falls apart... before the apocolypse even hits.

I suppose it's not THAT urgent, but it feels that way. I've gotta make some money.

Maybe the house sale is the best way to go?  You never know about decisions, except in retrospect. And with the root word spect, try to keep it in perspective.  I had a visit with a friend today who's daughter is quite ill, and it really does remind me of what's truly important- and it ain't making money...