Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Yay 10" of white chit to clean up!

 

We just got a dusting and some ice, but if we do get more, I'm driving over it and walking through it. Spring is right around the corner. My snowblower saw zero action this year.

 

Changes...Changes...Changes
Last week we had to take a trip up to the air port (PDX)
The Daughter, Son in law and the two grand kids went to an island resort off the coast of Belize.....for a week and were coming home....
Our Avalanche does not have enough seats to carry the extra people.

Plenty of room in the back for the luggage, but still.....needed more seats.......

So the job fell on our old Astro van.....The little Red beater has 3 rows of seats.

So we averted a real mess come Sunday morning and the trip to the air port....

All went well and the kids are home safe and sound.

We decided to sell the Avalanche and replace it with either a Tahoe or Suburban sized rig.
We looked at a bunch of rigs over a few days......

Needed to be 4x4 or AWD 3 row seating....

I figured this would be a piece of cake to find a decent rig.........

Lots of rolling stock out there for sale....

WOW......LOTS OF ABSOLUTE JUNK.....
The issues were about the same.
Heater/AC non working
Power mirrors non working
Power windows non or partial working
Power door locks non or partial working
Interiors trashed
Tons of mechanical issues
Serious exterior body damage
But the buzz word....Yup she's Cherry

Driving all over to look at rigs gets Spendy these days........

Found a 2005 Cadillac ESCALADE ESV that looked decent....The write up read...Excellent shape.

We drove 40 miles one way to see this POS.....An absolute JUNK PILE

Several other rigs....same story.......

One 2003 Yukon Denali looked promising......Key word LOOKED

The last thing we checked on a long check list.....The HVAC system.....Defrost only and no to barely any heat.....

Not going to screw with one of these systems $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Found a 2005 Suburban 4x4 yesterday......

Well appointed.........
Tags good until December....(A plus)
Pretty decent overall.......
Huge AZZ ...Pimp wheels.....But the rubber is good......I am not a fan of 20" wheels on a pickup or SUV

Leather seating....Some wear and tear...not bad.....I plan to replace the driver bottom seat cover....The usual wear from in and out......

Carpet good.....Dry...no signs of water leaks
Head liner is nice..
Door panels nice
Windows all work properly
Door locks all work.....
Driver power seat works good
All the heater function work well
Transmission supposed to be rebuilt not too long ago....IT WORKS GREAT....OIL RED AND SMELLS GOOD

Factory Bose sound system.....Works nice.......

Engine runs great......
249K on the clock

A few pics

 

Got 5-1/2" here. Central & northern NH got way less than forecasted. In the NH Reddit there is a guy called Cloud Boy who runs/works for/? a weather forecast center. He said a while ago that some warm air at 4000 ft that was supposed to be around Claremont this morning never got as far as Great Barrington, MA so that's why central & north NH got way less and my area got 6" rather than the 1-3 he had originally forecasted. No sleet here either, just snow. Possibility for some more next week.

Gave the stove a quick clean yesterday and brought in a few bags of doug firs for the next round of winter cold over the next couple days. Won't be as bad as last month (low single digits to maybe zero vs -15) but our old joints like warmth.

sam

 

About 7 inches here. Drove over it and went to work this morning as still sn*wing at the time. Stopped by 10am and suppose to get some light chit tonight.

Took tomorrow off so leaving it till the morning to clean in daylight.

All sn*w here up till now and dry but overnight may get a little sleet or freezing rain instead of the white chit. Best to leave whats there to catch it if it does and cleanup in am.

Quick firebox clean of the pellet eater and fired her up. Should have enough LaCrete to feed it till spring.

Stove hasnt run in a week with the warmer temps. Suppose to have a few cold days over the weekend, so she's back in service.

 

Mine has been used twice this year. Tomorrow will be #3 and so far only once was it a real old fashioned 16" cleanup. Other 2 times were minor.

Yup, cant complain about this year at all.

Even my neighbor mentioned as much as he likes snowmobiling, he will take this winter anytime. Funny how your outlook on that changes as we get older

 

10" of white fluff on the ground.......
Both stoves running on low....House is cozy
Settling in for the night.....Shells all packed in and we are good to go for the evening.....

 

Congrats on persevering to find a decent vehicle that fits your needs. Heard on the news last night that used vehicle prices are finally coming back down. IIRC, they said down around 11% from last year.

When I was looking to replace the 2007 Focus in 2017, I was looking at slightly used first (3-5 years old and less than 50k miles). I was so disappointed when I drove 30-40 miles (and that ain't at highway speeds, so around an hour) to look at a car from private sellers that read "pristine" or some other such word.Yeah, nothing pristine about those vehicles. I mean, I expect a little wear & tear, but dent & scratch, not so much. I had a decent budget, so I wasn't looking at the cheapest vehicles. Finally upped my budget and bought a new Focus (which I sold in 2021 for more than I paid for it - so it worked out well for me).

