Coffee 12-28-2013

Ya gotta season those CI pans...
Then they are the BEST...
Take off the wood handles and coat with oil...
Stick them in the oven and heat cycle them a few times...
finish off at 450* for an hour...
The kids are doing good...
Grace the 'Irish Triplet' is almost caught up to The Twins...
At six months she is 18# and almost the same height and head size, 90th percentile ...
The Twins only have 5# on her and they are a year older...
Once she starts walking she will be able to pass as the quiet triplet...
There are tall women in the bloodline, over six foot back in the early 1900's...
Good thing she is robust as Grace is down with RSV...
The Twins ended up in the hospital for a week with it a year ago...
Grace is just rolling with the flow, staying at home and chillin' out...
It helps being robust and the third kid...
They loved Christmas and it snowed all morning...

CapeCoaler wrote:Ya gotta season those CI pans...
Then they are the BEST...
Take off the wood handles and coat with oil...
Stick them in the oven and heat cycle them a few times...
finish off at 450* for an hour...

Lodge claims they are "factory seasoned" but from experience, they do get better with age. Figure it will take at least a year to get it really black.

Very Wise Words,Greg.....You never know what comes up in conversations around the Big Table at Freddy's. There's nothing we can't Gang Up on and Take On if we continue to be engaged in each other's day ! It's easy for me to mind my own business. However,it doesn't take a lot to be concerned about each others welfare. As a signature line has said:"Some Of The Warmest People I Know Burn Coal" I Thank You all for that!

What a week! My best wishes go to those making their way back to normalcy that were caught in the path of that ice storm. In the past two years we've been without electricity for a total of 24 days in my neck of NW NJ. Regardless of the damage we've seen from Sandy and the Halloween Snow Storm, my biggest concern would be and icey ice storm like you guys just got. I could only imagine what amount of whining and be-itching would be going on if the average Jersey joe had to endure even a few days of such a storm.

Crazy swing in temperatures here this past week. We went from a high of 65 on Sunday afternoon to a low of 14 on Wednesday, Christmas Morning. Saw something really strange on Sunday afternoon. I walked past one of my ~50Lb chucks of anthracite I keep around for conversation pieces and there was this Woolly Bear caterpillar beating tail away from the chunk of coal when the temp was at the weekly high of 65. The Wooly Bear was 3/4 brown. Wondering how to interpret this sight. Just too coincidental to not have some underlying message - maybe Freetown Fred will help me out?~!

If you ever see a 3/4 brown wooly lil sucker walkin backwards across a creek on a downed birch tree ( YUP, gotta be Birch)--we're in big trouble SNOW wise! I hope that cleared up any old wives tales ya might of heard

freetown fred wrote:If you ever see a 3/4 brown wooly lil sucker walkin backwards across a creek on a downed birch tree ( YUP, gotta be Birch)--we're in big trouble SNOW wise! I hope that cleared up any old wives tales ya might of heard

Oh CRAP! It was heading downhill toward the stand of Black Birch I couldn't tell if the little fella was walking backwards or not! Might be safe - no trees down in the stand of birch.

Whew!!!!! that's cleared up

Native Weather Technology....."Ya Gotta Love It,Ya Gotta Go With It!"

Good evening,

Late posting today, wife and I had to run some errands today. Freddy, what a week, hope all turns to the better for you and your family. Clean up around here is going slow but steady. Our electric supplier National Grid is working hard at cutting all the downed trees and restoring power. On a positive note, we didn't loose much snow. The trails are groomed and the sleds are out running. The trails are nice. Driving around the area today I was able to see where the ice storm hit the hardest. Work in the shop will resume tomorrow. I have a lot of cabinets to finish and then install for a customer. I don't usually make kitchen cabinets anymore, however, this long standing customer I tend to make exceptions for. I hope everyone has a safe and productive work week.

The snowman.

So frustrated with medical crap. Don't know who you can trust anymore. I will say though, that the hospital my mom had her operation at was above and beyond what I'm used to for the area. Last few years I've seen nothing but ineptitude .. but this place seemed to have their *censored* together. She starts chemo in a couple weeks. Damn cancer ... Freddy we'll say a prayer for your sister in law. Hope for a speedy recovery.

Hit 44° yesterday, but looks like by next week we'll have single digits here. That crap out in the Dakotas is headed this way.

