Good morning!!!!

[Buppies]

26 going to 56 today, marvelous, and 61 tomorrow.
sunny nice day, going to start planting cabbages outside today, should be great fun.
Maybe I can grow one as nice as Kyle's daughter did.
This first batch of veggies is going to have floating row covers put over them, sort of mini greenhouses in the garden.
Haven't quite figured out how to water with them on...probably can't. My game plan is to put the hoops up, about two feet tall, and then
if a below 25 degree night is predicted, I'll then put the plastic on top. Going to use some left over pavers to hold it all down. We shall see....maybe it will be so warm I won't need it, but there's always a gotcha out there. That gotcha last year did a lot of damage here,
better defense this year.

Lawn care contractor coming in an hour to talk about doing all my weedeating, basically what the last guy did until he quit last summer.
I need him every week, I can afford him every two weeks. He lives about a mile away, see him in the greasy spoon, friendly and keeps his equipment and truck clean. Hopefully this good old boy will work out.

Grappled a large downed tree yesterday after it had been cut up. I really miss the hydrostatic for fine loader work, am missing all the feedback cues I used to get. Now I'm ham handed and lurchy. First the FEL works twice as fast as before, I flipped the bucket back and almost propelled a stuck log back at the windshield. Looked at that and thought to myself, now don't do that again...

Then we intentionally loaded that heavy WR Long solid bottom grapple with as much wood as we could, my fireman neighboring questioning whether it would pick it up. Not to worry, came up at idle speed...this MF/Quicke loader is way stronger than what I had before. And with weighted tires and a rototiller on the back didn't worry about picking up the back end. I really want to test it on something BIG...honestly curious to see what it will do. Need to go find a big stump.

Nice pictures still cannot get over how shiny your MF is

 

[Bird]

In England ducts are hardly ever used for moving heat around in houses, it is nearly all distributed by circulating hot water through wall mounted radiators, or more recently through underfloor pipes buried in the concrete screed.

Eric, our little house, built in 1992 is pretty typical for this area. We have a heat pump system. Naturally, there's the condenser unit located outside and our evaporator, blower, filter, auxillary heat strip, nd ductwork in the attic. We have 12" of blown in insulation in the attic and the air is ducted to ceiling vents in each room. I think this is the kind of ducts we have: https://www.lowes.com/pd/imperial-1...5_c_&msclkid=1c2ae759f6a11074914fbb0dd85835fb

While we have the heat pump system that works very well here, I understand it would not be suitable in a colder climate. Some of our neighbors have the split system; A/C for cooling and electric furnace for heat since there are no natural gas lines in this neighborhood. In years past, we've had a home with electric cooling and gas furnace for heat.

 

[daugen]

I have always thought the best heat was the "traditional" heat like Eric described, and what I grew up with in an ancient house in PA. In our case it was a oil fired steam boiler that sent hissing steam throughout the house, I'm sure hot water too, but remember the hissing from the radiator in my bedroom.

My experience is forced hot air, no matter what generates it, dries out the air and is noiser. But cheaper to distribute and install, which of course has driven the market.

Would be interesting to compare long term efficiency of a portable quartz heater and a portable oil filled radiator, of same wattage.

 

[daugen]

Nice pictures still cannot get over how shiny your MF is

thanks.
this is my screensaver.
First, they put a great paint job on it, car quality. Second, it's Ferrari red.
Third, first thing it got when I got home was a thick coat of Meguiars carnauba. Might be years before it gets another
one, but I like to seal the finish in the beginning. Lots of crap falling down from ceiling of barn, mud dauber dirt, always finding junk on hood.
Now it just sort of slides off.

 

[Bird]

Of course the world is always changing. Until I was 19 years old, I never lived, never slept, in a house with A/C. We did have a "swamp cooler" (evaporative cooler) in a living room window that was never left on at night. And we had a Dearborn space heater for the living room, cookstove in the kitchen, and kept the doors closed to the bedrooms. They were never heated and only cooled if there was a breeze coming through the window. And now . . . we leave the thermostat set for the same temperature 24/7/365 days a year.

And unlike the northeast part of the country, my low temperature this morning was 53 going for a cloudy, patchy drizzle, high of 62.

 

[check]

A balmy 1.4°F this morning (looks much worse in Celsius – -17°C). Wind chill even colder (down to -24°C)

 

[txdon]

Still in the freezer here in Michigan. -3 that痴 too cold. Had a good day today, ran a couple of errands, ordered some parts for my water softener. I知 putting new resin in mine. It was cheaper to buy it online, one local company refused to sell it to me, they only want to sell and service. No home gamers allowed. Another place wanted almost double for the stuff. They weren稚 interested. The 3rd never returned my call. So off to Amazon I went, 2 day free shipping included. I am interested in the ductwork project on Ron痴. I might go that route also.

How often do you have to change out the resin. This house came with a water softener and all I know is to keep salt in it.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low of 22, but going up to near 50 today. Tomorrow will usher in some colder air, and a 50/50 chance of rain or snow depending on when it arrives, if at all!

Mpham, good luck at the wifey's dr appt., hope all goes well, prayers sent.

Jay, same thoughts, hopes, and prayers out to you for today's knee evaluation.

Drew, you're not the only one who puts wax on your tractor. It's an investment and you want to protect it.

We have forced air gas heat (used to be propane) and elec a/c. As Drew stated, really dries out the air in heating mode during the winter. We usually keep a tea pot on the stove to add some humidity.

The large kitchen area where we spend most of our time (18'x 28') is the farthest from the furnace. This end of the house also faces N / NW and gets hit broadside by the cold brutal wind during the winter. Even though it has 4 air registers supplying this room, it never gets quite warm of cool enough. The worst thing is almost the entire wall that is facing into the wind is almost entirely glass.... A LOT of heat loss in the winter and gain during the summer.

Last summer, I saw a 'self contained A/C -heat pump unit' at Costco. Figured we'd try it out. It is 'sized' to heat and cool up to 500 sq ft. Well I'm impressed with the unit. In the heat of the summer, kept the area nice and cool down to around 68-70. Using it throughout this winter, it has boosted the temp up enough to balance out to the rest of the house. It is thermostat controlled and maybe kicks on about every 15 or 20 minutes when it is really cold. It only runs about 5 minutes when it kicks on. It has worked beyond my expectations.

Everyone have a great day! TGIF! Prayers sent.

 

[txdon]

I glanced and thought you said pot club meeting!

It Was a pot pet meeting by the pet club.
A speaker was there talking about the benefits of CBD oil for your anxious pet. We are going to try some on Whipper and see if she can tolerate the golfers better.

Anyone give their pets CBD oil or is it just the city dogs that get stressed?

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Here's a couple of pics of that unit