Hey guys, a possible tip to help you with your fire and smoke coming back into your home. I’m a bricklayer by trade and back home in Ireland. I have built many fireplace and chimneys. The main reason for coming back into a room is the chimney is not tall enough. If you make the chimney taller, it creates a stronger draft due to the increased pressure and difference between the inside and outside air. You should then eliminate the issue with smoke coming back into your home. Hope the tip helps. PS I know you’ve been using the splits off your sawmill. I just hope you’ve given it sufficient time to dry out. This will also eliminate some of your smoke issues. I’m not 100% sure but I think softwoods need 6 to 8 months to dry out if it’s a hardwood like oak or maple you usually give it a couple of years.
As you were grooming the snow, I thought of Bo and Bandit and imagined that they’re probably in their Speedos sipping Pina coladas in the Caribbean. Miss them. Glad you still have Pepper. 😻
Ok ... Republic of Ireland gal here! Dad was a block, brick and stone mason... he didn't just educate his only son, but his 3 oldest daughters! The chimney needs to be higher lads! Hugs and kisses from Cork Ireland 🇮🇪 😘 ❤
We used coal and wood to heat our house when I was a child. There's an art form to it. Dad would line the bottom of the stove with wood - not too thick. Then he put a lump of coal on top of that and some more wood around that. The wood would catch fire first with the kindling, and then the coal would eventually catch. The coal would still be hot in the morning when the wood was long gone. It's great for burning all night and keeping you warm.
Hi Arielle, this is Sheryl, Larry's wife and we started watching you guys a couple of years ago. I just wanted to take the time to say that I think that you are very amazing doing all that you do. I just love it when you do cooking on the show, and baking even more! Have you thought about maybe putting out your own cook book? Your attitude in the face of hardship is admirable. I look forward to the next video!
Hi Sheryl, we appreciate your kind message. I have considered it but I am wild in the kitchen and don't make recipes over and over much, I pretty much never measure. I would need much more spare time to get all my stuff together and get a book out :) Thank you for watching!
@@SimpleLivingAlaskawe all have access to plenty of "regular" cookbooks, what I love about your cooking is how you use a bunch of different ingredients to make similar recipes, the variety of tacos you make for instance. I would love a cookbook that encouraged using substitutions instead of "you have to use this and this specific ingredient"! Living in Norway I often don't have access to local ingredients that are the same as what a recipe asks for, it would be awesome to cook with more local food! In addition it would be great to have some canning recipes for beginners 🤩
In regards to the seed room and your frost drive. You guys would be best served with wrapping the exterior of the blocks with at least 4” of foam board. Preferably in two 2” layers so you can stagger the seams. Three layers would be even better but just depends on your budget. Later in the spring you can side over the foam with roof metal or boards to protect the foam.
I did this with an old masonry block home and it made it very quiet and a lot warmer. The thermal mass is inside the insulation so the house changes temperature slowly.
First thought I had too. Block the cold (and eventually heat) before it even makes it to the brick and inside, the more continuous the insulation the better! Less thermal bridges.
Actually, I was thinking of foam board as well, but I would put inside then cover with some sort of paneling. It would create a nice ledge along the wall to place small pots :)
@ Well it is beneficial to put the foam board on the inside it is better on the outside. As the concrete wall will act a thermal battery once heated and you want to protect that from the outside as it gets extremely cold in the interior of Alaska.
Hey guys, Helicopter Pilot from Germany here; When storing diesel or Jet fuel, you should keep it stored cool and dark. We had microbial growth in one of our tanks and it killed a helicopter and nearly also the pilot. So maybe use a fuel filter suited for the pump throughput and a fuel stabilizer to stop the growth. Take care and thank you for sharing your life with us.
When I was a kid, our house was heated with coal and wood-a true art form in itself! Dad was the maestro, carefully laying a bed of wood, not too thick, then topping it with a solid lump of coal, like the crown jewel. More wood surrounded it, and with a little kindling magic, the wood would ignite first. But the real star? That coal would catch and stay red-hot all night long, keeping us warm while the wood turned to ash hours earlier. By morning, the coal was still doing its job-quietly powerful, like a midnight guardian against the cold.
My grandpa used to buy a load of stoker coal to supplement our wood heat and grandma used to take pieces, set them in little dishes and put iodine on it to make pretty colored crystals.
Growing up in Pennsylvania i also grew up with coal, anthracite coal. My dad mined coal and had his own breaker for a little while. It is an art to keep it going.
A lot of folks in KY burn coal. Of course, there are tons of coal in the mines up in Appalachian Mountains of eastern KY. My family burned it for years and years. It is a dirty business but very warm. We always bought lump coal by the ton. Anyway, one year I couldn't find the sledge hammer to bust up some lump coal for the stove. My husband was at work. I had the genius idea of using a cast iron frying pan to bust up some coal. Well, of course, I literally broke the bottom out of a cast iron frying pan! I did get some smaller lumps for the stove though. So - don't try using a cast iron frying pan to break up the coal or you will own one less frying pan. I also lived in AK from 1977-79 and was there when the pipeline opened. I loved it there and have always wanted to return. I watch y'all faithfully and so miss the adventures up there so it is a great feeling to share your experiences vicariously. Keep on keeping on.
That is so cool that you are going to the north pole around christmas. Oh my gosh I just realized the correlation of coal and the stocking of Santa.😂😂😂😂
I used coal years ago. I used the smaller sized coal because of the size of my stove. The biggest thing to remember is to have patience and burn your coal gas completely off before closing down the stove! This is talking from experience! Otherwise, you will blow your stove up!
