Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

Hello vent in the ceiling of the shoffice ?


AC Infinity 4" grow fan. Pushes air upstairs into the kiddos hangout to help keep it a bit nicer up there as well. It's been running for a few days and feels super nice up there !!


So far I just put a 3" elbow though the floor upstairs. It will be getting a nice 4x10 floor register soon. Our littlest has already dropped Legos and pencils down there for no good reason other than why not.


4x10 return hole through the floor. I thought I'd give this a try before going full blown multi zoned central air in the shop. For under $300 I had all the stuff to do the upstairs room as well as the new window AC in the shop. This will suffice for a while I think. Plus unless I beg the HVAC guy I usually use it'll be December before he hooks the central air stuff I told him I wanted back in Feb. He has the stuff but has no time to do it. Oh well I guess.


Since I was on a ventilation streak I put in the air exchange system in the pump house that I've been thinking about for a while now. After finding this AC Infinity grow fan I knew that was the one to use !!


The little dehumidifier in there has been running nonstop for a few years now and has been flaking out lately so it was time to do something else anyway. The air blows down onto the water system and back out another dryer vent. This poor little room badly needs a cleaning and some TLC.


The little flipper flapper on the exhaust side is opening so it seems to work !! The fan came with a fancy little controller and sensor deal. I set it so the fan will shut off when it gets to 45F inside the building and will run anytime it is warmer than that. It will shut off if the inside humidity reaches 30% so it'll pretty much run forever. This little fan takes 18w running on level 7 and 25w running on 10 at full tilt. Much less than the dehumidifier !!!

 

[jblnut]

Leftover coil stock from our old house in town will be making Mama Bear quite happy when she comes home.


I learned how to bend sheet metal today !! Well, figured how to do it without the proper tools at least


Look at those nice 90's !!!


I didn't take any finalized finished pictures but here it is before the final trim looking up through floor.


Once I put the inside trim in that seam tightened up and almost disappeared.


OK so WTF IS IT ?!?!?! A laundry chute from the kiddos bathroom into the laundry room down below of course !!!

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Leftover coil stock from our old house in town will be making Mama Bear quite happy when she comes home.


I learned how to bend sheet metal today !! Well, figured how to do it without the proper tools at least


Look at those nice 90's !!!


I didn't take any finalized finished pictures but here it is before the final trim looking up through floor.


Once I put the inside trim in that seam tightened up and almost disappeared.


OK so WTF IS IT ?!?!?! A laundry chute from the kiddos bathroom into the laundry room down below of course !!!

I'm guessing that more than Lego's and pencils go down that chute before too long!

Jim

 

[Adaylate]

We had kids and cousins go down our laundry chute and it had an offset in the chute!

 

[RickP]

Nice looking trailer -- I like the unistrut idea.

I'll bet that A/C feels so much better in the shoffice -- it might be all you need out there for a while, even if your hvac guy gets some available time. I like the grow fan for moving air in the two buildings -- I'm definitely stealing that idea!

 

[Finallygotit]

If that laundry chute is big enough for the littles to drop through, just make sure there isn't anything sharp in there. I'd hate to get a report that someone needed stitches. Yikes!

 

[jblnut]

I'm guessing that more than Lego's and pencils go down that chute before too long!

Jim

So far so good as far as the laundry chute in the house goes !!

We had kids and cousins go down our laundry chute and it had an offset in the chute!

The last house we lived in was built in the 1920's and you could have driven a Buick up and down that laundry chute it was so MASSIVE !!! We may have setup a kiddy pool at the bottom and jumped down it one night after a few Busch Latte's ..... I didn't go first but I was the only one to actually walk away unscathed. One sprained ankle and one broken wrist and a few cuts and bruises and we were back at it again the next weekend doing other dumb ****. Like wheelchair races down a tarred driveway. That one ended up much better than expected.

Nice looking trailer -- I like the unistrut idea.

I'll bet that A/C feels so much better in the shoffice -- it might be all you need out there for a while, even if your hvac guy gets some available time. I like the grow fan for moving air in the two buildings -- I'm definitely stealing that idea!

I got all the unistrut out of a dumpster when an electrical company moved from one leased location to another. Not sure why it didn't get to go along for the ride but I gladly took it home !! Along with oodles of other goodies

If that laundry chute is big enough for the littles to drop through, just make sure there isn't anything sharp in there. I'd hate to get a report that someone needed stitches. Yikes!

It's something like 8x11" so I don't think they'll fit down there. That was something that was discussed when we first talked about putting it in. "Gee .... How long until Leo is stuck in the thing ?" We better make it small enough that he won't fit in it !!!

 

[jblnut]

Plot signs going up !! I think all in all there are 42 different varieties of corn and soybeans in the plot this year !!


