Pellet heads!! What's up today?

A couple of weeks ago we were getting the smokey haze from wildfires in western Canada as it rode the jet stream. Then last week it was fires in eastern Canada. But, this week we have been heavily overcast and it has been very dark even though the jet stream is taking the smoke down south.

The only measurable precipitation I've had since at least May 15 is 1/8" - I think that was the around a week ago. There have been several callouts for brush fires around here during that time.

 

We've had a lot of rain out this way starting with the storms last Friday. Got close to 2+ inches from all those storms plus a couple more days with some rain. Supposed to have some showers today, greater chance tomorrow.

sam

 

We haven't had any smell from Canadian fires here, until today. At least, I hope it's from Canadian fires.

 

Drier than a popcorn fart here. Grass is all torched. Farmers are worried. Getting the hazy days from our northern neighbors at times.

 

Had a lot of intermittent showers yesterday. "Showers" is an optimistic word as they were just enough to connect all the dots on open ground. But they were so short in duration and of little intensity that they didn't budge the rain gauge one iota, or wet anything that wasn't under open sky.

Well, until I logged off work and was getting ready to go to the dump and grocery store. Then it suddenly started to rain in earnest for a short time. Got maybe 1/4" by the time all was said and done (I didn't actually go out an look at the rain gauge, just guestimated form the back porch so could be a bit + or -.

Actually saw the sun for a while after that shower came thru.

 

Left work last Friday with it coming down in buckets on Rte 11 Rochester and Farmington and thinking the gardens at home were getting a good soaking. Nope-by the time I was out of Farmington, road was dry and nothing at home. Seems the storm split so either side of us was wet.

Since then its been like bogieb mentioned. Aside from a few short heavier showers, anything not open to sky has not received much. Most of the gardens are under tree cover.

Laconia Bike Week starts tomorrow which has a history of wet weather. For the riders, hopefully not but we could use more rain.

 

We had the big fires in summer 21....Smoke and ash......Days on end that at noon it was like dusk outside...
We are getting a little rain this morning....Not much.....But can hear it tinkling on the roof vents.....

Been warm...hot...then cool again.....We haven't had rain since May 9th...It is welcome....

Serviced the AC air filter the other day ....Found some water in the bottom of the air handler.

Stinking condensate tray started leaking AGAIN

Old system with a coated metal tray.....Is in poor shape.....Fooled with it and stopped the leak with RTV.

Really need to change out the A coil .....I have the new coil.....Just a pain in the butt to change it.

So I dried the area good and swabbed on more RTV.....We are dry again....AND COOL

 

That is only stop gap young lady.

 

Yesssss indeed.....That's exactly what I DID....Stopped up the gap
Took me a looooooooong time to finally find a new A coil......30 year old system ....tough to find parts.

Been stopping the gap for several years....No real pressure....Just static water from the condensate tray....

Sadly the system has to be turned on with the high pressure side closed and and allow the low pressure side to suck into a vacuum.....Then close the low side and then shut it off... And do it fast....


Swap the coils.....Suck the new coil and lines into a low vacuum for about 30 minutes....Then open the shut off's on the condenser back up....AND PRAY.....

 

I had to get up at 5 today to get out to my brother's in Greenville to help him with some things. Was misty here when I left, had a shower in Atkinson, then was cloudy with some sun peaking thru now & then. Was like that most of the morning. A couple little sprits of rain on way home but nothing much. Got home at 11:30, at 12:30 decided to take a nap.

Got woken up at 2:30 by the sound of a torrent of water running off the back roof but sunlight hitting the west side of the house. Got downstairs 10 min later, it had stopped raining & sun was out, birds flocking to the feeders. But now it's clouding up again and getting windy. Big young male cardinal (still has a bit of an orangery tint to his red) chowing down at the mealworm basket.

sam

 

I got nothing all day. Okay, not exactly true, there were intermittent misting events that kept the grass wet enough that I couldn't mow, but not enough to move the rain gauge. I was super surprised while watching the 6pm news when they came in with the breaking news on the flash flood alert and said some areas had gotten over 2" of rain in a short time.

 

Crazy weather.
Rained all day yesterday....Very light....about .16" fell....

Last night it was chilly in here....Decided to crank up the big stove and get the place cozy.
Shut down at 10pm

This morning I fired the stove back up....65 F is just not comfy to sit around and suck coffee.....

Gonna warm up later....

 

We had a couple thunderstorms and some rain from about 4-6pm yesterday and currently in a thunderstorm right now. From the weather radar looks like we have approx another 20 min or so of rain to pass our way. Rough guess is 3+ inches of rain since last Fri. Ground has been soft and squishy all week.
Supposed to be sunny and 80 tomorrow. Hope the grass dries enough to mow. Our EGO (and most brands of) battery mowers have a tough time slogging thru wet grass. 10 day forecast shows showers ever day next week so want to get as much dome tomorrow as I can. At minimum get the grass over the leech field area done, grows 2-3 times as fast as the rest of the yard.

sam

 

I'm hoping to mow today also. Misting and minor rain events every 1-2 hours yesterday, so I got about 1/8" of rain and the grass stayed wet. Both gas-powered mowers collect wet grass under the deck and don't disperse out the chute, so then it clogs up and really causes havoc with the blades.

And people wonder why I use a clothes drier - I couldn't even get my washcloth, hand towel or dish sponge to dry all day inside - too humid and cool. I hung them outside for 45 minutes in the afternoon when the sun actually came out for a while (so I was pretty sure no precipitation would come down). But I had to bring them back in before the next bought of drizzle began.

 

That sort of humidity sucks.....

We see high humidity in the winter months here at the ranch....We are right in the cloud deck....so 90%+++ is common....With the Pellet stoves churning away it keeps the humidity at a comfortable level....

We see very little Muggy weather here in the summer....Once in a while maybe a day or two we can see ....60-70% humidity but that's rare.....Summer is usually in the 20% or so....

This morning it is 96% ...But we had rain day before yesterday...plus there was a heavy marine layer pushed in this morning....

 

That sounds so funny, we aren't out of the spring season yet.

 

When it rains it pours.......

Yesterday I am all ready to get onto some stuff on the snow cat project and then it happened....

Daughter was up dealing with horse things....
She comes over with news "There is water spraying in the pump shack"
I go over and ....YEAH....A MESS......A shutoff valve to the barn had a tiny crack near the top of the valve that was spraying a tiny stream of water on the wall.

The plumbing mess was done in 1985 when my father had the new well dug (800ft deep) and the pump installed with all new equipment.
The guy who plumbed this just started at the plastic pipe from that feeds to the barn and house and worked his way to the tanks...

No way to remove individual parts to replace them....

This was going to be a real nightmare.....Closer inspection of the leak revealed it to be a tiny crack....

Hmmmmmm

McGyver to the rescue.......I got the handle off the valve and measured things.....The top of the valve was 1.700" in diameter

Picture shows a line where the crack was.....Right where the valve upper cap/packing gland screws into the lower bowl assembly.....

After getting the handle off and measuring things.....Went to town and got a piece of 1-3/4" radiator hose and some band clamps.....

Slipped the hose over the valve and tightened the clamps.....As the clamps were tightened the water stopped leaking really fast.......

The only real solution is to rip the entire mess of plumbing out of the shack and start over.....

I am already imagineering on a complete stand alone little rack with connections that are easily undone to allow packing the entire "Bridle of pipe " out of the shack when access to the well for service is needed....Or when one of the bladder tanks needs to be replaced.....

The mess that's there is like a boat in a basement......Arrrrrrgh

But for now....McGyver is on duty and doing well....Things are dry...