Jay-Dubs...

It's odd. I've lived in eight or nine different places since I stopped living with mom and dad, and I've never had the JW's show up on my door until we bought the house. We've been there almost two years and there've been at least two sets knocking.

The last pair, however, really surprised me.

I'm used to the clean-cut young white males. They're well-spoken, not pushy, and polite. They ask to spread the Word of God, and I make some polite excuse, and they smile and thank me for my time and go on their way. (I say "I'm used to them" - what I mean is that I'm relatively used to seeing them strolling from door to door in neighborhoods; they're not hard to pick out with a white oxford shirt, black tie, black pants, and name tag.)

Thursday morning I was at home wishing it would warm up enough to do some outside work, and the doorbell rang. I peered out the front window, black mid-size Chevy sedan parked on the roadside. Any number of possibilities, so I opened the front door to see who was there.

Two early-twenties women, one with a surplus of melanin (what's the proper PC term now?), the other arguably a doppelganger for Mena Suvari circa "American Pie", copies of "The Watchtower" in hand.

They started their spiel (while I performed the intricate balancing act of foot behind door, left hand restraining dog, right hand still hovering near carry piece) and I politely interrupted and declined ... and they thanked me for my time, and went on their way.

Still - when did the Mormons start being sneaky about these things??! Tempting healthy young men with attractive young women? For shame!

:-)

Barn, Baby Steps (1)

The weather has decided to un-cooperate with me. I got all my building materials (less shingles) last week and promptly started digging the footers and working on leveling them.

In the process, I fell in the pasture, and banged my shoulder/chest on the wheelbarrow handle on the way down. It hurt - a lot. Enough that I only dug out a couple more holes before I said "heck with this!"

Since then, either I've been working or the weather has been lousy. The last day or so has been in the high 30s and low 40s with rain - miserable weather for ANY kind of outdoor work.

But since I promised to photo-document the process, here we go...

Here's the basic site:


The goats have been in that little lean-to for almost two years, and it's beginning to show its age - no surprise, since it's untreated OSB and KD studs. I'll be happy to have that eyesore out of the way.




The rough outline of the footers - just inside the 12x12 final dimensions. Marking out footers proved interesting, as the stupid goat kept plucking my survey flags and wandering off with them.




This is (should be) the tallest footer... I hope.




Gratuitous dog shot; she enjoyed the sun while I dug holes. Lazy mutt.

Quick Updates

At least they've taken "chance of snow showers" out of the weekend forecast. Yeesh.

I've been scheduled a pretty consisted 25ish hours at BBHIS, on top of the 40 at Day Job. I'm generally having fun with it, although it certainly helps that I'm doing it because I want to and not because I have to. I can see people getting frustrated in it - "full part time" seems to be a standard for them (39 hour weeks) and a certain repetitiveness to the day. We're usually out the door around 11pm after doing nightly closing chores - facing, stacking and restocking, sweeping, etc. I really enjoy that hour after the door is locked. Half the lights go off, I can turn off my brain and just start winding down. Pushing a dust mop up and down an aisle isn't stimulating work, but that's not what I need then.

I ordered and brought home most of the materials needed to build a small (12x12) barn for the goats and the impending chickens, along with enough space for MrsZ to keep her garden stuff and maybe a potting bench. Driving home, the load came loose and tried to end up in traffic. The city officers were polite and professional, exactly what I expect from them. No tickets, although if they had chosen to write me for an unsecured load I wouldn't have argued - it's their job, and it was pretty clearly inadequately secured. DPW happened by with a loader and shoved the load back on the truck enough for me to get out of traffic and re-stack everything. No harm, no foul.

I'm going to try to document (and photograph) the barn-building process as I go. This is my first attempt at real framing and I've been reading *constantly* to pick up tips and ideas and see how others have done it.

Tech update

Technology - a curse, a cure, an addiction? Yes, a little of all of these, and more.

When we bought our house, it was listed as "high speed internet available". I didn't do proper checking to find out what, precisely, they considered "high speed internet". Turns out they meant satellite internet - because they were leaving the hardware from their subscription to WildBlue.

We considered it and after a lot of research, quickly nixed that, choosing instead to survive on dial-up as needed. I think that lasted about six months before I was going nuts. It's better to simply not have a network connection than to have one that's unreliable or horribly slow.

Almost exactly a year ago, I upgraded my phone and went to the Palm Pre Plus via Verizon, explicitly because of the free Mobile Hotspot (MHS) promo. I reviewed the phone shortly after getting it and was pleased at the time.

It's been a year and it's time for an update.

Several weeks after I got the phone, it stopped letting me turn on MHS - giving me an error about "needing the feature enabled by Verizon". I went through all the troubleshooting I could think of and got nowhere, so went back to the store and had them poke at it. The only option was a hard reset of the phone, erasing ALL my apps and data in the process. Most of them were backed up, but restoring data was a headache.

I'd also noticed a disturbing trend with the phone heating up while charging and especially when using MHS - to the point that it was uncomfortable to touch the phone. A month later, the "feature required" problem occurred again, and combined with the heat issues, I decided to use the warranty.

I took it to Verizon and politely but firmly insisted on a new phone. The tech balked at first, saying the phone was working fine, it was normal for it to get warm, etc. I stuck to my guns and they sent a new (refurbished) phone by two-day shipping.

The new one didn't have the heat issue, so that was a plus in its favor. However, it has continually had issues with other things. The MHS has had the "feature required" error a few times. The "Mail" app has lost count of unread messages in my inboxes, indicating that there are new messages when there aren't any. The fix for that is either a hard reset of the phone, or deleting and re-adding ALL the mail accounts.

The touch screen is not bad, generally speaking - except that it doesn't respond if your skin is dry, as mine usually is in winter. Licking the tip of a finger just to use the phone is aggravating at best.

And since I'm calling it a phone ... actually making a phone call is arguably the worst part of dealing with this thing. It just seems tedious. If the slider is open, as I tend to prefer when talking on the phone, snapping it closed *doesn't end the call* - you still have to punch the "end" button on-screen. Perhaps I've been spoiled by ten-plus years of flip-phones.

MHS still works mostly-OK, as long as it has decent signal. Sometimes it has signal but won't exchange data - either via MHS or on the phone itself - and I chalk that up to a network problem, not the phone. If the signal drops to 1X (2G), data speeds tend to be slower than dial-up. Unless I'm trying to do something critical, I'll close the laptop and go do something else. One major issue with MHS - when a client device connects, the phone loses network connection for up to a full minute.

