I don't get around here much these days. Just in and out to do a bit of lurking.

This winter has been a real challenge. We had a long cold snap that lasted a coupla months with day and night time temps below zero. No snow on the ground so the septic froze up. We're still in the holding tank mode with just the septic tank operational till the drain field thaws. I heard the frost has gone as deep as 6' in some places. Pretty uncommon. Usually its no more than 4'.

I ran into a pretty good deal on about 12-13 cords of pine, poplar and birch firewood this year so I started the heating season out with more wood than I'd actually need for the winter. That was comforting. Unfortunately alot of it wasn't as dry as it needed to be to burn well in the outdoor boiler so we didn't stay as warm as we like to but it wasn't all that bad.

I was struck by the fact tho that I would actually burn MORE green wood than I would dry wood. Thats kinda counter intuitive as one usually thinks the opposite. I attribute it to the fact that I have an induced draft on my boiler so when its not up to temp the combustion blower is running alot of the time and the woods not burning as hot as dry wood so I burn more green wood to get an equal amount of heat out of it. In spite of that and the fact I pulled out 1 1/2 - 2 cords of saw logs out of the firewood pile I'm still gonna have two or three cords left over.

This year I'm gonna buy a ten cord load of poplar because its cheap, get it cut up early and rent a splitter so it'll have all summer to dry.

We're downsizing the garden this year. Chris, my beloved wife, has a new job that requires alot of overtime and I have so many other projects going on I can't do justice to a big garden this year.

I did get my hot water pre-heater and a supplemental heater for the shop installed this winter and am happy to report they both work well.

The sawmill is a days work and about $100 away from being operational. The saw logs I pulled out of the firewood pile are going to be sawn up into lumber so I can ad an additional 7' of width to the greenhouse. I did nothing to the greenhouse last summer because I'm kinda regrouping with the heat recovery system.

I don't wanna build something I suspect I'm gonna have to redo because I'm not satisfied with its performance. The addition of 7 more feet on the width will double the solar gain, to the point where I should have surplus heat to store in the beds for thermal mass. As it is now, when the outdoor temps are around zero and the sun is shining the greenhouse temps will reach 65 degrees or so. I'm guessing with the addition they'd be closer to 100 degrees, maybe more, which would give me surplus to store for the night time. The growing beds will consist of 4" of pea gravel, covered with landscape cloth, which will be covered with 8" or more of good planting compost. Buried in the pea gravel will be lengths of drain tile. Surplus heat will be sucked from the roof apex and blown into the pea gravel via the drain tile. The heat will rise, keeping the beds warm, above freezing I hope.

In addition to that we've been saving money for a new roof, hopefully to be installed this fall if the money is there. When that happens we'll be putting 18" of fibreglass insulation in the new attic which'll give us an R rating of over 60. That should help alot with the heating too. I'd love to get our wood requirements down to 5 cords a year or less. The big plan is to be able to generate enuf slab wood off the saw mill to heat the house. That way the "firewood" would be a no expense situation because sale of lumber would off set the cost of the logs. Thats the idea anyway.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

Answers

Hi John, That's a good idea. But I have found that Pine and Popular are not hard woods so they don't burn as long as the Oaks and Birch. I like your idea of the greenhouse. I was wondering how you would keep it warm at night. I was thinking of making a, shoot, I can't think of the name of it....raised bed with a window on top...cold frame? Been thinking of doing that for a few years now so I'm not sure if I'll ever get that up. I did get my outhouse (shed) done though (the door won't shut straight. The bottom sticks out a bit. Don't know why) And the blue-grey color was perfect. Stayed nice and dry all winter long. Right now only the leaking pool's ladder is in there but I have to move the heater and pump out of the basement in order to put the carpet down to finish off that room so it will be full soon.

It was nice hearing from you.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

Hi Dee: It seems with my kind of boiler it doesn't matter alot what kind of wood I burn, as long as its dry. I can get a 16 hr hot fire from dry pine with weather in the 20s for example.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

John. Man, I have MISSED you! I've been busy myself and not online as much, but I wondered where you went. Good to hear from you!

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2003

Reading about your sawmill, John, brings back memories of the Belsaw mill we had years ago. We sawed all of the 2" framing lumber and the pine boards for the flooring for our home on our mill. Sold it about 8 years ago, but I sure miss not having a steady supply of lumber...whenever we wanted it...and the sawdust for my barn and chicken coop!! BTW...we never did use up all the slabs we'd accumulated over the 15 yrs. we operated our mill. What we didn't use, we would sell by the pickup truck load. All you could fit in your truck for $10.00! Still have some old stacks of slabs slowing being overtaken by blackberry and reaspberry bushes. Good luck with your mill!!

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2003

Fergot to ask, John...why "frog holler"???

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2003

Marcia: Frog holler because in the spring and summer the frogs hollering can be almost deafening. I like it but some find it annoying. We have two ponds here, totalling about 3/4 acres. We're at the foot of a large but low hill so we're kinda in a "holler" too so it a double entandre.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003

John...around here in the spring we have the spring "peepers" that create quite the chorus! We have two old cattle watering holes left over from this property's original homesteaders from back in the 1700's that these frogs have overtaken. These are very close to our house and it's quite noisy, but we've become so used to them that we'd miss them if they weren't there :-)!!! Aahhh...the sounds of nature!!!

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003

Nice to hear from you again, John; it's always interesting to hear what you've been up to! The peepers have been hollering for some weeks now; but tonight will be the first night that we are able to have the windows open all night. Part of the reason I enjoy working nights is that I can have the windows open during the day and listen to day critters too - the goldfinches are especially twittery now, and I've been being serenaded by Jenny Wren as well.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003

You folks might think I'm "weird", but one of my favorite springtime birds to listen to is the common Starling! They have an amazing musical repetoire and can imitate so many types of birds.

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2003