Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Our head barn cat is a gnarly old tuxedo....he has one ear that is a 5 alarm train wreck (He showed up in the stable back about 2009 with the ear already chewed up)
He has 4 white paws and the barn crew (Folks boarding horses) named him BOOTS.

At first he was very wary and growled and hissed if you got within 10-15 feet of him....
He soon mellowed and became everyone's buddy..
A few years back I walked into the stable to feed one morning and there was a helluva scrap going on in the arena......I started the lights in the arena (Metal halide...slow warm up) and Boots is squaring off with a very large Coon over in the corner.....Coon is big...

I decided that trying to break up that scrap was a bad idea......Went on about my work.

The screaming and growling suddenly stopped.... Hmmmmmm

Figured we were gonna be having a little Kitty Funeral....

A few moments later here come Boots ...not a scratch on him....

Coon was dead in the corner.....One badazz Tuxedo cat for sure.

I grabbed a shovel and tossed the coon in the bucket of the skid steer.
One of the crew showed up to take care of their horses.....Fella is staring at the dead coon in the bucket.....??????????????????? I walked by..."Some of Boot's handy work" I replied....earning his keep.

Old Boots is real good about leaving various Critter parts by the tack room door to show us he is on duty.
Mice, rats, squirrels, birds and various other critters....but the coon topped the list of unwelcome visitors he has dispatched handily....

Old Boots is of an age now that I expect that one day he will not show up any longer....

Our one elderly cowboy lets Boots come into the tack room with him and enjoy some time by the heater and sitting in the chair .....Those two have a special bond.....

The old fella will step outside in the warm weather and sit in his fav yard chair to smoke a cigar....Boots takes his place in the lap of his Hoooooman and they spend some time...

Our little fur friends leave us far too soon....We barely get to know them and then they leave us......But they leave behind so many memories.....

Be they Kitties or Doggies.....they are our little buddies....

 

I don't have a cat (severe allergy to them), but I can appreciate that many people love them. I'm a dog person, and mine will be 15 in November. Slowing down, has Cushings, losing fur, sleeps a lot, but I love her all the same.
Pic is from about 10 years ago....she knew where it was warm.

 

Wife has them (posts) as well but they seem to prefer the side of my recliner instead. Already replace on when the fabric got so bad the stuffing was coming out.

Jojo slept on my lap last night (her usual spot). I have to sleep in the recliner because of my ankle issue. It's basically impossible for me to sleep in bed covered up because the covers restrict my movement and many times during the night, my foot wakes me up from the hurt. Getting better all the time and I'm looking toward the day when I can sleep in bed but for now, it's not in the cards.

At least I have a lap warmer all night. She parks herself on top of my tummy and times out for the night. Of course I scratch here until I fall asleep and then she puts her head in my palm so I dare not move. When I awake in the morning, I have to carefully awake her and pick her up and put her in the chair. No one else can touch her but me. She's raked my wife more than once. me, I never get clawed.

The recliner is next to the stove so it's always toasty, just the way she likes it, so do I actually. The other cats may look over the arm of the recliner but never get up. They know what happens to them if they do. Jojo lets them have it. Got a wicked right hook and needle sharp claws. The unwritten rule is.. This is my chair and person and don't come up here or you'll get your nose opened up...

 

Wyatt, our Australian Shepherd isn't into the heat from the stove. They have double coats so he's always warm inside. He loves the snow and cold outside, never likes coming in. Now he does sleep in the bedroom on his bed, but he also likes to get on the bed and cuddle if he can get away with it and usually is laying on my pillow so my pillow always smells like dog...lol

 

FYI all you pig/hoarders out there, HD dropped to $199 a ton today

 

They should price match, no?

 

98% of the ice is gone from the driveway, a couple lower spots will freeze back up but will be above freezing again by Wed.

