Coffee 11-12-11

Good morning! Don't be shy. Come, gather 'round, have some coffee and a social event. <sip> Ahhhh, that first sip always hits the spot. The smell of main stay French toast is filing the air. Baked bread, cinnamon & apples, good stuff. I see several new faces coming in the door....welcome!

It's been amazingly sunny & warm....at least for November. Ten days in a row of pure sunshine. Barely a frost each night and 50ish during the day. Ya just can't ask for better weather! I might ask for better luck in the vehicle department though. I think I've been cursed! I've found one thing after another on my "new" truck that needs fixin' but more than that.... Thursday morning I jumped in my van to go get parts and the brake pedal went to the floor! I backed up 15 feet to get onto pavement and, lump, lump, lump.... a flat tire! Here it is 48 hours later & I have ALL new brake lines and new rear drums. Man-o-man, every year since it was new in '97 I have crawled under my van & done rust prevention work. Cleaned drain holes, touched up paint. I can not believe the difference the last 12 months has made. In one year it went from looking OK, to oh my gosh, this thing might not last 2 more years. Since day one I've been planning on getting 20 yrs or more out of this van, but I'm not so sure now. Meanwhile....my little Ranger now needs a fuel tank filler tube and alternator bearings.

Meanwhile...the AA coasts along, not real happy it can't stretch it's legs. Axeman's like to run! To hold them back is a cryin' shame. I wish my neighbor was a bit closer. I'd run lines to his house & heat him too.

Hope you all have a good week!

Good Morning Freddie, I'm sitting in JFK waiting to hitch a ride back to Detroit. I just flew in from SFO. It was a beautiful night to fly, When I was over Chicago, I could see FtWayne, and a glimmer of Indianapolis to the south, and all the way up the Lake Michigan shoreline to Traverse City, and all the way east to Flint and Detroit, Toledo and a glimmer of Cleveland.. From FL370.. over 200 miles of visibility. It was below freezing at home and in Flint.

My AA is chugging along, the shop and house and DHW are all toasty warm. When I get home later this moring, I'll load the hopper for the next week.

Thanks for the coffee, I need it.

Have a great weekend

Greg L

Good morning. Nice weather indeed. The weather man says even more nice weather ahead, I’ll take it.

Freddy, you can keep your vehicle problems, I have enough. It is only the wife and me and we have three vehicles. I thought about going to two to save money but I realize that we need three, one for me, one for her and one to drive while repairing hers or mine. Speaking of vehicles, I may put the winter tires on today. It will be better to do it on a nice day than when there is a foot of snow on the ground.

LsFarm wrote:Good Morning Freddie, I'm sitting in JFK

You lucky dog

Penn State is on many people’s minds and TVs here in PA this week. What a mess. Older man + young unrelated boy(s) = trouble. It was many years ago I stopped at a rest area in Indiana and a young boy from a truck parked next to me came to me crying. He said he had to go to the bathroom real bad and that his dad was in the restroom and would I please take him to the restroom and to find his dad. I told him I could not and he begged me to, please. I decided to knock on his dad’s truck and here the boy’s father was still in the truck. I was relieved yet puzzled at why his young son was outside looking for him while he was still inside the truck apparently sleeping. It was a strange incident but I would have had to let that kid piss his pants before I would have taken him down to the restrooms. That would have been a good deed waiting to blow up in my face, not worth the risk.

Y’all have a good day, I have to figure out what I want or don’t want to do today.

I'm on my second cup of coffee, and the bacon is frying. Some home-made spelt bread is waiting to become toast, and the eggs are waiting for a swim in some bacon grease. The house is toasty warm, and the AHS is idling along and firing only occasionally with a a fairly steady 35 degrees outside all night. Plenty of hot DHW also. I'm waiting for some real cold so the boiler can get up and gallop like it really wants to. Got to get the ashes out today. Other than that, no big plans other than to stay warm today. Perhaps I'll change the oil in the cars.

Got my Folgers on this coolish morning. THis is the second time we have had frost on the ground, about 35f says the thermo. DVC500 running about 50%.
This week's project was getting an old Wisconsin ADH up and running again. I believe its a ADH, might be a AEH, the data plate is gone. Points, spark plug, and wire were first issue. Got those straightened out, now theres spark. Gotta work on the carb today..

Good morning,

No big plans here either. I was going to work in the yard - and I still might this afternoon - but I've got another cold and it's knocking me on my butt. This is the 3 or 4th cold already this fall. The stove is up and running, keeping the house at a comfy 70*. I'm hearing no complaints from anyone about being cold.

Well, I'm heading back to bed and hopefully I'll feel better when I wake up. Take care, Lisa

I just poured the last drop of coffee in my mug...looks like it is almost time to go outside and get to work. Or maybe I should make a second pot?

