WarrenZ
The Ultimate Bad Example
Glad to hear that you are getting some diving in.
I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!
- Thread starter The Chairman
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jblack
Contributor
A super big Thank you Peter!!!! I sincerely appreciate the wonderful hospitality. I had a blast staying and hanging with ya this week! Place looks awesome!! i think we are all still full from the sushi lol!!!
Thanks again, Jason........ P.S. Hi Moderator.....;-)
Thanks again, Jason........ P.S. Hi Moderator.....;-)
OP
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
Back from Bonaire... time to get going! The thermostat is OK, but I can't control it from the warmth of my bed. I'm becoming a wimp in that regard. After some research, I settled on the Sensi. I liked the interface and it's supposed to be compatible with Alexa. I really didn't like the aesthetics of some of them out there (The Nest), and I don't need it to be able to show gifs and such. At just over $100 at Home Depot, it was the best choice for me. So, I installed it a few nights ago. I took a picture of the old wiring and went ahead with the new wiring. Surprise; the Sensi comes with a built-in level so you can install it straight. I was able to use the same two holes from the old thermostat. There were two things that tripped me up. First, the "plug and pray" feature didn't work. I wasn't getting any heat. Now there are two types of heat, that from throwing the heat pump into "reverse" and then there's the auxiliary heat which is a web of nickel chromium wiring. The next morning with the inside temp at 48, I realized I made a booboo. The positive? Boy were my kittens ultra cuddly, even to crawling under the covers. Happiness is a warm kitten or two on a chilly night! 
I never really got around to looking at the thermostat that day. I had another broken water line to fix from the freeze that happened while I was in Bonaire and a lot of other 'stuff' that seemed more important. The temps reached to the mid-sixties anyway, so I had the windows open and the door open most of the day. I did take the time to set up the wireless feature, but being cold natured, I just didn't care that much. Waking up to 50 in the house convinced me to make the heater a priority. Time to GTS! That is: Google that sh!t! Immediately, I found that the way to walk through the settings from the manufacturer when I clicked on "It's not heating". Ah, the unit was set to control a conventional unit and not a heat pump. Easy to switch, and when I did the outside compressor immediately came to life. Yay! It's fixed! Again, it was beautiful outside, so I turned off the unit and opened the house up. It wasn't as warm as the day before, but it was still beautiful. Richard Black was staying over tonight and I was going to meet him at "Red Ginger", a great new place in Lake City. I closed the house (missing the window) and turned the unit on. Huh, it almost feels like the AC is on. Must be my imagination!
It wasn't my imagination, and Richard and I arrived to find an icebox for a house. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I had an immediate clue. When I set up the unit I hadn't realized it was a heat pump. Never looked. For some reason, as I had left the house to head out for dinner, I noticed that there were two sets of letters on the old thermostat for both conventional and heat pump. Hmnnnnn. I had wondered about that as I left, but didn't have time to evaluate it. Looking at it again, the "W" for the conventional unit (heat) was really an "O/B" which was the reverse switch for the heat pump. There were two different inputs for that on the Sensi. I quickly moved the orange wire from "W" to "O/B", reset the thermostat and plugged it all back in. Again we heard the outside compressor come on and Richard pointed out that the window was still open. Richard was hovering over the registers hoping for some relief. It was kind of funny and I told him the coils would need a few moments to switch roles and for us to feel it. After five minutes the registers were blowing warm and the temp inside the house quickly rose to 68. Yay!
Old Termostat
I love being able to set the temp from my phone in bed. Even better, setting the schedule is way easy online, so I can sleep at 62 degrees and wake up to 66 degrees. Awesome.
I also synced up my Alexa Echo plus and both Dots. Now I can tell it to "Play the Dire Straits Channel Everywhere" and I hear it from the living room, the porch and the workshop. I'll be adding a waterproof speaker to the porch (I'll post a picture when I do) and two more speakers to the outside front of the workshop to fully utilize the 1000 watt amp in there! I can already hear the music in the field with the inside speakers set to 10, so adding the two outside will really enhance that experience.
I also set my first "big" post by hand yesterday, just to see what was involved. It wasn't bad at all. I really psyched myself out on how hard using a post hole digger would be. Now I need to go measure the opening I need for the gate and start that process.