The last nitpick - the charger doesn't have enough juice to keep the phone charged while running MHS. A constant data stream (IRC, AIM, Skype, etc) will kill the battery in 2-3 hours on 3G, and less on 1X. If its being used for web browsing, 4-6 hours is more likely, and relatively reasonable. For off-charger use, sixteen hours of "in pocket" time is about it - without heavy data usage or game playing. In other words: the battery isn't sufficient for the device.

I've just ordered a Samsung Galaxy Tab that I hope to use for most of my mobile data. We're going to look at a Verizon Mifi for our home internet connection, and dropping both MrsZ and myself back to "dumb" phones for daily usage - perhaps even pre-paid phones if we can find something with moderately-acceptable coverage at home.

Short form: Palm Pre Plus NOT recommended.

Photodump, major repairs done!

Mostly of the bathroom.

In the initial post, I had a few pictures up of the "before", along with the early stages of demolition.

Over the intervening weekend we took a side trip into the kitchen to fix a leaking draing, and in the process found out the vent on that drain line had been rather kludged:



That's a shining example of "what not to do" or "redneck engineering". It makes the drains slow, and when pressures change just right, it vents sewer gas back out. In our case, it was venting it into a wall space which made our bedroom occasionally smell bad. We put the proper vent in (called a "cheater vent", and meets code if there is a real vent elsewhere) and it has (A) stopped the stench and (B) the kitchen sink drains MUCH faster.

While Dad and I were fixing that drain, MrsZ was getting the bathroom sanded and primed.

So here goes the dump, with commentary along the way.

After the first post, this is where things were:


The vanity and washer/dryer were out, the toilet had been removed from its base, and the tile and underlayment were all stripped up. No pictures of the sanding/priming, as I was either at work, or occupied with the drain repair.

Monday this week, we started (and finished) painting:






Tuesday, I sanded the subfloor, wiped it with bleach solution, and let it dry. Then I started cutting and putting down underlayment. This was an all-day project as I measured, remeasured, and cut around the stubs for plumbing. I did the best I could, but it wasn't perfect. Fortunately, the ugliest ones will be well-hidden by the vanity.





(Handy tip: an 8oz margarine tub seals a toilet stub just perfectly!)






That was Tuesday. I was rapidly running out of energy and patience with this project...


Wednesday morning I slept in a little bit, then got ready for tiling. Vinyl tile (and sheet) has a tendency to show ANY imperfections in the underlayment: gaps larger than 1/16", any bumps, etc. So I spackled the one large gap (my straight cut wasn't quite), swept several times, vacuumed carefully, swept again, vacuumed again, and waited for the spackle to dry.

I chose to use tile adhesive in addition to the self-adhesive tiles*, so that required a fair bit more effort. First I found and marked the center of the room, then determined what pattern I wanted to lay. MrsZ had strongly pushed for a diamond pattern, but looking at it I didn't care for it. I tried jack-on-jack and that looked far too institutional, so I tried running bond. Perfect!

I spread adhesive over the back half of the room and let it set for its needed "open time" (time to let the glue tack up and evaporate some of the solvents), then started laying tile at the center of the floor. I laid all the field tiles first, then the edge pieces that needed trimming, then spread the front half of the room and started cutting the tiles for the stubs in the back half.

It's labor-intensive work, but not overly complicated. Vinyl tiles score easily with a utility knife, and using the spacers makes the gaps consistent. Those spacers work a trick, but they hurt about as much as Legos to step on with bare feet.







We had briefly debated whether we wanted to gap-and-grout the tiles, or lay them on tight seams. It meant more effort, but I'm very glad we went with the grout. Once a tile was down flat, it wasn't coming back up, nor was it shifting side-to-side more than a tiny bit. Even being careful with the spacers, there are a few spots where my 1/8" spacing widened out a tiny bit, and the grout hides that admirably.

Wednesday evening the adhesive cured, and Thursday morning I got what I needed to do grout. Just before I dug in, the delivery driver called to tell me he was half an hour away with the washer, so I sat back and read a book instead. The washer was delivered (to the middle of the dining room), and I started with the grout:



One quart of pre-mixed grout, one bucket of clean water, one large sponge, one roll paper towels, one grout float, one grout tube, a trash bag, and some paper to catch the mess. The tube is optional - it's essentially an overgrown cake decorator's tube - but it makes laying grout right in the seams MUCH easier.

Work on 4-6 square feet at a time, which will be about 10-12 linear feet. Use a damp paper towel and wipe down the seams and a couple inches on each side. Squeeze grout into about 2/3 of the space you're working on, then use the float at a 45-degree angle (from the floor) to push the grout in and along.

As you finish a section, use the sponge - just barely damp - to lightly buff the area you're working. You're trying to smooth the joints and loosen up the excess. Use paper towels to wipe off the tiles. Whenever the bucket of water is cloudy, change it for clean water. Expect to do this after *every* patch of tile. Just keep chugging along - it goes fairly quickly.







With that done ... put a fan in the door and walk away. Don't walk on it for several hours while the grout dries and sets. When it is dry to the touch (four hours in my case), use a soft rag (like a car polishing rag, old diaper, old flannel shirt, whatever) to gently buff the whole floor. There's going to be a light grit on the whole thing until you do this. DO NOT MOP IT. Just lightly buff it by hand.

The next day or two days later, seal your grout - this will keep it from growing mildew or discoloring over time.

When I was done with all that last night, I looked at our pile of laundry and decided it would be OK to put the appliances back in... So I did.



New washer, old dryer. I'll be working on baseboard trim, wall plates, and getting the vanity and toilet back in over the coming week. We have clean clothes in the meantime. :-)

* - Whoever did the upstairs bathroom used self-adhesive tiles without glue or grout, and they shifted over time. This is the end result:


See why glue and grout makes sense?

Bathroom Update

Forgive the lack of posting. The last work week saw me working my normal 7a-3p, then coming home and working on demolishing the bathroom. Sometime around Thursday, MrsZ found a suspicious wet spot on the cellar ceiling. Saturday and Sunday evenings were spent tearing apart our kitchen cabinets and repairing the drain line. On the plus side of that, we found that someone had kludged the vent for the drain - by putting in an upright with a 90 in a wall space, and stuffing the open end with a bit of pink fiberglass insulation and a bottlecap to hold it in place. That has since been corrected to code, and I expect that we will no longer have funny smells in the bedroom that were blamed on the cats.

Unfortunately, that set back my schedule for working on the bathroom by two evenings. MrsZ managed to get the sanding and priming done, and we did the painting yesterday. (Valspar calls it "Snowy Dusk", I call it "very light gray".) I rolled, she did the finicky details.

