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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 6:52 pm
by SpotTheCat
Yeah, we're supposed to get above freezing next weekend, and perhaps stay 10 F higher than average for the month of january.

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 5:37 am
by StrangeDay
I really have to invest in a snow blower to do this huge driveway. :(

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:09 pm
by liquidsquid
StrangeDay wrote:
I really have to invest in a snow blower to do this huge driveway. :(


Get a 4-wheeler and a plow ;-) A LOT more fun.

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:24 pm
by SpotTheCat
liquidsquid wrote:
StrangeDay wrote:
I really have to invest in a snow blower to do this huge driveway. :(


Get a 4-wheeler and a plow ;-) A LOT more fun.
and a LOT faster. You have no idea how much faster a blade is, especially when you learn to do it right. You can push a blade as fast as you can, but anything with a blower has an optimum volume flow rate. Go too slow and it doesn't throw well, go too fast and it bogs down.

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:30 pm
by FubbHead
So.... Where's my snow? There haven't been *any* snow here yet. Bleh..

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:22 am
by themattman
Almost no snow for the philadelphia region so far.

January/February is the time for snow days :D

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:56 am
by liquidsquid
SpotTheCat wrote:
liquidsquid wrote:
StrangeDay wrote:
I really have to invest in a snow blower to do this huge driveway. :(


Get a 4-wheeler and a plow ;-) A LOT more fun.
and a LOT faster. You have no idea how much faster a blade is, especially when you learn to do it right. You can push a blade as fast as you can, but anything with a blower has an optimum volume flow rate. Go too slow and it doesn't throw well, go too fast and it bogs down.

UR Quite right, it takes roughly 1/2 hour to plow my 1/4 mile gravel driveway and 4-car wide turn-around. Mostly with a smile on my face going about 20mph and tossing snow a pretty good distance.
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Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:29 am
by SlyFerret
LS, that looks like a great place to live! I'm jealous!

I notice the firewood stacked in the background. Is that for a fireplace or a wood stove?

I'm working on installing my new wood burning stove right now. If things go smoothly and the inspector can make it out this week, I might be burning it by Friday night.

I've got a thread with some pictures of my project on another forum.

-SF

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:05 am
by SpotTheCat
LS, I hope you push those piles down wind!

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:33 pm
by liquidsquid
We primarily are heating with wood. We don't have natural gas hookups so we are stuck with propane, which is $3.25 a gallon right now. (total up-the-butt pricing). Since we cannot afford to heat our house with liquid gold, we have our big Vermont Castings. Takes about 13-15 face cords per year to heat, which amounts to $700-$900 depending on the source. The last fill of our propane was $1150 and that would only cover us for roughly 1.5 months. Part of the reason why I cannot afford a replacement video card for my computer right now. :-( We still need the propane to get us through the coldest days when we are not at home.

Sooo... on another note, it turns out we have natural gas under our land, and even in our well water. We have been approached by a local NG company to sign off on the mineral rights. If we do, we get 12.5% of the well's production in $$$ and free NG for the house. Needless to say, that is pretty exciting if it pans out, as it amounts to quite a bit of money. A well only 0.5 miles away produces enough for $17K a year for the land owner. That well has been productive since '64.

Of course this lowers my incentive to go green, since I will HAVE to be hooked to the "grid" to receive money.

Back to the weather... It is now supposed to snow around 1 foot tonight, but be in the 50s next weekend. I hate winters like this. Give it to me snowy and cold.

And no, the snow heaps go wherever they wish. If I piled up away from the wind, the wind direction would just switch on me and dump the other field's contents into the hole.

-LS

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:42 pm
by Darkmage
liquidsquid wrote:
Since we cannot afford to heat our house with liquid gold, we have our big Vermont Castings. Takes about 13-15 face cords per year to heat, which amounts to $700-$900 depending on the source.
Holy cow... I burn through about 2-3 face cords per year and I thought that was a lot!

Good luck with your gas problem. :wink:

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:42 pm
by liquidsquid
cord or face cord? A face cord is a lot less than a cord since a face is only one side of a cord which is essentially a square block of wood. 2-3 face is about 1 month at 73 degrees inside in December here.

http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/cord.htm

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:10 pm
by Darkmage
Hmm... based on that, I go through about four or five face cords, or just under two regular cords. Still a lot less than you do. Winters aren't as bad here, thankfully.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 6:26 pm
by SpotTheCat
liquidsquid wrote:
And no, the snow heaps go wherever they wish. If I piled up away from the wind, the wind direction would just switch on me and dump the other field's contents into the hole.

-LS

Oh, come on. Plow it to the east.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:26 pm
by Voldenuit
Been snowing all last night and all day here in Indiana. Temps -8 to -10C during the day, currently -12C (10F) at 7pm.

No doubt it's going to get even colder over the night.

Lips so dry and cracked they could pass for martian landscape.

And they said IN was warmer than Chicago before I came :p

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:52 pm
by liquidsquid
SpotTheCat wrote:
liquidsquid wrote:
And no, the snow heaps go wherever they wish. If I piled up away from the wind, the wind direction would just switch on me and dump the other field's contents into the hole.

