Howhill Pics

[Dave Liquorice]

this morning before it started to heavily snow. It won't look like that now!

[tony sayer]

In article , Dave Liquorice scribeth thus

Remind me Dave, which mountain you live on again;?....

[Dave Liquorice]

look

Sorry went into the wrong group but still... Above Alston on the North Pennines at 1400'.

Still snowing on and off. We now have the depth of snow in 4 days as we had in Jan/Feb that took several weeks to accumulate. The drifts are not quite as developed as the wind has only been F4 ish. The snow is blowing but once down tends to stay down and not get picked back up.

[tony sayer]

Brrrr!, AFAIAC your welcome to it up there .. don't want it darn sarff;!...

[Dave Liquorice]

Whimp. B-) Max today -2.9C Min -9.4C. Average wind chill -16C. 5th Ice day on the trot, it would be the 7th if it hadn't briefly and marginally got above 0C on the 26th.

[The Wanderer]

Somehow, I didn't think it was Norfolk! :-)

[tony sayer]

Brrrrr!, cubed then;!...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Liquorice" saying something like:

Bit of a bugger if you're the first vehicle out in the deep(er) stuff - at least around here, there's always a few out and around creating trackways in it with their tractors, Jeeps, etc.

[Jules Richardson]

Not bad (& nice photos!). Max of -10C here today, min of -18C. Not sure what the min/max windchill was, although the weather site that I use is claiming -21C at the moment.

Back garden currently looking like this:

(well, it was earlier, it's dark out now)

We don't get too much drifting here thankfully - too many trees in the way.

cheers

Jules

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Jules Richardson saying something like:

Looks like you're well into engine block heater territory, there. This past week has convinced me of the desirability of such things - even the simple expedient of putting a small tubular heater under the battery has made a significant difference to the under-bonnet temperature and the car starts no problem. I'm still looking for a suitable block heater and am taken with the incredibly cheap prices of the ones on the American market - $25-30 , but the voltage is a problem. I've found a couple of 220V tank heaters, but block heaters of 220V, there are none that I can see. European prices for them are bloody ridiculous.

[Another John]

DAMN! Is that your back yard? Look at that shed!!! :-)

I've forgotten your history Jules -- how did you end up out there? (wherever "there" is -- forgotten that, too, 'cept it's in the northern midwest ISTR)

John

[Tabby]

Sounds like you need a dropper

[Jules Richardson]

Yeah, the out-buildings are all unheated though, so I end up doing most things in the basement of the house during the winter, which is a little warmer (it's not insulated, but the concrete floors and walls are between

9" and 12" thick, so it stays reasonable). I've got a wood-burning furnace lined up to go in the workshop building next year though, which will help no end (and might end up blocking off half the attached vehicle shed and putting some doors on it, so I can heat that too if I'm working on one of the vehicles)

I'm up in northern Minnesota - met a very nice lady on a trip here 5 years ago and we eventually got hitched. I've been out here permanently for three years now.

It's all lakes and trees here - the state's about the same size as England, but has only around 5 million people (and 3 million of them are all down around Minneapolis and suburbs). It's pretty quiet up here :-)

cheers

Jules

[Jules Richardson]

Yeah, they are pretty common in these parts (and places like hotels often have hook-ups for them out in the car parks)

I've got one on the van, but the car doesn't have one and has never had any trouble though (despite still running on a battery that's now 13 years old - all hail Toyota :-) The PAS pump does tend to whine a bit for the first few seconds when it's seriously cold, but a block heater wouldn't help there anyway.

I've not got one on the truck either, but I just don't try to mess with that once the snow hits anyway - it's rwd with drum brakes, no servo- assist and no power steering, so it'd be a bit of a handful in this weather!

Hmm, ring from an electric cooker, strapped to the bottom of the sump pan? You know it makes sense. ;-)

Maybe you need to look at which countries have 240V (or thereabouts) power, and which of those have serious cold climates - perhaps you can find somewhere that'll ship overseas, and they should hopefully be cheap?

cheers

Jules

[Dave Liquorice]

Eh? It's only resistive, so not fussy and not that big a load either, a few hundred watts. The easy way to get 110v over here is with site transformer. They are available from about =A350 in powers from 750W to

3kW without looking hard. This will also give you isolation from the mains, which might not be a bad idea out in the cold and wet...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Jules Richardson saying something like:

Tried that - lots of Eastern European countries have used block heaters and other devices, but there's a real dearth of them on t'net. Even the bloody Wartburg had one, but a simple rad hose heater (as it was) won't do the Toyota, as the thermostat is at the top of the bottom rad hose and would obstruct the flow.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Liquorice" saying something like:

Thought of that, but it's a pita and it would mean lugging my site txfrmr everywhere I go.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Grimly Curmudgeon saying something like:

I ended up buying one of these - including postage, half the price of similar European offerings, and in the right voltage, too.

's one left, so fill yer boots.

[Jules Richardson]

It'll only fill one boot, there being only one left. You could cut it in half with an angle grinder and half-fill a pair of boots, I suppose.