Had gone over to the town highway dept a couple times at the beginning of the week, filled 8 5gal pails with sand/salt mixture. Used about 3 pails on the driveway & walkways, have about 3/4 of a 30gal barrel left. Hopefully that means we'll get no more ice cause I'm prepared.

sam

 

Appreciate that but I have 8 full pallets in the barn already and just bought 4 more at 209 and I'll pick them up with the Gooseneck. Just have to get up the motivation.

 

I still maintain that even 269 will be cheap next fall if you factor in current inflation rates. 59 bucks to deliver 100 miles (200 both ways) is dirt cheap. Is that per skid or as many as they can legally haul? Maybe I need to visit your store and you if I pull a draw tag out your way next fall and it's somewhat close to you...

 

Did a full cleaning on that P68 today. After 69 bags the ash pan was about 85% full. Roasting mostly Vermonts and Wood & Sons.

 

Did the same on my P68 about 10 days ago. First cleaning of the season and ash pan was about 90% as well. That was the only reason I shut down and cleaned it.

Been off since Wednesday and will fire back up tomorrow until mid week when the temps are supposed to go up again. Prior to this she's been running stove temp and just chugging along on low temp 24/7 since Christmas time. Somewhere around 50 bags of LaCrete run thru so far.

 

Weather was absolutely gorgeous today....
Was in the low 60's F (Cold and wet by MONDAY NIGHT)

We got number 4 shell run in the books....
A full dumpster .....nice clean stuff too....

The small town we go through on our way was having a funeral for a fire fighter who was killed in an explosion during a recent barn fire.
This took us out of our way quite a ways to get around the procession ....SAD SAD DEAL....

We had a good run, and everything is all put away and we are CHUCK AZZ FULL NOW.

The storage area is full to the brim....not even room for one more barrel ........

Gotta run Munchy tomorrow and fill up the "Ready to burn" supply in the basement.
Depending on what shakes as far as the weather goes, and how much we burn....we may try for one last haul in March.....We shall see.....

 

At my old place, we had a wood stove. We also had a husky mix and a samoyed mix. They were just as happy to lay on top of the dog house in negative temps. But, they were always happy to lay in front of the wood stove. But they would move awa when they got too warm. The greyhound/shepherd mix we had would lay as close to the stove as he could get and get so hot he would be panting up a storm - but he wouldn't move unless there was food, a potty break or visitors involved.

 

It's $300/ton if you buy by the bag but $100 less if you buy a ton? That doesn't seem right

 

Gotta buy 3 tons to get that price here, and the buy the bag price is $5.48.



Trying to figure out how all those armchair prognosticators that warned us about pellet shortages, extremely high prices and no spring sales got it wrong

 

Even after all the 40* temps my driveway was still full of ice. Driveway on Feb 9th, before I spread sand. Prior to last week's storm, I had gotten the driveway cleared of all ice from previous storms (for 1 day )


Yesterday afternoon about 1:30 (I had gone out previously and chipped ice at 11 am). Along with chipping, I was also using the snow scoop to bail water out.


2:15 after more chipping


4pm, last chipping of day.


The ice I was trying to tame - 3 inches minimum


The pathways aren't even close to ice free - the ash from last weekend's stove cleaning is still on top of ice from previous storms - so at least last weeks ice is gone from that area.

 

I believe you'll find that to be valid next fall because of inflation and supply chain issues. Why I loaded up with pellets this year. Currently, I have 11 full skids in the barn and 4 skids of bagged off grade seed corn. Hopefully, I'll be immune from any cost of fuel increases for a couple winters if I last that long anyway. Life is always fleeting when you get old.

 

Driveway is 95% ice free after yesterday. Had to do some final chipping but its gone.

I had been sanding all along helped the ice melt, especially from the bottom. Also it was far thicker than I thought which actually made it easier to get up. Combo of warm temp, sun and sand underneath from previous made it melt underneath, so the metal shovel got under it and the ice came up in huge chunks.

The paths are another story. Water covered ice looked like yours yesterday and solid ice again this morning. Couldnt get to the feeders at all yesterday and needed cleats this morning for the incline or it wasnt happening again.