Friday, December 12th
Snow storms and Holiday season!
First we'd like to send our best wishes to all of you. Remember to find the time for a break from the everyday brouhaha and to enjoy the magic of the frosty season.
It will be our fourth Christmas in the earthship and it will certainly be a white one again this year. The tractor and snowblower will get a lot of use if the weather continues the way it's going now: we already have over 2 feet of snow on the ground.
Indoors, we've gained a couple of degrees on last year by installing polycarbonate sheets in the windows upstairs. We chose the corrugated ones commonly used to build greenhouses, even if they blur the view somewhat. Those come in a variety of widths and lenghts that meant less waste and lower costs too. The clear sheets come only in 4' X 8' where our windows are about 3' X 5'. While researching those, I discovered Superglass 88. Instead of a rating of R-2 for regular thermal panes or R-3.7 for low-e glass with argon like the one in our front door, the superglass 88 reaches R-9. Of course, there's a bit less solar heat gain, but we've noticed that in Quebec, there isn't much of that during the winter. We gain much more by keeping the heat inside. These days I'm working on some curtains for the second floor for a bit more comfort. If and when we build the extension, we'll probably go with the Superglass.
The Rocket mass heater is working great, we estimate wood consumption to be less than half what we used with the old woodstove. The bread oven is functional and we're slowly getting to know it; there's quite a learning curve in order to get the maximum out of it. We have to figure out at what time to start the fire and how much wood to burn to get the right temperatures to last long enough. Then we have to plan everything we want to cook, and in what order to do so. For example we'd start with pizza at around 475F, followed by pitas or bread when it gets to 400F. After that, there's still enough heat to bake a casserole or whole chicken, then cookies or cake and finally to dry seeds or make granola overnight. In the morning it's still at around 175F.
We didn't get around to finish the insulation in the shed before the ground froze. There was so much mudding to do for the Rocket and the oven that the straw is only partially covered. I already have a whole list of things I want to do next summer, ALain just smiles thinking of the numerous years of building fun still to come.