This morning I pulled out everything that was in the room and sanded the subfloor, then vacuumed, then wiped the whole floor with a mild bleach solution, then damp-wiped the walls (no bleach). Put a heater and fan in to dry things out, and had lunch.

Lunch complete, I started measuring very very carefully, and then cutting up the underlayment panels. The room was just the wrong size to do the whole thing with two sheets (9x7, underlayment comes in 4x8 sheets) without some inconvenient seams. So, three sheets cut apart, and NINE stubs drilled or cut (washer hot/cold, washer drain, dryer gas, toilet cold, toilet drain, sink hot/cold, sink drain), with only minor corrections necessary. I won't win any prizes for pretty, but they're in. Stapled down according to spec (2" interval on edges, 4" across the body) means there are approximately eleventy-billion staples now in our bathroom floor, and if they ever need to come out I pity the foo'.

Tomorrow I'll be laying tile. Home Depot may be delivering the washer in the afternoon (depending on weather), but it can't be hooked up for at least three days - two for the tile to cure, one day to grout and let that cure. And, of course, we have to find baseboard trim and get that cut and installed as well.

I've taken pictures as the process progresses - look for one large photo post in a week or so.

Deconstructing

These don't count as part of the 365, because they have essentially zero artistic merit. Not that all my 365 pictures will, but I am making some effort there.

I mentioned recently that I had to replace a valve in the bathroom. Anyone who is a homeowner knows precisely how projects tend to snowball and then avalanche. I'll lay out a rough timeline on this one...

Early December 2010: notice that the toilet supply shut-off valve has a drop of water on it. Wipe it up, think nothing of it. A few days later there is another drip. Put it on the mental to-do list. I was winding down my year of night shift, and doing anything house-related was pretty far down my list of priorities.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. Step into the bathroom to do a load of laundry, and my feet get wet. Initial presumption is that the damn cats have pushed their water dish around again. Further checking reveals that no, the water bowl has no more spilled out than normal (Boris loves to dip his paw in the water and then shake it off) and the source of my wet feet is water coming up between the tiles.

Fie and doom.

I figured out what pieces I'd need and went downstairs to shut off the bathroom water. Revelation: no one installed isolation shut-offs for each room. In order to replace the toilet valve I had to shut off water to the whole house, and drain the plumbing. Since things had to get drained down that far, I decided to install a shutoff in the bathroom supply line as well.

Drive to Lowe's. Get all appropriate pieces. Return home. Replace supply valve and line on toilet. Take a deep breath, cut into supply line in cellar. Sweat on one side of the valve. Second side won't sweat properly. After several tries I gave in and called Dad for help. He showed up, figured out where the issue was, and in the process of trying to get the core out - tore the gasket. Back to Lowe's for a new valve.

Successfully sweated that in, turned on the water, and had a functional and non-leaking toilet. Of course, the tiles were now peeling up from the bathroom floor...

MrsZ and I spent some time at Lowe's looking at flooring options, and decided on vinyl tile. With some prompting, she picked a pattern we could both live with. Since we had to tear out everything in there to redo the floor, we decided to buy a gallon of paint and cover over the dark-blue walls at the same time. On top of that, since everything will be out of the way, we decided to replace the washing machine that has been of questionable reliability. (It gets the clothes clean but makes some awfully funny noises in the process.)

We bought tile and paint the other night, along with the glue and grout that we'll need, and ordered our new washing machine from Home Depot. Last night we got home and removed all the fixtures from the walls (sundry cabinet, medicine cabinet, towel bar, TP roll, and all the wall plates), shut off the water, pulled out the sink, vanity, and toilet, and I ripped up two thirds of the underlayment (which was starting to delaminate where it got wet) and pulled those nails.

We went from this (during our structural inspection):



To this, as of last night:



Tonight, I'll be pulling out the washer and dryer, and stripping out the remaining underlayment, prying up the nails, mopping with dilute bleach, and hopefully getting the walls sanded in preparation for priming.

Being a homeowner is FUN.

Handy, man.

Adaptive Curmudgeon is starting what sounds to be a pretty good tale of furnace woes. I can understand; even relate.

Reading that, combined with my own ongoing de-/re-construction efforts, I have reached the following conclusion: Everything is easier with the right tools - and even more so if you know how to use them.

I don't think everyone needs a fully-equipped machine- and wood-shop in their basement or garage. Goodness knows it would keep the ER's and Ambulance Drivers busy. I do, however, think that every single home should have a minimum of essential tools, and at least one person that knows how to use them. If you live alone, you are nominated by default.

None of these need to be expensive. In fact, I'll bet that you can acquire the vast majority of this list for under $200 total - and that's buying quality tools, not from the $0.99 bin at Walmart.

First bit of advice: spend the extra money for better tools. Craftsman (Sears) has a no-questions-asked lifetime warranty on their hand tools. Break it, they replace it. Period. It's worth the extra few bucks to get that warranty. Kobalt (Lowes) also makes pretty solid hand tools. If you're feeling wealthy, I suppose you can look to Snap-On or Mac, but there's really no need. Power tools? I fall squarely in the Dewalt camp. They take a heck of a beating; there's a reason you see yellow tools on construction sites.

So. Bare minimum you need to have:
- a set of screwdrivers. Flat and phillips, a couple different sizes. Buying a pre-compiled set for $10-15 is worth it.
- a hammer. A plain old 16oz claw hammer. Bet it costs you $8, maybe $10.
- a slip-joint pliers. Nothing fancy here.
- two crescent wrenches. One 6" and one 8".
- a 12' tape measure
- a drill/driver of some kind. Cordless are convenient but only if you remember to keep the battery charged. Corded are less convenient but cheaper and never have dead batteries.
- a set of drill bits
- a 24" spirit level
- duct tape

That's it. That's the bare minimum. You can do 90% of home projects with those tools. I'd strongly suggest adding to the list, though.

- a set of allen (hex) wrenches
- a socket set, with SAE and metric sockets
- needle-nose pliers
- water-pump pliers
- wirecutters (dikes and/or lineman's pliers)
- another 6" crescent wrench, and a 10" crescent wrench
- a 16" cross-cut saw
- a hacksaw
- a drywall saw
- a chalk line
- a combi-square
- a set of box or combination wrenches (SAE and metric)
- electrical tape

Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Only one power tool in the bunch! If you want to start adding power tools, I'd hold off until you have a project in mind that actually needs them. My most-used power tools are my drill and my circular saw, with the jigsaw being a distant third, and the nailers way down the list.

Of course, even if you have spent the money for "one of everything, please", that doesn't mean a damn if you can't USE what you have. Learn to use things properly and safely. Use the right tool for the job. Eye and ear protection is critical, and gloves aren't a bad idea.

