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Today's Actvities


Dottleshead

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I need to mow both lawns.  Top lawn is easy.  Bottom line is a drag.  Need to move a large stack of pellets located in the garage to downstairs into the cache area.  (It'll be nice to have a much shorter move when my shed is done).  I have to use the splitter and go through a bunch of rounds that I'm unlikely to get through all today by myself. If there is time, clean the pellet stove and/or get up on the roof and sweep the chimney (this task is likely not going to make it this weekend). Afterwards, I have about an hour of on the job real work to do before the morning.  Projected weather today is 86 degrees.

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Ok, I mowed the front lawn.  Hauled about twenty 40 lb bags of pellets in from the garage.  Moved a bunch 2x6 planks down from the front to the back. Finally removed a bunch of tarps off a stack of wood  in the back that I should have done last month. No great loss as I doubt I'll even get to it this year.  Still haven't used the splitter.  Still haven't cleaned the stove -- though it's pretty hot out and may decide to clean it today (as the inside is much, much cooler) and then clean the flues next weekend.

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I did the most basic of mowing yesterday.  Been doing lots of little stuff inside.  Washed sheets, towels, clothes and folded them all.   Cleaned the microwave and freezer.  Took the filter out of the vent a hood and cleaned it with very hot water and degreaser and then cleaned the stainless on the vent a hood and stove with a commercial degreaser.  Also swept the entire house except for the boys bedrooms.

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11 minutes ago, jsharr said:

I did the most basic of mowing yesterday.  Been doing lots of little stuff inside.  Washed sheets, towels, clothes and folded them all.   Cleaned the microwave and freezer.  Took the filter out of the vent a hood and cleaned it with very hot water and degreaser and then cleaned the stainless on the vent a hood and stove with a commercial degreaser.  Also swept the entire house except for the boys bedrooms.

Between work and dealing with my dad and running various errands -- lots of things got put on the back burner.  It's nice to finally get to some of those things on the back burner. Cleaning my pellet stove is going to be a grind.  It's about an hour+ job not including the flue.  It's an insert and I'm going to have to get the rails out and pull it out.  I probably will wait and do that later tonight.

Keep up the good work.  I shouldn't complain about the heat.  But I'm a bigger guy and I'm from western PNW and I'm a total heat wimp.  I could not take your annual temps. 

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biked up a little hill for a city view and then over to farmers' market. Had a Turkish borek snack and coffee before hauling out a flat of blueberries, smaller boxes of blackberries, currants and raspberries, snowpeas, beans, mushrooms and some peaches for home on bike. I always like weekends...heavy bikeload on quieter roads and less people around.  I was a little shocked by new paved tight road over a historic road bridge which part of it will be torn down.  It's destroying the flavour of the area. 

Waiting for phone call from friend 4 provinces east of me after shower. Supper with a small salmon steamed piece and veggies with light noodles. 

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8 minutes ago, Dottie said:

Ok. It's 83 and off I attempt to split those huge rounds.

When I was selling firewood, I didn't have a splitter but was young, strong, and stupid.

I remember sawing some chunks into quarters because I couldn't split them, even with multiple wedges.

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1 hour ago, Further said:

When I was selling firewood, I didn't have a splitter but was young, strong, and stupid.

I remember sawing some chunks into quarters because I couldn't split them, even with multiple wedges.

I split about 4 cords last summer. I got a whole bunch of giant rounds last winter from a neighbor. I tried to split them and I was exhausted wasting energy in that futile exercise as the axe or maul was simply absorbed by the pulp. Too wet.

This is the first time I have used a splitter and while it can be time consuming, it is easier on the body and you pretty much you can get uniform splits... which is nice for stacking. Plus it seems to split wet wood no problem. Taking a break. Will start it up again soon.

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Another HUGE advantage over a splitter is that it can handle knots.  I never in a million years would have been able to manually split that pine.  And the giant knots in the douglas fir were dealt with nicely.  Usually.  Sometimes it just made a mess of it -- but it cut through.

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Watched the TdF followed by coffee in the hot tub.  Did some mowing and whipper snipping, cleaned up around the hot tub, watered the garden boxes and ate some raspberries off the vine.  Went into the office to drop some stuff off and ran a few errands.  Got someone in from Ottawa this week so met up with him to make sure he was in and settled.

Will do some laundry tonight

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Did my laundry.....hung it outside and got everything dry and put away. Had a lovely lunch of an Arbroath Smokie, Ayreshire potatoes and petite pois....and a glass of white wine.

@Dottie......why does your pellet stove get so dirty? Is this the wood you are using or is it not burning hot enough so that the smoke is condensing into tar? I've found that too much damping of the chimney so that it became cold was responsible for my wood-burner doing this at one time. 

I'm determined to go on offering solutions although you may not have a problem. :nodhead:

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I don't know. I burn the highest grade pellet out there. I mean, folks out East salivate at the quality and price I can get premium pellet fuel. So it's called premium because of it's heat content and little residue. I have found that after burning 3 1/2 tons of pellets, I need to sweep the flue. Last year I burned 2 1/2 tons. So it just makes all kind of sense to do it over the summer. A big push for doing it myself this year is so I can see for myself instead of relying on others. My wood stove upstairs doesn't require as much cleaning. It has its own flue and has a little wider flue and obviously has a shorter draft.

@onbike1939

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