!!!! SEPP to Boot: Stephen's Experience (BEL)

BRK #458

Well, that was easy...! Followed Fred's advice, took the broken axe to the local Home Depot, and they replaced it with very little hassle. Didn't even need a receipt. Thanks, Fred & HD!!!



Splitting logs with that X27 was light and easy. At the close of the day, I kept saying to myself, "Just one more, just one more, there's time enough for it!" Still a decent amount left over for Monday's work.



Also captured some video footage today. Paul requested I document the performance of the Rocket Mass Heater in the Red Cabin, so I started that in the afternoon. Here's a still from my introduction, featuring the Rocky Mountain Hirsute Dipshit.



I did a preliminary burn in there to warm things up, just as if we were preparing to have a guest stay in there overnight. In fact, I will be the guest this evening, and I'm heading down there after I finish this update. I'll record the temperatures before I bed down for the night, then again at 6am tomorrow when I start the day.

Here are a couple other stills, mostly just "B-roll" to mix things up.





Record of today's temperatures, which I'll be able to elaborate on more tomorrow. I had two thermometers on-site, in different corners - and heights - of the Red Cabin. I tended the fire for 1 hour.

THERMOMETER 1 (back corner, at about the same level as the bunk)
Start: 36 degrees F
Finish: 58 degrees F

THERMOMETER 2 (next to door, on an upper shelf)
Start: 38 degrees F
Finish: 81 degrees F (...what?!?!?)

By the time I returned to the Red Cabin in the evening, 7pm-ish, temperatures had equalized to about 58 degrees on both thermometers. We'll see what kind of changes happened overnight. It's all collected in video footage as well, so that will provide more explanation (and likely will be released as part of a future update from Paul)

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #459

Wandered around town today. I brought out the bicycle, but it was just too darn cold for me to hack it. I was envious of all those folks braving the windchill and risking the black ice.

However, the good news is that as I was taking my time on the Milwaukee Road Trail today, I could catch all these interesting sights. I enjoy seeing ice crystals coating everything while the plants are dormant.











A lone duck, swimming upstream, while the landscape seems devoid of life - though in reality it lies just below the surface. There's a metaphor in there somewhere.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:Splitting logs with that X27 was light and easy. At the close of the day, I kept saying to myself, "Just one more, just one more, there's time enough for it!" Still a decent amount left over for Monday's work.

If you are picking up all that maul/axe split cordwood for stacking, I've found a pickeroon to be a really cool and fun tool to help. Takes a bit of practise and good hand-eye coordination skills, but I'm now to the point where the task has me dancing around proclaiming 'Arr' and 'shiver me timbers' wondering if I should audition for a Peter Pan musical...

BRK #460

Woke up in the Red Cabin, on a bitter-cold morning. It was a fine way to warm up to the work week.



Much like yesterday while in town, I had some chances to observe more of the frost-covered vegetation at Basecamp.





I also practiced with the 8-inch-feed rocket mass heater in the Solarium. I've observed a few useful tips. These are essentially "how to" instructions useful for beginners.

1. Prepare with several small-diameter pieces of wood. Think of these like dead, fallen twigs and branches that one would pick up from underneath trees.
2. Most definitely - start a priming fire in the chimney. Particularly on cold days, and when the heater hasn't been used recently.
3. After the priming fire has burned for a couple minutes, switch to the main wood feed in front. Start with a paper fire, deep inside and underneath the barrel.
4. After a couple minutes of burning, bring the flame and fuel out in the main feed area, and build the fire from there.
5. Start with using the narrow-diameter sticks, and once they've been burning for a few minutes, consider using "normal" diameter wood - even if you have branch-thickness wood left.

The 8-inch systems seem to want to use thicker pieces of wood. Being able to switch to this is essential, as the large-diameter system seems to perform better with these thicker pieces of wood. Using thinner wood encourages smoke-back and requires a lot more fiddling with the embers so they do not clog the airway into the barrel.



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!

BRK #461

Several times a day - especially in the cold season - the cats will pile-up against the front door of the house. It's a combination of extracting warmth from the base of the door, and hoping a fleshy biped will exit the house with some kitty treats.



A few unwelcome visitors scope out the eats around the yurt. Leave, you turkeynecks...!



Suggestions requested: after my almost-two years of splitting wood here, more and more bark has piled-up at the furthest-back cell of the Berm Shed. We'd burn it for firewood, but it's smoky and expands in the wood feeds. Personally, I'm drained (from all the wood-splitting lately, I guess) and not very forthcoming with novel ideas on how to use spare bark. Any suggestions on what to do with this stuff?



Finally: wrapping up the evening with some more baking. Making bread bowls for our inaugural Soupy Tuesday meal. Here's the dough just before shaping it into the bread bowls. I'm taste-testing one now, as I type (though it's still too hot, having come straight from the oven).



That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your day...!