My 15.75 x 30 Jemez Cabin

Started by MountainDon, December 20, 2006, 02:03:09 AM

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Pine Cone

I'm planning on getting that same heater and installing it next year after the new building budget season  begins (whenever that is...)  once I get insulation up I'll be out of building $$$ for at least a few months.

The roof has been on our cabin for almost a week now, but when I went out on Saturday and Sunday it was about as cold outside as inside.  Even a small kerosene heater didn't do much, but then the gable ends and ceiling are not insulated yet and plenty of air movement at the tops of walls and at the soffit vents.  Could be worse, I haven't cut the underlayment out of the ridge vent.

Hope to hear nothing but good news and trouble-free operations about your heater.  So far it sounds like it is working great.  One problem about our small size (14' square) is that even a small wood stove would take up a fair percent of the floor space which is why I'm leaning toward the propane wall heater. 

I think my dad and uncle might have built a small cabin in you neck of the woods in the late 40's after they got back from the war.  The last time I visited it was 1967 and I'm not exactly sure where I was.  My sister got the cabin after that, but lived too far away to keep an eye on it.  It ended up getting torn down and she sold the property about a decade ago.

I love those ponderosa pine forests, and you've got a great project going!

MountainDon

John, we've got our cross country skis up at the cabin waiting for us. Vintage all wood Bonna's that are as beautiful to look at as any vintage wood skis. The trail in/out has a mix of ups and downs and with all the trees I am more comfortable snow shoeing.


Pine Cone, I've enjoyed your posts on your cabin too. That heater does seem to work great. It's no frills but has the fan if one has power. That speeds the heating cycle in the cabin quite a bit I'm sure. The simple thermostat knob will take some experimenting to determine what the lo-high scale actually means. Small cabins do present a problem with space for wood stoves.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


Mike 870

Hey Don,  how are your propane tanks holding out now that you've got heater, hot water and stove on them.  Are they 40 lb ers' ?  I just bought a 40 lb for my backup generator.  I was thinking if it could get me through a long weekend it would be just about perfect.   I hope to have stove, water and a small boat heater like the ones in the tumbleweed houses run off it. 

MountainDon

Hi Mike. We have three 40# and two 20# tanks up there. They feed through an automatic changeover regulator. As of mid November all were full. Since then we've cooked a few meals on the range, but not used the refrigerator or water heater. We've only fired the wall heater about 2  1/2 hours; maybe three max. The system is still on the first 20# tank and I can't tell any difference in weight at this time.

I wish I had a scale up there so I could track the use. I've not been lucky enough to find an old balance bean scale like the propane vendors have. I bought a couple of my tanks used at the propane dealer I use. One, a 40 pounder, is pretty old, but they fitted it with a new valve and it's certified for five years. It was well worth the $40.

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

MountainDon

#979
The Jeep is loaded. We have our warm clothes and snowshoes, a couple books each plus a few DVD's. Food is stockpiled in the cabin. The water cistern is full. Firewood cut, split and stacked. Pine needles gathered for tinder. What more could one need?


We'll be off in the AM for a few days of winter solitude up in the mountains. Photos to come.  :)
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


glenn kangiser

Looking forward to a full report.  [waiting]
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

OlJarhead

Quote from: MountainDon on December 20, 2009, 12:06:38 AM
The Jeep is loaded. We have our warm clothes and snowshoes, a couple books each plus a few DVD's. Food is stockpiled in the cabin. The water cistern is full. Firewood cut, split and stacked. Pine needles gathered for tinder. What more could one need?


We'll be off in the AM for a few days of winter solitude up in the mountains. Photos to come.  :)

Can't wait for pictures!

Speaking of tinder do this:  take out the lint filter in your dryer and pull off the lint, stick in ziplock bag and take with you -- when you need to start a fire grab a small handful, place where you would place tinder and light.

Dryer lint is one of the best survival tinder I've found!!!  Works so good we 'recycle' ALL of ours now and each ruck has a stash in it :)

Cheers
Erik

glenn kangiser

Will belly button fuzz work, Erik?  hmm
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

OlJarhead

Quote from: glenn kangiser on December 23, 2009, 12:46:58 AM
Will belly button fuzz work, Erik?  hmm

I don't even want to think about the person that would have enough! :P d*


Pritch

Quote from: OlJarhead on December 23, 2009, 12:36:43 AM
Quote from: MountainDon on December 20, 2009, 12:06:38 AM
The Jeep is loaded. We have our warm clothes and snowshoes, a couple books each plus a few DVD's. Food is stockpiled in the cabin. The water cistern is full. Firewood cut, split and stacked. Pine needles gathered for tinder. What more could one need?


We'll be off in the AM for a few days of winter solitude up in the mountains. Photos to come.  :)

Can't wait for pictures!

Speaking of tinder do this:  take out the lint filter in your dryer and pull off the lint, stick in ziplock bag and take with you -- when you need to start a fire grab a small handful, place where you would place tinder and light.

