What BBQ supplies have you found most helpful and always keep on-hand.
I like to keep nitrile gloves, aluminum drip trays, plastic paint scrapers (for cleaning/scraping the firebox and lid), etc…
Is there anything you have found that makes prep, cooking, maintenance and/or cleaning a little easier? I’m not talking about gadgets like wireless thermometers and such, more in the realm of consumable items. Stuff you restock regularly.
Crawlspace: Crawlspace Ceiling Exposed Percent: The ceiling insulation under the back dish and is falling down from the ceiling. Replacement of the insulation is necessary. I suggest removing the insulation and installing a closed cell foam insulation which would be of better material for this damp application. Conditions Noted in Exterior Walls,Interior View: Stains visible on the interior surfaces of the foundation wall in the crawlspace appeared to be the result of recent moisture intrusion. Moisture intrusion can result in damage to the home structure or materials and may result in conditions which encourage the growth of microbes such as mold. The source of moisture should be identified and corrected to avoid future damage from moisture intrusion.
Evidence of Mold Noted: There is a mold like substance visible on the crawlspace ceiling framing. A serious health hazard may exist from what appears as a simple mold. Certain Molds have been recorded as having various levels of toxicity and known to produce respiratory and neural conditions of various intensities. A surface sample of the substance was taken and was sent to environmental laboratory to help identify whether the substance is mold or not and what type of mold may exist. If the substance does come back positive for mold growth than a proper mold removal would be necessary. Evidence of Water Entry in the crawlspace Noted: The crawlspace walls at the rear of the crawlspace are wet. There is efflorescence also visible. There is standing water inside the sump crock. Evidence of water infiltration was visible in the crawlspace during today's inspection. I can not determine if water infiltration or flooding will be a problem in the future based on today's one time visual inspection. Before the end of your inspection contingency you should obtain a written statement from the owner indicating the frequency and severity of water infiltration that has occurred in the past. Most of the water infiltration issues are a result of poor surface water controls. The grade around the home should slope away from the exterior walls. Downspouts should be clear and discharge at least five feet from the foundation walls. Damaged or missing downspouts and gutters can contribute to basement water infiltration issues. If water infiltration becomes a problem grade and roof drainage issues should be improved as a first measure. excavation, drainage systems, sump pumps, and sealing of the foundation walls may be necessary. Additional corrective measures from a basement waterproofing contractor may be necessary. There is no complete dewatering system the sump pump is there just for groundwater only. Vapor Barrier Installed: The vapor barrier in the main section of the crawlspace is not continuous. Install a continuous vapor barrier to avoid moisture conditions. There is no vapor barrier in the crawlspace at the back portion of the home. The crawl space does not have a vapor barrier installed. The issue with a dirt crawl space is that as warm air rises in your home, it brings up with it the air that was previously in your crawl space, including moisture and mold. Exposed soils in a crawlspace should be covered with a retardant material to prevent moisture or standing water from deteriorating wood framing above. Approved materials include: polyethylene sheeting, roofing paper, concrete, or blacktop. If the ground is saturated, wall vapor barriers of like materials are also recommended. With vapor barriers, its important to have a thicker rather than thinner mil thickness because you want a material that accomplishes a few things. First, it needs to be durable, meaning puncture and tear resistant. Second, it needs to have low permeability. Permeability refers to the materials resistance to water vapor pass-through. If a vapor barrier has low permanence, that means that very little if any water vapor is passing through the material. This water can contain mold spores, which can make your family and you sick if exposed for an extended period of time. It can also carry with it foul odors from the soil as well as fungi that can rot the wood structure of your home. By sticking with a thicker mil plastic, You will have a dryer crawl space and better air quality. We recommend using a vapor barrier of 16 mil or higher. This translates into a permanence rate of only .0015 This is considered impermeable in American building codes. ROOF & ATTIC Roofing: Flashing: The flashings above the front bay window have been pieced together. Replacement is necessary by a roofing contractor to avoid water entry and damage. Latent damage may exist behind the flashings that I could not view during today's visual home inspection. I cannot determine if rotted wood does exist.