Once you've got all that ... dig in. Don't be afraid to screw up. I've ended up chucking plenty of materials by making mistakes. It's not the end of the world, so long as you learn from what you're doing. I get cranky when I screw up. It costs money and time. But I don't make the same mistake again, either.

Of course, there will be times when it's time to call in a pro. In my case, 90% of the time, that means calling my father. I learned the vast majority of what I know by watching and working with him, and I can't ever thank him enough for letting me "help" as a kid.

Last week I had to replace a valve in our bathroom, which should have been a relatively simple project. Since I had to shut off water for the house anyways, I decided to add in a shutoff for just that room while things were down. I ended up not being able to get the joint to sweat properly, and after I tried several times, I gave in and called Dad.

He came over, looked over what I'd done, figured out the problem, and was also unable to correct it with what we had on-hand. One trip down to Lowes later, we had the parts we needed, and things were back together. I learned where my mistake was and what to do in the future, and got to spend a bit more time with my father. Win-win-win.

Be a handyman. Be willing to take on your own problems. And be willing to admit when a problem is over your head.

Heating update

We had coal delivered last week from a new supplier. Talk about a night-and-day difference.

The person I talked to on the phone was friendly and helpful, the driver was cheerful and more than happy to split the load between two bins, and the coal ... well, I can only begin to describe how much better it is. Less expensive (partly because it's bulk, not bagged), cleaner, oiled, and MUCH higher quality. Almost no fines, just good solid chunks of anthracite. It's burning slower, hotter, and creating much less ash with much lower mineral content. (Plain gray ash, instead of the yellows and browns from the last batch.)

I still had some from the last delivery, and took a few pictures for comparison:

Old on the left, new on the right:


Old:


New:



Note the numerous crumbs and dust with the old stuff, and the smear of filth it left on the tub. That stuff is what clogs up automatic stoves, potentially to the point of non-function. Ours self-extinguished last year after the coal built it's own bridge over the feed chute - no coal dropped in, so the stove went out. We had to make it a point to stir the coal hopper daily to make sure it would keep feeding.

A side note: we knew there was a problem with that coal after burning a few bags. I took one back to the shop and asked them to exchange it. The dealer dodged it any way he could. I'd had the coal delivered to my house; he said if I wanted it exchanged I had to bring it back. (A full ton of coal would be four trips in my compact pickup, I won't put a half-ton in there.) I told him that wasn't acceptable; I'd paid for delivery and he'd have to deliver the replacement as well. He hemmed and hawed and said he might get around to it, "In a couple weeks."

I called him every couple weeks for the next couple months and he never made time for me.

So, for an hour's labor and exchanging 3/4 ton of coal, he lost a customer forever - and as many people as I can turn away. I've told anyone who heats with coal to avoid him.

The shop, by the by, is COUNTRYSIDE STOVE SHOP in Burdett, NY. Avoid him like the plague; he doesn't care a rat's ass about customer service.

The new coal came from Holden Coal, in Ovid, NY. I would gladly recommend them to anyone looking for a coal supplier; their staff is knowledgeable and friendly, and their delivery drivers keep appointments.

Home heating

Our house is a bizarre mash-up of heating methods and fuel sources. We knew that when we bought the place, of course, and actually considered it to be something of a benefit.

Our furnace (forced air) is oil-fired, and roughly as old as I am. It's a fuel hog and too big for the house, so it cycles more than it should need to. It does get used, for the "shoulder seasons" - those times when the days are warm and the nights are cool - but we don't run it more than we have to.

Our water heater is also oil-fired and I would replace it with the exact same one in a heartbeat. It's a 32-gallon heater, but has a 180-gallon "first hour" rating, and 114-gallon per hour recovery (+90F). We only have one shower, so actually running out of hot water is pretty unlikely.

The cooktop and oven are both propane-fired, as is the clothes dryer. (A gas stove or gas service was one of the requirements when we were house-hunting; I detest cooking on electric ranges.)

We have a portable electric radiator in the master bedroom as well; we keep the door closed most of the time and it tends to be cooler in there than the rest of the house. A little supplemental heat goes a long way.

Last but not least, we have a coal stove as our primary winter heat source. It's a Keystoker Stoker 90, and goes like a son of a gun when you finally get it lit and dialed in. When we got things set properly for the feed, it burned about 40lb of coal a day and kept the vast majority of the house at a toasty 70-72F, while burning about 2-3/4 tons of coal over the season.

Unfortunately, coal is not proving to be ideal for our situation. It is a pain to get it lit*, and it creates a lot of ash - on the order of 2/3 weight of the fuel burned, if I had to guess. On top of that, it's dirty. The ash goes *everywhere*, and the coal itself is disgustingly dusty. MrsZ has mild asthma, and my sinuses certainly don't appreciate the extra crud in the air. We put in extra air filters in the house, and it helped but can't really solve the problem completely.

I've been looking at the options, and some kind of solid-fuel stove remains my preference. I'm leaning strongly to a pellet stove. They are easier to light, and some are even self-lighting. Pellets don't have the same heat density as coal, but are renewable (yeah, there's my hippy streak shining through), cleaner, and create FAR less ash. (Most stove manufacturers claim that pellet ash will need to emptied once a month or so, as opposed to daily for the coal stove.) Additionally, pellet ash isn't going to kill our garden if I dump it out there.

I don't believe a pellet stove is in our budget for the year - which is a shame, since there is still a hefty tax incentive on them - but it will be high on my list of improvements.

* - lighting the coal stove is a mixture of witchcraft and luck. The local stove shop (which I refuse to deal with after they refused to make good on bad coal last winter) sells magic starter bags that work about two times out of three. I used the last one I had earlier this year, and haven't bought more. I finally figured out how to get the thing lit without buying magic bags. A handful of charcoal briquettes in a basket coffee filter, tucked WAY up the burn grate. Hit it with a MAPP** torch until the briquettes are going, then put a small handful of coal over them and plug the stove in. Shut the door and hope!

** - I purchased what I thought was a MAPP torch kit from Lowes the other morning to assist in this lighting process. After the fact, I noticed that it's not MAPP, it's "MPP". MPP is a BernzOMatic product that stands for "Max Power Propylene". It burns at about 3600F, as opposed to propane's 3450F. A little digging led me to the Wiki page on MAPP, and this gem:

"On 31 April 2008 the Petromont Varennes plant closed its methylacetylene/propadiene plant. As they were the only North American plant making MAPP gas, indeed the only legal supplier of trademarked MAPP gas in the world, this caused a widescale shortage"

In other words, MAPP - with a in-air temp of about 3700F or an in-oxygen temp in excess of 5000F - is no more. If you need to do small-scale brazing, MPP/Oxy kits are available, but it almost makes more sense to cough up for an Oxy/Acetylene setup with reasonable-size cylinders.

