Christmas Pantry

We had a deep set of shelves behind these cupboard doors. They held a lot of stuff, but they were unusable. They were dark, hard to put things in and pull things out of, and were really just annoying to use.

Pantry all closed up

I originally was going to keep the shelves height adjustable, but it turned out that it would work with the rail and tabs that came with the pantry. So finally over Christmas I banged out another project on my Honey Do list.

The first step was making the front vertical pillars. I needed to adjust the rail so that the rails will clear the doors and be set back from the front so the doors will close as well.

Front shelving support.

Next step was to mount the front supports and level, square, and anchor the rear rail supports.

Pantry ready for the the pullout shelves.

The rails for this project are heavy-duty side mounted full extensions drawer slides good for 100lbs per set, and they are mounted using flush mount rail kit. I must admit that the cheap plastic mounting kit was awesome to work with. They made the install so quick and simple to do, and they were inexpensive. Well worth the couple extra dollars per shelf.

Shelves installed and loaded up.

We lost a few inches in shelf width, and gained much more usable depth. I ran out of stock for making the from edges, so that final finishing touch will have to while for my need run to the home improvement store.The from edges will be flat top with an arched bottom to hide the rail mounts without losing clearance for the shelf below.

This project finished up just in time to reclaim the table, and enjoy a delicious turkey dinner.

Project cost: ~$130 USD (rails were 3/4 of the project cost)
Materials list:

• 1x3 Sheathing (shelf lips and rail mounts)
• 22 inch edge mount full extension drawer slides (qty 5)
• flush mount rail kits (qty)
• 1x4  (shelf front face)
• 2x3 (front rail mount)

Next project: ventilation fan in the bedroom.

500 Cubic Feet of Snow

What does 500 cubic feet of compressed damp snow look like?

500 square feet is about a 1/3 of my roof  area, which is what was shoveled into this pile 20 feet below me.

5 foot high pile of snow and ice

I didn't know either but I found out after a couple of back to back snow storms. With temps hovering between 30 and 34 degrees Fahrenheit, my gutters were forming ice blocks and I was concerned about ice dams on my flat roof. I climbed on up and shovel all three roofs. Glad that I did, since I found a good quarter inch ice under a foot of snow accumulation.

After 2 hours of shoveling I have bare roof across the whole house, and the roof was drying and the gutter ice was melting nicely.

Top level

Lower levels

On the plus side this afternoon was about 35 degrees and I have a nice view from the roofs.

Pellet Stove Woes

When we got our house we got two Quadra-Fire Pellet stoves and a few tons of Energex Premium Grade Wood Pellets.

Quadra-Fire Classic Bay 1100I, the older of the 2 stoves.

So far they have been nothing but fiddly and annoying. The pellet stoves were both in need of a thorough cleaning. They needed all the blowers delinted, an auger motor replaced, a thermistor replaces, and firepot doors ground smooth again. And they are great when they are dialed in and working without constant tweaking. That's where the annoyance is. The feed rate control is done with a sliding door between the auger and the pellets and that's the only control. If I adjust it for the proper flame size, it won't feed enough pellets to achieve ignition. If I adjust it to reliably ignite, it sucks the flame into the exhaust tube way too big and potentially a dangerous situation. On top of this the auger door has a tendency to jam with pellets, causing the stove to flame out and the house gets cold.

The pellets are another griping area. I've read about wood pellets. They are supposed to be consistent size, consistent moisture content, consistent material composition, and premium grade is supposed to be more consistent. I have tons of Energex Premium Grade Wood Pellet Fuel and every is visually different and so are the pellets within the bag. I'm thinking when it's time to order more pellets I will go with any other brand than Energex. The previous owner went with this brand because it's the brand the delivery company that stacks the bags in your garage for you sold.



I'm not sure at this point which part of the equation is the primary problem in my heating system, but I think it's the pellets and not the stove. From what I've found on Quadra-Fire they are pretty universally set and forget, as long as the fuel is good. Moving mechanical parts all wear out eventually, after 15+ years I'm not surprised. The thermistor that had to be replaced was melted away from years of running the flame too high. I've looked into pellet suppliers and read a lot of reviews. A lot of bad reviews at that. The 2 biggest complaints I've seen across all brands is inconsistency between batches, and too much ash. I did not find Energex being sold in my area currently so maybe the bad pellet issue will have remedied itself through market selection.

Anyway in the short term, changing pellet brands is an easy and cheap (<$50) test to confirm the theory. Changing stoves is a bit more costly and involved than cutting open a different bag.

Stay tuned for future results.

Still hunting, no large animals

It finally snowed in December.

The disappointing discovery is that there was not much animal movement over the last 2 days. I was really hoping that I would finally get to find some fresh deer or turkey tracks, but no luck.

On the plus side I got to watch a small gray squirrel (huntable) sit and eat 15 yards in front of me, found rabbit tracks, and more blueberry on my property.

Sorry, no picture of the cute and future meal squirrel.

Rabbit track, headed to the left in the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Low-bush blueberry

Once again not a immediately productive outing, but more evidence that my property has the potential to be very productive with a little bit of help to get it working again.