Faggots solve the energy crisis!

Howard Wallace

Howard Wallace

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From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Main Entry: 1fag·ot
Variant(s): or fag·got /'fa-g&t/
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English fagot, from Middle French
: BUNDLE: as a : a bundle of sticks
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Red Flower and I heat our home with oil. It looks like an expensive proposition this year.

A couple of decades ago I lived in an old logging camp and heated my home solely with wood I used to scavenge from clearcuts. I spent a lot of time with the chainsaw, axe, and splitting maul. Since then, I’ve moved to a small town, got a real job, and have much less time for wandering the clearcuts. The last few years have been especially challenging and busy, and even my khukuris have seen little use. It’s true; Malla #1 has stood sentry duty in my bedroom, ready to leap into action if needed. But aside from an occasional caress with the dust cloth, he has remained unmoved.

We just bought a fireplace insert. A Lopi Revere. All black, plain glass. A simple heating tool, but good to look at too. Highly efficient, with low emissions. The installers busted out the old cast-iron damper that was installed when our house was built in 1936. They broke out some firebrick too, so they could run a liner up the chimney. We got a blower attachment that is activated by a thermostat. It blows heated air into the room when the stove is hot, and turns itself off when the stove cools. The stove has a flat top to put a teapot or a pot of beans on. It can also heat the house for us if the power (and the electrically controlled oil furnace) goes out.

I used to heat with big logs that I would split with a maul. I always wondered about the people you see in third-world countries carrying large loads composed of bunches of small sticks. I have two giant lawn-trash containers, and like a good American, I put my sticks and pruning debris in them. Then a big truck comes and takes them off to be recycled, composted, or otherwise ethically utilized, I’m sure.

This year though, I’m going to bring the khukuris out of retirement. I’ve got an apple tree that has not been pruned in several years. My house is surrounded by rhodendron bushes, and they’re getting so big it’s not quite right to call them bushes anymore. I’ve got a couple of rounds from a downed apple tree that will make a good chopping block.

This year, I will join my fellow humans from the third world in burning small sticks to heat our home. This is not the sole source of heat; my programmed thermostat will kick in with oil heat whenever the temperature drops below the pre-programmed level appropriate for the time of day. But every load of sticks and wood debris I burn will delay the start of the furnace, and reduce the amount of oil we consume, and pay for.

I think the small sticks will cure more rapidly than large chunks of wood do. I have a covered area to stack them while they dry. Until then, I have a bunch of old lumber I sawed up and Red Flower and I stacked.

There are already some plum branches I cut a while ago, waiting for me this weekend.

Which khukuri should I use? The GR made by old Ganga? The giant villager Bill sent me one day unasked, because he knew I was looking for such a knife?

Red Flower wants to try out her BDC that was designed with input from the whole forum. Maybe I’ll have to fight her for the branches to chop …
 
Sigh. You need any help, Howard? That sounds like fun. I have 'several' khuks that need some exercise.
 
Hmm , Plum ? Apple ? Those are good handle woods and if I,m not mistaken bow woods as well . Maybey your judicious fruit tree pruning could bear fruit in another way !
 
Howard, also remember that there is nothing quite as delectable as a nice piece of beast of your choice roasted or grilled over an apple wood fire, the plum should be good as well but I've never tried it.:D
 
I'm sure I saw a Rhody handled khukri offered a few days ago.

I've always liked a fire made with small pieces of wood rather than the larger quarter split pieces. I like to have the door to my insert open allowing most of the heat to flow into the room. To control I add small pieces as needed.
 
BTW using wood to heat is a really good idea. I have a contractor friend who takes all his scraps of wood and burns them to heat his home. He has something called an "air tight" stove. I have not looked carefully at it, but it seems to work very well for him. He does have a furnace as well, but seldom uses it.

I think I will start a thread on alternate heating sources.
 
I got tired of lugging fuel in my pack for my backpacking stove and got a Sierra Zip Stove. It has a little battery powered blower and burns little sticks. Once you get the hang of feeding it it actually cooks way better than regular backpacking stoves.

There's a lot to be said for waste wood.
 
Since I don't have to worry about keeping the house warm all night, I think I will do quick, hot burns during the day. The wood stove is more efficient and there is less creosote build up in the stove and liner when the wood is burned with sufficient air. We will get more energy from the available wood that way, and the heat will be delivered during the day, when we like the house warmer anyway. The programmable thermostat turns down the temperature at night, so the furnace works less then anyway.



There is a neat system of pipes in the stove that brings fresh, preheated air in at the top to burn the smoke. This works really well with a hot burn, but not so well if the stove is starved for air. Sometimes I like to lie on the floor and look up at the smoke combustion at the top of the chamber. I'm kind of strange that way.