Speaking of water leaks, the kitchen faucet has developed a sneak attack. If you have the faucet turned just right, it will shoot you with a stream of water in your chest. I took it apart to find that there is corrosion that gets exposed if cocked just right. There's no reparing it, so I ordered an professional grade kitchen faucet, a sink to match and will be adding a septic tank friendly garbage disposal. Sphyon and his far, far better half will be visiting this weekend, so that will probably be my project for the day. After that, I'll be continuing with the cleanup process. Lots of fallen trees and branches to move to the burn pile.
BTW, I am down to 300 pounds (again). I was there at Thanksgiving and then added 7 pounds. I was able to lose six during the Bonaire Surge and another pound since I'm back. Garmin sent me their "Descent" Dive and Fitness watch to test out and I love it. It combines with MyFitnessPal to track your weight, calories and exercise levels throughout the day. Accounting for every calorie keeps me honest with myself. I still have another 100 pounds to lose, but this has been a great start. I haven't felt this healthy in a long, long time. I've got tons of energy and am feeling good.
I never really got around to looking at the thermostat that day. I had another broken water line to fix from the freeze that happened while I was in Bonaire and a lot of other 'stuff' that seemed more important. The temps reached to the mid-sixties anyway, so I had the windows open and the door open most of the day. I did take the time to set up the wireless feature, but being cold natured, I just didn't care that much. Waking up to 50 in the house convinced me to make the heater a priority. Time to GTS! That is: Google that sh!t! Immediately, I found that the way to walk through the settings from the manufacturer when I clicked on "It's not heating". Ah, the unit was set to control a conventional unit and not a heat pump. Easy to switch, and when I did the outside compressor immediately came to life. Yay! It's fixed! Again, it was beautiful outside, so I turned off the unit and opened the house up. It wasn't as warm as the day before, but it was still beautiful. Richard Black was staying over tonight and I was going to meet him at "Red Ginger", a great new place in Lake City. I closed the house (missing the window) and turned the unit on. Huh, it almost feels like the AC is on. Must be my imagination!
It wasn't my imagination, and Richard and I arrived to find an icebox for a house. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I had an immediate clue. When I set up the unit I hadn't realized it was a heat pump. Never looked. For some reason, as I had left the house to head out for dinner, I noticed that there were two sets of letters on the old thermostat for both conventional and heat pump. Hmnnnnn. I had wondered about that as I left, but didn't have time to evaluate it. Looking at it again, the "W" for the conventional unit (heat) was really an "O/B" which was the reverse switch for the heat pump. There were two different inputs for that on the Sensi. I quickly moved the orange wire from "W" to "O/B", reset the thermostat and plugged it all back in. Again we heard the outside compressor come on and Richard pointed out that the window was still open.
Richard was hovering over the registers hoping for some relief. It was kind of funny and I told him the coils would need a few moments to switch roles and for us to feel it. After five minutes the registers were blowing warm and the temp inside the house quickly rose to 68. Yay!
Old Termostat
I love being able to set the temp from my phone in bed. Even better, setting the schedule is way easy online, so I can sleep at 62 degrees and wake up to 66 degrees. Awesome.
I also synced up my Alexa Echo plus and both Dots. Now I can tell it to "Play the Dire Straits Channel Everywhere" and I hear it from the living room, the porch and the workshop. I'll be adding a waterproof speaker to the porch (I'll post a picture when I do) and two more speakers to the outside front of the workshop to fully utilize the 1000 watt amp in there! I can already hear the music in the field with the inside speakers set to 10, so adding the two outside will really enhance that experience.
I also set my first "big" post by hand yesterday, just to see what was involved. It wasn't bad at all. I really psyched myself out on how hard using a post hole digger would be. Now I need to go measure the opening I need for the gate and start that process.
Speaking of water leaks, the kitchen faucet has developed a sneak attack. If you have the faucet turned just right, it will shoot you with a stream of water in your chest. I took it apart to find that there is corrosion that gets exposed if cocked just right. There's no reparing it, so I ordered an professional grade kitchen faucet, a sink to match and will be adding a septic tank friendly garbage disposal. Sphyon and his far, far better half will be visiting this weekend, so that will probably be my project for the day. After that, I'll be continuing with the cleanup process. Lots of fallen trees and branches to move to the burn pile.
