Jan 2nd - Tire Shopping

I hope all of you have a Happy New Year.

Last night was our coldest night so far this season. The overnight low was 7 degrees. Today’s high was 34, I think yesterday’s high was about the same. I’m pleased with our wood fired boiler. I loaded it up a little after 5 yesterday evening. When I checked it around 8:30 this morning there were still plenty of coals to fire a new batch of wood. I’ve been burning mostly junk wood during the day and the good stuff at night. Based on what I’ve seen so far a lot of the trashy wood I burned, in burn piles last summer, would probably have been fine for daytime use. Live and learn.

 

We have used our vent free gas fireplaces, we have one on both levels, a few times. We only used them when it was to warm to bother with lighting, or keeping a fire going in, the wood boiler. Last night we left the thermostat set on 72 degrees overnight, much higher than we ever did in Indiana. Before the heating season started  I thought we might burn 10-12 cords of wood during the heating season. I’m now guessing 10-11 cords. Obviously it depends on how many heating degree days we have during the remainder of the winter (and how much more trash wood I burn in the boiler). So far this year we have experienced 2,000 heating degree days, about 87% of normal for this time of the year. Must be global warming <grin>. Several times the news has reported that 2012 was the hottest year on record since 1938. Who would have thought that man would have created so many carbon emissions in the 30's that 1938 that it would have been the hottest year until now?

The original tires on our CR-V are already worn out. They have been the worst set of tires I have had in years, in terms of tire life. The CR-V odometer doesn’t register miles when we are towing it behind the motor home. I’m guessing that we got no more than 30,000 miles on the original tires. I don’t know the brand. Today I went over to Nathan’s Tire, in California, MO, to price tires. Andy,  my grandson, recommended the place. They priced a couple of different sets for me. I plan on going back over in the morning and having them install a set of Yokohama AVID Ascend tires. $584 for an installed set of tires that are rated 740 A A. The guy said they should go 80,000 miles. They have “orange oil” technology. Some extract from orange peels is used to replace part of the petroleum in the tires. It supposedly allows the tires to act as a “hard rubber” compound during normal highway driving but when you start cornering the tire surface heats up and gets “sticky.” If interested you can read more about them at http://tires.about.com/od/Tire_Reviews/fr/Review-Yokohama-Avid-Ascend.htm

Lydia is over this afternoon. She is such a sweetie.

 

Grammy has just been singing to her.