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.

Maybe we need to rethink invasive species???

Hi. As the writer of the post and feel that I need to clarify something. I do not advocate the planting of invasive species. The point that I'm trying to make, and clearly didn't, is that perhaps we should be thinking about an invasive species in a different light. Apples, figs and other crops are clearly non native to America and Europe but are widely cultivated because they have use to humans as a food source, animal feed, etc. Kudzu is an edible plant and although it is clearly harmful can it be used someway by humans? It's a food source, it's been used as a cloth and is showing some use as a building material. All I'm trying to do is to create discussion on how we can use invasive plants in new ways.   It's mid April here in Western Pennsylvania and so far it's been warm and wet.  The buzz of lawnmowers fill the air as I gallivant through my back yard collecting dandelions to make some tea and bread with them.  I had always known that they w...
1 comment
Read more

So, there I was minding my own business when.....

Life happens.   In this past month we have finally managed to paint a majority of the house.  We used a paint named "Cream in your coffee" on the walls now with an accent wall of grayish/green running throughout the length of the house. Suddenly our walls are lighter and more vibrant.  Our house seems more like our home and not the former owner's residence.   It's just a series of home improvements that we have been working on since buying the house in September of last year.   our original look Some of those jobs have been major, others not so much but each job has increased the value of our home.  Sadly, for most Americans the home is going to be the most valuable thing they own, and for Susan and myself there may come a time when we can no longer due the upkeep on the home, and when that time comes, we can relax in the knowledge that all the major work was done when we were young. I still want to do solar panels. During the past mon...
Post a Comment
Read more

A sense of time in place - traveling in Central PA

One of the first items that Sue and I bought as a couple all those years ago was a grandfather clock.  We used to snuggle under the blanket and listen to the chimes on the hour, the sound filling our house with a warmth and resonance.   That clock is nothing special, being simple in its design and technology.  It's accurate because of the beauty of physics and math...and is a lost art form in its own right. I thought a lot about time and place as we traveled this week.  I thought a lot about place.   Sue and I finally took a brief vacation recently.  Due to circumstances beyond our control, every plan we had made to get away earlier in the year came to naught.  My father became ill and ended up in the hospital which we decided to stay home "just in case."  He ended up in the hospital at least three times this past year, and I decided to spend what time I could with him. Family, after all, is what brought us back to Pennsylvania. We had p...
3 comments
Read more