Coffee 2-13-16

Brrrrr.... a big fat zero is showing on the outdoor thermometer. Inside? The Axeman wants 68 degrees, the Axeman gets 68 degrees! Ahhhhhh, so nice.

Please, come in , find a comfy chair & join us for some hot coffee & perhaps a breakfast sandwich. Bacon or sausage, your choice.

This week has flown by! I've been in the shop doing sign work almost every day. Usually there's not much to do this time of year, but lettering trucks & trailers has been making me work overtime. I'm thinking that will allow me to have more free time this summer? Let's aim for that & see what transpires.

I see they changed the forecast. They had predicted 5 to 8" of snow for today..... now they say one inch or less. OK by me.

Here's another story of why American companies have a hard time competing. I bought a new kitchen sink faucet. All the little parts & pieces come in a sealed bag. It is missing one tiny rubber washer. I phoned the company (American Standard). They told me that one washer is not packed in the bag, it is shipped loose in the box. (DUH!) So, can they drop one in an envelope & send it to me? No.... it only comes with the entire hose and fittings. OK, so rather than mail me a three cent washer they are going to ship me the entire hose. Arghhhhhh!!

Enjoy the weekend!

Good Morning everyone....

20* right now and that is our high for the day, its forecast to head down through the day with a low of 3* tonight. The wind is already blowing about 15mph, the dog was in a hurry to get back inside when I took her out this morning.

Sandwich sounds good, but I am on deck to make some waffles for the overnighters whenever they get up so I'll eat the one that tears as I take it off the waffle maker....I can always count on one coming apart.

I'm doing a little experimenting this weekend with the stoker set up. I am going to run the duct to the return trunk and see if it gets the heat upstairs any more efficiently than the current open stairway setup. I am thinking the fan is too small to push the air through the ductwork very far but I'll know for sure by tonight.

Have a great day everyone!

Mornin all, gonna go w/ the sausage myself Freddy. Outstanding coffee as always. -3 & blowin & snowin. Good day for inside stuff. Enjoy the week-end people.

Good day lads and how are we this nice brisk morning? not real cold here, only 10° outside but Its a nice 77° Inside and humidity Is a tad low though at 22% so my pan Isn't doing quite as good as the humidifier but Its not eating power. Well Its a little to cold to work on the motorhome but It will wait until next weekend so Its time to get a few things done around the house although indoor things but still things.

Freddy wrote:Here's another story of why American companies have a hard time competing. I bought a new kitchen sink faucet. All the little parts & pieces come in a sealed bag. It is missing one tiny rubber washer. I phoned the company (American Standard). They told me that one washer is not packed in the bag, it is shipped loose in the box. (DUH!) So, can they drop one in an envelope & send it to me? No.... it only comes with the entire hose and fittings. OK, so rather than mail me a three cent washer they are going to ship me the entire hose. Arghhhhhh!!

Yes my friend I have never understood things like that but Its like that all the time , I would guess that the parts In the bag was made and sealed oversees and the washer was made in the US so thats why Its loose in the box
Ok boys and girls stay warm and enjoy your stay here at the Coffee House .

Mornin everyone. 2 degrees here this AM with a stiff wind that bit pretty hard as I went to feed and water the chickens. Another big storm to hit here Monday and Tuesday. 8 to 12 inches of snow............the turning to ice. This could get interesting.

Take care and be safe all.

We woke up to 20* degrees actual and a 5* "feels like." I've never understood that. To me I don't care what the thermometer actually says, I think that what I feel is the actual. That's what I have to dress for before I hit the door. I suppose it's just one of those little nuances of American life.

There are no sign of the bees nor will there be for a couple of days. I'll know if they made it Monday or Tuesday when it will be in the high 40* and some maybe flying.

I wish I didn't have to go out but DK and I have some business at church later today and this evening so we will get to experience the cold first hand. That's the extent of my plans for today. I'll spend the rest of the day with the "blue ladies" and finish my book. What a a great place to be in. Take care, Lisa

Breakfast sammys would have been fine, but had to settle for a couple waffles with maple syrup and a couple soft boiled eggs. First Saturday home nursing a broken foot. This is so boring, sitting here. Think I've convinced the better half to go on a road trip. Haha! Freedom! It's getting cold. Stay warm

Cold even down here, made extra coffee and out for a breakfast sandwich.
Stay warm up there! My son reports the VF3000 has eaten the least amount of coal in a winter since I installed it. Only 2.5 tons and he is projecting that to last until March! Awesome cheap and I am real happy as they keep the house warmer then I did. Plus 2 little girls to increase the hot water usage.
I bet it is humming today to keep up however.

Off to a concert in a cavern this afternoon. Supposed to be a nice event.....
Have a great weekend and stay inside if you can up there....

Kevin

I'll have one of those bacon "sammiches" thank you. No coffee, just pass the orange juice my way.

