A little winter weather

A good-sized winter storm rolled through the night before last. We got some freezing rain – about 1/4” accumulation. The ice stayed on the trees until last night, even though it rained all day yesterday. It warmed up a couple of degrees last night, or the rain we got then would’ve frozen also. As it was, the ice melted overnight.

 
All together, we received just over five inches of rain here. At the end of the storm this morning, the temperature dropped into the upper 20s, and we got some sleet and snow. Just enough to cover the ground.

In other areas of the state, there was more ice accumulation and/or snow. Anne and I were going to drive to Michigan today to deliver a vehicle to the buyer, but we postponed until tomorrow. We would’ve had to have driven through areas in Indiana that got some significant snow. We still may have some icy roads tomorrow, but there’s no rush. We’ll be back home on Friday. The younguns are staying with my parents, and Dad will take care of chores while we’re going. That’s one of the advantages of having a bit of community on the homestead.

  
Even though we didn’t receive a major storm here, we were prepared for one. Being prepared is a way of life, actually. We have food, water, and heat. We don’t live our lives with the need to run to the store for every little thing. Running to the store happens as infrequently as possible. That means it will usually be weeks or even months between trips to buy some “necessary” item from the store. With that sort of situation, there is little adverse effects from a severe storm, only some inconveniences (like no internet if the power goes out).

A home heating contemplation

I’ve been thinking more about the work that I have to do on the house this year. There are a lot of details to be ironed out and a lot of work to be done. I enjoy trying to creatively approach some of the challenges of the building process, and it’s great fun trying to come up with ideas for providing some basic services in efficient and low energy input forms.

We heat with wood. We have a nice wood cook stove that is also designed to heat a home. It works well. Perhaps the biggest drawback of a wood stove has to do with distribution of heat. It’s warmest near the stove. That’s not all bad, of course, especially when you come in from outside and want to warm up. The challenge is to circulate that heat through the rest of the house in an efficient and low energy usage manner. Fans help, but they also move a lot of dust and contribute excess noise to the home environment.

So, I’ve been toying with ideas to distribute the heat from the stove into the various rooms and corners of the house, specifically the house we’re building (I don’t want to spend the time retrofitting and building a system for this old mobile home we currently live in). I toyed with the idea of an outdoor wood furnace. There are some nice things about those, primarily that the mess of burning wood stays outside. However, there are some drawbacks. They are expensive to purchase, and building one may require skills I don’t yet have. They can also consume a lot more wood than we currently burn. Additionally, most of them are connected to some kind of furnace-blower system inside, something that requires an amount of energy I don’t want to support. I want some system that will not consume very much energy so that it can be powered in the event of electrical service disruption.

I’m already planning on installing a domestic hot water system that will utilize heat from the wood stove in the winter when we’re using it and that will also have solar collectors for the summer months. We can buy a hot water coil that fits onto our stove which uses the heat in the firebox to heat our domestic hot water. The heated water naturally flows into a tank via thermo-convection, drawing cooler water from the tank back through the coil. It’s a nice system that can produce some very hot water with no extra expense.

So, tonight I got to thinking about how to draw upon this hot water source to spread the heat of the wood stove throughout the house. My idea involves radiant heating tubes installed in the floors (probably only the first floor). However, water directly from the hot water tank would oftentimes be too hot for such an application. So, I envision another tank to supply the radiant heating system. Here’s a diagram of my idea (hopefully, it’s clear enough to understand – you can see a larger version by clicking on it):

Does this look like it would work? Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, improvements? I envision the low-wattage pumps being small enough to be run off of solar power. I would have to determine what thermostatic controls are available and that would work with this system.

I solicit all input. I’m curious about the feasibility and workability of this idea. Someone else may have had a similar one and may have developed it, I don’t know. This is just the product of my thinking this evening.

Political ramblings: hope for America?

Tomorrow is the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. I don’t expect to watch any of the events or pay a whole lot of attention to them. Barack Obama doesn’t encourage me or offer much hope for America, as far as I’m concerned.

Of course, the Republican Party nominee, John McCain, didn’t offer much either. It was a pretty sad election, I’m afraid, in which the principle choices were two pitiful selections, neither one with any substantive recommendations over the other. It seems that too many people actually believe there is a difference between the two dominant political parties in the US.

The Democrats and the Republicans exist to support one another, and a lot of people seem to believe that one party is preferable to the other. Based upon what they profess as their party platforms, I suppose this is a justifiable belief. However, if you pay attention to what individuals from the two parties actually do, the delineation between them pales. And, these two political organizations have the game rigged so that their candidates receive preferential treatment and access to the ballots, creating a situation in which their candidates are the only “legitimate” ones. If they are each so obviously superior to others, why do they need the systemic advantages they’ve constructed?

