Coffee 2-14-15

Happy Valentines day! I hope each of you finds a special way to share your heart with someone special.

The coffee is hot as is the stove. Tea water is bubbling. Come in, spend a moment or two & socialize. This morning is the coldest morning of the year. It's minus 23.6 as I type! Brrrrr. If the breakfast sandwich needs cooling, it won't take long! Inside is a comfy 72. Gotta love the Axeman! As things are, the cold isn't the weather story. Tonight, again, Blizzard warnings! As if we don't have enough snow, they are predicting 18 to 26 inches starting late today & going for 24 or 30 hours. 25 to 35 MPH winds with gusts to 60! Hold on to your hat! We did miss the last storm.... Thank you Smitty for grabbing it & keeping it to yourself. Other than that one, every storm has hit us no matter where it comes from. Coming from the south? Right straight to the Maine coast. Coming from NY, PA? It hits the ocean & turns up right straight to the Maine coast. Coming from the north? No turns needed, it just hits the coast & sits & spins. Often times the storm doesn't bring all the much snow with it, it just brings a "low" that sits off the coast and makes the snow at this location. It picks up moisture from the ocean, swirls it over the cold land mass & makes snow better than any man made machine can do. This one they are saying 2 to 4 inches per hour all morning tomorrow. Meow! Where's the white cat?

I've been busy in the shop. Snowmobile seats are the thing right now. For the most part I tell people to go buy an aftermarket cover. I'll take the old one off & put the new one on. It's less money than paying me to custom make a one-off replica.

No good deed goes unpunished. Last Mon or Tue I took the John Deere & snow-blowed the snow banks of the neighbors mailbox. I got a little too close to the ditch & got stuck. Try as I might, I just got deeper & deeper into the snow. I phoned Charlie (aren't cell phones cool?) "Charlie! Helllllp! I'm fighting Old Man Winter & he's starting to win!!". He dropped what he was doing, came with his 4wd & yanked me out.

I hope you all stay warm & comfy. Hug your loved ones & enjoy the day!

Freddy...unlike you. ..the storm's up here in the "county" have been hit or miss. ..but not the cold! Breakfast for me this morning is English muffins with honey on them. ..my youngest has a birthday today....14 years old....have to work today so we are celebrating on my day off on Tuesday! Have a great weekend all!

Mornin all, HVD indeed:) Outstanding HOT coffee Freddy Real strange weather,-14* around midnight & now just a regular 9* & just started snowin--can't tell how much yet, hasn't stopped Plenty of plowin comin this way I'd suspect!! Enjoy the week_end people.

Mornin everyone. Coffee is good Freddy. I'll be having fresh eggs for breakfast, but I'll have to fight my way thru the wind to get to the chicken coop. The wind is strong enough to rattle the windows now.

Currently 18 according to the internet, dropping to -9 tonight they say. Making a coal run this morning and that'll make my 7th ton purchased for this year. I'm going to get that 'match light' coal I was using a couple of years ago, just to see if it burns differently since my furnace has been modified.

Take care and be safe all.

Good morning fellows, I hope everyone is warm Well at least you are Freddy, dam thats cold . The coffee is great as always Freddy, Its a balmy 21* here and snowing but I though they said it was going to be near 0*, oh well. We had a trip planned for Holiday Valley yesterday for some skiing and boarding but I thought It would be a good idea to push them back a few week, we love to ski but not when It's 0* I don't think we would have had fun so instead we ended up at Splash Lagoon and a much better choice . The gravity box coal bin Is working better then expected no frozen or buried under 2' of snow coal, although the concrete is settling but I know It was going too. Take care boy's and girl's stay warm especially you New Englanders. Keepaeyeonit

Morning all,
Well it’s the weekend again. I can tell because I’m sick again. Nothing major but the sore throat and cough is a real pain. It’s a good thing I had no place to go anyway.

We are hunkered down for some serious cold beginning tonight when we are expected to be at 7* with a wind chill below zero. Then that actual drops to 5* and the wind chill goes lower tomorrow. The Marks Brothers are incredible and keeping the house at a cozy 75*.

