Pellet heads!! What's up today?

So you admit to being batty? Where did you put yourself.

 

Sounds to me like his wife is batty - it's her bat house.

No disrespect to the missus jtakeman as I'm sure she is quite a lovely human being and she puts up with you - LOL

 

Fall is here.....
Stove running part time now.....

Time to go get a load of shells......I called the plant the other day and they are running......
We put a fresh set of tires on the Suburban (Had two tires with issues)
Weather is great.......Time to get the outfit put together and go to it.....

Our last customer who was boarding horses decided to move her two boys much closer to her house....
So we have zero horses here now.

The area of the barn that holds the sawdust for bedding will not be accessed now....We can leave the dumpster on the trailer and park the outfit in the barn and just leave it there.....This will save us a lot of extra work .....When we need the rig....Climb in and go......

It normally takes 30 minutes to couple up the trailer and get the dumpster on and secured, lights strapped on and such....

This winter will be much easier for us old people....

 

All back and the rig is backed into the barn...
Gonna run munchy tomorrow and fill up the barrels in the basement with stove ready stuff.
Will unload the outfit Thursday......

The plant is so over run with all the new orchards coming online now///

They are giving us the shells free

Free is great....

 

Can't beat free!

 

The plant started giving us the shells last year.
There had been many large rigs in there in past years with either bottom dumps or live floor trailers hauling the shells off and I believe selling the stuff for ground cover in place of Bark Dust....

The shells last a long time and Cats hate digging in it....

I have not seen as many rigs in hauling the stuff off......

The shells that are being sold to resellers can be wet and for most applications wet is fine.

We get ours right off the live feed tank from the plant as it's dry.

The shells do not readily soak up water, but if the stuff gets damp it will mold when stored YUCK

The large "Boxes/Tubs" that the nuts are brought in from the orchards are used to store the cracked 1/2 shells and stacked up in the yard.

I have to be careful that the yard crew only grab stuff right off the main tank that is dry.

The past few days have been in the 70's and windy so the stuff can sit outside for a bit and be fine.

As soon as the rains get here the process is far more critical.....Picking a dry day to haul and get things inside is a must .....Plus making sure the material had not been outside for a day or two...

Today is going to be a "Munchy day" Another process that must be done while its not raining......
With the outfit parked in the barn we can delay transferring the shells to the barrels and even unload if its raining....
Winter runs can get very interesting .....We have done hauls dodging Snow showers before.
Unloading in the cold weather is not great fun.....But it is all part of the job.

Getting back into the groove of this job always takes a bit.

We keep all the equipment (Big shop vac, Vacuum hoses, Barrel adapter, and a few small items) all in a special place so it can all be ready to go to work pretty quick.

The large self retracting ratchet straps we use to secure the dumpster to the trailer are very inviting and the son in law and the grand kids are advised that these tools are not to be messed with......LEAVE THEM ALONE......

I do not even want to have to go searching for stuff when we get a shell run day......

 

WED was a MUNCHY DAY

We ran 4 barrels through Munchy and got all the barrels in the basement full of "Stove ready" material.

We were wrapping up and putting the equipment away and I tripped and fell hard on the concrete.
Messed up my left ankle pretty good (Been down this path before on this ankle)
So at least we got shells ready for a while.....We still need to unload the dumpster.....But it's inside and dry.....
My ankle is better this morning....Still very tender but doing better......
Another few days and we should be able to get that load out in the barrels.

As soon as we get another shot of decent weather we plan to do another haul and get it in the barn.....
This will give us a head start on the yucky November weather......

Best part is the outfit is all hooked up and ready to go....

Raining for the next several days.....Snow in the Cascades down to 3500/4000 ft by the weekend.
We have been running the little stove a fair bit now...

 

It's been getting cold, today was dark, raining and windy. A lot of my area had a light freeze and frost. There was frost less than a quarter mile from me on the way out yesterday morning.

We just escaped the frost, but not by much. So many things need to get done and soon. Winter is coming in fast!

 

Hard frost yesterday morning at 28*.

Thursday afternoon I unpacked both stoves to get ready for heating. I was actually only going to get the P61a going to warm up the basement, which would also allow some heat up to the main floor, then turn on the mini split to take care of any lingering needs. However that went down the tubes when the first try on the P61a had issues of dumping so many pellets it moved the flame guide, so I shut it down (I had been standing there watching so I caught it right quick).



Knowing it had been running fine last year, ince it cooled off, about 2 hours, I discovered I had not tightened the plate in front of the igniter when I closed it up in the spring. After tightening that up, I tried again. Although this time it didn't move the flame guide, it certainly wasn't burning right, so again shut it off. Additionally, I noticed the exhaust pie wasn't heating up, whcih was not a good sign.

I between messing with the P61a, I decided to get the the P43 unpacked - dumped in some pellets, and it has been heating the main floor fine (never turned on the mini split).



I got to researching in case I decided to just replace the stove. I know it is going to need a bunch of work soon since it is still on original EVERYTHING, except door gaskets. Sitting in a damp basement hasn't been kind to it. That stove owes me nothing as it paid for itself in the first year. I figured if push came to shove, I would see if any new P43's were available should my further trouble shooting not resolve the problem. Note that the P61a is waaayyy oversized for the 650 sq/ft basement since the foundation and floor are insulated, and it's not trying to heat the main floor too, so a P43 would be fine.

Yesterday was an off-Friday so I started going thru the P61a. My first focus was on two things: the exhaust tube (perhaps something crawled in there since I had actually uncapped the exhausts last weekend). I checked from below and it was clear back to the 45* elbow. The second focus was the OAK. I distinctly remembered removing brown paper from the end as well as from the inlet tube of the stove (I disconnect and plug both the end of the OAK and the stove inlet). I remembered shining a flashlight into the inlet to make sure I had removed everything. I DID NOT remember looking further up the OAK to see if I got everything else out.

BINGO, I had stuffed a bit of pink insulation into the flex tube. I pulled that out, and everything worked hunky dory after that. I felt so stupid an like a newbie for pulling that stupid stunt. Not like I haven't been doing this for 13 years



So, as I tell people that express problems with their stoves after a cleaning or at first start up of the season - CHECK THE FREE CHIT FIRST!

 

We have been running the Whitfield Prodigy 2 on and off the past few days and yesterday 24 hr
It was 38 F last night and the little stove was not hacking it......
The family room was COLD and I said !@#$% this and fired up the Big Whitfield Advantage 2T in the family room a bit ago....

Much better.

 

Greetings all,
Another heating season has arrived.
We have been burning the stove a bit for about a month or so. Cold wet windy nights give the house a chill.
Was burning up the end of a ton of HD Green Supremes.
Made a run for pellets to HD Saturday and got a fresh ton. Man they are getting proud of pellets. $$$
I have some overseas travel to do thru November so I had to have everything on hand for when I'm gone.
Good to see everyone again.
---Nailer---

 

The run on the BIG Whit yesterday was short lived....Sun came out within 39 minutes of starting the stove.
Temps climbed up nicely and the little stove handled the rest of the day and through the night.....

Still limping around after the nasty fall last Weds.

Getting better, but still hurting......ARRRRRRRRGH