John Weiland

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:.....

Otherwise it's Sk8er Boi and other assorted doodles. Ugh.

Just had to laugh at this ....   no relation at all to what I'm about to ask.  lol

So farther (further?) above there was discussion of ways to move heat/cooling around the house.  As old man Winter is again knocking at the door (although not quite in earnest yet...), I'm wondering about  ways to move main-floor heat down into the basement.  Yes, I won't go into why that crack-filled basement is so poorly insulated in a place like northern Minnesota, but our winter heating is a mix of propane furnace (basement location) and woodstove (main floor).  I like to try to keep the furnace reduced in use when possible and so try to use the woodstove to provide as much main floor (900 sq. ft.) heating as possible.  With the transition just two years ago from a heating oil furnace to a more efficient propane unit, the basement is now colder.... cold enough that there is worry of pipes freezing and some creative and difficult heat tape wrapping has become necessary in certain reaches of the basement ceiling.  As this house is over 100 years old, somewhere along the way there were floor registers introduced.  These are not hooked up to any kind of ducting....just grated ports to the basement to allow for air transfer.  I began poking around on the "old information gravel road" (Internet) for register fans that might be able to pull warm air from the main floor and push it downward into the basement, to be used on days or nights most concerning for freezing.  But I'm finding that such fans appear to only work in one direction??....to pull warm air more efficiently from a heating duct/register into the main floor room.  Any ideas of such a fan exists that would have a reversible fan for pushing air downward....without having to tip the decoritive side facing down?  Any other potential solution are welcomed....Thanks!

Sara Hartwin wrote:The potential of engine swaps and other retrofits intrigues the same part of my brain that likes putting Linux on old laptops.

Never ceases to amaze me what these guys do in their garages:  A Ford Ranger and a Jeep converted to small, efficient diesel (very short clip)--   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiDJVv3vUMU

In my fantasies, I've done both TDI and Kubota/Yanmar diesel engine swaps into older Ford/Nissan/Toyota light pick-ups and drove off into the sunset......  ;-)

But in reality, still hoping our early 2000's fleet of vehicles will hold out a bit longer.  As for Subi's, I do have my eye still on the new EV Trailseeker.  But the scuttlebutt around that and similar vehicles is that the main drive or 'traction' battery is a slave to a smaller 12V lead acid battery (!!! I kid you not!) that runs the wake-up, computer, and digital connection circuits.  Although concerning detriments to this engineering appear to be getting better rapidly with expanding complaints, the 'beta versions' initially sold to the public often will just die after sitting a few days unused.  That is because, even with the car turned off, the computer digital interface with company HQ is in constant communication....and draining down that 12V battery!  It can drain it down far enough that the 'start up' sequence for driving the vehicle is inoperative and you are stuck with a very large paperweight until you either manually recharge the 12V battery or swap it with a good one.  Additionally, one can apparently turn OFF the communication with the 'Mother Ship' and just have.....imagine!....a functional CAR!  I don't know if there is any other sequence that must be done to start the vehicle, once a charged 12V battery is in place....but WTF??  Really seems like a bad PR decision not to have this working when selling to customers.  And Subi isn't alone....this appears to have plagued several, but not all, manufacturers.  Oddly enough with the other praises coming in on the vechicle, I'm not deterred and will simply wait a year or two more for the kinks to be worked out.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:.....

Also, I did once build a cob greenhouse adjacent to the chicken house, with an adjoining window.  That was a nice setup!

Nearly exactly what I hope to be adding this fall to the main chicken building.  I hope to add a small, insulated greenhouse addition with a door and window that will allow entry into that building.  The greenhouse addition will have a small rocket mass heater built into it and as the temp increases in that small space, the window and door will be opened to port all of that excess heat to the chooks.  But the bench in front of the main south-facing greenhouse windows will be workspace for winter projects.  I will place a sign at the door from inside the large chicken building that says "No bathroom facilities" just to let them know that if they enter the greenhouse, NO POOPING ALLOWED!   :-)  

Thanks for extra responses and expert advice.  Yes, I had seen those high temp adhesives for muffler and exhaust work when poking around for solutions to the problem.  I may still opt for one of those to test on the broken brick still.  Nevertheless, the vendor of the stove did get back to me and we made arrangement for a brick to be cut and sent to me from their brick contractor.  Not cheap, and Cristobal I likely will send you a PM to inquire about the cost of cutting two more replacement bricks in the event of potential future breakages.  It sounded from the vendor like this brick was rather "prone to injury" as he noted having received several along with the original shipment of stoves from Serbia and that supply was now gone.  Always much learned here along with getting problems solved.  Thanks again!....

Grey Poupon dijon is a home favorite, but a standard yellow mustard is always on hand as well.   Dijon + Mayo is such a killer combination!....

Emma Grace Wilson wrote:......
Too little ventilation can create moisture and ammonia issues, while too much uncontrolled airflow can make birds uncomfortable in cold or wet weather.
.....

Can you provide some sort of idea of the climate you are in that you are trying to build for?   The buildings our chickens are in have full windows open in the summer (days 80s to 100 degrees F), but few chickens are in there during the day as they are free-ranging on the property.  By night, it has cooled off to ~60s or 70s F so they are fine with that.  In winter with cold nights between -30 to 0 degrees F, heat lamps help to keep them warm and by day, if sunny, the greenhouse design factor takes over and the buildings can reach between 20 to 40 degrees F, occasionally assisted by wood stove.  At 20F and above on sunny days, they will be out pecking around in the driveway.

I typically toss a bit of celery seed into coleslaw where it gives an added flavor.

Thank you for all of these responses.....very helpful in guiding my decision here.  I have reached out to the US vendor of these stoves and they *may* have exact replacement bricks for this stove, so I will hear back from the person responsible for those issues sometime this week.  Thank you for your offer, Cristobal, to cut a new brick or two from your stock piece.....I will let you know what I find out about direct replacement and may still contact you about that if that vendor is not able to provide one.  I'm not sure if the stone is brick or soapstone, ..... only can say it seems rather soft compared to the firebrick I've had in other US-made stoves.  One more option I'm considering is to move this broken brick down in the brick-column within the stove:  The broken one was the top-most brick in the column.  If I were to remove the next brick in line and then replace it with the broken one, by having now a whole brick on TOP of the broken brick may give it more integrity..??..less inclined to pop out of the column as it was doing in its broken state.  I will report back with the solution once that comes to pass.... Thanks again for prompt and expert input!

A quick interjection....  It's only been in the past week that our entire crop.... paste tomato (seed saved so long ago can't recall variety), Yugo, and Russian Persimmon....really started to ripen.  Pretty rare to be in September with green tomatoes, but seems a lot are in this boat.  Now we are processing like crazy for freezer and canning.  This is the typical month for first frosts, so we have tarps at the ready to extend the ripening period.

....and dusting off some green tomato recipes!