Breakup!

Rowdy is certain it is here! Yes! Break Up is here! Actually, it's been here for a couple weeks, but in the last week we have seen most of our snow melt. Three feet of snow melting in a week makes for lots of water and slush. Never fear, however, we will have snow for a while yet.

This bank in front of the house has a ways to go. That's the one that came in over the railing to the door. The sun is out for forever now, so it won't take long for that to be in the sun and melt away. Note the drainage system we have in place below. It is highly complicated, so please don't try that at home. It's taken hours to perfect.

Kennel Progress!

Pat has been home the last few days and has completed a couple projects, among which is this kennel floor! We had discussed options for the flooring of the kennel and had not looked forward to hauling rock. Pat had a genius idea of making a deck of sorts with plywood. Upon inspection of our project piles, he discovered this tongue-in-groove siding that was given to us. He had enough to make a nice sized deck over the mud and muck, and the dogs love it!


The mountain is still steaming, but nothing new. It's been gorgeous! This one is courtesy of Pat's photo skills!

Steaming

These are actually my pictures, for once! Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so on my way to work, I stopped and enjoyed the view. Redoubt is still mostly just spewing steam but that will likely change at any point. I am also excited that there is a patch of lawn visible!!! We still have tons of snow, but it is shrinking and becoming more and more slushy. In light of the soon to be diminished walk across our water, we have considered getting a treadmill...for the dogs!

cleaning the chimney, wood fired radiant heat

I finally cleaned the chimney this week. I had been dreading the job because I assumed I would have to climb up on the roof, build a scaffold, climb a ladder and risk my life or spend untold hundreds of dollars to have it done. After all, the point of the stove was mainly to save money. As you can see, I decided to remove a section of pipe from the inside and clean it that way.
This worked perfectly. I can not believe how clean and efficient our wood stove is. In the eight plus cords of wood we have burned this year, we have generated only enough soot in the pipe to fill a coffee cup twice. (I used Melissa's coffee cup to find that out). The ash taken out of the stove in that time was only enough to fill a five gallon bucked twice. The beetle killed spruce that we burn is not the best fire wood but it sure burns clean in my stove!


As you can see, we put a trash bag around the pipe and fished the cleaning rod up through a slit in the bag. The bag caught all the soot and the pipe was very easy to re-install.

Below is a picture of the heat exchanger that I built. It heats water that is circulated through tubes affixed under the floor of the bathroom. This heats the bathroom floor (radiant heat). There is much more to the exchanger than just a steel box, but if you want to know more you'll have to download the plans from my internet site.......someday.
As you can see, there is a pipe bringing water in and another taking water out. A third pipe is for pressure relief in the event of a boil over. It has a temp. and pressure valve on the end like the one on a home hot water tank. On the back of the stove I mounted an aqua-stat that tells a circulation pump when there is a fire in the stove. At a set temp. the pump kicks on and the floor heating begins.





Here is my circ. pump located under the house directly below the stove. The pump is on the out going line, the incoming line can be seen above it. I added valves on the lines that can be turned off so the hot water can be diverted to a temporary line to thaw a walkway or something neat like that.

The point of this project was not only to heat the bathroom floor, but to learn about radiant heat and experiment with the use of wood fire in this capacity. There is more to it than you might think. Ratio of volume to exposure time, engineering the heat exchanger to heat the water without overheating, installing the lines so they will radiate heat into the floor efficiently and insulating pipes and lines to minimize heat loss. This of course took some experimenting, but after only two boil overs that spilled anti-freeze into the living room, it works wonderfully and I have already generated some potential work for my welding business.

Relationship Insights

I got this email from a friend of mine and after reading it to Pat, I had to share. It cracked us up! The parenthetical extras were there and not written by me, though I do agree with them! Enjoy a random post!

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY? (written by kids)
You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
-- Alan, age 10

No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before and you get to find out later who you're stuck with.
-- Kristen, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
-- Camille, age 10

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
-- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure?)

On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
-- Martin, age 10 (isn't he ready for the world of dating?)

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?
I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
-- Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7

The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
-- Curt, age 7

The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
-- Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED ?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
-- Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
-- Kelvin, age 8 (I like this kid)

And the #1 Favorite is ...

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
-- Ricky, age 10 (He'll be married forever)

Blowing steam

No, I didn't take this picture either! Thank goodness for the AVO pictures! I did convince Pat to take the long way home from the Nikiski Hardware Store so I could get a glimpse from the perfectly clear sky of Redoubt blowing more steam. I didn't have the camera, of course. Maybe tomorrow I'll remember the camera and either on our way to or from church we'll get another perfect view!
I've been back to work this week, and even though our weather is still wintery (we got more than 2 inches of new snow), there is still a hint of breakup! No, we don't call it spring. That is too positive sounding. Breakup is a much more accurate description of the season. I actually find myself a bit hesitant to give up our frozen pond. It is our ticket to the back woods! I don't know exactly what I'll do with the dogs when we can no longer walk across the pond. I guess we'll just do what we did last year...whatever that was.
Pat continues to work. I think he'll be back on the barge this week. It's not the best gig, but it could be worse. We are just thankful he's still working. It is nice that he comes home every night. I have adjusted my schedule to hopefully make it home before he does! Sometimes it even works!
The dogs are driving me crazy. Bella is nearing her next heat cycle and Rowdy is...well, he's acting accordingly. I think later this week she'll go outside for a few weeks!
I don't have any new pictures. Things look pretty much the same: white. The snow has piled up against the front door, but is melting a bit on the south side. Oh, it did get to 90 degrees today in the greenhouse! I ran out and stood in it for a while. It was lovely. I think it was somewhere above freezing, but less than 40. I just wish I could fast-forward to June when it's all green. Ah well, the joys of Alaska!