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At 12/31/10 08:05 PM, Proteas wrote: Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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Happy new year all.
Proteas I use my newspaper to start the kindling for my wood stove.
So rolling it might be nice if you had a shitload of newsprint, i don't & I sometimes run out....which means my next visit to the city I go hit severl of the free newspapers, like the Coast to get more fire starter.

Malachy I have just under 6000sq ft...yes that is 6 t h o u s a n d
My main downstairs area that I heat is about 2000 sq ft.
Upstairs of my place is under renovations, with me hoping to put a new steel roof on my place next summer. That will then mean i finish insulating the living room (approx 40 x 16 & my kitchen under it, about 36 x 16
My present woodstove (Vermont Castings) is about 35 years old & heats about 1700 sq ft, with a fan ( I have 2 actually) one that runs off differential temperature & doesn't need an outside electricity source & one that does. When I'm burning wood, like right now, I put about 3 sticks an hour when its really could outside & about 2 an hour when its just freezing out. It takes 16 inch long logs.
My new one which is upstairs, & not yet hooked up takes 22 inch logs & will heat 2500 sq ft.
400 sq ft wouldn't be practical for me as I would need 4 or 5 of them !
On the plus side I don't need airconditioning here even in the summers hottest month , which is usually August.

Rydia >>>>>hug<<<<< just elope & save you & your lover the trouble !

At 1/1/11 04:14 PM, RydiaLockheart wrote: But the thing is we're both only children so I think both sets of parents are really excited about a wedding, too. And I have to admit, I am kind of excited too.

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That's the problem isn't it...its good enough for them, but they 'expect' different from you.
Although if you're really looking foreward to it, maybe keep a journal of all the crazyness through the whole planning of it...just so you don't for get in future ~;)

We had a thunderstorm last night here too. Great Lakes weather is beyond weird.

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Whenever I see it in the news they call it "lake effect weather system" here in Canada

Dear Mr. Harbaugh,

Please don't go to the NFL. Your Alma Mater desperately needs you. Also, if you come to Ann Arbor, I will wash your car... I swear!

Love,

Me

At 1/1/11 05:15 PM, Ravariel wrote: Dear Mr. Harbaugh,

Please don't go to the NFL. Your Alma Mater desperately needs you. Also, if you come to Ann Arbor, I will wash your car... I swear!

Love,

Me

This wasn't the best day for Michigan in the football world.

Not so much, no.

At 1/1/11 01:07 PM, morefngdbs wrote: Proteas I use my newspaper to start the kindling for my wood stove.

I thought so. I have a few vague memories of when I was a little kid, my dad had a pot-belly cast iron stove he used to heat the house with during the winter, and I remember crumpling up bits of newspaper with him to start the fire with to keep the place warm.

Then we'd all gather around and watch TGIF, or America's Funniest Home Videos, or America's Funniest People. Back when prime-time was still family entertainment!!!

So rolling it might be nice if you had a shitload of newsprint, i don't & I sometimes run out....which means my next visit to the city I go hit severl of the free newspapers, like the Coast to get more fire starter.

Well, the roll you see there is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter by about a foot long. I made 4 full sized rolls like that and one thin roll (about half that thickness) from a two inch thick stack of newspaper that had accumulated over this last week. And tomorrow's Sunday, so I'll have at least that much to work with tomorrow.

And it's not like a machine-tight roll, either. It's more like a really thick roll of paper towels. I figure I can stack them up in a little grid pattern (3 parallel logs on the bottom layer, then 3 more turned 90 degrees in relation to the bottom layer), then splash them down with a bit of high proof rubbing alcohol and stand back as I drop a match on the whole mess. Then start piling on the garbage to be burned.

*sidenote*

I'm not actually a pyromaniac, I just don't like having to stand around working a pile of ash with a rake in order to get everything to burn evenly. So if this makes everything burn faster and quicker, I'm all for it. I might not have eyebrows when it's all said and done, but that doesn't bother me, I get enough weird stares as it is.

Malachy I have just under 6000sq ft...yes that is 6 t h o u s a n d

O_O;

At 1/1/11 08:05 PM, Proteas wrote: I'm not actually a pyromaniac, I just don't like having to stand around working a pile of ash with a rake in order to get everything to burn evenly. So if this makes everything burn faster and quicker,

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I think you might be disappointed.
My experience with newspaper, is if it is in a bundle (similar to if it's rolled tight) it will not burn quickly.
It will burn off the outer layers -only if air can access it will it burn.
So even with an accelerant, it should definately ignite, but don't expect a roaring fire. As a matter of fact with a bundle, if its packed tight enough the middle may not even burn before it goes out.

