New England B.S. Thread

Yeah, hopefully, barring some unforeseen issue popping up. Going to do some firewood work early in the AM on Saturday and Sunday, too, probably, before it gets hot.

 

Wow, firewood in June. That's the prepper in you. Most of my buddies start splitting and stacking just before deer season, then deer season comes and that gets put on hold, then they are in a mad dash to get the wood done.

 

Bridge 3 is complete. Bridge 4 will be over an actually river and will probably need a center point in the river to get over it, so that's going to maybe be done this fall after some planning and savings for supplies. I'd like to do that one well since our customers will probably use it sometimes too, so probably some actual lumber for supports and concrete footings maybe. Happy to have these done and ready to use, but now it's meetings all the rest of the day

 

Shrug. Burns better when it's dry, and with the spring we've had the only way it's going to dry is if I get it split and under cover as early as possible, lol.


We're also starting our CMP experiment this weekend, now that I think about it.

Our power bill has been crazy high ever since that October hurricane from a couple of years ago, (nearly double what it was previously) with no changes in our habits or appliances. To add to the problem, the 'energy manager' application online doesn't match up at all with what the meter says or what our bills have been. I've been complaining to CMP for about 6 months trying to get it resolved, without any success. So, this month we're doing an experiment and shutting the power off completely at the main breaker where it comes into the house. I'll run the generator for an hour or so a day to keep the fridge/freezers down to temp, and so we can shower & do dishes, etc. The rest of the time it'll be the hand pump and oil lamps or the solar lights. Then we'll see what the bill is at the end of the billing cycle. If it's anything OTHER than just the basic service connection fee then I'll know that
A) the meter isn't reporting correctly, and/or
B) the bill that we get is completely made up

And we'll have to decide what we want to do from there.

You may want to check with the state or local gov. and see if you need any sort of permit for that, if you're going to be placing a support in the riverbed. It'd be a bummer to get it all built and then get a visit from DEP and end up with a fine and having to tear it all down again.

 

Wow with that experiment, it's gonna be a long month!! Hopefully it isn't too hot and you don't need to run the generator too much. What are your other options? Completely solar slowly or file a lawsuit?



As far as the river permit, I think you are correct. I would be able to get away with it for a few years, but we are eventually going to do a full vehicle bridge across it, which will trigger studies,permits and have people crawling all over looking for the most effective place to build it. They will most likely at that point discover the bridge, and then I can either play dumb and get in trouble, or just get in trouble. That will be part of the research for this summer. I think there are certain rights to build walking bridges over water on your property, but I need to figure out what those are, and what I need to do one. The problem is we are commercial property, and that triggers a TON of extra b.s.. We built a walking bridge that is like 30 feet long and 5 wide and it cost us 20k to do it to code. INSANE!!!!!!!

That's why it'll probably be cheaper to risk it. But I dunno, until I really look into it I won't know.

 

Eh, it really shouldn't be too bad. We've got a transfer switch that the generator plugs into that is wired to run the freezers, fridge, boiler, water pump, and a few sets of lights (bathroom and bedroom). Plus we've got some Aladdins that kick out a crazy amount of light for an oil lamp, and these that we normally use camping that I'll be rigging up in the living room and kitchen. I've got a hand pump rigged up in the cellar bathroom; all you need to do is close the valve to the electric pump and open the one to the hand pump. So we can use that for flushing toilets, pet water, etc. when the generator's not running. Plus, we don't run AC or anything like that typically.

Not sure if it'd be cheaper to risk it; if they catch you some of the fines can be pretty hefty. Definitely worth looking into first.

 

They (Michelin) did change the tread patter on the AT2 at some point. The first set of P rated AT2s I had on my F150 were different than the second set, same load rating and everything. The second set of P rated AT2s on my F150 are identical to the current set of E rated AT2s on my F250. I agree though, not having 'squishy' tires makes a big difference when towing.

 

That is super interesting, I can't wait to see what you come up with! I am real low on my power use, every one of my friends hates me. I do about 3 loads of laundry a month and I am rarely home on a weekend. Almost never. I work all day and spend 12 hours out of the house on average. My power bill is on average $65-75 a month.

Really, I can't wait to see how that all shakes out. Fucking power companies are criminals! The delivery fee, service fee, origin fee, screw you fee... it's just stupid.

 

Well, these just look BEEFY, I thought it may have been the E rating but could be the tread changed. Truck rides awesome with new sneakers. Even for a GM.

 

That part I think is the E-rated tire. The tread is actually deeper on the LT rated tires vs. the P rated. Apparently, that's the case for a few manufacturers.

 

Speaking of tires, I was noticing the tires on my wife's JGC are down to 5/32 already and she's got a shade less than 30,000 miles on it. For a 60,000 mile tire that starts at 8.5/32 it seems like they're wearing somewhat fast. They are all even, so I think it's nature of the beast. I'm worried about the winter TBH with lower tread. Granted, she's a teacher so any really bad days she's home and I'll always have snows on my truck, but it's still somewhat surprising. I like the Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S a lot since they've got the 3 peak rating, but I wonder if it's overkill for the Jeep.

@js312 How are your tires doing, I know you've got the AT3 4S in P, not LT.

I mounted my dash cam this morning and I'm pleased with it, but holy crap does the interior of these trucks marr easily. I was refitting one of the panels and I must not have had it perfectly aligned and I got a nice scrape. I was able to clean it way up to the point only I'd notice it, but eesh. I had the overhead console sitting on the armrest and it actually punctured the vinyl in one small part. I don't know if I'll eventually purchase a new armrest cover because I'm crazy like that, but man, I wasn't impressed. I think I'm going to like having the camera, I'll have to test it out a bit. It's wired via the OBDII port with motion activation, so we will see how good / bad it is.

 

Mine went from averaging between $60-$70 a month to over $100 most months. Literally NOTHING about our habits changed, but the power bill for some reason did. I've tried selectively unplugging appliances to see if we had a vampire, but none of them have made any difference to the bill. So this month we're going whole-hog and cutting them off completely.

 

Are your kWh going up, or was the rate changed?

 

Both. CMP had a 13% rate increase, but that alone wouldn't explain how much my bill jumped. They're also claiming that at the same time my KWh jumped from around 400-450 a month to 600-650 a month. And like I said, literally NOTHING about our habits/appliances has changed.

 

My delivery fee before I moved was 158 dollars a month. My last electric bill was about 100 in the new place, but not a full month use. Either way I am going to cut my bill in half every month now that I live next to a highway and we don't have a delivery fee anymore.

What's REALLY insane, is that most of these rate hikes and fees have to be approved by your state. Or else they can't run their monopoly with permission. So the very fine people who run all our states are responsible. NOT the electric company.

At least that's how I've seen it in areas around me, and when I lived in NC.

 

@Noelie84 here is the bridge they made us do that cost a little over 20k. We talked them down from an all steal, 60k bridge that could handle a cement truck. But this was the absolute minimum they would go. Every bolt and nail in it's required spot. Cement footings, crazy LVL's, wire rated to like 120 lbs per square inch or something crazy so people don't fall through the railings It was crazy. I think you are right though, the fines could easily equal the cost and I would end up needing to redo it anyways.... Maybe I'll just wait a little longer and build one big bridge that can do cars and walking people...

It does look a lot nicer than mine though

 

$20 Grand and NO CARBIDE RUNNERS???? Total fail.

 

They're there. You just can't see them because they're super clear self-repairing high tech polymer.


And also invisible. Because they're not there.

 

You love you some carbide runners