Man, It's Cold Outside

Winter has arrived. (Not like the High Sierras, I admit, but our wood stove is stoked and roaring.)

This is Bud's typical position when the stove is on.

Nice, E! We're supposed to get snow tonight and tomorrow, so I may have to fire up the wood stove tonight as well... we'll see.

I used to have a smaller version of that same stove in the little log cabin I lived in up on top of Bear Mountain (which is now my view). It was what my dad considered an "off brand," so he did not approve of it until my folks came up to my place for Thanksgiving one year. That baby cranked-out the heat. Very efficient little stove, and easy to control, too (which he also noted). I liked it much better than the fancy-schmancy Earth Stove I have now.

Doggy looks warm, and is certainly enjoying your efforts, E. Awww!

I woke up the other morning and it was 33-deg INSIDE the house. I cranked up the heater, to say the least.

It was 13-deg + windchill outside... BRRR!

riceme wrote:

I woke up the other morning and it was 33-deg INSIDE the house. I cranked up the heater, to say the least.

It was 13-deg + windchill outside... BRRR!

Yowie! It's only 52 outside here in Birmingham. Like last night, I'll be hot under the covers tonight and we'll run the ceiling fan again. The winter storm just passed it's rain front through, but I don't think we'll get any snow off the NW quadrant.

As I believe I've mentioned here before, in order to keep the creosote cleared out of the very tall flue in this house (ceiling is 22 or 23-ft), you have to build a very hot fire in the woodstove, which makes it WAY too hot in the house for me. Very irritating since heaters (especially older ones) give me migraines. So I set the heater on 49-degrees since I'm perfectly comfortable wearing a Carhartt around during the day if I'm downstairs, and I prefer to sleep in a cooler environment at night. Worked well last night, and I'm upstairs under the covers right now... perfectly comfortable.

Somebody REALLY wasn't thinking when they planned the location of the woodstove when they designed and built this house.

Just checked the wx for tomorrow. It's forecast to get down to 25 w/95% chance of snow. Winds are only forecast for 11-MPH, but @25-deg, 11-MPH can make it feel pretty damned cold. Black ice warnings throughout the entire local area.

Riceme, you mentioned migraine headaches. If I crank up the Buck Stove (open up the air vents so it gets roaring), I get slight headaches, too.

In our first house, we used an old two-plater wood stove... y'know, one of the old-timey stoves with removable round plates on top? It would do the same thing (headaches) to me if it got roaring. We built that house for $5K and that stove was our only source of heat. I'll post a pic of it. We picked up red iron sandstone from northern Escambia county, built a stone slab for the stove to sit on and a stone wall behind it.

We wuz po then.

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Hey, we did get a dusting of snow here in Hoover. Nothing like the snow in Riceme high-country though!

Eric I found that with wood burning stoves they tend to remove the humidity from the air. That use to cause headaches fro us also. My parents would would place a coffee can full of water on the stove to add some humidity back into the air.

Admin wrote:

Eric I found that with wood burning stoves they tend to remove the humidity from the air. That use to cause headaches fro us also. My parents would would place a coffee can full of water on the stove to add some humidity back into the air.

I'll give it a try, Ghost. (Notice on my next post, there is a teapot on the stove)

I know that it isn't Carbon Monoxide. I have two CO detectors about 10 feet from the stove.

I found that "two-plater" pic. I did a herringbone pattern with Atlantic White Cedar around the stove. It smelled great for a year or so.

Aww, what a cute little wood cook stove, and house!! How many square feet was it? Like GR suggested, we have always kept water on the woodstoves... even in the summertime when we're not using them. It's so dry here you'd be surprised at how quickly the water evaporates even when you're not using the stove.

Oh, my poor dose.....that's how the word "nose" is coming out this morning. I had the opportunity to sleep during the actual night time hours last night, so I slept with the heat off and the bedroom window open. I woke up with swollen eyes and a stuffy, dry, painful dose. It's only 33 degrees outside this morning.