Chainsawin'

I spent a bit of Sunday afternoon helping a friend clear up a fallen tree at their house. Before I'd gone over, she told me I'd need a big saw, because her 16" wasn't doing the job. I was trying to picture the tree that fell, and couldn't figure out how a 16" saw wasn't big enough.

The answer was easier than I'd expected:
Maintenance is everything.

If you own a home and have trees, a chainsaw of some kind is a worthy investment. If you lose one big branch and have to call a tree service, you've likely spent more than the cost of a basic chainsaw on one service call.

If you're in suburbia - half- or quarter-acre lot with a couple trees and a house - you can likely squeak by with an electric chainsaw. They're great for pruning and trimming, or cutting up a large limb that's fallen. They require minimal maintenance beyond sharpening the chain and keeping the bar oil topped up. Just keep in mind that you'll be working with a Very Sharp Thing near an extension cord, and be careful.

Once you're edging up to an acre and maybe some heavy brush, it's time to forego the electric saw and pony up for a gas-powered model. Don't rush out and buy the biggest most powerful saw you can afford; buy the saw that's appropriate for your usual tasks. If you expect to run the saw five or six times a year to clear up some brush and limbs, or clean up a windfall, you don't need a 60cc (or bigger) behemoth with a 20" bar. A 35cc model with a 14" bar should do anything you'll need most of the time, and won't fatigue you more than necessary.

If you've got woods that you plan to timber, or heat with wood, it's time to look at the larger pro-level saws. 50-60cc, with an 18" bar will fell almost any tree and let you limb and buck it without wearing yourself out or overloading the saw. (There are, of course, even bigger saws out there, but if you need one of those, you're probably not reading this for saw advice!)

Chainsaws are like guns, of course - if you ask five people what model is best for you, you're going to get six answers. I freely admit to being a fan of orange paint. If I'm buying a saw, my first answer will always be, "Stihl". A distant second is Husqvarna, followed by Jonsered. My personal saw is a Stihl MS-180 with a 14" bar. It's light, powerful, and handles everything I've asked of it. They run about $200 brand new from a Stihl dealer.

If I needed a mid-range saw, I'd probably look at a Stihl MS-270 ($450), and for a big saw, I'd be shelling out for an MS-360/362 ($650). There are plenty of used saws out there - including at your local shop. If you know what you're looking for, a great deal can be found. If you're not careful, it's easy to lose money on a saw. Like buying a used gun, if you don't know, take someone with you. I lost a bit of money on a saw that wasn't everything it appeared to be. Not much, but enough to make me more cautious in the future.

Of course, the saw isn't the only thing you'll need. Proper safety gear can save you - literally. Gloves, helmet, chaps, and boots are important. If you don't respect the saw, even for one second, it can seriously injure or kill you. My little MS-180 turns at 14,000rpm - about six times faster than your car motor cruising down the highway, and twice what most NASCAR motors run. That kind of engine speed translates to the chain moving at about 45mph. You are not faster than the chain, I promise.

After you've picked your saw - and ideally, as part of the same purchase (ask for a discount on accessories with the saw, the worst they can say is no!) - you should pick up at least one extra chain, bar oil, 2-stroke oil, a chain file, sprocket grease gun (if needed, not all saws do), extra scrench, extra sparkplug, and a couple plastic wedges. Milk crates are great for carrying all this stuff around.

As an aside, I *highly* recommend purchasing your saw from a shop that specializes in chainsaws and outdoor power equipment. The folks at Home Depot or Tractor Supply aren't necessarily going to know the difference between a 0.325" or 0.375" chain pitch, or why it's important to match chain gauges, or if you want a safety chain or skip chain. If you're buying from the local shop, ask to try a saw before you buy - many of them will have demo saws and a few logs to work with. Ask them to show you how to sharpen your chain and adjust the tension. You still may screw it up down the road, but an honest mistake is how you learn.

I can't teach you everything about sawing in a blog post - it's just not possible to explain the nuances and subtleties of really running a saw. I'll hit the high points, though:

- First and foremost: SAFETY FIRST. 30,000 people go to the ER with chainsaw injuries each year. Don't be 30,001. If you are tired, drunk, or under the influence of a drug or narcotic, it's not a good time to be sawing. Work, THEN play.

- All the gear all the time. Like bikers with their leathers, it's that "one quick cut" that will bite you.

- Size your saw and bar to your work. A 16" bar on a 45-50cc saw will handle almost any residential task, and a 20" bar on a 60cc saw will handle almost any firewood job.

- Take breaks. Running a saw is hot, energy-consuming work. You have to be focused on what's in front of and around you the whole time the saw is running. Most saws have a fuel tank sized to run the saw for about 30 minutes. When the tank is empty, take a break. Sit down, stretch, drink some water, service the saw, and then get back into it.

- Maintain your saw. Whenever you fill the gas tank: fill the bar oil, touch up the cutters (one or two strokes of the file is all it needs), check the chain tension, and scrape out any obvious excess dirt.

- If you've hit a nail or fence insulator or rock while you're cutting, swap chains and set the damaged one aside as a utility chain for the next time you're working on the ground.

- Change your sparkplug every 100 hours or every other year.

- Clean the air filter every 5-10 hours of cutting, replace as needed.

- Make sure you run the right blend of gas:oil mix. 50:1 is fairly common now, but older saws may run 40: or 32:1. (REALLY old saws were as rich as 8:1.)

- Every couple months of regular use, take your chain to the shop to have it professionally sharpened. This will get rid of any burrs or misaligned teeth from your home sharpening, and should also get the rakers to the right depth.

- A good sharp saw will throw chips, not dust. If you're cutting and seeing dust, the saw is trying to grind through the tree instead of cutting. Stop, sharpen and tension your chain, and try again.

- Finally: SAFETY LAST. 30,000 people go to the ER with chainsaw injuries each year. Don't be 30,001. If you are tired, drunk, or under the influence of a drug or narcotic, it's not a good time to be sawing. Work, THEN play.

A chainsaw is a hell of a tool, and knowing how to use and maintain one will serve you in good stead for most of your life. Hope this helps!

Invasive Plants

Last year, our local rag did an article about a plant that caused severe blistering and burns to skin. I couldn't remember the name of the plant, but remembered that it looked like overgrown Queen Anne's Lace.

