Pellet heads!! What's up today?

That's funny stuff PelletHound ! Never really watched the 3 Stooges - I grew up in a different television era, but now I "get" the reference. Thanks for posting that.

This is what I'm 'watching' this evening .. (more) Course work for (hopefully) a MicroMasters certification in Cybersecurity:



I like the Stooges better. Much better.

 

I prefer no socks, I'm a barefoot girl. Right up until I go outside

 

That looks like fun (not). But, ya gotta do what you gotta do to keep current and relevant in a field that is always changing like IT.

 

Been over a month since I cleaned the stoves. The P61 really needed it and even the P43 was pretty close to due (I could have gone another week since I used the mini split a bunch in December). Figured with the single digits coming up, it would be a good time yesterday afternoon while it was sunny, winds were calm and the outside temp was 27. . Cleaned both stoves as deep as you can with only using the soot eater in the exhausts but not LBT. Part of that was because I'm not ready to get my nice new (to me) shiny leaf blower all crapped up. The other part was that the exhausts look fine and the stoves are running well so not really needed.

I also started the pilot light for the propane boiler. Pretty soon I'll have to run water thru the FHW pipes a couple of times a day since the garage is down to 40* now and will do nothing but go down for the next several weeks.

Went down last night to watch the flame of the P61 and couldn't figure out why it was staying failry low. It wasn't idling, but wasn't a nice tallish flame as it should have been. I mentally and visually went over my checklist and finally realized that it was the pellets. I had vowed to use up the leftover ton of original Okie Golds that I bought way back in '15 or '16. I'd finally used up the TSC's that were on top of them and started loading the Okies into the P61 the other day. I noticed that they have a lot of longer pellets, so I turned up the feed rate from 3 to 4. When I clean, I use the "test" feed mode to evacuate the ash I stir up, and I had reflexively set the feed rate back to 3 when I was done. Once I turned the rate up to 4, it was fine.

 

Good Morning B,

I see from the posting timestamp you are still the "Early Bird" ready to start your day - just about the time I'm usually 'calling it a day'.

Thanks. It's not too bad - just a whole lot of review, some new stuff, and "fun terminology" terms to memorize. I decided during the lock down that if we could help get the Ladies thru school for their degrees: no reason I couldn't go back and finish mine. (I had left college after taking a job that was 'hands on experience' vs. schoolwork.. and a career. That seems a lifetime ago.) No regrets here, just taking care of some 'unfinished business'. I tell Betsy about this course work stuff, she just laughs & says "I have no idea what you are talking about. ... Now go fix my computer."

That mini split sounds very cool. I can see why many here have installed them to supplement, or replace systems the past few years. Even w/ the warmer temps in December in our area, that it ran so well, is impressive.

Our tiny Francesca stove is still chugging along: same stuff, different year here. She's due for a cleaning also - Thanks - for the reminder on that.

Have a fun day all!

 

Up at 3:30, pretty much my usual time for waking up.

I only got the mini split for A/C since I WFH full time now. Summer of 2020 was miserable with the window unit and portable unit unable to keep up and me being surrounded by electronics in a 9x9 room. When told I would be WFH forever, I prioritized comfort over cost but somehow didn't realize the system could heat too (down to a certain point). I ran it in December as an experiment (having only run the stoves in November for heat) and found that the increased use of electricity was an even wash with the pellet savings (and small increase in electric use of the stove).

 

The weather has just been wretched without much of a break to go get more shells.
We have been using up old stock while we wait for a break in the weather.....

I grabbed two barrels yesterday.

The first barrel was from a young orchard (Smaller nuts and zero sticks)

Older orchards get pruned a lot and there will be more sticks that get swept up with the nut crop.

Barrel two was likely from a few years back.....

THE BARREL FROM HELL
Very first scoop to go into Munchy ....JAM....
Rotor stalled.

Open the jaw and purge out the contents....Big stick the size of a cigar butt.

Start over....3-4 scoops...another jam.....

After a few more of these....Had to carefully watch the materials in the scoop and keep a keen eye out for sticks.

Took nearly 40 minutes to run the barrel through munchy.

Good quality shells....just a lot of sticks.

Older orchards produce bigger nuts.
This barrel full has a lot of pollinators (Long oval shaped nuts)

Still trying to get over what could be a case of omicron.....Never had a fever...just ache all over and lost smell and taste.

Been about 10 days since it came.....far better this morning......Getting too old for this crap......

Gonna get one more barrel done today......

Weather folks keep promising some nice weather....I get up and it's raining again

And a great time was had by all...

The other half had bad back paint last Sunday evening.....Worried that it was another Kidney stone.

All night up at the VA medical center and a buttload of tests...

Nope...strained muscles.

Went to see our fav Acupuncturist A DAY OR TWO LATER......MUCH BETTER

 

Glad to read you are able to WFH on a full-time basis, given the time & commitment you showed the company, during the lock down. Very cool.

Yes, 2020 was a warm one in the Home Office here also! Good that you treated yourself to some 'cool breezes', and made the investment.

* Still impressive the mini split pumped heat at those temps:, even -better- the cost was about the same, vs. pellets: that must be a very efficient unit. and ... Beats lugging pellets.

Office window A/C unit here (20+ y/o) is also getting tired, have to upgrade it before this summer: due to the electronics also. (Right now though, I'm not complaining.)

Wicked windy outside this am, I'm gonna grab a tarp from the woodshed and go para-sailing, LOL.

Time to do the work-thing again, sigh. See 'ya all later.

 

Got the horses fed....Decided to rearrange things in the small building and get as many of the empty barrels sorted out and the dumpster so I can grab it easily with the skid steer ....

Trying to get things ready for a shell run.....Weather is the outlier....gotta have a zero rain day...Sunny is a plus....but not an absolute....

The plant is back to running 6 days now instead of 7......I had hoped that we could go today.....Absolutely fabulous day out there....

Also wish we could haul more shells per run.....Ah well...If Wishes were horses then beggars would ride .....

The crud appears to definitely be on it's way out...I have a lot more zip this morning.....
Still have a way to go....but at least were are heading in the right direction....

 

We've got some pretty cold temps coming here in the NE. I decided it was time to tap into my last few bags of prestos. The tsc junk just isn't cutting it unless I run the stove on higher settings.

 

Gentlemen.....where?
Here?

You on the wrong forum.......... calling those here Gentlemen

 

Stove been running more regular over the past week or so. Likely go to 24 hr mode by Tuesday with the cold coming in.

Will see how things pan out on going back to firing in am and evenings. No sense using pellets during the workday if no one is here and temps arent too bad.

 

If the mrs wasn't still working from home then I'd certainly be using less pellets. I tried telling her to turn the stove off and throw an extra jacket on. You should see the look i got .

 

29 here this morning, but wind has really kicked up since yesterday. I believe the temp is supposed to do nothing but go down along with the wind chill. yesterday and last night had the MS going, but but will probably turn up the P43 when I start work and then when the temps hit the teens, it will be taken off room temp so that it just keeps chugging and chasing away the wind infiltration.

Not sure if I'll have to do the same with the P61. The ground has been frozen, but I don't think too far down so it's still resting a decent time between firings. It will let me know when it's time to take it to a more aggressive heating arrangement.

 

My favorite 3 Stooges short:

 

When I lit the pilot light the other day, I didn't test the boiler for for firing. Guess I should have. Last night I went to run water thru the pipes real quick and I got nothing. Pilot light is fine, flipped the breaker, checked the thermostat connections, and nothing. Guess I'll be one of the thousands trying to call a tech in at the last second, which means I'll probably be waiting for several days - my fault for not lighting the pilot light and testing in December.