Mold, Fans, Gardens, & Music

I cleaned some spots in our carpet a week or so ago with our little carpet cleaner. I cleaned a few of them in the basement as well.

It stays cool in the basement, so we often close the vents down here in the summertime and force more of the air upstairs. I figured the cooler air from upstairs would just pour down the stairs and some circulation would take place. I faked a cold air return down here, actually in the duct-work next to the furnace, though, and that's really all we have for return air down here.

Anyway, several days ago, a sharp, moldy smell developed in the basement. We usually keep a small fan going down here, but I noticed the whole carpet down here felt... not damp, but not dry, either.

So.... I went to Lowe's and got a Harbor Breeze Ceiling Fan. For $30. I didn't think I could get a quiet one for that, but it said "always quiet" on the box, and I figured if it wasn't I'd take it back. But for $30 I was wiling to give it a try.

We put it in in about an hour. It's quiet. And we opened the vents down here. The smell subsided quite a bit, and the carpet doesn't feel damp-ish anymore.

I'll run the Ozonerator tonight and see if I can't get rid of the rest of the residual smell. I can't smell it much, but it affects Vicki pretty badly.

The garden is going pretty well. Needs a little more water now that the plants are bigger and it's hotter.

Vicki and I did an 18 mile bike ride Sunday from McBaine to Rocheport and back. I got here this new-fangled bicycle seat to protect her from the dreaded bike seat sores. She said it worked pretty well. We also found the spot on the trail under the Rocheport Winery A-Frame. There's a bike rack to park your bike and a trail to walk up. :-)

Let's see, I got a tool cabinet for the garden/yard tools and put it under the deck to make room to hang the sleeping bags in the garage -- the proper way to store them. I got a North Face down sleeping bag... not sure the rating but it's at least a 30 degree bag, maybe rated cooler. There were some with less loft there that were rated at 30.

I need to get my mountain trip planned. But there's two Oracle training sessions I'm going to on either side of the time I'd planned to go, and I have a class reunion (25th) in there, too.

I never was a huge Leinenkugels Beer fan ... although they did have a dark one that was pretty good. I mean, all of it is decent, don't get me wrong. But this Summer Shandy they have out -- they have something there. It's a Wiess bier with lemonade in it. Quite tasty! And this is why I have to ride the bike.

Have I ever mentioned the group "Radiator"? Back in college I frequented a used record store called Whizz Records here in town (I actually worked there a couple of years and managed the place over the summer later on). Anyway, Mike (the owner) had a "free" box with records that weren't worth anything to most people -- and if you spent more than I think $6 you could take an album from the Free Box. My roommate and I were there one day and he got a free record because of the group name and the title "Radiator" "Isn't It Strange". Sealed. And we laughed on the way home wondering how bad it was going to be.

It wasn't.

And it really grew on me over the years. And one day, I was looking for some lyrics I couldn't figure out to the title track and I stumbled upon a website for a British group called "Lindisfarne". Turns out that Radiator was a one album group which was basically a solo album by one of the main driving forces behind Lindisfarne (which was apparently very popular in the 1970's). That man's name was Alan Hull. And as a matter of fact most of the material on "Isn't It Strange" got released as a real solo ablum of his called "Phantom".

I listened to some Lindisfarne on Rhapsody, and liked it. But all they had was live stuff and I wanted to hear some studio work. I got some imports from Caiman records -- which I've dealt with before for hard-to-find stuff. Good folks. And I got another Alan Hull solo album called "Pipedream" today. Haven't given it a good listen, but the Lindisfarne stuff's pretty good.

Thus goes the life of a music junkie. Shoot me up, will ya? ;-)

Back in the Saddle Again

Bicycle saddle, that is.

Yes, after a hiatus of ... oh, 8 or 10 years, I guess, I'm bike riding again. It seems the ole drink beer and eat about anything you want lifestyle was catching up to me again. And if you want to continue to eat well and drink good ale, you need to do something to counter-balance that.

See, I have a desk job, and thus I spend lots and lots of time sitting on my arse with my heart rate not breaking 60. Ever. And I noticed that trips up short flights of stairs got my heart going waaaay more than it should've.

Gas prices are up, and I have excess fuel in my body in places I'd rather not have it. So, I turned back to the bike.

3 days a week is my goal. It's 2.8 miles to work, and there's a good hefty hill in each direction (although the one on the way home is longer). It takes me ~17 minutes.

