3R Home and Barn Project

[Mrs3RRL]

It's also easier and cheaper to heat with wood than to cool with electricity. Then again, our set back thermostat is 63 during the day and 55 at night. But with the firebox going, it's 75 in the basement.

We've found that out also. Our little wood stove keeps us nice and toasty. This morning when I got up at 6:30 am, it was 30 degrees outside (Rob said it was 28 degrees when he got up), and it was 63 inside the house. Now, 63 isn't exactly 'warm', but it's certainly doable, with a robe and slippers, or a long sleeved shirt.

I layer, with a tank top first, then a long-sleeve shirt, and often find myself down to my tank top during the day, working at my computer.

The way our house is built, the living room (where the wood stove is) has a vaulted ceiling, with a 'loft' that connects the 2 upstairs bedrooms. The other day, it was 82 degrees upstairs, and 67 downstairs! We discovered that if we put the loft ceiling fan on high, and the living room ceiling fan on medium or high, it keeps the temps within a few degrees of each other.

But last summer, when it was 115..... well, we really used a lot of electricity to keep things bearably 'cool'. We're hoping that our wood blinds help things out next year. Who would have thought we'd run our generator more during the summer than during the winter??

 

[john_bud]

We've found that out also. Our little wood stove keeps us nice and toasty. This morning when I got up at 6:30 am, it was 30 degrees outside (Rob said it was 28 degrees when he got up), and it was 63 inside the house. Now, 63 isn't exactly 'warm', but it's certainly doable, with a robe and slippers, or a long sleeved shirt.

I layer, with a tank top first, then a long-sleeve shirt, and often find myself down to my tank top during the day, working at my computer.

The way our house is built, the living room (where the wood stove is) has a vaulted ceiling, with a 'loft' that connects the 2 upstairs bedrooms. The other day, it was 82 degrees upstairs, and 67 downstairs! We discovered that if we put the loft ceiling fan on high, and the living room ceiling fan on medium or high, it keeps the temps within a few degrees of each other.

But last summer, when it was 115..... well, we really used a lot of electricity to keep things bearably 'cool'. We're hoping that our wood blinds help things out next year. Who would have thought we'd run our generator more during the summer than during the winter??

Yeah, fans are great at getting the air to the same temps. We have lots in the house, but I still use the furnace fan to move the air from warm basement to the cooler upstairs.

We used to live in NM and had a swamp cooler on the roof and not A/C units. They worked great as the humidity was very low so the evaporation generated a lot of cool air. Growing up in the humid mid-west, it took us a while to figure out that you have to keep the windows open so there is a lot of air flow to make it work. I was assuming from the pictures that your area is low humidity, why didn't you guys go with swamp coolers? (Just being nosy...)

 

[EddieWalker]

...But last summer, when it was 115..... well, we really used a lot of electricity to keep things bearably 'cool'. We're hoping that our wood blinds help things out next year. Who would have thought we'd run our generator more during the summer than during the winter??

One of my clients is a church. They were complaining about a $3,000 a month electrical bill over the summer months. I looked in their attics space and saw that they had less then four inches of insulation with some areas that had none at all. When I told them about it and how much they would save (30 percent is what my other clients have told me) if I blew in a foot of insulation, they hesitated. The board makes all the money decisions and they decided that with winter coming, that they could wait until the end of spring to do this since they wouldn't need the AC in winter. I just shrug and accept their decision, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how they are saving any money this way with 14 HVAC units heating the place all winter long and no insulation to keep the heat in.

Eddie

 

[PAGUY]

Well, we hear that the Fresno zoo will pay $10,000 for a 7-foot rattlesnake.

I'm sure they mean live ones so stop shooting your fortune.

You couldn't get me that close to them to measure.

What's that coiled up on your tractor seat?

 

[rox]

We've found that out also. Our little wood stove keeps us nice and toasty. This morning when I got up at 6:30 am, it was 30 degrees outside (Rob said it was 28 degrees when he got up), and it was 63 inside the house. Now, 63 isn't exactly 'warm', but it's certainly doable, with a robe and slippers, or a long sleeved shirt.

I layer, with a tank top first, then a long-sleeve shirt, and often find myself down to my tank top during the day, working at my computer.

