Ukraine Refugee Assistance

Today i got a call from Dr.Julia 

She asked if we could help a little with meds (she needs antibiotics) 

If you don't mind i'll use the rest of the money in the Moms and kids fund and order some meds

Honestly, it's always a tough decision for me whether to help the kids or help the guys on the front lines 

but I'm glad we can do this 

Use whatever you need... and if you need more let me know.

In reply to VikkiDp :

I'll send Bill a little love note, you do what's needed.

Thank you guys!!! your help and support are really important 

i've been wanting to say for a long time that when we support Dr.Julia we also support the team of medics that works with her and we support those guys they help to save their health and lives.

How many people is that? can you imagine?

The same thing - when we support Yarik we also support his team(and not only his, believe me), we support the guys who are in the trenches a lot of the time. Big drones are used to deliver water and food to the trenches - and the instant food we delivered in the Christmas run went right there.

How many people is that? can you imagine?

If everything we do saves even one life, it's worth it!!!

If everything we do makes even one child smile, it's worth it!!! (but we have made more smiles )

Each and every one of you is a part of it!!! can you imagine?

Thank you all!!!

The meds for Dr.Julia ordered and i picked them up on Friday, they are on their way to her 

and we keep moving 

Have a good week everyone!!! 

Let me add one more thing 

Sorry, but sometimes there are too many thoughts in my head and too much thinking 

Many of the people who are now defending Ukraine had no military experience or background, they were ordinary people of peaceful occupations 

Dr.Julia was just a doctor anesthesiologist... a civilian doctor...

Yarik was an electrician and a roof repairman... in peace time...

just like the dads or relatives of the kids we support who are at war or have been died...  like my other friends and acquaintances...  these are ordinary people... 

and it really hurts... 

I pray every day for this insanity to end 

and we keep fighting with the support of the ordinary people!!! and we'll win together!!! 

VikkiDp said:

Many of the people who are now defending Ukraine had no military experience or background, they were ordinary people of peaceful occupations 

Days into the invasion  I saw a news report. They were interveiwing people coming out of a government building. There was one kid. He had a scruffy blond haircut and a playschool my-first-beard. he carried a wooden crate of suprus ammo and had an AK-74 slung over his shoulder.

He introduced himself as a computer programing student.

He gestured to his rifle and said. "This isn't the sort of thing I want to do" then he shrugged "but this is my home " It was just so matter of fact.

This young man has been the face of Ukraine to me ever since.

You don't go to war because you hate who is in front of you. You go to war because you love who is behind you.

AClockworkGarage said:

VikkiDp said:

Many of the people who are now defending Ukraine had no military experience or background, they were ordinary people of peaceful occupations 

 

You don't go to war because you hate who is in front of you. You go to war because you love who is behind you.

I couldn't think of a better way to put that, and I've been thinking about it a lot since our visit to the Pokrovsk area.  Dr. Julia and Yaroslav are both fighting only a few hours from their houses, and families, and well... everything.  Honestly, in one day they could easily dip back to mom's house in their car for breakfast and be back on the front by lunch.  It's insane.

I remember knowing the invasion was imminent back when I was working on my house (over three years ago now).  There's no heating over there and it was January, I think.  I had dug up the floors and was digging down with a shovel so we could build it all back up with insulation under us.  I was wearing gloves, and I remember my fingers were completely numb and freezing to the shovel.  "There's people walking across countries in this", I remember thinking.

But what could I do?  It's not like I can drive into a country at war and do anything about it.  So I swallowed the lump in my throat and went back to working on the house...

I'm thinking we all felt the same.  Pretty insane what every day people can do when we get together and all of a sudden our unique abilities turn into super-powers, isn't it?

Vikki, I got 11GTCS's love letter and am working on moving it in your direction.  Should have it by this week for more "Dr. Julia" goodies.

Well, guys.  Failure was imminent.

Let's go over what we found on Sunday when we went to look at the truck:

First up, the frame had been repaired for rust damage or cracking.  I wasn't impressed with the welding, but it was good enough.  I 100% planned on purchasing a frame reinforcement kit for the vehicle with our remaining budget (kit cost about 350 euro) and welding it in myself.

E-brake didn't work.  Investigation revealed that the linkage inside the drum on the driver's side was completely missing.  The passenger side's cable had simply become disconnected.  I could have had one working parking break with about 5-minutes of effort.

Fuel line replaced with non-OEM line (it was some sort of clear line that was being used as fuel line and was held in place by zip ties).  I planned on running a proper line from the tank to the engine, and again it wasn't a show stopper for me.

Brake pedal goes to floor with a decent amount of resistance:  Probably a brake bleed is needed, worst case a master cylinder.  This is when I started getting nervous, but was willing to go with it.

