TheFan....when you guys up in Maine burn 2 to 1 softwood/hardwood, how does that work with creosote build-up...? Does the 1/3 hardwood make the fire hot enough to burn up the creosote..? I've been heating my home here on eastern long island with wood for over 25 yrs.I've never had to use softwoods, we have abundent red and white oak, locust. Just wondering....I clean my flue pipe once a yr.Do you need to clean more often with 2/3 softwood...? I love wood heat...!
SS North of the 45th parallel?
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THEFAN
Lovin' The Homestead
We always clean the stove twice a yr .. NO MATTER WHAT!!! If I was to compare to other friends who burn wood but only soft. They seem to have more build up but I have never really looked at this scientifically. I was told to burn my wood like this from old timers. The fire seems to burn better and longer. Our problem up here is we have more soft wood. Hard wood is a premium.DuppyDo said:
Mackay
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I know your frustration for living in colder climates. We are at 6500 feet and winter is at least 6 months long and it has been known to snow in July.
We are building right now... due to costs we have bypassed all consideration of solar panels.. although we probably do have enough sun here for them most of the time.. Cost for wind energy is out too..
We may do solar hotwater as time goes by... we are at least setting up for the possibility.
What we decided would be most helpful is passive solar... for this we put a large sunroom on the south side that encases the livingroom, dining room and kitchen. there will be vents on the sunroom upper walls near the ceiling to vent into the upstairs if we want to. We are insullating the heck out of the room. the floor will be black and there is 3 feet of concrete in the floor to heat retain.. the wall between the sunroom and the house will be lined with black masonary.. The roof will be seriously insulated and the whole thing is surrounded by double pained windows.. we will construct panels made out of that hard styrofoam type stuff, forgot what it is called, used for insulation of basements generally. I will cover them with some kind of decorative fabric to be placed in the window frames at night to further help with heat retention. Storage area for the panels is designed into the sunroom.
DH says he thinks it may help reduce our need for wood somewhere between 20 to 30 percent during the winter... we shall see..
our north wall in the house will be thinck, about 18 inches with R30 instead of the standard 19 for this climate.
The sunroom will also be a place for seed starts and I expect it to extend my growing season by 4 weeks on each end... we have neigbhors who grow tomatoes in theirs almost year round and its not near as tight as ours is.... we shall see.
If you want your solar panelsl to function in your climate you have to resign yourself to getting out and cleaning them off regularly.. there is no other option.. wind is the way to go for you. Sell you panels and put up another windmill is what I would be thinking about.
We are building right now... due to costs we have bypassed all consideration of solar panels.. although we probably do have enough sun here for them most of the time.. Cost for wind energy is out too..
We may do solar hotwater as time goes by... we are at least setting up for the possibility.
What we decided would be most helpful is passive solar... for this we put a large sunroom on the south side that encases the livingroom, dining room and kitchen. there will be vents on the sunroom upper walls near the ceiling to vent into the upstairs if we want to. We are insullating the heck out of the room. the floor will be black and there is 3 feet of concrete in the floor to heat retain.. the wall between the sunroom and the house will be lined with black masonary.. The roof will be seriously insulated and the whole thing is surrounded by double pained windows.. we will construct panels made out of that hard styrofoam type stuff, forgot what it is called, used for insulation of basements generally. I will cover them with some kind of decorative fabric to be placed in the window frames at night to further help with heat retention. Storage area for the panels is designed into the sunroom.
DH says he thinks it may help reduce our need for wood somewhere between 20 to 30 percent during the winter... we shall see..
our north wall in the house will be thinck, about 18 inches with R30 instead of the standard 19 for this climate.
The sunroom will also be a place for seed starts and I expect it to extend my growing season by 4 weeks on each end... we have neigbhors who grow tomatoes in theirs almost year round and its not near as tight as ours is.... we shall see.
If you want your solar panelsl to function in your climate you have to resign yourself to getting out and cleaning them off regularly.. there is no other option.. wind is the way to go for you. Sell you panels and put up another windmill is what I would be thinking about.
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Icu4dzs
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Obviously, the solar panel issue is clear. They need to be within reach to keep clean and like a dummy I put them high on a building so they would NOT get hit by flying stones and debris when mowing the farmyard. guess my wind turbine will have to be carrying the main load...which it has been doing with regularity lately.
Currently, my heart is in grief. Once again, the Angel of Death (AoD) has seen fit to visit my farm and take with him my beautiful black Angus cow, Daisy and her unborn calf. She had been fine the day before so I don't suspect any disease or injury because I found her near the barn half covered with snow that came down in the warmer temperatures, probably after she went down. She was still warm when I found her but in complete rigor mortis. I cried for hours.
