I was dropping off scrap wood at the town dump in Bangor last Tuesday and this guy in a beat up Outback said he ripped out his whole solar setup after three winters. He claimed his $8,000 system barely covered his fridge from November through February. But my neighbor in Brewer has been off grid for 5 years with panels and swears by them with a good battery bank and a generator backup. Who's right here for people actually living through a real Maine winter?
I was out stringing up a load of jeans on the line last week when it was 15 degrees, and this guy from down the street stops his truck to tell me I'm wasting my time because they'll freeze solid... He didn't get that they'll still dry, just slower. Anyone else have people question your winter drying methods?
Three years ago I moved into a 1920s house in central Massachusetts and every April the basement walls would sweat like crazy. Last week I finally noticed the dirt outside slopes toward the foundation instead of away from it, so a weekend with a shovel might save me from buying that $400 dehumidifier I've been eyeing. Has anyone else fixed a simple drainage issue and seen a big difference in their basement moisture?
I was unloading some brush at the town transfer station in Concord last spring, and this fellow in his 70s saw my truck full of branches and said I was making a mistake hauling it there. He insisted I should just set a burn pile and let the ash fertilize my soil, said that's how they did it back in the day. I took his advice and tried it out behind my shed, but after three months my garden soil turned hard as rock and nothing would grow. Turns out he was thinking of wood ash from a fireplace, not green waste that just smolders and leaves a mess. I ended up spending $40 on lime to fix the pH balance and then had to start a proper compost bin anyway. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from well meaning old timers around here?
Last Saturday in Concord I was dropping off scrap metal when a guy in his 70s pointed at my stack of old copper pipe and said I was throwing away a small fortune by not cleaning it right. He spent ten minutes showing me how to strip the fittings with a $12 tool instead of just letting the yard take it dirty. Anyone else had a random stranger give you advice that actually paid off?
I keep my rain barrel outside for garden water and last January we had that weird warm snap then a hard freeze right after. I did NOT drain it down enough and the ice pressure split the plastic right down the side. Ruined a 55 gallon barrel I got for $40 at a yard sale. Now I bring them inside the basement every November no matter how mild the forecast looks. Anybody else find a cheap way to patch those poly barrels or is it always a lost cause?
Woke up last night to the smell of smoke and found a rusted section of my stove pipe near the roof joint had basically split open. I patched it with some furnace tape I had in the shed, just to get through the night, but I know that's not a real fix. Anyone have a good source for replacement triple-wall pipe in central VT that won't cost me a small fortune?
I was doing my quarterly taxes last week and realized my little one-woman house cleaning operation has pulled in just over $50k so far this year out of my home base in Portland. Never thought scrubbing toilets for a living would add up to that much, but I guess steady work adds up faster than you think with no middleman taking a cut. Anyone else hit a random income or savings milestone that made you stop and go "huh"?
I was at the Lakes Region dump swap shop last fall and this old timer saw me struggling, handed me his own wedge and said 'try this one' - first swing and it split clean. Never replaced my wedge before that, who else has been using dull tools without realizing it?