It was supposed to rain the next morning so I baled some questionable meadow hay. Turns out it was amazingly dry and will be nice high quality stuff !! I open the baler up after every use and hit it with a leaf blower and the business end of the grease gun.


What a traffic cone of a bale that is !!! I baled one round in the field before doing the whole thing as I wanted to see if it was dry enough. I then picked the half dozen bales up I baled and brought them across the creek with the little 5510. This meadow is rather boggy and feels like your driving on marshmallows. It's a strange feeling. Like driving with almost flat tires.


The rear end of the 7400 has been actively doing dust control with all the hyd fluid it's been ******* out so we decided to rebuild both SCV's.


Alright now get your minds out of the gutter .....


I struggled more than one legged horse in the Kentucky Derby until I took that 3-Point arm off. Than it all but fell apart. Well, once I threw some banged up knuckle blood on a few places it fell apart


$679 later all the parts have been located from Mother Deere. That bottle of engine assembly grease was in the bag as well. They literally threw in a bottle of lube to make it a little less painful


Pops decided he didn't like my vise the way it was so he broke it ..... by pounding on a sickle guard for the bean head with a 3lb sledge and a full swing.


I think this is payback for all the **** I wrecked growing up but I'm not quite sure yet .... I bolted it down solid so it can be used again at least. To be honest I don't think I ever rotated it so it'll likely work just fine unless he decides to go on a spree again.


Speaking of the bean head there were a few things on it that needed attention before it could be field-ready. One big one was one of the end dividers was all mangled. We straightened it out quite nicely !!


Miss Lily and her little fingers were perfect for the reassembly !!!


It looks pretty sharp and I'm stoked to use it !!!

 

[Sifan]

Nice looking head, be interested in your take on the air system.

Nephew bought a new to him combine 11/2021, deal was nephew to deliver platform head to dealership and dealership to marry electronics of head to combine. Nephew kept asking when do you want me to bring the head? Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet ....
Now, dealership short of help, why don't you drive the combine home (was supposed to be delivered when done) and we'll send out a field tech to shake it down? Um, like the way dealership was supposed to shake down the corn head that was purchased two seasons ago and has yet to arrive?

Um, nephew, did you hold back $5000 until the dealership completed the punch list, like your smart uncle suggested?

UM no! Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

 

[Sifan]

Those little hands can sometimes be a real help (when they are not running off with your tools!)

Last year nephew managed to find a 3' piece of a T post that somehow found it way into the middle of a 275 acre field. Did a lot of damage to inside of combine rotor. We had two nuts on each side that we couldn't reach, zapped them off with wrench and impact. Nuts ended up in the belly of the beast. Nobody cares until it came time to reassemble. After many, many failed attempts, ended up confiscating bubble gum from little one. Used bubble gum to hold nut in socket and 2' power bar to reach.

 

[jblnut]

Nice looking head, be interested in your take on the air system.

Nephew bought a new to him combine 11/2021, deal was nephew to deliver platform head to dealership and dealership to marry electronics of head to combine. Nephew kept asking when do you want me to bring the head? Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet ....
Now, dealership short of help, why don't you drive the combine home (was supposed to be delivered when done) and we'll send out a field tech to shake it down? Um, like the way dealership was supposed to shake down the corn head that was purchased two seasons ago and has yet to arrive?

Um, nephew, did you hold back $5000 until the dealership completed the punch list, like your smart uncle suggested?

UM no! Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

We're pretty excited to get the new head going in the field. It will be a major speed improvement over the 20' head we have now. We can't drive fast enough to load the combine down with the 20' head so this 30' head should be a better match !!

My HVAC guy is that way ..... I'm holding a few thousand from the house project yet because there are a few small things that need to be done that they are well aware of. They're well aware of why and how much I'm holding back yet here it is, August and they're still not done. I told them if the stuff isn't wrapped up by the end of the year I'm doing it myself or hiring someone else and I was not paying the rest of the bill. I got a, "Yeah that sounds fair" so I honestly think I'm going to get to keep the money. They're good guys but commit to doing more work than they can handle.

Those little hands can sometimes be a real help (when they are not running off with your tools!)

Last year nephew managed to find a 3' piece of a T post that somehow found it way into the middle of a 275 acre field. Did a lot of damage to inside of combine rotor. We had two nuts on each side that we couldn't reach, zapped them off with wrench and impact. Nuts ended up in the belly of the beast. Nobody cares until it came time to reassemble. After many, many failed attempts, ended up confiscating bubble gum from little one. Used bubble gum to hold nut in socket and 2' power bar to reach.

Lily doesn't run off with too many tools but Leo .... oh my goodness. I feel bad locking my main toolbox but goodness things get shuffled around inside of 29 seconds if I don't. We've had a few talks about putting things back and using his tools and he's getting much better but yikes lol.

