Been a while since I have made a video. Figured I would make one on yesterdays walk out and around the Ponds and Lake. 2023 was the driest year I have ever seen. It stopped raining the last week of March and other than a 1/2" here and1/4" there we had gotten no significant rain until this last week. The first rain we got this week was 2" over a day and a half and the ground soaked it all up. Literally no run off into the ponds or lake from it. Thursday nights through Friday we got 3" and it made a lot of run off. I have been making a lot of changes to the Cabin over the last couple of weeks. Stuff that me and Mrs Krap had planned on doing and then decided not to do after we started planning and building the new house. I got rid of 2 of the shelves at the front door entry. And moved the remaining shelf up to a position in between where the two lower shelves were and made it 2' longer and 5" wider. And replaced the very broken piece of plywood on that wall. In the late spring I am going to pull that big ass super heavy mini split A/C out and put a 72"W 48"H window there that has basically 3 up and down hung windows in it. I am replacing the through the wall A/C with a 36,000 Mini Split A/C Heat Pump and splitting it into three zones down the East wall. The last one zone in the line being in the bedroom. I have had a long test run of the Mini Split heat pump in the food container now and the little 12,000 unit keeps the container at 70 degrees year round if I set it at 70 but keep it set at 50 and it stays within 2 degrees of that no matter how hot or cold it is outside and uses 60% less electric over all and averaged than running a A/C and a Electric Heater. And around 45% cheaper over winter than burning a propane heater in it. I wanted more space under the shelf to stack firewood under it and to put the big dog food barrel under it. The Barrel holds 350 pounds of Dog Food and needs to be inside and out of the way. Under the shelf on the door end is a perfect place for it and it makes a good end for the firewood stack. The space will hold a stack of firewood that will last around 3-4 days and basically saves me from having to walk out on the porch to get firewood out of the wood box in the middle of the night and early morning when it is really cold like the 1 degree like the overnight temp tonight is predicted to be That I like back ups to my back ups. The Wood Stove is the primary heat, the propane burner is the primary back up, the Mini Split Heat Pump will be third string and if all else fails I can break out the Kerosene Heater. I am not sure what Dyna Glow does different than Mr. Heater but the Dyna Glows I have work year after year without issue and some light cleaning. I have 3 Mr Heater wall mounts that stopped working after a Month and the pilot light just won't stay lit or goes out when the main tries to fire up. No amount of adjusting or cleaning fixes the malfunction. Same tanks and hoses the dyna glows run on. Someday I will dig into ones guts and see if I can figure it out. But I will only buy Dyna Glow propane wall mount heaters now. This one used to be on the opposite wall but I rearranged things and the sofa is where this one was . And I found a nice home for it between the dryer and the wood stove Got it hooked back up, leak tested and fired back up yesterday afternoon. If you don't use thermal fans on your wood stoves, propane and Kerosene burners........ you should. They run on the heat and do a decent job of circulating the heat out. These I got on Amazon for like $15 per. I do most of my cool weather cooking on the wood stove and have a cast iron collecting fetish to do said cooking. The single shelf there will almost hold all of my Cast iron stuff LOL. I even have a cast iron box that sits on top of the wood stove that is a oven that is big enough to roast a whole 5 pound chicken in a roaster in or bake a cake or or standard sheet of cookies in Local Amish built it and it has 1/2" Iron pipes around the inside that do a fine job of evenly distributing the heat in the box for near perfect even heating. Control the temp with a couple of vents on the box and the Stove Damper and airflow. Had never seen anything like it before until I was at my Amish friends house and his wife had one just like mine set up on their porch box stove cooking a chicken in it. So a couple Christmases ago John come rolling in on his buck board and give me one just like theirs for Christmas. It is stored out with the bulk of my cast iron stuff in a container atm. After the single digit cold spell breaks I am planning on moving all of it into the cabin. That box is pretty heavy at around 70ish pounds Aside from painting wall, I picked up some industrial vinyl plank flooring and I guess no one wants the grayish color so a pile of it was on clearance for 50% off $22.49 per box vs $44.99 for any color other than Gray..... Yeah the gray looks real good to me, even though I was going to get the burnt pine color. Poo is giving me that WTF HAVE YOU DONE TO MY HOUSE!!!! Look A lot of what I have been doing is deciding what can stay and what needs to go to the house or the storage container. Not really room for my rocking chair but I ain't giving up my rocking chair! I spend way too many hours in the evening sitting in it by the wood stove reading....... or napping. And well that rocker is one of the better pieces to come out of my wood shop. Made it mostly from scrap walnut and oak pieces. I was going to sell it...... and then I sat down in it and said nope this one is mine! Poo has been giving me that slit eyed I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS LOOK!!! For a week solid now LOL. Things will be a whole lot less cluttered looking after I get all of my tools and the wood and OSB out of the Cabin which should be today. Where that little window A/C in the broken window is....... LOL Me and Dee were playing around and she threw a hard heeled shoe at me... and it went right through the top part of the window LOL. So I stuck a little AC in the window and made the bottom part of the window the top part So I bought a 54"W 48"H window to put in the wall there, and like the bigger pretty consist of 2 up and down windows in one frame. And a pair of 36"Wx48T Windows to put in the bedroom to replace the little windows the building came with. Again that is a warm weather late spring project not a middle of winter job. LOL big holes cut in the walls and 1 Degree temps just not good bedfellows. The passive airflow and cooling in the Cabin just plain sucks with the little windows. Bigger and More windows should correct that malfunction. From a security stand point more glass sucks, from a passive air flow