The wind really roared here yesterday afternoon, and most of last night. My hour meter says I burned 70 lbs yesterday, which isn't crazy for a cold windy day with my wife home cranking the thermostats all day. This morning the basement was 80 degrees...that sure makes for warm floors, but I could probably get by with 75 degrees. Maybe this weekend I will get some fiberglass insulation to put around the boiler.

Next on the list is to put the dash back together in our Lincoln Navigator. Two weeks ago I tore it down to get the radio out, and the new one arrived this week. Hopefully I remember how it goes together...

Morning all. My coffee maker sprung a leak this week, literally. I've been making coffee since then with the percolator out of the camper. Darn good coffee but a pain in the butt. I've ordered a new coffee maker but it is not here yet. A Technivorm Moccmaster. Suposed to be make a really excellent cup of coffee. We'll see.

Must have been the week for busted brake lines. I too like to keep a vehicle a long time. This one is a 98 suburban with 192k miles on it. Pedal went to the floor. The salt these use on the roads really tears stuff up. I had to laugh about 3 vehicles for two people. That's what we have and for the same reason. Gotta have one to drive while one is in the shop.

The Harman is chugging along and it's nice a toasty in here. No projects this weekend. My best friend is coming to visit today and he'll stay until sunday. I've known him since I was 2. There will be excessive beer.

Outstanding coffee as usual Freddy & nobody does that baked bread better. I'm with you Lisa, I can't seem to shake this--whatever the hell I've got--probably the strange weather--freezing at night 60's during the days. We had a real good Veterans Day Ceremony yesterday & one of the older guys, yep, older then me, was kinda P.O'd that Joe P. was getting more media coverage then the Vets were.I then sadly shared with him about the responses I'd read on my own coal site with 8 responses out of 5000??? people & that I didn't get it either. Have a good week end all.

Been trying a few new locally roasted coffee's from Whole Foods lately. I think I still like Folgers best.

Going to do a few little things around here and then hit the road at 10 to meet Spiker and heat over to "Fall Fest" in CT where several forum members will congregate and apparently eat chicken wings and talk all things coal.

Good thing James is driving because I can just about move. A friend invited me to play some flag football(that's what old men and children play) so I'm moving like the Tin Woodsman today.

Coffee for me, I'll find something to eat later. I know how it is with the brake lines. I let the 91 GMC sit too much this summer, seems like the "sittin' rust" has gone wild. I've had three lines pop in the last month! Each one has popped as I fix the others! At least it has been in the driveway and not going downhill with a load of gravel. Have new parts ready to go, but a lot of tree work has me busy.
Had my eye on a vintage IH Cub Cadet 100 with plow until the lady went online and saw similar ones. Now she wants a grand for it completely unrestored.
The Monticello is keeping the place toasty and I'm still learning and experimenting with it. I built a fire last night with cedar deck plank scraps, that gets the anthracite going. Have been leaving a bank of ash all around and that keeps the fire just right instead of overheating the place.

Once again the "Burn Coal" Lincoln (the wife just had to have vanity plates ) has tunes! The used radio I got seems to work perfectly, and things are assembled even better than before. Some jackass worked on this a few years ago at the dealership and apparently didn't know what the retention clips on the wire harnesses were for...to keep them from rubbing on the shifter linkage! Everything is secure now, and I even found suitable replacements for the screws that were missing here and there (same jackass I assume).

Two weeks ago:



Today:

I made it home to the farm. It was a struggle. The Delta flight that I hitch a ride on to Detroit was oversold, and there were many other pilots trying to get home. I cheated: I knew the gate agent loves Starbucks Vanilla Latte's.. so,, I got her some 'breakfast', and somehow I managed to get a seat on that plane, I don't think she left any Delta pilots behind, but I think I was next after they got seats..

Hey any method, any way, as long as it's legal and reasonably moral.. I guy has to get home after being on the road for 7 days !!

It's a beautiful day, 59-60*, sunny. I need to get a few outside chores done, but I have zero ambition.

I need to clean out the interior of my 'airport car' a '01 Dodge caravan. It's for sale, once I get the seats back in it,, they've been out for about 8 years, it's been my light-duty 'Pickup truck'. Now it needs to be converted back to a soccer-mom grocery-getter.

It's replacement is a '05 Caravan, much nicer condition.

Well time to get moving.

Greg L

Nice fall day here. Lots to do outside, getting ready for winter. Vacuumed leaves in the yard with the Grasshopper mower. Sure makes nice leaf mulch in the spring. Finished my latest mods to my AHS installation a week ago and I'm now fired up. I moved the circulator pump on the coal boiler to the return side and added a way to measure the differential pressure across the pump. Loaded up my utility 4X4 I use as a coal bin (see photo). It parks next to my boiler. Time to do some homework. Taking another HVAC class. Maybe someday I'll get my journeyman's license. BTY, I was surprised to learn here is no HVAC license required in PA.

That couldn't be good old Freetown chain spreaders on the front of that tractor could it.