I’m pretty excited about this post. If you’ve been reading, you know that we finally installed the wood stove in the bus a week ago. I had originally planned to go this weekend and do a solo trip sleeping in the bus, but the Mrs. insisted that she come along as well. She is great company. I’m not saying that to say it; she doesn’t read the blog. ;)
We spent the day Sunday hiking with the children. When we got home, we fed them and dressed them for bed, leaving them in the care of my mother-in-law. The Mrs. and I left the house at 6:30 pm and arrived at the land a little after 8:00 pm. We parked on the road and hiked across the patchy snow with our black utility sled in tow. I brought in all of our wood from and wasn’t sure we would have enough for the entire night. In this picture, you can see that my pack basket was entirely full, as well as the cardboard box beside it.
After getting into the bus, I started the fire. The draw of the stove was pulling a little strangely, making a chuf-chuf-chuf sound until the stove was hot and there was a good bed of coals. I think we might need more pipe. Not sure. The Mrs. enjoyed a frosty beverage while asking me questions about stove draw. My consistent answer? I don’t know!
Within an hour, the entire bus was warm. Not, like, luke warm, but down-to-my-t-shirt warm. We put the kettle on the stove and had tea in no time at all. For the record, we were also equipped with fire suppression equipment, a carbon monoxide detector, and a smoke detector. You can never be too safe.
We went to bed at 11:00 pm. At 2:00 am, I woke up to a chilly bus. I got up and investigated and the fire was out. I had much kindling on hand and lit another fire. Within 45 minutes, the bus was toasty again. It takes a long time to heat a big metal can.
I woke up again at 5:00 and again at 7:00 and added wood both times. The stove, for reference, is about half the size of a five gallon bucket. It doesn’t hold much wood and tends to burn through what it does hold rather quickly. At our high altitude, the poor fire is nearly starved for air. I think the stove is the perfect size, space wise, but may come up a little short on the duration of burn.
The Mrs. remarked that it was the warmest night we’ve ever had on the bus, even in July. I agreed. Wood heat gives us options and a warmth that propane just can’t provide. I can’t wait to burn dried cow poop. It should make chimney cleaning a super fun job.
What’s next? We’ve talked about consolidating our sleeping area with a heavy curtain in an effort to retain heat. We’re also discussing hardwood. For those of you familiar with Colorado, you will understand my dilemma. Hardwood, for the most part, does not grow in Colorado. We have plenty of aspen and pine, but no real hardwood. I’m going to look into getting a truck load of hardwood, but at $225 a cord, it may be awhile before I make the purchase. I’m also going to look into oak pallets and see if I can find a free resource for them and if they are safe to burn.
We woke the next morning happy and warm. This is the view from my bed.
The colors were better in real life!
We’re progressing. We discussed several other projects for the bus during the evening, and I’ll write about those in another post.
I’m not an axe murderer, I swear.
Pax Domini Sit Semper Vobiscum,
Mark Oliver Howes