and cooling perspective it is a must. And personally I would not break a window to gain entry with 6 very protective 60-90 pound Dogs waiting for me inside I am more worried about Poo, PoP and Dukey going through the glass than I am someone coming in through it LOL. I broke out some of our Fishing Weaponry last night. A couple of weeks before Dee passed away she bought two Zebco 33s and decent rods Middle and end one on the left. I personally prefer my old classic Zebco 33 and 733s 1,5, 6 from the right. I have been catching fish with those three reels since I was a teenager. Brought in a 47 pound flathead with #5 and more than a few 10-25 pound catfish with it. #6 is my first heavier duty reel a Zebco 700 Hoss I was 9 or 10 when Grandpa gave it to me. I have a pretty good collection of Zebco Reels that I have found at garage and yard sales over the years. The 700 hoss must have been limited production or just not very popular I have only found 2 of them over the last 20 years of looking, I now have after last summers finds every model of the Zebco 33 and 733 ever made. Kind of fun to look at them and see the evolution of the Zebco 33 from the first production run to present. My favorite 33 model is #1 the 1980-1984 model. The newest ones 2-3-4-7 are good reels but not as good as the early 80s model. I have a bunch of spinning reels and bait casters ranging from cheap and light duty to expensive and heavy duty. I rarely even get them out. I love my Zebco spincast reels though and they can handle pretty much everything in the water in Southern IL. And the 733 and 700 can handle the big Catfish just fine when mounted on heavy duty rods. Damned Shame Dee never got to use her new rods and reels, she was really looking forward to fishing in the lake and ponds next spring Nothing fancy about my Cabin just a 16x48 portable shed I picked up as a Repo for $6500 eight years ago. I kind of feel sorry for the folks that buy them and do not do their due diligence and find out that they bought their property in a County with Zoning, Permitting and Restrictions that Prohibit Portable Buildings as homes. Back then this building new was $15,000 same building today is closer to $35,000 so not knowing the Local Government is going to come and tell you get rid of it or get fined is a very costly mistake then and even more costly now. To be fair they do not build these building to housing code and they are not suitable for housing as they come. That requires some fairly simple modifications but they will never pass a building inspection. Although I guess as they have been becoming more popular as housing in recent years, a couple of the manufacturers will build them to code........ for a much higher price. LOL I bought the land where I did for 3 primary reasons the first on that list was NO ZONING, NO PERMITS, NO RESTRICTIONS,NO INSPECTIONS AND NO CODES out in the County other than the State Codes that no one cares about and no one enforces The only two exceptions are Septic Tanks and New Wells require Health Department permits and inspections. And since we can't seem to keep a Environmental Health Inspector it is usually pay for the permit and the Well or Septic never actually gets inspected other than on paper LOL. I did run into one malfunction on the revamp. We got the rare pounding rain blowing sideways from the East.... Rarely does it blow from the East! I discovered that one of the dogs had chewed the door bottom weather stripping to shreds at the base. So all of the water that ran down the door ran into the Cabin under the door LOL. This is why I keep a 20' shipping container full of spare parts for just about everything! Including every flavor of weather stripping to fit every type on every door here It was a 5 minute repair but I can't finish the flooring until that is completely dry again. I am going to put a 12x10 add on to the cabin out that door next summer and make it the Utility, Laundry, bathroom and little workshop all in one room. And turn the existing 8x10 bathroom into a walk in closet or pantry. Also going to jack the entire cabin up 24" so I can actually get under it LOL can do that with the current 8" clearance now. And replace the concrete blocks with new RR Ties. The concrete blocks under it have been crumbling for the last 4 years and I am getting tired of having to jack it up here and there and level it every year because a block crumbled and one of the doors is pinched shut. I should have used RR ties to start with like I did every other portable building and shipping container I have. The Cabin weighs 28,000 pounds empty as a shell, With it finished and stuff in it.... that is probably closer to 40,000 pounds now. Going to be a job to get it up 2 feet but a couple of 30 ton hydraulic post jacks and help from some 30 ton bottle jacks should get the job done. Extending the Electric Main line to move the breaker box from the kitchen to the new utility room is going to be a bit of PITA the main cable itself not such a big deal as that is easy enough with a inline lug terminal connector box. It is I will pretty much have to rewire most of the circuits or splice into the existing circuits. The main water line and the hot and cold water lines are just a simple matter of going up into the loft with them going straight over and back down into the add on. Easier to just put a new septic tank in than to try to connect to the line to the main septic tank. It takes about 4 hours to dig the hole and drop the concrete box in the hole and get hooked up. Would take a lot longer and be a lot harder to dig a 20' trench under the cabin to line up with main sewer line. 2' of clearance does not = enough room to shovel out a 18" deep trench. Gotta go 18" under because it really make a mess when your turd line freezes and back up A lot of folks think I am crazy for staying in the Cabin instead of moving into the much larger new house. Other folks totally understand why and would do the same thing. The Cabin was OUR home and I love my little 768sqft Cabin. It is ample space for me and the dogs, easy to maintain, insulated with R24 in the walls and R30 over and under, low cost to heat and cool. Easy to maintain and it is HOME. The new house was going to be our home but the cabin is where the heart is
Kamp I love your cast iron pan collection. there is nothing better than seasoned cast iron to cook on. They can keep all their fancy ceramic, bimetal cookware --cast iron is the best. I used to have a woodsmen stove for heat in our old house that's all we heated with. moved to a bigger house with 3 boys just got to small. Went looking for that woodsmen stove made by Atlanta Stove Works ----gone out of business.
