Cold Snap

It's been really cold here for the past few days. Some parts of the state had 36 below zero!

I guess I was lucky since it only got down to -20 here. The cabin is well insulated now so it was not cold inside. Spent most of the weekend indoors with a few walks here and there with the dogs.

There was a newspaper article that said it was colder here than at the South Pole!

It is going to warm up today to +20.

Solar Power

 

Until recently my propane generator was the only source of electricity for the little cabin. Now I have a small solar setup that reduces the need for the generator although it is still needed from time to time.

 

First, I bought a meter that tells me how much power I am using at any give time. With TV, lights, computer and internet all working I am using  132 watts.

 

 

 

I have two 100 watt solar panels. I will be adding one more panel soon. The panels are about 2 feet by 3 1/2 feet each. 

 

 

 

 

Here are the electronics and battery box, attached to the wall behind the shower enclosure. Inside the box are two 6v deep cycle batteries. They are wired to act as a 12v battery and there is 220 amp hours of capacity. The batteries are not supposed to be discharged below 50% so that means there would be 110 amp hours available to use when fully charged.

 

So a little math... 110 amp hours x 12 volts = 1320 watt hours.

Since I use 132 watts, theoretically I could run 10 hours on a full charge. I usually only turn everything on for 2-3 hours per day.

 

The 200 watt solar panels would need to be in the sun for about 8 hours to recharge. This time of year, they won't get more than 2-3 hours of good direct sunlight per day.

 

The batteries are in a sealed box with a vent pipe that goes to the outside. This is needed because batteries can generate hydrogen when charging and it needs to be vented outside.

 

The big silver box in the photo is the inverter/charger. It turns the battery power into household current and also works as a battery charger whenever the generator is started up.

 

Last is the solar charge controller. The solar panels put out voltage ranging from 0 to 20 volts. The controller sends the right amount of voltage to the batteries for charging. It also displays some info such as the % battery charge.



Slideshow Video of Little Cabin Build

I put together a little video of the cabin build and posted it on youtube...

Elk Hunting

Elk have been really scarce this year. I usually find some each time I go out but this year I didn't see any at all for the first month of the season. I did see a wolf track which is something new. Soon there will be more wolves around and even less elk. This has already happened in other parts of the state but it has taken a while for the wolves to move into this area.

 

Saturday, my friend Matt and I hiked way up into the wilderness area and used the horse to pack our backpacks and guns. I hiked about 15 miles- the most I have hiked in a long time! We got to the place where Terry got her deer last year and saw a big heard of elk. Probably close to 100 elk!

 

They were higher still so we had to circle around and climb, climb, climb, until we got to the top. We were just getting there when someone on the other side spooked the herd and the elk came running at us. The sound of the herd running was a continuous rumble and soon elk were running by each side of us. Matt only could shoot a branch antlered bull with his license so he was waiting for one to come by. The two big bulls in the group went another way so he never got a shot. I had drawn a cow license this year so I was able to shoot the last cow going by. We packed it out on the horse and after a very long day we were very tired. After church Sunday we cut up all of the meat and each will take half. Lots of steaks!

 

It was a good day in the high country!

 

 

 

 

New Chapter

Well, I guess most of you know that we have sold our place on Beaver Creek. The folks that bought it live in Billings which is about 4 hours from here and won't be moving out here for at least a year. I was able to make an arrangement with them to stay in the little cabin rent free for a while. It is good for them since they are not here very often and I can keep an eye on it for them. It is good for me because I can still keep the horse here and as I said it is rent free! When I do move, the little cabin will still belong to us- it is small enough to be moved easily. That's one reason I only made it 11x15 (11x20 with porch).

So a new adventure begins. I know there are a lot of questions about how I can live in this little cabin with no water service or utility power.

Heat is with a nice woodstove. It is a Jotul 602 which is a small cast iron stove made in Norway. We haven't had any super cold weather yet but I can tell that it will be easy to heat the cabin with just a little firewood. The stove is cast iron which helps it hold heat through the night and there is also a steel eye on top for heating water, cooking, etc. Cooking on it should be fun

 

Yes, I have an outhouse! It is not as bad as you might think. It is clean and not too much of a hardship to go out in the night. (Check back with me about this in February!)

 

I built this little shed to keep some things in and for a place to keep the dogs during the day. They have a pen that they can go out to. My CNC is inside but not running yet. The shed will also come with when I move.

 

For power I have a generator. Soon, I plan to add a battery bank and maybe some solar panels. More on that later. I have TV, internet and phone.

 

 

Light is by battery powered lantern or if I need a lot of light, a propane lantern.

 

I have a shower (some things are a must!). It is in the corner behind the shirts. I put a bucket of water (12 quarts) on the stove at night. It is usually just the right temp when I get up in the morning. If not, I heat it with propane. This is enough for a 5 minute shower. The shower is basically a shower stall with a shelf over head. I put a water tank on the shelf that has a spigot. Water goes in tank and then it is just gravity flow out. Works fine.

 I am sure most people would think this is a hard way to live but really, it is something I have wanted to try for a long time. So far it has been a lot of fun. Terry is away for a while so I can take this time to do this experiment and in the mean time save up $$ for our next place.

For now though I am still "On Beaver Creek"!

 

Log Cabin Article

Some of you know about my website where I offer plans for building woodworking jigs that are used for cutting log cabin notches. That website is http://logdovetailjig.com

I occasionally even sell some plans.

I got a phone call about a year ago from someone who said they were writing an article about log cabin building. I answered his questions as best I could and then pretty much forgot about the conversation.

Today I got a magazine in the mail. The New Pioneer Magazine is a kind of homesteading publication and it had the article about cabin building. They had a pretty good write up about my plans and website so hopefully I will get a few customers from it.

You can read the article here:

http://logdovetailjig.com/new_pioneer_article.pdf

Family Pictures

Our Trip to Montana

Brandon and I flew up to Montana last week to spend a little time with Fred and the pets.  We flew into Bozeman where Fred met us with a rented RV.  We drove to Wyoming and camped outside of Cody the first night.  We then drove to Cody and camped.  We visited to Cody Museum and watched the 4th of July parade.  We then drove the Beartooth Highway and went through Yellowstone and camped outside of Gardiner. We headed home to Helena on the 5th.  We spent the rest of the time there around the house. Brandon got to drive Fred's old pick-up truck.  He did a good job. We rode 4-wheelers up to the look out tower at the top of Hogback Mountain, hiked in the creek and took family pictures.  We worked on the little cabin and outhouse getting it ready to hopefully rent out to hunters and campers.  Fred and Brandon made the flower holder out of willow branches.

 

 

 

 

 Breakfast of champions - hot dogs and bacon!

 

 

 Feeding the chipmunks

 

 

Snow in July

 

 

 Parade pics

 

 

Brandon was tired so he decided to take a nap

 

 

Grizzly in the park

 



 

Elk in town

 

 

Elk by our campsite

 

 

Ready for a ride