Spirit Communication with the Lynx?: Presenting the Hermit Hut!

So I woke up in the middle of the night - early morning - on Friday night - hearing the same strange animal sound that I now know is the Lynx (it's a very distinct eerie sound that people on youtube describe as a drunk old lady screaming). So this was not "full on" Lynx but just a strong hint of the Lynx. And then suddenly I remembered my dream - I had been dreaming of this cat visiting the tent and I had been hand feeding the cat. So then in my dream I wondered "why" I was doing this!? (as my dreams are somewhat lucid). So I had forgotten my dream but hearing the Lynx suddenly bolted me back to explaining why I had that dream.

Chipmunk made a "secret" winter cache of Tamarack "pine" nuts in my camping cup that is snapped shut partly - and hidden under a storage tarp

Part of the reasoning was that I had been thinking about the chipmunks. The chipmunks like to try to scare me off at night and make tons of noise. I know in the past that has attracted the lynx which then ate the chipmunks! These are a new couple of chipmunks. So I had been thinking about that before I had the dream.

So I snapped it back shut and put it back under the tarp so the chipmunk has the winter storage cache secure from the elements!

So I took a ton of photos this time, so I'll try to "edit" it down.

First I "cured" the new paint on the Two Dog stove. And I was very impressed with the results!! I hooked up the chimney stove pipe (after I made a "spark arrestor" from 1/2 inch galvanized iron mesh fit into a rain cap flue cover).

I didn't take a photo of it but I definitely saw BLUE LIGHT in the Two Dog wood stove. This means that the carbon monoxide was being burned off. What I noticed is that with the air vent on the front fully open then there is enough air up above for the baffle to get the "secondary burn" of the carbon monoxide!

 The actual flame temperature of a wood fire can range from about 900°F to 2500°F. An "average" fire will commonly be around 1900°F. Almost instantly on leaving the flame tip the smoke mixes with other air or smoke, quickly reducing the temperature.

But if the air vent is closed then usually this effect would get lost. Sometimes I could close it down to 3/4ths and still get a clean burn (no smoke) but not usually.

These gases, called secondary gases, contain up to 60 percent of the potential heat in the wood. Their combustion is important to achieve high overall combustion efficiency. The secondary gases are not burned near the wood because of lack of oxygen (oxygen is being consumed by primary combustion) or insufficient temperature.
The conditions needed to burn secondary gases are sufficient oxygen and temperatures of at least 1100° F. The air supply is critical. Too little air will not support combustion and too much will cool the temperature to a point where combustion cannot occur.

Very little smoke (it would condense a bit farther off the duct chimney)

So I did not get a damper because my stove pipe has a low angle of inclination - and so the idea being to slow down the exhaust so I get more heat out of the pipe. The thing I noticed is that just with this ONE duct pipe connection (five feet?) then I could feel the exhaust definitely cooling off a lot. I could actually put my hand on the chimney pipe near the top - but this is only with a half fire (since you don't want a full fire to cure the stove).

Slowly the whole fresh black paint spread to a gray matte color - off-gray which is the sign that the paint is successfully curing!

Early curing - see the spreading of the gray matte color!?

Later Curing:

OK now let's cut to the chase:

Here's the final "inside" of the Hermit Hut - I have to the right the sheep stock tank as a bath tub. I have some wet wood in there to dry off. Plus some other storage things. The lower left - just that black is the covering for the composting toilet (there is very little smell since it separates off the urine from the humanure compost).

 in a dry toilet ash or lime is mixed with soil and added to create a dehydrating environment for breakdown and die off of pathogens. .... Since ashes do not contain nitrogen and will not burn plants, they can be useful in the garden, especially in the compost pile. Wood ash compost can be a valuable source of lime, potassium, and other trace elements....the woodash is so aggressive - and adding it to your humanure will only increase "spicyness" -
that I'd recommend using both ingredients to speed up the breakdown of something carbon-rich and nutrient-poor,
like of a pile of leaves - just add the stuff lasagna-style.

  You can use it in your compost toilet but again in moderation - it's a bit like alchemy!

The upper left is the cot with two insulating mats and the winter sleeping bag. The middle is the wood stove hidden behind a support post for the roof (we're supposed to get snow this weekend already)!!

I have bricks stacked up behind and to the right of the stove and then back in the corner under the duct pipe. Plus a pile of very dry wood. That chair was free, part of a free set of four (that need repairs). I was told that each chair was selling for $200 price, by the owner of the store - oak wood.

So I put the S-type mortar Cob (insulating perlite, clay and horsemanure) onto the chimney pipe since it otherwise would attract the neighbors too much, as the stove pipe was very "glinty" in the sun.

 
This is an 8 inch duct with rockwool insulation stuffed in around the 6 inch duct pipe. So that means it will keep the smoke above the necessary 212 degrees fahrenheit, boiling water temp, to prevent creosote from building up in the chimney duct. So I have metal wire around the insulated duct - even though it should be cool to the touch - connecting to the tripod made of willow trees. Then more lime S-mortar cob around more rock wool for more insulation.

So then I filled in the chimney "wall" with the same S-mortar lime Cob batch.

So that is the inside of the wall with the 30 degree duct pipe (6 inch diameter) going into the 8 inch and you can see the rock wool insulation inside - between the 6 and 8 inch diameter).

So even though I just used "one" of the 6 inch duct pipe connections - the chimney is still taller than the top of the hut!!

And I added the third tarp - silicone polyester (Sil-poly) on top of the roof - but I put it width-wise so it's 12 feet going against the 10 feet. So then I get over 1 foot of eaves off the walls for water protection along the base of the hut. Better watch that tarp!
 

Polyesters

(melting) 220°-268° Celsius = 428 Fahrenheit

(ignition point) 432°-488° celsius

 

Oh I forgot to post the front door photo!

So I put mortar as a lime-wash splash onto the front OSB especially along the bottom - as anti-mold from back splash from the rain (and also as more camouflage). First thing I did was "fix" the door by using the Forstner bit again to work on the frame. The door frame had been altered when I put on the rest of the OSB - and so I had to "chisel" down the frame a bit. And then I put on the inside latch for the door! Also I put in the rest of the rock wool for the walls. So I use the last bit of duct pipe as an intake air - I left some opening in the front. So I can just move the rock wool to open up the intake air and then move back the rock wool to shut it off. Even with the rock wool - there's still enough "holes" in the walls for air flow.

But with the walls at 6 to 8 inches - those are R-30 rating and with the third tarp on the roof - that's at least an R-40 rating (with the two layers of rock wool). So you can really feel the extra warmth just from the insulation (I've seen voles now twice - running along the outside of the hut). So with the extra lime wash and rock wool that might keep the voles (forest mice) out of the hut.