Checking on the stove from work...
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Most importantly, your fire can check you're actually working. Wait is that hearth.com reflected in your pupils? Zoom, enhance, zoom, enhance. Busted.
Of course, when skype screws up, or something breaks, do you just assume your house has burned down?
hahaha, why do you think I set this up? I leave for a conference early tomorrow morning and won't be back until saturday afternoon. Normally, I'd just say "forget about keeping a fire while I'm gone" but it's gonna be pretty frigid tomorrow night (like 7 below or something) and she's gonna freeze her fanny off if she doesn't have a fire going.
She's got about a full page of instructions to follow on using the stove. I've showed her how to use it, but I just am not 100% comfortable yet. I'll probably be checking it every few minutes while I'm gone.
She's got about a full page of instructions to follow on using the stove. I've showed her how to use it, but I just am not 100% comfortable yet. I'll probably be checking it every few minutes while I'm gone.
Danno77 said:
Is she aware that you have the camera focused on the stove? Hope there isn't a bear skin rug in front of it and you see other "fires" burning
Danno77 said:
Fuggetaboutit. They never learn. :roll:
All last year I never let my wife even touch the stove. This year I dedided to show her the ropes, and she seemed OK as long as I was supervising. Well, she took a snow day off yesterday and decided to do me a favor and get the fire going. I called out to see where she was and she said she was downstairs with the stove. Half an hour later she's still down there, so I go down and see what's up. The stove is cold as hell. I open the top to peak in and through a dense blanket of smoke I can make out about 40 pounds of wet birch sitting on top of a little pile of coals... sitting on top of a huge pile of ashes.
WTF!
Me: "Where did you get that wood from?"
Wife: "The stack that we brought in yesterday."
Me: "That stuff was just cut less than three weeks ago."
Wife: "You told me that you were already burning the black birch."
Me: (through gritted teeth) "Yes......The stuff I brought in two weeks ago and has been sitting right across the stove with a fan blowing on it the whole time."
Wife: "What's the difference?"
Now, my wife has an IQ that's probably higher than some folks' flue temps, but that don't mean she has a lot of common sense. To me, running a brain is kinda like running a stove. A mediocre one run well is better than the best damn stove in the world run poorly. God gave me a crappy stove, so I had to learn to use it.
Her little brother's the same way. IQ in the genius range. Advanced degree in engineering from Clarkson. Computer whiz extraordinaire. We got to talking about my car AC and I mentioned that I thought I had a leak because the thing wouldn't hold a charge of Freon. He says, "Well, you probably used it up. It can't last forever. It's like the stuff we use for cleaning computers. It gets real cold when it comes out of the can. Same thing. You probably have to have to refill your AC every now and then if you use it a lot, that just makes sense."
hh: I went on to explain how it really worked, and he thoroughly understood it. He thought it was pretty cool, even. But how in the world did somebody that bright ever think you could cool off an entire car for years of summer driving like it was some compressed computer cleaner in a can?
You can't fix stupid, but at least you can work with it. Genius is impossible to do anything with.
I've come home from work many-a-days and the stove was pretty cool. Wife will be freezing her rear off, but not even remember that we own a wood-stove. She knows how to throw a couple of splits on and open the air up.
I finally just gave up a week or two ago, and now I send her a text message every once in a while, "throw 2 splits on fire. open air up" or "throw 3 splits on fire. air at half"
i've cleaned my chimney twice since I started burning for the year because I'm just sure that the stove has been running inefficiently because I don't want to mess with her having to check on it and adjust the air accordingly. it's easier to say "load it up and pull it back to about the first dot" than "rake the coals forward, shut door and adjust air to high, then when coals have burned down a little, load stove up, keep air on high until temps reach 500, then back off to 1/2 for a few minutes, then back to the first little dot, then when the temps drop below about 400, start opening the air up a little bit at a time until it's time to stir the coals up, then repeat that all again"
I finally just gave up a week or two ago, and now I send her a text message every once in a while, "throw 2 splits on fire. open air up" or "throw 3 splits on fire. air at half"
i've cleaned my chimney twice since I started burning for the year because I'm just sure that the stove has been running inefficiently because I don't want to mess with her having to check on it and adjust the air accordingly. it's easier to say "load it up and pull it back to about the first dot" than "rake the coals forward, shut door and adjust air to high, then when coals have burned down a little, load stove up, keep air on high until temps reach 500, then back off to 1/2 for a few minutes, then back to the first little dot, then when the temps drop below about 400, start opening the air up a little bit at a time until it's time to stir the coals up, then repeat that all again"
BK:
Enjoyed your last.
