Miller time!

[MossRoad]

Thanks! (snow didn't stick to roads overnight, just some icy patches) 1" of snow at the most. Makes the grass look nice but no tractor time /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

 

[TimSullivan]

<font color=blue>Tim -- Your comment about venison reminded me of one of the first movies I watched with the woman who would become my wife. We were watching Bambi, toward the end during the hunt scene, and almost in unison we each said "That herd sure needs thinning!"

I knew she was the one for me! </font color=blue>


Hi Pete,

I made the same decision the day I just dropped in at Jane's family farm. Her father had the rear end of one of the tractors all pulled apart. My new girl friend was helping her father and was grease from head to toe. She saw me coming and had her father cut me off while she ran to the house. Her father and I talked for a little while then she came out of the house all cleaned up and as her father said, "watch it boy she has her hunting clothes on".

 

[DrDan]

I'm with you Pete! Of course I'm into the "good" coffee instead of beer. Beer puts me to sleep...

Anyhow, every year I start making Xmas presents in November and no matter how far ahead I plan, I am always putting finish on on Christmas eve.

This year I have the best shop ever (a new Morton building with a 30' X 40' woodshop room and heat in the floor). I think it's nice to work in bare feet and look out the window and see the snow falling!

Anyhow, this year I have been incredibly busy building stuff for the shop. The latest are two 28" X 36" X 36" tool cabinets with sliding shelves. God is it gonna be nice to have all the hand tools in one place.

Then I bought a Tormek water sharpener with all the jigs. It took about two weeks just to sharpen everything I own to razor sharp edges. Gheesh, I sent some 15" planer blades to Woodcraft for reshapening and when I got them back I ended up putting them on the Tormek. Gosh that machine will put an edge on tools.

With my obsession for making wooden bowls, it sure is nice to have sharp tools!

I have another building 30' X 60' where I store lumber and the tractors and impliments. No heat but perfect for stashing stuff. My lumber pile to use up this year consists of 750 board foot of wormy red oak, 600 board feet of cherry a couple hundred of ash and some fairly ugly water maple. Can't get the good maple like you guys have. Maybe sometime I can load the trailer with red oak and bring it up and swap you for maple.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, I love winter also. Not much outside work to do so I can get into the shop stuff.

Oh ya have to tell you about my new lumber wagon! Bought a 4 wheel wagon with steerable front wheels for $230 without a bed. I am putting a flat bed on it with lots of tie down spots. It is going to be wonderful! Have stumps and logs laying all over the dang place and now I will be able to load them on the wagon and park it right in the garage door area of the shop. Just grab the chainsaw and slice off some chunks for bowls. Nice thing about 4 wheel trailers is you can unhook and let them set.

Enough....

Have a good winter...

DrDan

 

[heehaw]

if you need more red oak with worm holes, make a trip to arkansas..i think we are about to lose the majority of our red oaks..
heehaw

 

[Boondox]

DrDan -- Radiant floor heat in the shop!!! Oh, you can't believe how jealous I am! My lower lip still bears the little spiral scarring from that first winter screw placed in my mouth when this California escapee first settled in Vermont! Took me five minutes to separate the screw from my lip! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Pete, whose feet will be clad in insulated boots till next May!

 

[DrDan]

Oh my gosh Pete it is wonderful! I set it on 68 and I have to work in a tee shirt. Come in the old house I live in and freeze until I end up under the comforter. Cost me dang near $9000 to put it in but that is the way to heat a structure whether it be shop or house. Wish I had it in the house!

DrDan

 

[DougM]

Pictures of the plumbing for the floor heat Please

Doug

 

[DrDan]

Sorry Doug, I tried and my dan picture editor is acting up!

I will get them up later I promise... In the meantime you can see the system I bought. It was complete with pre-plumbed manifolds for the 3 zones; pre-plumbed pump system, etc. That saved lots of money for the time saved in labor for installation. Most people can put them in themselves, but being in a wheelchair made it too tough for me. You just tie the PXC tubing down to the reinforcing mesh. The system comes with premade form for the concrete where the tubing hooks to the manifold. The entire system (less insulation) came to $4400 delivered to the door. That's for 3 zones in a 30 X 80 building. I have the shop (30 X 40), office (15 X 30) and garage (25 X 30) divided into zones each with a separate thermostat.

It is absolutely amazing! I used the poly-bubble-mylar insulation under and at the edges of the slab and it really made it much easier than that [censored] 2: stryrofoam crap that they recommended. Insulation cost me $750 for the entire area. It comes with a 50 gallon Hi-effeciency stainless steel hot water heater and belive me it doesn't run much. Last January this building only adde $40 to my gas bill.

The other night it was 18 outside and I was comfortable working in a Tee shirt with the thermostat set at 65. I have a garage door in my shop (tahnk god) and I move items in and out all the time. Heck you can't even tell you opened the door five minutes later. Of course I really insulated the building well - R38 blown in in ceiling and R-18 fiberglass in the walls. It is amazing - This summer when it was 95 outside it stayed 75 to 78 inside. Attic temperature was 140 one day!

Aaaah insulation! Only stupid thing I did was didn't want to spend the money to put the tubing in my greenhouse floor. What an idiot! Now I have a [censored] 200,000 BTU overhead heater pumping heat into the celiling and also pay for electricity for propogation mats on the floor. $5000 slab of concrete and no tubing in it!

Next step is to put in an outdoor wood furnace and hook it into the system to supply the heat. Can also hook it to solar collectors, but in this area you can't rely on the sun. Being a woodworker, I "can" rely on plenty of mistakes and scrap to burn.

Ok heres the website of the company I bought the system from - Terrific people Grade A product! LOL The heating cotractor I had install it sold a different brand - after putting mine in he changed to Radiantec since it is soooo much easier and time efficient with the premade manifolds. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.radiantec.com>http://www.radiantec.com</A>

Enjoy... Pix's will be up later.

DrDan