Doing some yardwork last week, I found a patch of flowers that looked like overgrown Queen Anne's Lace - sort of. 3-5 feet tall, yellow flowers, spikey leaves...

I did some digging, and found the plant originally in question - Giant Hogweed. NYSDOT notes it as present in Western NY and spreading to the east. This is not what we have. (Hogweed is up to ten feet tall with 2-foot umbrels of flowers.)

What we have is Wild Parsnip, which isn't directly related but has some similar side effects. Specifically, getting the sap of the plant on your skin will lead to severe sunburn on the affected area very quickly.

I stopped at Lowe's the other morning and picked up a gallon jug of Round-Up, then went around the yard spraying each plant very thoroughly. So far it looks like the plant is winning. They're all in flower already, so I'll try one more treatment of Round-Up today, and if that doesn't show effects pretty quickly, I'll be gloving up and yanking them out. I do not want them going to seed and spreading further.

Now that I'm aware of the plant, I'm seeing HUGE patches of it everywhere. Ditches seem to be the favorite spot so far. Be aware of it, and if you have an infestation, take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Brain Dump

The gutter company showed up around 4:30 this afternoon. I figured maybe they'd do some quick and easy pieces and come back tomorrow to finish. Nope. They did the whole house and the garage in a hair over three hours. Woo, we have gutters! Unfortunately, with that comes "writing the balance due check to the contractor". Ah well, it was worth it.
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I ordered a few things from Amazon early this week, and the first box arrived. One of those things was a spare flashlight in case my current EDC light goes toes-up. Leatherman no longer produces the Serac series (the S2 is my light), so I got the current iteration of it - the "Monarch 300". It's non-dimmable, single-AAA battery, with a claimed 16 lumens and 2-hour run time. I took it out of the box and the first thing that leaped out at me was "MADE IN CHINA". Damn.

Quality doesn't feel as good as the S2, either, although I can't pinpoint why. It feels bigger and clunkier, but when placed side-by-side, they are within about 1mm of each other in all dimensions.

Beam quality is good, with a faint green cast to it, and a much more focused hotspot than the S2.
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I've been having some issues with the Palm Pre lately. Specifically, when I turn on the mobile hotspot (my internet access at home) it drops the 2-3 bars of 3G service to two bars of 1X service. Not ok. On top of that, it gets hot enough to make touching it very uncomfortable. I went to the local Verizon store today and talked to a tech there. He nodded, said they had had a few reports of heat issues, and the phone was going to be replaced under warranty - and it should be here tomorrow. I am pleasantly surprised - I expected I'd have to argue. Nice.
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Stopped at Lowe's while downtown to speak with the manager. I've been in there a few times looking at doors and door-related stuff, and the guy I've talked to has always been attentive, pleasant, helpful, and not pushy. I know managers usually only hear complaints, but this guy was worth a compliment.
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Came home and made mac'n'cheese from scratch. Used this recipe, but up the cheese: 1/2lb each of sharp cheddar, pepper jack, and swiss, added 1/4c. butter, and a head of broccoli florets. The butter was unnecessary, but the swiss and broccoli were excellent. More bacon next time, too.

I think that wraps it up for tonight...

You shook me...

Apparently there was an earthquake up in Canada today, and it caused some swaying/rolling around here. I didn't notice it.

What I *did* notice was a doe running full-bore into a state highway looking like the hounds of hell were behind her. I hammered on the binders and swerved, just missing her by a matter of inches. Left a nice streak of my tires on the road in the process.

I had just chalked it up to deer being weird - and running full-bore into a highway at two in the afternoon in mid-summer is weird for deer - until I got home and was working on the door with the radio on. A "breaking news" bulletin announced the earthquake had occurred at 1:41pm...

I checked the receipt from the gas station where I'd grabbed a six-pack on my way home. 1:39pm. I'd nearly hit the deer about 1.5 miles down the road. Coincidence? Not likely. That doe was running from the earthquake!

Speaking of working on the door:
The storm door from kitchen to deck has been increasingly stubborn about opening easily or latching properly. MrsZ griped at me about it last night; I responded by taking the handle/latch off the door and saying, "Fine! Problem solved!"

This morning I got up and took the old door out completely, then pried off the Z-bars around the edge, and used a knife to peel off as much of the old caulking as possible. I stopped at Lowe's after my stop at the gun shop and picked out a new door. The selection is staggering, but I ended up going a bit higher in price than I'd originally planned and getting a Larson Tradewinds door. I'll get 30% of the price back as a tax credit next year, since it's an energy-saving improvement. The roll-up screen is very slick, as is the touch-hold on the bottom closer. It was a BIG step up from the other model I'd been considering - better sealed, better features, just a much nicer door overall.

Got that home around 2pm, and spent the next four hours carefully installing it, sealing around the edges, and then cleaning up. I hadn't read the reviews on Lowe's web site about this door before buying it, and might have been turned off if I had. Lots of negative commentary about how hard the install was, primarily due to the fact that the door is not pre-hung, and therefore has to be drilled for the latchwork.

They provide a template for the drilling, but it is, admittedly, not for the faint of heart. Eight separate holes - four per side, two each of 3/8" and 3/4" - and they have to line up through the door perfectly. After drilling the first couple my cordless drill crapped out (tired battery and I'd already been using it hard for driving screws), so I switched to the big corded drill. Much better.

In any case, the door is up, the closers are adjusted, the glass is cleaned, the Z-bar is caulked, the trim is on ... and MrsZ seems to be happy with it. Of course, she hasn't seen the receipt, either... ;-)

Omens

Weather and scheduling have conspired to keep our lawn un-cut for a couple weeks. It was approaching the point where I wanted to hire a couple gun bearers with machetes to get a start on it.

We got a break in the weather last week and I headed out to mow. Fired up the mower, started around the edge of the yard, and when I tried to turn at the end, the mower didn't turn quite right. I looked down and was greeted by the sight of the right-front tire going *flap-flap-flap* ... Limped it back to the shed, backed it in, and started arguing with it.

Got out the hi-lift jack and raised up the front end - after convincing the jack to work, which took some careful application of expletives and WD-40. Pulled the hub covers - and found that the front wheels are help on by snap rings. I have no snap-ring pliers, so I tried needle-nose pliers instead. No luck. By this point I was tired and out of time to play with the tractor, so I left it up in the air and called it quits for the day.

The next day I ran into my neighbor and borrowed a couple of awls to try peeling apart the snap rings. No joy. Finally gave in and went to Tractor Supply and bought snap-ring pliers. Took those home and broke two of the four included tips getting the two wheels off. After all that was done, anyone who had the tires in stock or could mount them was closed for the day.