My boiler needs a cleaning ... BAD. Still working great though. Can't complain. Looks like I've got just enough pieces of paper blocking the combustion air intake that it don't stink in the 60° weather, and won't push burning coal over the edge in the cold weather - a nice balance I can live with.

This morning I had a combustion smell - the kind of smell that tells me the coal bridged. That's exactly what it was. The paddle was spinning free, while 20 lbs. of coal remained stuck to the sides in a V. Thought I lost the fire .. but there was a small, quarter-sized glow way to the back. Pushed the coal in and off she went. Poked the baffles to shake some of the flyash down .. and that set off the smoke and CO detectors. The amount of ash that fell out of a few of the fire tubes was BIG. Been running non-stop for 2 straight months as of yesterday. This thing desperately needs a cleaning. No time for that ... and a big cold front coming, so maybe next month.

I'm having a hard time seeing my screen this morning. You folks have yourselves a good day.

Larry: about 15 years ago when I was flying to Stuttgart weekly, I had an experience with the radiation detectors. My fellow pilot had had a stress test the previous week, before we left the states for a 3 day trip to Germany and back. When we got back and were clearing customs/immigration, the immigration officer had a box on his belt set off an alarm. He looked at it, very curriously, segregated all of use individually, and found out that my first officer was setting off the alarm..
He had to answer many questions, and empty his pockets, etc etc.. and it was decided that it was his body that was radioactive.. apparently the radioactive leftovers from the solution in his blood had not yet dissipated.. He was released with a few chuckles and he was called a day later to get in touch with his doctor and provide a letter that he had had the radioactive tests..

So, even 15 years ago, before 9/11, I think this was either '99 or '00, the country was concerned about radioactive items coming into the country.

Greg L

lsayre wrote:I actually had some good news yesterday. My nuclear stress test to see how bad my biscupid aortic valve is affecting my ticker came out good enough to give me what I'm hoping will be a 12 month bye to my next stress test (with hopefully many 12 month byes to come after this one). Then when I went to get the nodule that was detected growing on my thyroid biopsied they hit it with the ultrasound to guide the needle into the nodule, and first one technician, then another, and then the surgeon searched the thyroid under the ultrasound, but they couldn't locate the nodule at all. They sent me home while clearly scratching their heads in confusion.

The funniest part is that for a few days I will remain radioactive, and they gave me a Homeland Security "Get out of Terrorism Free Card" that I must carry at all times. No joke, I have a card that I must present if I set off a radiation detector anywhere, and the card says that Homeland security has positioned them across the entire USA. I quote:

The Department Homeland Security and other government agencies have installed ultrasensitive radiation detectors across the country. These devices are designed to detect a nuclear terrorist. The radioactive material you received could trigger an alarm. Should this error occur, show this document to the Law Enforcement Official.

Smitty: if you have a shop vac, [I'm sure you have at least one ] could you position the vac hose under the fire-tube, give the baffle a giggle and the vacuum catch 90% of the ash? Just thinking, with the cold weather coming, that's the time you want the boiler as clean as you can get it..

Post a link to your install thread if you had one, I can't remember the 'franken-boiler' you have.. ? Old round tube EFM boiler with a ?? keystoker? Yellow Flame ?? or ?? stoker ??

Or you can email me some photos.

Prayers for your Mom..

Greg

Sorry for such a bad week. I'm sure things will get better. Glad to hear you have your lights back. During Sandy some of our friends lost their homes and others were without electricity for weeks. That storm prompted me to buy a diesel generator. Now that we both have generators I'm sure we are out of the woods for bad weather(: Hope your sister in-law makes a full recovery. Take care.

Smitty, it doesn't take long to brush out the boiler. I am sick as a dog and chasing two kids and I managed to squeeze in a mid-season cleaning this afternoon. After seeing what was in the heat exchanger, I am sure glad the job is done before the -20 weather we are expecting this week.

Mid-Season Cleaning

I'm sure you are busy taking care of your mom...but that 20 minutes it takes for the cleaning will save you some coal when the temperature drops later in the week.

Best wishes for your mom.

Thanks Rob.

Yeah Greg that's probably a good idea with the vacuum there - I didn't even think of that. I could probably get just about all of them, so long as the fire is close to idle, without melting the hose.

My boiler is one Jim D. from the forum here built and donated to me before he passed around last Christmas. Here's the link to the install. You can probably skip the first 3 pages of it ..... I was having a nervous breakdown trying to get my plumbing supplies & install plan in order ..

Jim D.'S Stoker Boiler Install Thread