Brake lights don't work:  Ok.  Probably a switch that needs to be plugged in, or replaced.  Not the worst thing, but Mrs. Hungary is going to have to follow me home so other cars don't hit me in traffic.

Front turn signals dont work.  He explains that he just replaced the lense assemblies up front, and that the bulbs just need to be installed.  I'm not believing that at all.  Who replaces the lense assemblies and not the bulbs???  But he has the old lense assemblies, so I have access to the bulbs, housings, and wires. 

Engine starts and runs fine, but has a small coolant leak at one of the hoses.  I can fix this with a better hose clamp.

My OBD2 dongle claims to be connected to the ECU but isn't reading anything from it....  Multiple attempts are made with no change in the result.  May be compatibility error.  On the plus side, there is no check engine light on, but there is a drivetrain light that is flashing (this may be how it tells me it's in 4wd, but I'm not sure).

Test drive:

Truck drives.  Shifter is a little sloppy.  I'm in a field of wet grass driving in tight circles in both high and low range 4wd, and I'm not picking up any signs that 4wd is working....  Normally I expect a truck to slip slightly as the drivetrain binds, but I'm not getting that feeling at all.  I figure it might be the terrain and try a few more times in tight circles with the same results.

On the drive back I have a chance to look into some transmission noise.  I'm detecting the sound of a dry bearing in 1st through 3rd (the fastest I can go on this short dirt road).  It's at this point I decide we're not going to buy the truck, but it's when we get back and find out that (contrary to the advert) the truck has no current registration and will need to be road tested that we run away screaming.

oh well.  We had to start somewhere, right?  The search continues!

Of note, donations are still coming in.  We are now over $4000 for the purchase of Yaroslav's truck!

In reply to VikkiDp :

The meds for Dr.Julia ordered and i picked them up on Friday, they are on their way to her 

Received!!! 

In reply to AClockworkGarage :

You don't go to war because you hate who is in front of you. You go to war because you love who is behind you.

That's exactly what it is.

and I'll also add - Ukrainians are not fighting for the government or politicians or anything like that, but because...

 "but this is my home "

Ukraine is OUR HOME 

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Dr. Julia and Yaroslav are both fighting only a few hours from their houses, and families, and well... everything.  Honestly, in one day they could easily dip back to mom's house in their car for breakfast and be back on the front by lunch.  It's insane.

Ummm... they could, but they can't 

and let me tell you, it was really lucky that we got to see both of them that time.

Dr.Julia could be away with her team.

Yarik had been in position at the front line for a long time before we arrived and was back there two days after our visit.

Pretty insane what every day people can do when we get together and all of a sudden our unique abilities turn into super-powers, isn't it?

Absolutely!!! and it's AMAZING!!!

So guys, our kids and moms fund has gotten a good boost!!! Thank you everyone!!! 

a few of the babies will get support from us, i'm already working on it!!!

also i asked if Dr.Julia's team or Yarik's team needed something 

Today is the day the war began - on February 20, 2014, russia began its seizure of Crimea...

Let me share with you the documentary from a historian and a man who was born and lived there - turn on the subtitles.

and the rhetorical question - can we trust the negotiations with russia?

I still can't understand why choose war and destruction instead of create something beautiful and useful 

planet Earth is a beautiful place and it's our home together, there are so many opportunities to see beautiful places, explore new ones, but people (not all of them, thank God) choose destruction 

You want to be known as a great politician? Make your country great!!! That's easy and that's all you need to do. Isn't?

Naively? agree 

Could it be real? I believe in that 

VikkiDp said:

So guys, our kids and moms fund has gotten a good boost!!! Thank you everyone!!! 

a few of the babies will get support from us, i'm already working on it!!!

also i asked if Dr.Julia's team or Yarik's team needed something 

And we still have more coming your way!

Hey everyone.  The Hungarlings have been sick all this week, so I haven't gotten much done (well, not tue.  I'm still working on building that table for Mrs. Hungary).  How about I say "I haven't gotten much done to the truck?

That's better.

Ok, yesterday I had a chance while both Hungarlings were out cold to go and replace some stuff.  Now I've worn out a lot of things on cars in my day, but never have I ever wore out a headlight.

Not the bulb, mind you.  Those were still working.  But all the action had rattled the chrome lining right out of my headlight assemblies.  In fact, I almost failed my last tech inspection because of it!

Well, over the winter I spent 50-euro and ordered a new set of lenses from ebay Germany and have been wating for a chance to get them installed.  Here goes:

Check out the bottom corner for the missing chrome.  It's hard to see in the photo, but it was flaking off in sheets!

So how do they work?

Holy smokes, y'all.  I don't even know how to describe it!  I can SEE!!!!!!!

This whole time I legit thought I was going night blind.

