Fan With No Visible Power Source

Yesterday we received our new fan in the mail.  There are no batteries and no power cord.  It uses the heat from the stove to generate enough electricity to power the motor that spins the fan.  When the stove reaches about 250 degrees it starts to spin.  The hotter the stove the faster it spins.  When it slows to the point where you can see the fan blade and think you can count the revolutions, it's time to throw another log on the fire.

There are several reasons I like this fan.  It sits on top of the stove and moves the hot air right from the source.  It uses the heat of the stove to work, so doesn't cost anything to run.  Also it only works when the stove is putting out some heat; when the stove cools down, it stops.

How this works had me scratching my ass ever since I first saw one.  Did a quick Google search this morning and came to the conclusion that it is powered by a thermocouple.

The first one I saw had a price tag of $180 and I thought it was a neat idea, but not $180 neat.  This one was a hundred bucks less.

Got My Boat Back

Friday I went and got my boat back.  About 6 yrs ago I gave it to the son-in-law.  He used it for a few years and then lost interest in it.  The registration expired in '08.

As it looked Friday morning.

After sitting in the back yard for several years, the boat was not looking too good.  I took the cover and the plastic sheet under the cover off and put them in the trashcan.  Next summer I'll have something to occupy my time fixing the boat up.  Now I'll have a chance to do the things I originally planned on doing to the boat.  Like new seats and building a seat across the back with the battery and gas tanks underneath.  Also finish stripping the paint off and repainting it.  I think the white paint on it is the paint used for painting lines in parking lots!!  When I first got it there were several cans of parking lot marking paint in the boat.

The worst of the flat tires.

 All the tires were flat, this picture shows the worst of them.  Tried to air it up using an air tank and a strap around the tire to get the bead back on the rim.  Wouldn't hold air enough to seat the bead, had to take it to a tire shop and had them put bead sealer on it and then air it up.  The other tire looked like it was just low, but had to take it to the tire shop for bead sealer too.  The spare wouldn't take air, but by then I figured I was done playing with tires.

Parked for the winter.

Spent Saturday afternoon getting it ready for winter.  Blocked up the trailer to take the weight off the wheels and springs.  Made a roof over the open part of the boat and put a tarp over it.  We seem to have a lull between snowstorms which allowed me to go get the boat and create an area to park the boat out of the way.  Come next May I'll be able to take the tarp off and start get it ready for summer.

Ages

'Tis The Season

Libya, Labia, Same Thing, Right????????????

How About We Starve This Beast??

Doh!!

Update: After the Storm

This morning we woke up to over a foot of snow on the ground.  Shortly after we got up the lights went out.  They had gone out several times during the evening yesterday, so it was no surprise.

Old school light.

 We lit the kerosene lamp and started melting snow for toilet flushing.  The one drawback of no electricity is the water pump won't run which means no water until the power comes back.

Melting snow in case we need water to flush the toilet.

 The one thing we didn't have to worry about with the power out was getting cold.  The woodstove puts out plenty of heat, at times too much.

 The pumphouse has block walls 3 blocks high and the snow is halfway up the wall.  The ground slopes away from the pumphouse, so this shot shows that we got at least a foot of snow.

My Jeep in action.

Finally got the plow going.  First I had to find where I left the battery.  Then when I got it started, it ran out of gas.  Thought about asking the neighbor to plow us out, but found out he wasn't home.  Didn't have any gas as I hadn't filled my gas cans.  Fired up my other old truck and parked it in the field out of the way, siphoned out 5 gal of gas and put it in the Jeep.  Then I had to drive it to where the plow was and hook up the plow.  After all that I was able to plow the driveway.  We paid the county road commission to plow out driveway, but they don't plow private drives until the road freezes.  That's one of the reason I bought this old Jeep and worked on fixing it up so I could plow with it.

First Real Snow

Today we got our first real snow of the season.  Reminds me of this snow story.  I doubt if what happened to the guy in the story will happen to me.  When it comes to snow, I've had tadpoles before.

Snow on vehicles.

 Just looked out and the snow is almost up to the rocker panels on the car.  We don't have to go anywhere in the next day or so, so no worries.

Apple tree with snow on branches.  

Snow on my four-wheeler.

Tomorrow I'll see how my four-wheeler goes in the snow.  Should have fun playing in the white stuff.  I think I'll unhook the trailer first.

Another apple tree with snow on it.

This apple tree is just outside the back door and the picture also shows that we've gotten about 5 inches going by what's on the pumphouse.

Bambis

Had some visitors yesterday.  These two fawns and their mother.  I didn't get any pictures of the doe as when I saw them, she had moved to where there were trees between me and her.  She spent most of the time standing guard while the fawns ate.  Took these pictures through the living room window.

Looks like this summer's fawn, might be a young buck.

Close-up on the one I think is a young buck.

Fawn eating Canadian thistle, that they can eat all they want.  The Old Lady gets pissed when they eat her flowers.

Different Season, Different Birds

Chickadees attacking suet/seed cakes.

Took down the hummingbird feeder after Labor Day as they seemed to be gone for the year.  Put up the suet feeder for the chickadees.  Last year I did the suet feeder in a tree earlier in the year(summer) and the jays(Blue and Canadian a.k.a. Camp Robber Jays) destroyed the suet in a couple of days.  Now it is hanging from the eave of the house and although a jay tried to land on the feeder, it didn't stay on it.

They Lie

The only way you can optimize your fuel economy is if you can come up with a way to move the truck without starting the engine!!! Eight miles to the gallon is not fuel economy!!

Back Home Again

Video showing me arriving UP on the Tundra.

Any day now the scene in the video could look like the picture in the header of this blog.