-LS

Oh, come on. Plow it to the east.


See, that is the problem... The Nor'Easters blow heavy snow from the East, and we get them often. Our regular prevailing winds are from the West, and we have a semi-permanent snow fence there now.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:23 pm
by SlyFerret
Propane is $3.25 here too. My last tank was about $1200. I'm glad to be getting this stove in now.


It's supposed to be down to 12 degrees here in central Ohio tonight. Maybe an inch or two of snow, but nothing much.

I'm ready for some real winter weather here too. I seem to remember when I was a kid getting more winter weather than we do now. I can't wait to a return to real winters. I love this stuff.

-SF

Brrr!

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:40 pm
by JustAnEngineer
We are finally getting some cold weather down south tonight. It was 81°F and humid here in south Florida before noon today, but the temperature has dropped below 70°F already and it's supposed to be 35°F tomorrow night. It's forecast to get down to a bone-chilling 16°F back home in the heart of Dixie. :o

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:47 pm
by idchafee
Came back from spending the night at my aunts with the wife and kids (and blowing a tire on the expressway on the way home), and found 8 inches of the white stuff on the driveway. 90 minutes later, me and my trusty shovel were done.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:50 pm
by Hance
16F bone chilling your kidding right :lol: It was -35 F when I stepped out onto the drive way for work last winter at one site. Stand around outside in a temp like that for a couple or three hours then talk to me about bone chilling.

It really all depends on what you are used to I guess. A lot of you guys live with heat that would kill me. And you guys think the cold I live with would do the same.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:27 pm
by paulWTAMU
That's one thing I've gotta say I realize more now. I've lived in Houston TX (heat), the Colorado Rocky Mountains (cold) and now Amarillo (both but not as extreme). You really can get used to almost anything if it's the norm where you are. When I lived in Colorado, I didn't think anything of 20 degrees if I had a normal waist length jacket on. After 5 years here in Amarillo (god it's been a long time) I like to have at least one extra shirt on as well in that temp.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:50 pm
by SpotTheCat
I'm not sure if it's as much getting used to it as to re-learning how to behave in the cold/heat. In the cold you keep moving, in the heat you move as little as possible. Minnesota is blessed (cursed?) with all 4 seasons. Our winters go down to -40 wind chill, and our summers hit over 100F. I think the only part of my body that might actually change is my nose. I've always got a stuffy nose for the first few cold weeks, and then it goes away eventually.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:52 pm
by steelcity_ballin
It gets cold enough that I actually am wearing thermals when I go running... In 20 degree weather... near the river.... at 9pm. The ice is what pisses me off, no traction son!

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:13 pm
by Hance
SpotTheCat wrote:
I'm not sure if it's as much getting used to it as to re-learning how to behave in the cold/heat. In the cold you keep moving, in the heat you move as little as possible. Minnesota is blessed (cursed?) with all 4 seasons. Our winters go down to -40 wind chill, and our summers hit over 100F. I think the only part of my body that might actually change is my nose. I've always got a stuffy nose for the first few cold weeks, and then it goes away eventually.


No its not learning how to behave it is what you are used to. It was down to 40 degrees one day early this fall and I froze my ass off. Now when its down to 40 degrees all I wear is a tshirt.


Its a bit chilly tonight. I just went outside to plug my truck in for morning it was -10 when I was outside.

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:18 pm
by Captain Ned
Hance wrote:
Its a bit chilly tonight. I just went outside to plug my truck in for morning it was -10 when I was outside.

Headed for 'bout the same here and I too believe in block heaters.

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:42 pm
by Hance
Yeah listening to the diesel engine in your 40k truck clatter and rattle because it was -30 f when you started it up makes a person want to cry. I dont know exactly how many quarts of coolant it holds but I think its around 30 :o. My truck will start fine when its cold but with that much coolant to warm up plus the block etc it takes a good 20 miles before its even remotely warm in the cab. With it plugged in you start it up and have instant heat.

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:37 am
by Captain Ned
And I'm only talking about a 2.5L flat-4 Subie motor.

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:41 am
by bhtooefr
Hance wrote:
Yeah listening to the diesel engine in your 40k truck clatter and rattle because it was -30 f when you started it up makes a person want to cry. I dont know exactly how many quarts of coolant it holds but I think its around 30 :o. My truck will start fine when its cold but with that much coolant to warm up plus the block etc it takes a good 20 miles before its even remotely warm in the cab. With it plugged in you start it up and have instant heat.


The Webastos are even more impressive. Of course, the installations I've seen pics of and heard about the performance of are in little 1.9 L VWs with ~10 L or so coolant capacity, not 30 L.

But, turn them on with the remote, and 15 minutes later, your car has a fully warmed up cooling system, and a fully warmed up cabin. No plugging in required - the webasto systems are diesel-fired. (Or gasoline-fired, but that's useless on a TDI. ;))

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:44 am
by steelcity_ballin
It was 12 degrees when I rode my room mate to work at 7am yesterday, by the time I picked her back up, it was 44. Today it's already 49, and tomorrow is a high of 66. What the hell?

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:58 am
by derFunkenstein
pete_roth wrote:
I rode my room mate to work

:o