I don't know if I'm a pyro...but I can certainly can start a fire. even as a kid in Scouts I was able to start a fire when others couldn't.
Once when we out winter campng, it was raining/sleeting & had been all day. When we arrived at our campsite, we set up tents, tarps & had to start a fire, everything was so wet we were even having trouble getting birchbark to burn.
So I pulled a small cardboard/wax milk container out of my pack it was filled with paper that had been covered in wax, I lit that & then started with wet birchbark & small thin twigs, before you know it i had the only fire burning...some say I cheated, I say I was prepared ~:)

At 1/2/11 10:29 AM, morefngdbs wrote:

FIYYAAAA

Reeeeeeelated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Ao1TaJf CI

Now we can all play Real Life Pyro.

I apologize for the shameless self-promotion here, but I didn't feel it was worthy of a whole thread. And since pretty much anyone who might be interested in the topics I'll be covering is already here... well, it seemed appropriate.

So with the new year I have decided to jump on the blogger bandwagon and start seriously trying to advance my career in STS with a new blog called The Cyborg Apologist. I will be updating as regularly as I can, I hope to be able to post cool shit every other week, but once a month is as seldom as I ever plan on posting. Those who are on twitter can follow me there at @Ravariel where I will post links, updates and sneak-previews of blog topics.

Right now there is just a welcome message. Next week we will begin the real work, and the interesting topics. I encourage anyone interested in science and technology to follow me, I will be posting links to news and other bloggers that will be really cool reads, I promise.

Happy New Year!

I finally got the information to get my xbox sent in for "repairs". For some reason I couldn't get it to work through their website so I said "fuck it I call them after the holidays" the only thing that sucks is my xbox decided to get the red ring of death a month after the red light warranty ended.

At 1/3/11 06:22 PM, LordJaric wrote: I finally got the information to get my xbox sent in for "repairs". For some reason I couldn't get it to work through their website so I said "fuck it I call them after the holidays" the only thing that sucks is my xbox decided to get the red ring of death a month after the red light warranty ended.

Ironically, when I was asked what sucked about this decade, I responded "After 10 years we're still sucking on Microsoft's tit."

At 1/2/11 10:29 AM, morefngdbs wrote: My experience with newspaper, is if it is in a bundle (similar to if it's rolled tight) it will not burn quickly.

I don't expect it to go up in a flash or anything, but I don't expect it to burn and smolder for hours on end, either. I'm being realistic about it.

As a matter of fact with a bundle, if its packed tight enough the middle may not even burn before it goes out.

It's not packed that tight, though. And the center is open from those three rods it was wound around.

So I pulled a small cardboard/wax milk container out of my pack it was filled with paper that had been covered in wax, I lit that & then started with wet birchbark & small thin twigs, before you know it i had the only fire burning...some say I cheated, I say I was prepared ~:)

Isn't that the whole motto of the boyscouts? "Be prepared?" >:-D~

Back when I was a homeschooler, there was a guy in my group who was a scout, and he always kept a large mass of drier lint in his pack in a water-tight can just so he could start a fire with. Which makes sense when you think about it; it's super dry and lightweight wisps of fiberous cotton cloth (usually), one touch with a match and the whole thing would go up in no time.

At 1/5/11 12:45 AM, Proteas wrote: It's not packed that tight, though. And the center is open from those three rods it was wound around.

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I see, a hole running the length of the paper 'log' would help it burn.

Isn't that the whole motto of the boyscouts? "Be prepared?" >:-D~

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That's what I always thought, but the so called 'leaders' didn't see it that way, & while they agreed I was prepared, they felt (& I never got an explaination) that it wasn't 'in the spirit of the exercise' ,whatever the fuck that was suppose to mean.
We needed a fire, I started a fire.
seems simple enough to understand...then when I was young & now as an 81 year old cranky #^($ .

When I was in boyscouts we started fires with just natural material, such as starting with smaller sticks and building up from there. I can't remember if we every actually used paper at times. Last summer I was able to get fires going while camping with the family without any paper or cardboard.

My scouting experience involved actually trying to light up and checking what actually did a broad variety of flammables.

Gasoline burns well!

Diesel doesn't...

Naphtha burns well!

Motor oil doesn't...

Thinner burns well!

And so on...

At 1/5/11 09:18 AM, morefngdbs wrote: That's what I always thought, but the so called 'leaders' didn't see it that way, & while they agreed I was prepared, they felt (& I never got an explaination) that it wasn't 'in the spirit of the exercise' ,whatever the fuck that was suppose to mean.

I found a similar sentiment to that when I was reading up on making chainmail, and ran across an article out there about the guys who were using hardware store lock-washers to make pieces with. It was kind of like, "yeah, it's chainmaile, but it's not in the spirit of it."

To which I say; get bent. If you want to make chainmaile in the spirit of how it was actually done, you need a forge, and you need to be pounding your own wire from thin pieces of metal before you wind it, and afterwards you need to rivet the ring closed to prevent it from opening back up like this. Buying a spool of wire? POSERS!!!

seems simple enough to understand...then when I was young & now as an 81 year old cranky #^($ .

