Love all the pics and blow-by-blow updates. Thanks for the vicarious thrill!

WOW y’all are coming right along and looking good!!! Thanks for the update and pic’s. God Bless

My lovely Alex, We are so happy that things are finally coming together. I do not know if you have heard this story…We started building our house shortly after Evan was born. His first favorite toy? A plastic hammer rattle. His first words? Not Dada or Mama……"Pound, pound, pound"! The intuitive building skills have been there forever.
Love, Mom and Dad Pederson

My entire married life (41 years) seems to have been spent in construction – we fixed up 2 old houses, built a cabin here on our land, built a house – it burned down and we intend to build another one…meanwhile, we are adding a room to the tin can we are living in which is way too small…we’ve built out buildings, and whatever else – my husband is the King of Shelving by now! But we’ve never lived in a yurt! Sounds like fun!

So glad the stove is fixed and working properly. What a difference! last entry was a little depressing but it goes to show you that things can change and turn around if you hang in there. Husbands are wonderful too! They seem to make a lot of things all go in the right direction. P.S. The black creosote is just awful to clean up. We go though it once a year! Yuk! Keep the progress coming! Love it!

Check out Permies.com for information on rocket stoves that are easy to build, can use way less fuel, store and release heat over a long period of time, releases far fewer greenhouse gasses, can double as furniture and will be far safer then a conventional stove for your little one to be around, also it does not have to occupy the center of your yurt. In all it can save you a lot of future work. Paul Wheaton is the guy with info. I know you’ve invested a lot of work and $$ in what you’ve done with your conventional stove. Check this out though and see if this choice could help. Good luck to you and your family.
Theresa Z.

Hello Alex,

I came to your blog through MaryJanesFarm newsletter, and thought I’d respond to your question about heating with a woodstove. We live in a 104-year-old farmhouse (built from a 1908 Sears catalog kit!) in Olympia, WA, and as far as I know, it has only been heated by coal or wood all these years. We bought our current woodstove twenty-eight years ago, and it’s our only permanent heat source, still works great. About twenty years ago we refinanced, and were required to install baseboard heaters, but when the inspections were done, we removed them – they were actually more of a fire hazard than the stove! Anyway, we also have issues with wet wood, so we have a rotating system: outside wood stack, then into the woodshed, then a small stack near the back door and a stack around the stove. My husband works in construction, so we get lots and lots of kiln-dried scraps, which get the fire going quickly and hot, and actually dries out wood that’s still a bit damp – but only put one or two pieces on at a time, damp wood can kill the fire!

Light woods, such as fir and alder, dry out faster, and are good for getting the fire going well, and heavy woods, such as cedar and apple, work best added later, and last much longer. During the months we use the woodstove, I just make it part of my routine to check the fire every so often.

Heating with wood is messy, so there’s more cleaning to do, but the to-the-bones warmth is so worth it! People love coming to our house, especially when the power goes out, because we stay toasty warm, and we can still cook! I raised four children here, not one of them had any injuries related to using the woodstove.

We do have electric space heaters for occasional use in a couple of rooms that are a distance from the stove, such as the bathroom, also for those times when we need heat but aren’t available to stoke the fire, and for the ‘transition’ times of early fall and late spring, when a fire is just too much, but we need to take the chill out in the morning and evening.

Once we put insulation into the walls and had storm windows made, we found that it was unnecessary to stoke the fire during the night – banking it well and clamping down the baffle keep it going low all night, with a good bed of coals ready to go in the morning.

I’ve even come to enjoy clomping out to the woodshed to get a wheelbarrow load of wood to stack around the stove and near the door. Then I curl up on the couch next to the fire, with a cup of tea, and I’m in heaven. 🙂

Hello Alex and Evan,

I absolutely love reading your blog!and the building of the yurt is amazing. Have you ever seen the movie, "The Tail Of The Yellow Dog"? It is a beautiful movie about living the nomadic life in Mongolia and they live in a yurt. The movie itself is beautifully photographed and the chidren in the movie are absolutely adorable as well. So is the simple life they live and what the children in the movie get to experience. I wish for our children that they could even just for a moment put down all the electronics and just be…children. Even though you are going through some hardships now, you will reflect back on this time as very special and like most things in life, only come around once. To be young, positive, and living off the "grid" somewhat is all a fantastic part of your life! and with a new baby coming. How exciting! Take one day at a time and enjoy all that comes your way. You are doing a great job.

Blessings,

Deborah

I am shocked that you do not have a wood stove that has a water tank to heat your tea & dishwashing water etc…
Also the heated water tank provides warmth for the room.
Seen Rick on Rick’s Restorations using the Steelwool & Vinegar application – I can’t wait to try it out.
Good Luck