"But dontcha get sweaty and stinky?"

Well -- not really. We don't have a shower at work, but it is cooler in the morning anyway. I wear biking clothes that breathe and wick, so I stay pretty cool & dry that way, too. I take my work clothes in a bag. What I do is bring a washcloth in a ziplock bag, soaked in some water and rubbing alcohol. When I change I just sort of wipe down a bit with that which is both cooling and cleansing.

When I ride home, of course, it is much hotter and I'm much sweatier -- but the good news is we have a shower at home. And it has cold water, too! ;-)

So I ride 5.6 miles a day which takes about 35 minutes total. Not a ton of exercise. But it's steady, and I make myself do it regularly... and here's the thing. If you get on a treadmill or exercise bike and you get tired of it, you can just stop. And you don't have to get back on it later. If you ride your bike to work, you can't stop until you get there. And then there's only one way to get home. So... see, it keeps you going. There's a purpose besides burining calories you can't see.

Guitarage

Took the 12-string in to Lee and he basically said I was on the right track with my adjustments, and advised me to cut the slots in the nuts slightly deeper to make the action on the first few frets better, and then I might have to carefully file down a few frets that are "noting out" farther up the neck.

After he looked at it I realized that my other two main guitars could use some neck adjustment as well, and I was surprised how much better the action got with just a little adjustment. Well, on the Martin D-15 it got a little too low on the high E string so I shimmed that end of the saddle and backed the tension on the truss rod about 1/4 turn. Niiiice. Just high enough not to buzz.

I need to find my razor files to do the 12 string properly.

And my backpacker needs it's saddle filed down a bit lower.

Artsy-Fartsy shot from the Float Trip

I dunno. Just liked the colors and the lines. And the suggestion that fun was about to be had. This was a bunch of our gear waiting for the Windy's van to come pick us up and take us to the put-in.

Spring Float '07

Well, it looked like we weren't going to be able to go floating with R&K this year due to a family function, but they got a hold of Harold and Lynn (and little Kate) and they were able to move the trip up a week.


We spent the night with the Williams' in Fulton on Thursday. Took Friday off and drove down there relatively early. We were getting a non-reservable camp site... I actually like them better because they're right up against the woods and are actually IN some very large but thinned (relative to the woods) trees. We didn't get our normal spot because they were doing some maintenance -- ok it looked more like a complete overhaul of the nearby bathrooms. The exterior walls and sinks and toilets were all gone. And it wasn't clear we were allowed to take that spot anyway.

So... we went to a different spot about 150 yards away. Tents went up. Harold & Lynn showed up about 8. We had a nice fire. I had gone into the woods and got a half-dried elm branch with the pocket chain-saw. It's effective and compact, but a bowsaw is better if you've got the room. I got it mostly for lightweight, low-bulk backpacking. I also got an old dead wild grape vine for kindling. And then I bought a couple of bundles of split oak. Harold brought some bigger dried hardwood when they showed up.

The only problem we had was these three... oh, they looked like teenagers but I guess they could've been in their early 20's who talked too loud late into the night on a speaker phone with women they didn't know, advertising their location, their next day's plan, and the fact that they had 105 beers. (And a machette, to anyone they heard walking by the tent.) You could hear both sides of the conversation, and they couldn't stop giggling. But they piped down about the time I got back from looking for the campground host. They DO have quiet hours there and they start at 10:00pm.

Ryan & Kristie and Vicki and I were the only ones floating. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We put in about 10:00 am, and spent the day on the upper Jack's Fork between Bay Creek and the Alley Spring Camp Ground. Stopped several times to play with the fun-noodles. We shot several "chutes" on them and found a few places to just lollygag in the water.

Kristie spotted some sun fish nests early on. Just like the ciclids in your fish tank, with an adult there chasing off anything that came near the bowl in the sand. We saw lots of sun fish and palid sturgeons. No turtles! Odd.

At one point Vicki and I had gone back upstream a little ways to check something out ... and for some reason ever attempt to get the canoe turned back around with the nose (Vicki) downstream ended up with us turning backward again. Not sure what was going on there, but we sure had a good laugh at it.

Later in the day we were in a chute and I got tired of trying to run it, I just wanted to be in the water without being carried down stream, so Ryan and I anchored my McGyvered "noodle ring" to a rock at the bottom of the river. Worked pretty well! (That's Ryan trying it out there).

