Campervan Conversion - Part 1 - The Original Vehicle

We've decided to build ourselves a camper van, or rather to buy a van we could then fit-out as a camper.   

The initial idea is to retain much of the very useful functionality of a large van and so any major camper items in the load space (e.g. the bed) can be removed if required.

A couple of weeks ago, I looked at a few vans to get an idea of what we wanted for a base vehicle - one of our neighbours has a relatively new Transit but it's of standard height so immediately we climbed in the back we knew we needed a high-roof version.

In the end we bought a 2007 Ford Transit Mk 7 350 medium wheelbase (MWB) high-roof model, or the L3H3 version (length code = 3 and height code = 3) - many van configurations from other manufacturers are also described in this same way. 

That's what we think is our van specification - there are many references online for transit van layouts, but having measured ours we still can't quite reconcile the actual dimensions with the information we found.  In particular, the length of the load floor is around 3,200 mm but in the references this should be matched to a shorter wheelbase than the 3,750 mm we also measured.   

Anyway, we've now just about surveyed the vehicle to find out exactly what we have to work with ...

So this is 'definitely' the medium wheelbase version, although at just under 6.0 m only the jumbo vans are longer.  It's rear wheel drive and fitted with a 2.4 litre turbo diesel engine.

Garden Casualties ....

In the early hours of last Friday morning, just before I was off to bed, I noticed our cheap-and-cheerful 4-channel digital thermometer was reading -12.2 degrees C from the outdoor sensor.

It's hardly a precision instrument, more of an ornament than anything else, but its greenhouse sensor was also reading below -10 degrees and so it was worthy of further investigation.  I dug out a torch and went outside to the bottom of the garden, where I've a 'proper' mercury max-min thermometer mounted on the shed wall.

Sure enough, it was cold, -10 degrees at that time and when I checked again during the day it had been down to -11 degrees C, a record low in the ten years since we've lived here, and by quite some margin.  

coldest temperature recorded here in 10 years ...

Local Conditions - Weather & Climate etc ...

I put this post together because I was beginning to describe the local weather conditions etc within another post I'm preparing about the new fruit trees we've just bought, but such information is also very relevant to growing anything at all here and so I've made it a standalone reference.

Location

Our home is located in England at around latitude 55N longitude 2W, to the nearest whole numbers only.  This is vague enough to cover a huge area of the north-east ...  

As best as I can determine from online resources, our property elevation is 111 metres (365 feet) above sea level, which is somewhat higher than I'd previously thought.

The nearest comprehensive weather station to our home that has data stretching back several years, is located around 11 miles to the south of us and some 61 m below our elevation.   It's also more urban than where we are, so perhaps not an ideal basis for direct comparison but unfortunately it's the best data we have.

Fruits in the Garden - Part 1

We're intending to significantly increase the quantity and variety of the edible perennials in the garden, mainly in the form of additional fruit bushes and trees, but all the new plants we've bought recently will be described in Part 2.

In this Part 1, we're summarising the edible perennials we already have growing in the garden.

Growing in the ground

Rhubarb (unknown variety) -  we've three crowns planted next to the raised bed area, and these produce a lot of stems throughout the year.   Very undemanding to grow, it needs next to no attention at all.

Chives - not a fruit of course, but then strictly speaking neither is rhubarb ...  There's a patch of chives in the raised bed area.  Being an allium, it's evergreen, can look a little straggly in winter, but it comes back strongly again every spring.   If left to flower it becomes a magnet for the bees.  With nothing to do except harvest the leaves as required, it's the very easiest edible perennial you can grow.

Investment Review - December 2020

Another year over, and here's the final quarterly investment review of 2020.   Let's start with the combined portfolio summary sheet, updated at the early market close on 31 December :-

Annual Spending Review - 2020

Well, 2020 is almost over.  Here's where all the money went, in what turned out to be a very unusual year for our spending patterns :-

click on the graphic for a larger image

See previous reviews for the 'Rules', e.g. the 2019 review ...

As usual, the graphic shows the highest spending categories for 2020 in descending order from the left, with the equivalent 2019 and 2018 percentages alongside.

Conservatory Design & Build - Part 4 - Finishing Works & Fit-out

With the building structurally complete and weathertight, finishing works could continue inside the conservatory at our leisure, and any remaining exterior jobs can be done as and when the weather permits.

Continuing with the diary from Part 3 ... 

laying carpet tiles on top of XPS insulation boards.  In this
picture, all the easy ones are down - the rest needed cutting to fit