Madhuvan Village diary

[Guest guest]

We just finished a week of meetings with HH Kadamba Kanana Swami. He is our

well wisher and friend, and is always encouraging and helping us in so many

ways.

 

January has been a good month, while it sometimes reached minus 11c at

night, it got as high as above 20c in the day! Shirtsleeve weather!

 

My wife Savita and our son Sudama (10) have been working on de-barking some

pine beams with a draw knife and other tools, to be used to create a

half-loft in the yurt.

 

I tried an experiment with the stove. I wanted that the chimney would heat

the floor a bit. At first I thought to lay plastic pipe (yuk) under the

floor to have underfloor radient heating with hot water but that would mean

I'd need a circulation pump which would used precious solar power. The

chimney worked fine when it was layed in a trench on the floor, but after I

covered it with sand, the stove just smoked and smoked. Live and learn

 

The floor is going to be made with mud, lime and cow dung, and I think would

really benefit a bit from some underfloor heat.

 

I help look after some cows. Two of them are a friends and one of them was

donated to me. She is Sakhi and she gives about 14 litres a day. I want to

move her to Madhuvan as soon as we move there, but exactly where I am not

sure. At one point I thought to move her right next to our yurt, but then

there would be too many flies I think, so probably well move her about 100

meters away down near the garden. Any thoughts on that? She is a lovely cow,

very reserved and gentle.

 

I really appreciated Gopals text wherein he states: Does anyone else have

any ideas about it being the duty of brahmanas (and brahama movements) to

first perfect and then teach cow proection to the people of this age?

 

At Madhuvan, this is our goal! We are aspiring to teach people about village

simplicity by living it. The cows and the village are a whole, you cant

isolate any of them. While I am not much of a brahmana I am aspiring to

learn as much about simple village life as I can so I can teach it to

others, and all with the goal to reach the mode of pure goodness. I'm hoping

that once I get there, Krsna is going to appear one day and show me a secret

path through the trees that I never saw before...

 

Its a bit long this text, in future I'll try to keep em short and sweet.

 

YS Samba das

[Guest guest]

> The

> chimney worked fine when it was layed in a trench on the floor, but after

I

> covered it with sand, the stove just smoked and smoked. Live and learn

 

Exhaust must always rise, inevitable. If I am understanding you, you were

trying to make the smoke go down and then under. Even with power exhaust,

pipe must rise. The only way to get pipe under floor would be to dig a pit

and put stove into that. Then you could get a rise and still be under the

floor. No idea if that is possible in your sitation. The other issue is

accessiblity for cleaning. Wood stove pipes should be checked at least once

a month and cleaned if 1/4" or greater buildup.

 

> there would be too many flies I think, so probably well move her about 100

> meters away down near the garden.

 

One way to keep flies down is to feed insectivorious birds in the winter to

keep their populations high.

[Guest guest]

> Exhaust must always rise, inevitable. If I am understanding you, you were

> trying to make the smoke go down and then under.

 

I have a split level in the yurt, and the fire was lower than the chimney

level, but not the chimney outlet, so it had to go up to the outlet of the

stove then down about a foot. It did it ok as I mentioned when the pipe was

uncovered. I guess it did not take long for the pipe to get warm, but when I

covered it with sand, I guess there was a lot more to heat, and it couldn't

do it. The pipe was underground for about 9 feet, and then it went up into

the air about 20 feet.

 

> The other issue is

> accessiblity for cleaning. Wood stove pipes should be checked at least

> once a month and cleaned if 1/4" or greater buildup.

 

Good tip, but do people do that in real life, I mean once a month!

 

> One way to keep flies down is to feed insectivorious birds in the winter

> to keep their populations high.

 

I have been looking for information about this. I heard that a certain size

of nesting box also encourages them. But I dont have the specifics. Any idea

where I can get detailed information?

 

Thanks for the tips.

 

YS Samba das

[Guest guest]

>The pipe was underground for about 9 feet, and then it went up into

> the air about 20 feet.

 

You need at least a one inch rise for every foot of horizontal pipe. Also,

you can't share the chiminey with any other devices, that is a sure formula

for back drafting.

 

Another idea would be to put a pipe open to the high point in the structure

with a fan on the lower end that could blow into the crawlspace.

 

> > The other issue is

> > accessiblity for cleaning. Wood stove pipes should be checked at least

> > once a month and cleaned if 1/4" or greater buildup.

>

> Good tip, but do people do that in real life, I mean once a month!

 

We lost a building a year to fire in NV for about 13 years, 2 because of

candle manufacturing and the balance to chiminey fires. So I check mine

every month. Once a month of useage. If don't use the stove I don't check

it, but if it hasn't been used say for all summer, I check before starting

in case a bird nested in the pipe, if there is a spark arrestor with large

enough holes in it for them to get thru.

 

We only burn wood 5-6 months a year, as we do get some passive gain from an

attached greenhouse and are well insulated and tight. The first and last

month we only burn part time, so it amounts to about 3 times checking in a

year. We also burn only cured, dry, nonresinous wood, so we don't get that

much buildup.

 

 

> I have been looking for information about this. I heard that a certain

size

> of nesting box also encourages them. But I dont have the specifics. Any

idea

> where I can get detailed information?

 

It would depend on local bird species, but a simple internet search will get

all the info necessary. Most insectivarious birds won't nest in a box

around here, bluebirds do, so winter feeding them keeps populations high.