Cool Coal Photos

Figured I'd cast my ballot.



That's my l'il wiggly Quinn. She just turned 10 months on December 2nd. She comes over to me every time I am doing anything related to the Chubby. Usually she wakes up with me in the morning and sits on on my lap as I'm shaking the stove down.

Tonight, when I got home I had my son bring in two 50 pound bags of Kimmel's Nut Coal. She decided to help me empty one by sitting on the bag. She climbed right up on it and was riding it like a horse. The entire time my wife was screaming, "Those are her new jammies, she is going to ruin them!!!" I just laughed and took a bunch of pictures and thought this one was worthy.

Tell your bride that with all the money you are saving you can buy her new jammies anytime, she is a cutie pie

Home sweet home

That is one nice fire. One of the best I've seen.

Here's a good mornings breakfast in the making.

My first introduction to coal was working at the Strasburg Railroad with brothers Ashcat and John. This was a summer job while I was in college many years ago. My responsibility was as a "hostler" (I think that is the spelling of the term)--I got steam locomotives ready for the train crews. This included shaking grates, lubricating, revigorating fires that had been banked overnight, etc. The hoppers were later filled with water and bit coal. I would typically do this for 2 locomotives each morning.

My favorite part of the day was blowing out the condensed water in the smokebox by backing the locomotive carefully and slowly up the tracks, then reversing and coming at full bore back into the train yard. Plenty of smoke, steam, and dirty water raining down on the surrounding fields. By doing this, paying customers would not get sooty "raindrops" on their clothes later in the day. This particular locomotive was a 200 ton, 2-10-0 locomotive.

Here are some pics shortly after a thin layer of fresh coal was added to a hot fire. Ashpan door open, fill door open. Shot at very fast speed (800-1600) with Canon G10, lightly edited with FastStone software (free download--nice program).

Love that pic, Beeman
(Edit: replaced original with a less-highly compressed copy)

Even the dog is smart enough to sit by the coal stove when he comes in from the cold.

Willis wrote:Actual coal customer at my tipple - Holloway Ohio
(Oh and his license plate - XIXIXI - Took me a minute to get this one, yes roman numerals 666)

XIXIXI would be 11 11 11. VIVIVI would be 666.
Perhaps it has something to do with veterans day. November 11 @ 1100Hrs.

rsck wrote:

Willis wrote:Actual coal customer at my tipple - Holloway Ohio
(Oh and his license plate - XIXIXI - Took me a minute to get this one, yes roman numerals 666)

XIXIXI would be 11 11 11. VIVIVI would be 666.
Perhaps it has something to do with veterans day. November 11 @ 1100Hrs.

You are correct that it was VIVIVI I just forgot my roman numerals there, haha Josh

Anybody else? We could use a few more to make it interesting.

Here's my photo. It's a cold winter day but it's warm inside, thanks to this coal pile.

Mike B
Enfield, CT

Coal Powered Conservatory

Here's some pictures of our front room where I grow tropicals. There's 5 different bananas, two arabic coffees, and a pineapple. Out of view is my vanilla vine and cocao tree (I only believe in growing things I can eat!).

Of course this is all possible thanks to my Pocono's steady diet of rice coal! The Coal-Trol thermostat is about 5 feet from the bananas and it's set at 78* - continuous, no setback. Also off to the side is a humidifier that we pump about 6 gallons of water through a day - certainly not enough for rain-forest results - but it keeps the bananas leaves from drying out. Above this habitat is a 6 bulb T8 reflector fixture that runs off a timer about 10 hours a day. At the height it mounted I get about 500-1000 foot-candles on the plants

Before anyone asks - no, I haven't gotten a banana crop yet. I've been working on it for 5 years now without success. In the wild bananas take about 14 months to come to fruit and they need full sun (10,000 foot-candles). No really the right climate here in Central PA. So I've been experimenting with growing them as hard as possible inside and then transplanting early spring outside and then coddling them through potential frosts/freezes. I am a proud father(?). My bananas have babies on a regular basis - so I haven't had to buy many since my first purchase several years ago (with the exception of different varieties),

The coffee bushes take 3-5 years outside so this is a 5-10 year inside project.
The vanilla is a 2 year crop - so I'm looking at 5 years for that to be ready (it's probably the most on schedule - I'm betting it's close to 7 foot long).
The cocoa takes 30 years to mature in the wild - so that's going to be something I make my kids swear to taking care of on my deathbed!
I did have a cinnamon tree also - but that didn't make the fall - so I have to start over again on that one.

Anyhow - that's what I use my coal stove for! That and my wife drying wash.

Cheers
Lee

Grumpie wrote:Here's a good mornings breakfast in the making.

I love the photo

Its my favorite