 

I think I've used mine 4 times. Well, 5 times after snow blowing last night. I didn't get nearly what I thought I would, so clean up was fairly easy. Took me about 1.25 hours to clear up my place and the take care of the neighbor's shoveling (his driveway was plowed so just walkway and porch). Probably didn't need to do the full clean up at my place, but I know a couple of storms are coming next week, so wanted to make sure it doesn't turn into a struggle if I get a fair amount.

Funny how pristine white chit deceives my depth perception (which isn't that great to begin with). Ran into some of the old snow banks in the back yard where my paths aren't as defined by the surrounding..

 

This is only going to get worse as the current newer, several year old vehicles are made with such thin metal and crap paint that they dent and scratch just looking at them the wrong way. Suks as we are paying so much now for pure crap compared to vehicles as late as 8-10 years ago.

 

Watch it J !!

This was why I left the cleanup for this morning. We hgot a little more last night and cant really tell if it was sleet or sn*w but other than what I drove over to and from work it will be an easy cleanup.

Got to get my keester out there before the winds pick up.

 

19F this morning.....10 inches of Sn*w on the ground......The New (to us) Burb got tossed to the Wolves yesterday morning.
I had not tested the 4x4 when we bought it....The Typewriter drive (Push button transfer case) annoys me to no end.....But after trying to back up the little slope by the barn and turn around did not go well (Rear tires slip) OK...GONNA HAVE TO TRY THE 4X4

Popped the tranny in Neutral...Press the 4H button and hold my breath.....light on the button blinked 4 times then remained on....Hmmmmm....shifted into reverse and the rig backed up just fine.......

So that works......MY KINGDOM FOR FRONT LOCKING HUBS AND A FLOOR SHIFT 4X4

Too many magic boxes that can fail and leave you stuck .....

Butttttttttttttttt....Seems that is the only choice these days....

We have one more cold night tonight and then things warm up.....
Still gonna be cool.....but daytime F up into the upper 30's F to 40's F

I do not like dealing with winter weather with a rig I know little about .

The Avalanche had been with us for a few years and we got a quick snow hit...we were out when it hit and we needed 4x4 to get home......Another case of twist the knob and pray......

Anyway.....so far so good........

Rig has a small number of things to fix....Overall I think she will be fine.
Bought up in PDX and within a few years went to Hillsboro (A few miles West of PDX) for the remainder of its life.

Never been in Salt country
I will not buy a used rig from the Rust belt.

Trying to find a decent older rig is tough.....

Like "B" said....tough to find good rigs

The used car lots are an endless sump of scum and villainy. If you know what you are looking at, how to check things out.....Deals can be made...

I had a very detailed check list (3 pages) of things to check.....Front to back....inside...outside

Pretty much everything that can be checked without tearing into stuff...
The Lot Lizard sees that and knows he/she is not gonna spread any BS........

Several rigs we looked at did not even get any check list done....JUNK right off......Just walk away....

The real important stuff (After the engine and under hood stuff) Heater/HVAC.....Power windows and locks....Power mirrors are an easy fix usually..

The HVAC if not working can get real spendy $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and time consuming.....

Upholstery if not total trash can be dealt with.....A trashed headliner is $$$$$$$$$$ and a PITA

Several rigs had all the window control buttons just beat to hell.....And none worked......

I do not understand this amount of abuse......KIDS/////pizzy people.....Animals......?????

Carpet gets used and dirty over time.....BUT A FEW rigs were just FILTHY.....One looked as though the rear foot area behind the driver was where they dumped the used engine oil....
Just awful .

Some of these were 2005/2006 and less than 150K on the clock

The rig we got had only 1 repair listed in the Car Fax Regular service...No accidents.....
Just normal wear and tear........Only caveat was 250K miles.

But condition makes up for the miles.....A fresh Tranny recently......A GOOD THING

 

So true, batteries and tires. Get good ones and keep them maintained.

 

Really wish we’d get some snow and actual cold.

This winter has been junk.

 

I hate to sound ignorant, but when it comes to car mechanics, I am just that. That is why I mostly buy new. Lawn mowers, tools or cars etc. Did buy trucks used and took the risk. Last truck I had I go used and kept it 9 year, only drove it about 10,000 miles that whole time. Frame was rusting out and I was having a very hard time getting into it so we parted ways. I have a very trusted independent mechanic who I rely on to keep my cars up and running.

 

The power line to your place has a JT is going to try and use his interwebby connection and his battery is low detector on it.