Wood Boilers Cut Heating Bills. The Rub? Secondhand Smoke.

NY Times ^ | December 18, 2006 | ANAHAD O’CONNOR

[Gabz]

Two years ago I was away from home January through March, and the better half of me did fine.

Your better half is a better woman than I am. Our 8 year old daughter is better capable of starting the woodstove, and maintaining the fire (with suprvision) than I am. She just is more adept at learning the lessons daddy teaches her each time he lights a fire.

I'm a stubborn cuss and will keep at something until I master it, but that danged stove has me beat, no doubt about it.

[paulat]

I would not eat them with the ham...
I would not eat then with some Spam...

[timer]

Yeah, that's a lot of cash IN and wait years for it to pay for itself. Maybe the best thing, as to adding attic insulation, would be 6" diameter holes at about 10' o.c. near th ridge. Blown-in insulation in piles just below them, then the flat vents(holes on bottom side)installed over those holes. Where you came up short though was doing only 1" insulation under the shingles, it should have been a LOT more. Oh well, monday morning quarterbacking....

[sbMKE]

Aurucanas? There's a breed that's called the Easter Egg Chicken -- lays green and some strains will lay other colors as well.

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/category/day_old_baby_chickens.html

[silver charm]

Those smudge pots were so bad sometimes that you would get oily residue alover your face from the "smudge". And the incinerators...I sure remember those. They finally outlawed them. Might just as well have out lawed the citrus too for all the groves you see these days. Nothing but housing tracks and strip malls.

I remember the smell of orange blossoms on those warm (hot) summer nights. Even used to be some dairies too. My sister is still in So. Cal and she has a 50's vintage house with a lemon, grapefruit and tangerine trees. And avacado trees too. Man, I sure miss those avacados.

lol, a nice trip down memory lane.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

bingo !

[Old Professer]

Oh, it's worse than that, the roofer, a fellow I had known for some timekept after me to let him do the job with promises about how quick and how well his crew would do the job.

It took three weeks and he then left town for Florida to make his fortune on the hurricane damage; about four months later his wife came by with a problem concerning her lawnmower because I fix them for people and told me that he had sent her a letter telling her not to come down there to join him because they were quits and he would be staying there, leaving her with a 7 month old baby and no house as it was foreclosed.

Just before I signed the work order to start the job he showed me a fancy plaque he had received from the local BBB so even the watchdogs slip up, I guess.

At least the roof doesn't leak now.

[timer]

Typical construction story, I've heard so many of them. Old saw : if you want good oats you pay the market rate, if you only can afford oats that have been through the horse once, well, that's a lot cheaper. Same goes for contractors...