A prelude of things to come this winter?

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

took the dog out last night before going to bed and we had a dusting of snow on the cars and ground. shortly after going in i started to hear the wind picking up. it just got louder and louder all night. sort of like saying 'welcome to New England's winter, here's a Nor' Easter for all of ya!'

 

[digitS']

. . . You might appreciate this story. Its a bit convoluted, I know and a bit off Digits purpose for the thread, but I dont think hell mind too much. . .

Well, when I read that, I stopped right there! I figured it couldn't be any of my business since MontyJ started the thread :/!

Then, 2 hours later - I've taken DW shopping - I snuck in and read the rest of it. Yeah, I'm that kind of a snoopy neighbor.

Sad. But, maybe a good thing as you say, Ridgerunner. (Now, I think I'll start a thread about my real idiot neighbor .)

idigitS'

 

[majorcatfish]

yup old man winter is here as well tonight will be 18 and then for the rest of the week highs mid 30 and lows low 2os.

was watching the weather this morning and my phone rang it was the owner calling, caught me off guard at 5 am we talked about the conover store and the weather,
so had to drive into work and fire up the boiler and open all the plants steam valves<we use steam to heat the plant> while the boiler was heating up turned on the 2 older electric systems, of course with all the bad storms over the summer it blow a couple fuses in the heater relay box, replaced them so the corporate offices now have heat.....

still waiting on the boiler finally up to 30 psi and you can start hearing the steam heating up the pipes< bang click bang> front area good to go. went into the back warehouse pipes doing the same thing, turned on the 5 units only 3 came on.< 50 ton hvac>
start to look around needless to say the world class forklift operators we have smashed 2 thermostats beyond recognition... dumb ****s... back to my office got a spool of door bell wire and my lift wired from a good thermostat ran the wire over head and wired into the wires of the smashed one... ok all running now and the steam actuator valves have opened fully.< you got to love southern engineering>

back to the boiler room yup up to 65 psi had to close the warehouse condensation return line and open another to drain it, did not want that nasty rusty water going back into the condensation tank and into my boiler.
45 mins later all clear switch the valves back.

back to my office got the ir gun, back to the warehouse shoot all the heater inlets temp good shoot the outlets 4 out of 5 no return heat, back to my office to get a ball peen hammer, back to the warehouse and had to move the lift under each units steam returns get on the lift raise it up and start tapping on the steam traps till the seats in them would break loss and steam would start flowing 220 in 119 out blowing 80 in the ducts.

back to the boiler room switch the warehouse return lines again 20 mins later all clear, switched back to normal.. while in the boiler room looked at the chemical tank, time to refill it and added a triple dose of steam line treatment,
and did a weekly test of the safety pop off valves... all good

back up to the mezzanine to check all the valves of course had a couple leaks, back down to my office for a wrench, back up and tightened the valves packings... all good

did a finally walk around found that in the scrap tire area that 2 fan motors tripped their breakers and one radiators had a leak, shut those valves and the motors need to be pulled and rebuilt.. another day.

after 5 hours was able to switch the boiler from high fire to low fire and then got to go home.... at least this spring it will only take 20 mins to shut down.

and after getting home plugged in the truck....diesels hate starting in the cold weather....
started to pack for conover and found out that i have 2 empty propane cylinders, off to lowes...

and that how my day has done getting ready for old man winter.....

 

[Smart Red]

I got up this morning and went outside. The car gauge read 21 degrees at 6:30. Then I backed the car out of the garage. Within a mile, the temperature dropped 13 degrees. It seemed that out in the real world it was cold! Single digit temperatures for the first time since last February we reached a nighttime temp of 8 degrees. The good news -- no snow. I can drive in the cold, but I don't enjoy driving in early morning snow.

Despite the heater, the chicken's water was partly frozen. I picked up the only egg, but I suspect those laid later today will be frozen by the time I get to them. Rusty's water was frozen as well. I suppose I'll bring some warm water out this afternoon for the animals.

 

[897tgigvib]

Hay Monty, we all hijacked yer thread!

But this has got to be a pretty good hijacking. We flew it to Korea and back, we flew it not far from you to Major's modern boiler and world class forklift drivers, went to Lowe's, We went to southest centralist wisconsin, met some gal who fell for a creepy jody while Ridge was toughing it out at Pelham, and Digit took the controls on a round trip international cruise with music and a breakdown, but we got it fixed...catching my breath...took a short flight to new hampshire, then just over a couple hills from you to Cat's daylily weeding, and I just got handed the stick in the copilot's seat.

Sure hope the admins are in a good mood

Ridge, when I was there in the band, Pelham was where they trained the dogs. And we played all graduation and retirement ceremonies, including for the dogs. (yer in the army now!) Yes, there is a ridge near camp Pelham, and the top of it is where the dogs had their graduating ceremony, actually another test for the dogs.

We all liked going to the DMZ, crossing that bridge. Recently on fb the sergeant who was the main bus checking guard there mentioned he remembers the band crossing the bridge. No cameras. He had to take all cameras. No weapons. We always double checked that before we left. No ammo.