Got out about 4:30 and had our "poor boy" packets that Vicki and Kristie put together. They were quite tasty. Roasted Marshmallows. And a S'more or two.

Broke down camp Sunday morning and went in to Eminence to Ruby's T&T Restaurant. They have an awesome breakfast buffett. Driving home, just north of Salem, we hit heavy rain pretty much through Jefferson City.

And for the rest of Sunday, I don't think either of us had any energy to speak of.

Playing Catch Up

In the last few weeks I've gotten the garden planted and the auto-watering system running. Also got the deck plants put out and on the watering system. Did the spring bird-bath cleaning/re-painting (I use pool paint on the inside).

I got some nice plants at Strawberry Hill Nursery. Pretty much all of them. I put various shades of alyssum in the strawberry pot, bought a new citronella hanging basket. Also got a hanging basket with this plant that has little flowers that look like small petunias. Can't remember the name of that one. Red, white and blue(-ish purple) petunias in the pot out front -- and this year, I did something I've been thinking about every summer for a long time.

There's this yellow flower they use as ground cover along the sides of roadways called birdsfoot treefoil. It seems to be pretty much indestructable, and it thrives and flowers all summer long even during the driest and hottest spells.

My kind of plant.

I always thought it'd make a nice hanging basket. Since I don't have an auto-watering system out front, I figured that would be the perfect place for one. So I went out to a nearby vacant lot which has been taken over by weeds (and many would consider this a weed as well) and dug up one plant that was aready hanging basket size.

Voila! Tastes great. Less filling. And stuff.

Went to the Williams' new place for a BBQ last weekend. It's such a nice house. I suppose it ought to be for the price.

But now, of course, we have to fix our place up. I think we're going to start by replacing the sliding door to the deck with a swinging door -- kinda french style but not. Vicki hates the sqeaky sliding door.

I think next up after that is our bathroom. I need to plumb in a new drain and water lines so we can add a second sink. Then we'll replace both sinks. And Vicki wants to paint the cabinets.

Then there's tiling both bathrooms and the front porch. And of course, the big bamboo floor project is still looming in the future.

So I went to the pawn shop the other day to look for a gasoline stove for camping. Didn't find one, but I did find a nice, heavy tri-pod for $20 (Sam's been bugging me to get a decent tripod, and they're expensive) and a little vaccuum cleaner for the office to clean up the dry leaves that fall from the fern, and other office messes. There was this little "shark" thing for $9. They gave me both for $15. Nice.

But as I was leaving the store, I saw a 12-string guitar on the wall. Asked them how much. He said "$100". Hmmmm. Then he added "I don't think it's really a Martin". I looked closer, and yes, it indeed had a Martin sticker in it and the Martin logo painted on the head. I picked it up. It didn't feel like a Martin, either. I went back to the office, but I started thinking.... If the neck and keys are ok and it's structurally sound, I can probably take it home and fix it up and have the cheap 12 string I've been looking for ... and who cares if it's not really a Martin? It's not like I was going to go out and spend $2,000 on a guitar, anyway. My real Martin D-15 is great. And I also have the Martin backpacker -- which I am on the "pro" side of. It does what it's supposed to do and it does it well. So I went back to the shop. It definitely has a plywood top. Not a Martin. Plus the head is panted. The finish is ... I don't know, just not "Martin-ique". There was a slight but noticible bow in the neck, but the neck was adjustable. And the action was way high.

McGyver can fix it.

So I bought it. Took it home. Knocked some height off the saddle piece and actually sanded the bridge down about 1/8" to compensate (so the saddle would still stick up over it after being shortened). Bought some new strings. Fixed the 12-th string key (the top threaded piece wasn't quite catching the bottom due to the fact that the head was just a little too thick at that point. You think Martin would've let a hand-made guitar out of the shop with that little problem? I think not!). And adjusted the neck. It plays pretty well! It doesn't sound like a Martin. But hey, it was $100, and I have playable a 12-string now. So I'll call it my fake Martin.


Rhapsody just got most of Paul McCartney's catalog up, so I've been listening to a lot of old Maca. I've always loved the first two solo albums, "McCartney" and "Ram". I have those on CD. And Ram on vinyl. And a lot of other McCartney on vinyl. So now I'm trying to learn "Junk" -- always one of my favorites, but a little tougher than your average I-IV-V song. Still, there are other ditties on there that are easy, like "Eat at Home", and "That Would Be Something" I've been having fun with. I think I want to try "Every Night" as well, but that sounds a little tougher. Ah, you never know until you try, eh?

