Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle power station - find exist!

"Snag" wrote in message news:108r0dh$1nicq$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me...

If we get over 3" of snow here the whole f***in' county shuts down . Seriously , these people just ain't equipped to deal with snow . Where I grew up (Box Elder County Utah) 2-3 feet on the ground on the valley floor wasn't unusual . Last winter we got 7-8" from one storm that shut everything down for a week . My biggest problem was that I hadn't dismounted the mower deck from Rusty and it was dragging in the snow beyond the ends of the front blade . The 4WD Yanmar ain't gonna have that problem ... I just realized I think I have a set of chains that will fit the front wheels of the Yanmar! Great news in case we get ice . "Whither thy front wheels go , the rest will follow as surely as day follows night" .

-- Snag

-------------------------------------- One of my wood piles isn't at risk from large falling branches and has a tarp cover that has lasted over 20 years. The wood is piled like a ridged roof and sheds snow when the sun warms it. When the neighbor's above ground winter pool cover develops a hole or tear he gives it to me to add to the wood pile cover which is about 10 old tarps thick in places. The holes don't align and with the slope to drain water the wood stays dry. I took some out to burn this year and checked.

I made custom tire chains for my garden tractor from some rusty yard sale chain across the tread and long loops of 3/16" welding rod joining them along the sidewalls, alternating with the uncut chain. Screwed Quick Links join it. For a low speed tractor the chains can be a looser fit that's easier to install than on a car.

The chains on ag tires made a mess of my lawn when using the bucket loader attachment to clear snow from a turn-around area on it. After a warm spell the top layer of dirt is full of melt water that can't drain through the frozen ground beneath, and new snow insulated and preserves the mud layer. We have the heaviest snowstorms in warmer fall and spring weather when the air can hold more moisture. The coldest weather can be a snow desert with bare ground.

I fillet welded the links at overlaps on the sides, crude but sufficient. At a fair I watched a blacksmith make 3/8" chain links expertly and rapidly with a simple oval form jig he'd made. He notched and broke the rod to length on a hardy chisel, bent it into a U, then scarfed the ends and bent them toward each other on his jig, crossing in an X more than aligned. Using borax flux he forge welded the scarfs together and then rounded and smoothed the weld on the anvil horn. A link took perhaps 2-3 minutes including explanations. The vintage-looking chain was for ox pulls.

While scarfing he twisted the hammer a little to leave a rounded bulge for the first contact area so the flux would be progressively squeezed out instead of trapped.

Useta be that we expected first snow around the opening of deer season , which was the Saturday after October 20th IIRC .

--------------------------------- In New England we can only expect the unexpected. We have had a damaging ice storm on Halloween and fine warm weather past New Years. The Jet Stream can bring weather from anywhere from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Amexica.

I was exploring the Black Forest mountains one fine fall until waking up to snow. It seems the Germans expect everyone to be prepared and don't treat the roads with anything damaging like salt. I slid into a ditch when I tried to turn into a gas station to buy better tires. The burly station owner came out and lifted the back end of my VW out of the ditch and onto the road. For me that takes a helper when the engine is loose on blocks. An alternative is raise one side on a curb, a strong guy crawls under the engine, unbolts it and holds it on his chest while others lift and move the car away. An experienced crew can swap engines in three minutes. These were racers, not thieves, doing a practice speed test while I watched to learn. Cutting an upper engine bolt access hole under the rear window helps.

In discussion with foreign born and educated engineering workmates, I found on average they tended to solve problems by thinking in their mother tongue for a minimum of eight years. This resulted in two transltion processes for every question, often resulting in some hilarious answers. One oriental chap became quite upset with my suggestions about his written output. After a weekend discussion with his undergraduate son, he asked if I would proof read his written work!

For example I was asked to design and build the atomic clock part of portable satellite communications ground support equipment for the US Air Force in Iraq, to specs that didn't include operating temperature range. When I asked they guessed 85F max. I made it as high as I could within the power consumption limit. It was a temporary good-enough rush job because the original contractor had fallen behind, trying to cram in all that was demanded the "right" way.

I called it the world's biggest, fastest wristwatch, as if those were requested features. It wasn't the most expensive, we omitted the diamonds. There was gold and diamond on another space project since diamond is both an electrical insulator and excellent heat conductor and gold is a reliable electrical contact surface, and about $12 per gram at the time.

In discussion with foreign born and educated engineering workmates, I found on average they tended to solve problems by thinking in their mother tongue for a minimum of eight years. This resulted in two transltion processes for every question, often resulting in some hilarious answers. One oriental chap became quite upset with my suggestions about his written output. After a weekend discussion with his undergraduate son, he asked if I would proof read his written work!

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I had a very hard time explaining in German that I was seeing intermodulation distortion of modem signals on a leased phone line that probably dated from WW2 and changed properties when wet.

I know only a few words of Asian languages. German and French have multiple meanings and subtle connotations for words that don't all align with those of English. A notorious example was the ambiguous Japanese response to FDR's surrender demand of July 1945 that was taken as a firm rejection which resolved the A-bomb question, as I understand somewhat like "think nothing of" versus "think little of", which are opposites.

An 80's oriental manual that was passed around engineering for laughs recommended that parts which are exhausted of their lives are to be replaced.

surrender demand of July 1945 that was taken as a firm rejection which resolved the A-bomb question,

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