 

[jblnut]

Look at that happy family unit in Duluth on vacation. We toured the William Irving and the kiddos had a blast !!!


We made our way up to Two Harbors and had brunch at Judy's Cafe. It was sunny and they weren't having the sitting still thing for very long


The week prior there was a tall ships deal in Two Harbors and the pirate ship was still there so we walked out and checked it out. T'was a pretty neat deal !!!


Leo and I watched this ship get iron ore loaded into it for quite some time. He'd be quiet and still for 5 minutes and then have 20,983,456 questions inside of 30 seconds and then be quiet again for a few minutes. It was awesome


On the way home we stopped at the Hull Rust mine in Hibbing and walked around some big stuff. Everyone had a blast and I almost couldn't get Leo away from the haul truck.


Looking into the mine makes you feel quite small !!!


The kiddos asked if they each bring a rock home from the mine. I said sure and asked if I could as well. I got an eye roll and hoisted this beast into the back of Mama Bears car

 

[Chrisb62]

Don't you have like 12,358 tons of rocks (granite) to bring home? Guess you or momma bear could do it one rock at a time...

All kidding aside ..... great looking family and its awesome seeing the smiles.

 

[cvairwerks]

Instead of gum to hold nuts in sockets or on wrenches, use a little super glue.....Also holds washers onto those nuts at the same time.

 

[jblnut]

Don't you have like 12,358 tons of rocks (granite) to bring home? Guess you or momma bear could do it one rock at a time...

All kidding aside ..... great looking family and its awesome seeing the smiles.

Yeah we need to do that yet this year hopefully. I think close to 75ton but still .... lots of pavers lol

Thank you for the compliments and for stopping by !!!

Instead of gum to hold nuts in sockets or on wrenches, use a little super glue.....Also holds washers onto those nuts at the same time.

Super glue is a great idea !! I've used lots of stuff over the years for that purpose but super glue is probably the best idea yet.

 

[red]

As to holding nuts in a socket regular sheet or piece of paper works as well.

 

[jblnut]

Hey hey hey eBay VFD !!!


I acquired this IR head a while back and finally have the rest of the pieces to put it to use !!


Hey look a 5hp 3ph motor !!!


A tank and everything !!! This one came off a dairy farm and has been around here long enough it can almost vote. The bearings where the crank goes into the case are out and the shaft is worn to about half it's thickness. Quite impressive really as it still pumps air and sounds like nothing is wrong. The hour meter on the motor box said it has close to 60,000hrs on it so I guess they got their moneys worth.


This property is beginning to look like the book Holes .....


Oh sweet deal !! That is the 8" sleeve that goes into the mech room in the house. How handy !!


I was ready to call Webster and let them know the new nasty word combinations I came up with trying to get a string through this pipe so I could pull my boiler line in with it. I tried a fish tape, a 1-1/4" water line, a 3/4" water line and more swearing. I ended up coming up with this wire whisk of sorts with a chunk of 3/4" pex sleeved inside it 15' or so.


YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It worked extremely well !!


For now the 1-1/4" water line stays in. I want to end up with it in there as I intend to use it to bring a fiber optic line from the house to the pump house so I don't have to use a PTP link to get GJ in the house.


Gotta dig a trench to the pump house to bring the boiler in there. The plan is to have a piece of fin tube on the return line to heat the pump house before it goes back to the boiler. May as well heat it as well being so close to the stove and between the stove and house.


I dug a small hole where I thought the boiler line came out of the shop and it wasn't there. I went to bed and Mother Nature filled it with water


Oh Mother Nature. I'm not "officially" complaining because I'm happy to have the rain !!!


The line by the house didn't fill with water because it runs directly over a 6" drain tile so it all ran away.


Once things dried up I dug another, slightly larger, hole to find the line coming out of the shop. I stacked the deck though ..... I had my electrician shove a fish tape down it and locate it. I was less than a foot from it last time


It goes under my electrical line so I'll be cutting it off near here anyway. I ran a string though it as well. I need the strings to be used as a measure to know how much boiler line I'll need. I think I'll be in the 350' range total for the house and shop. It's $15/ft

 

[jblnut]

I have wandered around the shop enough times looking for my 24" pipe wrench only to remember it's being used as a paper weight that it was time to do something about it.


That is the broken cast iron base from the vise Pops busted a few weeks back. I figured it's a good weight to use on the exhaust fan door


Little Man's trike had a wheel that kept falling off so I "fixed" it. He's happy !!


The next project was to beef up the yacht a bit as it's going to be going to BIR for a week or so hauling some big dudes around.


This was the back axle from a Chevy Citation and I widened it a bit. This is the best that 15yr old me could come up with at the time. Over the years it's broken and been rewelded a few times. I decided it was time to be done with that BS !!


