E.L. Dunn

Enjoy it!  Just take your time until it becomes comfortable, and you will have years of service from the mill.  I have had a Luca swing blade for more years than I care to recall, and it has served me well.

They are sort of like an aircraft-check it over before firing it up!

The terminology is confusing at times between convection, air fryer, toaster oven, and so forth.  I was in a store recently and looked at several "whatchamacallits" and came away with a slight headache.  I use a three year old Caplhalon oven thing, which has been fine for what I ask of it.  The full size stove I had was a cheapo "builder's" version and the thing was poorly made, which is why I went with the little setup.  

The only thing I can add is do NOT buy one unless it is stainless steel inside.  Anything else rusts and is a pain to try to clean.  Powder coated might defy rust, but I cannot say, and not sure anyone makes a version like that.  This time of year I cook a LOT on the wood stove I use for heating, and it works out okay.  

Some sound options in this subject.  After my parents died, I found two Hudson's Bay four point blankets in a cedar chest and use them still.  They do not strike me as heavy, but they do keep me warm as toast when I need it.  I am not sure if they even make these now.  One for the bed, one for the back of the couch.

Odd discovery...
                           I was given several 4x6 foot heavy glass windows from an old commercial building about to be torn down.  I have a greenhouse and have always hated that crappy clear (well, once upon a time) plastic corrugated sheeting, but it was all I could come up with when I built it.  

The glass is filthy to put it mildly.  I tried various cleaners and so on, but only managed to lighten the layer of gook.  A mix of TSP and salt was the best of the bunch.  Ammonia seemingly did nothing.  But then I remembered a box of auto chemicals a friend gave me when he moved away.  Pawing through the thing, I turned up two spray bottles of tire and wheel cleaner.  Figured I had nothing to lose, so sprayed one of the panels after wetting it down.  Let it set for a minute and then used a nylon scrubber pad and a rag and the thing came virtually spotless.  I never have found what is in this stuff, but it did a fine job.  

Maybe this will help someone else...

Holy hell..what is that thing???  Salvage what you can and maybe make a useable wood stove out of it...  or a hood ornament for a Mack Truck...  gigrotus beast you have there!!!

I have what many would sneer at now but a 044 Stihl with a 4-foot bar and after many years it has never let me down.  I was a faller for Weyerhaeuser some years ago.. I tried an electric saw a friend has not long ago, and it felt weak to me.  Lot of power initially, but fell on its face in short order.  I usually work with a Stihl 032AV, which many would feel is an antique, but I find is a dandy saw for all around use.  Hell, the 044 is an antique now, I suppose.   I used to have an 066 Stihl with a very long bar before I quit falling trees, but I never liked the damned thing.  Always seemed "choked up" to me.  Meh.. Put on the leathers on your shoulder and walk up into the woods at 3 or so in the morning and cut until 2 in the afternoon or so..

Do what feels right for you.  Parkinsons is making my usage of any saw questionable at this point.

I grew up next to a smallish lake in ohio and my grandmother was insistent that I row her across the lake to harvest the elderberries that grew there.  She claimed that they were better than the ones that grew on the farm we lived on.  Who can say?  I do know they were essentially growing in muck and water overall and would stain you purple for days after.

I cannot address the northwest on this topic, but I have to wonder if they are even the same variety of berry?  Likely not.

Yes, Lif, you have made a very good point.  I think it was Dire Straits that turned out a song with the lyric "clarity of age.."  I always liked that bit.  

I did not mean to come off as sounding sour or bitter, but being treated as a museum piece on a shelf gets annoying now and then.  But the freedom part and having a longer view of things is fun.  

The world is changing rapidly, and I have the luxury of not participating in a lot of the silliness.  

Thank you for your post..

I have been reading this off and on for some time now, and may as well pitch in, I suppose.  Currently closing in on 74 and now dealing with Parkinsons and leukemia.  Same damned thing my father turned up with.  Hereditary?  I am told not, but one has to wonder.  NOT looking for sympathy, but I have sometimes thought on finding a community where I might be able to pass on life experience and practical matters I have picked up over my time.  

I tried several places via IC.org and was either ignored or refused as, while they would not come out and say it, I was too old.  I am not dumb and know what was going on.   So, I take a dim view at this juncture of community for the aged.  It seemingly does not exist.  "Oh, he is just an old scudder and if you ignore him he will go away."  That seems to be the pervasive attitude.

So... I shake and jitter my way through the end times and make myself less apparent in permies.  Shopping as early as I can when I need to, selling off tools and bits of my life, and spending a lot of time staring off into the middle distance.  Seems the best course at this point.