Merry Christmas

[kzintner]

On 23rg-24th lost Verizon (land line, internet, and TV ) due to neighbor’s long needle white pine. Friday is the earliest Verizon can show up.

 

[Bret McFarland]

Had a good Christmas.
Lost power all day Friday, and for about 3 hours Saturday. Power co. said they were doing "rolling black outs" due to the power demand. Well, they rolled all over me! Got down below 0 here Saturday morning.
If it is that much of a strain on the electrical grid now, I can't wait until everyone gets an EV!!!!

Glad you had a good Christmas. We lost power from noon Friday to noon Saturday. I'm sure power company pulled the same stunt. Got down to 5 degrees. At least yours told you why it was out.

 

[tkhoffman]

Rollbacks, this time of year. AC isn't straining the Grid, Heat, shouldn't be straining the Grid. Do what's the reason?
When I lived on Long Island (NY) they made demands that we all cut our usage by 20%. Which was tough for families who already ran super lean. "the grid can't handle the islands population growth" funny thing is that they have no problem dozing acres of land for new multi story condos. Hmm, how does that math work?

 

[jkoenig]

Tony,
I had (I say had because I no longer travel) an industrial customer on Lon Gisland where they were getting under voltage, and it was faulting our servo drives and their air compressor. They monitored it for a few days, and showed the power company, and got a new transformer. They also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in spare parts, and on a giant surge suppressor for their press. They have a diesel generator to run the building when the grid goes down...medical supplier-required redundancy.

 

[hydroharry]

Looks like if we get a white Christmas, it will be the hard white-ish stuff! It is going to be a cold one for sure. Even here in NC!

Speaking of fruit cake, I just made our no-bake fruit cake yesterday. There is no comparing this one to any other fruit cake. It is actually delicious!
The recipe is probably close to 100 years old, or older. Anyone interested, just give me a shout, and I will post it for you. Real easy to make, just costs a little bit for the ingredients.

Merry (post) Christmas to all. Just catching up here.

Marty - SHOUT to you. I figured someone would'a requested the recipe but I don't see it posted. Haven't had fruit cake in a long time. Seems like it fell out of favor, but for some reason it sure sounds good right now. I'll take you up on that 100+ year old recipe.

 

[jack casey]

Had a good Christmas.
Lost power all day Friday, and for about 3 hours Saturday. Power co. said they were doing "rolling black outs" due to the power demand. Well, they rolled all over me! Got down below 0 here Saturday morning.
If it is that much of a strain on the electrical grid now, I can't wait until everyone gets an EV!!!!

Marty, you're experience may imitate ours. We moved from NYC to the country, lotta open land that gradually filled up with trees. In recent years those trees became 70 footers and fell, taking out power lines, leaving the power companies playing catch-up. We installed a whole house Generac generator two weeks before Superstorm Sandy - it ran for six straight days. There have been other disruptions - do not regret the $6800 spent on the Generac.
Jack

 

[Rgausman]

If any you guys looking for another hobby for the new year which your significant other will sanction, look at collecting Onan generators. I currently have four gensets and every time power goes out, my wife thanks me….

Get started here…
www.smokstak.com forum: Onan Generators

Bob G.

 

[Bret McFarland]

If any you guys looking for another hobby for the new year which your significant other will sanction, look at collecting Onan generators. I currently have four gensets and every time power goes out, my wife thanks me….

Get started here…
www.smokstak.com forum: Onan Generators

Bob G.

How anyone could consider a 40+ year-old antique generator being reliable is beyond me. And if you don't have one that produces clean power (THD<5%), you cannot safely run anything with electronics including HVAC. Your wife won't be thanking you if your generator eats her dishwasher. Get something you can depend on -- Generac would be at the bottom of my list.

 

[mgwin]

Just for you, Harry!

No Bake Fruitcake
Have all ingredients measured and ready before preparing.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup evaporated milk, 2 cups miniature marshmallows, 6 Tbsp. frozen orange juice concentrate, 3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped dates, 1 cup walnuts or pecans, 1 cup candied fruit, 1/4 cup candied cherries,
4 cups regular graham cracker crumbs (1 box graham crackers, place 1/3 of crackers at a time in gallon zip lock bag and roll with rolling pin to get crumbs),
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. ground cloves.

Preparation:
Stir first three ingredients in pan over medium heat until melted.
Remove and stir in fruits and nuts. Stir in spices and crumbs.
Mix well until everything wants to stick together in a ball. (It may seem to be very dry at first, but keep stirring, it will turn moist.)
Press firmly in loaf pan lined with wax paper or saran wrap
Cover tightly, and store in refrigerator at least two days before serving. Makes approx. 3 pounds.

 

[mgwin]

Done ate up the first one, gonna make a second one in a few. It won't last long when family gets a taste of it!
My mother-in-law loved it. She always looked forward to getting some every Christmas. Going to make one in memory of her, she passed away in Nov.

 

[kmcconaughey]

I'm late. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

 

[mgwin]

Made the no-bake fruit cake a few minutes ago.
Here's some progress pics:
Ingredients measured and ready.

Milk, O.J. concentrate, and marshmallows ready to melt.

Melted.

Stirred in fruits and nuts.

Stirred and stirred and stirred in crumbs and spices. The more you stir, the more moist it becomes.

Transferred from pot to baking dish lined with wax paper. Place another sheet of wax paper on top to help press it down in the baking dish.

