Good morning!!!!

[Buppies]

Another inch of rain frozen again but still have power. Made the local news filmed power company replacing pole lines and had power company representative explain what they did. Have sock filter in pond to prevent pollution

Maybe get to 40 today but 35 mph gusts hopefully power stays on

Again sorry for your loss Toppop

Prayers for all our Country

 

[daugen]

This demonstrates that reliable power generation MUST be from all available sources

I agree. Probably only exception might be hydro where you have overcapacity.
But even hydros break...or the transmission lines to and from them have a problem. Or you have an earthquake.

LNG fired steam boilers is proven tech, much cleaner than coal, though hard coal with state of the art scrubbers on the stacks
do a good job too. If all those folks supporting their families by digging coal could look forward to an equal or better paying, safer job
this whole changeover process would go much faster.

Until then, maximizing solar, hydro and wind makes sense. But since they don't work all the time, need lots of backup.

on a fairly ugly pier, in fact several of them, in NYC float a number of big barges with "peaker" turbines running on some form of petroleum fuel.
Basically old tech jet engines tied to a big generator. They come on when everything else runs out. I can't imagine what the air quality was like anywhere near them.
Steam powered (coal, LNG, nuke) powerplants need a water source for cooling so they are near rivers or bays. Which of course is where the population is, not out in the middle of the prairie.
The prairie instead is good for solar and wind power, as well as feeding us all.

We know how to make clean power, not enough will power in most countries yet to make it happen, but we are making progress.
If only we could figure out how to safely dispose
of nuclear waste. The challenge for us of course is we live on this earth with
many other folks, some who are going their laundry in the same water their cows are using for a toilet.

One just has to look at China to see what happens if we don't pay any attention to our environment and simply allow the lowest cost solution to be maintained.
Whereas look at Iceland where 100 percent of their power is renewable energy, hydro and geothermal. But even they find they need backup petroleum fired generators.
I believe the old adage about not having all one's eggs in one basket sure applies here.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
It’s 37 and raining with a high in the mid 40’s and clearing forecast.
That’s a whole lot better than the ice that was predicted earlier. Nice day tomorrow and then snow on Thursday

Yesterday was another day without outside interruption, I spent the whole day in the shop.Got the 3D printer situated and making steady progress on speakers.

Spent a batch of time researching the R4 tires on my tractor,as far as pressure and the setting for the electronic display to give an accurate speed, rather than tire circumference, Kubota uses a 4 digit code that doesn’t seem to have a mathematical relationship to the actual circumference. The complication was that the code for R4 tires was not in the workshop manual. I did a batch of searching online, and found codes, but not for my exact model (L6060HSTC). I finally reached out to the dealer, and the service manager didn’t know either, but to his credit, called me back with the code by the end of the day. So basically it was an exercise in OCD on my part just to make the speedometer read accurately.

RNG- I don’t think that the heavier box would add traction unless it was lifted off the ground. I would think that if it was engaged with the ground and full of rocks, it would increase the need for traction with a higher draft force, but can’t see how it would add traction. Perhaps I’m missing something.

Randy, sorry about your mom, I definitely second looking through her things carefully for hidden treasure, I’m still going through my Mom’s things and finding things in the craziest places.

Looks like we will have reasonably decent weather for the move today.

Still no vaccine, but it seems to be getting a little closer.

 

[Thomas]

Sorry for loss of tour mother Randy...special thoughts prayers..

 

[Thomas]

28F now mid low 30's for high,3" inches snow mostly sleet mix still falling.

Outside chores done E muffin time.
Plans for today...storm should be departing 1-2pm I start snow clean up until than putter.

Enjoy and stay safe all.

 

[Buppies]

Beautiful glaze on the trees now sun is coming up clouds dispersing beautiful day if dry enough tree removal again two years in a row

Maybe put some food out for four legged critters

 

[farmeratheart]

Good morning All.

36 this morning when the dogs got up. 39 right now and headed to 45 ... OMG WHAT’S THAT BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE EASTERN SKY? Sorry, it has been a few days since we’ve seen the sun!

Have a good day.

Frank

 

[txdon]

Good morning! ZERO DEGREES F. The coldest of all mornings.

Rolling blackouts caused the house temp to drop to 55˚F, Garage 37˚F. UPS with no load used up half of it's battery supply. There was a 6 hour gap in the Tempest weather station reporting. I rebooted it and it came back on line the last reading before reboot was at midnight was 2˚F

Another ice weather event is hitting tonight. The vaccination site has shut down and my 2nd shot has been re-scheduled to Saturday. Only one vehicle ventured out on my street yesterday and came back in a few minutes. probably could not make it up the hill at the end of the street. Goal of the day is just to keep things running. House is back up to 60˚F. We have been below freezing now for 5 days.

Edit: the kitchen oven clock is 3.5 hours behind, so w had 3.5 hours of rolling blackouts last night.

There is no wind now so the wind turbines are making no electricity, hopefully someone will clean the solar panels and we will get a few hours there before the storms hit again or night comes.

 

[wngsprd]

36 going to 58 and maybe some sun.

Hard to believe the forecasters anymore...most of the last few months they have had a pretty tough job calling it...like predicting a quarter inch of rain last night but actually getting an inch. Now we are looking at another ice storm this week that they say will be worse than Saturday's. Hope they are wrong this time.

Sorry you guys in Texas are having blackouts. That may become the norm for the whole country moving forward.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG- I don’t think that the heavier box would add traction unless it was lifted off the ground. I would think that if it was engaged with the ground and full of rocks, it would increase the need for traction with a higher draft force, but can’t see how it would add traction. Perhaps I’m missing something.

I agree that putting more weight on the box blade won't help when it's on the ground, but a bucket full of rocks will help in that situation. My biggest issue is moving the pallets of firewood up to the garage, which involves a steep grade and a turn. Without rear ballast, the rear wheels will spin, even on concrete, so I keep it in 4WD. That puts the drive line components under stress when I try to turn on the concrete, so it's a no-win situation. So far it's been a pretty mild winter out here, and hopefully I won't get a chance to see if more weight out back solves the issue if this last pallet of firewood gets me through March.