Pellets used so far
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On my 5th bag here in my house up north, on the third bag in the stove I restored and installed down the street.
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Diamond in the rough Advance-2
I think I got lucky and found a project, should have it next week. Harman Advance-2 showed up on Kijiji for $75, 9hr drive north of me in Ft Mac Alberta. One of my good friends works up there, got a hold of him and he’ll throw the stove in his truck when he comes home to Calgary. Lights all come...
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NWS says a mild start to winter with normal precip and warmer than normal temps but the second half of winter will be cold with above average precip (snow).
All I know is, if the rain we have been getting lately was snow, we'd be snowbound as 1" of rain equals about a foot of snow and we have gotten about 5" of rain in the last 3 weeks.
This wet weather really screwed me. I have hayfields to cut but it's too wet (ground) and my corn is rotting at the base and falling over and you cannot combine corn ears that are laying on the ground.
I've basically come to conclusion that the hay won't get cut this year. Far as the corn goes, that is a crapshoot at best. Even if it don't rain a drop for a week, the ground is so wet that I'd sink the combine to the axles if I attempted to take it (corn) off. It's 4 wheel drive, but stuck is stuck and I don't even want to think about getting it stuck in the mud.
Might as well sit back and toast my feet in front of the biomass stove and read a book.
All I know is, if the rain we have been getting lately was snow, we'd be snowbound as 1" of rain equals about a foot of snow and we have gotten about 5" of rain in the last 3 weeks.
This wet weather really screwed me. I have hayfields to cut but it's too wet (ground) and my corn is rotting at the base and falling over and you cannot combine corn ears that are laying on the ground.
I've basically come to conclusion that the hay won't get cut this year. Far as the corn goes, that is a crapshoot at best. Even if it don't rain a drop for a week, the ground is so wet that I'd sink the combine to the axles if I attempted to take it (corn) off. It's 4 wheel drive, but stuck is stuck and I don't even want to think about getting it stuck in the mud.
Might as well sit back and toast my feet in front of the biomass stove and read a book.
I think I've burned 5 bags so far. I don't keep track and my wife is the stove loader, not me. I'll soon be on my corn/pellet mix anyway.
My buddy down the road I get the no germ seed corn from is having a bad time getting the seed corn and soybeans off (same as me ground is too wet). At least the machinery used to pick seed corn is much more compact than an average combine, but mud is mud and in his case, the corn has to be shelled (removed from the cobs because unlike a combine the picker picks the entire cob, it don't shuck the kernels off.
Then the cobs have to be processed (kernels stripped from the cobs and the cobs go to become processed for animal feed). Then the kernels have to be dried down to 10%RM or less and then tanked by variety and eventually bagged on an automated bagging line for sale to farmers. Quite a complex operation with lots of analytical lab testing along the way. Something to watch. The 'seed house' as I call it is 4 stories high and 300 feet long, most of it is gas fired drying and the kernels are constantly floating in a hot air bed. Then the corn (it's processed by variety) goes into large metal holding bins (there must be 50 of them), all with overhead loading controlled by a computer. When they bag a variety, the computer accesses a storage tank and the corn flows to the bagging house where the bags are filled and weighed and sealed and coded and stacked on pallets, much like a pellet mill does and the the skids are shrink wrapped and stored in a climate controlled warehouse ready for sale.
For the big growers, they fill 'supersacks' with seed corn. Each supersack weighs about 2500 pounds and that is a helluva lot of seed corn.
Someday, if he will let me, I might take pictures of the operation and post them, but I'll have to ask permission. Pretty neat actually.
Then the cobs have to be processed (kernels stripped from the cobs and the cobs go to become processed for animal feed). Then the kernels have to be dried down to 10%RM or less and then tanked by variety and eventually bagged on an automated bagging line for sale to farmers. Quite a complex operation with lots of analytical lab testing along the way. Something to watch. The 'seed house' as I call it is 4 stories high and 300 feet long, most of it is gas fired drying and the kernels are constantly floating in a hot air bed. Then the corn (it's processed by variety) goes into large metal holding bins (there must be 50 of them), all with overhead loading controlled by a computer. When they bag a variety, the computer accesses a storage tank and the corn flows to the bagging house where the bags are filled and weighed and sealed and coded and stacked on pallets, much like a pellet mill does and the the skids are shrink wrapped and stored in a climate controlled warehouse ready for sale.
For the big growers, they fill 'supersacks' with seed corn. Each supersack weighs about 2500 pounds and that is a helluva lot of seed corn.
Someday, if he will let me, I might take pictures of the operation and post them, but I'll have to ask permission. Pretty neat actually.
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
I’m on my 3rd or 4th bag. Going to change as our weather is supposed to change fast. Snow coming for all week. Hit and miss but with the wind it will be cold enough. It’s actually spitting snow right now.
This weekend I got my summer car washed and vacuumed and put away for the season. Put a new ku lnb on my dish so I got those channels back. Also cleaned an old wasp nest out of the feedhorn. Cleaned the stove pipe too.