Yea, compared to places like that, Casey was cush. We had a cinderblock quonset doubled with another one, and even a bathroom with showers in it between! Course, the heater in it was kept set at 15 degrees to save fuel or some @%@%. But it was nicer for me than some others because I had a top bunk. (Us top bunkers made sure we did not let it on that top bunks are at least 4 degrees warmer than bottom bunks). Maybe more than that. Our quonset usually only got a thin layer of ice on the inside walls. It was the folks in the main AG corps who had it serious cush. But the best places of course were the houses the colonels and generals lived in.

Ya know Ridge, that thing, the south korean delegation going north, but go hide anyway. Typical highly intelligent thinking of some over polished brass. Yea. But, I'm certain you got a much better gal than the one who'd weasel off like that.

Whoooph! That Madrone chunk made it warm in here! Closing the door on my stove for it to last.

 

[baymule]

My winter preparations........wrapped the redneck PVC greenhouse frame in plastic drop cloth (the paint kind) with duct tape to fasten it in place. Got an extension cord ran out to it with a small electric heater. It has already made it through 2 freezes without the heater, but it is supposed to get really cold for the nest few days. Even down in the 20's!!!!! We have some nice tomato plants in there with green tomatoes hanging like Christmas decorations. I wrapped the butterbeans with bedsheets, so the front yard looks like hillbilly laundry gone wrong. They'll probably freeze anyway. :/ And it is going to rain. Rain until Thanksgiving Day. It has already been raining, so have lots of nice sloppy cold mud available. Picked a small mess of the green beans today, they are about gone. After this week, they should be finished.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Bay, i have an Aunt who lives in Houston. She emailed a pic of her granddaughter drinking cocoa yesterday, and mentioned that it was "so cold, 45 degrees!" Which of course is cold for her! But i had to let her know that our lows have been in the single digits...to which she answers "Single digits like 0 through 9??" yup...this is my Aunt, the teacher and advanced math tutor!!

It sure looks like a long cold winter for the whole country :/ on one positive note, we've had catastrophic tree deaths all over the west due to insect pests like bark borers of various kinds. I've heard a variety of theories about why the epidemic has been so bad recently, including climate change, less forest fire activity since we started fighting them in the early 1900s, and of course much milder winters. Particularly winters without weeks of temps below freezing. Apparently the bugs can survive some below freezing, what particularly does them in is the sustained cold. So...maybe we'll make a dent in them this winter. That would be nice for my poor birch right outside the front door with birch bark borers!

Oh, and i couldnt let our world tour go by without a stop in Montana! Let's make it a short stopover, and head somewhere warmer next!!!

 

[digitS']

A little warmer here, Heather. Let me just say something about the idiot down the road -- it really is weather-related.

He hasn't turned off his automatic sprinklers!!!

It is barely rising above freezing each day, like 34 to 35. The temperatures are in the teens at night. We've had a few warm days this month. It was 52 twice in November!

This isn't a single family home. These are 2 duplexes and fully rented, I believe. There are concrete sidewalk and, of course, they are covered with a sheet of ice every morning. He is gonna get sued!!

The landlord, that is. He is a very elderly man whom I have never met. Somebody over there in those 4 places had better be raising somebody on the phone! The ground is beginning to freeze but that's not the BIG problem.

Steve

 

[journey11]

We've had it unseasonably hot, and now unseasonably cold...all within a week of each other. I heard the NOAA weather prediction for our area was a warm and dry winter, Monty. Let's hope it leans more that way at least!

I had been gone all day today. When I got home around 8pm and checked on the girls, I found 10 eggs in the nestbox, but exactly half of them were frozen and bursting open. Funny thing is, I only have 8 hens...so 2 of them must have been on overdrive because I last checked for eggs around 5pm yesterday. I've tried the timer for the light both ways. A couple hours added to the evening or a couple hours added to the morning, but switched it back to evening because they lay more eggs that way for some reason. More like summer hours, I guess.

 

[MontyJ]

And now we're back to where we started at. The chickens were fine. It was very funny to watch them yesterday morning. We had about a half inch of snow on the ground, and it was cold. I opened the pop door and Ginger was the first out. she didn't stay on the ground long. As soon as her feet hit the ground she hopped up onto my boot. She wouldn't get off either. So, I walked in a shuffle around the run, gave them fresh water in a new metal pan I bought. Ginger hung around for the ride. I hobbled back to the pop door and she promptly hopped back inside. It was very funny.

They have a good wind break around the run now. I put it up over the weekend. I also put two extra bales of bedding in the far end of the coop to give them somewhere to snuggle into when it's very cold. Temps were about the same this morning. I didn't check until a little after 8:00 and it was 17. Chickens still doing just fine. We have a system for keeping them watered. We are cycling waterers so we can thaw one out while the other is in the coop. The metal pan takes only a little hot water poured over the bottom to pop the ice out, then it's re-filled for the run.

I hope NOAA is right Journey. So far it looks like it could be an ugly one.