My brother has an IQ likely well in excess of mine, but he had to buy a new car last year because he didn't understand the basic value of CHANGING OIL more than once every 20,000 miles.
Nor (I don't think) could he adjust the brakes on his own bicycle.
I'm glad he gives me some room to feel superior... else I'd probly hate his guts.
PB
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Enjoyed your last.
My brother has an IQ likely well in excess of mine, but he had to buy a new car last year because he didn't understand the basic value of CHANGING OIL more than once every 20,000 miles.
Nor (I don't think) could he adjust the brakes on his own bicycle.
I'm glad he gives me some room to feel superior... else I'd probly hate his guts.
PB
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In the 90's I would leave for Europe in the winter and be gone for weeks. The little brown haired girl would load the stove, get it settled in and head to work. Get home, stoke it back up and repeat daily. I always came home to a warm house and a nice fire burning.
But one time I started to come in through the breezeway and it was completely filled with large limbs and brush. I asked what that was about. She said she got sick of tramping out into the woods to break off twigs for kindling so the just drug a supply up to the breezeway. Darned if I didn't start doing the same thing.
She can't physically manage the stove anymore but when she saw me fire it up with a Super Cedar she said "Where were those twenty years ago!? Damn it!"
But one time I started to come in through the breezeway and it was completely filled with large limbs and brush. I asked what that was about. She said she got sick of tramping out into the woods to break off twigs for kindling so the just drug a supply up to the breezeway. Darned if I didn't start doing the same thing.
She can't physically manage the stove anymore but when she saw me fire it up with a Super Cedar she said "Where were those twenty years ago!? Damn it!"
Battenkiller said:Danno77 said:
Fuggetaboutit. They never learn. :roll:
All last year I never let my wife even touch the stove. This year I dedided to show her the ropes, and she seemed OK as long as I was supervising. Well, she took a snow day off yesterday and decided to do me a favor and get the fire going. I called out to see where she was and she said she was downstairs with the stove. Half an hour later she's still down there, so I go down and see what's up. The stove is cold as hell. I open the top to peak in and through a dense blanket of smoke I can make out about 40 pounds of wet birch sitting on top of a little pile of coals... sitting on top of a huge pile of ashes.
WTF!
Me: "Where did you get that wood from?"
Wife: "The stack that we brought in yesterday."
Me: "That stuff was just cut less than three weeks ago."
Wife: "You told me that you were already burning the black birch."
Me: (through gritted teeth) "Yes......The stuff I brought in two weeks ago and has been sitting right across the stove with a fan blowing on it the whole time."
Wife: "What's the difference?"
Now, my wife has an IQ that's probably higher than some folks' flue temps, but that don't mean she has a lot of common sense. To me, running a brain is kinda like running a stove. A mediocre one run well is better than the best damn stove in the world run poorly. God gave me a crappy stove, so I had to learn to use it.
Her little brother's the same way. IQ in the genius range. Advanced degree in engineering from Clarkson. Computer whiz extraordinaire. We got to talking about my car AC and I mentioned that I thought I had a leak because the thing wouldn't hold a charge of Freon. He says, "Well, you probably used it up. It can't last forever. It's like the stuff we use for cleaning computers. It gets real cold when it comes out of the can. Same thing. You probably have to have to refill your AC every now and then if you use it a lot, that just makes sense."
