Kathy and Kris Site

March 2011 : also see my continuation, 2nd post about my Harman XXV pellet stove

September 9, 2010 : Updated info at bottom

June 2, 2010 : Updated info at bottom

I have been bitten by the pellet stove bug for sure. As evidence for this I ordered my Harman XXV cast iron pellet stove, from Bernardston Farmers Supply, 2 months before we moved into our new house. My friend Bruno, who is all knowing when it comes to pellet stoves, showed me his stove and this had me hunting  for my own.

We settled on the Harman XXV stove since it fit all our needs. We where looking at something to heat our entire house, which is approximately 1900sq ft. The stove would be installed on an existing pad in the finished basement which once held a wood stove. Cast Iron was preferred since visually it looked like an old fashion. The hopper had to be big enough to run all day without refueling.

Eventually our choice of pellet stoves narrowed between the Quadra-Fire MT Vernon and the Harman XXV (pictured to right). After getting quotes from several places we went with the Harman XXV. With installation and a free ton of pellets from Harman the price difference between the 2 stoves was well over $1000, so the Harman was the logical choice.

I can honestly say that purchasing a pellet stove is #1 on our list of best purchases for our home.

Pros

• Approximately 3 months in and we have used ZERO oil to heat our house.
• Our house is toasty warm, always between 68-75 depending on the room.
• Low maintenance, a quick vacuum of the ash and a wipe of the glass.
• Very efficient in burning pellets
• Using locally made pellets, New England Pellets made 15 miles from our house
• Not using oil shipped half way around the world
• Does not get burning hot like a wood stove, much safer for my child.
• Not having to deal with fluctuating Oil prices

Cons

• Fan noise can be heard when the stove is on high (we don’t even notice it anymore).
• Keeping the hopper full with pellets
• Emptying out ash tray
• Uses Electricity

As for if the stove would save us money, it all depends on how you look at it?
I filled my 1/4 full  oil tank and it was the same cost as 2 tons of pellets delivered (our hot water uses oil for NOW). These two tons of pellets have kept my house nice and toasty during the worst of winter for going on 2+ months. I very much doubt I could say the same if using oil.

Did we save money?
I am sure if we kept the house at the temperature we would have if we where heating with oil we would save money. One of the main reasons we got our pellet stove is to not have a freezing house especially with a little one. Having a house in the low 70′s in the dead of winter was great.

June 2, 2010 update.

With the heating season officially over I am sure glad we had our stove. It really came in handy on some of those days in April when Vermont decided to drip back into the 30′s for the day. It was nice to just fill the hopper, and have a toasty house in a short amount of time.

One thing we did notice, when the outside temp towards the end of the season was 40 or so, the Harman XXV kept the house very warm and went through very little in the way of fuel. The maintenance during this time of slow burning through fuel was very minimal which was great given our busy schedule.

Fuel wise, we went through 3 tons of pellets plus maybe 20-30 bags which we bought a few at a time during the end of the heating season. In retrospect, we probably should have had another ton delivered, but buying it by the bag isn’t too bad. Still have plenty of oil in the tank, and hopefully it will be that way this time in 2011.

September 9, 2010 update, more area to heat this winter.

As the heating season quickly approaches we are expanding what we heat with our pellet stove this year. Plans are in the works to run some ducts out to an attached sunroom. Our hope is to install an inline duct fan and draw the heat from near the pellet stove and make the sunroom more usable during the colder months. This may have an additional benefit of circulating some heat in our house more, though our layout is very good for natural air moment.

Judging from last year, I am confident the Harman XXV is up to the task!

On the Oil front, it’s close to being official, we are approaching a year without using oil to heat our house.

On the pellet front,  had a delivery of New England Brand pellets which are made close by in NH, can’t get much more local then that.

Might as well start the new year off with a post. Might be months before we remember we still have a blog.

We are enjoying out new house, and renee is getting huge. Life seems to be going quickly which I guess is a good sign. Looking at what concerts we can go to in the new year. Festivals will be high on the list so we can bring renee.

Just realized the other day with facebook, twitter and such we never seem to blog anymore the nerve of us. After all renee is not going to have much to look at in the future if we don’t at least write it down!!!

Anyhow, she is doing great and is getting huge, probably 30″ now, how did that happen??

Last weekend was the first night we spent away from renee, our little pumpkin. We had planned on some sort of adventure a while ago since it was kathy’s birthday. We did know we where going to both get tattoo’ed again but besides that where not sure what we where doing. As luck would have it my parents where ever to eager to watch renee, and this time overnight.
This could be way too long a post so I will sum it up.

• Tattos’s went great, tracey of luck soul tattoo did a great job yet again.
• A nice ice cream stop at ikea. Some pepe’s famous pizza for dinner.
• Me being the designated driver for kathy when we went to John Harvards for drinks and she had a few.
• Being able to sleep in late even though we both did not sleep well without renee’s constant noises.
• My parents telling us they sold our child on ebay and such when kathy called.
• Having to take the cell phone away from Kathy

All in all it was a great test run for the upcoming several days away from her. Even though we missed her, my parents had a great time with renee and she seemed to have a great time too.

Where just about on the end of day two of renee being home. She is now about 4.5 days old and she already is looking bigger. It has been a very interesting time with renee being home and as one neighbor said when we where out on a walk today with renee “having a baby makes life different,  not good or bad just different from then on”

We are both wondering if renee will sleep as well as she did last night tonight. It was really nice, she slept for a couple hours at a time which was really nice. My bet is that she won’t sleep as well but maybe karma has something else in store. I always joke about sleep being not needed, seems that might come in handy now

We have put in a couple rules that we are making sure to do every day, take a shower, get out of the house, eat real food, etc. So far we have got out both days, gone shopping for food and yesterday actually went and got flu shots. It requires more effort, making sure you have extra outfits, burp clothes and such but is sooooo worth it.

