# Any Body Else?



## oldognewtrick (Jan 12, 2010)

Ready for spring. The older I get, the more I really don't like cold weather. We lived in Florida back in the 80's for a couple years and moved back north cause we weren't old enough to live down there. Well I'm starting to re-think my criteria for living in the sunshine state. All my projects that i have planned are outside this year and I really need some sunshine and warmer temps to get started. I just don't understand how the people way up yonder cope with the 39 minutes of summer you seem to get...

So who's keeping warm and what are your winter projects?


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 12, 2010)

oldog/newtrick said:


> The older I get, the more I really don't like cold weather.



same here



> I just don't understand how the people way up yonder cope with the 39 minutes of summer you seem to get...



Does "way up yonder" include north of the 49th parallel?  We watch American football games on TV.  Seeing someone walking around in a short sleeved shirt in January reminds us of August up here.  And in August we like to watch Alpine skiing from Europe.  Reminds us of January.



> So who's keeping warm and what are your winter projects?



Replacing water shut off valves in bathrooms and kitchens.  Plan to replace two more bathroom shut off valves with Nibco S-211-Y globe valves today.

Nibco S-211-Y have:
- all bronze construction.  No brass at all.  Bronze, being a mixture of copper and tin is much more corrosion resistant than brass, which is a mixture of copper and zinc.  Zinc is a highly chemically reactive metal.
- TEFLON washers.  Nitrile rubber will eventually start to rot with continuous exposure to water, requiring the replacement of the washer with a new one.  Teflon is unaffected by water.
- A full GRAPHITE packing, and not just a packing gland.  That means the packing can be replaced while the valve is in service.  Graphite is the best packing material because it's a natural lubricant.  (Post again if you want to know why graphite is a natural lubricant.)
- A stainless steel bibb screw.  Valve manufacturers use brass screws to hold the washer and pretend not to know that the brass will corrode.  For the few pennies more that a stainless steel screw would cost....
- Parts are available.  I buy two spare teflon disks and a spare graphite packing for each Nibco S-211-Y I install.  I pay $2.50 for each teflon disk and $1.25 for each graphite packing.
     If I could install ball valves instead, I would.  But if anyone can suggest a better water shut off valve in a globe or gate valve format, then I'm all ears.  (And, no doubt, someone is gonna read this post and suggest I use ball valves, to which I'd say... go back to sleep.)


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## inspectorD (Jan 12, 2010)

Why don't you use...ballvalves??

I like the new look winter gives to the landscape, guess growin up in New England does that to a fella. I like my 5 seasons. Whoever wrote the seasons missed MUD ...between thaw and spring.:rofl:
I have 80 acres up here...what am I not doing would be easier.

Snowmobile, Quaddin, sledding with my kids, cutting 20 cords wood per season, running my homemade 20' sawmill. Plowin snow....those are winter projects...almost all outdoors.
Business planning, Inspections, providing training, Lions club, and computer stuff are all my inside projects. 
We live out in the woods, not many folks are differnt from me around here, self sufficient style.

Florida..is best left to the citrus fruits.


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## TxBuilder (Jan 12, 2010)

It's 63 degrees where I'm at. Feels like spring.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 12, 2010)

TxBuilder said:


> It's 63 degrees where I'm at. Feels like spring.



30 here today. 

Tigers money couldnt get me back to Fl. Now, his wife...maybe.


Tx, how can you stand it.


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## TxBuilder (Jan 13, 2010)

Easily. I'm going to clean out the garage today and I didn't have to run the heater at all last night. I love Texas sometimes.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 13, 2010)

Believe it or not, it's going up to +5 degrees Celsius here today.  That supposedly sets a new record high for a January 13th in Winnipeg.  That's 41 degrees American.


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## TxBuilder (Jan 13, 2010)

I feel like an idiot using Fahrenheit but what are you going to do? Congrats on your record high! Next week you guys mite be able to go outside.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 13, 2010)

Nestor, I thought that celsius was for the countries that drove on the left side of the hwy...what side of the road do you drive on any way?


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 14, 2010)

Oldog/Newtrick:

     Our cars are just like US cars, and our highways are just the same as well, although our speed limits are considerably lower.

     What happened is about 30 years ago, Canada decided it was gonna go metric, but our largest trading partner (the USA) stayed with imperial units of measurement (pounds, inches, Fahrenheit).  And, since a lot of the stuff we buy here is produced in the US, but is supposed to be labeled in metric, we have a mixture of imperial and metric measurements that we deal with.  We buy orange juice (for example) by the 1.18 liter (one quart) container.  And, the machinery to make lots of the products we buy was designed to produce those goods in imperial sizes, but the labels on those goods are in metric.  So, in Canada, you don't buy a pound of butter.  You buy 454 grams of butter, which weighs one pound.

