Homeowner Forum / Rural Living / September 2004

A friend of mine does this during severe cold snaps I have never done
this because I wonder about the safety part.  He has 6 dietz kerosene
lanterns with a 72 hour burn time on the tank. He lights them and
places them at several locations under is house in the crawl space.

A friend gave me a Sears self-propelled 6.0 HP lawn mower because he got
tired of messing with it.  It's not very old and the symptoms are:
When it's cold, it takes 3 or 4 pulls to start it.   After it starts, it
runs fine even until the tank runs out.  If you turn it off after it ...

I need to wire an outlet for a 220 arc welder
it'll run about 25 feet of wire from the panel
What gauge wire will I need?
thanks

We're talking relatively-level ground, tall grass, a few blackberry canes, a few
woody saplings less than 1" in diameter.
The three devices are choices for an add-on to a walk-behind tractor.
I don't know much about flail mowers except that they exist.

I live in a wooded area and the spot we have carved out for the house
and lawn still has a few trees on it.  Some of the branches are dead or
dying and they fall to the ground during or after storms.  Sometimes
they just fall when they want too.

Watching the unknown path of Ivan which also is my first experience
in anything of this aspect of mother nature,we've prepared ourselves
to either hunker down or bug out. The latter option won't be known for
another 72 hours. That of course,is IF the predictions are known

I am building a cabin that is miles from the power grid.
I have been using Craftsman 19.2 battery powered tools with good
success.  Only, I am driving to a neighbor's barn to charge the
batteries every several hours.

Most folks who have studied rural culture in the U.S. are aware of
Kentucky poet, farmer-philospher and writer Wendell Berry. In his 70s
now, he is not a silent observer of our nation's new "war hawk"
manifesto as promulgated by the current administration. Follow this link

I live in central Florida, epicenter of the last two hurricanes. I have seen
many posts on the subject of generators and hooking them up improperly. On
my street after hurricane Charley, we were without power for a couple of
days, so many people on the street had a portable ...

Yes I am in Florida.  Ok heres the question:   typical generator, 5000
watt, 10 hp, 120/240 plug 2 hot/1 neutral/1 ground.  On my house panel
you got the two big hots and the one neutal coming from the pole.
When the power goes off, I shut the main fuse off as well as all the

Here's why it pays to read the obituary pages: "Life was sweet if he
had a tune to whistle, a dog to ride in the front seat of his pickup
truck, and a home-cooked meal to return to." That's from the small
type in Thursday's obituary of Mode Clayton Crow of Little Rock, who

Ok, ok, ok,
Listen I was trying to gather info on hooking it up under some
stressful times right now in south Florida.  Going to work, boarding a
house up, and thinking about the generator was part of my storm

Not funny, or at least not supposed to be funny.
You know you are a farmer when:
Your tractor cost more than your pickup.
Your outbuildings are worth more than your house.

In the last few days, our water pressure has dropped dramatically.  How can
I diagnose whether the pump has gone bad, or if something is partially
clogged?
I have a deep well with a submerged pump, and a 20 gallon bladder tank.  The

Stephen Moore wrote: