Went for a little walk today in the snow and took some pix with my old digital.
Link to slideshow. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/71809575@N00/sets/72157603572232775/show/)
Similar stuff out here in der west eh...
Very pretty in spite of my dislike of snow.
I agree with SD...but here's a couple i took from an ice storm last year(https://www.ccsforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F%5Bimg%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fi184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx222%2Fchickenhawk049%2Ficestormrocksprings12-3-06009.jpg&hash=19acc95ee4b87ffb5c9536ca533657ed10756843)
(https://www.ccsforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx222%2Fchickenhawk049%2Ficestormrocksprings12-3-06022.jpg&hash=dd34e720faafb5e0b295b43f957c03cec57f1f65)
(https://www.ccsforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx222%2Fchickenhawk049%2Ficestormrocksprings12-3-06006.jpg&hash=a6921a710cd87d5098ceb229dd24e423e8f1e9fb)
(https://www.ccsforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx222%2Fchickenhawk049%2Ficestormrocksprings12-3-06015.jpg&hash=2bf872b1ed722fff58e83b297b28dc829f732cba)
(https://www.ccsforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx222%2Fchickenhawk049%2Ficestormrocksprings12-3-06003.jpg&hash=303b005f49db9a4f7b4f3136e7b978681ffd6072)
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Winter wonder land is right............I wonder what the hell I'm doing living in this crap!! Have i ever told you how much i hate snow?? Don't ask, you don't have the time or the ears for it.......
It may make for pretty pictures but otherwise it SUCKS! Unless it's here for deer season, then it's great..........but only then.
I'm thinking some of you may not appreciate how the winter helps you enjoy summer even more .
And how cool is that first ride in the spring,or the colors in the fall .I'm all good with winter it's a good trade off.
winter is fine............. it's the snow i don't like. Rain goes down the sewer or soaks in the grass, there's shade for hot sun and always A/C for the heat but this damn snow has to be moved, shoveled, snow blown or whatever the hell you do with it. It's a pain in the ass!
I need to make winter more fun because I am going crazy. Wouldn't it be nice to look forward to winter? But how do we do that? 8)
Snowmobile?
It's like off road biking w/o the cops and WFO all the time.
tried it.......didn't like it.
Was it the WFO that scarred you of or the bobwire fences?Happy new year
Quote from: weggieman on December 29, 2007, 07:08:31 PM
winter is fine............. it's the snow i don't like. Rain goes down the sewer or soaks in the grass, there's shade for hot sun and always A/C for the heat but this damn snow has to be moved, shoveled, snow blown or whatever the hell you do with it. It's a pain in the ass!
My parents have a good solution for this aspect that their implementing into the house my Stepdad is personally building for them to retire in. The house uses radiant floor heat, this works by circulating warm water thru tubing imbedded in the floors thruout the house, because heat rises the room stays much more evenly warmed. In this area once your apx 15-20 feet below ground the temperature stays apx 55* year round, so they have 1 very large and 2 medium size fluid storage tanks that are in a room at least that far below ground level (this was easy to achieve and access since the house is into the side of a slight hill and the south side of the house is exposed down to the basement). The tanks stays apx 55* just from the earth's natural heat so they only have to heat the water about 15* to keep the house at 70* in the winter and in the summer you can use it to cool as well.
This leads to snow removal, my parents figured that since snow removal can be a real pain (and source of possible back injuries and injuries from falling) they should implement something for that as well. What they are doing is actually having an independantly controlled radiant heat system used for the garage that can be redirected and used for snow removal on the driveway, sidewalks, and porches as desired by merely activating a control. Since they will have concrete for all those surfaces you have to be careful because you can't heat it too rapidly or it will crack from the sudden temperature shift, so the control unit slowly starts increasing the temperature of the fluid at a pre-specified rate (the garage radiant system will have an environmentally freindly antifreeze type solution in the lines). The 55* fluid used to mix with that system is in one of the medium tanks below ground, that fluid is slowly mixed in and exchanged as the snow removal system circulates with a smaller tank kept above ground (that tank is normally at whatever the temperature is outside). The great part about this is that you don't have to heat the water that's melting the snow because 55* will do it quite well, so your only operating cost is the electricity to run the pump to circulate the fluid - that will come from solar energy anyways, but that's a different story. :thumb:
Boy what an advantage to start at ground level and plan your attack with time on your side.
The ideas are endless ,maybe just as simple as a window facing the sun ,or maybe a shop with a second floor.
Quote from: resurrection on January 01, 2008, 06:48:18 PM
Boy what an advantage to start at ground level and plan your attack with time on your side.
The ideas are endless ,maybe just as simple as a window facing the sun ,or maybe a shop with a second floor.
Absolutely, with energy costs and pollution becoming hot topics it's smart to look at all the options out there. For example there were some break thru's in solar recently that are going to reduce the initial investment costs MASSIVELY for electrical generation, from what I saw that should start going into mass production in 1 to 2 years. With that you generate more electricity than you consume during the day and back feed the excess into the main power grid (your meter actually runs backwards), then at night you draw back off of the main grid and your meter runs forward again. Careful planning in how much solar capacity you install will make it so your electrical bill is insignificant or you may even get a check from the power company if you overproduce.
The house their building is a 2 story with about 1/2 of the basement exposed, of course that's mainly on the south side of the house. Passive solar is free, simple planning and incorporation of certain things pay big dividends in the long run. The majority of the South facing side of the house is covered with energy efficient windows, the rooms with those windows have different forms of solar absorption materials. Concrete, field stone, dense woods and dark colors are used to absorb the warmth of the sun during the day in the winter and continue to radiate that warmth during the night for free. To counteract that effect in the summer there are fixed overhangs over the windows which shade the windows from the intense summer sun's rays, it's rather convenient that in the winter the sun is lower in the sky so the light reaches into the house whereas in the summer the sun is much more overhead and the rays are blocked by the overhangs.
And to go along with the Winter Wonderland topic, this house is located on 48 acres of wooded land they own that is more like a wildlife habitat.
I almost forgot what snow looked like. I think it's pretty, but I certainly don't like driving in it. I'm certainly going to freeze when I get back.
I'm with you Gordy... I can't move away from this shit fast enough...
Unfortunate part is I won't be moving away from it. Not entirely anyway. With two daughters getting married soon and I'm sure grand kids on the way shortly after, we'll be staying around this area. But........we will be taking some serious trips from November through March after we retire.
We're looking at moving just west a ways. Like in the SW part opf WI or NW Illinois. Illinois looks good because they don't have any state tax on retirement income, property taxes are lower and housing over there is fairly reasonable.
We'll start seriously looking for property in about 2 years. Twenty + acres would be nice. Maybe more because I'm not against it being real hilly and rough. It would make for great wildlife and good off road trails.
That is a nice air ea the chain of lakes or lake Geneva lots of nice roads in the kettle murrain .And nice neighbors to
Not to mention the great back roads to ride.