On Sun, 25 Apr 2021 08:35:04 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:
On Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 10:32:34 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 18:33:08 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:
On Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 12:36:26 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 08:42:26 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:
On Friday, April 23, 2021 at 11:09:26 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:06:29 -0500, Markem618
wrote:
...
Minwax oil-based Wipe-On Poly doesn't yellow.
The can calls it "slight ambering". ;-)
(Gotta love those marketing folk.)
*Everything* yellows around here in the Spring.
Ah yes the pines of the south.
I comes out of the trees like snow. ...but don't eat the yellow snow
We have Cottonwood trees in my area. We get late spring/early summer
"snowfalls". Not as bad as this, but close.
https://static.seattletimes.com/wp-c...29-780x413.jpg
Not like that on the ground but this isn't unusual:
https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/pollen-from-pine-trees-coats-the-windshield-of-a-vehicle-in-news-photo/175868822?adppopup=true
https://us-browse.startpage.com/av/anon-image?piurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asthmacenter.com%2Fw p-content%2Fuploads%2FPine-Pollen-Plume-e1495119706845.jpg&sp=1619281098T1fb598c3188400440 0ab0f466e789d167fdebb11ff73fe992e3b17a514b44a54
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/watch-pine-tree-unleashes-huge-fluffy-pollen-cloud-180969048/
We get the yellow pollen on our vehicles, the Cottonwood everywhere - noses included -
and I have to clean my gutters 3 times a year. If I wait too long in the spring, the helicopters
sprout and I get a bunch of maple trees in my gutters. I may need to pay someone this year.
Not sure when my shoulder will be able to handle a 28' extension ladder.
Helicopters and leaves from maple trees in the fall are the worst. We
had a maple overhanging our garage. They always fell after it got cold
and I'd be out there freezing my ass off cleaning them out of the
gutters. Fortunately, we didn't have any gutters on the back (shed
dormer on Cape). Things like gutter guards, or whatever they're
called, just make it worse.
SWMBO gets all ****y if I get the extension ladder out anymore. She
doesn't like the larger step ladders but the extension ladder sets her
off.
The worst years are when I have to hook a hose on my belt, climb the ladder and use
hot water to melt the ice before I can get the leaves out. It's a good thing I put a hot
water hose bib next to the garage right after I moved in.
Didn't have that but did have ice.
OTOH, we had a *real* snowfall earlier this week, 3" worth. It melted on the
driveways/roads, but we had to take the snowbrushes out of storage.
We had 2" a few years ago and it shut down the city for three days
(named "Snowmageddon"). We lost power for three days. With electric
heat (heat pumps) it got rather cold.
I had enough of the cold weather outages, so a few years ago I bought a generator
and put an 240V inlet on the back wall of the house and a manual interlock on the
panel. Other than testing the setup a few times, I haven't had to actually use it.
Probably never will. ;-)
We have outages fairly often, though less so lately. The area is
building up so I think they're adding redundancy into the system
around here. It's not that there are none, but they don't last long.
We had a tornado come last month, about five miles from here, and we
lost power for maybe a half hour.
Neighbors on two sides of us have automatic systems. I don't see
spending thousand$.
I installed this kind of interlock. (not my panel). It prevents having the main
breaker and generator breakers on at the same time.
https://www.electriciantalk.com/atta...997-jpg.22490/
How does that work?
To a certain extent, it’s a gravity based system.
On the part that attaches to the main breaker, you can see a vertical slot
and a rivet head. The part on the ganged generator breakers just below
the main has a similar slot. Let’s call them “blockers”.
In the normal operating mode (main on) the blockers just basically
hang on down as shown.
You can’t turn on the generator breakers unless you slide its blocker
up, but you can’t slide it because it hits the main breaker’s blocker.
In order to get the main breaker’s blocker out of the way, you have to
turn the main breaker off.
I can see that now. I thought the pieces interlocked with each other
somehow. They're held in place by the breaker handles. They just
can't occupy the same space so on the breakers has to be off.
Once you turn the main breaker off, you slide both blockers up and
turn the generator breakers on. When you let go of the blockers, the
generator’s blocker sits on the top of breaker and keeps the main
breaker’s blocker up, preventing you from turning on the main.
When you turn the generator breakers off, both blockers drop down
and the main can be turned back on, but the generator breakers
can’t be.
I have my panel set up such that the essential circuits are split fairly
evenly across the 2 phases. The breaker map is not only labeled
to show which breaker controls what, there is also a red G next to the
circuits that I want on when the generator is being used. I got a great
deal on a practically new 6250/5000 watt generator, which can
easily handle my essentials. I made my own cord which was *way*
cheaper than buying a ready made cord at the length I wanted.
My generator lives under my deck, which is 6’ off the ground and
roofed underneath. All I need to do is start it up, run the cord to the
inlet and start flipping breakers.
That raises another question. My deck is ~8' high and the double
doors to my basement are under it. Three sides of the basement/house
surround most of the three sides of the (12x16') deck. I'd like to
cover that area so it doesn't turn to mud under the deck (in a perfect
world, a concrete pad would go there). I was thinking about hanging
corrugated metal or fiberglass under the deck but could probably only
pitch it about 1"/ft. What I'm afraid of is allowing critters,
carpenter bees or hornets, in particular, from nesting between them.
Any ideas?