Attic & Ventilation: Insulation Noted: The existing Insulation is inadequate, install additional under the floor insulation in order to help keep warm air in the cooler months and conditioned air in the warmer months. Adding insulation will also help keep the hot air from the house from condensing inside the attic space and help control mold growth. Bathroom Vents: The bathroom vent fan is improperly discharging into the gable vent. Reconfigure the vent so that it discharges through the roof as required in order to properly vent moisture and to avoid moisture damage. The bathroom exhaust vent is too long and will not be efficient at properly venting steam and moisture. Shorten the length of bathroom exhaust vents and vent the bathrooms directly through the roof surface above the vent fans in order to properly vent steam and moisture. STRUCTURAL Structural: Earth-to-Wood Clearance: The structure is too close to the grade level. It is necessary to provide at least 6 inches of clearance between the soil and the exterior siding in order to avoid further wood rot, insect and other damage. Invasive testing is required in order to determine if latent damages exist. Fireplace: Flue Condition from Firebox: I could not view the interior of the chimney liner today. Avoid unsafe conditions by having a level II chimney inspection, as required by the national Fire Protection Association (NFPA 211, 2000 edition, 11-5.13). Few if any chimney defects will be found during the visual home inspection. HEATING, VENTILATION & AIR CONDITIONING Heating Unit(s): Unit Tested: The required work platform in front of the attic unit is not installed. Corrective action is required to avoid injury and to allow for proper servicing of the unit if necessary. PLUMBING SYSTEM Plumbing: Public Service Piping Material: The copper water supply line appears to be more corroded than typical. It is generally acceptable to bury a copper water line Indirect contact with soil however this piping appears to be much more corroded than typical. Monitor and replace as necessary. I did not want to scrape this piping as I normally would because I didn't want to cause damage. Functional Drainage: A sewer line screening inspection was performed accessing the sewer line from the access point at the rear of the crawlspace. The cast iron line is heavily scaled which is reducing pipe diameter. A hydro jetting of the line is recommended in order to attempt to break up some of the heavy scale that is located at the bottom of the cast iron sewer line. I was able to push to only about 9.5 feet down the line where the camera could not proceed down the line. Multiple attempts were made to progress the sewer camera from this point, but it would not progress past this point. There are a couple of possibilities for this issue. - The line may be damaged or obstructed at this location in the pipe - The other possibility is that the camera has encountered a house trap. A house trap is a large trap located in the main sewer line. Typically, a house trap would have a clean out which was not visible today. If a house trap does exist a sewer line camera will not be able to navigate the tight U-shaped configuration of the trap. If a house trap does exist you should consider removing it or installing a clean out up stream of the trap so the entire length of sewer pipe can be viewed.
Recommendation: A sewer line professional should be bought in to determine if the issue is caused by an obstruction, or to determine if a house trap is present. The sewer line professional should make any necessary repairs or replacements. The purpose of today's screening is to determine if further action is necessary, and it is to get clarity on whether a significant issue does exist. Sump Pump: The sump pump does have water in the crock which typically indicates a high water table you must make sure that the sump pump continues to operate even in times of power failure to avoid flooding.
I have a very large raised masonry fireplace which I've placed a wood stove half in/half out of the firebox, it heats the entire downstairs of my house well, but I'm concerned because the fireplace has a wood mantle that I feel is too close to the stove. So my solution is to put the stove farther back in fireplace, but it just can't seem to circulate enough heat, any thoughts? This is a tractor supply us stove 2000 with the stove squirrel cage blower. I'm thinking some sort of blower mod ? Thoughts?
USSC Ashley 5500M built in 2008 A couple questions, first off, anyone know where to get a manual for a stove? I looked up my model and couldn’t find the correct manual for it. Same stove but newer generation of it so the control panel was different. The stove was new to me in the fall and the old owner didn’t have the manual. I replaced the auger motor, ignitor, cleaned the room air circulation fan, exhaust fan, the fire box and air passages and it ran beautiful! If I could get a hard copy it would be amazing!
