New England B.S. Thread

Used my N2 remote start for the first time this season getting out of work this morning; was 32 in Clinton when I got out to the truck.

 

I don't really care about the heated wheel. The tops of my hands get cold more easily and it can't help with that. I also find I don't care about the push button start or adaptive cruise--they're basically gimmicks to me. 4 Auto and auto high beams are probably my two favorite things with this truck.

I can schedule starts, so I set it to start at 6:40 every weekday morning because I try to leave at 6:45. Not sure if I'll keep that set or not.

 

The only things my I wish my 4Runner came with was a heated steering wheel and memory seats. I know the limited 4Runner has memory seats and some Toyota models have heated steering, so I may need to find a way to transplant those.

 

It was 30F when I left Henniker this morning, hard frost on the windshield! Spent the day Saturday doing yardwork and getting the snowmobile trailer ready to roll.

 

We have forced hot air (oil) and a pellet stove. The past 7 years I have been keeping track of the expenses and have come to the conclusion that when oil is $2.30-$2.40/gallon, the heating bill is break even. Anything less and I am relying on oil and when it was over, I solely used pellets. When we bought the house in 2013, heating oil was around $4.00/gallon and I didn't even consider turning on the furnace, instead we went through about 4 tons of pellets.

Just paid the oil man to fill up the tank at $1.30/gallon and will use the stove as supplemental heat to take the edge off when we are home. A full tank of oil gets me just over 2 months months before I need to schedule the next fill up in the dead of winter.

Granted this is for our house, and each type of heat has it benefits and setbacks. Oil is a very even heat in the house while pellets bake out the living room and portions of the first floor, but leave the far ends and second floor a little chilly. If I could do it all over again, I would of gotten a wood stove - on more than one occasion the power has gone out and I was left with no way to heat the house. Nothing like going to bed in your winter clothes and leaving the faucets on a slow drip to keep them from freezing. May be time to invest in a generator after all.....

 

I've got $100 of wood purchases and maybe $50 of fuel and bar & chain into my heat for this year.
Of course, the chainsaw was $500, saw gear was another $150, I finally caved and bought a splitter last year for another $900...

 

$1.30 a gallon? Holy shit. I just paid $2.40 last week and that's as cheap as I could find it. Called 5 places.

That's almost cheap enough that I could go pick it up myself for that cost. Where do you get oil? It's never cheaper than gasoline up here even though it should be.

 

https://www.newenglandoil.com/massachusetts/zone10.asp?x=0

We have an on demand account with Patriot Liquid Energy - they just raised their prices $0.10/gallon, but they are still the cheapest I can find anywhere.

 

I started searching prices in my area after I read his posts, no where even close here

 

But how much time? And what is that valued at, even if you like doing it.

 

Did it in two weekends this year, splitting & stacking. I had it all cut and stacked last fall, except for one dead-standing ash that I worked up this summer and stuck right into the shed. So say maybe 50 hours total?

 

Not bad at all

 

Using this website, I looked in Maine and it looks like you can get in for between $1.50-$1.70/gallon. I have never had a provider charge a different price than advertised?

https://www.newenglandoil.com/index.asp

 

It goes pretty fast using the dump trailer. I can split and toss it right into the trailer, which holds about 2 cord. Then I just drive up to the shed, tilt the trailer to about 20 degrees, and it self-feeds while I stack. So I did 2 cord a day on two Saturdays and a Sunday, working about for 6 hours each day. But I also had cutting time and transport time from last year, so I'm guessing at 50 hours.

Besides, while I'm cutting/splitting/stacking firewood I'm not bothering to work out, so I'm saving a little bit of time there

Edit- example of method used:

 

$1.69 is the best I can do here.

 

Look at you all fancy using your truck for truck things.

 

Damn, just found $1.39 here. Just ordered which I needed anyways cause my tank is basically empty. Hasn't been filled since March.

 

Constantly. I don't know why I waited so long to buy a dump trailer; I've had that thing hooked up and running a mission just about every weekend since I brought it home (and quite a few weeknights, too)

 

I filled mine in May at $1.59, so I'm good for a while. I haven't used any oil since then.

 

I've used very little. But our hot water runs off our furnace (tankless hot water/ radiant water heating).