This post will fulfill a couple of recent promises. Also, regular readers will have noticed I don't post as often as I used to. This is because I don't want to post " just because". I don't want to bore people with mundane things. I think people are interested in how I'm living here and how to "make do" on the cheap. I respect that.
First of all my brother Gord sent me the video clip from one of his game cameras on his Montana property. It is actually of a large bobcat not a lynx. This is a big bobcat though. I was surprised at it's size. Here it is. Click on the picture to access the controls to watch the video. It takes a moment to load.



Ever since both my brothers bought their Montana properties a few years ago it has absolutely amazed me how much volume and variety of wildlife there is in that area. Being that it seems everyone owns guns there I thought most of the wildlife would be long gone. There actually seems to be more there than up here in Canada! My brother Scott told me that the northwestern corner of Montana where they're at has the highest population/concentration of mountain lions (cougars) in all of North America! It is beautiful country as well.
Secondly I said I was going to rig something better to stabilize and secure my Genturi exhaust on my AquaHot. As always I wanted to do something cheap and basic but effective. Also, always remember that esthetics are not a real factor here. I ended up buying a couple of those bases for umbrellas for patio tables--12.50 each. The kind you fill with sand or water. I bought two because I also want to rig the same for my generator exhaust. Pics in a moment. I bought some sand and filled one of the bases. Then I bought a 7 ft (or so) length of 2 inch PVC pipe. This fit nicely into the adapter supplied with the umbrella base. I "gorilla glued" it in to the adapter and then the adapter twists and locks into place in the base. It isn't completely stiff and solid--it has several inches of play in any direction but it doesn't seem to be a problem--even on windy days. They're round tubes so the wind doesn't affect them much. I still might epoxy the adapter into the base. We'll see.



Then of course I needed to figure out what to use to attach the Genturi chimney to the pvc pipe. It had to be a solid connection. I spent some time wandering around Canadian Tire (big stores-they have almost everything) and finally settled on a length of piano hinge. 5.50. I also bought a small package of "cornice hooks" with threaded ends. I drilled a small hole into the chimney and the pvc pipe, screwed in the cornice hooks and hung the piano hinge onto the hooks. Easy-peasy.





I have still kept my back-up rope around the top of the stack just in case. The rope by itself has proven not to be enough to hold that stack upright. It is in sections and is more flimsy than it looks.



Yeah that ugly styrofoam spacer is still there for now but when the weather gets better again I'm going to see if I can do without it. One more thing. Seeing as weight is always a factor when RVs are travelling I would dump the sand out of the umbrella base(s) before leaving and just fill them with water when I get to where I'm going. Of course filling them with water in winter would break the bases quite quickly.
The weather here has been winter again all week. Well below freezing at -10 or colder often. I've been burning a ton of firewood. Remember that picture of that big pile a couple of weeks ago? Almost all gone now! By the way the top of my wood stove chimney plugged up with creosote the other day so I had to go up on the roof of the mobile home and clear it out. I own a proper chimney sweep brush and pole setup so I swept the whole thing. I had planned on doing this in the spring but that chimney cap plugged up sooner than I expected. The chimney itself was coated pretty bad was still quite functional.
One last thing for tonight. I have mentioned that I have been working a four day week and that was working out very well for me. Unfortunately that is coming to an end soon as they want us to work the full five days again. I'm not happy about it at all as that will raise my fuel costs by about a hundred a month plus it means another day that I can't heat with wood. Nothing I can do about it.
That's it for tonight. THANK-YOU to everybody who comes to read my blog here. It actually means a lot to me and I appreciate your interest.