The way our house is built, the living room (where the wood stove is) has a vaulted ceiling, with a 'loft' that connects the 2 upstairs bedrooms. The other day, it was 82 degrees upstairs, and 67 downstairs! We discovered that if we put the loft ceiling fan on high, and the living room ceiling fan on medium or high, it keeps the temps within a few degrees of each other.

But last summer, when it was 115..... well, we really used a lot of electricity to keep things bearably 'cool'. We're hoping that our wood blinds help things out next year. Who would have thought we'd run our generator more during the summer than during the winter??

Loretta, 115? Wow that is hot. I am sure you have seen these in southern California but wha we have here are metal roll up blinds/outside shutters. Inside the metal is insulation. In the hot summers we do close the shutters to keep the heat out. But we kind of follow the sun so that we are not living in a dark cave. We close the shutters/blinds on the side wehre the sun is shining and open them on the sides where the sun has passed. I'm pretty sure we have nover gotten to 115 degrees though. Good thing since we have not ac.

 

[Mrs3RRL]

I was assuming from the pictures that your area is low humidity, why didn't you guys go with swamp coolers? (Just being nosy...)

Well, most of the time, it's fairly dry, but when the hottest weather hits, that seems to be the time that the humidity hits.... and if there's anything worse than hot weather, it's hot HUMID weather.

Now, I've had East Coast friend say that we have no clue what humid weather really is, but our outdoor thermometer also says what the humidity is, and I remember during the really hot weather is was sometimes up to 60-70%.

 

[Mrs3RRL]

I'm sure they mean live ones so stop shooting your fortune.

You couldn't get me that close to them to measure.

What's that coiled up on your tractor seat?

ha-ha, true, true.

 

[3RRL]

I haven't posted an update in a long time because we've been so darn busy.
You saw we got our firewood cart made and started cutting and splitting wood, but we still haven't started building the firewood shed. I will build it away from the buildings, but not too far.

The weather has turned sharply to Winter now.
We get snow crossing the Interstate 5 Fwy (The Grapevine) but it hasn't snowed on our 3R property yet.

 

[3RRL]

What we have been doing is a lot of tractor maintenance.
It seems to come around every Winter and in bunches. Plus, I started several threads about each one of course. First, I crashed into a small boulder which cracked off the right front drive on my Kama. I did that while build a small garden shed foundation. That is not done yet either. Anyway, I had to repair the casting and here are a couple photos and the thread to the actual repair.
Front Drive Casting Repair



Right after that it was time to do maintenance on Loretta's Jinma.
She has a hundred hours on it now so it's time for a complete service. At 50 hours we changed all the fluids and filters but now it was time to do a valve lash adjustment and re-torque the head bolts on it. Loretta did a lot of the work herself. I also did a valve lash adjustment on the Kama right after I finished doing her tractor.
Here are a couple photos of that and the thread to it.
Valve Lash Adjustment on Jinma 284



Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I finished the valve lash maintenance, there was another problem.
I took my Kama out to gather more logs for firewood. I stepped on the clutch and the tractor kept going. Turns out I had a frozen throw out bearing which in turn, ground off the release fingers on the clutch pack. This a major repair since I had to split the tractor in half to get to it. Loretta helped me with the whole thing. As of this writing, I am just getting it back together today. But it was a major deal.
Here are some photos and the thread to that.
Kama Clutch Repair




So you can see we've had our hands full so far.
Some of this stuff became necessary because of service but some was just bad luck on the repairs.
What a drag.
Rob-

 

[3RRL]

There's more...
We've had a couple visits from Ken and his family.
They brought up a nice gift for us. My son Aaron and his family came up too. We've also been working on the barn and shop slowly as we are using it for the maintenance and repairs.

Each time I had to do something for the tractors, I had to look for my tools.
So I ended up sorting out a lot of boxes and putting stuff away. I also had to set up the 3 phase electrical and set up the machinery in the shop. This all took a lot of time. Even before that my son Aaron helped me put plywood on the barn walls. This is to keep the metal chips from burning the insulation on the walls. So each time I wanted to do something, there was a lot of prep work before I could get to the actual repairs. It's still not 100%, but it's getting closer.
Here are some photos of my oldest son Aaron the what the barn and shop look like now.