Pounding a Well- Part 1

Its been awhile since my last post this spring. Lately work has kept me occupied, leaving me little free time to spend on improving and growing my homestead. Since my wife and I first moved into our temporary home last summer, we have been using water that either she or I truck in every few days and transfer into the two storage tanks within the trailer. From those two tanks, an on-demand water pump feeds it to the faucets and toilet as needed. We use this water only for cleaning and for any cooking and drinking we have a separate water container that resides in the fridge, keeping cold water always on hand.

Since I'm homesteading, it has become time to search for and find water on the property. I have come up with several promising spots to find water and determined how deep the water is using age old techniques of dowsing. I wont go into detail of this strange art since many don't believe in it, but I'm certain I will be putting a well in the right area, as long as I don't hit a rock. After finding the area, it is now time to get to the area, and since I am not a rich lad and hiring a well driller to come in is very expensive. I had one quote me $10,000 for the area I live in. This was a high shoot estimate he said and included not only the well drilling, but all material including permit fees, well testing, deep well pump, digging line to the house and a few other extras. He said of course it could come in far below that amount, but even then your still talking thousands. If your not able to drill, then one must fall back on the time honored method of pounding the well like the old farmers and homesteaders did back when they tamed this wild country.

A cousin of mine happened to have 2" well pipe on hand (schedule 80) and couplings. He sold this to me very cheap compared to what it would have cost to buy it from the hardware store. The extended family has on hand a pounder and pounding cap and pulleys and rope and other tools needed for this endeavor. I spent a Saturday collecting all of this stuff and assembling it for when I needed it. Some of the last items I needed to purchase was the 2" drive point and teflon plumbers paste that is used to seal the couplings. I had some tamarack poles that had once surrounded my Paintball speedball field, holding up wire and safety netting. I no longer use that field, so I took three of the poles to serve a new life as a tripod. I drilled and put a 1/2 inch rod through all three poles with large washers and nuts on each end when they were lying side by side and then lifted it up over the location of where I planned to pound the well. Once this was up in place, I then took some good rope and lashed the poles together for added strength. Once done, I took the large pulley and hung it from the top of the tripod and ran the large hay rope I had for connecting the the pounder weight. The pounder is a leaded weight that is slides over the top of the well pipe and slides up and down as you pull the rope and let it loose.

With everything in place, I am now ready to start pounding. Tractors are normally used for lifting the weight. For the first part though, I am only just starting the well point and making sure it is as plumb as I can get it. First thing I did after much internet research and talking to my many family memebers who have pounded wells before was to did a hold down about five feet with a post hole digger. This gave me an idea at least what type of soil I was starting with and also allowed for the point which is three feet long and the first length of pipe to sit a little bit in the earth and allowed me to get the pounder up and over onto it. For the first section of pounding was with just my own arms pulling on the rope. The pipe has been started and now I only am waiting for the weekend to come. My uncle with the tractor will be coming over and then the real pounding will start.

Wood Stove Part 4

After a whole winter of operation, now that the snow has melted and warmer weather has arrived I have taken the time to sheet the wood stove. Last fall when I began this project I scrounged sheets of used siding from wherever I could get it. With what I had stacked up, there was enough to sheet the stove. You will notice from the pictures that some of it is dirty. The plan is to get a little suds and water and wash it down. The only part that is not done are the corner pieces. They will have to wait a few weeks until my next payday. The corner pieces should make the stove look complete.

Spring has arrived!

Its been a long and very cold winter. I can say though that we made it thru the worst of it fairly intact. The trailer home stood up to the snow and blowing wind and with the wood stove and propane furnace we were able to keep warm. I can certainly say though that if I had not put in the wood stove last year, we would not have faired as well with only the propane furnace. These old homes only have three inch walls, barely any R-value. On days or evenings when I was unable to keep the stove running, the propane furnace ran fairly often and the heat was warm, but not toasty. With the wood stove running though, it was a continuous heat that was often cozy and relaxing. Only when the stronger winds were blowing from the north was it a little cool, but even then if the stove was up to temp, all was good.

The storage shed made it through the winter without any damage or problems. We had alot of snow and it stood up to the weight. I made a point of knocking any large amount off as soon as possible, but even by doing that it seemed capable of handling the weight. It not only stood up to the snow, it also stood up to several wind storms that blew through. The anchors that hold this to the ground stood up to the challenge. Overall, for just being a temporary storage building, I am very impressed with it and happy I bought it.

Now that spring is here, hopefully we will be moving forward with building our new home.

Winter's Grasp

Winter has been hitting us hard, over and over all winter. As you can see from the pictures there is no end in sight for at least a few more months. This is the type of snow I remember getting as a kid. For the most part we have been hanging low, keeping as warm as a person can in a tin box that has three inch walls. Actually though, the woodstove I built this fall has gone a long way towards keeping us more than warm. It works fantastically as long as a fire is kept in it. While I'm away at work it goes down to coals that I have to stoke up once I get home, but nothing to bad. I know that the stove has gone a long ways towards reducing the propane bill for this winter.

Speaking of stove, I unfortunately have not put the finishing touches on it yet. I had purchased the steel for the side, but I got as far as putting the plastic on the outside as a weatherproof for the insulation. Once it warms up one of these weekends (so far its been hoovering in the negative range for most of the winter) I will get it finished.