She seems to enjoy getting out too, her eyes are looking all around but we are being careful not to have her exposed too much being so young.

Besides that life is good, we are both enjoying spending time with our new addition to our family. It has been very magical and my little boo is amazing and we all are very happy about her. Just trying to enjoy every moment we can.

Kathy has been having contractions the last few hours, it looks like renee may be joining us soon!!!!

-Very exciting

I think we will call this the official weekend of finishing projects. At least it is my hope to finish a bunch of stuff this weekend. For once we don’t really have much to do plan wise this weekend. So it will be very nice to get some of the stuff done. Hoping to install a new toliet, paint the kitchen finish the downstairs painting touchups, rewire a couple outlets. ok a lot of things.

here’s crossing my fingers.

We went to see the The Clicks last night which was amazing. They canceled the first time in February due to the lead singer having voice problem which happens so we where crossing our fingers this time. Jen Tobey’s Alter-Ego opened up for The Clicks at Pearl Street and Jen and Band where really good. From their myspace page they sounded folksy, but live they where not. Their songs where good and most of the band members looked geeky (one I swear must be a computer network guy) and they where very entertaining. Usually at pearl street we don’t worry about showing up for the opener but this time I was glad we did.

Not too long after Jen Tobey’s Alter-Ego was done The Clicks came on. They are amazing live and very humble. They have risen a LOT in the last couple months and playing much bigger places and tours (true colors tour) and it was amazing to see them in such a small venue. The lead singer really puts a ton of emotion into singing which makes the songs sound so full. The band mates joked with each other on stage, did a little posing for camera, and just generally where amazing. Hate to keep using the work amazing but they really a site to see.

On a site note, last week when we where watching LA Ink we saw the lead singer getting a tattoo. Kathy was actually the one to spot it, since their was no mention to what band they belonged to. Good spot Kathy spotting Lucas .

theCLIKS
Lucas Silveira – Vocals/Guitar
Nina Martinez – Guitar
Jen Benton – Bass
Morgan Doctor – Drums

I am counting the weeks, ok maybe the hours till sanity resumes in the form of my new boss who starts not soon enough.

Today was just one of those days that gives you a headaches and makes you just wonderhas the world gone crazy?

It all started with an email asking for me not to do what I was originally hired to do for my job but instead concentrate on only 3 projects for the next month or so. Anyone that works in web development knows this is a recipie for disaster. Yes that is right, doesn’t make much sense to me but that is pretty typical of late of request.

Then later on before I leave I have a short meeting with the person who sent it only to explain that those are needed functions that cannot stop….. long story short I m continuing too do those things.

It became more evident that I hope my new boss actually spends a little bit of time to find out what I do day to day. I have met her and don’t think that is going to be a problem, she seems to have a pretty good grasp on the big picture and doesn’t have such tunnel vision as the current one.

Next Morning take on it:

After a nice walk, venting with my wife which really helps, it is even more apparent why this person is a consultant. As one you don’t have to worry about any long term chaos or problems you create. You may sweep in get a few things done and dash out of the job before anything really hits the fan.

Needless to say I will be counting the days now, which hopefully will make me feel better.

Perfect Phrase to Sum what is it up

It’s Momento mixed with Clockwork Orange.
You don’t know if you are going forward or backward and you always wondering WTF is happening.

Amazing video for YES WE CAN, a must see. Over 2 million views in a few days.

http://www.youtube.com/user/illwilly

Saturday, January 26, 2007

After a day of having needles poked in me and putting large furniture objects on the car only to be dropped off at my parents house and reloaded later, we headed to Providence.

I had bought tickets to see The Birthday Massacre a few months ago after seeing their CD in hot topic and listening to some of their tunes. They looked good and the other two bands looked decent. Mostly we figured for the $10 tickets how can you really go wrong.

Armed with our Tom-Tom we set out to find the venue in Providence, the living room. We found it no problem, and it looked kinda run down but hell it was close to my parents place. Unfortunatly it was cold as hell, so we ended up at this very tall indoor mall less than a miles from the venue. We walked around enjoying not slipping on ice and such and just hung out, enjoyed each other company, had some Indian food, some lattes and such

Figuring we weren’t sure about the first band we got there just when the show started. I was glad we did, the first band Creature Feature was amazin. They didn’t take them self too seriously and the lead singer even went to order a drink at the end of one song. You would be surprised how many bands have an attitude even if they are openers (rock kill kid comes to mind). Their songs where real good, all relating to their love of monster movie, real good stuff. We got to talk to the band after their set and the keyboardist was very nice. Another good sign they sold out of all their albums on the tour. Later at home we downloaded their album, DRM free from Amazon. Of the three band Creature Feature impressed us most.

Next up was Schoolyard Heroes which where good. Their CD sounded good but their live show is not as great. The lead singer tries a little too much to be like Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She tried and maybe eventually she will get her own style.

Eventually the main band, The Birthday Massacre, came on. They are really really good live. The lead singer makes very cute adorable faces and even poses for candid photos from the crowd when singing, a very nice gesture. They played some new stuff like Red Star and a lot of their older stuff. They where really good live and where a hell of a lot of fun. They came back for a short encore and really hit all the good songs and performed well. One lead guitarist looked like a young marlyn manson and had some killer stage presence. At one point SchoolYardHeroes can on stage so there was a boatful of guitarists on stage, a nice site.

We headed home content in the bliss of enjoying a fistful of good indy music.