Some scrap makes for a much stronger axle system. Still not pretty but it'll work !!


I'm going to be getting the kiddos room setup with surround sound finally. The Cerwin Vega RE series stuff has been sitting in here longing to be used for too long !! A beefy Sony STR-DG1000 will be powering it all. I have quite a few old game systems that will be getting hooked up and that thing should have enough to hook them all up !! PS1, PS2, PS3, Wii, Dreamcast, Sega Genesis CDX, Atari 2600, xBox, Nintendo SNES, Nintendo NES, Gamecube, N64 ..... goodness ...


On to the duals on the round baler project !!! This thing floats pretty well but in the boggy meadows we have it still sinks in enough that the pickup closes up and it doesn't feed very well. Plus when it's sinking in 8-10" it takes a CRAXY amount of power to pull it. They are mocked up in this pic and will be bolted on final soon !!


Dual adapter lug bolts purchased after cvairwerks pointed me in the correct direction. They bolted right in and will work great !! I put the factory lugs back in to keep the threads clean.


I ordered some threaded rod from Grainger and it seemed like it came the same day. Crazy fast shipping !!


I got the rods installed and it all worked quite well. Until I realized ....


I didn't order any nuts to bolt the dual to the rods


Onto the grain bin !! Again The auger tube is in.


While trying to figure out how to get the long pieces of flooring into the bin I realized my side by side was the perfect height to assist !!!


It's coming along but is taking a while.

 

[RickP]

On man, you've been busy!

That boiler heat will feel really good this winter, but spending $5,000+ on pipe right now must be tough. At least the wood will be free for heating the house! You got pretty close on your initial locates when digging -- I usually wait ten years and then swear at my younger self for not marking it better...

Nice stereo you're installing in the game room -- I wonder how many years it will take kiddos to realize how awesome a setup you gave them in there?

Your family vacation looked fun -- I'm always a fan of looking at boats (sail or freighter).

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Great update, the kiddos are growing up fast.
You have been very busy getting the farm sorted, very good progress.
Thank you for sharing.

 

[jblnut]

On man, you've been busy!

That boiler heat will feel really good this winter, but spending $5,000+ on pipe right now must be tough. At least the wood will be free for heating the house! You got pretty close on your initial locates when digging -- I usually wait ten years and then swear at my younger self for not marking it better...

Nice stereo you're installing in the game room -- I wonder how many years it will take kiddos to realize how awesome a setup you gave them in there?

Your family vacation looked fun -- I'm always a fan of looking at boats (sail or freighter).

Busy enough to hire an assistant lately. No complaining here but good grief, I'm excited for harvest and as much as I dislike cold and snow I an ready to be shoving wood in the stove and working on stuff in the shop all winter. I'm pooped.

Well to be fair their father is quite excited about all the stuff he's doing for them. The room upstairs in the shop and the shop itself and the list goes on ...... I quite enjoy them all as well

Gosh I could sit and watch boats all day. And trains. Don't know why but I love it. I also watch videos on YouTube about anything and everything related to farming and tractors and combines in the mud. Mama Bear shakes her head when I fire up Farming Simulator and play it with a few farming buddies. "You don't get enough farming during the day that you need to play it online !?!?!". I tell her I gotta stay fresh !!!

Great update, the kiddos are growing up fast.
You have been very busy getting the farm sorted, very good progress.
Thank you for sharing.

Kiddos are turning into giraffes it seems. Awesome stuff but they sure are growing fast !!

I like being busy but I have bit off a few more projects at once than I should have I think. I did finish getting the pipe for the wood boiler installed today !! That was a big one to cross off the list. Just gotta set the stove in place and it all becomes someone else's problem until I need to start feeding it wood.

I like sharing what we do and although I've said it before, it still amuses me that people find it interesting as well. So thank you for following along !!!

 

[jblnut]

Miss Lily and I picked up the wood boiler pipe yesterday. He got a semi load of stoves a week back and said he has two more on order and all but a handful are sold. Good grief !! He also said pipe was backordered a bit, nothing crazy, and it was a good thing I got it now and not in a few weeks. I finally beat a deadline for once !! Yessssssssssssssssssssssss !!!!!!!!


Mama Bear sometimes asks "Why do you need all those things in the sheds?" Well my dear because they save me time so I can spend more time with you and the kiddos. Insert wifey eye roll and sigh


8" bit on that beast



Time to test out the Chinese finger trap. I pushed it on the rest of the way before using it, no worries.


I secured it with a ratchet strap while we were putting the other end through the boiler pad so it didn't slide back into the pipe !!


The sleeve we put in when the shop was built went under the power line that goes to the shop. Dumb. I cut it off and said Good enough !!


Pops playing with probably his favorite toy on the farm.


This sleeve was only 20' long so I didn't put the mesh thing on all the way. "Work smarter, not harder" Yes.