Agreed. A good friend of mine a few years ago told me that his dad had this saying, "Man should never be without blade nor flame, for those are the two most useful tools any man can carry." Ever since then I've made it a point to carry a really sharp knife, and a lighter.

I stopped carrying the lighter for a while because the naptha from my zippo kept leaking through my pants and causing me some horrendous galding rashes, but I've recently gotten my hands on one of those Ronson butane torch lighters with the blue flame, so I carry that with me wherever I go, in addition to my pig sticker.

At 1/3/11 05:40 PM, Ravariel wrote: So with the new year I have decided to jump on the blogger bandwagon

déja vu ;)

When I was a counselor at a summer camp we did this thing with one of the nature classes where we'd put the kids in groups of 3 for a "competition"

First, we'd take two sticks and a piece of string for each group and string it over the patch of dirt they were at. Then the kids had to build the beginnings of a fire with small pieces of wood and whatnot. The point was to 1. have their thing light with just a single match and 2. have them build the fire up enough by putting progressively larger sticks into it to burn the string in half.

We also did leave-no-trace shelters where they would have to build a shelter around the base of a tree with dead and down material from the forest. Big rotting logs were great for finding some awesome bark to build a frame around and then some dead pine tree limbs were awesome for a middle layer and then you just pile a ton of leaves and sticks on the top to make it water proof and shelter you from the wind. It's amazing how easily you can build a shelter in the woods without all that much effort

At 1/5/11 11:30 AM, LordJaric wrote: I was able to get fires going while camping with the family without any paper or cardboard.

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This isn't meant as a slight or criticism...try doing it in a freezing rainstorm, in the woods , with temperature around 33 -32 f, & its been raining for several days. And you've been out hiking to a camp site.
We were having trouble getting birch bark to burn, it kept going out !
That shit's like plastic when it burns, it burns fast & hot .

At 1/5/11 02:24 PM, Proteas wrote: To which I say; , you need a forge, :

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Proteas, I kid you not,
my brother bought an anvil to go with the home made forge he just built. Its an old anvil ,he just had it planed & cleaned up...I'll get photo's next time I'm at his place in the city.
We were talking about it over christmas & he told me his 'new' anvil was in the shop. Well, talking to him today its home.

At 1/5/11 03:54 PM, RydiaLockheart wrote: My fiance has that same knife that Proteas posted and he keeps it by his computer. Of course, this goes along with his multitude of knifes.

I wish I knew who actually makes that knife, though. I had one exactly like it that had "Smith and Wesson; Extreme Tach Ops" laser etched on the side, then I found this one at Harbor Freight with no logo on it, then I found another online somewhere in a wholesale pack (from Frost Cutlery, I think). Good knife, though.

I want one of these if anybody has the $50 to burn.

Someone needs to write a crossover fanfic featuring Disney's Cars and Fallout 3.

HEY, SEVEN!!! :-D

At 1/5/11 04:04 PM, morefngdbs wrote: We were talking about it over christmas & he told me his 'new' anvil was in the shop. Well, talking to him today its home.

Get him something to protect his hearing, then, because those fuckers get LOUD when you work with them.

At 1/5/11 03:07 PM, lapis wrote:

At 1/3/11 05:40 PM, Ravariel wrote: So with the new year I have decided to jump on the blogger bandwagon

déja vu ;)

How the sam fuck did you remember that? :P Problem with that balg was a bad title and too little focus. This new one has purpose, and I can see where it will be going.

At 1/5/11 11:30 AM, LordJaric wrote: When I was in boyscouts we started fires with just natural material, such as starting with smaller sticks and building up from there. I can't remember if we every actually used paper at times. Last summer I was able to get fires going while camping with the family without any paper or cardboard.

Birch bark baby. Birch bark all the way. It's waterproof, it burns naturally, it's the best firestarter ever.

Malachy, I did that same job. It was a great time. We also made these tshirts - we'd spray bleach on black t-shirts with leaves and sticks laying on them, and then put them out in the sun. It'd leave these leave imprints on the t-shirts. Has nothing to do with surviving in nature, they just looked sweet. I still wear mine.

At 1/5/11 09:23 PM, MoralLibertarian wrote: Birch bark baby. Birch bark all the way. It's waterproof, it burns naturally, it's the best firestarter ever.

Yeah its beautiful, just don't take it off the tree or you might get an earful.

At 1/5/11 03:54 PM, RydiaLockheart wrote: We'll also get pictures taken for an engagement announcement in the paper. :

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Do we get to see the picture(s)...or just anonymous people who read the same paper as you ????

Why is it I can bang out a 10 page opinion piece on Chinese-Japanese relations in about 2 hours yet I can't write two paragraphs on myself in 5 hours?

This is pretty weird.

Nobody's posted here for 2 days !
What happened ?
Someone lock the door & everyone else afraid to ring the bell ?