Tommy
Senior Member
- Location
- New Hampshire
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” Yes indeed!
Our version of retirement: Living a childhood dream
- Thread starter Gary O'
- Start date
I agree RR. The whole idea of living off grid sounds intriguing, until you get to the 2am trek to the Loo through the snow in sub zero temps, with whatever hungry animals might be out on a hunt that night. Kudos to Gary and Mrs Gary for braving it out. I will live off grid vicariously through Gary's pics. And beautiful pics they are!
Thanks for the kind words, folks
And, Jim. I know what yer sayin’
I wanted to kinda sneak in to being off grid, dabble at it till everthing was pretty set up
But, my lady, she’s always been of the mind to jump in, do it now, or ferget it
And I knew, in my heart of hearts, we’d prolly ferget it
So, we crammed everthing into a sea container and plopped it down here, with nothing but that one tiny A frame
One gets busy in that situation
When folks try this, in snow country, it’s learn or leave
It
Gets
Effing
Cold
But, one learns what has to be done, what should be done, what better git done soon
Then
Do it
Do it all
Into the night, with a flashlight on yer cap
Sleep will come later, when yer bone tired and can’t do no more
Winter is always comin’
It’s not even tempting to dawdle in the 90° summer temps
But hot afternoons require one to back off, git a bath, a nap
The cool of the evening is accommodating for more work
Wood
Is as essential as oxygen
Our wood stove is our cook top, and home heat
Right now it’s 65° inside, and -3° out the door
It’ll warm to the 20s today
One gets used to that
Almost T-shirt temps…almost
Got a big blow comin’ in
2-3 ft of the white stuff
We’re ready for it
Keepin’ a fire
And, Jim. I know what yer sayin’
I wanted to kinda sneak in to being off grid, dabble at it till everthing was pretty set up
But, my lady, she’s always been of the mind to jump in, do it now, or ferget it
And I knew, in my heart of hearts, we’d prolly ferget it
So, we crammed everthing into a sea container and plopped it down here, with nothing but that one tiny A frame
One gets busy in that situation
When folks try this, in snow country, it’s learn or leave
It
Gets
Effing
Cold
But, one learns what has to be done, what should be done, what better git done soon
Then
Do it
Do it all
Into the night, with a flashlight on yer cap
Sleep will come later, when yer bone tired and can’t do no more
Winter is always comin’
It’s not even tempting to dawdle in the 90° summer temps
But hot afternoons require one to back off, git a bath, a nap
The cool of the evening is accommodating for more work
Wood
Is as essential as oxygen
Our wood stove is our cook top, and home heat
Right now it’s 65° inside, and -3° out the door
It’ll warm to the 20s today
One gets used to that
Almost T-shirt temps…almost
Got a big blow comin’ in
2-3 ft of the white stuff
We’re ready for it
Keepin’ a fire
Last edited:
Gary, you both have worked extremely hard and have done a fantastic job with your off grid retirement home. I truly am in awe with what you both have accomplished. And your reward is being able to share with each other the beauty of nature that surrounds you!
And that fire........................I could sit and stare into it for hours on end, or until the beer ran out.
And that fire........................I could sit and stare into it for hours on end, or until the beer ran out.
We are one on this, Sir Jim
Mesmerizing seems a fitting word
…until the beverage runs out, or the wind kicks up
then even that Mesmer bloke comes to
Got up in the wee wee hours to step out to mark my territory (hey, it works...no wolves or song dawgs near the cabin)
Before sol could rise
the first prints I saw
Mr Brer was already having brerfast
And Mr Jay invited hisself
Then the sun began to rise
The one inch dusting caused me to grab the Nikon
Had to capture the whitened topsides of each limb, and the rays on the forest floor
Ol’ Sol, and ol’ man winter can be quite the duo
yessir
Oh, notice the tree bomb waiting for me to step under it
Nice try, ol' man, but I'll be wearing my parka
Before sol could rise
the first prints I saw
Mr Brer was already having brerfast
And Mr Jay invited hisself
Then the sun began to rise
The one inch dusting caused me to grab the Nikon
Had to capture the whitened topsides of each limb, and the rays on the forest floor
Ol’ Sol, and ol’ man winter can be quite the duo
yessir
Oh, notice the tree bomb waiting for me to step under it
Nice try, ol' man, but I'll be wearing my parka
RadishRose
SF VIP
- Location
- Connecticut, USA
Lovely pics, Gary. I saw the gnome profile but it took me a few seconds. Keep warm.
Spent most the day shoveling and blowing out lanes
Glad I did it before chores
It’s a wet snow @ 30° F
Any warmer and I’d be digging out the blower every few paces
Anyway, s’posed to get this stuff all tonight and tomorrow
Then, just cold
Two days ago I was beginning to wonder if we were done with the white stuff
it's incredible how blue the sky is at this elevation
Now…..I’m wondering when it’s gonna stop
Took a few pics and did a snippet vid while my back unkinked
I know these pics are getting redundant, but…it is winter
I think I like watching the snow under the pines best
Especially when sipping hot java
Same with fixedly staring at the fire tonight
And the micro vid;
Glad I did it before chores
It’s a wet snow @ 30° F
Any warmer and I’d be digging out the blower every few paces
Anyway, s’posed to get this stuff all tonight and tomorrow
Then, just cold
Two days ago I was beginning to wonder if we were done with the white stuff
it's incredible how blue the sky is at this elevation
Now…..I’m wondering when it’s gonna stop
Took a few pics and did a snippet vid while my back unkinked
I know these pics are getting redundant, but…it is winter
I think I like watching the snow under the pines best
Especially when sipping hot java
Same with fixedly staring at the fire tonight
And the micro vid;
Last edited:
It’s an earth stove
Freaking huge, brick lined and three damper controls for desired room temps
Our first winter we learned what settings worked best
But only after opening windows, or running naked outside to make relieving snow angels
It looks huge and figured that thing must get really hot. Wow! Three damper controls. That’s really something.
