We have no wood heat in our cabin because of some problem with the chimney. Why is another story. I went to our cabin yesterday to help move that solution along. When I was outside I was fine, but even with water boiling and a small electric heater, I never felt warm in the cabin.
Another task I had was to put the cover on the chipper we brought from servicing the previous week. I forgot to bring the cover then. The hopper was filled with snow and I thought I would blow it out before covering it.
I started up the chipper but the snow didn't seem to go down. And then steam started coming from parts I didn't expect it and the engine started shaking. Holey moley! That's not steam. That's smoke. Then I see flame coming from the belt housing. Throwing snow at it doesn’t help much. I fetch the fire extinguisher from the cabin. I takes me awhile to figure out how to make it work. I aim under the housing and a cloud of noxious yellow stuff comes out. Finally the flames are out and the extinguisher is empty.
Looking under the cover I could see the belt hanging down. Now I'm going to have to take it back to have the belt replaced and any other repairs done. I don't relish another 40+ mile drive at 40mph!
When I get home my wife reported that the furnace is going on and off and not giving any heat. She also reported that with a loud bang the outside spigot started spewing water into the back yard.
We left a message with the plumber who installed it years ago. We set up our one heater and started a fire in the fireplace. My wife decided to stay downstairs and keep feeding the fire all night.
This morning the plumber came and checked several things but couldn't find anything wrong. He then followed the gas line back to where it enters the house. The valve near the wall was turned off! I couldn't see how anybody could bump it and turn it off.
After the plumber left my wife looked at the valve and realized she had thought it was a water line to another outside faucet. She had turned it off in case we had the same problem with faucet.
We did better than the old joke about a plumber charging $100 to fix a furnace with a single whack with a hammer. One dollar to hit it and $99 for knowing where to hit it. The plumber only charged us $40.
