Jen’s Boot Camp and Allerton Abbey Experience

the place looks great!
Jen's laughter is contagious

With Bella and Josiah living in the Abbey with me, cooking, working, and radiating body heat, the temperatures have been staying pleasantly warm. Here is a look at the longer term data for the four thermometers over the last month.

Hi Jennifer,

I so look forward to your data posts!  

How often would you say you've fired the cook stove on the 17th and 18th? how much wood consumed for those dates??? It seems the temperature is slowly trending upwards while the outside temp avgs are staying right at 30F....is this true (no hidden oops on the outside temp sensor)?  

and are you getting more sun during on the 17th and 18th???    I see you said you've extra bodies there where as before, you missed a night and a day or so......is there something in particular that you would say the warming trend is attributable to?

Besides bodies, sun, and the cook stove, is there any other heat source?

Dang if I am going to ask so many questions and expect answers, I should send you something. hmmmm....kinda broke but under $50, what would you like?

Orin,

On the 17th, we had a fire for all three meals, and on the 18th, for breakfast and dinner. We have not been measuring wood consumption, although we are planning to do a cooking video which shows how much wood we use for some of our meals. You're quite correct about an error in the outside temp sensor--it hadn't synced since the 13th, whereas the other sensors were up to date until the 17th, and we have been having warmer weather in the interim. I will get an updated reading and post the results. Thank you for pointing that out! There is no other appreciable heat source. We sometimes run an off-grid refrigerator and other small tools/appliances off the solar cart, maybe a few hours total per week, but I don't think they contribute much heat overall. You certainly don't need to send me anything, but let me think about it and get back to you.

Jennifer Richardson wrote:Orin,

.... You're quite correct about an error in the outside temp sensor--it hadn't synced since the 13th, whereas the other sensors were up to date until the 17th, and we have been having warmer weather....

Thanks Jennifer, after collecting the data on a plywood shell shelter, I know some of the infinite things that can happen to your data. I really appreciate your work....how much do I appreciate it?

um, how to say this with out sounding over the top???   awww who cares!  What you are doing is the holy grail for shelter temperature -the data you collect and the carefulness you record it with (and all the oooopsiees) are more important than alll the other tasks put together that daily pulls at your attention/energy.

How can I explain why?  hmmmmm..... there are over 300million humans in the USA who need shelter which needs heat in the winter and coolth in the summer....your data, if done correctly, will tell them how to do that without a monthly bill of $130/mo to $300/mo...

...now you sound educated so maybe you came from a richer family than most, but for the poor people in our country, this is a matter of a life shortened by poverty forced on them by a system which has no alternative or a life where they have enough time/space to think and create ways to throw off crushing poverty.

so yeah, it's like that. it's that important

The work you are doing, careful data collection, will tell all of us what the Wofati is capable of in the worst winter weather when people in this country die for the lack of heat

yep, so let me know what you want.....(under $50)

and should you start to record the amount of wood you burn, by mass preferably, along with all the interesting occurances (like an open door, bad sensor, or no warm bodies) that would be beyond awesome!!!

oh, did I say how important what you are doing is?  Thank you