I dug through some old photos.  Here's what I found for a "before and after"

Everyone, we have a winner

Ok, so the viewing was delayed due to an accident in the seller's family, but I was able to get out first thing this morning and have a look at the truck.

This is what we got:

She has some cosmetic issues.  There's primer on the Driver's rear corner near the tail light, and I can see one spot where corrosion is beginning to develop on the frame.  I have ideas for both of these spots, but only the frame is important.  I plan to go in and wire whip the area and weld in a reinforcement from flat steel stock.

The tires have lots of life and are of the "All Terrain" variety.  They're labeled "Prime Max AT, Road March" but I've never heard of them.  Looking at the tread the lugs are decently sized, contain siping, and look to have plenty of rain shedding channels in-between.

The add said the truck had a vibration at 80kph, but I didn't feel a darn thing.  Instead it looks like the engine mounts have gone solid in their old age as the truck vibrates quite a bit at idle.  Not worried about that at all.

No fluid leaks, no clunks in the suspension or drivetrain.  No obvious funny business, and the owner seemed genuine in his desire to offer info.

The 4-whee drive works, and I got to test it in a field.  But even better is the rear selectable diff-lock.  That one really had me tickled pink. 

Naturally, I have a list going.  Aside from that one spot on the frame, it's all just routine maintenance.  We take delivery on Saturday.

Good times \m/

Driven5 said:

Man, I'm stoked.  I got kind of busy this week with house work, but I went out to the garage today to make sure everything was skookum for the delivery of the truck tomorrow.  When I did, I realized I didn't have any shielding gas for my welder!

I hate running out of argon, so I always keep a second bottle.  I mistakenly thought my spare was full, so when my regulator showed "near zero" I almost didn't bother plugging my spare in to double-check (glad I did).  With that, I think I have everything I need to make the frame repair (although, I think I may run to the metal store once I have measurements from the frame of the truck to buy wider flat bar stock if needed).

I'll also make a parts store run once the truck is in hand (so, probably Monday).  From this fundraiser we're currently sitting on 1,500,000 Hungarian forint in cash for the purchase of the truck.  I did give the guy an additional 60,000 forint from our fundraiser money for delivery but wasn't certain if that cash was being charged by him in addition to the cost of the truck or if that was a placeholder for the truck and he was just being nice and offering to deliver.  The language barrier is tough to work through sometimes.  Either way, we still have $180 (USD) in the bank account from fundraiser money as well and I'm waiting to see what happens with the delivery first to decide what to do with that.

I'm certain we will be able to buy all the oil, filters, and other consumables and something like a 4x4 sized truck air compressor to go with the truck.  We'll take it one step at a time though.

Also on the docket is our spring fundraiser for our children's Easter holiday!  That's going to open on 1 March and this is typically our least grossing fundraiser of the year.  I think though, that this truck is going to make up for a lot of that . 

As of right now, I don't know if I have a second driver for the Pickup for this run.  I've asked Julius (my Slovakian friend from the Bamako run) but he has a vacation scheduled near then and doesn't know if he'll be able to play wheel man.  If he can, then we'll run in both the Mitsubishi and the Toyota (as this makes the logistics of where we're delivering the truck to MUCH easier) with the Toyota acting as the delivery vehicle for our children's chocolate.  If he can't, then I'll load our children's Easter chocolates into the Mitsubishi and run them in.  We'll have to figure out how we're going to extract me from theater from there, but we have lots of time to think about that.

Ok.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow morning everyone!  I hope you all have an excellent Friday night, and a WONDERFUL weekend!  Stay tuned for updates!

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Everyone, we have a winner

 

 I went out to the garage today to make sure everything was skookum for the delivery of the truck tomorrow. 

I still can't believe we DID it!!! we all!!! TOGETHER!!! 

i'm not gonna lie, i can't wait to look at this thing in detail 

So, fingers crossed for the successful delivery tomorrow!!! 

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

As of right now, I don't know if I have a second driver for the Pickup for this run.  I've asked Julius (my Slovakian friend from the Bamako run) but he has a vacation scheduled near then and doesn't know if he'll be able to play wheel man.  If he can, then we'll run in both the Mitsubishi and the Toyota (as this makes the logistics of where we're delivering the truck to MUCH easier) with the Toyota acting as the delivery vehicle for our children's chocolate.  If he can't, then I'll load our children's Easter chocolates into the Mitsubishi and run them in.  We'll have to figure out how we're going to extract me from theater from there, but we have lots of time to think about that.

as a crazy option  i could try to drive Mitsubishi 

I'll be honest - i've never driven such a BIG monster and i've never driven in Europe 

but it can be handled  isn't it? 

Hi everyone! hope you're doing well 

i'll post some updates tomorrow 

Have a good weekend everyone!!!