Washingtonians

[ByN8ureHomstead]

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Yes, they stop traffic and make everyone wait. Yes, It takes hours. It is a mountain pass so there is no detour. I've only been over the passes a few times and not in winter but I would suspect that there is no real 'Rush hour' since most people usually work on the side they live on. I also don't know what makes them decide it's time to do it but when it needs done it better get done! I think they try to let people know as far ahead as possible so you postpone your trip a few hours. Maybe wanted to get it done before the Thanksgiving rush! I'm sure others know more details about it than me.

Yup what she said. I think they do try to plan as much as they can to do this during late night hours. There are kind of detours but they would involve going over other passes or the Columbia River Gorge. All of which would add hundreds of miles.

Thanks for all the answers. Kansas being the 3rd on the list of state with the most roads, only California and Texas have more roads than Kansas, there is always detours and if you don't like the one that KDOT marked it is easy to go down country dirt roads and make your own.

I guess I take for granite driving in Kansas. To drive to Kansas City (60 mile) will take less then an hour, Wichita (130 Miles) less then 2 hours and driving to Denver (542 miles) will take about 7 hours without potty and food breaks.

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

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Yes, they stop traffic and make everyone wait. Yes, It takes hours. It is a mountain pass so there is no detour. I've only been over the passes a few times and not in winter but I would suspect that there is no real 'Rush hour' since most people usually work on the side they live on. I also don't know what makes them decide it's time to do it but when it needs done it better get done! I think they try to let people know as far ahead as possible so you postpone your trip a few hours. Maybe wanted to get it done before the Thanksgiving rush! I'm sure others know more details about it than me.

Oh, trust me, there are some that work on one side of the "mtn" and commute others. Also, big rigs coming back and forth regularly. Also...this time of year - holiday travel. They are figuring 3,000 cars an hour (I think that is what it was - I will have to double check) during the highest level today. Lots of traffic. No detours. Sit and wait.

I TRUST you LOL. I said MOST work on the side they live on but I'm sure there are SOME that commute but is there actually a 'rush hour' where traffic is backed up on the pass because of people going to and from work everyday? I know there are lots of trucks but are there more at certain times of day?

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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Maple is good, yes, oak is better but hard to find and jealously hoarded. Doug Fir bark is the classic overnight fuel but there's no way to burn it that doesn't violate clean air laws and fill your chimney with creosote. Keeping a stove going overnight involves the right stove, the right wood, and the right amount of ash left in to insulate the last coals.

I miss having a wood stove, I do not miss having to deal with the fine points of feeding it.

 

[AriLovesChickens]

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Yup, driving here is nothing like driving in the Midwest, especially in winter.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

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Yes they do but it is not easy to describe. It is mostly in the bark and the shade of grey the wood is.

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Lets start with CLEAN the flue. Then yes a good hot fire daily wll help. Also to reduce build up make sure that you only burn well seasoned wood. Seasoned wood by WA law is wood that has been cut AND split for a min of 90 days. It really needs longer to be real good. Also try to maintain an internal flue temp of 300-500*F. I am really curious about the size of your stove and the settings, based on the burn time you report.
Hope this is a little help. feel free to ask any more questions. I don't know all the answers but am willing to share what little I do know.

Love the help. Thank you!
I had my flue professionally cleaned and they said they were very clean and if I kept burning the way I do (hot) that I could wait 2 even 3 years between cleanings.
I only burn wood that's 12 months or older.
I have a thermometer on the outside of the stove. When it's up and running it usually reads 350 - 400. (But I noticed with maple it was 400 - 500.)
The website (link below) claims "up to 8 hour burn" which makes me wonder if I just don't put in enough wood.
I usually just add a couple pieces- maybe 1/3 full - because I don't want the wood to fall forward and rest on the glass.
One thing that may be different about my set up but I don't know if it would make a difference: the woodstove's flue is on the north side of the house which is on the north side of a hill. The air can swoop down the flue something fierce. Also, the pipes have two angles going up (it's not just a straight shot up and out the roof.)
Any ideas? Thanks for your help!
http://www.jotul.com/en-US/wwwjotulus/Main-menu/Products/Wood/Wood-stoves/Jotul-F-400-Castine/

Soundss like you have a pretty good grip on things. I would load that stove FULL !! Also I don't want to hurt any feelings but from the info it looks like the stove you have is more for deco and not so much intended as a SOLE source of heat. Sorry I couldn't figure out how to do a good link but here is a pic of what I have.
http://www.blazeking.com/EN/images/stovepages/wood-king.png

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:
Yup what she said. I think they do try to plan as much as they can to do this during late night hours. There are kind of detours but they would involve going over other passes or the Columbia River Gorge. All of which would add hundreds of miles.

Thanks for all the answers. Kansas being the 3rd on the list of state with the most roads, only California and Texas have more roads than Kansas, there is always detours and if you don't like the one that KDOT marked it is easy to go down country dirt roads and make your own.

