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Winter II
February 9, 2007 - 4:33pm
The temperatures in Ottawa continue to dip below -30 with the windchill, which makes for a nice crisp stroll or skate along the canal. When I thoroughly bundle and layer myself up, I really enjoy being out and about in the current winter weather.
[ 10 February 2007: Message edited by: M.Gregus ]
CALL IN THE ARMY! [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
(As a matter of fact, we have no school board as the minister of education fired them all a few weeks ago. But someone must have made the decision to close the schools. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img] )
I do hope it drops to -30C or below for the Canada Winter Games. Teach southerners what winter is really like. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Winter. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
The wind has died down here. It's been above zero this afternoon and it's blue skies and sunny right now although dusk will soon fall. The streets are slushy and if the temperature drops sharply overnight, it will be quite uncomfortable getting around tomorrow.
Not like where you are though, Boom Boom.
Yes, that's right folks, saw it on the weather chanel yesterday. Starting next Wednesday, our day time highs are going to go above freezing.
I expect we'll get another storm, probably in the first or second week of March. Then there's the probability of freezing rain etc. Winter's not over, but the main brunt is about to pass.
Not bad. Major dump in December-- that record breaking yard of snow in one day we had.... which melted away in a week.
Then a pause untill mid January, when winter really set in. So, a solid, what, five, six weeks?
Seasons in London are best broken down in six week sections, pretty much. Six weeks of winter now, six weeks of neither winter or spring, six weeks of spring.... well, I guess we get a solid three and a half months of summer...then about six weeks of fall, then six weeks of neither fall nor winter.
What I've come to really detest here in the balmy south isn't the cold of winter or the heat of summer-- although they are not my favorites-- but those niether seasons.
Global warming is starting to sound pretty good right now.
.....and pooch our kyoto commitments.
[img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
A Quebec City tradition is la tempкte de la Saint-Patrick - the snowstorm that invariably comes on or around St Patrick's Day. And it's usually a doozy.
Not far off the mark, Heywood.
I bought the snowblower from my brother two years ago. It was old when he got it. I paid too much, but hey, it's my brother. He's 58, I'm 47.
This was the first economic transaction in our lives. He has a thing about doing business with family. I can see why.
For his smaller property, this snowblower was just fine, and he had another buyer willing to pay 350 for it. He gave me a deal at 300.
Sigh. I can see how these things can go bad. He thought he did me a favour. I think I paid too much.
My larger property has brought out it's age.
The first fix I preformed was to clean the bowl under the carborator float. The next was to adjust the gas flow screw underneath to take care of the finicky choke you had to play with as the engine warmed up.
Next, I had to replace the pull cord. It has an electric starter, but it's handy to have the pull start if it stalls out-- like it used to frequently.
Unfortunately, the asshole engineers at John Deer decided to use non stainless phillips head screws to hold the pull cord housing. Of course they were stripped when any force was put to them.
So, I used screw extractors (easy outs). But ha, the screws went into a kind of rivet in the housing, which turns. So, I was only able to re-assemble it with two of the four required screws. Which would have been okay, I think, if the two remaining screws were kitty-corner from each other, but they weren't. As I thought it might, the housing moved enough to disengage the pull cord flange from the ratchet, so the cord doesn't work right now.
Which is okay, 'cause I got the engine running nice enough that it doesn't stall anymore.
Before the last snowfall, tuesday night, I went out and started 'er up to make sure she was ready, and everything was fine.
Just a while ago, I went out and tried to start it, but I got this one chug and a whir. Did that a few times, with the same result, and then only click from the starter switch.
I jiggled wires, checked to see if I had a blown fuse in the garage to no positive result. I looked around for a hammer, then remembered I took all my tools into the house in the fall. I found a turnbuckle, and used it to tap the starting motor.
And away she went. This snowblower loves the cold light snow, and after the engine really warmed up, it didn't bog as much when I went with throttle up. Must have a dirty air filter somewhere. When you give it gas, at a certain point it wants to flood, I guess. I'll work on that in the warmer weather.
Got the driveway and everything done.
I'm not whining. I love to tinker with small engines-- and knowing nothing about them has never stopped me. I once had my previous lawn mower engine in pieces, and when I looked at it I thought it would never work again. But I got it going, and it lasted for years afterward.
Yes. Spring project. Deal with the pull cord housing, tune the engine. Maybe give it a cool paint job. John Deer closed a plant in Woodstock, so I ain't gonna advertize for them anymore. Goodbye John Deer green.
Not a word about any of this to my brother.
[ 15 February 2007: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ]
Roughly speaking, where is "mid north"?
Remote Possibility.
The weather chanel's forcasted high for next sunday is 10 degrees.
Note the lack of a minus sign.