Category Archives: Praise

Ye Olden Pontiac

This is a ’64 Pontiac Bonneville a friend of mine owns.  They brought it over a while back, thought u might like to see it. He bought it in the Midwest sometime after 2000.  Mileage just over 72,000.  An amazing car.  Actually this is more than a car.  While not as big as a motor-home i think it still falls into the same category:  LAND YACHT

Grille Img0088 Tail1 Img0095

That sucker is huge. HUGE i say.

 

Digital Cameras

Hey this is a blast from the past.  The not too distant past.  Wabak in October 2002.  These pictures were taken when our family just got a digital camera.  Some of the first shots taken by it.  So that’s what, eleven and a half years?  In the digital age we are in that’s like an eon and a half.  Take a look:

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Yes your’e right, i didn’t take these pictures.  One of the offspring did.  But how awesome is the fact that anyone can take pictures, have them available instantly, send them anywhere, keep thousands of them on a little stick, etc. Some things about this digital age are really cool.

About Your Underarms

Well after my shower today I was preparing my armpits to face the world with me. It occurred to me I should share what I use with u. You may or may not have heard of this product. Crystal deodorant stick. It is works different than ‘regular’ deodorant. No perfume, no anti perspirant. I think it simply kills bacteria and makes your pits chemistry inhospitable for the microbes to grow there. Until you sweat enough to wash it away.
So it works very well, easily lasts until your next shower. But the really cool thing is the economy of this stuff. Look at the stick. Then check the date I started using it. Coming up on a year and it looks the same size as when I bought it. I’m sure it has gotten shorter. But look at the length compared to the case. If I took an extreme guess I could say I’ve used half an inch. My though is it’s more like a quarter inch. But we’re talking about a year people. Let’s say I did use half an inch. Looks like I’ve got six good years ahead of me.
They sell it in like vitamin stores or u can get it online. I bought mine at the grocery store.
DeoStickDeoDate

Wood is Good 07 – Care and Feeding of Little Box Stove

Here’s how I bring my stove from cold, back to hot.  The aftermath of the last fire:

Ashes 1Ashes 2

Waste Not Want Not.  In order not to throw out any fuel, and to reduce waste volume, I remove the ashes but keep the charcoal for the next fire.  Large charcoal is removed with the Screen Scoop, then the rest is put onto the ash can screen with the Tin Scoop.

ScoopsAsh_Can

Then with a little shake the remaining charcoal is separated.  The charcoal is laid in the bottom of the stove.

Ash_CoalsCharcoal

The Wood is placed into the stove, usually 3 pieces.

WoodLoad1WoodLoad2

Next some small fire starters are placed underneath.

MatchReadyPineCone

Secret Weapon:  Pine Cones.  I easily picked up a whole box under the pines at my church. Match light easily!

The dampers are all opened.  Cone is lit and the stove front door is closed.  The front ash tray cover is slid mostly into place.  Within about 2 minutes the fire is starting to crackle and roar.  After 5 or 10 minutes its time to close the ash tray cover, prop it up a little for more air and put all the dampers at about 45 degrees.  Then the stove and stove pipe gets hot. REALLY hot.  Usually i turn on the central fan to circulate the heat better.

The pieces shown will burn for about 2 to 4 hours.  More wood can be put into the stove on the glowing coals without repeating this whole process.  Just open the dampers, rake the coals forward, open the stove and load more wood. Close it up and leave the ash tray cover ajar as in the above description.  Once the fire roars, close/prop the ash tray cover, dampers to 45.  Easy Peasy.

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Wood is Good 06 – Small stove, big heat

Okay as promised here’s my setup for getting the most heat from my woodstove.

Extended flue with dampers. Have a look.

2Damprs

ReturnFlue

WholeFlue

The three dampers slow down the products of combustion (that’s the technical term for smoke etc.)  The flue gets very hot, probably hotter than the stove itself.  And there is more surface area than the stove.

This whole setup is like having two stoves operating at one time, sort of.  The “second stove” doesn’t use any fuel however.  It just gives off heat.

One more thing of note – in the center picture, see that blue area? that’s the inside of my return air duct. A little crude, i made it from aluminum, part of an old pool.  Anyway when i have a nice hot fire going, i can turn on the fan from my central heat / ac system and circulate the heat to the house evenly.  By the way check the last pic.  that blue tank is my water heater, and look! my oil burner. we try not to use that at all.

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Wood is Good 04 – stove

Here’s my mighty little woodstove. This heats my house when it’s above, say, 5 deg f. Now, a little about my house. It is around 3000 square feet, basement and upstairs combined. But it is a super insulated building. We’ll go into the construction at another time.

I will say this though, above about 40 deg f, we don’t need very much added heat. If I try to use the stove when it’s 40 or above, the house over heats.

Woodstove1

I love this little cast iron unit. It does a great job and its easy to use. The front opens of course but the top also swings open as well. This makes it cake to fill. As u look at it u may b thinking it looks old, etc. Well it is not new I bought it used. Not sure how old it is really. The design is certainly old. Just a cast iron box. NOT airtight. U may think this is bad, but it’s ideal.

Next post I’ll tell you that all about it.

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Fish & Chips (from up north)

Well my friend has gone north just like i told u he would. And is in Christchurch New Zealand. Like a good roving corespondent, he’s checking out the local sights and things to do. A little later today we will put up some pics of the countryside. But he made a point to let me know he had a great lunch of fish and chips. His companion had been to the place before and liked it. Repeat business says something. So if u r hungry for some fish and chips (their other food also looks top notch) and u happen to be in Christchurch City, may i suggest this fine establishment:

Pegasus Arms Restaurant and Bar
14 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch City, NZ

pegasus-arms.com