Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Now, I know this isn’t nearly as exciting as politics, but it’s important nonetheless.
I got a trailer hitch.
I went over to Home Depot the other day with another $100 gift card that I earned from my debit/credit card points. I wanted to pick up some stakes for the new baby pine trees that are due to arrive soon as well as some programmable thermostats.
On the way over, I said to myself, “Hey man, why don’t I pick up that trailer hitch I have been thinking about too?” Then, after I agreed to myself in the affirmative, I though, “Jay, you are wicked fine.” See folks, this is why I use this as my personal blog.
I did my thing and picked up the other products that I might write about later on. I then walked over to the hardware isle, where they keep the trailer hitches. I saw some pretty cool stuff over there. I found the hitch that I wanted and then took one look at the pin that goes through the assembly. The pin wasn’t bad, it was just that cheap little clip that held the pin in that made me pause from concern.
I decided that the cheap little clip wasn’t doing it for me, so I picked up one of the locking ones instead. At least this way I know it’s not going to fall out while pulling my cargo. You can see what I am talking about in the photo above. The keys are hanging out of the pin.
I am putting this photo up for my brother to see. He warned me that I didn’t get enough of a drop. I told him that the drop was sufficient because the hitch itself wasn’t that high. There is a two inch drop on this hitch. Basically, I just wanted to point out the height of the hitch from the ground.
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Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
Well, the guys came over yesterday to install the new St. Croix Prescott EXL pellet stove. As you might recall, our previous pellet stove was a Harman P38. I was a little nervous about switching brands because I had gotten used to Harman. Also, Harman has very good reviews. The reason I couldn’t get a Harman this time is because they are all backed up and we may not have even gotten one this season.
It took the installers about 3 hours to finish the installation. When everything was in, they fired it up to make sure everything was working properly. One of the installers noticed one issue…the auger wasn’t turning, so no pellets were falling into the burn pot. the auger motor was working fine, just not the auger itself. We made an appointment for the service guy to come out today. By the way, I could have fixed this. It was easy. I actually was almost done fixing it when the doorbell rang. That’s me beating my chest.
Today, the repair guy came out and fixed the auger issue. The small set screw on the auger shaft wasn’t tightened properly, so it wasn’t catching on the auger motor.
I must say, this unit is very nice. It has auto-light, which was very important. I am going to hook up a thermostat, so the pellet stove can shut down and start up on its own. Also, the auger and fan is much quieter than the Harman. The whole system just seems to be more elegant. For a few hundred bucks more, I am happy that I went with this model.
Here are some photos…
What’s nice is that the outside venting is under the porch. The necessary clearances are 24″ away from the porch and 12″ off the ground. Also, since we used the fresh air kit, the clearances from windows and doors is only 9″. I would say that’s one of the huge benefits of pellet stoves.
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Saturday, July 26th, 2008
I know it’s only July, but believe it or not, that’s about two months too late when someone is trying to get a pellet stove installed.
I stopped by the local pellet stove store the other day to pick out my new Harman P68 Pellet Stove. This is top of the line and has everything I want in a stove. There is a thermostat and auto light and everything else I can think of. You can understand my excitement about this after I received a “price lock-in” at $4.85 a gallon from our heating oil company. As it turns out, a lot of other people are excited about Harman stoves as well.
I walked into the store and told the sales guy that I wanted a…He said, “If you are going to say Harman, you aren’t going to see it for a while.” He explained that all the Harman stove models are way back ordered and I wouldn’t see it until way into the season. While this annoyed me, it also gave me a chance to look at some other stoves.
I looked around and picked out a St. Croix Prescott EXL. This has the thermostat option as well as auto-light. When it gets too hot, the fire goes out. When it gets too cold, the stove automatically fires up again and cooks until the whole thing happens again. I am telling you, these things have come a long way.
I put a deposit down on that stove and they are going to come do a site visit, just to make sure the whole thing is going to work out, permit-wise. I think it will.
I also looked at some wood stove inserts for the fireplace upstairs. They look really good. I told the guy that I really wasn’t all too attracted to bringing wood inside again, since my childhood was filled with that. Then, he showed me the bio-brick. A bio-brick is a two pound brick made out of compressed saw dust. Basically, it is a big wood pellet. You can order them by the ton, just like pellets. I though this was wicked cool and now plan on getting a regular wood stove insert for the fireplace next season.
I will let you know what happens with the site visit.
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