Chimneyfires? and other survival topics

[tri again]

I figured my stovepipe was cool, or more accurately warm enough to keep smoke crystals from forming into creosote, but noooooo.

First fire this year with the new triple wall pipe, wicked cold out, I heard a pop and apparently the creosote had heated up and started gassing and then ignited inside the stovepipe and literally popped the cap off the top and I heard it bounce off the roof.

Absurd design since the cap looks like it has a heat sink stainless band to actually collect, condense and accumulate creosote crystals.
Makes me wonder what THOSE engineers are smoking. anyway...

It started raining today so I cranked it up and watched the most amazing sparks fly off the fire marshall approved cap and drop sparks like charcoal briquettes onto the roof and then explode.

I told the fire dept I was gonna take off that suicide hat and put on a regular 6" tee so it wouldn't collect explosive crystals and he said "well, that wouldn't be up to code".

...so I sprayed him with a hose

check your chimneys

[Jason125m]

you sprayed him with a hose?

[cattle-dog]

drjoe do you have a stack guage on the inside? if not they work great to keep the creosote to a minumum as you can then keep the temp at a good level which keeps creosote at a livable level. of course the type wood you burn is another cause,
growing up we used to clean our chimney once a month. cattledog

[tri again]

hey, cd.
Not sure what happened to my last 2 replies, but I'll go short in case it blows up again.

Woodstove is our only heat but also heats 250 gallons of water at a time to around 140 degrees.
I even have an extra water tank in the tool room that stays HOT and warms about 600 sq ft.
My next trick is to run hot water thru some pex tubing on its way to filling the bathtub so the floor gets warm.
Maybe even a couple loops thru the floor of the green house. After all, it's as free as heat can be and it's generating round the clock.


Brick oven on top of the woodstove easily bakes bread etc.


My biggest prob is the factory fire marshall approved cap that actually collects the explosive creosote crystals due to it's heat sink design.

I usually run it up to 500 degrees periodically to clear the pipes and get a logtruck load of fir, maple and oak that sits for at least 2 years until the bark falls off so I should be good there.

Next is some sort of waterwheel to create 12 volts from the creek.
Maybe even an electric boat motor to be spun BY the water should put out 12 volts and is already designed and waterproof.

When the power went out for 7 days a few winters ago, I got creative real quick.

Now all I really need to do is figure out how to get well water with a hand/bicycle crank type pump for when the power goes out and I'll be set.
Well is over 100 ft but water level is only about 30.

Thanks for the tips.

Ok, now to see if this post flies.

Take care and stay warm.

[cattle-dog]

drjoe i am with you on have a back up for electric and water, i will be installing solar and homemade wind 12 volt generator to power a bank of batterys, i have a well also for water.

[tri again]

It can be fun if you've got the time.
Water tanks are free and everywhere.
Old water heaters that don't leak can be stripped of insulation and I paint them with mixed (dark) latex paint right over the rust and they look great in the sun for solar collection heat and a few around the shop woodstove daisy chained together.

They simply get and stay Hot!
Well head tanks with blown bladders are good too, and free.
I take the bladders out, rinse them with a little bleach water, preload them with compressed air and put them almost anywhere in the system so they act like capacitors, and the compressed air preload will give you days of pressurized water when the power goes out.

If you've got any type of creek with fall, there are sling pumps and all kinds of amazing ideas that I'm sure you've looked into.

My latest thought to get water out of the well is 12 volt rv waterpump , solar or hydro charged in addition to a red granny hand pump.

I like those twisted box kite looking windmills because they don't need to turn into the wind to spin and generate.
Wind from any direction will spin 'em up.

Big junkyard truck or forklift batteries are pretty cheap and still usable for the low amperage draw we'd be using them for.

After seeing all the city folks scrambling and rushing around getting nowhere, it's nice to come home and know that we got heat, hot water, and food for days and weeks...and trikes to keep from getting bored, dragging firewood, roads etc, eh?

I mean, where in the heck would people even get water after an emergency like Katrina?

[cattle-dog]

yea doc i am picking up one of the old kitchen stoves that work off wood , it has 4 hot plates , one lower oven and two ovens overhead with a warter tank on the side for hot water, has a nice little spigot, have you seen the soups that have everything including meat in a pouch its dehydrated? i had some tonight just boil 4 cups of water and add the pouchs contents 10 minutes later you have soup and its actually really good. cost like 2 dollars.
by the end of summer we will be able to go a while off grid and still be comfortable and eat well.

[tri again]

I love those old wood cookstoves.
We can't be the only ones 'cause they started making them again.