Then I had to dig my way through 4 feet of snow to her with the big tractor and loader bucket so I could drag her by a chain to get her to a place where the "reclamation" truck could reach her. It was so undignified to do but I had no way of carrying her body to a better place. Burial out here this time of year was clearly out of the question so I called the knacker to come get her and use her body as best he can.
Farm life has more visits from the AoD then I had ever imagined. What always gets to me is that he takes their soul and leaves me to deal with the body. That is what makes it hurt even worse.
Currently, my heart is in grief. Once again, the Angel of Death (AoD) has seen fit to visit my farm and take with him my beautiful black Angus cow, Daisy and her unborn calf. She had been fine the day before so I don't suspect any disease or injury because I found her near the barn half covered with snow that came down in the warmer temperatures, probably after she went down. She was still warm when I found her but in complete rigor mortis. I cried for hours.
Then I had to dig my way through 4 feet of snow to her with the big tractor and loader bucket so I could drag her by a chain to get her to a place where the "reclamation" truck could reach her. It was so undignified to do but I had no way of carrying her body to a better place. Burial out here this time of year was clearly out of the question so I called the knacker to come get her and use her body as best he can.
Farm life has more visits from the AoD then I had ever imagined. What always gets to me is that he takes their soul and leaves me to deal with the body. That is what makes it hurt even worse.
miss_thenorth
Frugal Homesteader
That's tragic. any ideas as to what it might have been? I know i would be devastated if I lost my cow.
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Icu4dzs
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the only thing I am able to guess is that I found the gate inside the barn open and the top of the feed bin open on Sunday. She must have gotten in there and eaten her self silly because she had never looked even the slightest bit sick since I've had her. The other three cattle I have are all her children. Two of them are bred and the third is destined for the freezer because I don't need a bull with only a few animals.
There was no evidence of any disease or injury that I could find.
There was no evidence of any disease or injury that I could find.
Denim Deb
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So sorry. 
So sorry to hear about Daisy. The real downside of having, living with, and loving your animals, however much people say they are only barnyard animals.
I suppose VT qualifies as "north", too
Solar electricity in this state is almost worth it with a grid tie since you get paid a premium for your electricity that is put into the grid. We may consider that at some point, even though it does absolutely nothing for self-sufficiency! When the wires are down, they are down and our grid tie system will do nothing for anyone! We also don't really have enough consistant wind on our property to consider wind- we are pretty wooded in. One of the few things I can do (eventually when we can afford it) is to re-do our "sunroom" into a real solar room like Mackay describes. Right now it is what it is when we bought the house- a 10x10 room that is basically a floor on 4 pier footings with windows on the south and west sides and a door out to the dog yard that we put around it. It is freezing in there in the winter because with the pier footings the room flexes with the seasons. The door has a huge 2" taper from the hinge side to the knob side to allow it to open and close in all seasons. This taper lets in a LOT of cold air! It is better than nothing, but it leaves a lot to be desired. 
I really want to tear it down, put in 3 feet of stone and concrete floor, extend the room the length of the house so it extends along the living room, put in french doors into the LR and open up the other end so the wood stove will help heat it.
One of these days I really WILL get around to putting a hand pump on our well, at least down at the barn where the static level is about 3 feet down. The house well is a lot deeper static level, and may not be able to have a hand pump. I like this website and have had it bookmarked for ages. If they have pumps that handle a Maine winter it should be OK here.
http://www.bisonpumps.com/hand-pumps.htm
I suppose VT qualifies as "north", too
Solar electricity in this state is almost worth it with a grid tie since you get paid a premium for your electricity that is put into the grid. We may consider that at some point, even though it does absolutely nothing for self-sufficiency! When the wires are down, they are down and our grid tie system will do nothing for anyone! We also don't really have enough consistant wind on our property to consider wind- we are pretty wooded in. One of the few things I can do (eventually when we can afford it) is to re-do our "sunroom" into a real solar room like Mackay describes. Right now it is what it is when we bought the house- a 10x10 room that is basically a floor on 4 pier footings with windows on the south and west sides and a door out to the dog yard that we put around it. It is freezing in there in the winter because with the pier footings the room flexes with the seasons. The door has a huge 2" taper from the hinge side to the knob side to allow it to open and close in all seasons. This taper lets in a LOT of cold air! It is better than nothing, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I really want to tear it down, put in 3 feet of stone and concrete floor, extend the room the length of the house so it extends along the living room, put in french doors into the LR and open up the other end so the wood stove will help heat it.One of these days I really WILL get around to putting a hand pump on our well, at least down at the barn where the static level is about 3 feet down. The house well is a lot deeper static level, and may not be able to have a hand pump. I like this website and have had it bookmarked for ages. If they have pumps that handle a Maine winter it should be OK here.
http://www.bisonpumps.com/hand-pumps.htm
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Icu4dzs
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Thank you for your kind words. Few folks realize how a person feels about the animals that make their livlihood real. Yes, they can't do differential equations or send rockets into space but they do think and behave with different emotions. If you listen hard enough you will hear them answer questions. She told me her name was Daisy. "I know you're ready to have me committed" but they do communicate, believe me.
