How'd it go today?

[SouthSoundTree-]

So wait, Stephan, do you roll it and spin it on one piece of wood? I can see either / or, but can't picture both.

 

[Fiddler]

Just walked back from my sister's place where I was treated to a nice meal and some good conversation with her and her guy.

Now back to watching the rest of Immortel

 

[MasterBlaster]

Looks good.

 

[Fiddler]

You been eatin' them biscuits again?

I learned of it from your post

 

[Dave Shepard]

Fingers crossed, but so far the damage seems to be contained to one relay and five hundred watt bulbs. I've got a pile of relays, but those dang 100 bulbs are getting scarce. I fixed the wiring and ran the generator for a bit this evening. Everything went well. Running a 115 hp tractor on a 20 kw generator for a 400 watt heating load. It's the American way!

Jim, I was, and still am, worried about smoldering wiring in the wall. It would have really sucked if I needed the FD. I have no land line, and if I did, that only work for a short time when we lose power. I have a cell, but no service nearby, and there was a big tree across the wires near me, and it's a ten mile drive the other way to get to the other side of the blockage.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Well, I hope everything turns out Dave. I would guess that you should have seen signs by now but you never know. Check your smoke detectors.

What brand of generator do you run? I want to buy one for the farm.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I'll check. There a bunch of them around right now and I've I'd two of then actually work. I was just given a new winco that I haven't setup yet. I think the original one for the farm is a winpower.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

So wait, Stephan, do you roll it and spin it on one piece of wood? I can see either / or, but can't picture both.

Roll large round or use mini to splitter. Flop as far onto the foot of the splitter that you can that has the branch size piece of fire wood (say 3" dia) in front of the foot.
You can then use the little piece for the round to roll on to further it into position and turn the round as well. It can roll and serve as a pivot point. Placement to the foot of the splitter is the key. Has to be a bit taller than the foot as well. Try it and you'll see what I mean. Makes your life easier with big wood rounds.

 

[timbertramp]

Well had a pretty good turkey day today, ate a lot of food and some really good pie. Kinda nice to relax with my little family. Boys were able to get out of the city limits and do some bunny hunting and target shooting. Hope all of you had a good holiday as well.

 

[Fiddler]

So did they bring home something to eat?

 

[Dave Shepard]

The tally of electrocuted devices grows. It got my TV, DVD player, clock radio and a fan I had in the bedroom. I think my circ pump got a light toasting, too. It's running, but it's been on continuously since the power came on at about 1:00. Normally, it would have had the house up to temp in a couple of hours and be way too hot. Must not be operating at full speed or something.

 

[Reddog]

Ouch

 

[FireFighterZero]

I am glad there was no fire though.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Yeah, it could have gotten really ugly. I'm worried about the wire going up to the thermostat. The ends at the relay were the ones initially on fire. I don't know if I can pull a new wire down through the wall or not. That part isn't working right now, and I don't want it to start smoking when I put the new relay on. I might have to pull a piece of the pine paneling upstairs and snake a new t stat wire.

 

[Fiddler]

better safe than sorry.

 

[squisher]

That sucks Dave. Good luck with getting everything fixed.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I was able to pull the t stat off the wall and inspect the other end of the wire. Everything looked good. I could also follow it through the basement and it looked ok there, too. Only the end on the relay was cooked. I cut a bunch off until I got to clean insulation. I put the new relay on and everything is working good there. Circ pump is working, but for some reason it wasn't heating up the house as fast as I thought it should. Maybe it just needed more time because the whole house had cooled off so much. Just as a funny side note, throughout this heating project, there have been little hardware issues pop up that have solved themselves in funny ways. I needed a couple of connectors for junction boxes and one for the housing on one of the circulators. The one on the circulator didn't need the little locking ring, so I had an extra ring. Well, it turned out that I needed a ring to hook up the new door on the boiler. When I was working on the new relay this morning, I discovered that the wires from the relay to the junction box were old cloth wires, and they were coming apart. I went looking for a short piece of mc wire, and found another relay already wired with a foot of mc hanging out the bottom. Saved wiring one end. It seemed that every time I thought I was going to have extra parts, or was pissed that I had to buy a package of two of something when I only wanted one, I ended up needing the other one later, and already had it in stock. OK, now that you are all totally bored with my plumbing and wiring stories, I'm going to go chop up some slab wood to feed this hungry beast.

Jim, I'll get some info on those generators this afternoon. How big of a load do you have? We ran the entire barn on one yesterday for milking, and there's plenty of stuff down there. 6.5 HP vac pump, high temp water heater, milk pump, compressor for the bulk tank etc.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Feeling stoked. Went on a pruning bid that sorta ended up with some free consultation on a topped silver maple in the lines and over the house.

In the end, a new fruit tree pruning customer and chip dump spot. Small maintenance job for years to come. We'll probe a few other small trees and a hedge.

Here is the sweet part. They are getting older and grand kids are in So Dakota now. They have no use for their good condition trampoline or swing/ slide set and were planning on giving away for free. Perfect size for Dahlia.

Then I ask about an old aluminum canoe, which is water tight and only missing a thwart. The pond in front of my house on my neighbors property is filling up with the rain... Ducks a swimming. Neighbors have two kids close in age to D. A free canoe should make for a blast.

I have been Craigslist shopping for all three items! Christmas came early.

 

[squisher]

Good to hear things are looking up Dave.

Congrats on the score(s) Sean.

 

[squisher]

This pic proves we don't always hit the nail with our saws, as sometimes it seems.

 

[Dave Shepard]

It says there have been 96 members that visited today. Of them, I think only four of them I don't recognize as regular posters. That's quite an accomplishment for a forum!

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

This will fill up in the next couple of weeks to the line of willow and equally far too the right, the deep side with water year round. An irrigation pond from back when that pasture was blueberry fields.

The blurry things are ducks. My old neighbor took his grandkids out in a friend's canoe previously stored at my house. They loved it. In spring the canary grass grows up and it seems everglade-like (my impression) to tiny kids. I need more fun in my life. That should help.

The swing set is good in that there are two swings and a slide and a two person swing... Stuff like you would have at a play ground living in town. I mean, Dahlia's bucket-seat, buckle-in tree swing is sweet, with about a 40-50' run, but it's only one kid at a time. Not good for multiple kids unless you're ready to coach them through an exercise is patience building and sharing the entire time.

Previously, I set it up with a climbing line and saddle for adults at a bonfire party. Good times.

 

[Dave Shepard]

FFZ, the generator we were using yesterday was a 25kw Winpower. It handled everything great. We have a 30kw Onan propane that we are going to install on a little slab next to the barn. It will be basically pushbutton. Throw the transfer switch in the barn and start the genset. No more hooking on to a little pain in the ass trailer and having to tie up a tractor to make power. My mother always worries about the power going out and having to deal with the generator. Our old one was much smaller, and caused a lot of problems. We now think after running this one that the other one was defective from day one. She said she had to constantly fiddle with the rpms to get it to stay in the proper voltage range. The one we ran yesterday was set it and forget it.

 

[timbertramp]

Got a real late start today (2:00) but still got some firewood done and may be rebuilding a transmission for a guy next week. Called the boys today and they are going to stay another nite outta the city (hunting is kinda slow) so with any luck we will have rabbit for dinner before they go back to school.

 

[Reddog]

Looks like the same size winpower my FIL has.

Will run the milk barn with a 10 stanchion parlor, vac pump, chiller tank, and the house with everyone there for a holiday dinner.

Just don't pay any attention to the 4020 roaring over there behind the tool shed.