Weather in NE

Sometimes "You are the bug and sometimes you are the windshield." :pat: . Or in my chef friends' parlance "you are only as good as your last meal" applies to those weather geeks willing to commit to a prognostication regardless of outcome. After 30+ years in the human services :eek: I do not think any flammer on the internet could really bother me so I will keep on posting my "read" on the pending weather patterns :sorry: .

This pending system Thursday into Friday will be a quick hitter. It may drop a lot of precipitation real fast and then skiddattle out of NE. I do not see this storm developing like the last storm system. It will probably start out as snow and quickly switch to mixed precipitation and rain in a lot of areas. There are a few systems floating around right now that make things interesting. I would be really surprised if this pending system dropped more than 6" of snow anywhere in NE. I still think my previous weather "band" ramblings will hold at this point although the whole picture does not "feel" right to me. I would not be surprised to see snow flurries over frozen ground this weekend, snow flurries during the Patriots game, and something coming into the area early next week. Keep you all posted. I now have a lot of time to spend with my dialup service and weather data analysis.

Jay :letitsnow:
 
Bindian said:
Dougster, Yep, my Ram 2500 is on the lower end of the diesel truck range. All the Fords and Dodges at work are 4X4$. I stay out of the DFW area. I will take a 2 lane road 50 miles out of the way to avoid all those non native Texan wanna be's.:rolleyes: Come to think of it, if I did that back east, I would be in another state.:yum::yum:
hugs, Brandi
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DFW is the only airport I've ever had the pleasure of using where 45 minutes after picking up your rent-a-car and heading South, you're still driving on airport property!!! :eek:

Everything is BIG in the Lone Star State! :)

Dougster

p.s., Just found this highly applicable news story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116...s&printer=1;_ylt=AjhylL2MRMMBMVmak3JQaglH2ocA

Al Gore's hideous political hoax notwithstanding... how appropriate for Texas!!! :D -d
 
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Dougster said:
DFW is the only airport I've ever had the pleasure of using where 45 minutes after picking up your rent-a-car and heading South, you're still driving on airport property!!! :eek:

Everything is BIG in the Lone Star State! :)

Dougster

p.s., Just found this highly applicable news story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116...s&printer=1;_ylt=AjhylL2MRMMBMVmak3JQaglH2ocA

Al Gore's hideous political hoax notwithstanding... how appropriate for Texas!!! :D -d
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Dougster,
True fact...one day they say Houston is the biggest polluter, then the next week the same folks say LA is. So like Texas' weather, if you don't like the pollution, wait ten minutes. For more hot air.........check this out:rolleyes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas
hugs, Brandi
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Bindian said:
For more hot air.........check this out:rolleyes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas
hugs, Brandi
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I am all in favor of wind power where it is practical and economical without massive taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies. I support the development of the offshore Nantucket wind farm... the one and only thing on which I happen to agree with our hideous corrupt governor "Cadillac Deval" Patrick... even though I know it will be heavily government-subsidized and how the curious support of socialist moonbat "Cadillac Deval" came to be. :rolleyes:

In fact, once I move up to Dougster Mountain in the "Live Free or Die" state, I will be looking at installing a wind generator (along with photovoltaic and backup diesel gens)... albeit at the mini-micro level compared with these monster wind farms.

If I end up far enough from civilization, I may not have any other choice! :D

Dougster
 
I've met a couple of individuals who now live "off the grid" (mostly in the Adirondacks). After huge upfront money expenditures they are doing ok, and they take great pride in their ability to live relatively independently energywise. It will take a quite a few years for them to recover their costs, and with my cynical way at looking at things when they do then they will have to replace their battery banks. One guy I know built this huge gantry system just to move his batteries. Jay
 
Weather update: It appears that the Thursday into Friday storm will apparently "play out" as I originally predicted even though my "guts" say something else (more snow?). There will be more frozen stuff where the cold will be "entrenched", but there will be a lot of temperature mixing the closer one gets to the coast. The system will probably blow out mid to late morning in southern NE later in the northerly areas . That other low system I was looking will play into the picture on Saturday. It will develop over the ocean off the midAtlantic states and track northeast. Track is uncertain right now, but it appears that the old Dougster might have a pushable event :starbucks: around Saturday night (~2" - 3"). Then the temperature "hammer" falls :shitHitsFan: with high winds and low wind chills coming. I see some possibility of another system coming into the picture Tuesday - Wednesday. Keep you all posted- Jay :letitsnow:
 
jbrumberg said:
I've met a couple of individuals who now live "off the grid" (mostly in the Adirondacks). After huge upfront money expenditures they are doing ok, and they take great pride in their ability to live relatively independently energywise. It will take a quite a few years for them to recover their costs, and with my cynical way at looking at things when they do then they will have to replace their battery banks. One guy I know built this huge gantry system just to move his batteries. Jay
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You are correct in your observation and analysis that living off the grid is not an inexpensive or simple thing. The good news... for once... is that being a 33+ year power plant and cogeneration plant engineer with LOTS of civil engineering and electrical engineering friends... and more than a little experience in the used generation equipment markets... I am probably better qualified than most to make a go of it. It doesn't mean I will succeed... but at least I've got half a fighting chance! :)

Dougster
 
With my extensive technical training and background I am looking for a nice cave and firewood. I got the firewood; still looking for that cave. :rolleyes:

I will add that my home is pretty well insulated, now has high eficiency windows and is relatively well oriented for solar gain (I do have some passive solar gain elements built in.). I can heat the whole house with one wood stove (used to have 3 :eek: ) :thumb: .

