Friday, January 19th 2007
Fresh news!
First, We'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, may your dreams come true in peace and happiness.
At home, things are rather slow, we feel lazy and we're recuperationg for the next busy season. ALain will start teaching Tai Chi at the community center next week and I hope to be able to attend a Tai Chi workshop at Centre Pierre Boogaerts at the end of February. Just one sad event, Bernadette took her last breath on Christmas eve. For those who'd met our rabbit, you knew of how old she was, we often joked, saying she was like a cat, that she had 9 lives...
Our big construction projects don't sound so inviting These days. We've abandonned the idea of doing the three cement steps, neither does it look like we'll start putting up the ceiling boards. Aside from the fire wood chores, we busy ourselves with smaller tasks more akin to arts and crafts. ALain is fiddling with some LEDs, turning them into fixtures for which I'm making papier mache and mirror lampshades. He also modified our stationnary bike to produce electricity so we can recharge our batteries. He found a small DC motor that by functionning in reverse becomes an alternator. Our "pedalette" gives us about 36 watts when pedaling at a comfortable rhythm. It's not much but it will allow us to compensate a bit for the lack of sunshine in the winter, plus it keeps us warm and in shape!
We also spent quite some time improving the insulation and airtightness. Since some of our choices of materials and techniques are not very common, it's sometimes difficult to find out how to proceed. The vertical log walls are one such example. We had not yet sealed the cracks and that became a problem when the rest of the envelope became more airtight. One morning, I noticed cold air was coming in through the stove's and water-heater's chimneys, the pipes had started to freeze. It took a few days to understand what was happening, it hadn't done that last year. We were faced with negative pressure in the house, but since we don't have any fans, we really wondered how that was possible. I walked through the whole place with a stick of incense and found that the smoke was heading for the semi-circular log wall on the second floor. We concluced that the little bit of space behind the logs that connected to the side of the roof trusses allowed the ventilation turbines to suck the air from inside the wall. The problem was solved as soon as sealed all those cracks.
With this winter being so mild, we didn't get to set up the ice cellar. We even had to make ice in my brother's freezer because nothing froze outdoors for days at a time! There isn't enough snow to go cross-country skiing which is a huge disappointment for Tara who would just love to bury her nose in the fresh powder. Indoors, we're still battling the inertia of the huge thermal mass. We've gained a couple of degrees over last year, but I think it will be a few years before we won't need any supplemental heating on cloudy days. It's still rather comfortable: in the morning, the temperature is around 54F, the coldest was 50F two days ago when it was -31F outside. Don't forget that the perimeter insulating cape isn't in place since it'll only be done next summer during the final landscaping.
Many of you inquired about the Rocket Stove I mentionned in my last chronicle. here is the websit of "Dirt Cheap Builder" where you'll find a description and review of that excellent book by Ianto Evans and Leslie Jackson. Some reading material for you until my next chronicle maybe...