[OT] All home owners to pay for disasters in future fund.

Been there, too. We have a '93 Escort with 178,000 miles, new A/C system,

1.9 liter engine with the four-speed overdrive transmission. We consistently get 42 mpg highway (in the winter) and 36 mpg running the A/C. A bit noisier than usual since my son removed all the trunk sound absorbent material....just because his friends told him they couldn't hear his stereo...and after all, he paid good money for those speakers. Kids. With the back seat down we can load all my rockets, gliders, motors and launch stuff and still have room for the 12 volt car battery (spare for the club launch stuff) and a cooler to keep Cokes, water and sandwiches cold. After a long day it's a pain to unload all that stuff.

John

Reply to
John Stein
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Yeah, but wow, I'll bet ya can really wind up System of A Down in that thing!

Tod "Still they feed us lies from the tablecloth!" Hilty

Reply to
hiltyt

Wow. How do you even cut up something that size?

Last winter when a big storm knocked over a huge eucalyptus out here, I heard it cost the owner several thousand dollars just to get it cut up and hauled off. That was in addition to the damage it caused falling onto a power line and a lot full of boats.

h
Reply to
raydunakin

Hmmm. The midwest is prone to floods and tornadoes, the northeast has blizzards, the east coast and south have hurricanes. That pretty much eliminates everything east of the Rockies. On this side we have earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, even volcanoes.

So that leaves what? About 10% of the country, maybe, that would be eligible for disaster relief? Why not just come right out and say you favor eliminating all disaster relief?

=CE

Reply to
raydunakin

Well, for the big stuff, I use the "mother of all chainsaws", a 1950 Homelite with a 42" bar. This is a "mans" chainsaw, from back when they made them of all metal, and they had no mufflers. It uses a big-toothed logging chain, not the namby-pamby stuff you get nowadays.

Freaking weighs a ton....

1:25 mix of straight SAE30 oil...

Ear protection is mandatory!

That I wouldn't doubt. It's tough work. But for a guy like me, who sits on his butt all day in front of a tube, the excersize is probably saving my life...

tah

Reply to
hiltyt

Then there's this:

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tah

Reply to
hiltyt

heheheh, now thats what I call horsepower!

Years ago when I was doing tuning at Kenny's sports the boss said he needed me to make a set of my custom 'Novak 2000' pipes for a kwacker

440 twin. I'm thinking, 'ok, boss needs some speed for his pos sled'. Nope, boss's brother needed it for Paul Bunyan days up 'dere in da north' for his custom saw! Hell, I thought two cylinders would be more than enough to win. But apparently not so as he lost to a guy with kwacker triple 750!

No replacement for displacement :)

Ted Novak TRA#5512 IEAS#75

Reply to
the notorious t-e-d

I cut what ever I can get. Oak is my favorite, but I can't get enough of it. Hickory is probably the best firewood, but is very scarce here, and bugs seem to eat it like candy. Elm is OK to burn, but it is tough and stringy to split, and it seems to shrink more when it dries. I like Ash, and I got a lot of it this year. It is not very dense, but it is much better than Maple, and it splits easily. I'd like to get two more pickup truck loads, but that looks doubtful.

Alan

Reply to
Alan Jones

That's almost cheating. You CAN work up those big trunks with a 21" or so chain saw, but it is a challange that is often not worth the effort. When cutting firewood you want to a) fill the truck as much as you can before the wood cutter expires, or b) fill the truck in the least amount af time.

Maybe so, But it often feels like it's killing me.

Alan

Reply to
Alan Jones

You're right Alan, I've done some pretty big trunk sections with an

18" bar. A friend gave me the old Homelite. It was part of a "lot" of farm equipment he bought at an auction. At first I didn't think it would run, but after cleaning the gas tank and carb out, adding fresh gas (thank God the mix was embossed on the tank, or I never would've known) it fired right up. At first, I thought it had exploded, the durn thing was so loud. I have no idea what the displacement of the motor is, but it looks like it could easily power a decent sized motorcycle. It's also big enough that when you pull start it, and it doesn't fire on the downstroke, but "ricochets", it'll damn near pull your shoulder out of joint...

It cuts logs, though, like a hot knife through butter. The type of wood doesn't even matter. It'll go through oak just as fast as it'll go through poplar!

Oh yeah! There have been quite a few Monday mornings, after weekend of wood cutting, in which I've needed a wheelchair just to get around!

I'm still not done for this season either. I've got two maple logs, probably 18" or so in diameter, and about 20 feet long to do, plus a very large trunk section of a sasafrass tree!

tah

Reply to
hiltyt

Makes my 60s "little 24 inch bar Homelite" sound like a tinker toy. That's ok, though, as I wear out before that thing even gets warm.

As to the mix, it doesn't matter. Gas with plenty of oil. My dad put used motor oil in it when he used it. If it fouls the plug, you used too much oil. If it locks up, you didn't use enough oil...so use plenty of oil.

Reply to
Tweak

Any and all. Take paypal?

Shipping can't be THAT much, can it? ;-)

Reply to
Tweak

IMHO, splitting Elm, especially freshly cut Elm, is like trying to split an extremely wet, stringy sponge...

My stove has trouble with Oak. In order to burn it cleanly, I have to give it lots of air, and run it at a fairly high temperature. With a pure Oak fire running at full tilt, I'd have the first floor up to 80 degrees in no time[1]. I have pretty good luck with mixing maybe a couple of pieces of Maple to one big chunk of Oak.

tah

[1] Although, it's weird when you heat with wood, and become accustomed to those higher temps in January. 68 degrees feels frigid!
Reply to
hiltyt

Well, since I'm working for a local flatbed carrier, I can probably get you a deal. Can you take, um, 42,000 lbs or so?

tah

Reply to
hiltyt

Are you insane? Wasting rocket propellant on a snowblower...

Reply to
Alan Jones

I could say some things about insurance, risk, fairness, etc... But I'll just address one small part of this OT discussion. (And I'd rather discuss wood burning, and firewood management...or even rockets!)

First, when disaster strikes, people should look first to their own preparedness and resources, then to family and friends, and even church. What ever happened to separation of church and state? (Ya it's a stretch in this context.) I don't like the state usurping the churches role of helping people in need. (Not that today's churches could even meet that need.)

However, there are some situations where I think the state should compensate victims and/or help pay to rebuild infrastructure. One case would be an unprecedented natural disaster, like Mount St. Helens erupting... Another could be negligence of the government. For example the Fed. gov. is tasked with providing a common defense, and yet an act of war brought down the Trade Towers. The US could only muster four armed fighters, which were not effective. I would have thought that the US should have had at least 16 armed fighters ready to defend coastal areas of the US against attack.

I believe the government did a good job warning people living in category 3 protected zone about an impending category 5 hurricane. I think the government (mostly local) was negligent in not providing adequate transportation after ordering an evacuation. Furthermore, when the state orders a forced evacuation, they should bear some, if not most, of the costs of interim survival. In that case, the state should also bear some of the burden of loss or damage because the home owner is not allowed to be there to protect property and minimize further damage. If the state subsequently, changes policies that decrease property values, The victims of that policy change should be compensated.

I'm not defending any of the actions of FEMA. However, some arguments can be made for government assistance to disasters.

Reply to
Alan Jones

It's ok if He's using the snowblower to clear a launch site.

Reply to
Dave Grayvis

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