I got involved with the local Republican Party last year. I can agree with the foundational and traditional bases of the party and its libertarian roots. I do not agree with its de facto positions as it has rejected its conservative base. My intent was to contribute to efforts to return the Republican Party to its conservative and libertarian roots. Not only in Kentucky, but in many states across the nation, though, the GOP actively, and in violation of its own rules in many cases, resisted efforts to turn the party back to its traditional positions and roots. Change within this venue will be elusive.

I was a delegate to the Republican conventions in my congressional district and the state of Kentucky. The business conducted at each was carefully orchestrated so that voices of dissent would not be heard, let alone be listened to. I didn’t like how the party leadership conducted its business. I guess it’s just politics, but it sure says something when an organization violates its own rules. Most of the time at the conventions was spent listening to individuals tell us about how bad the Democratic Party is and how horrible Obama is. The identity of the Republican Party, as far as I could discern, exists only in opposition to the “dreadfulness” of the Democrats. Why couldn’t they spend time explaining the superiority of the GOP positions and its candidates instead of denigrating the “opposition”? I imagine that the Democratic Party spends their time in a similar manner, but I will never find out first-hand (that holds absolutely no appeal).

Here in Kentucky, and probably most other places, there is a definite team attitude toward one’s political party. The notion is, “My team is good. The other team is bad. I’ll only vote for my team.” This election cycle, very few individuals seemed willing to critically evaluate the “goodness” of their teams candidates. “They represent the team. So, I’m going to vote for them, and so should you,” was the attitude. The nomination of John McCain illustrates just how far the GOP has moved from its roots and the power of the team mentality to thwart critical thought.

In Barack Obama, the voters are getting what they wanted. His election is like a barometer in that it is indicative of the state of things in this country. I don’t see it as a good sign indicating anything to be hopeful about. I am concerned for this nation’s future, and I believe I would’ve been just as concerned if McCain had won (I had no illusions about that possibility, though – I actually think he was the nominee so that Obama would win). True lovers of liberty seem to be outnumbered at this point in time. Some significant dangers lie on the horizon for the USA and the world, and as these draw nigh, the world as we know it is going to change. The 44th President of the US will continue the course of things, building upon the previous dismal decades, providing less real hope for the future.

So, I’ll not waste my time watching the nonsense and getting excited about it. There are things to do and preparations for the future to be made.

Homestead objectives (part V)

Although you might not be able to tell by looking out the window, we live in turbulent times. I have some very real concerns about where things are headed for our country and globally. I’ve had some of these concerns for a number of years. One of our objectives for homesteading is to be prepared for emergency situations.

There is always the possibility of our utilities being disrupted, whether electricity or water. There are many natural means by which this could happen, and I don’t like feeling dependent upon them. Yeah, we like having the conveniences utilities afford, but when they are disrupted, what then? Years ago, we lived in Southern California. The Los Angeles area is located in what is actually a desert. Yet, there are millions of people living there in a relatively small area, dependent upon electrical service and municipal water. What happens if either of those is knocked out for any length of time? There are earthquakes out there, so this is not a far-fetched idea. Besides, where does the water for the L.A. area come from? There are many demands upon that water source.

Then, there’s the need for food. Seems that just about everyone likes to eat. How much of the food consumed in the L.A. urban area is grown there? I’m using the Los Angeles area as an example, but it’s not the only urban area in which people live with great dependence on services that can be interrupted. Over 80% of the US population lives in urban and suburban areas. It used to be that the cities were surrounded by truck farms which produced much of the food consumed there. That’s no longer the case. Food travels long distances (thousands of miles) to reach the consumer.

I believe that our economy is in bad shape. Ours is a debt-based system, not one based upon savings and sound monetary policy. The over-extension of credit has led to a problem in which we are faced with a major recession or even a depression. Our politicians, rather than deal with the situation in meaningful and honest ways, vote to give yours and my tax dollars to those who are complicit in creating the problems (along with the US Congress and the Federal Reserve). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a GDP growth of 3% and a debt growth of 6% is not sustainable and leads to horrible ends. (You can read more about our economic situation here.)

There are other concerns, of course, that have motivated us to living our homestead adventure. It is part of being prepared for an uncertain future. Not just for ourselves, though. We have a desire to help our families, neighbors, and friends in the event of need. In the event of a major catastrophe, it would be a blessing to those around us to be able to meet some of their needs. So, yes, we are concerned for ourselves, but it’s bigger than that. God wants us to each have a heart of mercy and to love others. Lessening our dependence upon external services and being able to provide for many or most of our own needs means that we can be in a position to help others whenever it might become necessary.

We don’t live off the grid, at least not yet. But, we could if necessary. We heat with wood and can cook with it, too. We have other water supplies besides municipal water. We grow much of our own food and can grow more (we’re working on doing just that). We live within our means, meaning we haven’t developed “needs” that would prevent us from living more simply than we already do.

It would be nice if the only emergency situations we will ever face are of short duration, like the power being out because of an ice storm. However, because we can see the possibilities and potential for much greater social and economic disruption, it makes it all the more important to us to seek to be prepared as well as possible for those eventualities. Better safe than sorry.