     It's a mixture of hard metric and soft metric conversion.  Our speed limits are either 50 or 60 kilometers per hour (or 30 or 36 miles per hour) in the city or 100 to 110 (60 to 66 miles per hour) on the highway, which is a "hard" metric conversion because the amount (speed in this case) has actually changed.  But we buy things like antifreeze and engine oil in 3.8 liter jugs (which is a Canadian gallon), and that's considered a "soft" metric conversion.  That means the amount (volume in this case) hasn't changed, it's just quoted in metric units instead of imperial units.  We have a mixture of hard and soft metric conversions.  Some things have change to metric, and some things haven't changed, but are only expressed in metric units.

But, our cars are just the same as yours, and we drive on the right side of the road, just like you do in the US.  (But, if you ever take a drive up to Canada, you might want to remember that:

1. a kilometer is about 6/10 of a mile, so if you multiply the number on the speed limit sign (in kilometers per hour) by 0.6, you get miles per hour.  So 100 km/hr is 60 mph.

2. there are about 4 liters in a gallon.  Or, a liter is about the same as a quart.

3. one psi is about 7 kilopascals.  Maybe just inflate your tires so they look properly inflated, and

4. a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.)


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 14, 2010)

What about minutes? Did they also convert time to metric? Do you have to convert time also. It would make it hard to see when to set the DVR to record something. Do they have metric watches, I just don't understand why can't they just leave things alone, Like daylight savings time. We've been on daylight savings time for years and I haven't got the first minute saved yet. There ought to be a daylight savings bank where you can safely put them. Kinda like a federally insured daylight savings bank. Hey Nestor....Instead of a Noble Peace prize how about becoming the first _Chairman Of The Daylight Savings Bank?_


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 14, 2010)

No, they didn't change time to metric, but Canadian scientists are developing a watch that runs backward so that people can stay up later and still get to bed earlier.

We had the Winnipeg Daylight Savings & Loan Company, but they went under when they started making shady deals.


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## TxBuilder (Jan 14, 2010)

That's some good stuff guys. Nestor are all Canadian Jokes that Bad? I grew up on Kids in the Hall, but geeze.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 14, 2010)

I went to a stationary store here in Winnipeg, but they had moved.


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## granite-girl (Jan 14, 2010)

I just looked , it's 43 degrees here (Indiana)  pretty nice considering the last few weeks... Sun shining...  I like my winter, I'm sure it'll get cold again, we've got a few months to wait, then I'll sure be ready for spring, I like spring too.  I guess I'm just a 4 season loving girl.  Well actually I could do without the heat of July-August Yuck!


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 15, 2010)

11:39 AM and its 49 degrees, it's suppose to go to 55 today, is it to early to plant the garden?


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## SJNServices (Jan 16, 2010)

I can't figure out why somebody would live that far north!! Temp here should be in the low 60's. The only problem in this neighborhood (High Desert, Southern California) is the wind. It can be really difficult to put up tin roofing panels on a carport if the wind is gusting 50-60 miles per hour. In fact, it's very entertaining when you're, say, fixing somebody's roof where the shingles blew off and your ladder gets blown over!

 Other than that, I love the long summers; a lot of extra time to go motorcycle riding. When it runs.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 16, 2010)

SJNServices said:


> I can't figure out why somebody would live that far north!!



SJN:

Well, it all has to do with the dawning of consciousness on primitive man.

250,000 years ago Ungk was trying to spear fish on the shore of what is now the Black Sea.  Suddenly, God bestowed philosophy and abstract thought on Ungk, and Ungk suddenly realized that...
"I am aware of my own existance." thought Ungk. (a very deep thought)
"I think, and therefore I am."  concluded Ungk.
"But, who am I?"
"And, where am I?"
"And how do I get to Southern Manitoba?"

And, the rest is history.

No, seriously, I didn't choose to live here... I was born here, so I had no say in the matter.  140 years ago, shortly after Confederation of the various provinces into the country of Canada, the Canadian government wanted to populate the interior of the country so they offered free farmland to any European farmers who would settle in the prairies and farm the land.  The thinking is that populating the interior of the country (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) was necessary in order to ensure the unity of the country since there was concern that British Columbia might opt out of Confederation and become it's own country because it was so isolated from the rest of the provinces.

