Several advances to report on the house building front.

Stove is working fine. Still gets a bit smokey in here when loading sometimes but I am learning it’s ways. Added a inner smoke shield flap in the top of the door and cut down on most of the smoke. There are two times I get smoke coming out into the room now. One is when I open the door all the way without stopping at about an inch to allow the chamber to clear first. The other is when loading it and not having all the wood right there to put in quickly. If all the wood is put in before the first has a chance to start smoking we are fine but if I only get one piece and put in then get another and another the first is smoking and some of it gets out. No biggie and I will make a instruction sheet for the thing if I have to but I think most of the problem is me.

Also added a layer of firebrick to the outside of the firebox. Just stacked on there for now as I have other ideas to try heating wise from some stuff I have been reading at http://www.stove.ru/index.php?lng=1 which throws a lot of what I have been doing totally out of the picture.

Was looking at masonry heaters a couple of years ago (or more) and wanted to try something but the time wasn’t right. Got this place built enough now to try again. With the addition of the “free (natural) gas movement” design I think I can build a heater of junk water heaters, rock and cement that will still have the energy efficiency of the masonry heaters. Firebrick for the combustion chamber and a clay and cement mix for the flue walls. Water heaters cut off for the heat exchange hoods. Use cardboard to space the rock and cement away from the metal so there is an expansion joint between the two. Going to try it anyway. Of course the stove I just built is right where I want to build this one. So will have to move it I guess. Such is life in an experiment…

The beam I alluded to in the title is the center support beam under the second floor that I am presently on. I added a couple of cedar posts for support on either side of the stove platform and will build the rock and cement up and around them as I build the heater but for now figured more support couldn’t hurt. Got to looking at another one that I wanted to use for the support beam and as the chainsaw was already out decided to cut it and see how much trimming I would have to do to the top. Cut one section off the large end for a west side support post and notched the top 5.5 inches down and half the diameter which was 8 inches. Put the beam on the supports and tried to use a chalk line to level my cut to but there are too many limbs sticking out on this piece to do it and it is crooked to boot. So set my head to level and cut the side level. trimmed the large end square on 3 sides to fit the notch on the post. Found the wood mizer blade for the sawsall and cut a notch out of the second floor/stair support post next to the trailer to fit the small end. Got the 13+ foot long beam inside by my self. Used the handtrucks and tied either one end or the other to them as I maneuvered it in over and around things… Got one end up on the 7 foot step ladder and was fixing to put the other end in when Bill came by so got him to help me get it in and then the second floor jacked up and the other end put in place. The second floor is MUCH more stable now.

With the post on the west side in place we now have a larger area for the bathroom. Already moved the walls some. Course the walls are sheets of blueboard. Door is a bedspread hung on a piece of bamboo. But it’s getting better.

Had Cat get a indoor/outdoor thermometer yesterday. Now I can tell just how much colder it is here than at the official Weaver reporting station. Last night we were 7 degrees colder than it was reporting. Had thought so but now I know…

Getting more of the blueboard up. Got 3 pieces on the aerie ceiling so far. 3 more to go but those have got to have additional support which means cutting plastic and then reattaching it. Warm enough today to do but hands and arms are giving me fits so may just take it easy instead.