Second issue is recent. Its been building ash/soot in the burn pot constantly the last couple weeks and sooting up the door glass substantially. A clean of the air passages behind the metal covers in the firebox and a chimney sweep didn’t help. The exhaust fan holds a full sheet of paper to the intake and almost pulls it in so the door is sealing well and a good draft goes through the stove. Pellets ran in it are Maine Woods Pellet Co and Tractor Supply Co hardwood pellets. Unknown if the Maine Woods brand is hard or soft wood, the bag doesn’t say. I have to clean the ash and creosote our constant
Any suggestions?
Hey all. Just wanted to let you know about a technique I’ve discovered to allow for using the Kamado at even lower temperatures. I can easily hold by BK keg down at 180f without water.
I use the fireboard drive, but any blower with different power levels rather than just on and off control via PWM will work.
One of the limitations of maintaining a low temperature on a Kamado is it’s hard to dial in without putting the fire out or taking forever. Even then, there is always the uncertainty that the firebox is out and the subsequent desire to open the vent so it doesn’t go out.
The automatic control allows for the gradual lowering of the temperature while simultaneously letting you know definitively if the charcoal is out. If the charcoal is out, the blower will turn on and stay on as the temperature doesn’t rise. This in turn will add cool air to the Kamado and force out hot air, driving the temperature down at an accelerating rate. If the temperature is dropping, but the rate of drop is slowing, there is a chance the fire can be coaxed back to life with a slow but steady supply of oxygen. The reason for slow and steady is that usually oxygen is in control of the combustion, but there comes a point where the fire is on the edge of dying and even though the oxygen helps the fire, the airflow will wick heat upwards or away from the fire and the cooling will put out the fire, not to be started with oxygen again, but will need to be started with heat.
Once you have a stable but small fire going and it’s in its natural state, you can drop the temperature 10f, and wait until it settles down. Then repeat. Then again.
You will want to make sure to set the max the automatic controller can blow the fan at very small, like 1% if possible. It’s better for keeping the smallest of fires from going out if the fan runs at 1% power twice as long as 2% power would otherwise take. This gives a more stable and steady supply of oxygen.
Eventually, there will come a point where the fan is already making the smallest fire possible, or the temperature is so low that the fan only sporadically comes on at 1% power a small fraction of the time, and the dead zone is enough to kill the fire. One is a limitation of the smallest possible fire size vs the Kamado size. The other is the opposite end of the spectrum where the Kamado is so efficient, that the controller can no longer lower the power and increase the duration to maintain a steady flow of oxygen and reduce the fire to its smallest possible size.
Once you get close to putting out the fire, with your automatic controller set to like 175, add the meat. Wait till it stabilizes, then drop the temp again even lower if you want.
Why and how lower now? Because you have already found the smallest fire you can keep going prior to putting on meat, but since you added something that will use up heat energy, the firebox will expand to output more heat to keep the temperature you previously dialled in. That means you can lower the temperature even more with moisture in the grill and heat performing work on meat. Back to the minimum fire size and its corresponding temperature in your Kamado.
My local HD no longer has a gravity on the floor. It has a new charcoal cooker with a (TINY) charcoal hopper inside the “firebox”. Instead of manually igniting the charcoal like a gravity, it promises some kind of “instant light” ignition. Can’t imagine how uneven the temps in that box will be. Enameled manifold. Don’t remember enough about the rest of build quality. Same/similar to gravity. Wouldn’t replace a 560 for this, let alone my 1080. Does make me wonder if the gravity series may be in the way out though once supply is exhausted, considering this is the only representation in the big box floor….
Well.. I posted here about building my own hydraulic splitter. I did end up starting that project, but then for the immediate task at hand borrowed one. Now I have a few years supply of wood, and even if I finished up that splitter tomorrow it would just take up space. Sigh... anyway, so we're going to table that and think about this new idea: My house has two working fireplaces that we use a lot, but admittedly they're mostly for ambience and effect. I'd like get to using the heat more effectively. With that in mind I've been shopping assorted fireplace inserts. Of course a smaller one will fit a larger masonry firebox but it pains me a bit to not effectively use most of the available space. It seems like I could get additional design features and efficiency by designing exactly to my specs as there isn't evidently much in the way of "standard" size. Also, this is a good opportunity to practice some welding & fab. I also have a waterjet resource in town so my cost would mostly be just sheet steel & some welding supply. I feel like I could probably finish up with just one 4x8' sheet? But I'm just at an early stage of ideation and feasibility study. Anyone been down this route before and/or have any advice?