I went on to explain how it really worked, and he thoroughly understood it. He thought it was pretty cool, even. But how in the world did somebody that bright ever think you could cool off an entire car for years of summer driving like it was some compressed computer cleaner in a can?
You can't fix stupid, but at least you can work with it. Genius is impossible to do anything with.
Battenkiller,
WOW, great post. One point I'd like to make.
I LOVE my wife.
Now that that's out of the way, her whole famdamily is probably in the genius range or right there on the edge of it.
HOWEVER, common sense forgot them. They talk like she understands, then do things ........well,... wrong. They can't spel fur nuttin. Lack the ability to comprehend abstracts. Such a dichotomy.
My stepson seems to be the exception. Beyond merely smart. A go-getter too. He'll probably retire before he's 40 with more money than he knows what to do with.
I could go on,....and on.....and on. But I won't.
Mind you, I'm NOT perfect, nor am I a genius, (pretty dang smart, sometimes) but I feel like I have a least a lick 'o sense.
Back to the Skype thing. Danno, mind you I HATE the term, but that is a little geeky. It's also a very good idea. I'll have to do that from the shop. Just need to set up one of my machines out there.
I have an internet connected PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera that I've used for security for years, and it happens to be in the same room as the stove, so I can check it remotely. It detects light changes too (they call it motion detection) so if that room catches fire it "should" let me know. Hopefully that never happens.
Handy for checking up on the kids, the cat, girlfriend .. whatever.
Cisco WVC200 (now WVC210) if anyone wants to know. Sample pic ....
Handy for checking up on the kids, the cat, girlfriend .. whatever.
Cisco WVC200 (now WVC210) if anyone wants to know. Sample pic ....
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It's kinda the nature of people, really. Why learn to do something that is being done for you? With that being said, I've never been one to just let things happen around me. I like to know how to do everything. I always say that, aside from my job, I am not SUPER good at any ONE thing, but instead I'm just OK at about a million things.
Now, back to having others do stuff for you...I like feeling needed by my wife. I like knowing that I'd be hard to replace, but at the same time I constantly worry about what she'd do without me in case of an accident... I try to think positively, because she is extremely hard working and extremely smart, she just doesn't bother herself with stuff that I take care of.
Now, back to having others do stuff for you...I like feeling needed by my wife. I like knowing that I'd be hard to replace, but at the same time I constantly worry about what she'd do without me in case of an accident... I try to think positively, because she is extremely hard working and extremely smart, she just doesn't bother herself with stuff that I take care of.
that's wayyyy more useful than my stuffs. at least mine is just an old laptop running with a webcam. I'd prefer your method. Work has a wireless camera and receivers and other misc X10 surveillance stuff that they replaced, I have been wondering if I can get my hands on some of it.Creature said:
Creature said:
Great setup...looks cozy! One concern: the back corners of your stove look like they're about 6 inches from the wall. Does the stove meet minimum clearance requirements? (My guess is that it does, given your attention to technology/detail).
Shari said:
Well.... you know you're the exception that proves the rule, don't cha? :cheese:
(Dang... I just knew the women folk would hang me out to dry for that one) :sick:
Danno77 said:
Knock yourself out, but I've seen enough to know if something happens to me that the wife, kids, and young stud boyfriend will be sitting in front of my woodstove simmering my best oak. Flue will be sitting on 300* and they'll be playing the Wii without a care in the world.
She may or may not have the heart to turn my picture away.
Creature, do you like that ash vacuum? I have one just like it and the first time I used it it said that it was "full" right away. When I opened it ... it wasn't full; but, the filter was definitely full. I now just use it as an ash can. Was just wondering what results you had.
DanCorcoran said:
It's an Alderlea T4 so the minimum is 3 inches. It happens to be 5 inches, since I wanted a little play, but I'm in spec. Inspected and insurance confirmed. Only been burning a week.
Thanks for the concern, all good here so far.
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