Wrapped tight in wax paper, tin foil, and saran wrap. Ready for the fridge. After wrapping, place it back in the baking dish in order to hold it's form.

Ready to eat for new years day.
Happy new year everyone!

 

[RAllison]

Looks great! Happy New Year!

 

[Rgausman]

How anyone could consider a 40+ year-old antique generator being reliable is beyond me. And if you don't have one that produces clean power (THD<5%), you cannot safely run anything with electronics including HVAC. Your wife won't be thanking you if your generator eats her dishwasher. Get something you can depend on -- Generac would be at the bottom of my list.

Well out here in the country, do not have data center clean power to start with. Electrical storms etc. Personally avoid appliance with a lot of electronics.

Twenty years ago, started off with Onan DJB 2 cylinder diesel 6 KW genset from 1960's. The DJB is air cooled and you can hear it 1/2 mile away. Replaced it with newer Onan HDKAL 7.5KW genset powered with Kubota 1105 3-cylinder diesel so can run the heat pump. Used a Hyper Engineering SureStart soft starters to drop the LRA down to less than 40A. At full load burns less than 1/2 gallon of fuel per hour.

We had a weekender down the road whose Generac did not start during a major snow storm due to a bad circuit board.

You just have to go with what you feel comfortable with...

I was saying as a hobby - What are recommendation for residential gensets?

Bob G.

 

[Rgausman]

Made the no-bake fruit cake a few minutes ago.
Here's some progress pics:
Ingredients measured and ready.

Milk, O.J. concentrate, and marshmallows ready to melt.

Melted.

Stirred in fruits and nuts.

Stirred and stirred and stirred in crumbs and spices. The more you stir, the more moist it becomes.

Transferred from pot to baking dish lined with wax paper. Place another sheet of wax paper on top to help press it down in the baking dish.

Wrapped tight in wax paper, tin foil, and saran wrap. Ready for the fridge. After wrapping, place it back in the baking dish in order to hold it's form.

View attachment 152416

Ready to eat for new years day.
Happy new year everyone!

Interesting Marty - So how long does it need to be in the frig? It seems it would not hold it's form when removed from the frig.

 

[mgwin]

Recipe says it should stay in the refrigerator for at least two days before eating. This allows everything to blend together. (kind of like the way spaghetti tastes better the second day) It sets up fine after cooling. It is to be kept refrigerated as long as it is around, which is usually not long!
My mother made them when I was little. Those two days were the longest days of my life!

 

[Rgausman]

Recipe says it should stay in the refrigerator for at least two days before eating. This allows everything to blend together. (kind of like the way spaghetti tastes better the second day) It sets up fine after cooling. It is to be kept refrigerated as long as it is around, which is usually not long!
My mother made them when I was little. Those two days were the longest days of my life!

Sorry Marty - Did not read the full directions because got distracted by all the photos... LOL Directions look to be spot-on.
Have a great new year!

 

[jregister]

Rollbacks, this time of year. AC isn't straining the Grid, Heat, shouldn't be straining the Grid. Do what's the reason?
When I lived on Long Island (NY) they made demands that we all cut our usage by 20%. Which was tough for families who already ran super lean. "the grid can't handle the islands population growth" funny thing is that they have no problem dozing acres of land for new multi story condos. Hmm, how does that math work?

Speculation: It was probably too cold for the heat pumps to operate so they kicked in the emergency electric heat strips. All of a sudden, electricity demand shoots way up. Also, Duke energy had several generating plants that "were offline or not responding at the time of the outages." Everywhere I go it seems that they are upgrading power poles and running new cable, so they are certainly funding transmission upgrades. If they are are also working on generation upgrades and maintenance, well, some changes don't work as well as anticipated...

 

[mgwin]

Yes, heat strips were activated for sure! Along with those small electric heaters. Almost everyone also had their cook stove cranked up trying to cook their Christmas meal. I thought we were going to have to haul our food to my daughter's house to cook our meal as well. We were planning to have our meal around lunch time Christmas eve day, and the power didn't come on until 9:30 am. Better a little late than never. We ate around 2pm.

 

[hydroharry]

Just for you, Harry!

No Bake Fruitcake
Have all ingredients measured and ready before preparing.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup evaporated milk, 2 cups miniature marshmallows, 6 Tbsp. frozen orange juice concentrate, 3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped dates, 1 cup walnuts or pecans, 1 cup candied fruit, 1/4 cup candied cherries,
4 cups regular graham cracker crumbs (1 box graham crackers, place 1/3 of crackers at a time in gallon zip lock bag and roll with rolling pin to get crumbs),
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. ground cloves.

Preparation:
Stir first three ingredients in pan over medium heat until melted.
Remove and stir in fruits and nuts. Stir in spices and crumbs.
Mix well until everything wants to stick together in a ball. (It may seem to be very dry at first, but keep stirring, it will turn moist.)
Press firmly in loaf pan lined with wax paper or saran wrap
Cover tightly, and store in refrigerator at least two days before serving. Makes approx. 3 pounds.

Marty - Marty - Marty - mmmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmm. Sorry I finally checked back and see not only the recipe but step by step directions with pics. Now all I gotta do is go to the store and get the stuff. I don't know how my wife is gonna react. I already know her answer if I ask her to make it - NO WAY, so I'll be doing it, and maybe in time for HAPPYYYYYY New Years.