Good morning!!!!

[Popgadget]

Winds were mostly out of the west, around 100kts,

Really? typo?
sounds like a hurricane to me
better you than me up there, as I told you... Glad your trip went well and hope you got your pie

No typo, winds at altitude are generally much stronger than on the surface. And yes, the Key Lime pie was excellent.

 

[wngsprd]

Sonic boom?

That's what my wife guessed, since no big tree fell over in the yard...but aren't they illegal?

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 51F @ 4:45AM. A mix of clouds and sun. High near 65F. Winds light and variable.

Your story about the propane leak got me wondering about automatic shutoffs. The propane stove has one here, which is something of a problem during power outages because the stove and burners won't come on unless the stove gets 120VAC. But it prevents the house filling up with propane if the power goes off and the burner or stove goes out for some reason. I would have thought there would be some sort of thermal switch on the heaters that would stop the flow of propane if the reactor cooled off. Is that not the case?

It also makes me wonder, Drew, if your propane generator has a shutoff valve so that if/when the generator stops making electricity, the propane flowing to it is stopped. There is one on the big Cummins I installed this year, but that thing is run by a little computer that does all sorts of things as well. I got a pretty good start on installing a propane conversion kit on the Honda generator yesterday, and there was no provision for a cutoff solenoid. Now I'm thinking I'll install one, but not quite sure how it would work. If I get a 12V solenoid and wire it to the starter battery on the generator, the valve would be open all the time as long as there's power from the battery. If I get a 120VAC one and plug it into one of the receptacles, propane would flow as long as the generator was running, but I'd have to start it on gasoline and then switch over. I just drained the gas out of it, and hope not to put any back in it again. Time for more googling I guess.

And speaking of generators, have you actually fired yours up and switched the household loads onto it to make sure everything works as expected?

I have one of those HF magnetic sweeps I would have loaned you if you lived closer, Don.:laughing: But recent experience loaning tools that come back broken or not at all have me thinking I'll stop doing it. Yesterday, a neighbor wanted to borrow the hydraulic lift dollies, but I think I'll just go over there with them and help him use them instead.

Gravity seems to be getting stronger out here as well, Ron. Some days I have a really hard time even getting up out of bed!:laughing:

Good to know Tank Utility stands behind its products, Paul. I installed one on the tank here this year. Got a flyer from my propane company saying they're automatically installing one on any tank that supplies a generator so they can better schedule automatic refills. They haven't said anything to me about accessing my monitor, but I don't plan to let them. I want to buy propane when the prices are low, not when the outfit selling it decides it's time for a fill up.

Sounds like quite a ride, Lou. Don't miss snow driving at all, especially on hills and in the mountains.

No wonder Amazon is building a delivery network. Deliveries here are already slowing down, and it won't be long before UPS and FedEx start losing things...

Don't think I've ever had squirrel. The ones out here eat pine cones, and I'm told they don't taste very good.

Not sure I'd have gone with the red, RS, but some color would be a relief in a stark black'n'white layout. Then again, happy wife, happy life.

Not much luck getting through to the decoupler guy yesterday, as only had an email address for him. Finally got the return instructions and shipping label to return the T-Mobile modem, so I'll do that while I'm in town for groceries today. Also have a couple Black Friday things to pick up at Tractor Supply. They had a nice rolling stool I can use at the welding table. Wrote that one off as a safety item since I almost busted my keester when the top milk crate I was sitting on last time decided to part company with it's bottom brother, leaving me grabbing for the table to stay on my feet.:laughing:

Hang in there, gang, Friday's comin'!

 

[kenmbz]

Good morning all, 28 going up to 51, sunny and wind has calmed down
Wind did dry out the ground a bit, maybe get some lights up today on the house.

Popg - I remember flying with the team in Panama where it was 80F at altitude. Then going up north and seeing numbers like yours. People on commercial jets don;t understand the clothing requirements and adjustments on uninsulated planes. Always made trip time more interesting as we had very little heat and certainly no AC in a transport plane.

