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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 12:54pm
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Well it's been a pretty good winter so far. The snows have been manageable with most storms laying down less than a foot each time. The added benefit of a lot of it melting away between storms on the south facing slopes.
We have plenty of wood in the shed and.... after replacing a defective catalyst still under warranty, the stove burned well and has kept us warm.
The tanks under the cabin have been such a blessing! Well worth the effort to install them! We only froze one day in November, BEFORE switching to the under cabin tanks. Those were full when the supply line on the outside cistern froze so we just switched over until we got that thawed out. We then just ran that tank dry and switched to the winter system.
The new JD tractor with the loader has made it easy to move snow around after plowing and keeping the berm on the north side 9f the cabin and shop from building up. Using the "manlift" has made roof snow removal easier.
Alas, we are longing for a little easier living and a little warmer temperatures so tomorrow morning we will close the cabin up for the remainder of the winter and move to our home in Payson, AZ. Lest you think... "AZ, sand, cactus and heat," Payson sits at 5000' and just last week they were digging out from a half a foot of snow. Snow is forecast for next Sunday but probably mixed with rain. Compared to this place in Colorado, it will be a nice warmer change!
Nice bluebird day today, storms moving in tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday, then again on the weekend. Gonna slip away between storms!
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 01:46pm
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Bittersweet, I imagine....
Safe travels and let us know how things at Cabin South are for ya 
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FishHog
Member
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 03:29pm
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as beautiful of a place as it is, I don't blame you for heading for some warmer weather for a break. Its nice when you have places competing for your time and you enjoy them both.
Travel safe
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ICC
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 05:58pm
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I appreciate warmer climes in winter more than I used to. Snow is pretty and needed if one wants to ski or snowboard, but one of my knees convinced me to put a stop to skiing and snowshoeing a couple of years ago. Hiking still seems fine thank goodness.
I'm watching the weather too. The plan is to fly the Bearhawk4 to Baja Mexico in the next day or so.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 06:14pm
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Quoting: Nobadays home in Payson, AZ. Lest you think... "AZ, sand, cactus and heat," Payson sits at 5000'
I was stationed at Fort Huachuca AZ for a couple of years. The flag pole is at 5200 feet and then the mountains up from there. The high desert has mighty fine weather. No humidity. 100 degrees just feels like a warm day.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 07:30pm
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Quoting: DaveBell The high desert has mighty fine weather
We have friends that snowbird from Washington state to Sierra Vista in the winters... lastbyear they had several nights in the teens!
We are actually up in the mountains... big pines mixed with some juniper and cypress. That said, 30- 45 minutes south and we start hitting more desert climes and some great hiking opportunities where it's usually much warmer.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 07:31pm
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Quoting: ICC I'm watching the weather too. The plan is to fly the Bearhawk4 to Baja Mexico in the next day or so.
Have a good time! Been years since we spent any time on the Baja.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 9 Jan 2023 07:34pm
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Well the "stuff" we haul back and forth is all loaded, we'll except fresh veggies and things that might freeze overnight. Catch up the cats in the morning and get the 10hr drive over.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 10 Jan 2023 08:38am
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nobaddays, you are an inverted snowbirder ie doing it upside down. 
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 10 Jan 2023 10:34am
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I wish we could get snow like CO. Here in the northeast we get ice. So far this winter looks like it's going to be more of a 5month mud season vs any snow over just a few inches.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 10 Jan 2023 12:53pm
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Here in south central WI we do not have much ground frost depth and the temps for Jan are running above average.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 11 Jan 2023 05:52pm
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Quoting: Nobadays Sierra Vista in the winters... lastbyear they had several nights in the teens!
Winter in Sierra Vista/ Fort Huachuca is 2 weeks. Just enough snow to say ahhh, ain't that purty.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 11 Jan 2023 05:55pm
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech nobaddays, you are an inverted snowbirder ie doing it upside down
I have plans to do that. Blizzard forecast, north bound to make a pot of rattlesnake chili.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 12 Jan 2023 09:50am
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Well, we came back to AZ with no snow... that was a plus! Of course the snow they got last week brought a plethora of pine needles out of the Ponderosas. I will spend days raking and bagging those bad boys. No sympathy for people with deciduous trees... that's once a year, pine needles, every time you turn around!
Neighbor had called a few days before we made the transition to tell us our heat pump sounded horrible. Great! Yep got here and it wouldn't come on. Got a tech out yesterday and of course it fired right up! He ran diagnostics on it, checked compressor amp draw, every thing within spec. He reversed the unit into defrost and it made a heck of a noise... as usual... then settled down and finished the defrost cycle as normal. (He thinks the defrost cycle is what the neighbors heard.) I told him the auxiliary heat strip did not turn on when the main unit wasn't working... the air handler was working fine but just circulating air... he figured out that the guy who installed my smart thermostat wasn't as smart as the thermostat and had not program it correctly. He went through the whole program setup and found 2-3 settings not there that should have been there.
No idea why it didn't work the evening we got back. He did admit he shouldn't have pulled the disconnect before he looked at the board to run diagnostics. He said when he pulled the disconnect that effectively erases the codes. My guess is it reset the board as well and that is why it worked when he plugged it back in. He said to watch it, if anything happens to it within 30 days he will come out for free and try again to locate the problem.
For now we have heat... bump the thermostat up or down... no wood involved, or opening and shutting windows! Oh city life!
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 12 Jan 2023 12:14pm
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Quoting: Nobadays the guy who installed my smart thermostat wasn't as smart as the thermostat
Ha, nice.
I'm thinking about one of those. What Make and Model did you get? I have a Honeywell T-stat that is 16 years old, programmable touch screen but I have to stand there and program it. It sometimes defaults timeout back before I finish so I have to start over. Is your programmable from your cell phone?
Thanks,
Dave
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 12 Jan 2023 12:16pm
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Any recommendations and experiences from anyone on their programmable thermostats.
Thanks,
Dave
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 12 Jan 2023 12:55pm - Edited by: ICC
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I hear you about the pine needles, Nobadays. It would be nice if the pines had a nice orderly shedding over a single month at least.
I have 2 Ecobees. The first was bought in 2010 for the then new home. I added another when I completed the new shop. I can not complain about anything.
Easy installation. Easy setup. Good browser web portal and a handy app. I got them for the programmability and the remote control from the app. Both thermostats can be controlled from a single account. I think over 12 Ecobees can be accessed on one account, web portal or app.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 12 Jan 2023 04:00pm
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Quoting: DaveBell What Make and Model did you get?
Ours is a Honeywell RTH6500WF. We've only had it installed about a year, and as stated above it never was programed correctly for our heat pump. It is now as I stood over the tech's shoulder and he walked me through the process. This was ONLY to program it to work correctly with my Rheem heat pump.
We did not set it up to allow programming the thermostat for heat and cooling cycles, this can certainly be done. As far as I can tell it has unlimited scheduling, no where in the manual does it say "X amount" of settings per day or week. (My previous one was 5 days x 4 per day and the weekends were set for both days @ 4 per day.)
If you set it to allow scheduling options these are available on the app. To my knowledge no browser interface. The tech told me that basically anything , outside of system setup functions, is mirrored to the app. If you can see it/do it at the thermostat, it can be done on the app.
So far pleased. I've always figured you can't go wrong with Honeywell controls.
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