OT The advantages of home repair

[philoÂÂ]

Two years ago I had my knees replaced so had not been able to do much maintenance on my old house.

Knees now in good shape I decided to bring all the wiring up to code and add a few more circuits. To get wires from the basement to attic, had to run up along the chimney. Were it not for that I may not have noticed that the flue was bad.

One repair job leading to another.

Now two weeks later I've done a lot of work and I'll be darned... lost all that weight I gained from being inactive.

Guess it's time to look for more projects. On a 116 year old house, don't have too far to go.

[Jan Alter]

You gave me a smile.

Good luck with your future, and your projects.

JA

[philoÂÂ]

flue was bad.

When I started to tell my wife how much weight I lost, she told me to shut up!

I told her to help me with my projects!

[Terry Coombs]

I've found that splitting firewood is a great way to help control my weight . Tightens up the ol' abs too . I'm up to a little over 2 cords , would like 3 more before the weather gets cold .

[Terry Coombs]

Let's not get started with wives and weight . Mine sometimes reads over my shoulder ...nuff said .

[philoÂÂ]

When I was in the Army, I took a leave with one of my friends to visit his 80 year old grandfather who lived in England.

With a two man saw we decided to help the guy and saw up some large logs for him.

He ran over to us laughing and single handedly did it himself in less than half the time it would have taken us.

I am not much of a firewood expert.

[Terry Coombs]

Neither am I , but I've learned that green wood doesn't heat as well as seasoned ... last winter was my first rodeo , as they say . This year we'll be warmer and I'll work less .

[Stormin Mormon]

I've heard that green wood has a lot of water. And most of the firewood goes to boiling out the water instead of heating your house.

Most of the wood burners up Nawth, keep the wood under a roof or tarp, so it doesn't get rained on.

One old man I knew, used to pour crankcase oil onto his wood pile, more stuff to burn. He said that even light wood like dried willow burned a lot better when soaked full of used motor oil. Sounds messy, I'd think.

[philoÂÂ]

I thought green wood causes too much soot in your flue.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, wife just had a little surgery to fix her left hand pinky finger yesterday. Result of too much sewing, knitting, crochet, gardening. Already running around in the yard watering, weeding... We're both on the wrong side of 70, I always weigh 150, she 120. Our weight never fluctuate too much. I am really worried when I don't have some thing to do. Lately I started fixing broken laptops people don't want and selling some giving away some to needy student or whoever. Lot of repairs are surprisingly very minimal, minor problems. Take it easy and have fun.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Because you don't have a dog? Our dog forced us to exercise(walk) twice every day. Total 6 miles. Lately we're hit with heat wave, have to go out B4 sun up and after sun down watching the coyotes.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, In the city no house has wood burning FP any more. Even out at my cabin it is NG FP. I still burn fire wood using fire pit for fun. My back yard has one too. In the evening, it gets cool always even in summer(~10 deg. C)

[Harry K]

I heat 99% with wood and the work involved in it is my physical therapy. J ust finished splitting/stacking 4 1/2 cords working at at 1 hour per day ev ery orning (weather permitting). I need to either boost the time I spend do ing it or cut down on the brews, my belly isn't getting any smaller :(

I should be out cutting more in a day or two if the farmer has harvested t he field I have to cross to get to the trees.

I have about 70 cords of black locust split and stacked almost all done man ually. The Locust Borer killed BL all over this county and I harvested almo st every dead tree withing 30 miles of the house. I have a hydraulic splitt er but it only sees the tough stuff (knots/crotches, etc).

Harry K

[Harry K]

I spent 21 years in the AF flying a desk. Every vacation I would help out a bit at home but it was very obvious I was in no shape to be physically ac tive. Last year before retiring I took a part time job working in an iron foundry. Now _that_ does a good tune-up job!! Nothing beats wrestling aro und with 200 lb manhole covers at 5pm with the temps outside in hi 90s and the covers coming out of the sand hot.

The local community college football coach used to send members of his team to that outfit for 'shaping up'. One night I reported and there were two big husky newbie footballers assigned to us. An hour later one comes over to me and asks who the boss was. I pointed him out. Guy goes over, a minu te chit-chat and both of them left :).

Harry K

[Ed Pawlowski]

Exactly. It takes a lot of energy to boil off that water and the heat is wasted up the stack. Not only that, if you have a chimney cap, the vapor will often condense on the cold cap and drop back down the flue and run out the bottom cleanout.

Wood should be cut and left to dry at least six months, 12 months is better. If you have room to bring some wood into the house for a week or two before burning it will dry even more and give a better fire.

[Terry Coombs]

We used to walk the dog twice a day . But now she's old , and isn't really into anything but sleeping in front of the TV ... kinda like me . Not really , I get plenty of exercise . The wife though , doesn't . She talks about it , but just never seems to find the right time .

[Terry Coombs]

Not soot , creosote . And that can be minimized by letting the stove run at full blast for a couple of hours once a week . Cooks the creosote so that it flakes off and falls down into the stove .

[Terry Coombs]

You've heated with wood ... and I'm putting up wood for next winter . The first stack I'll burn is what I cut at the end of last winter , it'll be plenty dry by then . The wood I'm cutting now is all dead trees , most standing but a couple of nice ones that were already down . I'll be out cutting this winter too , for the next year . If I do this right I'll only be cutting in winter when the bugs and snakes aren't a problem and I'll always have a supply on hand of well-seasoned wood .

[Terry Coombs]

Most of the stuff I split this morning is stuff I didn't split last winter because it's knots and crotches ... once you figure it out it's still not easy , but can be done . Having dried for a few months helped , I think . I don't have a powered splitter , I think the splitting is what tightens the ol' tummy . Back out to the woods , got a tree to fell . Red oak , about 55-60 ft tall , still has some bark but is most assuredly dead . I expect to get close to a cord out of this one .

[Stormin Mormon]

You wore out the dog? Wow!