Life goes on - Winter 2016

I feel for these people. Ice storms are very dangerous because those down lines are risky to be around and work on. We see this around here alot you can guess that every couple of years someone in NH will be hit with an ice storm and a town will be without power for days.
To me this is the big problem with the grid it is big and experience and mantance is often put off. We have seen it with tree trimming here. Then the power companies complain they just have too much to trim.
This is one of the reasons I think roof top solar and off grid storage or some other point of use power generation is needed out here in the sticks. Let the cities have the grid where they need more power then they can generate on site. But if my power is on my roof and in my basement it will be much safer in ice storms.

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The last time we had a power outage for a longer period of time was l think in 2014. Cold wind and lots of rain produced freezing rain and over the night the country was saled with about 10cm of ice. Forests were looking like from a post apocalipse movie, well so was everything. There were no more generators to buy in the whole country, the neighburing county lended us some.
But the worst thing was, there is a sinkhole in the grownd in the Slovenian south lowlands that the rivers flow in and to a system of undergrownd caves and rivers. This sinkhole hot plugged with ice and debris, and since the ground was frozen, two waleys become giant lakes in a matter of hours. Thousants of people needed to evacuate.

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I am sure it happens. When the tree trimming guys went through a neighborhood, where they had vehemently complained about the outages, (they formed a group, and were trying to get another power company in), It looked like major storm had hit. They took out dead and hollowed trees, 18" overgrown branches. I doubt they will have any issue for 20 years. But it was like 5 cords of wood on the curb per block.

So, I randomly Googled Wayne Keith. This is what Google says:

Wayne Keith, Pioneer.

That’s the kind of respect I like to see… and from a very reliable source! :grin:

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19 posts were split to a new topic: Gardening soil amendments

I have an old farm trailer tire that wouldn’t hold air over 10 minutes .

I busted the tire down and gave it a good dose of gasifier tar and it is sealed good now :relaxed:


Also been real busy sawing . It was sunny and 73F here yesterday and should be near that today :blush:

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Does that also mean real busy chunking a little later?

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Nice weather there Wayne, we long for that kind of heat till the middle of may or first of june, and you are getting a nice lumber stack.Enjoy the nice weather.

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Hello Don.

I think I have enough wood bagged and stored away to maybe last a couple of years so not really pushed right now to chunk. However I did dump some slabs at the chunker today :relaxed:

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Wayne you set a really high bar for the rest of us to strive for. Your the man. Glad to hear you are out enjoying the warm weather.

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Not a gasifier, but my friend sent me this picture of a beastly mid-engine truck.

@chris I think the above gardening posts deserve their own thread, or possibly combined with an existing thread (that I believe we have, but I can’t think of the name(s).)

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Is that porches attempt at a truck? Looks cool and probably drags well but I bet it spins around on a corner really fast donut machine is what it looks like.

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So I guess the gasifier would have to go under the hood? Might balance the weight.

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You better keep it short or it will be hard to see where you are going…

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If you can spare 1h 20 min this is a beautiful film on the subject Life goes on. People working their land, until their last breath. From the south of my country.

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Wow, that’s a cool setup. Looks like maybe an Olds 455 and FWD transaxle?

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Yes. We have those types here too, out Rural.
Something to aspire to become. It is a choice. At least here in the US and Canada not an accident of birth, or lotto “luck”, but still a lifestyle that can be sweated into. If you choose. As MinnesotaBillS and wife have now.
Best Regards
J-I-C Steve Unruh

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Thank you JO. You know how much I like learning about your country. I wish I spoke Swedish so it would have made more since. I was totally embarrassed to watch the men who probably are my age but they seem to have romanticism in their joints worse than I and they are still farming. And farming the old fashion way with lots of labor. They did get someone in to combine the oats, but to carry those bags up those steep steps. They also seemed to have taken advantage of new baling procedures of the hay, but in one part they cut the hay and hung it to dry before putting it up loose. And what was with all the flies?? Even if you didn’t see them, or see the men swatting them, you could hear them in the sound of the video. And stones— we use to go through the field and pick up stones before planting, but these fields looked like they should have swept up the dirt and taken it away and left the stones. The overhead picture of the farm looked like it was a much more active farm at one time ---- a lot of buildings. How many men actually worked the farm? Oh and the potatoes. Dug by hand!! Almost everyone around here grew potatoes for their own use and now there are one row potato pickers as ornaments in yards. Even bringing the cows in from the pasture they seemed to do it the hard way. We seldom went to the field to bring them in; we had a dog that went out and rounded them up and brought them up the lane. I haven’t seen anyone drink coffee out of a sauce since my last uncle passed away. No one even serves coffee with a saucer.
Well I guess you know you waste my afternoon, but it was enjoyable. TomC

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If I had thought of this years ago I could have saved a lot of chainsaw gasoline :slight_smile:

https://gadsden.craigslist.org/grd/5991571977.html

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Haha! Wayne, that’s the kind of humor I’m brought up with. As a kid I was told by my father I would win the swimming competition if I used his new invention. It was a similar handdrill with a small propeller attached. I believed him and sneaked down to the lake to practice. You know the result.

Tom, I shared this film mostly because of the beautiful photo and feel good.
This was a documentary shot by one single photographer in a period of several years. The idea was nothing but to follow the everyday life on the farm.
The farm was run by man and wife and mans brother. Their only son visited from time to time to help out. They didn’t really want to leave the old way of farming, but were finally forced to, due to old age.
Stones, haha. This is the province of Småland in the south east, known for its stony fields. I guess you saw the typical stone fences. Hundreds of years of stone carrying made thousands of miles of stone fences. Still stony fields.

Steve, it will probably never happen to me. Same reason, I guess, you’re stuck with the not as good but good looking woodstove.

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