I didn't think the line would go inside the house being as the sleeve was all bent up stupid because our builder was, probably still is, a *****. So we took the outer jacket and foam off about 10' so it would slip though easier. Good thing we did as it was a ****** to get in even like this !!


Look at that happy little mud creature


There was a ton of shovel work here. The fiber optic lines that go to the steer barn and chicken barn are on the bottom of the picture and the power line to the well house is towards the top.


The last line between the stove and well house was the toughest by far !!!


We used the skiddy to hold the line down so it wouldn't curl up into the fiber lines. It worked okay but still was a pain. Once I poured a gallon of wire lube down the sleeve it went lots better !!


Pops pushed down from the top and I used a strap to pull on it. My hands and arms are flat out dead tired and I'm ready for some ice cream


Sleeves trimmed and all pipes are installed.


Sort of made a mess of the yard but oh well. It's done now and I can finally seed grass over here !!!


I totaled up what I have invested in this money saving wood boiler adventure so far and yikes ....
Crown Royal 7400MP - $12,750
24x24 Concrete Pad under boiler - $1440
Drain pipes under boiler pad - $1,400
352' of 1-1/4" pipe - $5,280
Core drill/bit - Bottle of Windsor
Labor/Parts estimate to hook it all up - $9,200+/-
Total SO FAR lol - $30,160 + a bottle of Windsor

A tad more than I was figuring but too far in to back out now. I was hoping for closer to $20k BUT was also figuring on hooking it all up myself and I just don't have time to do that. I think there is around $2,500 in labor to hook it all up past me getting the pipes in and boiler set. At roughly $4,000/yr in propane costs at todays prices it still pencils out in a touch over 7yrs and I know we'll keep the house, garage and shop warmer if we don't have to pay for each gallon to heat it up.

 

[Sifan]

"Mama Bear sometimes asks "Why do you need all those things in the sheds?""

My response to my Mrs. : Why do you NEED 35 pairs of shoes?? Done !

 

[jblnut]

"Mama Bear sometimes asks "Why do you need all those things in the sheds?""

My response to my Mrs. : Why do you NEED 35 pairs of shoes?? Done !

She got another pair in the mail today. I do not understand the shoe thing. I have 5 pair of shoes that cover everything I've ever needed. Red Wings in good shape for going anywhere not on the farm thatbturn into the Red Wings for anything on the farm when the farm pair become junk. Muck Chores boots for mud/poop/whatever sloppy stuff. A pair of flippity flops for when I feel flippity flippity and a pair of nice black dress shoes. Other than a nice pair of cowboy boots I can't think of anything else I'd ever need for my feet .....

She apparently has a more creative imagination because there are tubs and tubs of shoes around here. Shoes that are EXACTLY the same but are a different color. Whatever I guess. I have tools that are EXACTLY the same as each other too so who knows lol

 

[jblnut]

Miss Lily and I changed a pair of tires on the farm truck. Three golf balls in each of them to balance them. Worked on the Ranger so may as well try it on the big truck


Someone from my past wanted a few more cameras so Miss Lily and I jetted off in the minivan to make it happen. I showed her how to put EZRJ45 ends on and off she went. We did 40ish total with her doing well over half and every single one passed when tested !! It literally took me two days to show someone at my former job how to terminate ethernet cables and he still sucked at it. This little 9yr old had it mastered after about 10 ends


She couldn't quite squeeze the crimper hard enough to get the last click out of it though


The day has finally arrived !!


The stove is FINALLY in place. Now it's up to the guy I purchased it from to make it all work. Just gotta feed it with wood from here on. This feels REALLY good to have that crossed off the list !!!!


Pipes are in and ready to be hooked up. Two 1-1/4" lines in each pipe surrounded by foam. This stuff is so well insulated that I've seen it sitting on the ground mid winter with snow on top of it while there is 180F water running through it. Not sure how that is possible but I figured it was worth the money to buy well insulated pipe instead of having to cut and burn more wood.


On to the next project !!! This culvert was half buried and was the beginning of another project.


We straightened the end up a bit and dug out as much sand as I could reach with a shovel.


We flushed a total of 1,200gal of water through it to clean it out using the liquid fertilizer tender trailer. It worked very well !!!


Miss Alyssa and I connected 10 tile cores together to make it loooooooooooonger.


Oh boy that looks SOOOOOOOOO much better !!! Gosh this feels great to get all this stuff done. Finally looks like something is getting done around here !!


I need 6-7 more sections to go as far as I want. Luckily I know where there is a rather large pile of them to go grab more. Finally putting these dumb things to use !!

 

[jblnut]

Found more pipes in the woods a few miles away. Miss Alyssa helped me bring them home with the little Ranger


The rest of the pipes are in place.