I guess I take for granite driving in Kansas. To drive to Kansas City (60 mile) will take less then an hour, Wichita (130 Miles) less then 2 hours and driving to Denver (542 miles) will take about 7 hours without potty and food breaks.

This may make a little more sense to ya. Imagine a very large river that only has a bridge across it every 100 miles. That is basically what it is like only instead of river it is large mountain range that is being crossed.

 

[HoneysuckleHills]

Quote:
Love the help. Thank you!
I had my flue professionally cleaned and they said they were very clean and if I kept burning the way I do (hot) that I could wait 2 even 3 years between cleanings.
I only burn wood that's 12 months or older.
I have a thermometer on the outside of the stove. When it's up and running it usually reads 350 - 400. (But I noticed with maple it was 400 - 500.)
The website (link below) claims "up to 8 hour burn" which makes me wonder if I just don't put in enough wood.
I usually just add a couple pieces- maybe 1/3 full - because I don't want the wood to fall forward and rest on the glass.
One thing that may be different about my set up but I don't know if it would make a difference: the woodstove's flue is on the north side of the house which is on the north side of a hill. The air can swoop down the flue something fierce. Also, the pipes have two angles going up (it's not just a straight shot up and out the roof.)
Any ideas? Thanks for your help!
http://www.jotul.com/en-US/wwwjotulus/Main-menu/Products/Wood/Wood-stoves/Jotul-F-400-Castine/

Soundss like you have a pretty good grip on things. I would load that stove FULL !! Also I don't want to hurt any feelings but from the info it looks like the stove you have is more for deco and not so much intended as a SOLE source of heat. Sorry I couldn't figure out how to do a good link but here is a pic of what I have.
http://www.blazeking.com/EN/images/stovepages/wood-king.png

Yours looks huge!
Mine is smaller for sure. I think I may call the store I bought it from. I sure would like to get an all night burn. Thanks again. (and no hurt feelings

 

[Chicken Rustler]

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Maple is good, yes, oak is better but hard to find and jealously hoarded. Doug Fir bark is the classic overnight fuel but there's no way to burn it that doesn't violate clean air laws and fill your chimney with creosote. Keeping a stove going overnight involves the right stove, the right wood, and the right amount of ash left in to insulate the last coals.

I miss having a wood stove, I do not miss having to deal with the fine points of feeding it.

Oh but there is. See but it is new (only 10 year old) technology so you probably haven't been exposed to it.

 

[HoneysuckleHills]

Quote:
Maple is good, yes, oak is better but hard to find and jealously hoarded. Doug Fir bark is the classic overnight fuel but there's no way to burn it that doesn't violate clean air laws and fill your chimney with creosote. Keeping a stove going overnight involves the right stove, the right wood, and the right amount of ash left in to insulate the last coals.
I miss having a wood stove, I do not miss having to deal with the fine points of feeding it.

Didn't think of that. Thanks.
Why is fir the classic and how does it violate clean air laws.
My stove meets all the newest standards for clean burning.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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Explain to the flat lander please. Avalanche Control, do they stop traffic, cause an avalanche, clean it up and make everyone wait? That could take hours. Don't they detour the traffic?

You post this at 4:25 why would they do this during rush hour?




Edit - added a question.

BNF as to "why would they do it at rush hour" question: they left at 1:20, as soon as the pass opened; it should take three hours to get here from there.

I really can't explain this in terms a flatlander who's never lived with big mountains could get: there's almost seven thousand feet of elevation change (gross, not net; E'berg is less than 1,500 feet higher than I am here, at 200ft m/l above sea level) between here and Ellensberg, and most of it is between milepost 50 and milepost 90. You know those big blizzards that sweep across the plains and dump three feet of snow in twelve hours? Yesterday there was that equivalent blowing over Snoqualmie pass, channeled through a mountain valley less than a mile wide at the bottom, with peaks rising thousands of feet on both sides.

There are only four buildable passes over the Cascades in Washington, and one of them was closed for the winter on Tuesday There are no shortcuts, detours, or alternate routes: in some places there are not even ways for the snowplows to get around traffic except to drive on the median. Part of the westbound lanes of I90 west of the summit is on a viaduct a couple of hundred feet high; they're building new lanes on the east side out over a flood control/irrigation water lake because the rocks on that side of the valley keep sliding and falling and crushing cars. The Cascade chain is fifty miles wide. It is steep, rocky, and faces some of the strongest, wettest storms on the planet. There are places that get twenty feet of snow accumulation in winter- and that includes a lot of melt-off when the storms are coming from Hawaii instead of the Bering Sea.

And there are always idiots; the first two hours of yesterday pass closures were caused by traffic spin-outs at Snoqualmie Summit, where traffic clears after the long slow haul up the east slope and people put their foot on the accelorator and do dosido on wet ice. Not to mention idiots with civil engineering degrees from east of here who think the Cascades* are just like the Alleghenies or that building roads in mountains is just like building roads on the flat.




*See: active volcanoes, subduction zone quakes, North Pacific Winter Storms, and slow upthrust orogeny. Not to mention weird highly reactive rocks like baalt instead of nice stable granite.