KT raised 5 daughters off the grid south of big sur, calif. 2 hrs of treacherous 1,000 ft cliff roads to the nearest store so they had to be serious

She played that woodstove like a musical instrument, flipping dampers to fry and simmer and bake all at the same time.

They dried a lot of fruit and meats and had their root cellar for taters, carrots etc.

I found an electric trolling motor without reverse on craigslist for 20 bucks so I'll hang that in the creek tomorrow and see how much amperage it puts out at 12v.
Prob just hook it to some spiffy spotlight and light up some trees round the clock for free just to motivate me everytime I look out the window.


I tell people that imagine of you took all the lenses off an 18 wheeler and turned everything on , you'd have so much 12/24 volt light it would be downright annoying

Fuel is my other concern.

I filled about 5 new clean garbage cans with the leftover apples, threw in some yeast and it got so strong fermenting, it almost got me to fab up a still, thumper keg to make alcohol fuel for the tractors.
My 47 jd will run on gas, kerosene and god knows what else.
I do remember the germans ran engines on woodsmoke when their fuel supplies got cut off in ww2 so That technology is already avail.

Ya know like when your woodstove is smoking..and a little bit of air or tiny piece of paper ignites that smoke like it's propane.


Might be easier to just get a horse or mule and forego the engines.

I'm not real concerned. For me it's a hobby with serious undertones.
And I honestly sleep better knowing that the power can go off and stay off and it wouldn't affect us.

I would just feel totally helpless in a city these days.

Will also check on that mre type food you mentioned. sounds way cheaper and easier than making them ourselves for now.

Take it easy and I'll post my amperage output of the new 12 volt water power joke
as it puts itself together.

[cattle-dog]

the soup is right at a regular grocery store, also there is packeged tuna with mayo that doesnt need refridgeration, there are tons of food with long shelf life. i actually have three horses and a mule, two tracters, both diesal, and my diesal truck, i have large fuel storage , both diesal and gas,
i am like you and go to the city as little as possible. we still have a cistern under our kitchen just have to put the downspouts back into the pipe to feed it,i have a counter hand wellpump i could install if needed.

[Bryan Raffa]

your both single right?:lol: tip #1 dont run and post up on facebook you got a chiminey fire.. then call 911!:lol:

[tri again]

Now I need to know what a counter hand well pump is.

Thinking if we can't pull water more than 28 feet, maybe figure out some sort of jet like the shallow well jet pump where you pump water down into the well to get it to force water back up.

The good thing about water topics, is that people have been fooling around with it and pressures for thousands of years amd the sling pumps fascinate me. It's an Archimedes design so the 'patent' has expired a loooog time ago.

So your diesels can run on almost anything?
Peanut oil etc etc?

I must look for some little bean, grows in Japan, and one little pea sized bean will burn forever, it seems.

Saw it on the discovery channel. They say an acre of those will fuel a family for a year.

I burn hazelnuts by the bucketfull.

Looks like a big pile of glowing cherries.

Yupp, I remember sitting in an open field after the 89 quake in Calif and staring at a trickle of water running down the street gutter and thinking.....powers out, bridges are down, roads are closed and there IS no where to go anyway..

where the *&%$# are 7 million people going to get their next drink of water???????????let alone food.

Which is the #1reason I wound up on the oregon homestead and haven't looked back.

Beside, it's Tons of fun, like being a kid again, building treehouses and forts, damming creeks, fishin and shootin' homeloads. Heck, I could honestly duck hunt out my kitchen window almost as easily as opening the fridge.

Slash piles with 30 foot flames and No one yells at us because we all do the same things around here.
and on and on

[fabiodriven]

Very interesting stuff boys. The only thing I can say is I do heat my house with wood. I don't have any other backups for power etc. though. You guys have some great ideas though. I thought you were just a kook before this thread doctor! :lol:

[cattle-dog]

in the old days the water storage was under the kitchen, so next to the sink there is a hand operated water pump just like the old shcool outside hand well pump,http://www.beanworthy.com/Cast-Iron-antique-style-Hand-Well/A/B001RQQ5E6.htm this is a kitchen counter pump.
raffa i have a awsome girl who is with me on being prepared. personally i hope it never comes to having to use this stuff but if it does i will survive with my family and the unprepared will starve to death. funny thing is my best friend on the farm across from me has draft horses that are working drafts so no shortage of food here. we can plow our fields the old way.
people have gotten used to how we live and think nothing can happen here in america,
i may be a ecentric person but my home is paid for we owe nothing on anything so nothing can be taken from us,
doc they also have refridgerators and freezers that run on propane, also you can take your pork or beek an put it in burlap sacks with salt and it cures it or perserves it so it can be stored in room temp, i found this when i was in the backwoods of tennesse they had a meat shed no fridge.