Peak colors this weekend too. Couple views of my yard.
![[Hearth.com] Pellets used so far](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/284/284525-179f912a590c9cbff46b7714673b6295.jpg?hash=1k5hSRvBXx "[Hearth.com] Pellets used so far")
![[Hearth.com] Pellets used so far](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/284/284526-14f953d9cbaa50f0d575e996366bf3fd.jpg?hash=NkNpZihDqq "[Hearth.com] Pellets used so far")
This weekend I got my summer car washed and vacuumed and put away for the season. Put a new ku lnb on my dish so I got those channels back. Also cleaned an old wasp nest out of the feedhorn. Cleaned the stove pipe too.
Peak colors this weekend too. Couple views of my yard.
I'd like to put up my pickup truck for the winter ( and I usually do by now), but I need it to pull my round bailer to my dealer (he's taking the tractor on his rollback, I'm pulling the bailer and then when all the electronics are installed. I'll be pulling the new bailer back here and he will bring the tractor back. Bailer is too tall for his rollback (be higher than 13'6"). When all that is said and done, he will take out side by side back to the shop, it has 3 recalls on it. Such is life I guess.
Nice place. Your trees are a lot farther along than ours are and no snow here yet but cold enough at night to have some. Still have spuds and yams to dig, just been too wet to do anything, hay included.
Nice place. Your trees are a lot farther along than ours are and no snow here yet but cold enough at night to have some. Still have spuds and yams to dig, just been too wet to do anything, hay included.
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
Thanks. I’m closer to shore so my trees took a couple weeks longer than the middle of the state. Had a lot of rain like every fall. But aside from about 10” of topsoil, it’s pure sand to at least 6 ft down. So it drains fast. Was super easy digging the footing for my dish.
I own 152 acres up your way, not quite as far up though. Over between Newaygo and Big Rapids. It's on the edge of the Manistee National Forest, mostly old growth hardwood and only accessable via a seasonal road, hence we have a 4 wheel drive pickup truck and a nice slide in truck camper for the summertime camping trips. I usually hunt there in the winter but not this winter. I'm having issues with my right ankle and having trouble motoring around so no hunting this year. No issue, always next year, I hope. At 71 years old, there might not be a next year, one never knows.
Every year I get letters from loggers that want to cut my trees. They all go in the round file. I bought it because I like it just the way it is.
Every year I get letters from loggers that want to cut my trees. They all go in the round file. I bought it because I like it just the way it is.
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
I’ve spent a lot of time in that area. That whole swath from Big Rapids to Fremont. Tons more surrounding area. My kid’s mom lived there before moving to GR. I used to get about 12 bags of Pro Pellets from TSC in Cadillac during each trip, before I could get them locally. Enough for most of 2 weeks.
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bogieb
Minister of Fire
I used 2 bag in September in the P43. I didn't start the P61a up until 10/18/21. Now I am up to 16 bags for the season. That is a little misleading as I count bags left. At the beginning of the season both stoves had absolutely empty hoppers. When I counted yesterday, both hoppers were full, so you can basically take away 5 bags from 16 ans what I've actually "used" is 11 bags.
I used 17 bags at this point during the 2017/2018 season and 16 bags during the 2019/2020 season. Both of those were 5 ton seasons. Other years I've started burning in August. Oh, but I used the minisplit for a couple of days before unpacking the P43. don't think that made a heck of a lot of difference - maybe 1/2 a bag, if that.
I used 17 bags at this point during the 2017/2018 season and 16 bags during the 2019/2020 season. Both of those were 5 ton seasons. Other years I've started burning in August. Oh, but I used the minisplit for a couple of days before unpacking the P43. don't think that made a heck of a lot of difference - maybe 1/2 a bag, if that.
For me, fall usually means servicing farm equipment and I was told my favorite motor oil, Rotella T6 is getting hard to get for some reason. I have about half of a 55 gallon drum left. Maybe I'd better order up another, don't want to run out. The tractors take a lot of oil, 15 quarts on each change.
I don't keep track of what I have used
To depressing plus time effort and cost
getting too old for this chit
To depressing plus time effort and cost
getting too old for this chit
Sounds to me like you need a 'stoker maid' to fill them..... I'm getting so the 40 pound bags are heavy... lol Least with the mix, I can go fill a 5 gallon bucket and dump that in the stove, it's lighter a bit and has a bail on it. Easier to deal with, in fact I tend to relegate that chore to my lovely wife.
She is actually a tall, stout German gal. We are the same height 6'1" Makes good German dinners too. 36 years of marital bliss, I do what she tells me, she wears the pants in the family.
tbear853
Feeling the Heat
36 here presently outside. 72 inside and I have the furnace blower on manual so the entire house is at 72. Just about out of straight pellets but there are 4 30 gallon plastic garbage cans of mix sitting on the deck, soon to be consumed by fire...
ABusWrench
Feeling the Heat
Fired the stove up last night, first time this season. Ran a bag thru it. Looks like a bag a night thru the end of the week. Heat pump has been handling the mild temps so far. We all know what's coming though!
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