First Previous “I suppose I should thank you again for the rescue,” the mage said as he sank into the offered chair.
“Aye, and I should be thankin' you for bringing back me daughters,” the farmer added, batting a length of hair out of his face. “We was up all night searching, but we ain't trackers out here. We was lookin' in the wrong direction entirely!”
“Please, save your thanks for when Verrick wakes up, at least,”Jeron pleaded. “ We wouldn't have succeeded without his help.”
He thought back to the walk to the farm the day before. He'd only caught glimpses of the halfling's expression, but he could see that he was troubled by what had happened.
“Honestly, I think he needs to see the good that he's done. For now, I think introductions are in order. Jeron Blackbough, farmer, Bard, and general traveler.”
“Firun Greystone,” the mage replied, bowing deeply toward the farmer and his daughters. “Magic user, and now former kidnapping victim.”
Verrick snorted in his sleep, causing a round of laughter to break the tension in the farmhouse. Jeron sat at the table and pulled out his notes from the previous days, filling in the recent events as he spoke.
“We were heading bowlward to Norgham when we encountered your captors. Our journey was longer than anticipated, and we find ourselves running short on supplies. If you could spare a bit of food for traveling, we would gladly pay you for it, and for the use of your well.
“Water's free for the taking,” the farmer said with a nod, “as it should be to all who're thirsty. The food though... Well I'm afraid we've not got much to give you. Had a blight hit the harvest this year, and right before the fields was ripe, too. We was supposed to be makin' the trip in to town today to try to scrape together some supplies before the snows set in.”
“I'm sorry to hear that,” Firun murmured, lost in thought. “First the blight, then the orcs. If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone doesn't like you very much.”
“Aye,” agreed the farmer, “Been like this since me wife went off into the mists before her time a couple years back. I fear we may be cursed to follow her before long.”
“You have my condolences,” Jeron said, setting the journal down. “Have you spoken with servants of the mists about her?”
“We ain't got anyone so fancy out here,” the farmer grumbled. “Best we got is the caretaker for the shrine in town, and he weren't given the job for what's between his ears.”
“Well, I've met several over the years, and if they're anything in death like they are in life, your wife received the best care she could've asked for.”
“How so?” Firun asked. “I must confess, I know little of the gods.”
“Well, I'll save the long explanation for a later date, but the servants of the Mistwalker act as priests in life, giving funeral rites and aiding the living. After death, they serve as guides to the souls of the departed, shepherding them through the silver mists and on to their next life.”
“That is a comfort,” the farmer sobbed, the tears rolling down his face, “to know she weren't alone afterward. I'm sorry, burdening you like this after you saved me daughters and all...”
Jeron placed his hand on the man's shoulder. “You have nothing to apologize for. I'm sure your wife would be proud to know that you still feel so strongly for her.”
“Thank you. Just... I just need a few minutes.”
The farmer wandered off to compose himself, and Jeron turned to Firun. The mage cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Got something else on your mind?” he asked, watching the human mull through his thoughts.
“I do, actually. The farmer might not be too far off, about being cursed to follow his wife.”
Firun frowned. “You think someone's doing this on purpose?”
“Not actively, no,” Jeron sighed. “I'll admit that my knowledge on curses is a bit shaky, but from what I remember, general misfortune is one of the easier ones to set up. It just needs a focus that stays near the target, and it can keep itself going for years. If this family's been experiencing misfortune like this for years now, a minor curse seems more likely than random chance.”
“If someone were motivated to cast this kind of curse on their neighbor, what would it take?” Firun asked, sitting at the table across from the Bard. “Materials? Incantations? Strange rituals in the dead of night?”
Jeron flipped back through his notes to an early page. “That's the hard part. Magic is personal. Even for the Wizards at the most renowned magical academies in the world, it's incredibly personal. Everyone has their own way of interpreting the flows of magic, so you'll never see two Wizards with identical spellbooks, even if the spells do the same thing. For a Sorcerer like yourself, it's even worse, because the magic is part of you. It's a foundational piece of your soul, and your magic is going to be fundamentally different from anyone else's.” He shrugged. “I don't know how to begin finding something like that, because even if I knew what the components were, they could be part of the set someone else uses for a different effect.”
