Archive for December, 2011

Swept the Chimney

11 December 2011

Swept the chimney today. Got maybe 3/4 cup of gunk down in the stove, and it seemed pretty dry and unlikely to burn.

Why did I sweep the chimney today? I just did it two months ago, and we haven’t had that many fires since then.

Well, it was up to about 45°F, it was dry, and I figured I might as well do it before it got cold and wet and before entering the main wood-burning season. Who knows when I’ll get a chance to do it again?

I bought some of the creosote-be-gone stuff a couple days ago, and will start using it soon. It’s supposed to convert creosote deposits into a dry, flaky, less-combustible form.

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The Problems with Woodstoves

10 December 2011

What are the problems with woodstoves?

  1. They send a lot of heat up the chimney
  2. They only heat while they’re burning. Because they only heat while they’re burning, users attempt to get longer-lasting heat by restricting air and slowing down the fire. But when you restrict air, you get smoky, polluting, and inefficient burning.

The answer to number 2 is to add thermal mass. If you have adequate thermal mass, you can build small, hot, brief fires. You don’t restrict air, so the fire burns cleanly and efficiently. The thermal mass continues to provide heat after the fire goes out. The more thermal mass you have, and the hotter it gets, the better it works.

Problem number 1 is not addressed directly, but it’s mitigated by not having a fire burning all the time. The less time you have a fire burning, the less heat will be going out the chimney.

So…why doesn’t everyone have huge thermal mass surrounding their woodstoves?

First, lack of knowledge. Most people haven’t gone through this process of figuring out what the problems are with their woodstove.

Second, thermal mass is massive. To have a serious amount of mass in a typical house, you have to reinforce the floor.

Third, unless you make and install your thermal mass with care and skill, it might not look so good. For most people, woodstoves are for ambiance as much as anything. Having their stove surrounded by used cinder blocks would not be appealing to most people.

And finally, in America there’s traditionally been little or no thermal mass besides the stove itself.

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According to the Forecast, Winter’s Here

4 December 2011

Looks like we’ll have our first days of the season with the high temp below freezing this week.

M and I got half of the garage cleaned out so we could get one of our cars in there. That’s a sure sign that winter weather is here.

I put a ring of straw bales around the kale and collards this afternoon, then draped a sheet of clear plastic over the whole thing. I weighed it down with some big, heavy logs on the west side, and more logs on the other sides. I think it’s almost impossible to fight off that wind when it’s whipping out of the west northwest, but we’ll do our best. I hope to get a few more weeks out of it.

I cut quite a bit of kale, cooked some of it, and put the rest in a bag in the fridge. I don’t pick or cook ahead in the summer, but seems like the right way to deal with it this time of year.

Also, the compost was at 137°F this afternoon.

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It’s That Time of Year Again

2 December 2011

I drained the 3 outside rainbarrels yesterday. They weren’t frozen, but they probably will freeze soon. I left one outside and in position with the valve open last winter, and it seemed to come through just fine, so I’m going to do that with all of them this winter. It would be good to get a few more of those 55-gallon plastic barrels just to have on hand.

Dealing with the coffee grounds for composting becomes more complicated without them, but doing it inside the greenhouse is still a very good alternative.

I have to say that those rain barrels haven’t been terribly useful, mostly because we’ve had few prolonged stretches of dry weather. But they’re still good to have on hand, because those dry spells (along with sudden collapse of the electrical grid) aren’t predictable.

I ordered a 6-gallon bucket of buckwheat groats from Pleasant Hill Grain in Nebraska yesterday (Honeyville didn’t have any bw in stock and hasn’t for some time). I feel a little crazy still stocking up on staples…but the world situation is more dire than most people realize.

On the one hand, as Sharon Astyk used to say, you can’t buy your way into preparedness…but it’s not going to hurt, either.

I covered my kale a few days ago, and haven’t had it uncovered since, because it hasn’t been above freezing very much since then. That’s not ideal, but it does get a bit of dim light through the tarp, and it will be okay for a few days like that. I’ll get it some sun this weekend, and also hope to get a transparent cover made. I might as well keep it going as long as possible.

Posted in Food, Gardening, TEOTWAWKI, Water | Leave a Comment »