Alllllll the way to the ditch


All leveled off and ready for the next step !!





The other culvert goes under the driveway and drains the field North of the steer barn. I plan to put a bunch of rocks where they discharge to prevent some erosion.


Major improvement over the weedy piles of dirt that used to be here !!


Double rainbow over the shop


A quick shower the evening we go the pipe in gave it a test. Guess what ?!?!? It works


It seems there are a few other drainage issues that need attention


I got out the tiller for the skiddy today and started to prep for grass seed but Mother Nature had other plans.


7' of tiller makes for quick work but it was raining too much to keep going. It got greasy and I didn't have enough traction to keep pulling the tiller through the dirt so I parked it. Hopefully I can finish it soon so we can get it all planted this coming week.

 

[cvairwerks]

Not trying to be a safety nanny, but wish you would build a tire cage for the bobcat.......Not fun when there is a sidewall or bead failure on initial filling. We had a failure a couple of years back, with the landing gear retracted as we were setting the aircraft up for a test. A large portion of the tire carcass came thru the gear door and damaged a lot of tubing and wiring when it let loose.

 

[jblnut]

Not trying to be a safety nanny, but wish you would build a tire cage for the bobcat.......Not fun when there is a sidewall or bead failure on initial filling. We had a failure a couple of years back, with the landing gear retracted as we were setting the aircraft up for a test. A large portion of the tire carcass came thru the gear door and damaged a lot of tubing and wiring when it let loose.

That's not a bad idea at all and would be easy enough to do. We've given thought to a tire cage but haven't ever built one because we do not deal with split rims at all. The tire itself blowing up is a whole different concern I haven't given much thought to.

One more thing on the project list now

 

[jblnut]

We decided to bring the nice cabinets in the upstairs room in the shop up to the house and put the stand I built a while back up there instead. That "upstairs room in the shop" needs a new name ....... that seems clumsy .....


They look much better in the house !! Notice the zip tie on the little dudes hat. It is too small to hold together without it


Little Man and I trekked over to a neighbors dairy farm to borrow some soft water for the wood stove. He's got a 1" line coming out of the softener so it didn't take long to get 500gal !!!


Back home and awaiting the install guys.


I told them to keep it tight and clean or we'd have words and goodness did they ever !!!


It all looks like it's been there since day one !!! So far I'm impressed .....


Back side of the wood boiler halfway plumbed. The shop side is done.


Do you want the good pumps or the better pumps ?? Well we may as well go with the better pumps as long as the ink on the feather is wet enough to write a check .....


House furnace coil cut in ....


Sidearm on the water heater done and awaiting the boiler line to be hooked up.


Again it looks like it's always been there ....


My electrician came the same day and put this spendy little box on the side of the grain bin. I'm thinking I'll be out the better part of $2,000 to get that where it is ..... 100a service run 220' with all copper .... yikes ....


Got to play with my tiller again a bit though !!


$4,400 well spent. This thing is amazing !!!

 

[Krfjkm]

Always look forward to your updates!

 

[RickP]

That tiller looks like it works really well, and probably makes planting grass almost fun.

I'm sick of getting beat up by my little walk-behind MTD tiller. Maybe I should start looking at the $4,400 model (and wouldn't mind upgrading to a nice skid steer while I'm at it).

The plumbing for your woodstove looks really good -- it looks like they really take pride in their work!

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Very nice progress!

 

[Jayman17]

I’m glad your install guys know what they are doing because looking at all that pipe and
wiring is making my head go . Sure looks tidy though.

Jay

 

[jblnut]

Always look forward to your updates!

Me too

Makes me feel like I got something done out here. Thank you for following along !!!

That tiller looks like it works really well, and probably makes planting grass almost fun.

I'm sick of getting beat up by my little walk-behind MTD tiller. Maybe I should start looking at the $4,400 model (and wouldn't mind upgrading to a nice skid steer while I'm at it).

The plumbing for your woodstove looks really good -- it looks like they really take pride in their work!

The tiller works quite well. Not sure if planting grass is fun yet as I encountered a snap with the drain pipe that I'll show below so I didn't get it planted yet.

A decent used S300 with low hours can be had for $30,000 or so if you watch around so I don't know what you're waiting for !!!! It'll lead to a slippery slope of attachments though. Gee, a snowblower would be nice .... hmmmm .... a land leveler deal would be handy .... the snowblower doesn't work well in wet heavy stuff so I gotta get a big snow bucket now .... pallet forks would sure help move things .... I have to lift that piano into the 2nd floor through the patio door, better get an extendable boom with a big hook ..... a brush mower for the skiddy would be so much nicer than messing with that old tractor up at the hunting ground ..... It never stops !!!!

These woodstove guys did a nice job for sure !!!

Very nice progress!

Hey thanks !!!!