“That's something I might be able to help with,” Firun said, as his eyes began to glow softly. “Part of my magical talents allows me to see magic to some degree. I can't tell you what it does, but if I see it, I can at least point it out.”
“Start looking, let me know if you see anything. I'll talk to the farmer and see if he'll let us poke around a bit more.”
Firun muttered an incantation and pressed his fingers to his eyelids as Jeron went off to find the older man. The glow in his eyes brightened from a faint orange to a brighter teal, and the world around him faded. As always, his
Detect Magic spell left the colors of his surroundings muted to his eyes, like a weathered painting, or a worn signpost. The colors were still there, but were less important to his mind than the influx of new information.
Immediately, several objects stood out to him, glowing with varying degrees of intensity. The brightest was a bundle of herbs drying in the rafters above him, black hazel, if he remembered correctly. He chuckled to himself, remembering the first time he'd seen seemingly mundane plants glowing with magical energy. His mother had been making her evening tea when that particular spell had first manifested itself. In his haste to hide the glow in his eyes, he almost hadn't noticed that the tea leaves the entire village used were magical. If the people had known that their tea had magic in it, they'd have probably burned the field, or worse.
Other objects began to reveal themselves as he approached, small items that typically gained a bit of an aura after years of care. A small spoon in the counter, a horseshoe nailed above the door, a hair brush near the window, all showed some signs of natural enchantment, but nothing seemed to glow with the inner fire, the rainbow of uncolors that enchanted goods usually had. He glanced down at the floorboards for a moment to let his eyes rest, and then he saw it. In the impossible color he'd associated with enchantment magic, he caught a glimpse of something through a knot in the wood.
The door opened and Jeron returned, farmer in tow. “Baleric has agreed to let us take a look around. You see anything in here?”
“Just now, actually,”Firun noted as he looked up at the pair. The farmer flinched as he saw the glow of the mage's eyes. “There are a couple things that have naturally accumulated some amount of magic over time, which is fairly normal as I understand it, but there's something under the floorboards here that appears to have been deliberately enchanted.”
He tapped the floor with his foot to mark the spot.
“We had that spot replaced some time ago,” Baleric said, thinking. “Couple of the old boards rotted out quick, the carpenter said it were the wrong kind of wood.”
“Is there any chance the carpenter used enchanted tools?” Jeron asked.
“Not 'round here. Magic chisel probably costs more than his whole house.”
“Then I think we need to get under the boards and see what's down there.”
Jeron shook Verrick awake. “Hey, get up. Need your help.”
“What's going on?” the halfling asked.
“Possible curse that we need to look into. Might need you to help reach it.”
“This because I'm small?”
“It's because you have the most dexterous fingers of any of us.”
“Oh,” Verrick said, looking pleased with himself.
“Because you're so small.”
“I knew it!”
With the help of Verrick's knife, they soon had the end of the board pried up, leaving a gap that he could stick his arm through. Verrick reached in, guided by Firun's spell, and after groping blindly for a few seconds, managed to grab hold of
something. Pulling his arm back out, he saw a small bundle of twigs, bound together in a rough effigy of a person, and tied with what looked like hair. The body was surrounded by a bundle of herbs and grasses.
“That's it,” Firun sighed, the glow from his eyes fading as the spell ended. “I couldn't get much from it, but it was definitely doing something with enchantments.”
Verrick raised his eyebrow. “The thing was enchanted. Of course it was doing something with enchantments. Even I could've figured that out.”
“Wrong kind of enchantment,” Jeron muttered as he began to study the item.
“There's 'enchanting' an item, where you apply magic to it to enhance it's properties, or give it entirely new abilities, and then there's enchantment magic, which involves anything from mind control and confusion to hexes and curses. I had a book for beginners, but the orcs used it for kindling last night.”
“That's alright,” Verrick said, pouting slightly. “I can't read anyway.”
