bugs

Hi :)

Last time I updated we had the skeeter disaster that we fondly call Armageddon. Well We attempted to go back up and believe it or not, the skeeters cleared out. We figured when we heated up the house they would come back in droves but fortunately they did not so we never had to worry about toxic chemicals in our house.

With the bug "thing" behind him, Dave continued to move on the chimney pipe for the new wood fired furnace in the basement.
Here you see the famous HOLE in the foundation he chipped away at so patiently.

Once that was done, Dave carefully assembled the new pipe out of the hole and fastened it to the side of the house and the roof. Remember, the reasoning behind this was simple. here we have a three level (2.5 actually) house that has head only on the top 2 levels. During the night, as our wood stove on level 2 burned down, the cold from the 1st level crept up. When the temps are in the 20's-30's this isnt a bad thing as the stove we have is extremely warm and efficient. When the temps are well below freezing however, the temperature in the basement dips dangerously low and comfort is tossed out the window. So, he then moved inside to complete the installation. Here we have a picture of Dave (looking Nordic as he checks out the fire that we had finally been able to start in the basement)

Now please forgive the picture quality. This was taken the next morning after a nice and toasty warm evening with our new fire in place. Unfortunately, the temperature as taken here was only 12 degrees and *I* the amazing photographer decided to take these pictures in my pajamas without a coat. Do i need to mention the 20mph wind gusts and SNOW that was falling. (incidentally despite the beauty of the snow itself, I was less than pleased to see it considering I just got my freaking motorcycle license and a brandy spanking new Triumph with less than 20 miles on it).

But I digress... and give you a "tah dahhhh"


I don't think we will be going up much until after the holiday or perhaps the first of the year. Hopefully the snow will not fall heavily and we will still have access to our love grotto via the very steep and crazy driveway but if not, we will persevere until our beloved spring.

A Boy and The Big Hole

First, my apologies to you all for not being diligent in my posting. Truth is, we have not been up there too often in the last few weeks, in fact, just once in the last 30 days. I did however pass my motorcycle test in case you were wondering.
That being said, I have a little story!


The long and sometimes frightening driveway to our love shack ;)

2 weeks ago we headed up to S-wood for my favorite trip of the year. It was 100% peak foliage up there! We also had things we had to accomplish. A few blog posts ago, Dave mentioned the wood fired furnace that we purchased for the cabin. Well most of you know, with a wood stove/furnace comes a chimney. Dave tortured himself for weeks, heck, months about where this furnace would go to live. To be honest, I think he has been chewing on this since before we even HAD a wood fired furnace! Eventually he came to the conclusion that it needed to go through the foundation. Unfortunately, we hadnt thought we needed additional heating when we poured said foundation so we had no knock out. Now comes our weekend... Dave, armed with a chisel and a sledgehammer with 9 hours of work time, chipping away like a crazy person in jail with a spoon digging his way out. Seriously, for a while there it was so Shawshank Redemption it was almost frightening.


The Good news is, after 2 days and 9 solid hours of clinking and clanking away, Dave managed to break through the foundation and chip away a beautiful although unphotographed hole in our very thick and very expensive foundation. The bad news is, by the time it was done, we had to pack up and high-tail it out of there to go get the kids at their father's house and therefore left the above hole in the wall.

Sure we stuffed some fiberglass into it to keep out the rodents.

This weekend we will be returning and shoving some stove pipe into that hole. Our hope is to finish securing it and possibly even attach it to something, like a furnace.

I worked hard too that weekend - ok i didnt really... but I did enjoy one of the best fall displays I have seen in my life.

Oh and Django enjoyed it too.



The view at the dam which is about 900 feet from our house in an open field.


Django having some "me" time ;)

Dave- Battleship!

More big plans ahead for SW or should I replace big with "HEAVY"... About a month and a half ago, we were searching through Craigslist and came across someone selling un-used 8" insulated chimney pipe, the exterior stainless steel variety. Knowing that our eventual plan was to put an additional heat source in the basement of SW, we jumped on the deal. So then the search was on for "what" we would put in the basement. After weighing all the options, it seemed like the best possible solution for us was some kind of forced hot air furnace that was wood fired. Reasoning was as follows

Requirements/Challenges:

o Camp isn't always occupied in winter, so draining a hydronic system was not ideal, radiant floor isn't really an option either due to risk of freezing as well as cost.
o No pellet stoves, yes they are easier to vent but require constant electrical power and the fuel is very specific.
o No fossil fuels
o Keep the cost down.

Solution:

o Forced hot air... minimal or no electricity required and the possible replacement of motors with DC
o Wood fired. Lowest tech and most readily available fuel.

We looked at some of the new units and found them to be VERY expensive 5K+ as well as the most common type being simply a relatively small add-on wood furnace made to augment existing gas systems.

Craigslist and some internet scrounging comes through again.



This unit was barely used, in super shape and was MASSIVE. Once we contacted the seller, we discovered that it had another huge and unexpected advantage.... There is a coil attached to the firebox which will heat water. The firebox is the "black section" and is surrounded by the orange outer case which is hollow and allows for air to circulate around the entire furnace.

I don't have any specs yet on the approx BTU output of this unit but its firebox is the size of a dump truck and I doubt they come any bigger. Seller was GREAT and helped me dismantle all parts and get it moved out of his basement and onto our small flat bed trailer, no small feat!


Given the intended location of the furnace at SW, pretty sure we can run the small amount of duct work required to heat both the bathroom and the spare bedroom on the first floor. We may even be able to use some flexible duct to run behind the (future) cabinets in the Kitchen. Going to start some research on a gravity/thermal hot water setup for a storage tank. The limited reading so far seems to show that with proper safety precautions we could put in a hot water storage tank nearby and allow the thermal properties of the heated water to circulate through that tank without the use of an electrical circulator pump. We will put a bypass and circulator pump on it anyway, so its available should electricity be plentiful OR have the option of running without. The research will also include replacement of the blower fan as well as any duct fans with DC units.

SO, basically couldn't be happier with the find. The addition of this furnace to SW should allow us to really get the camp up to a comfortable temperature quicker, provide heat in areas we don't currently have it, as well as regulate the heat during the evening. One thing we've learned with the large wood stove is that it does struggle to get the large mass of the camp up to temp (when arriving) but once there you really have to keep it burning hot to maintain the temp downstairs. While doing that the unintended consequence is that the loft is about 150 degrees.

There may be some slightly greener options (radiant floor or a wood burning gasification type furnace which may be more efficient) however... Given the off grid nature of our Cabin, the cost and complexity of those options and our desire to not use any fossil fuel, this was the best we could come up with. I guess we were able to stay somewhat green by finding the perfect unit used, vs. having to buy one new.

Next big challenge, other than moving this battleship into its permanent home will be to get a 12" hole in the concrete foundation wall for the chimney pipe. THAT should be fun!

*publisher's note (Lisa) I am so not making the whole in the almighty foundation. That is going to be all on D :)