Thank you for following along

I’m glad your install guys know what they are doing because looking at all that pipe and
wiring is making my head go . Sure looks tidy though.

Jay

It is tidy now. They cleaned a bit of the messy install stuff the last guys did that I always hated so that was nice. I of course paid for it though, which was quite fine with me.

 

[jeepxj]

Hows your crops looking? mid oct for corn?

 

[jblnut]

The back of the wood stove is all plumbed up and ready to rock.


From there it goes into the well house .....


And into the cutest little unit heater you've ever seen ....


Out into the other side of the well house where my anxiety inducing internet service comes in ....


Around the corner and down ....


Into the line that goes to the house ....


Into the water first though the SS sidearm ...


Then over on to the in floor boiler system .... the filter there is inline with the heat stuff and has already caught a few particles.
They put in a snazzy blending valve on the boiler system so I can fine tune the floor heat to that 125F area. The LP Boiler will get set down to 110F so it will run if the stove cools off.


Finally over to the forced air furnace and back to the stove .... well, technically back to the pump house and through the unit heater (it is on the return line from the house so the house has priority) and then on to the stove !!!


While tillering I noticed that I got a little too close to one of the pipes so we dug it out.


Bad news just keeps flowing sometimes and it turns out a bunch of the single wall pipes were collapsed. I didn't have them buried very deep and I think the skiddy crushed them when I backfilled them. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .....................


I hauled a load of hay to a neighbor and grabbed some dual wall pipes he had.


Dug it proper this time with Dug the hydraulic shovel. It is in the 18" below grade area now. Should be good to build a railroad over it now. I had enough dual wall pipes to get almost all the way to the trees so it shouldn't fail again.


All leveled off and purrty again


Hopefully that's the last time I gotta dig over here for a while .....


I got the sidehill all ready for seed as well .... well almost ...

 

[ambenz]

I am really loving the idea of having free heat, it looks pretty expensive, so far!!!!
I am curious mostly, as I am seeing some pretty small heat exchangers and was wondering about the size. They look too small to isolate the whole slab or the house....maybe a hot water tank or a home furnace coil. Are you totally isolating the wood burning stove water system from the house accessories, garage accessories, etc? Curious what your take is on issues when you spring a leak on a system. Are you monitoring water levels of the radiation systems?
I imagine with your automation experience, you are going to have all the systems automated with a dedicated ip address so you can see the whole system in real time on the world wide web, via a cell phone....right?


I would...if the wood furnace drops below 110F, time to add fuel, temp drop in home, check pump....
Curious what you have for emergency heat if your system needs emergency repair?
"The Heating System" also needs a name... "Icefyre", "Meraxes", "Leviathan", "Xiuhcoatl" ...you get the idea.
One name and the whole family know your talking heat...LOL!
Well, hope I have given you a little food for thought...but knowing you from this thread, you probably have that all covered. Carry on and thank you for being a farmer and providing a service to society greater than most people do during their lives.

 

[jblnut]

Hows your crops looking? mid oct for corn?

Crops actually look pretty good. Last year we averaged WELL under 100bu/a and this year we're hoping for 150bu/a and I think we should do that or a little better hopefully. Mid oct for corn would be about the latest we could be as I'll need corn for the steers before that lol

I am really loving the idea of having free heat, it looks pretty expensive, so far!!!!
I am curious mostly, as I am seeing some pretty small heat exchangers and was wondering about the size. They look too small to isolate the whole slab or the house....maybe a hot water tank or a home furnace coil. Are you totally isolating the wood burning stove water system from the house accessories, garage accessories, etc? Curious what your take is on issues when you spring a leak on a system. Are you monitoring water levels of the radiation systems?
I imagine with your automation experience, you are going to have all the systems automated with a dedicated ip address so you can see the whole system in real time on the world wide web, via a cell phone....right?


I would...if the wood furnace drops below 110F, time to add fuel, temp drop in home, check pump....
Curious what you have for emergency heat if your system needs emergency repair?
"The Heating System" also needs a name... "Icefyre", "Meraxes", "Leviathan", "Xiuhcoatl" ...you get the idea.
One name and the whole family know your talking heat...LOL!
Well, hope I have given you a little food for thought...but knowing you from this thread, you probably have that all covered.

Yeah it's the most expensive free heat I've ever been a part of. Things got out of hand quickly but it will pay for itself in under 7yrs so it's a no brainer

The wood stove is totally isolated from everything. It is an open to atmosphere, non-pressurized system that has softened water and some blue anti corrosion junk in it. The plate exchangers in the house and shop for the in floor systems are both 40 plate (160,000btu) exchangers. They don't look that big but they pack a HUGE punch. I've installed Muller plate coolers in direct load systems on dairy farms that could cool a 2" pipe filled with 102F milk down to 38F in one unit roughly 12"x 48"x24". These plate exchangers are pretty wild stuff. The chillers that make that happen are roughly the size of a UPS truck though

There are pressure/temp gauges on the in floor systems in the house and shop to keep an eye on things. These gauges let me know if there is a leak I guess. No pressure means it got out somewhere !!!

