Signs of Winter?

My lovely wife and I took a little ride over to the Stove shop today. It's the place where I bought my wood fired kitchen stove. The guy deals in wood and pellet fired stoves of all shapes and sizes. He also carries Envi Blocks at a reasonable price. They are a good firewood substitute made from pressed hardwood sawdust, much like wood pellets only brick size.

I like to keep a supply of them on hand. They light well, burn long and hot, and produce less ash and pollution than firewood. Regular wood burns fine in the stove too, and I've some from my land. The firewood is dry, but not all cut and split. Other things have demanded my time.

The stove shop owner looked pretty flustered. He said he's been out straight. His business has been open for 17 years and this is the busiest it has ever been. Last winter was brutally cold and I'm guessing people think it might be again. Polar Vortex is on everyone's mind.

My lovely wife and I almost didn't make it to the stove shop. We got to the next town and the van died in front of a Dunkin Donuts. It wouldn't start, so we went in and got coffee. After about a half a cup of coffee I tried it again. It ran for a while and then sputtered out. Not good. This is the very same van that had 4 fuel pumps installed this past summer.

So I finished my coffee and thought some more. After one more failed attempt to start it I stopped trying. No sense in running down the batteries and having another problem. Fortunately an auto parts store was in walking distance. The problem had to be something with the fuel, so I bought some 911 fuel additive and a new diesel filter. I hoped it wasn't going to be a 5th fuel pump.

The additive didn't do the trick so I replaced the fuel filter. Then the van started right up and ran fine. The problem was just a simple plugged filter. Sometimes it's the little things.

-Sixbears