Due to the cold weather I decided to plug in the F250 block heater. I noticed Friday morning it still gave the old whump when it first started. Normally that doesn't happen if the heater was plugged in. So last night as I go to plug it in again, I didn't get the normal spark when plugging in to the extension cord. Further examination revealed that my little critter friends decided to chew on the block heater cord. So that will be a quick fix to put another plug on it.

I still have not hooked up the AA back into the system. The wife didn't want me to shut down and drain the pipes to make the final connections. She thought it would be nice to just use the low cost fuel oil and not have to deal with the hauling out of the ashes. However she forgot of the benefit of getting that residual heat off the AA just sitting there in the basement. She now is complaining of the cold basement !!!!!!! Well I told her it would take me about 2-3 hours to make the final connections so I could do that today if she wanted...................

And she was also complaining about how cold it is on the other side of the basement where the washer and dryer is located. So when I do finally drain the system, I'll be adding another section of finned tubing in the basement. It should be fairly easy as the pipes run overhead of her washer. Just 1 more thing to add to the list.

C'mon Freddy. I need some snow up "they-ah." We are scheduled to hit Greenville for the 1st week of March for our annual sled trip. We need some snow !!!!!

Keep warm everyone.

Rick

Hate this time of year. So much to do that can't be done, due to snow and cold ... like barn siding and my porch roof. Can always tell when it's above freezing by the puddles on the porch.

Was -1° yesterday morning. This morning it only got down to 10°, then jumped up fast to about 18° where it is now. Wind is kicking up - wind chill in the single digits now. Jacked the boiler water up 15° to about 167° average just to keep up with the cold. Supposed to be -5° tomorrow morning ... and that's probably for Boston, so we might be in the double-digits below zero. Will be cool in the house tomorrow, unless I crank the boiler water up to 180° or so.

I've got a Husqvarna chainsaw here that I put a chinese cylinder and piston on ... and a new carb, coil, and plug, since it wouldn't start. What I thought was a carb problem I've traced back to a possible vacuum signal problem in the chinese cylinder. Looks like I'll have to do some dremeling, so the carb will supply fuel. Gotta love chinese parts! It's either that, or pay for a new OEM cylinder and piston what you can buy a used, running saw for. Can't win.

Saw is going to sit until the weather warms up. I'm in F- everything mode, thanks to the weather. Only 6 more weeks of this crap, so it'll pass eventually. Now I remember why I stayed drunk every winter in the past ...

Anyway, hope ya'll have a better day than me!

Crap ! Smitty beat me in here ! That's Honorable,as it's alway s great to see the Smit's !

Man,Winter Convalescence is great ! Yeah,likeHell it is...... Actually,I'm making light of it all,and not complaining. I've been pretty damned fortunate and I know it. The Doc sez that I'm coming along,and heading in the right direction with no complications,so far. Today was the 20 quart pot of ham&bean soup extravaganza day for me ! That's a whole Torpedo Tube full O'Fiber per the Doc. I should send him some ! Keep Yer socks on for tonight's cold,and may We all see the Sunrise together tomorrow !

Glad to see ya back in action, Bob! Sounds like one hell of a meal there!

Weather conditions are deteriorating by the minute. Might set set some records tonight, I believe. Already -7°, and still dropping! Wind hasn't let up yet. Temp in the house has dropped a couple degrees below the boiler set point. Guess I need to crank it up to 180° or 190°, but I probably won't. It's better than the high 50's it used to be in here whenever it got this cold!

Here's some pics for ya'll.

Good evening, this morning the two thermometers were in reasonable agreement. The fancy remote electronic one read -6*. The old bi-metal spring one on the front porch which almost always reads colder read -11*. That's about par for them.
Thankfully the wind that we had saturday afternoon and evening died overnight. The house is a comfortable 71*, the shop is about 50*, it was 60* this afternoon when I had the waste-oil heater running. My local transmission shop who I deal with often has offered me some of his waste ATF, but he was getting paid for it in the past. He called me two months ago and asked if I wanted any waste ATF. I told him I could use some, what was he getting paid for it? He said since crude oil has become so cheap, that he has to pay to get rid of this waste oil..
I silently cheered, and went over and picked up 400 gallons. My burner will burn about 5-8 gallons a day, depending on how long I run it. While the hot water heated floor is nice even heat and warm feet are a great bonus. I do like having a 'warm-spot' in the shop to thaw my hands and get thawed when I've been outside.

I swept the snow off the solar panels, and made some 'juice' today. The panels have been covered for about 5 days, but the skies have been mostly cloudy so I haven't bothered to sweep them off, every time I get anxious and clean them off there comes along another 2" of snow, making my work in vain.

Lots of work in the shop, getting a few jobs completed, I can't wait till the days of below freezing are over.. We had almost a week of above freezing [muddy roads] and now the deep freeze after some 7" of snow.. so now we have icy rural roads, so bad that the county had to sand the ice.. seems odd to put sand on a gravel road.. lol..

Have a great week.

Hey H Bob, good to see you back online.. Keep those pipes working and clean !!

Greg L