We have a much smaller one in our basement but even that can get crazy hot. I didn’t realize bigger ones had extra dampers for temperature control. That’s good to know.
How often do you have to clean the chimney?
Do you clean that glass window in door every morning?
Thats sparkling clean.
Depends how seasoned the wood is
Two year old lodge pole, once in late spring
Unseasoned? About once ever two months
Heh, the door is just open
I get extravagant when I first sit after a day of toil
Gary, I love your latest photos, especially the ones of the rays on the forest floor. And Zippy and Mrs. BunBun look soooo cute in that pic! You sure did get a lot of snow where you are! We got 6 1/2 inches on Friday night, but with the help of the sun a lot of it is slowly going away, it was a heavy wet snow. The shoveled walks are clear anyway, the snow and ice in the back yard will be staying for awhile. I really like where you live, beautiful scenery to surround you and the Mrs.....life is good!
Yes this is true for us also. We are trying to afford enough wood for 2 years so we can properly season our wood.
Woodstove’s are wonderful.
Thanks
Keep a fire!:love_heart:
No, it’s all mixed hardwood; Maple, Ash, Cherry, Beech , Elm, Apple
We get about 4 1/2 to 5 bushchords worth but it’s in tree form. We cut and split it and pay $700 so about $140 per bush chord
We also cut our own Poplar, Birch, Apple, Cherry, Maple etc from our own property since we have a large treed property.
For starting fires , my husband gets the old skids from work which are usually made from Oak or Maple. It’s nicely dried plus we use any access wood from woodworking. This we have to be careful of because some woods are toxic when burned.
Nice...very nice
Bet you don't go thru it like we go thru our lodge pole pine
about 7-8 cords a winter
'cource our winters are six months long
Pine and other soft woods literally go up in smoke making the need for it doubled. We have 6 months of winter also.
We have jack pines, white pines, spruce , fir but we use those for our outdoor fire. We read that using pines and other softwoods would create more of that carbon build up in the chimney but my thinking is that if you get any fire hot enough it burns all of that stuff out anyway.
The wood we get isn’t quite seasoned wood. The trees are usually down for a year or more but with them being in tree log form, they still hold in lots of moisture. We have to bring it inside like you and dry it out before it gets chucked in the fire otherwise it’s two wet. Some pieces are so wet that when you put them in a hot fire you can actually see and hear the water drops spurting out of the wood. It looks cool but isn’t any good for the fire as you know. To balance this out we throw in some well season Poplar which is a soft hardwood that burns great. Luckily most of the wood isn’t this wet. Ideally what we need to do is get a year ahead of ourselves but we haven’t been able to afford it yet. Hopefully this fall we can double it up.
My man gets so excited when we get our wood delivered. Since it’s been sitting for so long, some of the ends often spalt. Spalting is the natural decomposing process of trees and it usually leaves unique blackish lines throughout the wood.
Do you get any spalting in the pine you get and do you get your wood delivered or do you cut down 7 to 8 chords of wood yourself?
Another question. Do you ever carve any of the wood?
I think you’d be a great carver. It’s fun. It’s easy. Its great for destressing and they make excellent gifts that people cherish
We have jack pines, white pines, spruce , fir but we use those for our outdoor fire. We read that using pines and other softwoods would create more of that carbon build up in the chimney but my thinking is that if you get any fire hot enough it burns all of that stuff out anyway.
The wood we get isn’t quite seasoned wood. The trees are usually down for a year or more but with them being in tree log form, they still hold in lots of moisture. We have to bring it inside like you and dry it out before it gets chucked in the fire otherwise it’s two wet. Some pieces are so wet that when you put them in a hot fire you can actually see and hear the water drops spurting out of the wood. It looks cool but isn’t any good for the fire as you know. To balance this out we throw in some well season Poplar which is a soft hardwood that burns great. Luckily most of the wood isn’t this wet. Ideally what we need to do is get a year ahead of ourselves but we haven’t been able to afford it yet. Hopefully this fall we can double it up.
My man gets so excited when we get our wood delivered. Since it’s been sitting for so long, some of the ends often spalt. Spalting is the natural decomposing process of trees and it usually leaves unique blackish lines throughout the wood.
Do you get any spalting in the pine you get and do you get your wood delivered or do you cut down 7 to 8 chords of wood yourself?
Another question. Do you ever carve any of the wood?
I think you’d be a great carver. It’s fun. It’s easy. Its great for destressing and they make excellent gifts that people cherish
Yeah, an occasional hot fire rids the creosote build up
I just bring it in so I don’t have to go out
Yes, we get the black lines here and there
We used the downed trees for the first two years
Since then, I’ve ordered the rounds and split them here
Considering a log truck load…may do that
As close to carving I’ve been able to get is using live edge planks
I’ve rediscovered my ineptitude in carving from time to time
The latest one, a couple years ago, was a primitive wooden dough bowl for my lady
She asked
I tried
Why she cherishes it I'll never know
but...it does look much like the picture she showed me
Went back to butchering wood…. with saws….large saws
I think she has some table napkins in it somewhere in the breakfast nook
Poor thing, I should make something better for her, but then, we do live in what we made...