The Shed has been holding up real well in the weather. Everything in it is snug as a bug. The only drawback I have seen with this is that water condensation during the day builds up and can drip off onto whatever is inside. Luckily everything I have is in totes, so this is not an issue. You would not want to store anything in cardboard boxes of loose if there is a chance that water can wreck it.

With so much snow, I have been doing alot of snow removal on the driveway. Bouncing around on a bobcat with a snowblade on it can certainly mess your back up!

Besides removing snow from the road, another important area to be taken care of is the roof of the house itself. For the most part the roof on the trailer is flat with only a little bit of a pitch and so it is important to get all that weight off of it as soon as a large amount has accumulated. So is the cycle of winter!

Wood Stove Part 3

Last night I took the time and insulated the building around the stove. First I started by lining the inside wall with chicken wire. This will support the insulation on the inside since there are no internal walls in the building. Once that was done, I then started measuring and cutting the insulation. I happened to have a whole roll of batts in storage, leftovers from a previous project. These were faced batts, so I put the faced paper portion on the outside of the building. Overall it went up fast and fairly easy.

Around the face of the stove that sticks out the front of the building and the chimney pipe that exits the back of the building I left a gap where the wood does not touch the stove/chimney surface. When I put up the steel siding, that will fit up snug to these areas. Around the chimney, several inches out I built a heat shield which keeps the wood nice and cool. So far from all the test firings I have conducted, nothing gets hot.

Wood Stove Part 2

This past weekend I worked once again on the wood stove. First order of business was building a trough in which the hot air duct and cold air return could pass through. One end is attached to the wood stove shed and the other end passes into the skirting under the trailer. From there, I have insulated accordion style vent ducting that runs then to the main house duct. A cold air return goes to a vent I put in the living room floor. Simple and effective. The cold air feeds into the building and once the sheeting is up around the inside, the building itself will act as a plenum for the blower.

Next on the order of business was wiring everything up which was very simple due to the fact that most everything was already on the furnace. I tested all of the components and everything but the blower was in working order. The blower motor was frozen up and no amount of oiling would help free it up. Luckily for me, my cousin had a better blower with a capacitor in a storage shed, so with that bolted on and wired up, everything was ready. I went ahead and loaded the stove and put match to it and voila! I had fire and heat. The house seemed to warm up pretty fast which was what I was hopping. I watched carefully the 2x2's that I used for the building frame and none of them got hot at anytime. The few that were closer around the chimney outlet I had placed metal heat deflectors which were working perfectly good with no warming of the boards they were protecting. Overall so far I am impressed with how well it has worked. Next will be putting in the insulation (fiberglass) and sealing up the shed so that the blower isn't blowing in the cold outside air put instead household air and heated air from the shed itself. It should be a very efficient unit once all is done.

Wood Stove Part 1

Since the weather has turned colder I have noticed that the furnace has been kicking on a lot recently. I knew our 3 inch wide walls were not the most energy efficient and so I am not surprised at how often the propane furnace is running. The problem is, everytime it turns on, I see dollar signs floating out the chimney and that got me to thinking. I and my wife live in the middle of the woods with a few hundred acres of accessable firewood all around us and so in essence, fairly inexpensive fuel for heating. I say inexpensive since it is not quite free. Cutting wood takes time which in some eyes is money and also the cost of the saw, maintenance on said saw and gas for said saw. Compared to the cost of propane, the saw cost is little and so acceptable.

Wood for heating means woodstove. At first when I broached the subject, my wife had two things to say to me: 1. You just like to find things to keep you busy. 2. We don't need such a thing. Well, for the first choice she is right, I like having projects to do. I dont like being to idle, prefering to better the area around me or my quality of living. I was doing this before we married and I hope she realizes that I will continue to do this probably until I am put into the gorund. For her second thought, I had to sit down and show her the long term costs of propane everymonth with only 3 inch walls in a late 60's era trailer for the next 2 - 3 years while we build. I dont know if she got it or not, but I told her I was going through with my plans. She did state that there would be no woodstove in the trailer due to the associated hazards that come with it which I agree with. Not being able to put a woodstove inside then made the decision of where it would have to go-outside!

Problem is, my trailer is heated with forced air and so if the woodstove is going to be outside, it will have to be forced air too or else I could put in a wood boiler with an air exchanger in the furnace plenum. This approach would be more costly and in the end plain moot due to the fact that I found a Monarch forced air woodstove that is in very good shape which therefore dictates that the outdoor stove would be forced air with insultated ducts feeding into the existing ducts of the house. My cousin's wife's father who lives only a few miles from me has done just this and it works very well for him.

My first step was to go to menards and get building material for the shed that I will build around the furnace. The furnace itself will set on a 4x4 floor up on skids so it can be moved when I am done with it. I put it up on cement patio blocks for heat protection. For the walls I used 2x2's for a lighter weight. Onto this frame will be attached steel siding and a steel roof. The wood frame near the furnace will have flashing between the stove wall and the 2x2's. The chimney will come out the back into a tee and extend up the back side of the building several feet above the peak and on the bottom will be a cleanout.

It rained all weekend, turning the time I had availabel for this project into a quagmire. Even though I was soaked, I pushed forward and got as far as getting the steel on the roof. Next will be piping and wiring.