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Update: I noticed upon closer inspection that the Martin logo "Painted" on the head is actually a sticker with a transparent background, and that it looks suspiciously like someone removed the original label from inside the guitar (you can see a lighter area around the label) so they could put the fake Martin label in there.

For $100 and a little work it's not a bad little 12-string. Definitley NOT a Martin, though.

Long time, no post, I know

When we last left our hero, he had just sent an incompatible memory stick back in an attempt to upgrade his computer. Got the new one, and now I have 1.2GB of memory in my cratchety 3 year old box. At least I think that's how old it is.

I also got a 19" flat-panel LCD monitor to replace the 15 year old SGI 17" CRT monitor I've had for 10 years. I had no idea how bad it was. I put it side by side with one at work. There was no brightness, no contrast. No wonder my eyes hurt.

I also got a big, honkin' 250GB hard drive to help manage my music files and photos.

Then we went to Fort Wayne for the 60th reunion of the 671st army unit my father-in-law served in in WWII. The group, as you might expect, is getting smaller and there are many more widows than soldiers left. A couple of guys who normally come couldn't make it this year due to health issues. But there are sons and daughters and even grandkids sometimes that come to this. It's pretty neat.

The following weekend it was high time for a Groves visit. The kids had soccer games on Saturday. Nathanial's team lost, but he scored 5 out of the 6 goals his team scored. Cassie's team won handily, and it was good to see her out there running around.

Mark whipped up some awesome cornish game hens on the grill for Saturday dinner, and Cami made this low-carb veggie salad with a balsamic vinegar/splenda dressing which was very good. And we can't forget the Snoopy Waffles for breakfast on Sunday, and the cornish-game hen pot-pie for dinner.


We helped Brian and Kristin move to their new place on Thursday night -- we rented a truck to make it go faster. Which helped. We've been in a rather wet weather pattern, too, for which I thought the truck might come in handy. But the rain held off for us.

Back to Fort Wayne last weekend to get Mom for her birthday and Mother's day. Vicki got her 8 cards for her 88th birthday on May 8. If she'd've been born a year later, we would have been doing it in 2008 as well. Well you can't have it all, can you?

We had a nice spaghetti dinner, and the boys and their respective women over, and cheesecake for dessert. A very nice evening.

And back to Fort Wayne this weekend to take her back. Then it's off to a conference for me. I'll be ready for a slowdown.

Memory.... like the low density kiiiind

My computer at home has been quite slow lately -- probably due to the fact that every bit of software you install wants to put a stub in memory to "detect" some action or make it come up faster. Over time, it has gotten to the point where I'm routinely using 700MB out of the 512MB I have. This is not good.

So I decided to order a gig of memory. It's PC2700, 333MHz, DDR memory. Figured that's all I needed to know.

Apparently not. I went through an Ebay vendor called BzBoyz because they advertised their pride in their support after the sale.

Good thing they weren't lying. It turns out I ordered high density memory. My motherboard won't take it. But, even though it was my mistake, they are taking it back and sending me a low density stick that'll work -- I just have to pay the difference.

They've been very helpful and willing to get me what I need.

Floored

I helped Ryan over the weekend. He's installing hardwood flooring over 1600 square feet in their new house. I figured it would be a good way for me to get know-how and experience doing it.... and I was right. We'd like to do our house, and now I have a good idea how much work it is and what the likelihood of screwing it up is... those answers being 1) a lot, and 2) not too bad. It's not hard work. It's just a lot of work.

Knee pads are a must :-)

Brian and Kristin had a "Spring Break" party friday night. We went and stayed past midnight yammering and eating and drinking and generally being merry. Kristin was lamenting the fact that this is the first spring break where she isn't going anywhere. Ha. I went to Rolla for a week one spring break and stayed with Jeff. That's been about the extent of my spring break experience. Not that it wasn't fun, mind you ;-)

As you can see by that last post the flowering pears are flowering. The redbud will probably pop this week. And I'm anxious to see what the Japanese Crabapple will do this year. They say they're slow to bloom. Last year was the first year it had any blooms on it at all. Maybe 10. I'm hoping this year it'll go all out.