[sixpackrt]

also you can take your pork or beek an put it in burlap sacks with salt and it cures it or perserves it so it can be stored in room temp, i found this when i was in the backwoods of tennesse they had a meat shed no fridge.

Like this? http://sugarmountainhome.com/livestock/curingmeat.html

[tri again]

in the old days the water storage was under the kitchen, so next to the sink there is a hand operated water pump just like the old shcool outside hand well pump,http://www.beanworthy.com/Cast-Iron-antique-style-Hand-Well/A/B001RQQ5E6.htm this is a kitchen counter pump.
raffa i have a awsome girl who is with me on being prepared. personally i hope it never comes to having to use this stuff but if it does i will survive with my family and the unprepared will starve to death. funny thing is my best friend on the farm across from me has draft horses that are working drafts so no shortage of food here. we can plow our fields the old way.
people have gotten used to how we live and think nothing can happen here in america,
i may be a ecentric person but my home is paid for we owe nothing on anything so nothing can be taken from us,
doc they also have refridgerators and freezers that run on propane, also you can take your pork or beek an put it in burlap sacks with salt and it cures it or perserves it so it can be stored in room temp, i found this when i was in the backwoods of tennesse they had a meat shed no fridge.



If you've ever seen a BLM or forest service map with white out places?
Those are deleted from record because they are patented mining claims or similar.

The concept is called 'allodial' title.
ALLODIAL

It is an old law dating back to the birth of this country and part of the orig land grants and mining claims, so it's all very real, very legal and blessed by the federal gov't.

You may have to trace your land back to the origional land grant but you essentially disappear and fall off the tax records etc.
I know a few old timers around here who've done it to get away from building permits and taxes.
There are people who want to sell you books about it and attorneys who pretend it doesn't exist but I've seen it happen personally.

It's just nice to disappear.

Sometimes mineral rights do NOT come with your land.

I filed a mining claim on this place AFTER I bought it and sure enough, the mineral rights were separate.

I told them I 'found' mineral water and that was enough to pull it off.

Yeah, food preservation, homemade jerky, dried veggies and potatoes, just add water.

It's good that a few of us are thinking about all this stuff.

Peace, harmony, food, water

[cattle-dog]

Doc thats very cool about the taxes but i pay what i have to, to many people take advantage of our system, that is why our country is where it is today.i think our taxes are a bit crazy.i live in ny the tax state, but i allways pay my dues.
It is cool to see i am not the only crazy person who feels the need to be self supporting if the need arrises. Cattledog

[tri again]

Doc thats very cool about the taxes but i pay what i have to, to many people take advantage of our system, that is why our country is where it is today.i think our taxes are a bit crazy.i live in ny the tax state, but i allways pay my dues.
It is cool to see i am not the only crazy person who feels the need to be self supporting if the need arrises. Cattledog

Well, we all stay current taxwise and for a lot of good reasons. How some of that $$ is spent will never be totally agreed upon.

My last trip to the irs office to make sure I was clean as a whistle before I retired (age 44)
they were shocked that I didn't take all my deductions, and kept trying to talk me into
deducting charitable donations, advertising, home office, supplies etcetc.

Got me to thinking, these folks make the rules and expect us to follow them, so if an allodial title to have one's
land free and clear with NO chance of ever losing it, why not fall off the property tax records and have my land
a blank space on all the maps.

Just one more step removed.

Mineral rights also gives us unlimited permission to build and dig wherever we want without some college grad inspector who never dug a ditch, telling us what to do.

There are permits for everything around here.

Case in point, my stupid chimney cap that drops explosive burning coals on my roof.

If I take it off or modify it so it won't kill us all, I am in non compliance with some code.

No health insurance? NOT deductible until you get over 5 grand and then only 5 or 10 percent,
but if you send out bikini calenders to advertise trixies trike repair, it's 100% deductible.

The new furnace in the main house has a sequencer that, when it fails, runs the furnace at FULL heat, instead of shutting it off.

Turn the heat down, go away for the weekend and come back to a melted house that's been running at 130 degrees.
Some dummy thought of that and some committee of 12 AGREED with him!!!

Those are the kinda things that just will never make sense to me but playing by the rules is definitely entertaining.

[TommyBoy1971]

uh.....what do you do for beer???

[Jerm1179]

im pretty sure its called "Shine" ;) lol

[ceaserthethird]

Dr.Joe What town u in?

I really would like to see these set up's u have, Any pictures ?

[tri again]

Dr.Joe What town u in?

I really would like to see these set up's u have, Any pictures ?

We're getting ready for a couple, 3 day festivals this summer near eug so that may make the trip more worthwhile.

I can send you some passes.

Where are you?