Ick. I don't like cold, dry weather. I shall have to go put a pot of water on the floor furnace opening. Thanks for the reminder!

riceme wrote:

Aww, what a cute little wood cook stove, and house!! How many square feet was it? Like GR suggested, we have always kept water on the woodstoves... even in the summertime when we're not using them. It's so dry here you'd be surprised at how quickly the water evaporates even when you're not using the stove.

The house was 672 square feet. It was plenty until kids came along 5 years later. We added on two more bedrooms, a master bathroom, a nursery that turned into a toy/play room and extended the living room. We added a water-sourced heat pump system for central heat and air.

The original great room was big enough for us to host a wedding reception for some good friends. (The groom is now a VP and Comptroller of Lowes Corporation.)

PB, I hope you get to feelin' better. (I turn into such a titty baby when I get a cold...)

Eric wrote:

The house was 672 square feet. It was plenty until kids came along 5 years later. We added on two more bedrooms, a master bathroom, a nursery that turned into a toy/play room and extended the living room. We added a water-sourced heat pump system for central heat and air.

The original great room was big enough for us to host a wedding reception for some good friends. (The groom is now a VP and Comptroller of Lowes Corporation.)

PB, I hope you get to feelin' better. (I turn into such a titty baby when I get a cold...)

Hey, that's all two lovebirds need. Many times I have lived in places with a boyfriend or my husband that were between 400 and 800-ft^2. 400ft^2 was a little cramped, particularly since the kitchen was microscopic and the bathroom was huge, but it worked especially since my boyfriend could carry everything he owned in a backpack. Bonus! 800 ft^2 was plenty of room. It was a log cabin up at the top of the mountain that is now my view... 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the only heat was a woodstove. It was perfect in every way. Well, except for the first time I turned on the garbage disposal while I had the water on and shocked myself. That was, well... pretty shocking. lol. Good thing boyfriend was an EE, because I am an electrical idiot. Light switches, light bulbs and breaker boxes are about my upper limit. Funny considering my career. I'm much more mechanically inclined.

Interesting, I used to keep pretty close track of Lowe's and Home Depot when I was working for GE... we've shared a lot of executive management.

Hope you're feeling better, PB. I am also a total titty baby when I get sick. I'm okay with colds, but forget about it if I start throwing up. That brings tears and me crying for someone to hold back my hair while I puke. Good thing there ain't nobody here to witness me act like a 4-year old.

riceme wrote:

...blah blah blah... So I set the heater on 49-degrees since I'm perfectly comfortable wearing a Carhartt around during the day if I'm downstairs, and I prefer to sleep in a cooler environment at night. ...blah blah blah...

Somebody REALLY wasn't thinking when they planned the location of the woodstove when they designed and built this house.

Funny, I kept thinking to myself, "DAMN my internal thermostat must be even more f-ed up than I thought it was because it seems really friggin' HOT in here!" Finally, I just went down to check the temperature on the heater thermostat and it was set to 60. Apparently, I neglected to push "set" when I adjusted it to 49 on Christmas Day. lol. Dumbass.

Riceme, you mentioned a garbage disposal at your cabin. The septic tank inspector in me cringes at the thought. If you are on a septic tank system, you're asking for expensive trouble.

Garbage disposals put a lot of fine undigested particles in the system. These particles can go into the field lines and plug the soil interface, causing the lines to back up with effluent. Efficient aerobic bacteria (oxygen users) normally live there, but in flooded conditions inefficient anaerobic bacteria (don't need oxygen) grow and produce slime as a byproduct... blocking the field lines further. Pumping the tank may help, but it doesn't rejuvenate field lines much, if anything.

This concludes the science lesson for today. Carry on, sweetie ;-)

Aww, thanks, EE. I don't live in that place anymore, but there is a garbage disposal in this house. However, I don't use it. I have a compost pile. I am going to forward that information on to my mom though, even though she has a compost pile as well. She would find that information interesting. Thank you!

Oh, and yes we are on septic systems.