Jay :letitsnow:
 
jbrumberg said:
With my extensive technical training and background I am looking for a nice cave and firewood. I got the firewood; still looking for that cave. :rolleyes:
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And when I fall flat on my face with the Dougster Mountain Electric Generating Company, I hope you'll have some room left in that cave for me! :yum:

Dougster
 
Dougster said:
And when I fall flat on my face with the Dougster Mountain Electric Generating Company, I hope you'll have some room left in that cave for me! :yum:

Dougster
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A group of MA expatriots living in a cave together :eek:. That would be interesting :yum: . I think the gov would consider us a subversive group :cool: . I think I will look for a really large cave now :rolleyes: . Jay:letitsnow:
 
jbrumberg said:
A group of MA expatriots living in a cave together :eek:. That would be interesting :yum: . I think the gov would consider us a subversive group :cool: . I think I will look for a really large cave now :rolleyes: . Jay:letitsnow:
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Not too large Jay. Remember... it has to have reasonably affordable property taxes! Not easy to find these days ya know!!! :)

Dougster
 
3RRL, on the other tractor forum, is off the grid in the CA. mountains. He went high tech with sun trackers for his solar arrays. He has back up diesel, but that is for surge days. He has a seperate building for batteries, control equip., and the diesel generator. He says it will power his house AND machine shop when they move into the monster log house. His log house is not far from where I will stay while attending the World Ag. Expo.
hugs, Brandi
 
Bindian said:
3RRL, on the other tractor forum, is off the grid in the CA. mountains. He went high tech with sun trackers for his solar arrays. He has back up diesel, but that is for surge days. He has a seperate building for batteries, control equip., and the diesel generator. He says it will power his house AND machine shop when they move into the monster log house. His log house is not far from where I will stay while attending the World Ag. Expo.
hugs, Brandi
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Here's a simple solar powered sun tracker.

Solar Collector Tracker

It uses a closed loop of freon with gravity doing all the work. Easy to build. The only thing keeping me from building one is procrastination. :rolleyes: I'm sure I will get to it in the near future. :wink:

Ted
 
Bindian said:
3RRL, on the other tractor forum, is off the grid in the CA. mountains. He went high tech with sun trackers for his solar arrays. He has back up diesel, but that is for surge days. He has a seperate building for batteries, control equip., and the diesel generator. He says it will power his house AND machine shop when they move into the monster log house. His log house is not far from where I will stay while attending the World Ag. Expo.
hugs, Brandi
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I assume you are talking photovoltaic. Very cool. :cool: None of this is going to be cheap... but property and taxes in New Hampshire cost a lot more money in the civilized areas... and a lot less where there are no existing services. It all boils down to economics and what it will take to get me the property I am looking for. :)

Dougster
 
Dougster,

What tis your love for NH again? We only have one tax, property, but it makes up for the rest. If you want cheap, I reccomend you buy a trailer on a hunk of land that is just big enough to perc out for a septic system (ussually about an acre) YOu then get to deal with a well, long winters and all that. Perhaps off the grid if it truly is in the middle of nowhere.

You also might want to consider the deep south if you want cheap. That is where all the old timers around here go. A trailer in Alabama.
 
shinnlinger said:
Dougster, What tis your love for NH again? We only have one tax, property, but it makes up for the rest. If you want cheap, I reccomend you buy a trailer on a hunk of land that is just big enough to perc out for a septic system (ussually about an acre) YOu then get to deal with a well, long winters and all that. Perhaps off the grid if it truly is in the middle of nowhere. You also might want to consider the deep south if you want cheap. That is where all the old timers around here go. A trailer in Alabama.
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All through my poorest, darkest A&CS-paying days, I always said that I'd end up in a used single-wide somewhere in Arkansas. I actually did work in Arkansas, so I know of what I speak! I could do that just fine... and to this day, that is still my ultimate fallback position. :)

On the other hand, friends and family are still up here in New England. It is hard to abandon them entirely. The only New England state that is even half-sensible and tolerable anymore is New Hampshire. Your property taxes may be high in a lot of cases, but your lack of income and sales tax are very refreshing. Your government is still reasonably tolerable. Land is still available and not insanely over-priced. It may not be our cheapest retirement option, but it is the best one that keeps us reasonably near those who still need us.

Dougster
 
Bindian said:
Ted,
That link took me to a Willys Jeep adivertisement.:pat:
hugs, Brandi
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:oops: :pat: :ohmy:

I'm really sorry Brandi. It definitely was not on purpose. My apologies. Here's the correct link:

Simple Solar Tracker

I'm guessing the link didn't copy to my clipboard. It couldn't have been poor old fuzzy early Alzheimer's me. :rolleyes:

Again my apologies. :pat: :sorry:
Ted

ps I double checked the link in the preview - this link's for you. :wink:
 
xPosTech said:
:oops: :pat: :ohmy:

I'm really sorry Brandi. It definitely was not on purpose. My apologies. Here's the correct link:

Simple Solar Tracker

I'm guessing the link didn't copy to my clipboard. It couldn't have been poor old fuzzy early Alzheimer's me. :rolleyes:

Again my apologies. :pat: :sorry:
Ted

ps I double checked the link in the preview - this link's for you. :wink:
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Ted,
No problem. I used to take Mother Earth News. I want to take it again. Thanks.
hugs, Brandi
 
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