No automation here. I'm a huge proponent of the KISS method. Keep It Simple Stupid !!!! There really isn't a need to monitor anything more with the wood stove than before. The pumps in the stove run 24/7 and are constantly bringing hot water to each appliance as it needs it. The stove is controlled with a simple digital aquastat and kicks on the two forced induction fans when the water temp in the stove reaches 170F and shuts down and goes into "idle" mode when it reaches 180F. There is a mechanical aquastat on the incoming wood stove line on the forced air furnace set to 140F so if the water temp from the stove drops below 140F it'll call for the heat to be supplied with LP instead from the stove. The LP in floor boilers are set to 110F and the mixing valve will be set to 125F so when/if the water coming from the stove cannot heat the in floor systems to 111F or above the LP burner will kick in and keep it all warm.

Lots going on here but the two large red lines on the left are the new wood stove lines. Centerish with the dial gauge is the mixing valve. You don't want 180F water to go through the floor so some of the floor water passes by and goes around again. It'll be set at 125F or close to it. Plate heat exchanger is lower right. The hot water that comes from the stove heats the water/glycol in the in floor system. That hot water gets pumped towards the LP boiler like it did before with the same pump as before BUT since it'll be hotter than 110F (where the LP boiler is set at) it will continue past the LP boiler and keep making it's circle.


This is the plate exchanger that is in the house and the shop. The shop has a 120K btu LP boiler and the house has an 80K btu LP Boiler. Oversizing the plate exchanger is not a big deal and the price of an 80K btu vs a 160K btu is less than $20. One set of plates can transfer roughly 4k btu.


If the stove water temp drops below 140F the forced air furnace will be running on LP and heating the stove water that is still circulating, if the stove water temp drops below 110F both in floor boilers will be running on LP and will be heating the stove water. Not exactly ideal as they'll be heating unneeded stuff but as long as the water circulates it won't freeze. If the power goes out I'll hook up my genny like usually and keep things moving . The entire stove runs on something silly like 200w when running so my Honda 2000 genny will keep it happy until I get the PTO genny fired up. It'd take a fair bit of time before things freeze anyway.

Oh yeah the stove needs a name for sure !! I was thinking of naming the stove Audrey II because it'll always be yelling "Feed Me !!!" My name isn't Seymour but it makes me giggle so it may stick

Carry on and thank you for being a farmer and providing a service to society greater than most people do during their lives.

Says the Top Gun grad

I take lots of pride in what gets done out here because without farmers there is no food. Without the likes of you we wouldn't have the opportunity to farm ..... or drive on the right side of the road or any of the things we take for granted. So, thank you for all you've done for us out here !!!!

 

[jblnut]

Baling meadow hay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Picking them up to put in the shed to keep them safe and sound.


The rods to get the duals mounted on the baler finally came !!!


They are mocked up here before welding the nuts on the end of the rods. I trimmed them down a bit but I'll likely need a longer socket because I'm not sure which way will work best to have the dual on the baler. I can take the center spacer out and flip the dual around and it'll stick out around 4" more.


They thread into dual adapters that stay on the baler when the duals are off. I'm pretty stoked to use these things in a few days !!


Trimming the rods down to a more appropriate length.


Brand new Makita blade in the Ryobi portable bandsaw and it **** out after doing 15.75 cuts in this rod. Must be hard stuff !!!

I love making jigs. I likely spend as much time making the jig as doing the job without it in the first place


It centers the nut on the end of the rod so it can be tacked on in just the right spot. Sure did make it go faster !!


It may look like a six sided StarBurst but I don't think it's cherry flavored


*Snaps fingers like that Johnson kid on YouTube* and just like that all 16 are done !!!


I needed a longer socket so I used my socket stretcher on an 1-1/16" SnapOn impact socket. It turned out decent so far. Needs paint and the "SnapOn" stamped back into it. It got all melty when I welded it together


These 5/8-18 threaded rods are both lug studs and lug nuts. There is a 3/4" nut welded onto the end of each of them to drive them in and the 1-1/16" nut will act as a lug nut to hold the duals on my round baler.


One side mounted and ready to go in the meadow !! The dual will ride 2" or so off the ground when the ground is hard to help eliminate stress on the axle when floatation isn't needed.

 

[zanyad]

I needed a longer socket so I used my socket stretcher on an 1-1/16" SnapOn impact socket. It turned out decent so far. Needs paint and the "SnapOn" stamped back into it. It got all melty when I welded it together

"Socket stretcher"