COFFEE Sat, 10-23

Big news! Big news~~ Smitty used his match! He's been itching to strike it for a few weeks now, and finally he couldn't stand Mr Cold anymore so he lit up and drove him from the house. A few fluctuations of the windowstats & Smitty should be good for the season. Congrats!
Come on in & pour yourselves a big cup of Joe. I smell bacon & I'm sure farm fresh eggs will be cracked in a few minutes. Join us for a good meal and tell us of your week. Anyone else light up for the season? I'm real close. It's chilly in the mornings, but still getting good solar gain during the day so I'm hesitating. I'm aiming for Nov 1st this year.
I see Greg got a BIG load of coal. When you live 600ish miles from the mines it's the only way to get a decent price, plus for his place it's not much more than a 2 year supply. Greg, are you going to be using one boiler or two this year?
The Curran Farm is having an Old Days day today. It's just a mile from here. They will have hot cider and butter churning I'm sure. 10-3 I think. It's like using a time machine and stepping back into 1890. My sister in law & wife will be taking some of the goats & sheep down for show & tell. The kids love that.
Hope you all have a splendid weekend!

Morning all, got my 4.6 ton load on Wed, just need to get the stoves ready, they should be, just a double check..
Coffee is done, no eggs or bacon this morning, wife has to work all day, so getting stuff done around the house, gutters clean, maybe get some more insulation in the garage ceiling, prep the cars for winter, maybe give them a good cleaning/wax, supposed to be 60+ today. This week supposed to be in the 50-60's, so I may wait on firing up until next weekend.

Good morning Freddy. You are up early as usual. It's got to be cold there is am because it's 34 here way down south. I'm still burning the evil juice (oil) but plan to drop the match around Nov 1 as well. I think Greg is hoping his coal consumption will moderate this year with all the insulation, new windows etc. Nothing like that big truck dumping 24 tons of coal to give you that nice warm feeling. I've been busy rigging up my new coal automation system. I'm using the grain hopper I had previously listed for sale in the classifieds outside of my bin window. I'll load it with a tractor with a bucket. It will then slide down a chute into the bin. Once the bin is full, I'll fill the hopper and cover it. In my bin I've got a 4" auger loading into the boilers hopper that now has a cover and dust collection system installed. No more shoveling required. Did somebody say Rube Goldberg? I'll post some pics or a movie when it's finsihed.
Happy Saturday.

Not burning yet,but just the thought of Smitty carrying that mini-torch toward 'Da Black Gold makes me know the Jig is Up ! Have a Great Day,Everyone,'gotta scoot.

Morning all. Just got a brandy-new coffee perculater, a Farberware 8 cup that works on our Induction cooktop. All stainless steel. So far, so good. MUCH better than instant.
Its chilly, but still no frost on the pumpkins. I've been burning wood in the FireplacExtrordinaire for the last 7 days, but just from 8:00pm to around midnight. Thats enough heat to keep the house at 70F all day. Its supposed to warm up for next week, so I may not need that.
I tested the DVC500 with some Rice from UAE, thanks to Dave 'VigIIPeaBurner' dropping off a few hundred lbs for me to test. Thanks Dave!

Today's chores.... I'll be heading back to our church today to comtinue installing a new oil furnace
Then, finish stacking my firewood for the winter.

Have a good one..

28 degrees this morning in Northern NY. The frost seems to make the coffee taste even better. I am tempted to ignite a pile of the black diamonds, but I would be regretting it this afternoon when the temperature gets in the 50's. The big Weil McLain has sucked down a 1/4 of a tank in the last three weeks, and I had to break down and call for a fuel oil delivery yesterday. $2.80 per gallon . The thought of heating this place with just fuel oil is scary, my btu-conversion calculations say it would be around 1800 gallons per year.

-Robert

hello everyone, chilly here in valley forge pa. actually we are in cape may nj chilly here too, ive burned wood a few nights,wnen it was rainin andd damp,threw a small amount of coal in once so far, cooked us out of the house,,,too soon temps moderatin, my new toy I got in sept an aa130 is slowly progressing, I don't know what year she is from the people at A.A. say the mfg # is not the year it was made, numbers are hand stamped in the boiler so they say 50 or 60s I did get some paper work, price sheet and op manual ,sure wish thats what parts cost now!!!!example sa32 fan impellor only ,balanced-$27.00 !!!!!any runnin the hand fed clayton furnace this year , Bessie the boiler will be done in time for a spring 2011 install........ have a great day,, Tommy

Well it's 41f here and my cheap knock-off of a Modine Hot Dawg is rumblinng away. It's a Mr. Heater, reliable but noisy. I'm still working on the church manse, trying to accomplish all the maintenance and repair that was neglected for many years. The pay I agreed to makes me wince, but "it beats a blank" as they say. A lot of history at this house. I found an old toolbox in a cellar area, had some mason tools in it and a piece of newspaper dated 1955. " Buy the Best Truck! Buy a Dodge!" I'd like to have a new '55 Dodge Pickup!
I put up two chimney blocks yesterday, two more going up today. Kind of paltry with all the amazing chimney projects I've seen here. I hope 2 feet more is worth the effort! I have to rearrange the inside black pipe stack soon and see if I have improved the setup. Hats off to the mason trade, it's an art.

Good morning, we have frost here today, I’m not sure if it is our first but it is the first I have seen this fall. The boiler has been running all summer for the hot water but I just turned the thermostat on two weeks ago. The cold nights called for heat so I was able to make sure the circulator was working and it is so I’m set for another winter. Like any other weekend there is a lot to do but probably most will go undone. I figure when I die I will leave behind a bunch of work for some one to do because it will not be a big pile of cash, that’s for sure. My wife and I have tickets to see Blue Man Group in Hershey this afternoon. This evening and tomorrow I can dig into that big pile of work if the mood hits me (or not). Everyone have a good weekend. Don’t forget to run on down to Wal-Mart and stock up on candy for all the spooks next weekend. Rumor has it if you trick or treat Greg L’s place you get a bag of coal. Freddy may give you a day old muffin. I will just keep all the lights off and pretend not to be home on Halloween.