Vicki and Kristin and Angela went down to the lake on a little shopping trip. Vicki had never been down to the outlet shopping mania that is "The Lake". Nor have I. But she has now. By all accounts they had a good time. Ok, so I really only have Vicki's account. But, since that's all the account's I have, then hers is all of them.

We definitely have house envy over Ryan and Kristie's new house. (We won't have house PAYMENT envy) It's really nice. 5 acres ... about an acre's worth of a small lake, large, well-planned house. Huge garage. Nice deck. Peep frogs. I heard peep frogs. I love that sound. Ryan pointed out last night back in our neighborhood that you can, in fact, hear them, but they are only part of the larger din that is the city.

At least we don't live in Dallas.

Spring is Here

High Heeled Marathon

Not much into watching people run, but here's a marathon I'd go watch.

Gotta hand it to the German chicks. :-)

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update: Here's another thing I'd like to see catch on:

What's goin' on

Full calendar last week... Tuesday evening we went to the Elks for a while. Wednesday evening we went to the Chancellor's concert at Jesse Auditorium. It was a free concert with the University Singers, University Philharmonic, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble. Went to dinner with the Jorgensens at the Berg beforehand. Had a good time. And on Thursday night we went to Osaka's for Angela's birthday with Brian and Kevin ... and of course, Angela.

During the week I also experimented with my new 1.4x Tamron teleconverter. It works much better than the Kenko 2.0x one I got. I took some shots of the engineering building on the quad.

Last night I made a new leather sheath for my ridiculously large sheath knife. It's one about the size of Crocodile Dundee's "that's not a knife... now that's a knife" knife. I also sharpened the heck out of it and managed to slit a bit of the sheath pulling it out. But I took care of that with a bit of superglue.

Got the taxes done last weekend. So that's out of the way.

It was a pretty wild week of weather. We had snow last weekend for another walkabout, but it was in the mid 70's early in the week. Cooled down again Friday. Yesterday morning we got about an inch of snow between 7:00am and 11:00am, and it was gone by 4:00 in the afternoon. The daffodils are blooming. And some of the trees look a bit anxious to bud out.

Fixed a couple of things around the house. Bart's anti-corner flashing and a leaky water valve going to the downstairs toilet.

Ryan and Kristy did their own walkabout today from the Fulton side of Cedar Creek. This afternoon we spent on his lawn -- looking through the Campmor catalog, sharpening knives, drinking beer... we set up my hiker tent I got from Sam's. Pretty cool. But I think I want a piece of tivec to make a footprint for underneath it. The floor doesn't instill me with confidence against rocks & sticks and saturated ground.. It's plenty big for a couple. It's great for one person. Also started a sun fire with leaves from the yard just to prove we could do it.

Heh. I'd better stop before you fall off the edges of your collective seats.

Not a lot

You haven't heard much because not too much exciting has gone on. This past weekend Vicki got a "Gazelle" cardio machine from a co-worker. It'll definitely get your heart rate up.

I loaded some bullets for my Colt -- .38 S&W.... it's about the only economical way for me to keep it in ammo. It's a neat old gun, but ammo for it isn't made en masse, so it runs a good 40 cents a pop. Reloading (once you've bought the equipment) brings that down to about 15 cents a round.

Ryan and I went on walkabout again -- this time on Saturday. We tested his new pocket chainsaw. It definitely works as advertised.

I made a little bowsaw with my pocket saw ... the little cheapie rough cable saw. You use a bit of sapling cut a few inches longer than the cable. It works better than no saw at all, but I wouldn't want to have to cut a lot of wood that way. It is less liable to break from kinking that way.

We figure in a pinch you could carry two or three of those little things for little bit of weight and space they occupy and if one breaks, "eh". They work ok held between two hand with not too great an angle.

The pocket chainsaw, on the other hand -- mows right through logs. It'll give you a bit of cardio exercise, though. I guess the reason it's so fast is it allows you to put a lot of energy into cutting per stroke. It's sturdier, but definitely heavier. All things considered, though, if you need to cut any amount of wood at all, it's probably worth the weight. I think it's less than a pound, especially if you leave the can it comes in behind and use found sticks for handles -- if you even think you need handles. Camp cord works for handles, too.