“No matter,” Jeron suddenly said, “I think I understand enough of this to hazard a guess at what it does.”
He set the talisman on the table and began pointing at the parts. “The shape is meant to represent a person, to help the magic find its target, and the hair likely comes from its intended victim. That would be you, Baleric. The plants involved are all known to have minor magical uses, probably what kept the curse going all these years. The carving on the head is the dragon rune for 'sorrow,' and the body has one for 'fate.'”
He flipped the talisman over and continued.
“On this side, there's only one rune, for 'tragedy.' Now, if I had to put this together, 'tragedy' would be the main rune, as that seems to be the goal. The other two would be there to support it, giving it a method to achieve this goal.” Jeron leaned back before continuing. “The charm is meant to cause tragedy in your life, likely by making the most sorrowful outcome of an event happen. Your wife took ill, and instead of recovering, she passed on. Your farm had a crop failure, leaving you without food for the winter. A pair of orcs wandered by, and happened to see your daughters. Any number of other misfortunes over the years could be attributed to this thing.”
“So how do we stop it,” Verrick asked. “We can't just leave it like this.”
“We can't, and we won't. Firun, if you would?”
They walked over to the stove and placed the effigy in the firebox. Firun pointed his finger at the opening, and his eyes glowed again before a small jet of flame lanced out and struck the wood. The effigy burst into flames, and within moments, it was gone.
Baleric breathed a sigh of relief. “To think, so much tragedy caused by such a small thing. Is there any way to know who created it?”
“If you can think of who it might have been, I can ask,” Jeron said. “My magic can be
very persuasive.”
“Anyone have a grudge against you?” Verrick asked, looking out the window. “Or, had one when your floor was put in?”
“I can't think of any. Always did me best not to cross nobody.”
“Jealousy, perhaps” Firun mused. “I've seen people do awful things out of jealousy. Maybe somebody wanted something you had, or
someone.”
Baleric paled, and his mouth opened wordlessly. He ran his hand through his hair as he thought back, trying to recall the events that had sprung so forcefully into his mind.
“There was one. Don't know how I forgot him. He was a farmhand we hired, can't remember his name, the year before me wife passed. Had to let him go after I caught him following the girls to the river. He weren't happy, but I don't think he could've done something like this. Not smart enough to figure it out.”
“Could've had someone else make it for him. Do you know where he ended up after that?”
Baleric closed his eyes, deep in thought. “I think he still works for someone in town. Try asking around the general store. Look for a big lad, red hair, scar on his right cheek.”
“Well?” Jeron asked, looking around at his companions. “Shall we keep being heroes?”
“What the Hells?” Verrick said after a moment's thought. “My life can't possibly get any stranger. Let's go.”
“You have no idea what you've just brought on yourself,” Firun laughed. “Things can always get stranger. But, if we can make things a little more mundane for the folks who can't deal with strange, then I'll help.”
Jeron nodded as he turned toward the door. “Let's get going then.”
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As with previous years, I will be taking the week of Thanksgiving off from writing to help prepare for the family gathering. I may have a short post about the pantheon of the world, but I'm still in the middle of a bit of a rewrite there, so we'll see. In any case, happy Gluttons' Day!
Earlier this week I installed a brand new Pelpro 130. Did the initial burn off everything went well worked good that night. The stove did a great job heating our house. The next morning I got up and the stove had shut off, and the front glass was covered in black soot, and there was lots of excess ash all over in the firebox area. So I referenced the manual. It recommended a good cleaning and poor quality pellets. The pellets I was using came from tractor supply, supposed to be premium pellets. I did have some other bags of pellets from Menards premium hardwood pellets. Put a bag of those in after we clean the stove, vacuumed everything out. It started right back up. Burned really well throughout the night but then later today the same thing occurred. Heavy black suit on the glass and lots of ash in the firebox area.
There is nothing in the manual that says how to fix this other than cleaning, poor pellets, or air intake adjustment. It’s vented with 3 inch pipe, goes straight out the wall to a clean out T and then up 6 feet. Fresh air intake is installed.
If anyone has experience with this or knows how to fix this problem, I would greatly appreciate any input. Thank you in advance.