After 5 days of 40s, its snowing those heavy big flakes. Looks the ground will get its snow coat again.
1 Like
2 inches of pure slop here this morning. Up on the bluffs they are getting mostly snow (7 inches or more). It’s rain now down here. Plenty of moisture, just not cold enough.
1 Like
A beautiful winter wonderland here this morning.
1 Like
Is that a wood boiler I see in the background? There are quite a few of those in use around here. How has it done for you, and does it go thru a bunch of wood? I’ve contemplated getting one for us, but they’re a bit expensive to buy and get installed.
Yep, I’ve burned wood since I believe November of 2008, I built my home in May 2005. Propane was expensive and cutting wood is cheap, hard work, but cheap.
Wood is efficient heat in my opinion, theres is a big different between 70 degree propane heat and 70 degree wood heat. I know that sounds ridiculous but believe me, there is. It also heats our water inside and my wife and girls love the unlimited heat they can use.
I suppose you could burn a lot if you are in a older home that loses heat, but if your in KY, I doubt you’d burn that much wood.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply. Before we moved in here 3 years ago, I was looking into a boiler, but had to prioritize our spending, so it kind of fell behind other needs. We live in a somewhat new (~10 years old) single wide, and have an older house down the hill from us. Our home is all electric, and of course lacking in space, so putting in a wood stove is a no go, plus insurance frowns on putting in such a stove, so a boiler would seem to be a good alternative.
The house down the hill is where my wife grew up in, and right now it’s unoccupied, and being used as storage for our excess stuff. My wife wants to spruce it up and put in a wood stove for heating and cooking. It’s had wood stoves in there before, but now it has an old propane wall heater which we keep going to make it more comfortable in there when we work.
She would would agree with your statement that wood heat is a different heat than propane heat. Maybe it warms radiantly, and the propane just heats the air? I bought a new propane heater for the house that heats up the bricks and throws out more radiant heat than the old blue flame heater that’s in there now. I’ve yet to install it.
We have plenty of trees to cut and heat with, but like you said it is a lot of work to cut it, pull it out of the woods, split, and stack all that wood.
2 Likes
Its pretty rewarding when your done though. 
1 Like
Insulate insulate insulate…and then insulate some more.
2 Likes
If you are comparing a wood boiler to a propane furnace, then yes, there is a big difference in heat quality. That difference, though, is not related to the wood or propane, it is due to the difference between radiant heat from a boiler setup and convective heat from a furnace setup. Radiant heat directly warms objects whereas convective heat warms the air which then warms the objects. With two different boiler based systems, one heated with wood and the other with propane, you would not be able to tell the difference as pipes full of hot water are the same regardless of the fuel source.
Thanks. Well, maybe the new propane wall heater I just got will give the house a “better” heat, in that it’s an infrared radiant unit with four plaques being heated as opposed to the old blue flame unit that’s in there now. In that way, it may approach the kind of heat you get with a wood stove.
It’s a 30000 BTU unit so it ought to be plenty for the house. Plus, it ought to be more efficient and not burn thru the propane as fast. I’ll have to maybe move some furniture around so as to not get things too hot with the radiant heating.
meyer lemon already has tons of blossoms, along with the blueberry bushes that are all showing bud swell and a couple have even set some fruit…
We can still get freezes down here into February. Although the way this year is going, I have my doubts…we’re expecting another cold snap at the end of the week where it gets down into the upper 30’s maybe, but nothing that should harm anything.
1 Like
Blueberries already are popping. I’m probably going to have to give them a feeding a little earlier this year.
2 Likes
I have tons of blooms on my Meyer as well. I think you’ll be fine I’ve had a few recent frosts, and they never even flinched.
I’m concerned this winter is a repeat of last year. Many people lost their fruit last year during similar weather. It’s still early Feb and we were 70 degrees today.
1 Like
How much does cold nights buffer warm days? I am sitting here on my couch in the dark waiting for the sun to check my trees; I just spent three weeks in Kenya and got back to a forecast of 77 today and tomorrow, and high 40s low in the 20s potentially by Wednesday. My peaches were already trying to swell before I left.
1 Like
I wonder if something like this would help. It looks like it is just diluted antifreeze. Has anyone tried diluted ammonia for frost protection?
1 Like
I will definitely have peach blossoms by the end of the weekend, fortunately the one that is farthest along is the one getting top worked, so that may work in my favor. The Reliance and Georgia Belle are just barely showing pink in the bud swell, so time to spray today I think. My irises are up from the bulb, and daffodils already have flower stalks coming up.
1 Like
OMG… look at Denver
87F in NW Kansas?
[quote]RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER/BOULDER CO
220 PM MST FRI FEB 10 2017
…ALL TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET FOR FEBRUARY IN DENVER
COLORADO…
AT 1:38 PM MDT THE TEMPERATURE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
REACHED 80 DEGREES. THIS IS AN ALL TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR
MONTH OF FEBRUARY IN DENVER, COLORADO.
THE PREVIOUS FEBRUARY MONTHLY HIGH RECORD WAS 77 DEGREES. THIS
RECORD WAS SET TWICE, FIRST ON FEBRUARY 4, 1890 AND AGAIN ON
FEBRUARY 28, 2006.
THE 80 DEGREES ALSO SET THE DAILY RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR
FEBRUARY 10TH IN DENVER. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 71 DEGREES SET
BACK ON FEBRUARY 10, 1951.
SHATTERING A DAILY RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE BY 9 DEGREES, AS WE HAVE
TODAY, IS PRETTY SIGNIFICANT CONSIDERING DENVER`S CLIMATE RECORD
GOES BACK TO 1872. THAT IS 145 OCCURRENCES OF FEBRUARY 10TH.
BREAKING THE ALL TIME MONTHLY HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORD BY 3 DEGREES
IS NOT TOO SHABBY EITHER.[/quote]
2 Likes
93 today in OK and TX panhandles. That country gets hard freezes into April.
1 Like
It’s warmer in the midwest than in Southern California in February…quite unexpected.
1 Like