[bontai Joe]

I was watching the weather tonight and there was some place where they hadn't been above 0 degrees F in 10 days in a row. That's miserable to suffer thru. I didn't go out today, my plans will be shoved into tomorrow. I have a doctor appointment and after that I'll pick up my auction stuff and then drive my navigator wife to the shrine for Padre Pio in Barto, PA. I got some really good news today, my step daughter is going to make me a grandpa again.

 

[TecumsehBriggs]

Met my buddy for breakfast on my way to grocery shopping. He bought me a birthday breakfast, even though it was last Thursday. Put away the groceries.

Drove the neighbor (whose driveway I clear) to the drug store so she could buy stuff for her father who has bladder cancer.

Ordered a couple more firearms related items on ebay (just because).

Covered the Ariens with a tarp & put away the Toro which lives in a small Rubbermaid shed in the backyard. Ready for more snow.

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[bmaverick]

SEAT TIME. Temps late afternoon got to be 19F. Not much of a breeze either. First time in a long time to get the 4-letter word white stuff ❄ off the 550FT drive. Worked till it got dark. The plow at the hwy has been thru 5 times and the entrance was bad.

12F now and still dropping.

TX has it really bad. Friends of mine were notified that the water treatment plants are off-line and to filter and then boil their water before drinking or cooking. Friday into Saturday its dipping BACK to 12F for them ! Painful.

☁ ❄
⛄ 💨

 

[pogobill]

Met my buddy for breakfast on my way to grocery shopping. He bought me a birthday breakfast, even though it was last Thursday. Put away the groceries.

Happy belated Birthday!

 

[pogobill]

It is bad in the south! Sometimes when we do hear of cold weather down that way, but it seems it's only for a day or two. This cold snap has sure got to be brutal.I feel for the folks, I feel for the animals.
-12F (-24C) here this a.m. but we have been warming up to 12-14 F (-10C) during the day. Calm days and sunshine sure goes a long way making the chores go easy! Lots of hay for the equine section, and I've been soaking the alfalfa cubes in hot water to give the girls and boys something warm to eat. And lots of water.

 

[TX MX5200]

Hoooraaaaaah, after 3 days of no power or water they turned power back on. First time since Sunday I haven’t been blowing smoke inside. Got the septic back online and will test water lines Friday as I have a 16 hour day tomorrow.

Was cold last night as I ran out of fuel for the generator due to no gas stations having power. I’m stocked with 20 gallons in case I lose power again. Last count was 57 percent of folks having no power in my area, which is 1.4 million folks. Seems the windmill and solar folks lost all support this week. Windmills froze up and solar doesn’t work under ice or in cloudy weather. All’s so, people touting electric cars are regretting those decisions.

The governor has requested the ceo of the major electric provider to resign and ordered an investigation into the cause of the massive underperformance....the needed usage is less than in summer months so maintenance and planning is suspect.

They reported rolling power outages, but there was no rolling. Seems the market price per kilowatt far exceeded the standard contract prices which could have resulted in the provider shutting down power to save money. Some people, including my niece, received notice they were being charged $ 3.00 per kw when standard rates are between $.10 to $.14 per kw.

 

[Groo]

I remember the big outage around Erie maybe 12? years ago. There were like 3 gas stations in the Metro Detroit area that had back-up generators. 1 was a truck-stop, so the wife and I decided the hit the greasy spoon there after a couple of days. It was hell trying to get by all the people waiting for gas to park, but not too busy at all inside. I had an extra car battery hooked to an inverter to keep the fish alive. We had borrowed the MIL's generator for a few hours to keep the fridge and freezer cold. It definitely would have been worse if we needed heat then. Now, the little wood stove we have is enough for survival even for a prolonged period at -30. Still, I'd probably send to kids to Grandma's and Grandpa's in such a case though. The whole house is wood heat. I'd bail too if I wasn't worried about the pipes and pets. More and more, people are starting to realize that "Preppers" aren't just delusional racist nut-jobs like the news would have a person believe. They are the ones that know we can't just trust Big Brother to take care of us, no matter what. Time and time again, we are shown that we need to be more self sufficient. I am like 90% sure I'll be moving in 2 years. If I wasn't, I would have a propane generator big enough to keep the house running.

 

[bontai Joe]

What some of you are suffering thru reminds me of Hurricane Sandy that crushed the northeast part of the country back in 2012. I was without power for one day which wasn't too bad, but my 78 year old mom was without power, heat and water for a week. After hauling water 50 miles to her house for 2 days and buring ALL of her firewood in the fireplace in a feeble attempt to keep her house warm, I bundled her up and brought her to my house for the rest of the week. She didn't want to come, but I convinced her that having a hot shower, a working toilet and hot food would be much better than her continuing to eat cold canned spaghetti. As it turned out, it was good to spend that time with her as she got sick some weeks later from an undiagnosed cancer that took her early in 2013. I guess what I am saying is to check on loved ones living close to you and verify that they are REALLY okay, and not just saying everything is fine. My mom was one of those people that would tell you everything is fine, if she had been able to stop the bleeding with duct tape.

 

[LouNY]

PTO generator, my own water well, decent supply of diesel, a few tons of coal for the stove, fair amount of fuel oil, pantry fairly well stocked, I can handle quite a bit of situations.
I do feel sorry for the folks in the south that have not experienced these issues and do not have the resources needed to handle them.

 

[bmaverick]

PTO generator, my own water well, decent supply of diesel, a few tons of coal for the stove, fair amount of fuel oil, pantry fairly well stocked, I can handle quite a bit of situations.
I do feel sorry for the folks in the south that have not experienced these issues and do not have the resources needed to handle them.

Love those PTO generators.