Bad weather coming,just as the ground starts to dry out. Oh well.

Stay safe and be well

 

[Popgadget]

I got a pretty good start on installing a propane conversion kit on the Honda generator yesterday, and there was no provision for a cutoff solenoid. Now I'm thinking I'll install one, but not quite sure how it would work. If I get a 12V solenoid and wire it to the starter battery on the generator, the valve would be open all the time as long as there's power from the battery. If I get a 120VAC one and plug it into one of the receptacles, propane would flow as long as the generator was running, but I'd have to start it on gasoline and then switch over. I just drained the gas out of it, and hope not to put any back in it again. Time for more googling I guess.

How about a 12v valve connected to the starter wire, and a parallel connection to the battery controlled by a relay with a 120v coil. You would have to add a diode to keep the relay from back feeding the starter though. If it’s being fed from a portable tank to the zero regulator, I wouldn’t bother with it, just turn the tank valve off.

 

[toppop52]

That's what my wife guessed, since no big tree fell over in the yard...but aren't they illegal?

Over populated areas except as designated by need, whatever that means.

 

[riptides]

That's what my wife guessed, since no big tree fell over in the yard...but aren't they illegal?

Yeah.... Quantico has a hot line to report excessive noise.

Maybe one of them flew your direction yesterday? There were at least two flying at altitude here, and they were still screaming loud.

 

[toppop52]

24° early, 40° now, big rains moving in for tomorrow night and Saturday.
Looks like Christmas decorations for today, love seeing them, not so much putting them up and taking them down. I asked Ellen if could just roll the lights out in the front yard and turn them on, she was not amused.

I was going to get the Ram serviced, then I realized I’d only put 3200 miles on it since February, at that rate it’ll be six months before it’s due.

I’ve eaten squirrel many times, mostly as a kid, I liked it but I didn’t see the resemblance to chicken. Mom skinned them on a board with nails in it. Mom shot most of them with her Remington.22 bolt action.
In my attic I still have the last squirrel she shot in the mid 70’s, nice mount but the cats won’t leave it alone. I kid her she almost missed him, she shot him with her little .410 and one of the shot took the tip of his nose off. That was the last time we went hunting, she took to fishing more after that.

 

[NHBX]

Was just thinking of a vacation up to the white mts when the kids were young.

I'm buying the BX23 my FIL had, right now keeping it at MILs house to do projects with. It has a snow blade for the front. I should put it on for winter, but she won't even try to drive the tractor.

Hi BEF,

I was fortunate as a kid, many of my aunts/uncles had camps in the lakes region. I spent many happy days swimming, fishing and hiking.

Good luck with the BX23 it should serve you well. I have both a snow blade and the front blower for my BX24, it sure
beats the old farmall cub I used to plow with LOL.

 

[LouNY]

I wouldn't be surprised but this was the boomer many people heard yesterday.

"Witnesses across the area reported hearing the boom or seeing a fireball in the sky shortly after noon on Wednesday, said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society in Geneseo. By 4 p.m., the organization had recorded 78 reports of the fireball seen in Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Virginia."

Also on the subject of snow tires as I didn't see any good place to put this.
For any of you that swap your own tires back and forth or just rotate them,
on my wifes little Jeep Compass for some reason they used lug bolt instead of studs and lug nut.
These are a hub centric wheel and with no wheel studs to help line up the wheels to the hubs can be a royal pain to get set on the wheel hub and lined up to start the lug bolts,
I went to my hardware store and bought a couple of long metric bolts remove the hex head and cut a screwdriver slot in the end.
the Jeep wheel hub;


the wheel hub showing a stock lug bolt and the two studs I made, I screwed the studs in 4-5 turns, then used them to line up the wheel to the hub,
slide the wheel over the studs, start 3 lug bolts remoce the studs and put in the last 2 lug bolts. Took several minutes of bending down and trying to line up blind holes to just a couple of screwing in the studs hanging the wheel and removing the studs. Didn't even cuss Jeep once when putting her already mounted snow tires on.