Skip to main content

Stupid is as stupid does

   Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?   It will have articles, memes and such that interest me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it out!

  
    To be honest I expected errors, I expected mistakes, missteps and even the occasional "oops."   This is new to me, and I'm doing things like I've never done before.  

    This time however I let myself get carried a way a bit and made an error that could have been costly indeed.   

   


    Our wood pellet stove needs cleaned out at least once a week.  You can push it a few more days but the ash does build up.   This time we didn't have the air intake for the fire set right and the pellets built up, all the way to the hopper gate.  This concerns me because we have a friend that had the fire in their auger which ended up destroying their stove.   A rarity to be sure, but if their is one thing I've learned in my life...is that the million and one stuff will happen to me.

    So I turned off the stove and let it cool, and started to clean it out with an older shop vac we have.   Problem was, is that the ash wasn't completely cold.   

    Most of you already know where this story is going don't you?

    Realizing that the embers were still hot, but unwilling to let them cool down anymore I finished the job, put the unit back together and restarted the fire.   I then took the shop vac out into the garage and took the unit apart.

    As I feared some of the embers were catching the vacuum filter on fire.   So I took that part outside and rubbed snow all over the filter.   I didn't see any more embers and assumed I got them all.

    Most of you already know where this story is going don't you? 

    Of course, while I was doing this it never occurred to me to remove the vacuum bag from the top of the other unit.

    Yep.  Not only did the bag burn up, but it left a hole in the top of the shop bag unit, burning right through the plastic.  Luckily, I had left that part of the unit outside in the snow, thinking that any additional embers would be to wet to catch fire, I guess I was wrong there.  But at least I left it outside.

    Nothing else was damaged and overall it's not much of a story to tell.   I'm actually very embarrassed by it.   However part of the reason for this blog is to prevent someone else from doing something stupid.   

    The shop vac was pretty old, I'm not even sure how it came into my possession, so it's loss isn't that big of a deal.  I could have had the unit sitting inside my garage were there are currently nearly two tons of wood pellets, gasoline, wood and cardboard.   Playing the "What If " game serves no purpose.   I was stupid, it won't happen again.  

    I'm not sure if there will be a Holiday edition of this blog or not.  So Happy Holiday's to you and yours!

 


 

Labels:
Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

Getting things done. Small victories add up.

In the new TV show Fallout there is a great line.  " The Golden Rule of the wasteland is thou shalt be distracted by bullshit every single time." I've never played the game it is based on but the picture shows the two newest distractions in my life.  We have taken care of our former neighbors barn cats since he moved out nearly a year ago.   Long story short the mama cat gave birth in his barn that we we given access to.  We found four little black long hair kittens and decided to take them, as it would probably be the only time we would be able to catch them.   Much to our surprise after a day or so the mama came over and started to milk them laying on our kitchen floor.  She's comes in, feeds them and then goes back outside.  Once they are mature enough to have them fixed we are planning on doing so and then they will go to a good home.   That's the plan...but plans have a tendency to change as one or two of them are findi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Calling in the professionals

 I come from a long line of guys that call in professionals.    Part of that reason is my own lazy nature, part of that reason is that I would rather have it down right the first time.  Everyone has their own skills and abilities, so why not call in an expert to have it done right the first time? In this case; why not seek advice in the battles against the invasives that have not only invaded my yard, but also a nearby piece of property that my neighbor simply refuses to take care of?  I find myself in a bind of my own design. I let part of my property "go wild" in the first place because that area had a lot of exposed roots, stumps and rocks.  At the time, I was not expecting a bunch of invasives, of which Mulitfora Rosa  is the worse of the bunch, to be a problem.  Yet, here we are. I decided to let parts of my yard "go wild" back in July of 2021.  It has proven to be a mistake, and in order for me to ensure that the invasive plants st...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rain and tears and those damned deer. Gardening can be painful.

“ None of us understand what we're doing, but we do beautiful things anyway.” ― Allen Ginsberg   The weatherman stated that we have not had any significant rainfall in over two weeks.  Nor did he see any relief in site. We are not in drought conditions yet, we are just unusually dry.  Interestingly enough, Pennsylvania should be getting warmer and wetter in the future if the climate models hold true.  If we narrow that down even more to my home town , the picture becomes even more interesting.   Solar Punk Pittsburgh For now though, I was worried about my garden.   It is not that big, I basically have a variety of containers around where I am maintaining lettuce, leeks, tomato's, peppers, strawberries, grapes, sunchokes (which I was really interested in growing) and a few other things.     Every garden needs to be watered and I played around with the idea of a r ain water collection systems before, we even had a simple one i...
2 comments
Read more