With a multi-speed PTO tractor like mine, I can run in speed-3 and then lower the engine RPMs to save on fuel, engine wear and my ears! Running at 1400rpms sure beats 2600 rpms to hit 540.

These new DUAL and TRIPLE fuel generators are neat. A buddy in MI has a nice one running on NG. No matter what the outage was from or how long, the HG service has never stopped in his entire lifetime. It burns so much cleaner and is easy on the engine too.

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[TX MX5200]

Yeah, my gas generator works great but gas gets hard to find in times of catastrophe. I always have around 15 gallons, but the need outlasted the fuel. I’m done though and will be buying a whole home genny and having another 500 gallon propane tank to go with it. We don’t have natural gas to my house, but I’m not dealing with a downed water well again. The 500 gallons will run it for a solid two weeks....thinking me and buds can install it as one is an electrician. It will be summer before we can find them I’m sure, but enough is enough...

Three of us getting them so think I will install mine last so can practice on theirs. We all will need to build platforms to get them about 3 feet in the air so floods will not be issue.

 

[Groo]

Yeah, my gas generator works great but gas gets hard to find in times of catastrophe. I always have around 15 gallons, but the need outlasted the fuel. I’m done though and will be buying a whole home genny and having another 500 gallon propane tank to go with it. We don’t have natural gas to my house, but I’m not dealing with a downed water well again. The 500 gallons will run it for a solid two weeks....thinking me and buds can install it as one is an electrician. It will be summer before we can find them I’m sure, but enough is enough...

Three of us getting them so think I will install mine last so can practice on theirs. We all will need to build platforms to get them about 3 feet in the air so floods will not be issue.

I wonder if attic installation is an option? probably against code.

 

[TecumsehBriggs]

Shoveled snow this morning. Only an inch to an inch & a half. Cleaned the cars, driveway & walks. No big deal. Didn't need the snowblower.

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[TX MX5200]

I wonder if attic installation is an option? probably against code.

I do have attic insulation, just not in walls. When I remodeled I learned wall insulation wasn’t an option without removing exterior wood siding to add a vapor barrier.

 

[Groo]

I do have attic insulation, just not in walls. When I remodeled I learned wall insulation wasn’t an option without removing exterior wood siding to add a vapor barrier.

no, I was talking install the generator in the attic, then run the exhaust out a vent. It would be theft proof and well protected from the weather

 

[TecumsehBriggs]

no, I was talking install the generator in the attic, then run the exhaust out a vent. It would be theft proof and well protected from the weather

I doubt any building code would allow installation of a generator in an attic. Fire hazard.

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[TecumsehBriggs]

Thoroughly cleaned the tub today. It's a plastic whirlpool tub, so I can't use harsh chemicals to remove the hard water deposits. After scrubbing with degreaser, I ran the whirlpool jets for about an hour with hot water, vinegar & baking soda. Decided to scrape out the old caulk & recaulk as long as I had the tools & materials handy from the kitchen sink faucet installation. Shoulder still painful as well as arthritic hands.

I have 2 plastic panels I want to glue to the ceiling over the tub eventually. They look like tin ceiling panels but white.

I installed this tub 20 years ago to replace the old cast iron tub that had a plastic insert glued in, plastic panels on the walls glued to the old, ugly 4 inch tile. Under that was regular drywall, not even green board. I replaced it with cement backer board including the ceiling over the tub. My first tile job ever. I also made the skirt in front of the tub using tongue-in-groove boards & had to widen the wet wall to accomodate the wider tub.

As it turns out, after waiting a few hours, the caulk was not curing. Had to wipe it all out, run out to Ace Hardware & buy a new tube of caulk. $7 for a tube of silicone caulk. Cripes. Recaulked with the new caulk & right away I could tell it was good. Harder to work with, thicker, sticks to everything. They didn't have almond color (now called "biscuit") except in a 2.8 oz tube for $7! Shouldn't a smaller tube, more than 1/4 the size of a big tube, be that much cheaper? Guess not. I only bought the white. I'll do the corners next week. Maybe.

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[bontai Joe]

That is your first tile job? You got it right the first time! Looks great, you're hired!

 

[TX MX5200]

Pic 1 - need to get some material in for some of the pathways used by cows as it’s turned to slop. Was no fun getting calves penned up yesterday, but got it done. A guy is making a 3 hour drive to buy 2 heifer calves.
Pic 2 - Horrible site at friend’s nephew place in west Texas. These are all young Axis that died in the freeze. My brother is headed out to his place this weekend...hope this isn’t what he finds. A friend went above and beyond going out to his place daily and breaking up ice with concrete breaker bar and sledge so cows and other animals had water. Also dumped available hay, alfalfa, protein and mineral.

QUESTION - I got power back, septic system back online and well house is up and running. I turned water back on to the house and looks like entire piping under house need replacing. I can’t tell if riser pipes that lead into home are broke too as water is pouring out everywhere. Of course all plumbing supplies are sold out...I mean the shelves look like the toilet paper racks.

I’m wondering if PEX pipe is something to use to replace the existing pvc/cpvc system? My home is pier and beam so water lines are suspended under the house. If I use pex, I would still need to connect it to pvc at the risers as they go into walls inside the house. I will start removing the new pipe insulation i added a month ago under house today...I need to decide what to use so I can cipher up a list of what I need.

I have buds who will be coming to help whenI get supplies, but I want to make sure I have everything we need. It may be a few weeks before plumbing supplies are available though.

 

[marc_hanna]

I always used copper in the past, but about a year ago I installed a new water heater using pex, and I can’t believe how quick and easy is was. Super easy to do repair work too because you don’t have to worry about a little trickle of water buggering up your solder joints.