Something Happening Here: Head for the Hills, Mountains, and Other Remote Areas!

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September 14, 2007 Newsletter

Preparing for Winter in the Country

First, let me mention the fact that if you are heating your home using any sort of natural gas such as propane, or are heating your home with electricity or electricity HVAC combination (central heating, that is) or use some sort of oil burner, then I hope you have plenty of money to spend and I hope your mortgage is nearly paid off. These things remind me of growing up in the 50s on Long Island. We had an oil burner, as most people do who live in the Northeast. One winter, the thing just hiccupped up a storm of black smoke which enveloped nearly every wall of the house. We couldn’t go into the basement (that’s where the TV was!) for days. So, while we kept the same tank, we had to get a new oil burner and (not remembering just how cold the house got…just that we had no TV) several days later the smokiness had been washed off the walls and the smell subsided. Then, several years later, I remember that somehow we ran out of oil. A day or so later, the oil delivery arrived. Don’t ask me why we ran out of oil, because my folks always paid the oil bill on time. But, anyway…

Now there are good reasons NOT to use free firewood you cut and saw yourself. The best reason is there isn’t any! I don’t recommend living the rural remote life in an area that hasn’t any free dead wood, but it happens. About 100 miles south of here in the Terlingua area trees in the open areas are hard to come by. Same thing between the Shafter “ghost town” area and Presidio, and other border areas in the US side of the Chihuahuan Desert. But this could just as easily apply to a remote corner of Kansas or any Great Plains state. Then again, another good reason is because you are too old or too infirm to chop and chainsaw wood, and you can’t afford to hire someone to do it for you, or can’t afford to by it. A cost-benefit analysis is needed: is it cheaper to buy enough wood, or is it cheaper to pay the electric/gas bill? In west Texas or another not-so-cold climate, electric-gas might be cheaper. I can’t see using electric-gas in Alaska, however, unless you live so far north that you live in a treeless tundra. Another good reason is you can’t tolerate the smoke that sometimes belches from the wood stove either because you don’t clean the ashes out often enough or you haven’t cleaned the chimney in a couple of years. The solution, of course, is to buy a chimney cleaner (a long adjustable pole you attack a chimney brush to) and clean out your ashes every morning before you make your next fire. The last reason, I suppose, would be that your house is so big (that is, too big) that you would need several wood burning stoves or some complicated system to heat the house, or a wood-electricity-propane system. Being a libertarian it’s not up to me to tell you that you made a stupid decision to live in a big house when a smaller one would do, but don’t expect a whole lot of sympathy from me if you feel you must live in a house bigger than about 1,200 square feet (our house, which we built ourselves, is just over 800 sq. ft. and, while somewhat cramped, we raised two kids in it!); unless you have a large family, of course. Really you only need about 300 sq. ft. maximum per person.

But, let’s suppose you do use wood, you are able to clean your chimney and do clean the ashes out every morning or as much as necessary. Now that it is September you should have a kindling box (in or out of the house; covered if out) full of starter wood: first wood (which should be no thicker than half the width of your pinky, and perhaps bunches of twiggy stuff, the ends of branches), second wood (the width of your pinky to the width of your thumb), and third wood (the width of your wrist or smaller). When you build the fire, start with wadded up paper (DO NOT USE WAXY COATED PAPER!). Before lighting the paper, put plenty of first wood atop the paper. Light the paper, and leave the stove door open just a crack (and don’t forget to have the flue open!). Only when the fire has started to consume the paper and the first wood should second wood (or, if you prefer, cardboard plus second wood) be placed on the burning matter; again, only when this is being consumed well should third wood be placed atop this. If you put the next set of wood in too early your fire may burn out because it isn’t hot enough yet to properly burn the thicker wood, and, if you put it in too late your thinner wood has already burned out. Honestly, you MUST pay attention to the fire for the first 15 minutes of the fire. Large pieces should be used only when it is clear that your fire will start warming the house. Pieces the size which include fully rounded pieces should only be used at night to keep the fire going if the night will be cold (in other words, the temperature goes down to the low 20s and heads into single digits). One thing is for sure, you don’t want your house to freeze. Why? Because then your water pipes might break, and you don’t want that to happen! Or, they can become cold enough where the pipes don’t break but the water freezes inside them (but not hard enough to break the pipes, because it thaws in the morning). Now, the wood you will actually use during the day should be rounded tree-trunk sized pieces cut into halves or quarters.

Cutting the wood: Use a chainsaw to cut into the dead tree. Use a maul (which looks like an axe but is wedge-shaped at the blade, which means it can withstand harder woods—in drier areas like west Texas the oak is very very hard as opposed to softer wood areas like the Northeast, where a regular axe is probably sufficient) or a long handled axe to chop the wood into halves and quarters, about 6 inches to a foot long.