Farmers in Europe were pi$$ poor, and the opportunity to own their own farmland was an extremely attractive prospect, even if it meant having to endure the harsh prairie winters.  Thousands came, and each family was given 4 acres of land to farm, and on that land they built mud houses.  That immigration policy continued right up to before WW1, and my mother's parents came from Ukraine and settled in what is now Sundown, Manitoba.  Sundown has all of about 40 people, even now.  My mother was born in Canada, tho.  She met a man from Ukraine who immigrated to Canada after WWII.  He was born in Ukraine and became a teenager during WWII.  His family realized that if they stayed there they would have to live under communist Russia, so they abandoned their house and farmland and made their way across Europe, eventually ending up in a Red Cross camp for displaced persons in Austria.  My dad's job at that camp was to make soap because there were lots of displaced persons living in the camp, and the concern was that they maintain a high standard of cleanliness to avoid the outbreak of diseases.  So, the Red Cross provided the materials and equipment, and my dad and several others made soap for the camp.  Everyone got soap at a pitance price so that everyone could keep themselves clean.  My dad made soap for 2 years after WWII before he and his family were all accepted as immigrants to Canada.    He was given a job on the CNR (Canadian National Railway) but as soon as he could afford it, he bought a barber's chair and carried on the trade of barbering in Pine Falls, Manitoba.  He had apprenticed as a barber in his home town near Lviv, Ukraine, and would work as a barber until he was almost 80.

That's why I live here.  I'm the product of Canadian and World history.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 16, 2010)

Nestor, you never fail to amaze me with your words. Thank-you for  opening my eyes to my limited vision of the world.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 17, 2010)

Oldog:
It was Divine Providence that arranged world affairs through the past century in such a careful way so as to ensure that my two parents met, married, and brought me into the world, as a gift to mankind.

That's how I look at it, anyway.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 18, 2010)

Nestor_Kelebay said:


> Oldog:
> Divine Providence QUOTE]
> 
> Nestor, is that one of the territories in Canada? Do they have a hockey team?
> ...


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 18, 2010)

(Thank God you responded, Oldog.  I was expecting a strong response from a lot of people from that last post about my birth being a gift to mankind, and then when no one responded I thought "OMG! They took me seriously!?!")



oldog/newtrick said:


> Divine Providence
> 
> Nestor, is that one of the territories in Canada? Do they have a hockey team?


No, Divine is a suburb of the capital city of Rhode Island.  Yes, their ice hockey team is called the Providence Bruins, who are a farm team for the Boston Bruins.

Providence Bruins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



> Another thing I could never figure out about Canada, you have areas that speak french, adore the Queen of England, use the metric and standard measuremet system and have crazy neighbors to the south that call football soccer. Are you ever confused? I know I am just from typing this.....



I was born confused.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 18, 2010)

Nestor, how far are you from where the Olympics are going to be held?


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 19, 2010)

I'm thinking about 2000 miles, give or take a few hundred.







I live in Winnipeg, which is the dot near the bottom of the purple province in the middle of the country.  The Olympics are going to be held in Vancouver, which is  right at the bottom of the pink province on our Pacific coast.

So, it'd be about the same distance as from Omaha, Nebraska or Kansas City to San Fransisco.  There's a mountain range that would have to be crossed by land in both your country and mine which would make the driving distance a lot longer than the flying distance.

Are you thinking of coming to the Olympic Games in Vancouver?


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 19, 2010)

Nestor_Kelebay said:


> Are you thinking of coming to the Olympic Games in Vancouver?



ummmmm......no


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## TxBuilder (Jan 19, 2010)

That's a weird map. Canada you say? Hmmmm. I'll have to purchase one of these Canadian maps.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 19, 2010)

I wonder if you go from one territoy to another does the landscape turn different colors like on the map?


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 19, 2010)

TxBuilder:
     That map was undoubtedly drawn by a Canadian.
     Seriously, it's just cuz the lines of longtitude converge as you go north.  So, when you straighten those lines out to draw a FLAT map, the northern land areas are exagerated in size relative to the southern land areas.

Canada and the US are very similar in land area.  We're both very close to 3.5 million square miles in size (land only).
Similarities & Differences Between Canada & United States
But, except for Alaska, most of your "land" is soil that you can grow stuff on and that people can live on.  Much of Canada's "land" area consists of bare rock and gravel cuz nothing grows on it so you don't get plant matter decomposing to form "soil" over it in the first place.

Here, maybe consider this map.  It's a composite map of North America at night:






It almost looks like a map of the United States.  But Canada looks nothing like it does on a geographic map because most of our country is uninhabited.

That big population center on the south west shore of Lake Michigan is Chicago.  North west of Chicago is Minneapolis, and about the same distance north west of Minneapolis is Winnipeg.  We're along the north edge of the populated area of North America.

Oldog/Newtrick:
     Yes, everything changes colour here when you go from one province to the next here.  That's how we can tell if someone is from a different province.

PS:  I have no idea why Peurto Rico is so bright at night.  You wouldn't think they'd be lit up like that at night.


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## TxBuilder (Jan 20, 2010)

Peurto Rico lit up makes sense. It's an American Territory and they have all the benefits of American citizen ship (Electricity, Money,Hamburgers).