We got some water from Cedar Creek in the silnylon bag and filtered it -- but I'd never tried the iodine treatment and I wanted to know what it tastes like. Well, you have to let it sit 30 minutes, and by that time the top was starting to freeze over.... so the water itself was pretty close to freezing and it tasted pretty much like ... water. Even without the neutralizing tablets.

We also boiled the hotdog water this time with coals removed from the fire (on a piece of bark) and put under my little pan instead of the alcohol stove. It took longer and about two reloads of coal, but the water boiled and we cooked the hotdogs.

We reeled off a few shots at a target I brought, including my reloads. They worked fine. I did forget the walkabout camera, though. So no pictures this time around.

It was cold and snow flurries fell through the cedar trees most of the time we were there. Quite a nice day, all in all.

Ryan and Kristie took us to dinner at Murry's Saturday night and I had their ribs. They were very good. Sunday we helped out at their new house getting it ready for the painters to come -- we had to clean all of the dust and dirt out and the molding and doors.

Their house is going to be cool. Too bad it's 25 miles away.

The King of Somewhere Hot

The water heater circuit board came today, and I spent a couple hours putting it in tonight. The rubber foam I got to put behind it wasn't going to work out because it held the big transistors away from their heat sinks. So I fashioned a shield of sorts from a ziplock bag, poking holes in it where wires needed to go through. Also needed to re-shape some of the connectors that had gotten stretched and wouldn't grip tight to the contacts.

Vicki went out and got Oki Mama's for dinner, so I stopped and ate that (it was very good, thanks, sweetie!)-- then went through one final check, and ran through the circuit board matching instructions, and bam! Hot water.

I'll always appreciate hot water coming out of the tap from now on. After 12 days without it (except for the camp shower and whatever we heated up on the stove)... a full, real shower in the morning will be nice.

Ryan and I went on walkabout on Sunday. This time we got video of starting a fire with a fresnel lens. It's 47 megabytes so I won't post it here ... until I can shrink it down, anyway. It had snowed about 4 inches. That pretty, sparkly cold, dry snow that blows around. So it was a nice hike in. On the way in we ran across an interesting print in the snow. It took a couple of seconds, but it was obviously the landing spot of a turkey, and you could see his tracks away from it. The tail feather imprint gave it away.

The cold has broken for now. We've been way below normal for about the past 5 weeks. This week it's going to be in the upper 50's and maybe low 60's during the week. We've had some sleet and/or snow on the ground for pretty much that whole period. Most of it's gone already except for the piles pushed up by the plows.

Been playing with the doubler on my Digital SLR with the Tamron 28-300 and my old Vivitar screw-mount 75-260. I'm going to have to try it with the tripod. I've had mixed results. I don't think it's going to do well with the Tamron past about 260 or so, though. I'm not finished experimenting, though.

All this talking with Megan has me kind of psyched about photography again. Don't think I'll ever make a living at it like I'd like to, but I'd at least like to be a good amateur someday.

Speaking of amateur, I'm doing as well as I'd ever hoped with the guitar. Not great, not even really good, but good enough to sit and have fun and pick things out -- simple things - pop, rock, folk, a little bluegrass and country stuff. Still strumming and pattern-picking chords with a few walks and flavor-fingering, and I'm still going to Lee Ruth and he keeps me honest and makes me practice better technique. Thumb joint on my left hand hurts a bit. Think I'm going to have to start exercising it.

Oh, and the rest of me. I think my elbows are healed. The excuses are gone.

Purple Ball

Saturday evening was the Elks' Club Purple Ball -- I guess it's a Valentines day thing. We called it "Prom for the Elks". Vicki bought a stretchy velvety black dress with a kind of a sheer lacey mini-jacket. I rented a tux -- and we went. Even danced some. I really need to learn to dance. Vicki loves to dance, and I frankly suck at it.

It was nice to see everyone dressed up. We don't really do that anymore in middle class America. There's rarely a reason to. Had dinner in the dining room -- good filets prepared ala Jack's Coronado. The local band Brothers' Image played -- they do a lot of classic rock and oldies, and they're very good.

Imagine this -- I neglected to take pictures before we went. There are a couple of pictures of us that were taken at the ball -- but not on my camera. We'll get copies eventually. I did take some of Greg and Georgeanne for them. I should've had someone take a picture with my camera.

Anyway, we had a really nice time.

Weekend Walkabout

Ryan and I went on walkabout Sunday. It was quite treacherous - the trail was still mostly ice and quite slippery. We had to tread very carefully.

