Bogieblog

Shedding Stuff

This has nothing to do with the rest of the post, but L*wes called me this morning wondering if I would take delivery of the 4 tons of pellets tomorrow instead of next Saturday - sure!

While cleaning out the shed to install old metal standing shelves that were previously in the basement, I realized I don't have enough space for both the lawn mower and the snow blower. Previously that wasn't an issue as they sat in the garage in front of the car. Umm, won't work this year dummy - pellets are there. So, I did something I had been planning on doing anyway; I put the garden tractor on CL. It is taking up fully half of the 8x8 shed - and taking that half out of the middle, so very inconvenient all the way around.

I haven't used the tractor at all, haven't even started it. I don't need it to rototill since I have raised garden beds, and half my yard is too wet to try to run it thru for mowing. I also like getting exercise using the hand mower. It is 17 years old and minus a tail light and headlight (thanks Ex for dumping it out of the truck within a month of my buying it). So, I put a nice low price on it at 3:30 this afternoon and by 5 I had not only a guy who will be here first thing in the morning for it. If he doesn't want it (improbably, he is driving 1.5 hours), someone else will be here at 11. Of course I will let guy #2 know not to make the trip if guy #1 takes it.

Either way, by noon I should have room for snowblower and mower. The shelves will be in there and the main reason for all of this moving stuff around; I will once again have room in the garage (barely) for the bike.

Birds are Arriving Ahead of the Storm

Saw my first robins for the season last Sunday. Just two, but that is 2 more than I've seen since last fall. Then I saw two geese in a swamp a couple of miles from home yesterday afternoon.

Just opened the back door to let Fuzzy in and heard a cacophony of birds that I hadn't heard lately. I believe they are redwinged blackbirds but since I can't see them, can't be positive. The confusion arises because the calls aren't their territorial calls, which are easy to identify - but seem to be just the last syllable of the call. I'll have to keep an eye on the bird feeders and see if they come in so I can confirm, or deny, my identification.

Have a Nor'Easter coming in tomorrow evening and lasting thru Monday morning. They started out predicting up to a foot of snow. Last night they said 3-5". This morning the forecast was down to and inch +/-. It all depends on where the track takes the turn at. We'll know for sure by Monday evening :)

Update at 5:35: Just looked out and there are about 15 redwinged blackbirds in the trees immediately behind the house. Opened the door and heard the same bird calls - so my earlier ID was correct.

Maybe I'm a Prepper :)

Since receiving pellets a couple of weeks ago, L*wes has halved the price of pellets. Fortunately, I am active on a pellet burner forum and members alerted me not only to the bigger sale, but also the fact that they will price-match previous buys within the last 30 days. The last two tons I received were bought on 2/27; within the 30 days. I made a trip to the store this morning with receipt in hand. I ended up getting half my money back. With the "found" money, I am getting even more pellets delivered. They won't be delivered until the first weekend of April, which is fine by me. At that time I will have pretty much two more year's worth of heat on hand - and spent only a little above what I would normally pay for a heating season.

Not bad, even using the average price, and paying for delivery, I averaged $155/ton. At the beginning of the season I was happy to get "early season saving" prices of $259/ton (and that is for middling pellets - really good pellets were much more). People on the forums can't remember when the prices were this low. Of course no one is making money - just moving the stock out and taking the loss and getting some cash flow. It will be interesting to see what shakes out for pellet prices over the next couple of years.

So, once the pellets are delivered, I will have 8 tons outside plus 3 in the garage. Then I have 2.3 tons or so in the basement.

If prices stay low next season, I will top off my supply as money and availability allow. If prices are volatile, then I can ride it out on what I have stashed. Does put a crimp in my plans for what I was going to do to the house, but it only affects me, the cats, and Birdie so is not a big deal. Not like the house will fall down or anything, just spend more time looking at framing instead of proper walls :)

Fully Stocked

So, in my last post I talked about getting 2 more tons of pellets delivered while BBS had them on sale. I received the two tons on Tuesday, so have 4 tons sitting out in the yard.

Then on Thursday, I was perusing CL and what should I find but a guy that had some of the better pellets on sale - for less than the set price I had previously posted. Even after delivery charge ($40 for a 70 mile trip), I was below that price. So, I ordered 3 tons and had them delivered yesterday.

Friday evening I moved the ton of pellets still in the garage into the basement. That left me with enough room to place the better pellets in the garage. The machine that they pellet guy used wouldn't fit in the garage (heck, my truck is too tall so I didn't expect his machine to go in), but he was able to push the pallets in so hand stacking was pretty much a breeze.

It took less than 2 hours for me to restack the 3 tons - and that includes a break between each ton. Also, the top 3 rows were challanging since I had to use a step stool to reach those.

So to recap my holdings; 4 tons outside, 3 tons in the garage and 2.3 tons in the basement. Should get me thru a couple of winters, or at least 1.5 winters.