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 20, 2010)

Man I hate rainy days. There ain't much roofin going on today with steady rain since early this AM. Spent the last 2 days( mon and tues sunny and warm) doing take offs on new construction  plans now I sit at the house severly irrating my wife. Oh well, fire in the fireplace, hey its gotta be 5 o'clock somewhere...


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## inspectorD (Jan 20, 2010)

Take off eh??
What fun, you have your lumber yard do one to back yours up on the material list too? Ahh the ol day's.
Are you using any software plans, or just old fashioned.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 20, 2010)

Lumber yard, lord no. Contemporary house with shingles, flat roofs and radius curved standing seam metal panels. Even the shingle houses can't do a take off. When we have a slate bid they'll send it off to Greenstone in VT or Ludiwici in Oh for tile. We are usually pretty close on dimensions.

We are old school with a architect scale and a full set of plans, pot of coffee and the dining room table. Makes for some good alone time.


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## inspectorD (Jan 21, 2010)

Old fashioned, that's my only way also..if it works ,don't break it.

I just gave my neighbor a price to replace his old 24x24  garage, hip roof. It has a 4 foot ridge, wood shingle , with slats and 3 layers of asphalt 3 tabs and interlocks. Not to mention the rafters are 26 inches on center.

I told him 6400, he got pissy and has a guy to do it for 3200.
I can't wait to hear about the 4 ply goin down with no clips, and the shingles broke and could I look at it....should be about a 6 months till the knock on my door. Then the price doubles.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 21, 2010)

inspectorD said:


> Old fashioned, that's my only way also..if it works ,don't break it.
> 
> I just gave my neighbor a price to replace his old 24x24  garage, hip roof. It has a 4 foot ridge, wood shingle , with slats and 3 layers of asphalt 3 tabs and interlocks. Not to mention the rafters are 26 inches on center.
> 
> ...



Inspector, tell your neighbor to watch the TV show *HOLMES ON HOMES*...

nuff said.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 22, 2010)

Is it true that Americans have tails and eat their young?


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 22, 2010)

You've discovered our dirty little secret haven't you....


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 22, 2010)

OK, I've never been to the US, but the picture I've got in my head is something like this:






Would that be close?


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 22, 2010)

Nestor, where in the world did you get my spring break 1970 picture at? Dang, some things haunt you forever.....


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## granite-girl (Jan 23, 2010)

Wow that is a cool map - Nestor
Don't mean to be dumb, but where is Peurto rico ?


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## granite-girl (Jan 23, 2010)

Never mind- I know where Peurto Rico is....


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 23, 2010)

Granite-Girl:

Bermuda is the speck of light about an inch to the east of the Atlantic coast of the US, due south of Nova Scotia.  Peurto Rico is almost due south of Bermuda.

You can see why the US has about 10 times as many people as Canada.  Virtually all of your land area has someone living on it, whereas most of ours doesn't have anyone living on it.

But, there are advantages to being a sparsely populated cold country.  Canada is still full of undeveloped resources.   It's one of the few places left on Earth where you can still find a gold mine or discover oil.  Northern Canada is one of the few places where resources have remained undiscovered simply because no one has gone looking for them because of the practical difficulties of developing them in our cold climate.  That's all changing now with global warming.

Only about 20 years ago, diamonds were first discovered in the Canadian far north.  Now, only 20 years later, Canada is a major exporter of gem stone quality diamonds.  You can tell a Canadian diamond because it will have a maple leaf and the name of the mine the diamond came from laser engraved on it's edge.


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 23, 2010)

Nestor_Kelebay said:


> Granite-Girl:
> 
> Bermuda is the speck of light about an inch to the east of the Atlantic coast of the US, due south of Nova Scotia.  Puerto Rico is almost due south of Bermuda.QUOTE]
> 
> ...


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## inspectorD (Jan 23, 2010)

That is interesting..my county in CT has no light...just the way I like it.:banana::banana:
Nice boogie board there Old trick/new dog.
uops, I mean uh...umm...nice pants. wanna borrow the hat?


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## SJNServices (Jan 24, 2010)

HEY!! The sun is out and not a cloud in the sky! Hell, If I did'nt have people wanting me to fix half the roofing in this town I would be tempted to take the old H-D for a ride. T-shirt weather to boot!


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 24, 2010)

[QUOTENice boogie board there *Old trick/new dog*.[/QUOTE]

I see what you did there inspector gadget....


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## oldognewtrick (Jan 24, 2010)

SJNServices said:


> HEY!! The sun is out and not a cloud in the sky! Hell, If I did'nt have people wanting me to fix half the roofing in this town I would be tempted to take the old H-D for a ride. T-shirt weather to boot!



So.....instead you sit on the interweb, are you feeling well today?


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## SJNServices (Jan 25, 2010)

Got some done. some not home.


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