Coffee 1-7- 2012

The perking has stopped, it must be coffee time. Oh yes! It smells good. We have a rare treat today. We've got some milk that's straight from the cow. If you're one of those mamby pamby's that can't handle a little the idea that your milk may have dripped over a human's finger while on the way to the bucket, back away & have your coffee black today. Enjoy. I smell bacon cooking and I heard the waffle iron clank when it hit the counter. Also, strawberries and cantaloupe slices. Me thinks it will be a rib sticking breakfast. Yummmm

Brrrrr, no snow to speak of but certainly this was the coldest week of the season. We dipped to near zero a couple of nights and didn't make it to 20 even on the sunny days. The AA is dancing happily and easily keeping us as warm as we like. A neighbor that's new to coal this year phoned with an issue. He has a Hyfire in his basement with duct work aiming the heat upstairs. He was complaining that the cellar was too hot and he thought he was wasting coal. I looked things over & convinced him we needed better control of the cold air returns. I made plans to make more of a closed air system. The first thing I did was to extend the shroud over the stove to the floor. This will force all air to go through the blowers. I had plans to run flex duct from cold air return vents to the fans, but thought "Let's let this go for 24 hours. It will make a change, we just don't know exactly what change." Well, come to find out, job done! That's all it took to make a huge difference. Before he had the coaltrol thermostat in the living room set at 70. That worked well, but the cellar was 78. Now, with that one change, both upstairs and down are within 2 degrees.

Today: an offer of ice fishing and a game of chess while the fish nibble. I'm there!

Hope you all have a smooth weekend!

Good morning. Glad to see I'm not the only one that went through some coal this past week. We had two nights go below zero, and a few days that peaked in the teens. I think it was January 4th that I burned 140 lbs...my record so far for this season. The old house has been doing pretty well, we usually don't even know what the temperature is outside unless we look at the thermometer...that and the ash tubs tell the real story.

Freddy, the smell of that bacon just reminded me I have a pound of fresh breakfast sausage in the fridge...time to heat up the pan! I also have some eggs that my dad gave me, he has a few laying hens and the eggs are OUTSTANDING.

Not much else for news. I got our home phone switched over to digital service from the cable company yesterday. $25 per month for unlimited calling...$15 less than my previous plan that went up quickly if we used any long distance. Next on the list...putting the snow plow on the Ford. I think I have made it long enough without it, and I'd hate to get snowed in and have the plow buried in a drift.

Good Morning all, Freddy I've been on fresh milk since I've been up here 5years already, sad thing is my neighbor has cut down to only 25 milkers now, Ohio cut their price once again so he's really behind the 8 ball now, he figures he's getting less than 40 cents/ gal. & they ain't allowed to sell it to the public. Sad the big farms get all the help & they try to throw the little guy under.

samhill wrote:Sad the big farms get all the help & they try to throw the little guy under.

Sam what "help" do the big dairy farms get?

Yeah, fresh coffee.... good stuff! I've been drinking REAL milk since I was about 5 y.o. Boy-o-boy, I had to go fill the 1 gal can every morning, or every other morning, from the big 10 and 20 gal cans in the milkhouse. I would just skim the top layer off so we would just get all the cream, then leave the rest for everyone else. Yep, it couldn't be sold to the public, so there was just a sign in the Milkhouse Refridge that said "FREE". Friends and relatives would go in the milkhouse, and come out with a gal or 2. Funny, everytime I went back in there after they left I would find a couple bucks in the fridge! It must've been a donation of some kind

Today's temp is supposed to be around 70F. The coldest we saw this week was 14F. In that kind of temp, We could tell this old farmhouse isn't insulated, but the DVC500 did me proud by pumping out more heat than it ever did since it was new. This was the very first time I got to turn it up to 100%, and although its more than 3 years old now, I could smell the paint beginning to cure as it got hotter. I have found out its much more efficient when its burning at its hottest setting. Less unburned coal in the ashpan.
This years main project: Get the Highboy installed.

Don't know any more than what he said for sure Fred, can't remember the per/100lb. price but after everything figured in that's what he came up with. Now if he were in Pa. he would be getting more, he is the fifth generation so it's all he knows & loves.

Ice on Sandusky Bay,Hard Ice on the pond at home,yep,Winter is here ! That's why stopping in to enjoy breaking bread with all of you coal-burnin' critters is a must. Thanx for the late -start fresh coffee,Fred. I slept in until I "herd" there was a new cow in town. Much like the hunting camp,it's the camaraderie with the folks here that make the stop so good....! Oh,and Fred,I'm likin' the Ice Fishing Shanty action that you've got going up there. They're saying Lake Erie may not freeze over enough this year for that,but I'm thinking "they" could be wrong ! I've got great year round memories.

Good Morning!! for a rare change I'm home on Saturday morning, and spent the night in my own bed..

I finished up my yearly recurrent training and checkrides yesterday afternoon and managed to catch a flight home. Nice to sleep in my own bed.

It was cold in the beginning of the week, but it hit around 50* yesterday, only down to around 34* last night, and over 40* right now. The next week looks
like high 30's with nights in the mid 20's.. pretty nice for January. We have zero snow on the ground.. even the piles have melted. And the dirt road out front is dry, and thankfully mostly smooth..

My AA is just 'tinkling' away, making heat, the Hopper needs it's weekly 'topping off', my coal use is less than normal with the moderate temps, but I really don't follow it very closely anymore.

I have the shop floor warmed up to 55*, I'm planning on doing a fair amount of work in the shop next week, so I raised the slab temp a few degrees.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Greg L

Freddy wrote:The perking has stopped, it must be coffee time. Oh yes! It smells good. We have a rare treat today. We've got some milk that's straight from the cow. If you're one of those mamby pamby's that can't handle a little the idea that your milk may have dripped over a human's finger while on the way to the bucket, back away & have your coffee black today. Hope you all have a smooth weekend!

Mornin Freedy.
Growing up I walked to the neighbors house for a fresh Jug of cows milk, and one of goats milk. My grandfather hated cows milk said it was like water. Thats how i feel about skim. He drank it hot and curdling.

Mid 50's here today. Kids are out riding their bikes with shorts on and later I'm going to go to a deer processing demonstration so I can move a little closer to my goal. I was supposed to go to one last month but the truck threw a wheel bearing halfway there and I had to limp it home. Crossing my fingers for a less eventful drive today.