I will be burning lumber too. Except pressure treated wood. I had heard warnings about burning pressure treated wood and was prepared to ignore them, but I did a little research first. Some treatments involve significant quantities of arsenic. There have been instances of people poisoning their families by burning this type of wood, so I am going to carefully avoid that. I'll also avoid painted wood. But if I can get clean lumber I'll take it.

hollowdweller said:
I got tired of lugging fuel in my pack for my backpacking stove and got a Sierra Zip Stove. It has a little battery powered blower and burns little sticks. Once you get the hang of feeding it it actually cooks way better than regular backpacking stoves.
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I've had one of those for a few years. Here's a pick of roasting a trout over one.

IM000952.JPG


You can actually make a functional little wood burner for backpacking without the blower. Search the net for "hobo stove" to find discussions.
 
Howard Wallace said:
Since I don't have to worry about keeping the house warm all night, I think I will do quick, hot burns during the day. The wood stove is more efficient and there is less creosote build up in the stove and liner when the wood is burned with sufficient air. We will get more energy from the available wood that way, and the heat will be delivered during the day, when we like the house warmer anyway. The programmable thermostat turns down the temperature at night, so the furnace works less then anyway.



There is a neat system of pipes in the stove that brings fresh, preheated air in at the top to burn the smoke. This works really well with a hot burn, but not so well if the stove is starved for air. Sometimes I like to lie on the floor and look up at the smoke combustion at the top of the chamber. I'm kind of strange that way.



I will be burning lumber too. Except pressure treated wood. I had heard warnings about burning pressure treated wood and was prepared to ignore them, but I did a little research first. Some treatments involve significant quantities of arsenic. There have been instances of people poisoning their families by burning this type of wood, so I am going to carefully avoid that. I'll also avoid painted wood. But if I can get clean lumber I'll take it.



I've had one of those for a few years. Here's a pick of roasting a trout over one.

IM000952.JPG


You can actually make a functional little wood burner for backpacking without the blower. Search the net for "hobo stove" to find discussions.
Click to expand...

Awesome pic Howard! Yep, that's the little stove. Yeah, I have thought about the hobo stove, I even have some malt extract cans that would be about the right size, but the little blower really makes it easy to start when the tinder is wet!
 
It's funny about the title of this thread. When I first saw it, I knew I'd have to remove it. I knew I'd have to yank it out quick before it did any harm, without even asking Yvsa and Howard for concensus, because it was so obviously a rotten and ugly thing to say.

But of course, It was Howard playing with words and having a good time and discussion.

!!!


munk
 
munk said:
It's funny about the title of this thread. When I first saw it, I knew I'd have to remove it. I knew I'd have to yank it out quick before it did any harm, without even asking Yvsa and Howard for concensus, because it was so obviously a rotten and ugly thing to say.

But of course, It was Howard playing with words and having a good time and discussion.

!!!


munk
Click to expand...

I was pretty sure of what it was about before I opened it.

I was thinking about the man with the stack of faggots on his back on the cover of Led Zepplin IV
 
I was thinking it had to be a joke and when I saw Howard's name under I knew it was safe. I think a 'fag' is also a cigarette.



munk
 
Yvsa said:
Howard, what did you catch the trout with?
Click to expand...

As I recall I was using a pasty stuff called powerbait out of a jar.

The most amazing thing happened to me that day though. I was fishing, watching the dimples the trout made on the water. The air was full of gnats, with the occassional dragonfly dining on the gnats. As I watched a dragonfly, I wondered if the trout were eating the gnats, or the dragonflies. Just then a trout jumped out of the water, grabbed the dragonfly I was watching out of the air, and dissappeared. It was amazing to have the universe answer my question so promptly and directly. It was awesome to see a life snuffed out like that, in an instant. One instant, flying in the air, looking around, the next instant crushed and underwater. Lions, tigers, and T. Rex have no advantage in speed or cunning over the little trout.

Red Flower and my kids were up there on that trip too. We spent a few days. Here is Red Flower enjoying the company of native red flowers.

IM000958.JPG



munk said:
It's funny about the title of this thread. When I first saw it, I knew I'd have to remove it. I knew I'd have to yank it out quick before it did any harm, without even asking Yvsa and Howard for concensus, because it was so obviously a rotten and ugly thing to say.

But of course, It was Howard playing with words and having a good time and discussion.
Click to expand...

he he he ...
 
Such a beautiful place...................nothing like the concrete jungle I live in....................... :(
 
"he he he ..."

Yeah, I wondered. For about 1 second, until I saw who the tread starter was. Your reputation precedes you, Howard.

Those ARE fantastic pictures.
 
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