Coffee anyone ?

[Mini Horses]

Decent day. Breezy & coolish. Chores were done early. Then settled in for morning coffee. Decided to can some of the over abundance of sweet potatoes I have. Peeled and peeled. More than needed for the 7qt for canner, soooo -- I'll cook those left into puree and make a pie! Yummy with morning coffee

 

[Alaskan]

@Alaskan i have a couple of these collapsible TAC lights. Power goes off here often.


View attachment 113559

Coffee is ready, it rained last night and stormed. Supposed to be raining the next 5 days.

Those look nice! Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Alaskan]

Pouring rain here. Should stop by noon. The great wood stove debate has resumed. I can’t find the helpful comments supplied here. Had to change accounts a couple of times when site or my iPhone malfunctioned, passwords etc. I’m thinking Drolet, catalytic?, while the Homer Simpson voice says “Ummm Vermont Casting, enameled”. Probably a multi step project. Best stove anyone?

i hate catalytic stoves. If you burn trash the catalytic thing gets gummed up. Then you have to replace it clean it... stuff!

horrid.

I like a non-catalytic, a non-catalytic can be EPA approved if the smoke is forced to reburn. You want an efficient stove that re-burns the smoke. A metal box in which you make a fire goes through WAY MORE wood than an efficient stove.

However, you want a switch so you can bypass the re-burn loop when you are starting up the fire. Just a straight easy path for the smoke when you are starting up a cold woodstove greatly reduces smoke in the house. Also, a blow torch, very handy to heat up a cold wood stove.

The new EPA non-caralytic... starting maybe in 2020???? No longer let you fully bank the fire. Banking the fire (maybe my terms are off... dunno), what I mean by that is you only barely let the fire get air, so that it burns very slowly all night long. But, it turns out that doing that means the fire is a lower temp which causes more particulates, so no longer EPA approved. To "fix" this annoying eco-friendly feature you have to plug up the holes that they drill into the bottom of the fire box. We haven't plugged the holes .... eh...

Other than that.... you want your smoke stack as close to straight as possible.

Woodstove in the middle of the house is most efficient... but often impossible. A heat sink is great... so, tile or stone under and around the wood stove to hold the heat that the stove makes.

Those masonry wood stoves with the built in benches are fantastic. But they usually have a small firebox, you need hard wood that is well seasoned (so, oak would be great), and it needs to be split into little kindling. Then you burn a really hot small fire, and all that heat goes into the masonry, and is radiated out over many hours. But, they cost a small fortune.

 

[Blue Sky]

^ oh thank you so much. I knew you and others gave me good advice but I couldn’t backtrack it. Got it, no catalytic. I’m hoping Texas says EPA butt out. I don’t ordinarily do an end run around Hubbs but I wish I had with a stove. I could have bought a nice one a couple of years ago far cheaper. And resold it if need be. Hindsight and all. Seasoned wood? Yes indeed. Mostly oak. Generator-yes but if it failed I want a stove to fall back on. Imma pessimist.

 

[Alaskan]

^ oh thank you so much. I knew you and others gave me good advice but I couldn’t backtrack it. Got it, no catalytic. I’m hoping Texas says EPA butt out. I don’t ordinarily do an end run around Hubbs but I wish I had with a stove. I could have bought a nice one a couple of years ago far cheaper. And resold it if need be. Hindsight and all. Seasoned wood? Yes indeed. Mostly oak. Generator-yes but if it failed I want a stove to fall back on. Imma pessimist.

Full on agreement. Just be pessimistic/ paranoid in a practical way!

If you pick a stove with a flat top you can cook on the top. It doesn't have to be a cook stove. Actually, cook wood stoves aren't practical from a "heat your home" standpoint.

 

[peteyfoozer]

Started a new project today. I haven’t crocheted in years so I spent all day working on something. It was going well until Boone decided he wanted my attention. After parking himself in front of me, and ooohwoohing at me, he was apparently pissed that I kept counting stitches, so he grabbed my skein of yarn out of my bag and took off with it. Last week it was my phone!
He is brutal to the competition. Needless to say, I had to spend 1/2 hr playing “find the ___” with him until he was satisfied.

Managed dinner again, made lamb ribs, crash hot potatoes and corn. So good.

 

[SageHill]

Started a new project today. I haven’t crocheted in years so I spent all day working on something. It was going well until Boone decided he wanted my attention. After parking himself in front of me, and ooohwoohing at me, he was apparently pissed that I kept counting stitches, so he grabbed my skein of yarn out of my bag and took off with it. Last week it was my phone!
He is brutal to the competition. Needless to say, I had to spend 1/2 hr playing “find the ___” with him until he was satisfied.

Managed dinner again, made lamb ribs, crash hot potatoes and corn. So good.

Ohhh lamb ribs - how did you do them?

 

[fuzzi]

I’m real happy for you, but you can keep the cold! What a change, from Beaumont, Texas, right on the Gulf of Mexico to Montana! You are tougher than I am. I’ll just keep my wimpy little self right here in East Texas. If I ever get up to Montana, you can bet it will be in the heat of summer. What DAY do you celebrate summer?

I had a friend many years ago who lived in South Dakota. She said they had 9 months of winter and three months of bad sledding...

 

[fuzzi]

Those look nice! Thanks for the recommendation.

I have some of those, too. I prefer the ones that have a rubberish outer covering.