WINTER HEAT

 It's looking like another cold cold winter here at Rancho de Captain Mike. I write this staring at slushy cold winter landscape in the middle of a winter storm watch. Earlier this week a Blizzard hit the area dropping about two feet of snow. I had spent most of January in the Caribbean hoping to miss the worst of the winter. Looks like I was a few weeks too short. After digging out from the blizzard I still had icy patches on the walks. Then I remembered I still had some items on the winterizing check list from the boat. As usual I had taken the Honda 2000 generator off the boat for the winter. One of the nice things about being able to use the Honda 2000 for my on board electric propulsion system is it's portability. I take it home just in case I may need it if the power goes out over the winter. I also get it ready for the next boating season. I had not yet drained the gas entirely from it's gas tank when the blizzard hit. So in order to kill two birds with one stone I fired up the generator and used it to help melt the icy part of the walkway with it's downward facing heat exhaust:

As you can see it does a good job melting the ice. I just move it along the path ever few minutes until it had used up all the fuel that was left in the fuel tank.  As an added bonus I also hooked a radiant Dish Heater in the garage and used it to help warm me up during breaks  as I continued to dig out from the storm. After seven years the Honda 2000 generator continues to be a useful and  versatile workhorse both on and off the boat.