I finally have figured out this (our) wood stove stuff and it is a learned process. The books can give a general idea about what to do, but each stove is like an individual and a handmade stove is much more so than a factory built version…
The image to the left is just before I shut the top off. It is getting full air flow at this point and will eat wood like crazy. I now will put the rings back and set the dampers, top and bottom. This has taken me days to figure out the best positions of the dampers and still burn properly, but do not leave bad residues in the chimney…
Wood chips as fire starter…
Our coldest day yet was yesterday and I used only half a wheel barrel of wood. Vast improvement over the previous week and much colder to boot. I have learned to feed the stove from the top and leave the door closed, unless starting a fire. I have a system that uses, Boza’s food boxes (Boza eats and eats and eats; so I have lots of boxes!) and I fill them with wood chips and shavings. These wood chips literally need no paper to start most of the time. Just a match and start a few thin shavings going…
I was blessed to find a huge pile of these shavings and such, when I took down the back lean-to and they have been the best fire starters you could find…
I have two huge barrels full of these chips and I have hardly scratched the surface in using them. I also have hundreds of wheel barrels worth of firewood, so I am in like flint this winter…
It actually took a few weeks of burning to get a proper bed of ashes to build a proper wood fire. The process is almost opposite of a coal burner I used years ago, You had to keep the ashes cleaned out of a coal burner and with wood, you never remove all the ashes and when I worked on the stove this last summer, I removed all the ashes. Now I have them built back up to a proper level and over the next few weeks, I will see at what point is too deep of an ash bed…
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Well last night I woke several times drenched with sweat and I realized that I was running a fever. It broke by morning early and I feel pretty good today. I have had a rough start to the New Year, as I fell on a patch of ice and at this point I definitely realize that I fractured my elbow, twisted my back and hit my head hard. This has definitely slowed me down, but the weather has been so cold, that it all is good anyway…
The right elbow has a purple fracture line across it, but it is healing, not the first time and most likely not the last time I crack an elbow. I am still dealing with my broken big toe from Egypt (I snapped the toe completely and had a beautiful purple ring around the whole toe! Cool huh?) and the nail is almost ready to finally come off of that toe…
I realized last night that I finally have jumped over the hump of being on the healing end. My back has quit screaming at me, my head has stopped hurting and last night my elbow finally stopped the mending startup pain. It is harder to heal when it is so cold, but you do what you must…
The fact is; I feel much better and I am smart enough to realize that I am going to the Big Village and then relax the rest of the day…
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Everyday is a learning experience in the Russian Village. I weigh and measure what I do wrong and adjust my life to keep it from happening again. Falling will always be an issue and we all fall when we least expect it and I guess I need to understand that in the village, falling can be bad. There is no one else around and when I fell this last time, Boza could do nothing but lay next to me and be moral support. I do know he is one fantastic doggy and his licking my nose got me going after falling… 🙂
I became overconfident as I walked across the lake bed and lakes are lakes for a reason, they have or had water in them and water freezes to ice… Duh!
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Well that is all for today. I have to wait for another hour or so and try to start the car. I saw -25 officially and my thermometer approved of that temperature. It will get up to -14 today and I hope the car starts at that point. It is still -20 and not climbing very fast today…
Gotta walk the dog!
Kyle and Boza at the Tiny Russian Village…
Windows to Russia (WtR)