Dryer lint is one of the best survival tinder I've found!!!  Works so good we 'recycle' ALL of ours now and each ruck has a stash in it :)

Cheers
Erik


Erik,

If you're going to use dryer lint as tinder, make sure it is from a cotton load.  Synthetics don't catch a spark or burn.  Also, if you have dogs or cats, you might want to go another way entirely.  (Pet hair smells BAD when burned.)  Okay survival geek rant off.     ;D
"The problem with quotes from the internet is that they're not always accurate." -- Abraham Lincoln

OlJarhead

Quote from: Pritch on December 23, 2009, 03:47:50 AM
Quote from: OlJarhead on December 23, 2009, 12:36:43 AM
Quote from: MountainDon on December 20, 2009, 12:06:38 AM
The Jeep is loaded. We have our warm clothes and snowshoes, a couple books each plus a few DVD's. Food is stockpiled in the cabin. The water cistern is full. Firewood cut, split and stacked. Pine needles gathered for tinder. What more could one need?


We'll be off in the AM for a few days of winter solitude up in the mountains. Photos to come.  :)

Can't wait for pictures!

Speaking of tinder do this:  take out the lint filter in your dryer and pull off the lint, stick in ziplock bag and take with you -- when you need to start a fire grab a small handful, place where you would place tinder and light.

Dryer lint is one of the best survival tinder I've found!!!  Works so good we 'recycle' ALL of ours now and each ruck has a stash in it :)

Cheers
Erik


Erik,

If you're going to use dryer lint as tinder, make sure it is from a cotton load.  Synthetics don't catch a spark or burn.  Also, if you have dogs or cats, you might want to go another way entirely.  (Pet hair smells BAD when burned.)  Okay survival geek rant off.     ;D

:)  Actually we've done this alot with no issues.  In fact when we ran out we had to find alternate sources in the snow!  Of course we've only used it outside and not in a stove so I don't know if that might make a difference but so far one spark and the stuff lights in the worst of conditions.

We tested it first on the driveway and were amazed at how easily it lit with a sparker and how long it burned!

I got the idea from a survivalist buddy and now carry lint with me all the time in the woods :)

Redoverfarm

Talking of good fire starters.  We once had a dry cleaners in town.  Talking about getting a fire started.  The lent from the cleaners was more than enough to light large burn piles. Didn't smoke as bad as tires. ;) 

Jens

Quote from: Redoverfarm on December 23, 2009, 07:28:36 AM
The lent from the cleaners was more than enough to light large burn piles. Didn't smoke as bad as tires. ;) 

did you have to wait 40 days before it would work John? 

I like to save shavings from hand and power planes.  They really add up, and make great starter.
just spent a few days building a website, and didn't know that it could be so physically taxing to sit and do nothing all day!

MountainDon

Well, we're back home today to have our little family celebration tomorrow.

There was new snow when we arrived in the mountains. I have not seen such dry crystalline snow for a quite a while. Our plan was to park the Jeep at the Van Ruyckevelt's and snow shoe the short cut to the cabin. But we couldn't keep ourselves from at least looking at our road! We were surprised to see the forest service had not locked the FR10 gate yet. There had been traffic so we headed up. Sorry, no pictures of it, I really did not want to stop. That powder had low traction, very slippery feeling. It simply would not pack and the tires had little to grip. We did go 2 miles up though.  ;D

Anyhow we turned around and parked at the van Ruyckevelt's. That was a job in in itself as they were away and the snow had not been plowed. The sun was in the wrong place so I have lots of lens flare.  :(



I backed up the side area parking as best as I could, which was not very good. I wanted to be pointed downhill as there was more snow in the forecast.



That's a rather grand house in the woods. So as planned we snowshoed up the slope behind their place to an old abandoned logging road.



Along the trail the last time we were up there we hiked and cut through several downed trees to make the snow shoe trip easier.



There were plenty of deer and elk tracks, as well as rabbit and coyote. The distance is about 1.1 miles with a total vertical climb of some 600 feet. With the climb and the foot deep loose snow it took us about 65 minutes to reach our cabin. Our packs weren't all that heavy, but the library books added to the small amount of fresh foods we carried. All along the way we marveled at the great number of animal tracks we came across.

Here's Karen on the final hill. Here the snow wasn't as deep, but the climb was still a grunt.




Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


MountainDon

Elk tracks near the PV panels.



I built a fire in the wood stove, the temperature inside the cabin was a frosty 28 while outside it was a balmy 44. I also fired up the propane heater and in a couple hours it was 68 inside.  :)

We went for a snow shoe trek around the land. I relocated the game camera to a better location. At least I hope it is better than the last one.

So what did we do with our time? Well, of course, we burnt more ground debris.  :D





I'm down to one usable chain saw and it was in the jeep just incase we needed it along the road. I was not going to pack it up to the cabin either, so we burned some of the longer peces a section at a time.



There are three fires going at once there. The rope is the guide for the snow sled slope.

This next shot was on Tuesday IIRC. It snowed Monday and Tuesday both, most on Tuesday.



