[FireMan]

It is a very cold night here in the Missouri Ozarks.

Too cold to take my dog for a walk out where he likes to snoop. Even he thinks it is a bad idea.

Modern long johns and down filled jump suits don't quite make being outside comfortable for much more than 30 minutes. Cheeks burn and ice forms from breathing in my mustache and beard when I go to chip a hole in the pond for the cattle to drink.

Most of you would die if you did not have heat and I think that gas or oil is what you depend upon. Not I. I have both a passive soapstone wood firebox and a wood furnace with a blower that requires electricity. If electricity fails I use the soapstone wood firebox and I also fire up the passive wood cookstove I have in the kitchen. Boy food taste 100 times better on a wood cookstove than on a gas stove, and a gas stove is better than electric, and electric is better than microwave, so I have the best of the best when I eat chicken house collected fried eggs slow cooked in homemade butter on that wood cookstove (you havn't a clue as the to cullinary delight if you havn't had the experience).

I have several years worth of wood stacked out in a shed close to my house, so there is little likelyhood that I would freeze during these miserable nights.

Across the USA most of you tonight are depending on electricity or gas to keep you from death from the cold.

My point is that you are depending on something that you cannot hold in you hands or see. I on the other hand feel each chunck of firewood as I feed it through the furnace door. I know that I will not freeze and that I am dependent upon myself for my survival during these extremes. You on the other hand are dependent on the system, and your visitation to this site indicates you have reservations that the system will be able to provide you what you need in the future.

And to boot, my body has the positive athletic experience of cutting, transporting and stacking the wood that warms me even before it warms me during extreme cold.

My guess is that if peak oil and peak gas is an accurate assesment of the future, many of you dependent upon invisible fuels will perish from cold long before you starve to death.

So get real, and get up close and personal with your food and your heating supply before it is too late.

[pea-jay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')y guess is that if peak oil and peak gas is an accurate assesment of the future, many of you dependent upon invisible fuels will perish from cold long before you starve to death.

[holmes]

fireman nice stove. Ideal heating will be in a thermal mass earthship. Build specifically for what geographic location you live in. When population reaches id say around 500 million and whenever 90% of society is unleashed on the natural world there wont be any forests. Example easter island, haiti, many parts of africa, Europe, etc..

So thermal mass is the most efficient and the most healthy and environmentally nuetral. No need for any source but the sun and the earth.
also build a menthane trapment to collect gases from your wastes for cooking gas.

But the woodstove is great for the short term. But depends on your age if your 35 or younger definately invest in thermal mass and solar. when you retire youll need it.

[CarlinsDarlin]

FireMan,
I'm not far from you here in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks - and you're completely right. I've recently made the move back to this chunk of land where I grew up, and though we're not 'there' yet, my plans have me doing exactly what you are as quickly as is possible. It's a slow process, though, getting everything set up the way you want it.

This is my one concern when I hear people talking about "when" is a good time to "head for the hills" - as if everything will just fall into place over night. Unless folks have a LOT more money than I do, and can hire all the help they need without regard to cost, it will take a lot of time and a bit of money to get a homestead up and running. Not to mention the learning curve one must follow to be successful once they ARE up and running. This is one reason we decided to move back last March - to give us (hopefully) time to be set up and running before TSHTF, or, assuming we're all wrong - before we're too old and feeble to do the work.

Glad you're snug. Hope to hear from you more often, as it is always inspiring to me, especially, to see posts from people who have accomplished what I'm working towards.
Kathy

[holmes]

"assuming we're all wrong "

nature is never "wrong".

we are on a natural cycle of overshoot and crash. It happens with every mammal population

Its basically at the point of "when"not "if".

Its all up to how long oil and technology can keep er goin.
folks born in the last ten years are going to need alternative low energy homes the most of all.

[cmlek]

Question for you FireMan:

You mention keeping several years' store of wood in a shed. How long will chopped wood keep free of rot and pests, assuming you keep it in a shed that doesn't hold moisture?

(Born and raised in Indianapolis, historic Irvington area. I've gone camping and seen it sold in plastic-wrapped bundles. And now here in West Lafayette (Purdue Univ.) I have one physics prof who bought land and built his own home, and he has a sort of ... pavilion thing he keeps his winter wood in, but its open on all 4 sides, just a roof and a concrete platform.)

Please forgive my ignorance, but I'll never learn if I don't ask.

Melissa

[CarlinsDarlin]

holmes,
Quite correct. I should have rephrased - assuming we're all wrong on the timing and severity of PO - rather than the fact.
Kathy

[oowolf]

I live in the middle of 6 million acres of conifer forest. Unfortunately, due to 90 years of "fire supression" the whole forest itself is approaching dieoff. A forest dies by burning. Catastrophic fires are coming; just more bad news. Smokey turned out to be a lousy ecologist.

[Quinny]

Hi

Just finished John Seymours book.

In it he describes how to build a wood heating system which you feed from outside and has smokebox/ oven / hotplate etc.

Has anyone built/used one and do they work out better than other shop bought ones?

Welcome any advice

[kingmza]

I'm assuming you are referring to the Fachongle Furnace.

Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter
On pages 17-19 of that publication are a firsthand account of somebody who had built their own tailor made version.

Also, depending on which edition of John Seymour's book, The Self Sufficient Life, you may have different pictures. Below is a picture from an earlier edition that was not included in the more recent edition that I own.


This picture shows the front loading door that you mentioned. This earlier edition is available online in its entirety (pages 248-249 have the furnace).

The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency

[Quinny]

Thanks for the info and for the Self sufficiency journal looks good.

[Consensi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'H')i

Just finished John Seymours book.

In it he describes how to build a wood heating system which you feed from outside and has smokebox/ oven / hotplate etc.

[Quinny]

LIKE IT! A LOT!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Consensi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'H')i

Just finished John Seymours book.

In it he describes how to build a wood heating system which you feed from outside and has smokebox/ oven / hotplate etc.

[Quinny]

Just been to Permaculture Convergence conference and guess what they were showing - a rocket stove.

The other day I'd never heard of them - I now know how to build one. Hoping to build a trial one in next week or so.

[Consensi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'J')ust been to Permaculture Convergence conference and guess what they were showing - a rocket stove.

The other day I'd never heard of them - I now know how to build one. Hoping to build a trial one in next week or so.

[Quinny]

Principles dead simple:

1. A really well insulated combustion chamber.

2. Fuel intake 2/3 area ,Air intake 1/3 area

3. Finely chopped wood to give larger surface area (this may not matter as much in larger model.

Burns like crazy and gives of tremendous heat 2/3 minutes to boil large pan of water.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Consensi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'J')ust been to Permaculture Convergence conference and guess what they were showing - a rocket stove.

The other day I'd never heard of them - I now know how to build one. Hoping to build a trial one in next week or so.