Gulf Island Building.

BigJim

jl, that is some kinda cold buddy, the coldest I have ever been in was -11F back in 1950 in Memphis with 4 inches of ice over everything. That is amazing how it gets so cold where you live and other parts of Canada. I don't know if I could handle the cold like you have or not.

Burning pine, how do you handle the creosote build up? I had one creosote fire and it was unbelievable the sounds it made and the fire balls that rolled off our roof.

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Jim

cocobolo

Bootz, Jim, jl, convchris...thank you all for your thoughts.

I am far more concerned for Larry's wife and son - who is still in school. His wife is a cancer survivor, but is sadly confined to a wheelchair for life. To make matters worse, she is literally held together with steel pins.

I shall pass along your messages when the time is right. We are trying to minimize this terrible disruption in her life right now, and my good friend Randy is doing the communicating for everyone.

I thank you most sincerely for your very kind consideration.

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cocobolo

I didn't think you would be getting that much of the wind last night.

I had the weather channel on for a short while, and finally saw one of their warning screens come up. It was for the 70-80 k winds gusting to 100 k's over the next few hours - and we were smack in the middle of the warning area!

It was definitely brutal last night. North easterly which howled for hours. I'm really glad I got the safety line in on the sailboat mooring, otherwise it would have been on the beach for sure this morning.

The new neighbour at the south end of the island called this morning with 100 questions about moorings! It seems one of his two boats got off the mooring last night. Somehow or other it managed to blow up on the beach in Whaleboat passage before it got too far. Very lucky.

It turns out that he doesn't know how to tie the requisite marine knots, or do a splice. He's on his way down to learn these things!

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cocobolo

Evidently it was only -18ºC with the wind chill last night here. At least that's what it was over in Nanaimo. I have a hunch the wind chill was colder than that right here, as we were in the middle of the storm.

The temperature has warmed up to a balmy -5ºC now and the sun is desperately trying to come out...still lots of cloud around though.

The wind was strong enough that it broke my thermometer off the pole it was attached to. Snapped the top right off.

We try to get arbutus wood to burn here, but it's getting to be very hard to find now. So I am relegated to driftwood...which might be hemlock, fir, even cedar, which is really only good for kindling. Occasionally we will get an alder if one comes down. That's nice firewood.

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cocobolo

Jim. Almost any green wood will cause a creosote buildup. Once it has seasoned it is usually OK. But the trick to keeping creosote buildup to almost nothing is to burn a very hot fire at least once every day. If you run a wood stove shut down all the time (very little air coming in) you will get a creosote buildup no matter what you are burning.

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gma2rjc

Can you cut up the wood from fallen trees that are on other people's property? Like the people who are only there in the summer?

Barb

cocobolo

As long as you have their permission.

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gma2rjc

It seems like you'd be doing them a favor. Who wants to get there to relax and enjoy themselves and find a big tree laying across their yard?

I can understand getting permission though. Is there a way to contact people when they're not there for the season?

BigJim

Keith, when I was heating with wood I did try my best to get seasoned wood.

So pine will be fine as long as it is dry? I was always afraid to burn pine dry or not. Down this way no one will buy pine to burn. About how many cords do you burn a year?

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Jim

biggidybankston

Wow...its taken me some time, but I just finished reading all the way through this thread. This is by far the most interesting thread on the forum, as well as the most interesting DIY I've ever heard of. The design is gorgeous, and the execution and craftsmanship are simply astounding. On top of it all, the unique challenge of the location makes it unbelievable. Coco, you are an inspiration to us all. Your work here has really challenged me to turn it up a notch on my own projects, and I can't begin to describe how much I've learned from the glimpse of your work that I've seen.

Thank you!

cocobolo

Most people here are well aware of the risk of falling trees. Plus, they usually will cut up any such deadfalls for their own firewood.

Even summertime visitors - of which there are quite a few - like to sit around the fire at night.

I only know of one cabin here which does not have a wood stove, and they heat with propane. It strikes me that bringing propane tanks over is about as much work and nowhere near as much fun as chopping your own wood.

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cocobolo

We don't have pine on this island, so I cannot give you any personal experience about burning it.

But up in the interior of B.C. a neighbour two lots away from us has had a family cabin for many years. I understand that they had a huge stand of pine on their acreage, but it got infested with the pine beetle.

It was cut down and much of it was burned for firewood. So, I can only assume it is OK for that, I just don't think it makes a lot of heat - which is true of most of the softer softwoods.

Douglas fir is a harder softwood and makes pretty good heat. Hemlock doesn't seem to make nearly as much heat, even though the wood itself seems to be reasonably hard.

We get through around 3 cords or so each winter. It might be a bit more when we are in the new house, as there are two wood stoves in there.

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cocobolo

Au contraire my friend, thank you!

Anyone who makes it through all this stuff needs a medal - at the very least!

Maybe I can ask you for a small favor...could you mail us up a box of that good Atlanta heat? It's still freezing here!

If there is anything that you might like to know, please feel free to ask...and many thanks again for your very kind comments.

Thanks for visiting!

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biggidybankston

Well okay...but only if you take this nasty wetness with it, and it also comes with burning Augusts with 301% humidity.

When I got up this morning, the weather guessers indicated that it would be clear today. And since there were blue skys above, I left the dogs outside. The wife-unit called around 4:30 having just gotten home in the pouring down rain to raise ever-loving....love for having two hounds soaked to the bone. Guess I'll be bathing dogs when I get home...

Not much rain here...just drab-and-dreary-keep-the-customers-away weather.I'm actually a bit envious of you, snuggled up in that cabin by the wood stove.

One matter of curiosity: I've heard you mention Whitehorse a few times, how far are you from there? My grandmother and uncle began a canoe trip down the Yukon river from there in the summer.

cocobolo

I think the road distance from here to Whitehorse would be somewhere around 1,750 miles. Tack on a few more miles to get across the water first.

Did they survive the canoe trip?

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