Types of wood: I like oak the best because it doesn’t give off much smoke and the fumes are pleasant. Pine is too fumey, but if you like the smell use it (I don’t like the smell), but it does burn a little hotter. DO NOT USE CEDAR! Cedar and juniper (a kind of cedar) burn way too hot and way too quickly. If you use mostly cedar you can theoretically burn your house down! However, you can use a few small cedar pieces to give your smoke a very pleasant “sweet” odor. For the same reason do not use “heart wood”, which is wood that is close to the roots—again, this wood burns very hot. Mesquite, if you have it in your area (say, central Texas and border areas…the mesquite trees in central Texas are so large that they look like oaks, whereas in border areas of west Texas the mesquite is so puny it really can’t be used except for kindling), is also pleasant smelling and doesn’t burn too hot. It’s great, in fact, for barbecues! If you live in the northwest where fir trees and pines rule the roost, I still recommend the harder woods like oak and maple. In truth, I don’t know how hot hemlock, Douglas fir and the like burn, so if you live in these areas you are going to have to figure that out yourself. Do not use any wood, however, that is “sappy.” Sappy wood simply won’t burn no matter how hot the fire is!

Wood stoves: We—I should say my husband—built a wood stove out of a 55-gallon drum coated with heat resistent black paint, cut a square hole about a foot square into one end of it, bought a wood stove door from the “Sotz Company” and attached it to the front. He also bought stove pipe (from a Canadian company I don’t have the name for) with flue, cut a stove pipe opening into the stove, attached the flue to it near the bottom (about two feet from the bottom of the pipe), cut open into the roof a chimney hole, rigged the pipe to go into the chimney hole, and put in a smoke stack at the end of the chimney which made it possible for the smoke to not re-enter the house (except on very windy days). All of this came with some kind of kit and instructions (I had no part in rigging this system up, so don’t ask me for particular instructions. Kits are available. Do your own research.) The key to all this I think is to find a worthy 55-gallon drum!

Other recommendations: Buy a chimney-wood stove pipe cleaning kit. Again, do your own research. Your cleaner should have an adjustable length pole with chimney brush, which has long bristles all around and is about 6 inches in length. The bristles must be able to scratch the creosote and other materials off the inside of the pipe (in fact, you can buy brushes of varying sizes). Creosote buildup makes for a very smoky fire and leads to health issues. You can either take your stove pipe system apart every year (not recommended!) and clean each section of pipe separately outside your house and then put it all back together, or, you can do what my husband figured out after a couple of years of taking it apart and having to spend hours re-attaching the system: unattach a small section of pipe near the top of the chimney from the rest, tape using duct tape a large plastic garbage bag to the top end you unattached, stick the cleaner into the bottom part still attached, and with good hard strokes clean that section of pipe until it looks as if the creosote has been taken off (most of it winds up in the stove itself, but some of it will have to be vacuumed on or around the stove). With the plastic garbage bag covering the top of the stove pipe area, go out onto the roof and finish the job the way you did the bottom pipe area by taking the smoke stack piece off the top. Replace the smoke stack when finished. The creosote should all go into the plastic garbage bag. Just watch out you don’t rupture the bag! And, be careful you don’t fall off the roof! (If you are building your house from scratch can I make a suggestion? Use a celestory roof system with loft, and put a small window you can either remove or fit through into the celestory part of the roof. You want a loft because that way you have a platform with which to clean your stove pipes so you don’t need to stay on a ladder, plus you have a really neat bedroom area!)

Chopping block: Find an old cut off stump of an oak tree, the harder the wood the better, to chop your wood on. Make it at least a foot across in diameter (about 40 inch circumference).

What to do if you are physically not strong enough to chop large pieces? For instance, if you are like me, a woman who doesn’t have the upper body strength (I can cut third wood, but not large pieces myself) and doesn’t have a strong man around—get a wood chopping or cutting machine. I’ve seen them…a 70-something year-old neighbor has one and he uses it to cut large quarters. I don’t know how much they cost but I’d say several hundred dollars is close. But they last for years and thus basically pay for themselves. Again, do your own research to find the best machine at the best price.

Like what you read? Then subscribe to the Something Happening Here Newsletter! I do not have a set time for it to come out, but I try to make a newsletter once a week or as much as possible with hints and tips on how to live better and more naturally on your rural remote land. From handling garden insects to collecting valuable resources like water and firewood to raising your children to dealing with neighbors, I believe my 25 years experience living on the land can help you make the most of your rural remote life.

Click here to read the first newsletter about how we fix out dirt driveway after rains washed them out, dealing with mice, and more. Click here to find out how to I used herbs and natural products to help with allergies, cold, and other respiratory ailments. Click here to read Part 1 of the "Gloom and Doom" scenario and here to read Part 2. Click here to learn the ten essential items you must have to begin your new life on your rural homestead. Click here to stop worrying about what we cannot change and change only what we can. Click here to find out how I dealt with culture shock after I moved from the big city. Click here for some different angles on the Ron Paul phenomenon. Click here to read about how to liberate yourself from "the matrix". Click here to test yourself to see if you are ready to move into the country. And click here to find out how the people will defeat the oligarchs.

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