Given the weather I put a second layer of wrap on my bee hives. That’s mostly a wind break. The bees can maintain their hive temp at 92* if they have food. They should have plenty of that. They spent the fall sealing the hive with propolis or bee glue but even so this wind chill is deadly. I thought about using a heat source like hand warmers, no good - I’d have to break the propolis to get them inside. Any lantern or heater runs the risk of cooking the bees or starting a fire. They may actually melt the comb, too. Pipe wraps may work for next winter but... I decided just to wrap the hives with foil backed bubble wrap from the HD. Builders use it on the walls of basements under the drywall. It as a R-factor of 3. I wrapped the hives and it should provide a good wind break and the foil may reflect lost heat back to the cluster. We’ll see.

My plan for the day is to watch every college B Ball game ESPN covered last week via the Apple box as well as those I taped from the other networks and fight this cold. Don't you love being able to zip through the commercials?

Be safe as you move around in the cold. Take care, Lisa

GM everyone, happy V Day. weekend off from work, not much planned, keep fires burning, staying warm. Got a finger joint set up for table saw while back, think I will work on geting it set up for future projects. Project list is long for this year. Momma wants a front deck on house with a walk in bay off dinning room area. I want to make a pull out drawer storage system for understairs that go up to front bedroom, dead space that can be used for coats, boots,storage.

Snowing lightly, down in single digits now, colder forecasted for tomorrow. Stay warm everyone, hug the ones that are near and dear.

Good mornin' all, coffee good, company better. Yup mother nature is hitting us really good this wintah. Heading down to The big box store to pick up some mosaic tile for the bathroom shower, I've been avoiding this for a yr so but the Mrs. has had enough. I wish all well getting through this next storm

Mike.

Looks like a day of snow flurries that could give us 1-2" more of the white stuff,doubtful that I will plow it as this evening we are to go from windy to brutal WINDY.That should have all the new snow + lots of the old snow right on top of the driveway by tomorrow a/m.We had our cold but beautifully sunny day yesterday & we had " Visitors from Girardville " ,ck out the thread by that title .We had a wonderful time for a few quick moving hrs till it was time to say "Till we meet again" .It appears as tho we kept them here a bit too long as they went home to a cold stove.Great to see,hear & participate in the Stove & Heating Ministry,certainly a very needed endeavor even this late in the heating season as we are experiencing such brutal cold temps.Looks as tho the cold temps are here to stay for quite a spell yet,sure will eat up the coal .

lowfog01 wrote:Morning all,
Well it’s the weekend again. I can tell because I’m sick again. Nothing major but the sore throat and cough is a real pain. It’s a good thing I had no place to go anyway.

We are hunkered down for some serious cold beginning tonight when we are expected to be at 7* with a wind chill below zero. Then that actual drops to 5* and the wind chill goes lower tomorrow. The Marks Brothers are incredible and keeping the house at a cozy 75*.

Given the weather I put a second layer of wrap on my bee hives. That’s mostly a wind break. The bees can maintain their hive temp at 92* if they have food. They should have plenty of that. They spent the fall sealing the hive with propolis or bee glue but even so this wind chill is deadly. I thought about using a heat source like hand warmers, no good - I’d have to break the propolis to get them inside. Any lantern or heater runs the risk of cooking the bees or starting a fire. They may actually melt the comb, too. Pipe wraps may work for next winter but... I decided just to wrap the hives with foil backed bubble wrap from the HD. Builders use it on the walls of basements under the drywall. It as a R-factor of 3. I wrapped the hives and it should provide a good wind break and the foil may reflect lost heat back to the cluster. We’ll see.

Lisa
Been keeping bees since I was a wee lad...just have to speak out on this...
Them bees will do just fine in spite of anyone doing them any favors. Ma Nature has them toughen up more than you realize.

Hope you used a very breathable wrap on those hives...many a well intentioned beekeeper has did more harm than good wrapping their hives.

Ventilation is paramount. Here is the theroyas the bees are consuming the honey and do then to metabolize it to maintain the 92* internal cluster temp, there are generated two byproducts which are CO2 and H2O...if you entrap these two byproducts the risks of suffocation due to lack of O2 and the freezing of the condensed H2O vapors on the inner cover directly above the cluster and will, at a later and warmer date, melt to drip directly on to the cluster of bees and will do great harm to their ability to maintain the 92* in their wet condition. A separate windbreak is as much as I could recommend...slatted fence or stack some bales of straw. Mice would love the straw, so don't lose sight of that either.