Fast forward to Monday. Went back to TSC, bought a pair of front tires, took the tires and wheels to Goodyear for mounting. Eventually got them back - apparently there is only one guy there who does tractor tires, and he was late for work. Took them home and put them on the tractor, and started to mow. With an interruption for a friend dropping by to pick up some things, I got about half the yard done before it was getting dark and chilly.

Tuesday morning, I headed out to mow late morning. I made two or three circuits around the yard and the mower deck started squealing. Shut it off, backed up, started it again, and it seemed to be ok. Finished the row, made the turn - and the noise changed. No longer cutting grass... turned the PTO off and on. It's disengaging and engaging, but the mower deck isn't turning. Shut off the tractor, look underneath. The mower deck has eaten its secondary belt. Lovely.

Drive up to the garage, swearing the whole time, and park the mower in there so I can pull the deck. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I got the deck off (SIX attachment points??), and made some phone calls. Since it was off anyways, I cleaned out the accumulated crap, and put on the new blades I'd picked up over the weekend - and found that part of the reason it was cutting so poorly. Someone had installed two of the three blades upside down, so they were "cutting" with the blunt edge.

I ended up taking the whole deck to the Deere dealer (45 minutes away), where they got me the right belt (and a spare), a spare PTO belt, and I decided that since I had the mower torn apart anyways, I might as well go whole-hog... so I got a new air filter and new oil filter. Stopped at the Mart of Wal on the way home and got a jug of oil.

Got home, finished draining the oil pan, pulled the old filter, pulled the air filter, and replaced things as appropriate. Got the new belt on the mower deck, but haven't put it under the tractor yet.

Tried to start the tractor... and the low-oil light comes on, and the thing won't turn over. At all.

I spent another hour or so futzing around with and swearing at it, and got nowhere. My google-fu is weak, so I turned to the #GBC gang for ideas... I've got some things to try tomorrow, and if that doesn't get me anywhere, I may just drag the thing out to the range for target practice...

Alternative Energy

Yeah, that's right. Alternative energy. Say it with me. It's not a dirty word. Seven syllables. (Isn't a haiku 5/7/5? I might have an idea! See below.)

In any case. I've been looking at alternative/off-grid power for a long time. My truck has an inverter and deep-cycle battery hiding in the toolbox. Doesn't see much use, but it's there. I've been toying with the idea of a small setup for fuel-free backup power at home.

Conveniently, Northern Tool Co sent me an emailthis week advertising various items for sale. Among those were their 15W/12V solar panels. I talked to the Mrs and ordered two of them along with a charge controller. The intention will be to put a small battery bank in the garage along with a small inverter, big enough to run the coal stove for a few hours at a clip.

Yes, we have a generator - but our genset will suck down nearly eight gallons of fuel every 24 hours, and there is a limit to how much fuel we can store. On top of that, it takes time to get the generator hauled out, fired up, hooked up, etc. I wanted something that could simply be one switch and an extension cord until we have time to get everything else going.

I'll be adding a few deep-cycle batteries in the next couple months, probably to end up around 300-400Ah of capacity. 400Ah with a 300W inverter (coal stove draws 200W, adding a cushion is a good idea) should last up to six hours. I'm well aware that 30W of solar power won't keep up with the load, but they will be more than enough to maintain and trickle-charge the bank. If there's an extended outage, one of the things to do will be recharging the battery bank whenever the genset is being run, then allowing the inverter to run the coal stove when the power is off. (Est. charge time 400Ah @ 30W/12V = 160hr sunshine - but that's from zero charge.)

In addition to providing a backup power source, we will probably get a portable fence charger in order to move the goats around the yard to spots that would otherwise be un-grazed, or if they go to visit family/friends for a vacation.

Somewhere on down the road, I'd love to have enough alt-energy to be, if not off-grid, at least not completely grid-dependent. I think a small wind turbine would be feasible where we are, and a good-size solar array would be plausible for about half of the year. Our average monthly electricity use is around 500kW-h, so a 1500W system would cover the vast majority of our power needs.

I'm still waiting for replacement LED bulbs that are both affordable and realistic replacements in terms of light quality.


green power calls me
alternative energy
it's not a bad thing

Ready for the season?

Those of us here in central NY got a small taste of winter last week, with three inches of the white stuff appearing one night and disappearing nearly as fast. There were some initial concerns of a much heavier fall, and the problems incident to that. Leaves still on trees means lots of stuff coming down and taking the power with it.

Our house is pretty rural. Yeah, we have neighbors, but the demographics lean heavily to "bovine". If there is a widespread power outage, our area will not be high on the list of priorities for the electric company. We have two primary methods of heating: the furnace (forced air from an oil burner), and a Keystoker automatic coal stove. Both require electricity. Our water comes from a well; the pump requires electricity. Seeing a pattern?

I dumped out my change jar(s) and started counting. I had a lot of change. Enough to purchase a small generator (1000W) straight out. I discussed it with MrsZ and laid out my reasoning: heat, refrigeration, and maybe water would be a Good Thing if we have an ice storm or blizzard, both of which seem to be good possibilities this year. We discussed power requirements, wattages, draws, starting load, and what we'd consider "necessary". The short list came down to: a couple lights, a radio, the coal stove, the fridge, and maybe the water pump.

A 1000W generator would run the fridge OR the stove, and a couple lights and the radio. No water pump, certainly. Some math and cogitation got me to a 3000W genset probably being the bare minimum; it would run the stove and the fridge and lights and radio simultaneously. Running the water pump would mean shutting down everything else while the pump started and ran, but that's acceptable. Water can be stored in bottles and pans.

So off we went to the local home improvement big box stores... neither Lowes nor Home Depot had anything that we considered reasonably priced and with sufficient power. We left it be and I did some more research at home. I looked through the catalog for Northern Tool, which had a couple "maybes" but nothing real obvious. The higher-end brand-name stuff was out of our price range, and the stuff we could afford generally didn't have the features (or reviews) I wanted.

I finally checked the web site for Tractor Supply, and they had a generator listed that looked like the right combination of features and price. I did some digging online and found the reviews were generally pretty good, and the ones that were negative were complaining about noise and weight. *blink blink* It's a damn generator. It makes power. It's going to be loud and heavy. I ignored those comments, and called our local TSC to see if they had one. They did, and I went downtown and picked it up. It's a Champion C46514, rated for 3500W continuous and 4000W peak.

Picked up oil and such from the local mart of Wal, and took the box home and set it aside. Fast-forward a week. This morning I lugged it outside, fueled it, started it, and threw a voltmeter on the terminals. It puts out a nice steady 124V on the 120 circuits, and 245V on the 240 circuits. I didn't try loading it yet, but that's next. I put a 1/2" eye bolt in one of the 6x6 poles in the garage and JB-welded the nut on - it'll take some dedicated effort to remove it. A 1/2" cable and a masterlock can secure the generator, and life is good.