BTW, I am down to 300 pounds (again). I was there at Thanksgiving and then added 7 pounds.
I was able to lose six during the Bonaire Surge and another pound since I'm back. Garmin sent me their "Descent" Dive and Fitness watch to test out and I love it. It combines with MyFitnessPal to track your weight, calories and exercise levels throughout the day. Accounting for every calorie keeps me honest with myself. I still have another 100 pounds to lose, but this has been a great start. I haven't felt this healthy in a long, long time. I've got tons of energy and am feeling good.
Bubblesong
Contributor
We installed the Nest for both heating and A/C control, so we can Check the house, or get alert if something is off temperature wise, while traveling.
I lost weight on FitnessPal, love it. Since i tend to eat the same thing, it was easy to just input the breakfast menu saved from the day before.
I lost weight on FitnessPal, love it. Since i tend to eat the same thing, it was easy to just input the breakfast menu saved from the day before.
OP
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
This has been a fun day on the Silt Out. Sphyon, his far better half, Olivia and their sweet puppy, Chewy came over this morning for the weekend. We thought it would be too cold to dive, but it was bee-yoo-tiful! They got here around noon, so after Chewy got to frolic around the yard a bit, we went to the BBQ place in Branford. I had never been before, but I was impressed. my pulled pork sandwich was excellent and the grilled corn on the cob was AWESOME!!! Even more awesome was their version of an ice cream sandwich!
We then lit out over to Peacock to the deer farm (preserve???) and then over to Little River to take a peek. On the way to Little River, we stopped at the knick-knack shop in Branford which is in a building that was constructed in 1907. Kewl. Olivia bought a Fig tree and we took it back to the homestead. mind you, I had ordered 10 trees from the Arborist society and had them sitting in water until I could go plant them. The fig tree needed a post hole digger to plant it, but the others I planted with a Dibble Stick. Now I need to get some white water pipe to mark them so they don't get mowed over! We then went over to look at the corral, where I showed Sphyon how easy it was to dig a four-foot deep hole with a post hole digger. Of course, that was where a small pole had been, but we tried to do one from scratch. Not too hard, and between Jerry the Tow Truck, and myself, we have set most of the final posts for the corral.
FWIW, Ma~ is tolerating Chewy just fine. Silt is not so sure!
We then lit out over to Peacock to the deer farm (preserve???) and then over to Little River to take a peek. On the way to Little River, we stopped at the knick-knack shop in Branford which is in a building that was constructed in 1907. Kewl. Olivia bought a Fig tree and we took it back to the homestead. mind you, I had ordered 10 trees from the Arborist society and had them sitting in water until I could go plant them. The fig tree needed a post hole digger to plant it, but the others I planted with a Dibble Stick. Now I need to get some white water pipe to mark them so they don't get mowed over! We then went over to look at the corral, where I showed Sphyon how easy it was to dig a four-foot deep hole with a post hole digger. Of course, that was where a small pole had been, but we tried to do one from scratch. Not too hard, and between Jerry the Tow Truck, and myself, we have set most of the final posts for the corral.
FWIW, Ma~ is tolerating Chewy just fine. Silt is not so sure!
OP
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
I shared this yesterday on FaceBook, but it really belongs here as well:
A year ago I was the heaviest I've ever been: 349 pounds. I didn't want to see 350, but it was a hard struggle. I bought 10.82 acres on 2018-08-01 in Suwannee County Fl and started to live the simple single life. I have a kitten and a cat that keep me constant company, with lots of laughs and of course a litany of friends that come to visit and even help transform this place. I really started to watch what I eat and have increased my outside time exponentially. No doubt about it: I've lost a lot of weight. Today I weighed in at 298 pounds. My goal is to get down to 200 pounds, re-evaluate and now I'm 1/3 the way there. It feels good. I feel good.
BTW, I recently added a Garmin Descent Fitness Watch along with Garmin connect and MyFitnessPal to my regimen. Man is she bossy! Always telling me to "Move!", but then she likes to celebrate things when I meet my daily goal. It's fun. I created a group in Connect: ScubaBoard Descent Divers. Feel free to 'connect' with me there!
