Cold is merciless. It shows you where you are. What you are.
Wim Hof
It’s here. Winter.
I spent a very difficult day yesterday after I spent an hour grinding rusty cat pee from the top of the wood stove. I have a boy cat that just loves to pee on the stove when its cold. Then on to installing a new stove-pipe. When I got to the part where I connected that to the chimney, I discovered a problem.
The piece that connects the pipe to the chimney was loose. Great, I needed a ceiling support installation kit. No money for that right now. $170.
I thought I better go up on the roof to see what the damage was. I spent the next three hours pulling the chimney apart. It was all rusted out. The ceiling support kit and the chimney needed complete replacement. Even more money. My guess was about $600 before taxes.
One of the many problems was no heat till it was replaced. Another problem was doing that now with snow on the sheet metal roof.
I was in trouble, I knew it. No heat, no money for another week at least. Then came the work going up to the roof carrying all the new heavy chimney pipe and tools, pulling the old pipe out again. It was a huge job for an old disabled man
Then I had to go down and re-install the ceiling support kit. Then back up to lower chimney pipe into place. After that hookup up the woodstove pipe to the new chimney.Easy Peezy, if I was half the age I am or had half the injuries. No kidney, back, neck, knees or liver pain, or muscle weakness. No pain from Osteo Arthitus. Oh ya, and the shortness of breath. Courtesy of asbestos supplied by the Canadian Navy during my tour of duty. There was a another small problem. I only had enough wood to last a couple of weeks. I did have a mountain of cardboard, a lot of paper garbage. I always sort burnables from cans and bottles. So I did have that. The problem with that is it burns fast and it’s out.
I was hoping to turn that cardboard into pressed logs by adding shredded cardboard, sawdust and water. Then using a perforated PVC pipe and a bottle jack. I needed spring weather for that. What about the Chinese diesel heater? Still waiting for parts, plus it had a minimum four hour (ten hours if you are me) install that cannot be started without the parts. I do have a propane heater under my desk, I don’t trust it. I think those companies lie about the fumes and toxic byproducts, like they are doing with natural gas. Google it they have been lying since the disco era. When it gets to -50 I don’t think I will have a choice. I am not sure how much heat the diesel heater will do. Or how much diesel it will burn.
For now lots of blankets, lots of warm covers for me and my dying cat. She is getting worse but refuses to go. Still eating and drinking. Her ability to move is limited. I have her in a box beside me in the bed. I will continue to care for her until she passes and try to keep her warm. How cold is it? -4 outside, 0 in my woodwork shop, 12 where I sleep, 10 in the fire room. This is only the first day of cold. It will get worse before it gets better. The snow is coming down heavy. At least 6 inches so far.
The bifacial solar panels are doing the job. Snow covered on the front, still making power in the back, during a snowstorm. They are making 23W of power I need at least 400 but will take anything.
Looks like the snow has slowed down now. I took a look at the solar panels just now to see if I needed to go out to sweep them clean. The regular panels are covered in snow. The bifacial panels were clean. The snow slipped off those panels but stuck to the rest. Amazing and now making 100W peaking at 175W of power. I figured they would do better with snow reflecting light on them, but didn’t expect this.
I just went out in my bathrobe and snowboots and swept the remaining solar panels. That pushed up the total power harvested a little higher.
I just finished Bondtober with the last Bond Movie made. Sad to see the last one. I just read they haven’t even started the next one.
I just bent over to pet a cat and threw my back completely out. The last time this happened, I had to crawl to my vehicle to get to the hospital.I think I still have some muscle relaxant here somewhere. Getting up to find them will be the next challenge. Maybe in the morning. Not sure what to watch next maybe Eastwood or Bronson. In order of their release dates so I can watch their skills and styles evolve. I just tried to roll over to lay òn the other side, that was a two scream event, and I was not successful.
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