When we got to the famous "waterfall" that I always stop and take a picture of, we were in for a treat. Whereas last time it had been warm a few days before and the temerature dropped to 5 or so degrees the night before but the water was still running from the previous days' snowmelt -- this time that water had had a chance to freeze.

When we got to the Cedar Creek crossing to "the hotdog spot", the water was much lower, and the day was much warmer -- so we were able to cross on some rocks that were barely or only partially submerged.

And we started our first flint and steel (with tinder) fire. We used what I call "cedar down" ... stringy bits of cedar bark. The oils in the bark and the thin fluffiness of it make it almost ideal tinder.
We tried it a couple of times with the sun and our freznel lenses, and that worked, too.

Ryan brough a can of chili, so this time we had chili dogs. We tried rigging up a bow and drill set but I don't think by that time our hearts were in it. But after lunch I decided to try it with dried grass. We were able to get it to work. Then leaves, all crumbled up in your hand.

Your hand. We discovered the best way to start a fire with any tinder is to do it in your hand, especially a sunlight/magnifying glass fire. The reason, I guess, is that you can control the density of the tinder. You want it fairly dense (so you squeeze and pack) with a flat surface to focus the light on to get a tiny coal started. Then you ditch the magnifying glass and start to blow on it. As you blow, you slowly loosen your grip on the tinder, allowing it to expand in your hand. You should see more and more smoke each time you blow. Finally, at some point your hand is open with the tinder sitting on top and one final puff will get it to burst into flame. They you quickly set it down on something you don't mind burning (ie, not your hand) -- probably more tinder or kindling -- and start your fire.

Pretty friggin' cool. We should've taken a video of one of our many successful attempts.


(note: this shot is here to link to in my profile -- gotta put it somewhere on the web)

Water heater saga, continued

To expand on last night's quick post, Seisco told me they'd ship me a new circuit board for freight -- the catch being that there were none in the warehouse and probably wouldn't be until... today. Then they have to be inventoried. And I had them second-day it to me, so he said it should be here by friday.

The worst thing about not having hot water is showering.

You can now buy Bosch electric tankless hot water heaters at Lowe's for a little less than you can a Seisco. Nice thing about the Bosch's is that they use copper pipe instead of the special plastic that Seisco uses. It's the plastic that has caused all of my problems. After about 3.5 years it started developing stress cracks. I noticed that the plastic they sent to replace it is a different color -- so I wonder if they've changed the formulation. I asked if they had a run of bad plastic, and they said "not in your serial number range." At any rate, if it were going to cost too much to replace the circuit board, I was going to go to a Bosch. Since they'll ship it for freight costs, I decided to save the money. $745 vs $35. Only no hot water for a week in the middle of a cold winter....

I talked to Ryan about it -- he had once mentioned that we could hook the wiring directly to the heating elements with the breaker off.... then if we wanted to shower we could turn the water on, go turn the breakers on, take a shower, leave the water on, go turn the breakers off, and then turn the water off. Theoretically, that should work.

However, we decided that if we were planning on using the water heater and not replacing it, that could be a bad idea.

So I went to Bass Pro and bought a Zodi camp shower. It runs on propane, and produces just enough of a hot water stream to take a shower in hot water. Well, I do let the bucket of water sit all day and adjust to room temperature, which helps. And the stream of water is less than 1/8 of the stream of a regular shower, and not excactly a lot of pressure, either. So while the water is hot, you get cold, because you're wet and not enough warm water is compensating for the evaporation off of your body. It also takes longer to rinse. Still -- it's waaaaaaay better than a cold shower.

There is carbon monoxide to worry about, but a couple of 5 minute showers doesn't produce enough to cause us any harm, plus just to be safe we leave the door open and turn the exhaust fan on. (note: if you do this, don't sue me for carbon monoxide poisoning. The packaging clearly states it's for outdoor use only. Do it at your own risk, etc, etc. I understand the risks and that they are my responsibility when I take them myself)

One more thing... you gotta love the girl on the package - now wouldn't you like to run in to that in the middle of the woods! Nothing between her skin and the trees but the water.

Seisco comes through

The good news: Seisco is going to ship me a new circuit board for freight.

The bad news: They can't get it to me until friday.

The ugly -- it's February and hot showers are nice. The water out of the tap is like 55 degrees.

Maybe.

So ... the temporary solution is: this

I wish I were kidding. More later.