It's my belief that the mega-change of buying a house with lots of acreage is what did it for me. Yes, I started slow: I had to. I had hurt my knee in the move, but getting the place "together" has been a constant force to get me healthy and keep me busy, busy. Lots has been done and there's still a lot to do. I've pulled at least 800 yds of useless internal fencing, put in posts for a "corral", cut down trees, cleaned up trees, rebuilt a workshop and more. I've done a lot and still have a lot more to do.
The real secret is the secretly developed government suppressed diet plan code-named ELEM. That is, Eat Less and Excercise More. It's banned in most households and the strength is in its simplicity. When I eat at a restaurant, I only eat half of what they bring me. Half. There are exceptions (like Red Ginger in Lake City), but I really try to eat half of what they give me. Save the rest for another meal. At home, I eat simply and light. Breakfast is usually two poached eggs and two pieces of microwaved bacon for 328 calories. BTW, if you're going to eat a lot of poached/hard boiled eggs then get an egg cooker. Man they've "easified" the whole process and I get consistent "soft boiled" eggs with runny yokes, but firm whites. Yum! Lunch is a Cobb salad, or Ramen Noodles with a tin of turkey. I have snacks, but everything that goes past my lips gets posted in MyFitnessPal diary. I splurge too, but only once a week. This weeks splurge was a 1250 calorie meal at Sonny's with a 750 calorie shake right after. It happens, but the vast majority of meals are light.
A year ago I was the heaviest I've ever been: 349 pounds. I didn't want to see 350, but it was a hard struggle. I bought 10.82 acres on 2018-08-01 in Suwannee County Fl and started to live the simple single life. I have a kitten and a cat that keep me constant company, with lots of laughs and of course a litany of friends that come to visit and even help transform this place. I really started to watch what I eat and have increased my outside time exponentially. No doubt about it: I've lost a lot of weight. Today I weighed in at 298 pounds. My goal is to get down to 200 pounds, re-evaluate and now I'm 1/3 the way there. It feels good. I feel good.
BTW, I recently added a Garmin Descent Fitness Watch along with Garmin connect and MyFitnessPal to my regimen. Man is she bossy! Always telling me to "Move!", but then she likes to celebrate things when I meet my daily goal. It's fun. I created a group in Connect: ScubaBoard Descent Divers. Feel free to 'connect' with me there!
It's my belief that the mega-change of buying a house with lots of acreage is what did it for me. Yes, I started slow: I had to. I had hurt my knee in the move, but getting the place "together" has been a constant force to get me healthy and keep me busy, busy. Lots has been done and there's still a lot to do. I've pulled at least 800 yds of useless internal fencing, put in posts for a "corral", cut down trees, cleaned up trees, rebuilt a workshop and more. I've done a lot and still have a lot more to do.
The real secret is the secretly developed government suppressed diet plan code-named ELEM. That is, Eat Less and Excercise More. It's banned in most households and the strength is in its simplicity. When I eat at a restaurant, I only eat half of what they bring me. Half. There are exceptions (like Red Ginger in Lake City), but I really try to eat half of what they give me. Save the rest for another meal. At home, I eat simply and light. Breakfast is usually two poached eggs and two pieces of microwaved bacon for 328 calories. BTW, if you're going to eat a lot of poached/hard boiled eggs then get an egg cooker. Man they've "easified" the whole process and I get consistent "soft boiled" eggs with runny yokes, but firm whites. Yum! Lunch is a Cobb salad, or Ramen Noodles with a tin of turkey. I have snacks, but everything that goes past my lips gets posted in MyFitnessPal diary. I splurge too, but only once a week. This weeks splurge was a 1250 calorie meal at Sonny's with a 750 calorie shake right after. It happens, but the vast majority of meals are light.
WarrenZ
The Ultimate Bad Example
Not sure if it will help me but I joined the connect group.
OP
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
Bubblesong
Contributor
With 10 acres you could set up one of those army/marines fitness tracks, with stops for push ups and the like. Surprise guests get put to the march, Sargent Surly Style.
I looked at the Garmin, but I’m still paying my kid’s college for years, so not buying watch today. I do like MyFitnessPal App though!
I looked at the Garmin, but I’m still paying my kid’s college for years, so not buying watch today. I do like MyFitnessPal App though!
LiteHedded
Contributor
good for you dude. having lost a similar amount of weight years ago, i know it's not easy. good to see you've discovered the same secret diet that I did. keep it up!
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