Carbon Monoxide!?

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Weird The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured oout what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heating eff...
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La Mara Springs

We have a sick llama on our hands. Fawna had trouble getting up yesterday morning. She was having problems using her legs. It appears she was hypothermic. She is so skittery that she has slept outside for a couple of nights. Man o man is it cold out there. It was 20 below last weekend and again this morning it is below zero with a blowing-driving snow. It is like another planet out there. We took the kerosene heater out there to work with the propane one, put down animal matts under their straw, put a heavy welder's curtain across the front of their house and we literally had to drag fawna inside. She is heavy. She now has a blanket on too. We then rolled her over so she wouldn't get stepped on so much. When I checked on them early this morning the propane heater had run out of fuel, so it wasn't toasty out in their house. Both are running right now. It should be getting toasty out there right now... perhaps in the 40s or 50s.

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Carbon Monoxide!?

-
Image
Weird The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured oout what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heating eff...
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