Hey! I made front-page of COFFEE! And farm fresh eggs - WOW! Thanks Freddy!

I'm definitely glad I lit the match, I'll tell ya -- 32° last night! Tomato plants are lookin' pretty wilty ... and there's still about 7 different sized green ones hanging on. Looks like fried green tomatoes tonight ...

Been pluggin' away at the wifes winter beater. Got the new front pads in. Had to wire wheel the heck out of the pins & bushings too -- dry as a bone! Greased them up, & now we have brakes again. Tried to use the Jimmy rotors, but they were just a bit too wide & too large in circumference. Oh well ... While I had the wheels off I installed a brandy new set of Firestone Winterforce tires, & greased the front end. Toward the back, I just had to adjust the rears a bit -- pedal was awful mushy. Still is, but it's better than it was. Not bad for a 21 year old un-restored truck! The 4 wheel drive wasn't working, & I managed to trace it down to the vacuum switch on the transfer case. The detent ball was jammed up into the switch, & it was obviously leaking tranny fluid into the vacuum lines. JIMMY TO THE RESCUE! I had just went through this with that pile, so it had a new vacuum switch in it that was only 2 years old ... and it was identical to the '89! Saved me $30 there - that made my day! While I was down there I changed the who-knows-how-old brown fluid in the t-case. Also popped off the shift boot for the 4x4, & spray greased the hell out of it, so that's working nicely now. Truck already had a new alternator, battery, fuel tank, fuel pump & water pump, plus the rear brakes have been done within a year or 2, so this turned out to be a good score! She just likes to belch smoke for a while until she's warmed up .. but it just happens that I'm a big fan of smoke anyway .. and the treehuggers won't know the difference because all cars "smoke" in the winter ...

Sold a few more parts off the Jimmy, so it's getting lighter & lighter! My buddy came by with an odd horn problem in his '95 Volvo. Every time he'd go to bolt up his junkyard horns to the body, the horns would sound off right in your ear! After some testing I figured out that 80's GM horns are not compatible with Volvo's, due to the way they're wired. The GM horns have a 2 pin connector, like the Volvo ... so they should work .. BUT, the GM horns ground not only through one pin, but through the horn body as well! That threw us for a loop for a bit. JIMMY TO THE RESCUE AGAIN!! The horns in the newer Jimmy were wired the same as the Volvo -- ground isolated from horn body -- so they bolted right in! Sounds nice too. So there's little pieces of the Jimmy all over MA now.

Off to a buddy's birthday party, so gotta get my liver ready! Later folks!

Just back from the barn--tightening up time since 6 AM--well it's done--I needed this breakfast & Joe--thanx Freddy--the Hitzer's been going for over a wk. had a dusting of snow Fri. Am---we'll see about the 60's & 70's projected for next wk.--weather wise,I think living up on the hill here is like a different world--I'm glad this stove will idle down as nicely as she does & come back to life for these nights--well,gotta go shake & top-off. Have a good week-end all

Dann757 wrote: I'm still working on the church manse, trying to accomplish all the maintenance and repair that was neglected for many years. I hope 2 feet more is worth the effort! I have to rearrange the inside black pipe stack soon and see if I have improved the setup. Hats off to the mason trade, it's an art.

Good morning NEPA List Guys & Gals,

I was up early but too sleepy to write. But now I am alive! Must be Freddy's coffee! I lit a 12hr coal fire last night to keep the house warm till this morning. It's dying down now. Temps 31 here at 0700hrs. Should be a nice day to ride the motorcycle. But is it me & my eyes or does it seem as if the fall colors are not as vibrant as past years?

Dann, I raised my chimney 2' a few years back. Reason being, the top of the chimney was within 10' of the peak but NOT greater than 2' above the peak. I have no idea how it passed code in 1988. Maybe no code back then? And yes, it is an art.

Morning guys,

On the move this weekend so I'll have to skip the breakfast. MMM Bacon, that makes it harder to skip but I must. DK hasn't given me the match yet but we are close. Next week is supposed to be in the mid- 70s so we will aim for Nov 1, also. The NG furnace - set at 65* - has come on a couple of times. I was doing a google search and found a Acme Stove store just 15 miles from home. I'm checking it out this morning; since they sell coal stoves I'm hoping they sell coal. No more driving 2 hour to get coal, what a concept! Anyway, I hope everyone is warm and safe this beautiful fall day. Take care, Lisa

markviii wrote:28 degrees this morning in Northern NY. The frost seems to make the coffee taste even better. I am tempted to ignite a pile of the black diamonds, but I would be regretting it this afternoon when the temperature gets in the 50's. The big Weil McLain has sucked down a 1/4 of a tank in the last three weeks, and I had to break down and call for a fuel oil delivery yesterday. $2.80 per gallon . The thought of heating this place with just fuel oil is scary, my btu-conversion calculations say it would be around 1800 gallons per year.

-Robert

Oil 2.80 per x 1800 gals = 5040.00 bucks Anthracite Coal 150 per ton picked up x 10 tons = 1590.00
Oil would have to be .85 cents a gallon to compare to coal . Or coal would have to be 490.00 a ton to compare to Oil at 2.80 a gal Install a coal boiler and save lots of cash per year .

Brr....three hours at the soccer fields with 40* temps and 25mph winds. Glad to be home with a hot cup of chocolate and my Harman.