The previous owner of our place built the (detached) garage right - it has a sub-panel for electric and he also pulled 6ga wiring separately from the panel with the express intention of putting in a generator. All I have to do is wire in a L14-30P and put an interlock on the main panel and I can backfeed the house, safely and legally.

Along with a generator comes the problem of fueling it... this generator runs on gasoline, and a full tank (4 gallons) will run it for about 10-12 hours at half load. We currently have 20 gallons of gas stored in the shed, which gets cycled through pretty regularly - the lawn mower, the car, the truck, etc. The generator got topped off with treated gas this morning, run long enough to warm up, and then shut down. Over the next few weeks I expect I'll add another 20 gallons of stored fuel; that will give us about 4-5 days of continuous run time... hopefully that's enough.

Farmer Fire Drill

It was cold last night; killing-frost kind of cold. I left work at the usual time and got home at the usual time. MrsZ was still up, so we headed to bed and curled up trying to stay warm (we're cheap and keep the house at 60-65 most of the time). Just as we were dozing off there was a blood-curdling animal shriek from somewhere outside. It was repeated a moment later. I looked out the windows with a flashlight but couldn't see anything... pulled on a robe and went to check on the goats. From the deck, I could see most of the pasture but no goats. They weren't answering my voice either, which is more unusual - they tend to blat or at least move around and jingle their bells when someone calls them.

Went back upstairs and reported to MrsZ, swapped the robe for jeans and a sweatshirt, and opened the safe while MrsZ pulled on her clothes. Grabbed her 870 (20ga) and followed her downstairs, then went looking for the box of buckshot I knew I had somewhere. It had been moved. I settled for slugs and made the gun "cruiser ready" - full mag tube, empty chamber, hammer down, safety on. To go from "cruiser ready" to "ready" requires only racking the slide, which is already unlocked by virtue of the hammer being down. As I was heading out the door I spied the missing box of buckshot and slipped it in a pocket and continued out - where I found MrsZ already coming back from the goat pen, reporting that they were comfortably ensconced out of sight behind their hut instead of inside, where I could see them.

Given that the critters were alright, I peered around the yard again and then went back inside ... where MrsZ explained that this was the "Farmer Fire Drill". Uh-huh.

Side note: we have electric mesh for the goat fence; it's high-voltage, sturdy, and easy to rearrange. MrsZ discovered on Sunday morning that about 50' of fence had been taken down. And in fact, not just taken down, but several of the strands were torn, and a piece of twine that tied a pole to a tree had been snapped ... and the fence had been dragged OVER a bush. Best guess is that a critter (my presumption is a deer) managed to get tangled in the netting and tore it up trying to get loose. A coyote may have gotten tangled but wouldn't have torn it out that far. The goats respect it and tend to keep away. A bear is vaguely possible but I don't think it's likely.

Minor update

Life continues apace. Two weeks ago MrsZ and I spent a late morning enjoying trigger time and general camaraderie with a fellow Appleseeder. I tried out my new handload for .45s and was pleased - 6.0gr T/B/230grLRN. Zeroed my Winchester 94; it's now handily minute-of-deer at 100yd and would be fine to 150. Toyed with the .17 rifle and pistol - can't get the pistol to hold a consistent zero and think that may be a sights issue. I have a pistol scope for it, now I need to get a rail and rings. I also got to enjoy his Marlin .45-70 levergun, which was an absolute hoot to shoot and has bumped up my desire list a bit.

Last weekend we made brief appearances at the local Appleseed, and actually managed to fit in some shooting - it helped to have a surplus of instructors for once. My Savage MkII is having feeding issues, and a thorough scrubbing is in order soon - and possibly some new magazines. I'll be coughing up for the stainless magazines next time around, as the ones I have are well-coated with rust freckles. MrsZ's 10/22 is having ejection issues, and beyond a thorough scrubbing it may require some parts replacement - particularly the extractor/ejector.

On the home front, we acquired a new grill last weekend, and I put it together Tuesday. It is ... large. Very large. Half-gas, half-charcoal, side burner, and there is an optional side-smoker that I will likely get at some point. Almost three hours to put together at an admittedly leisurely pace. Hamburgers and grilled veggies on the gas side came out beautifully, although proper grill implements are in order so I don't drop *quite* so many bits through the grate. Today I did a rack and a half of pork ribs on the charcoal side, and tried the "water smoker" method. I'm not displeased, although there is some tweaking to do. We rubbed the ribs with Dinosaur BBQ's "Foreplay" dry rub and some brown sugar last night and stuck 'em back in the fridge overnight.

I got up at 10 this morning and started the grill, put a shallow pan of beer on one side and the coals on the other, and the ribs over the beer. Closed off the dampers and started smokin' ... An hour later I remembered that I had pruned the apple trees a few weeks ago, and decided to improve on the smoke. I poked through the brush pile and found a promising apple branch, cut out a nice-size chunk, peeled it, cut it into chunks, and added it to the coals when I added more charcoal. Around 12:30 I basted one side of the ribs with Dino's Sensuous Slatherin' Sauce, cooked another 15 minutes, flipped, basted that side, cooked another 15, then pulled the ribs and covered them up...

I just finished my rack of ribs. Not too bad at all. The temperature was a little high (pushed 300 or 350 a couple times) so the edges dried out some, but the flavor was good. The side-smoker is a definite must-have to keep the temperature down some.

We got a love note from our homeowner's insurance company Monday - they are canceling our policy in 30 days because of "unacceptable risk". I called the agent for details and they told me it was because of the un-sided garage. Nevermind that the garage has been bare for over a year... and that they told us when they wrote the policy that it wasn't an issue. We did some calling around and cursing, and I placed an order for lumber yesterday - nearly 1500 board-feet of rough white pine, in order to do board and batten siding. That should be delivered Tuesday or Wednesday, at which point I'll start getting siding up as quickly as possible. Most of the lumber will be pretty green, so it'll weather and dry over the winter and then we'll seal/stain it in the springtime.

Somehow, shooting has taken a back seat to home ownership. This is ... frustrating.

Side note: Shotgun ammo prices have started to decline slightly. I went through Walmart the other day and the 100-round value packs of Remington trap loads were marked down from 24-something to 21-ish. Small, but noteworthy. ... Of course, I can't tell you the last time I shot trap. I should find the nearest range with open trap and go shoot some; it's a good way to relax on a Sunday morning.

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