The snow is finally MELTING. I cannot overstate how great that is. I thought I was never going to be warm again.
I know it’s a little obnoxious when someone who voluntarily relocated to New England complains about New England winters, but this particular one was a cast-iron bitch. To illustrate: we usually buy six tons of pellets for heating fuel in the summer. The last few winters, we’ve burned four, maybe four and a half tons for the season, and we usually have a ton or more left over in the spring. This year, we burned through all six tons just past mid-March already (and used up half a 350-gallon propane tank besides), and I had to get another half ton last week to keep the stove running some more. From what the guys at the stove place told me, that’s by no means an uncommon occurrence this year.
These first fifty-degree sunny days have been pure magic. The chickens have been clamoring for outdoor recess, and the kids have wanted to play outside after getting off the school bus instead of racing each other to the Xbox. I have some hope that the ten-foot-tall snow pile next to the house may even melt before July.
If the pile doesn’t melt, at least you’ll have plenty of ice for your drinks during the summer barbecue season! I do know what you mean, though. As I get older (42 and counting) I have less and less tolerance for winter.
Don’t worry about finding enough ice for your drinks in the summer — At the rate that the Ice cap around Greenland is melting ..Most of the East Coast will be able to have ice bergs floating in their backyards.
Even if every bit of pack ice on the planet melted, including the stuff in your freezer, Castle Frostbite would still be well above sea level. Don’t tell Noah.
Think of what you will have when all of the ice melts –beach front property
Happy Thaw!
HI Marko, two things.
1 – I thought Germany was cold enough that you’d be happy with the ice and snow there.
2 – Dont you love Global warming?
We have had it tough in Tennessee too. Why it got down right chilly a couple of days and it went down 9 degrees — Boy that snow storm we had dumped two inches and snarled the traffic for hour and hours but it melted away eight hours later.
Ya gotta love a place when there is even a hint of a 1/2 inch of snow that the powers to be close the schools and every woman runs out and buys all the milk, bread and eggs in the grocery stores.
How much volume is a ton of those pellets?
A tonne/ton of water is about a cubic yard/meter. I’m sure this stuff is much less dense, just the pellets are probably 50% air between the actual pellets, and the pellets are dry wood, so you’re looking at a tonne being 3-4 cubic yards I’ll guess. Of course i could look it up, but basically you need a big shed to hold a couple of tons.
Google “TARM”, and “Pellet furnace” and I’m sure they can help you if you care to be more specific
50 bags of 40 pounds each in layers of five bags on a standard-sized pallet, stacked about five feet high. We store ours in the garage, which means that each summer I get to unpack and restack 300 40-pound bags. (The delivery truck’s crane won’t reach into the garage.)
That problem would motivate me to figure out a better means to shift bags or pallets, other than by hand. Just getting older could eventually bring physical problems that could contraindicate this, let alone injuries that could tie you up for a while.
A garden tractor with front end loader would be the first thing that comes to mind. Lifting forks can be added to most any loader. Generally, the bigger, the better, when it comes to tractors. Maybe you could borrow, or rent, one.
CraigsList or equipment auctions might be useful places to check to get your own.
Right their with ya Marko. 40 years in Minnesota means I’m no stranger to winter but 2013/2014 kicked my ass. When we finally got a few sunny days, followed by a real melt, morale improved dramatically. Though not enough to look at the 10″ of wet heavy snow we just got and be happy about it…
Feh, Southerners. Complaining about snowbanks in April, yer just lucky you don’t have to call the neighbor across the way to ask if the noise on the roof is Polar bear waiting for you to come out the door. ( Like seal fishing, but drier.)