I've got a question for ya ,, you may or may not have an answer ,, but no one else has given me an answer ,, not even a metal supply company. I have a 5V tin roof over a porch ,, on some days , mostly mornings ,, the metal will sweat underneath,, and it's almost as if it's raining on the porch. Do you know what I could treat the underneath side of the metal to prevent that sweating ? I actually just finished a bathroom remodel for a guy , and had some of the waterproofing that you paint on the hardi backer before the tile goes up , I brushed some of that on the bottom in a spot to see if that would work,, and it seemed to work some ,, but not sure if it will work long term ,, I walked out on the porch the other morning and it felt dry ,, while the rest of the ceiling was dripping wet ,, but it was borderline wet . So maybe a thicker coat may work,, not sure. Thought about mobile home cool seal , or an elastomeric coating as well ,, but I'm also wondering if it could sweat between the coating and the tin . Another reason for asking is , I've got 2 of those metal carport units with the 3' wide multi rib metal , 1 about 20x20 ,, and 1 21x26 ,,, and I'm thinking of building a floor system for the 20x20 and put it on the floor system ,, and I definitely don't need it sweating all the time and ruining everything under it ,, including the wood floor. I would do a concrete floor ,, but I'd have to haul in dirt , grading and most likely build a retaining wall. I've got about 80% of the materials to build it ,, I've gout a bunch of 8x8s for the piers left over from the beach houses I was building. Just trying to get some answers before starting , and like I said ,, the metal suppliers I've talked with didn't seem to even know what i was talking about. Which sure decreased my faith in their knowledge of their products.
I can tell you why it happens it is condensation between the warmer or cooler inside and the cooler or warmer outside. In the house former barn it was stopped when the spray foam was applied. There is a special paint called anti condensation paint that somehow makes a vapor barrier that blocks the condensation from happening to start with. To late now for you but stretch 6mil plastic over it before putting the metal roof on prevents it. A Steeper pitch on the roof when building forces it to run down to the low end at the cost of rotting the wood at the low end. Using the newer rubber roofing instead of metal make it a non issue. It is amazing how many metal suppliers and barn builders are completely ignorant of the condensation factor. I used the paint on the Machine shed roof and the heavy rain inside stopped instantly. I use GrafoTherm Anti Condensation Coating. It ain't cheap but it works. Non issue for the cabin as it has OSB covering the roof and a layer of felt under the metal.
A LOT of the long time Stove makers went out of business when the EPA regulations went full draconian. It cost a lot to make stoves to EPA Specs now. The older the cast iron piece is the better it is. I have several pieces from the early 1800s-1920s and there is a world of difference in between those and the Lodge that seems to be about all you can find now days. Even the 1960s-through 1990s was of very good quality compared to what is new today. Last decent new set I bought was a Ironhorse set cast in Evansville IN in 2008 that soon after became a Chinese company that kept making them under the Ironhorse name but made IN China on the bottom rather than Made In The USA. Since then the brand disappeared, probably because they were total junk after the Chinese owned it. LOL they came preseasoned and pre deeply pitted. My real cast iron treasure are my old Griswold's I am always on the look out at the yard sales for them and find a couple per year to add to the collection. Dense, Smooth and IMO the best cookware ever cast. On rare occasions will find a piece of Griswold in a resale shop or antique shop that is not priced at $200+ per piece. One of the local antique shops has a full 26 piece mint condition set for sale......... $4200.
Found an old Federal airtight wood stove someone was junking took it home cleaned it new gaskets, just need to install in the inefficient masonry fireplace. Same here looking out for old cast iron pans new stuff is mostly Chicome junk
I'll look into that GrafoTherm ,, the porch that rains inside is open air , same temps on top as on bottom,, but I'll be changing that out soon anyway ,, so not really concerned about it,, was just trying to figure out a way to stop it . I have seen some multi rib that has what looks like some kind of woven material glued to the underside of it ,, I was assuming that some companies are getting around to addressing the issue,, but when I saw it ,, I didn't know who the manufacturer was. Thanks for the info.
