Life is good

[bjrogg]

Glad to hear everyone is getting back to normal. Good on Matt for checking in on Bob. It’s been brutally cold and windy here lately.

Pappy I wonder if you could use one of those heater for water troughs for your fish tank.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

I thought about that BJ, but was afraid to try it, they can be a little finicky , I tried moving them inside a few years ago and lost a lot of them, so now just try my best to keep it from freezing solid, once the electric came back on the heat lamp is doing a good job of keeping it from doing that.Think I have got by this one. Still got pipes froze in the cabin, heading down this morning to see if they thawed with the heaters I put on them yesterday and if any of them are busted, keeping my fingers crossed. 
 Pappy

[JW_Halverson]

The cabin looks picturesque with the snow, Pappy! I bet the woods are quiet and peaceful, too. Not gonna like, I am a little bitter, Pappy. You have more snow than we do here in the Black Hills.

Next time you get a nasty cold snap like this, turn on faucets at the slowest trickle you can manage. That wee bit of dribble often stops the pipes from freezing up completely. We far northern Yankees sometimes have to do that even though we insulate our houses. Lots of newer homes are no longer putting in water lines unless they are on an interior wall in order to prevent this.  I replumbed the kitchen sink water lines to come up through the floor under the sink so they aren't in the wall anymore.

Hang in there, spring is coming.

[bjrogg]

Yes we always left the water trickling in the barn when it gets this cold. But if you have a well and don’t have electricity you don’t have that option. It’s still very cold and very windy here. I’m thinking about somewhere warm.

Still a lot of winter left here, but every day gets one day closer.

Pappy I think they even have those heaters for fish tanks. I seem to remember having one when we were kids.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

Yes JW the woods are beautiful , but not very quite, the snow was covered with about and inch of ice, pretty noisy when I went out for a walk yesterday, the problem with the cabin is not the wall but the lines coming in under it, hard to keep it warn under it. I have a heat light under it at the point it come in and that usually works fine but the no Electric put a monkey wrench in that plan so now just have to get it thawed and see what i got. I will check into that BJ ,but again you need electric for it to work. Off grid solar panels is the answer and may look into that. got the bathroom thawed yesterday and all seems good for now, now on to the kitchen. 
 Pappy

[mullet]

Looks like we are getting it again this weekend. Last weekend, ice and sleet. this weekend they are predicting 4-6" of snow, that's unusual for here in SC. But, the good side, looks like they fixed Global Warming!

[Pappy]

Hope you make it through ok Eddie, been a little bit of a struggle here with the electric being out but it's on again and seems the worst of the cold is about over for a while, got everything thawed in the cabin and don't seem to have any busted pipes that I can tell, to much ice to get under the cabin but water pressure is good and hear or see no leaks so maybe got lucky, and also my fish doing fine. Been a cold but very fun weekend, spent most of the time in the shop and close to the fire but did venture out for some scouting and a few clean up projects.A few pictures around the place, some snow but mostly this is all ice.  Glad I thought to cover some of the wood pile. 
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Collapsed the cover over my girls house and struggled to keep them fresh water, the creek was froze solid. And the ice on the new shed came crashing off all at once, lucky no one was under it. 
 Pappy

[Pappy]

I decided it was a good weekend to work on some knives , so I fired up the forge, felt pretty good. 
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Got my files softened and I put them in sand in my hot plate to cool slow. Joe showed up and braved the cold to shoot and hang out for a bit. then I got out for some drive way work, the tiller works pretty good on breaking up the ice.  much better than the box blade did.
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Some blades laid out and ready to tapper, good fire and venison steak to warm up with.
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Blades tapered , Shawn showed up for some bow work. Nice day to pull bark.
 Pappy

[Pappy]

He is also laying out a take down, back strap for lunch.
 Pappy

[Pappy]

A good fire for me and my girls then venison soup and the last of Dave's eggs for supper, rested well, that cold will take it out of you.
 Pappy

[Pappy]

Got 1 handle fitted to one of the file knives and a plan for the other, looking good so far, was to cold to try and temper the blades back so will do that this week before I can install the handles. 
 Pappy