Hey Guys, Ive been reading a lot here, posted a couple times, but mostly soaking this stuff up. Never have I stumbled upon such a friendly and supportive group on the net, Im truely greatful!
I live at 9,000 ft in the Sangre de Cristos, on the edge of nowhere. Im a single dad of three and we live in an old wood cabin, heat with an old 70's Vermont castings. It aint bad, bud It would be nice to increase my efficiency as Cuttin 5-6 cord a year is difficult due to the 1.5 hr drive to the beetle kill area.
ALso, Im a crazy gardener and always looking for ways to extend my growing season. Ive got a 400 sq ft greenhouse that I get closer with each year. Last season I upgraded from polyweave film to Solexx double wall and added a woodstove( a free, huge, extremely wasteful beast).
Well, I was running in there dropping huge amounts of wood 4x a day, the last load at 2 in the AM, just to keep things from freezing. I burned nearly 3 cord just to keep veggies from dying early. It was silly of me to harvest cut and split all that wood in order save a few plants. However, me n the kiddos find great joy in growing as much of our food as possible, so we are stuck trying to figure this out :)
This year I would like to build a rocket heater, possibly one with the ability to not only heat some air in the greenhouse, but to heat water that will warm my water mass storage barrels. I need efficiency and long sustained steady heat in there so I don't have to another fall season full of inadequate sleep. Obviously, a version of ppotty1's new workshop batch style and gary's incredible workshop stove is looking really appealing. I look forward to incorporating some of these concepts into something that will work in my greenhouse.
Im so glad to have found you guys!!!! PPotty1, Gadily, tryin2hard, garyb, and everyone else,you all are so inspiring and are giving me so many ideas!
Thank you so much!