Water Heater Update - the culprit

I got in there this morning to see what was up -- and to document what happened. (you should be able to click on the pictures to see larger versions).



I detatched the circuit board to photograph the inside. As you can see, quite a bit of carbon was splashed about, painting one section of the cylinders black, and coating the back side of the circuit board.

Last night Ryan and I saw what we thought was a drop of water where the limiter screws in to the cylinder body. Wasn't sure if that was it or not. Well, closer inspection this morning reveals that it very likely was (I feel like I should go on CSI or something). You can see the drip of water up by the limiter, and another spot below it when it dripped down. The arcing occurred right vertical with this. This, combined with the fact that the heater had not yet been attached securely to the wall mount yet (until I was sure that it worked) so the unit wasn't completely vertical front-to-back, allowed a drop of this water to fall on to the circuit board and short out 240 volts and ... well, at least 40 amps.


I was trying to be sure I didn't tighten the thing too much like the instructions said. Guess I should have made it a little tighter. A little drip like that. It's a good argument for epoxy-coating the back of that PCB, no?

Anyway, need to call Seisco and see about a new one.

Water Heater Troubles, continued

The part came in a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn't had time to install it. It involves taking pretty much the whole water heater apart.

Well this morning, I heard the leak alarm going off, and I went down to check. It was leaking from the top of the third cylinder, in the other cylinder pair (the one I hadn't ordered a replacement part for). I stayed home to address the issue.

I took it apart and, not surprisingly, what I found was yet another crack in the plastic had developed, this time through the threads where the heating element plugged in. I talked to a tech at Seisco so I could order another part. I asked him a few questions, like whether they'd had a bad batch of plastic. He said "not in your serial number range".

I decided to replace the worse leak with the new part, since the leak in the other one was controllable and away from electronics. Which is what I ended up doing. I ground a little grove into the crack on the less-bad leak and patched it with epoxy, and I cut a gasket the size of the whole bottom plate to cover all the bases. By about 4:30 I had it all put back together and hung it on the wall. Turned on the water. No leaks. Cool.

Turned on the power and went through the matching routine. Everything tested fine, and bang, we had hot water! Success!

I could hear it clicking on and off as Vicki used hot water upstairs as I was cleaning up. About 6:30 I was putting stuff away that I had removed from under the stairs to do the work when I heard a loud pop and a saw a blue flash.

Not good.

I tested it a few more times and couldn't tell where the flash came from -- finally, I decided it had to be from behind the circuit board. Really not good.

I took the circuit board off. A big square black mark over part of the two cylinders behind the circuit board was revealed. There was a big black smudge and a huge bit of PCB burnt out on the back.

The circuit board is toast. Some water must have gotten on it. Probably happened when I was turning on the water -- a few drops dribbled out of the intake pipe. I quickly tightened it and it stopped. I didn't see but a few drops of water, and I dried those up. I flashed a flashlight around to see what I could see. I should've checked harder. I figure the ruckus of me putting stuff back in the stair-hole where the water heater was ... dehumidifier, vaccum cleaner, carpet cleaner .... caused some drop of water to ooze its way down to a bad spot, and POW!

So we have no hot water tonight -- and we probably won't have it until Saturday at the earliest.

I'll call Seisco in the morning and see how much they'll charge me for a new PCB. They were second-daying me another 4 cylinders -- that was $25. I think it'll be $35 to overnight the PCB + whatever they'll charge since this wouldn't be covered by warranty.

There's no way to fit a standard water heater under the stairs anymore since we drywalled it off. I mean, one would fit, but you couldn't get it in the door past the furnace. This is why we bought the tankless to begin with.

My other option is to go buy a PowerStar at Lowes. Not quite as advanced circuitry, and slightly less wattage.... but local replacement is a possibility, and I think the cylinders are made of metal instead of plastic. I'd also have to re-do the sub panel with 3 40 amp brakers and pull some new wire ... though not much. The water heater is right there. But we're talking about $650 with tax, plus probably another $55-$60 in breakers. It depends on how much they want for a new PCB from Seisco.

So anyway, that was a wasted day off. Not that I didn't learn something. Actually I learned a lot. But to go from "Whoo-hoo, I did it" to "B-U-M-M-E-R" in such a short period of time....

I'm bummed. I hope I can sleep.

Lord knows, the cold shower will wake me up in the morning.