Test Driving the New Woodstove

Got the new woodstove Wednesday.  Reading the owners manual, I discovered it needs to be broken in.  This is the first time I've seen anything about having to break in a stove.  Had to buy a thermometer so could do the break in properly.  Wasn't really cool this morning(70 degrees in the house), but thought I'd start the break in process now so can use it when the weather gets cold enough to use the stove.

On the first firing, you only bring the temperature of the stove up to 200 degrees F.  Hold it for an hour and let it cool to room temp.  Second firing, bring it up to 300F, hold for an hour and cool.  Third firing, bring it up to 400F for an hour and cool.  Then it should be broken in and can be used as needed.

Having a learning curve on firing this stove.  It is so air-tight that it took me 3 tries to get a fire going.  Finally figured out I had to leave the door open a little for it to get enough air to start burning good.  The little air vent in the door doesn't provide enough air when starting a fire.

Cast into the front of the stove is a Norwegian saying, "I built me a flame late one night.  When day is done, God will my flame never die."  Question is which God, Thor or Odin??

Happy Camper

Last night I was able to watch the Packer game online.  It was livestreamed on nbc.com and because I have my TV hooked up to the confuser, I was able to watch the game comfortably from my recliner.  Have to see if that will work for other games on Fox or CBS.

It kept saying it was Sunday Night Football or SNF, but wasn't last night Thursday????

New Voter ID Law

Flowchart of GOP Candidates

From MoveOn.org.

Life UP on the Tundra

CALUMET - A beaver cut through a fiber optic cable 2 miles south of Calumet, causing 911 service outage today in northern Houghton County and all of Keweenaw County, along with additional problems for AT&T landline customers in the 337 and 289 prefix telephone exchanges.


Article in The Daily Mining Gazette.


Same thing happened a couple of years ago.

Car Ads

Noticed a couple of things while watching ads on TV lately.  It is not just the FuckingRepublican politicians that think geezers have money, that's why they want to make cuts to their Social Security and Medicare.





The other thing I noticed in these ads is how fucking lame their kids are!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chainsaws

A few days ago I was going to cut up some trees I had cut down.  On the first cut my saw started making a weird noise.  I bought the saw 14yrs ago and can't figure out why it would give me trouble now after all those years of good service??

Husqvarna 51

Wanted to get the wood cut, so went to my back-up saw, a Stihl 015.  That little saw cut a lot of firewood when I first bought it.  It was my only saw for several years before I bought a larger saw, a Stihl 029.  Then 14yrs ago I bought the Husky 51 because The Kid wouldn't use either of  my saws because they didn't have chain brakes.

Stihl 015

Realized again how much more work it was to cut with the smaller saw.  Once when I was cutting with the 029, the muffler came loose.  Decided to finish cutting firewood with the 015 until I had a load.  After several cuts in some large wood, I packed it in and went home to fix the 029 as cutting with the 015 was much more work.  The 015 is good for trimming and cutting small brush, but is a lot of work when it comes to cutting large wood.

The cause of the weird noise, broken clutch spring.

When I took the side cover off, I found the cause of the noise.  The clutch spring had broken.

New spring installed.

The next day I when to town and bought a new spring for the clutch.  Cost all of $2.99.  Took a number of attempts to get the ends of the spring hooked together.

Seat Warmer Use in L.A.

The talking heads on KTLA Morning News this morning were talking about using their seat warmers on their morning commute this morning.  In L.A.??  WTF??

TeaBagger and Plutocrat