A b undled up Karen on her snow shoes and with her new adjustable trekking poles. (early Christmas gift)



Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

MountainDon

#990
I packed three books to read and got through 2.5 of them.

We have a stockpile of a variety of foods, such as pancake mix, flour, salt, rice, assorted dry pasta, olive oil, ketchup, tuna and salmon in foil packs, oatmeal and cream of wheat, mashed potato flakes. Cheerios for breakfast along with a case of those aseptic packaged 8 ounce milk cartons. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Bertolli pasta sauces in the foil packs resist the freezing temperatures and are delicious. Mac 'n' cheese dinners can be supplemented with fresh tube steaks. (I packed in 4 Nathan's hot dogs.) Then we have a large assortment of Mountain House freeze dried meals or entrees. We find that the "serves 2" sizes feed us, maybe 2/5 for K and 3/5 for me. The ones we ate this time were pretty good. We had a Chicken Teriyaki and a Pasta Primavera. For lunch one day we had the scrambled eggs and bacon. The eggs were good, although I prefer my bacon to be in strips rather than crumbles.



Add 8 oz. of boiling water, stir, wait 5 minutes, eat. We augmented them with pumpernickel pretzel sticks, another stockpiled item.  :)

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

MountainDon

It snowed more on Wednesday. Not a time for any pick up games...



The only pickups were firewood and more firewood.



The temperatures were all below freezing from Tuesday on. The low recorded was 19 and that was this morning. The woodpile is about 70 feet away from the cabin. After the fire last spring it seemed like a good idea to keep it spaced away. WEe have a ready to use box on the porch. Depending on the weather it will last for three days or so.

That's the wood box with a little overflow. The water jugs are empties waiting to be refilled. The cistern and water pump worked well. The poppet valve in the pump froze and had to be thawed with hot water, but we were prepared for that eventuality.



The open air refrigerator. The dutch oven holds some frozen berries and cheese. The plastic container, some left over spaghetti.





Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

MountainDon

The solar panels after the snow. It only took a short time for them to melt clear once some sun hit them. We actually went three days with mostly overcast to raging snow. Even on the worst days we made some power, not enough to replenish, but at least some.



I monitored the batteries and never ran the generator at all until Wednesday night, the third cloudy day. We did quite well on power only using up about 20% of capacity with the temperature correction applied. I ran the generator Wednesday night as I can't stand the thought of leaving them down, even though today was forecast to be sunny.

Another epicurean delight...  Pasta Primavera. Two servings; 2 cups boiling water, stir, wait 9 and eat.



I should mention that the Mountain House freeze dried green peas, peas and corn are superb! Absolutely wonderful veggies.

Here's one of our potential future Christmas Trees.



I'd actually like to light it with some LED lights some year and leave it grow. There are a couple others that are crowded tough...

Looking up the slope with all the snow...



The trek out this morning along the old overgrown logging road... those are our partly covered incoming tracks.



We're planning a return for a three day weekend some time in January.   :)

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

rick91351

Welcome home Mountain Don!  Was wondering how things were going up there for you two.  Looks like you both had a very present time of it.  Good to know the cistern and pump worked well.  Thanks a bunch for the pictures I did enjoy them!  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to both you and Karen.

Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

MountainDon

Thanks Rick.

The water came out of the cistern at about 40 degrees. The thermometer was off scale so there was some extrapolating involved. We filled 8 to 10 one gallon jugs at a time. We did that twice. We left the cabin with about 12 jugs 3/4 full. Experience has shown that one gallon jugs 3/4 full will not slpit when frozen. It takes about a quart of water to prime the pump.

For the future I plan on storing the pump inside the cabin (during freezing weather) and closing off the pump downpipe with a rubber clamp on cap.

It was really great to while away the time up at our cabin. I read a couple of great books. Crazy For The Storm, a story of an eleven year old boy who survived an airplane crash in the San bernardino Mountains in winter. The Deep Dark, the story of the worst hardrock mine disaster in the country's richest silver mine (the Sunshine mine in Idaho.) The third book I started, is The Dragonhead, the story of the rise and fall of a Chinese Mafia "lord".  I also played, and won, a couple games if solitaire. Alas, I lost more than I won.

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


poppy

Nice set of pics. Don 

Quotesupplemented with fresh tube steaks
rofl  I thought they lasted forever.

Like your wood box set up.


Jens

that sure is one tough looking Jeep!
just spent a few days building a website, and didn't know that it could be so physically taxing to sit and do nothing all day!

Whitlock

Don what is you next project looks like the cabin is done :-\
Make Peace With Your Past So It Won't Screw Up The Present

MountainDon

I have to finish the bathroom inside come spring. Then there's still more land clean up or thinning of some more pines.

:)  Then it's time to kick back and enjoy.  :)   Take a few 4WD trips.   


Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

rwanders

 :D :D

Who are you kidding Don?  We all know our cabins are never "done"-----we just pause for a while every now and then to plan.  However, a few 4x4 trips are allowed too.
Rwanders lived in Southcentral Alaska since 1967
Now lives in St Augustine, Florida