I guess it feels different when you send one to the butcher. Even then you feel something if you know them. Big ranches don't know their animals because there are too many of them. At my level, I know every one of them and they are all different in some way.
Hopefully they came to remove her body today. I can't go up to the farm because I have to stay in town on call at the hospital but be assured I felt grief every time I looked out the window at her spent body.
If you own animals, you take responsibility for their care just like if you have a child. Perhaps you feel differently toward a child but if that is all you have, they mean something to you and it hurts to see them lying there lifeless and wonder if you could have prevented it; knowing full well that a) you probably could not have prevented it and b) it doesn't matter now because you can't change it back.
I never had a dog when I was a kid but now that I am old enough to make my own decisions I Choose to have farm animals. They do tie you to the farm so there is no such thing as pack up and go away for the season. You feed them, water them watch them and talk to them. I like to call them like in the song by Eddie Arnold "Cattle Call" I'm not a great yodeler but they sure do come when I sing.
Again, thank you for your kind words. Hopefully you won't have to endure that kind of sadness in your life.
I guess with the US dollar quickly becomming out of favor as the world's reserve currency, I am getting more and more concerned about everything I do that makes me self sufficient or nearly so.
Get your affairs in order and store your foods, and items of necessity. The world is NOT coming to an end but it is going to get mighty tricky soon. Watch the international money market and see if you don't agree.
YMMV
Trim sends
I guess it feels different when you send one to the butcher. Even then you feel something if you know them. Big ranches don't know their animals because there are too many of them. At my level, I know every one of them and they are all different in some way.
Hopefully they came to remove her body today. I can't go up to the farm because I have to stay in town on call at the hospital but be assured I felt grief every time I looked out the window at her spent body.
If you own animals, you take responsibility for their care just like if you have a child. Perhaps you feel differently toward a child but if that is all you have, they mean something to you and it hurts to see them lying there lifeless and wonder if you could have prevented it; knowing full well that a) you probably could not have prevented it and b) it doesn't matter now because you can't change it back.
I never had a dog when I was a kid but now that I am old enough to make my own decisions I Choose to have farm animals. They do tie you to the farm so there is no such thing as pack up and go away for the season. You feed them, water them watch them and talk to them. I like to call them like in the song by Eddie Arnold "Cattle Call" I'm not a great yodeler but they sure do come when I sing.
Again, thank you for your kind words. Hopefully you won't have to endure that kind of sadness in your life.
I guess with the US dollar quickly becomming out of favor as the world's reserve currency, I am getting more and more concerned about everything I do that makes me self sufficient or nearly so.
Get your affairs in order and store your foods, and items of necessity. The world is NOT coming to an end but it is going to get mighty tricky soon. Watch the international money market and see if you don't agree.
YMMV
Trim sends
silvermoon
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ICU,
Methane is probably a better alternative energy for you because the hay goes in and the opportunity is returned to you on a daily basis.
You will need to have your garden soil analyzed. If it is there what the soil is here in an arid part of zone 5, you will need amendments.
Check for changes in regulation of phosphorous to your soil.
After that, for growing, you will need short season crops and they are easy enough to select.
For indoor growing, the most amazing technology comes out of pot farming. You might find perusing what is already developed technology of interest...
And if you look at it from the alternative direction, producing and storing ICE is in itself a great thing to be looking at.
Ice has many uses and you have the climate to produce plenty of it!
Best,
Methane is probably a better alternative energy for you because the hay goes in and the opportunity is returned to you on a daily basis.
You will need to have your garden soil analyzed. If it is there what the soil is here in an arid part of zone 5, you will need amendments.
Check for changes in regulation of phosphorous to your soil.
After that, for growing, you will need short season crops and they are easy enough to select.
For indoor growing, the most amazing technology comes out of pot farming. You might find perusing what is already developed technology of interest...
And if you look at it from the alternative direction, producing and storing ICE is in itself a great thing to be looking at.
Ice has many uses and you have the climate to produce plenty of it!
Best,