Some of the best wintered bees have ironically survived setting in a briar patch in the middle of an open field with gaps in the wooden hive bodies big enough to throw a cat through.

BTW...The bees will use less honey by staying naturally colder in the hive than by being kept artificially warm.

I know you are right but I still do it. It's easy when you only have a couple hives right outside your back door. I was worried about the ventilation too so I left the bottom completely uncovered and only have the tarp over the top. It's no way near air tight but should be a good wind block. That was my ultimate goal. If I had any use for garden straw in the spring I would have stacked bales of that around the hives.

I know bees die all the time, especially in the winter but I want to be able to say I did everyting I could to help them along. I'll be taking the wrap off when the wind dies down later this week. Who knows it may have even given them a slight advantage, maybe not. It's a roll of the dice. I appreciate your input. Thanks for taking the time. Take care, Lisa

Happy Blizzard day everyone !! Horizontal snow, 40mph gusts and the temperature is falling by a degree or two an hour. this morning it was 22* at 8am, and it's forecast to be -12 by 2AM tonight..
Sunday?? well yes there is supposed to be a lot of sun, but the forecast high is 3*, with another -12* forecast for Sunday night..
This morning, I finally got access to the 'Michigan Store' in town that closed down on Dec 31st. wasn't making enough money to stay open.. too bad, I bought there as much as possible, prices were OK not way overpriced as I had expected when they first opened.. They survived 3yeas.
When I found out they were closing, I asked the owner if he was opening a store at a different location, or ??? He said he's selling off everything, and would be loosing tons of $$ on the shut down..
I bought a lot of things that I could freeze or stock up on.
But I also bought 22 heavy welded wire shelving units. the type that have the round tubes for the four corners and the black plastic snap on tapered wedges that the shelves self-tighten onto. The price was excellent, but they were fully stocked with store goods, and I had to wait to get them out of the store. Today was the day, in the blizzard,, LOL..

I also bought a few other things, like unused building supplies, wiring etc from his renovation of the old building he was in. Good buys on the stuff. I ran out of money and room in the minivan at about the same time, and had to go back with the Jetta sportwagon to pick up the rest.
I'm going to put the minivan in the shop in a bit, no reason to have the steel wire racks get frozen to -12*, and then take them out of the van tomorrow. I'm waiting for my ambition level to restore itself a bit..

I used the rust-bucket plow truck to clear the snow and drifts twice already today, boy-o-boy, staying inside the cab with heat when plowing snow is sure a luxury compared to an open loader tractor. And a LOT faster too !!

This week I had the 'pleasure' of having the heat tape go bad on the water supply line to my Mom's apartment, It's 15 years old, I guess that's not too bad, But it needs an ALARM or something !! The pipes froze and one split, but it's a minor split, and I McGuivered a hunk of rubber innertube, and two hose clamps to seal it off until the weather moderates a bit.. And I bought a new heat tape and new pipe insulation, and it's doing well right now.. I think I might figure out a way and place to put one of the BBQ wireless monitors on the water pipes and see if that will work, I don't want to change batteries every month though..

Take care everyone, stay warm, stay safe, and hug your loved ones !!

Greg L

Today had a 48 degree temperature swing.... minus 24 to plus 24. That 'warm wave' didn't last long. It's starting to snow and it's down to 11*. The entire storm is supposed to be 8 to 15 degrees. They have modified the forecast to 14 to 24 inches for us. Everyone is getting hunkered down & won't be seen until Monday. Bring it on! I'm ready.

The storm is missing us! 75 miles east of here is getting slammed, but here.... HA! What a joke! Maybe an entire inch on the ground, maybe another inch coming. It is cold (10) and windy as heck, but they blew the forecast big time!

Freddy wrote:The storm is missing us! 75 miles east of here is getting slammed, but here.... HA! What a joke! Maybe an entire inch on the ground, maybe another inch coming. It is cold (10) and windy as heck, but they blew the forecast big time!

Glad to hear they were wrong, and you are enjoying the balmy weather and flurries. Was -8 with -41 windchill at 6:15 am. Currently -4 and -21 wind chill. Had a frozen egg, split wide open in the coop this morning.