We used to use coal when I was younger at home. I don't like to use now. It is dirty for a house. We used lump coal. It holds a fire better. Stocker coal is sent through a furnace on belt that takes small amount at a time in small layer. Don't let it lay in big pile can smolder and cause explosion. If you use keep in small layer. The lump is better for stove made for coal. There are stoves that you can use both lump coal and wood. It will keep fire longer. If I lived in Alaska I would use coal but wood, is cleaner. I used to have hands with coal on all time.I have always used a wood and coal stove. I am 71
You made me chuckle when you held coal for the first time. I was a reminder of just how OLD I am. Coal was the only source of fuel for heat we had when I was growing up. Plus, we learned about the types of coal in elementary school.
60 years ago my family relied on an open coal fire. My job was to make paper coils (in those days we has a daily paper). Those went on the bottom and then wood kindling and the coal went on top. My grandfather had a lump hammer to break up the big lumps which was what you got a century ago.
I just realized I must be sitting here every sunday at exactly video release time. Because i'm always one of the first people to see the video come up.
If you put a little 12V clip on fan in the door way to your seed room, at the top pointing up into the seed room, it will generate a surprising amount of convection, or one of those vehicle window fans. I would not use those box fans you have. Those things are cheap but not very good and they suck to much power. If you do not want to use any power, get you a few of those stove fans and have 2 of them pointing at the doorway to the seed room and one pointing out into the shop. Also, use your tractor bucket to load firewood onto your deck. That is what I do. Simply raise and tilt the bucket so you can offload standing on the deck. Super convenient.
I worked at a coal mine in utah for 27 yrs. I've used about 700 tons of coal in my time. Loved using it great heat with coal but it will cause more creasote than wood, a great way to minimize that problem is to burn quake aspen wood from quake trees if you have it up there, you two are a hoot to watch been watching you for 2-3 yrs. Love your channel.
I think that the only way you'll get your seed room block wall to warm up is to put 4 - 6" of rigid foam insulation on the outside of it. You'd need to figure out a way to cover and slope it a bit just below the windows though... Not an easy fix as a retrofit. You could put insulation on the inside, but with your windows sitting on top of that wall, it will stay far warmer in there if you manage to insulate the outside. Then the wall actually could act as a (positive) thermal mass to radiate heat back out to the plants in the evenings when the temps outside drop.
@@thebackforty939Right. They probably lose most of the heat through the windows. Insulating either side of the blocks should slow heat loss, but the interior would be easier to cover now that it has snowed and the ground is frozen.
I grew up with a whole house coal furnace and I would put a light layer of ashes on top of the coal before bed each night so we would have heat all night, its called banking the fire.
Hello Eric and Ariel , Tks for video. I remember my Grandma putting coal in wood stove at night, I was maybe 4 or 5 yrs old. She cooked on a woodstove. I am 64 yrs old now and the time just flies by. Much love to both of you from North Carolina.....
Eric at night when you get ready to go to bed load your fireplace with wood and top it off with a couple pieces of the sla coal . You won’t have to get up at night to add firewood and you will still have a bed of coals in the morning.
From what I remember, Stoker coal is just the smaller chips from lump coal; there isn't a difference other than size. With the smaller pieces you did get a more even burn rate as the larger chunks burn at different rates. From when we burned coal, we'd start the fire then burn the larger chucks to get the temperature up fast, but overnight we'd bank a lot of smaller pieces to burn slow and long. I do remember that we needed to extend our chimney when we started burning coal because we needed more height to get the proper draft going. The company that installed the fireplace insert back then did the math for us and added about 18 inches in height to get the proper draft. Might want to get a larger version of those convection fans to sit on top of the stove in the shop-- get that heat moving.
Hi guys, I live in Northern Ireland and I heat my house with oil and coal. Our heating oil is around 3bucks per litre, and lump coal is almost 1thousand bucks per ton. Keep a good eye on your chimney as the coal can burn very dirty and put up a heavy layer of soot in it. Great vid guys.
Surprised to see that you don't cook on your wood stove in your cabin more often I cooked a mine all the time I loved it I was actually even thinking of building a metal oven to put on top of my wood stove but never got around to it I have an old antique cooked stove in my house too used to use that for quite a few years loved it but the small skinny pieces of wood and the small box for firebox wasn't enough wood to keep it running all night so it became a real pain into heat in the house at night it's still in the living room just off to the side of the wood stove now that I don't use my wood stove I'm thinking of hooking the cook stove back up more or less just for the looks plus maybe I could use it once in a while being that only takes little tiny pieces of wood I loved cooking on just my regular wood stove too its pretty easy low and slow and using my Dutch oven on the top of the stove worked very nicely😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
This makes me think of my Dad and my Granny. My Dad was a coal miner in eastern Kentucky for many years. My Granny heated her house with coal in a potbelly stove. I loved visiting Granny's.
The in-floor heating is surprisingly efficient. Once you get the going you may be able to back off on the amount of wood/coal you are burning to keep that big space warm.
Every video I'm in awe of you guys for various reasons. This video is your love of the cold weather. I like snow and all, but I do not think I could live up where you guys do due to the cold. Hug you kitty extra for me. Lost my Jaydee this morning due to a serious injury that happened yesterday. Hate the aspect of loss on our fur babies. Their time is never long enough with us, especially when they leave before their time.
Grew up in Glace bay Nova Scotia Canada. My family were all coal miners. Every kid knew how to start the coal stove. Best heat ever…. Love the channel.
We had one of those to, I was lucky the chimney went up in my bedroom, down side was if the wind blew from a certain direction it was a bugger to keep lit, I remember the bellows being used and the occasional the air turned blue if Dad got really fed up. Sweet memories
Back in the 60’s at my grandparents house in West Virginia. The coal trains would ride by right in front of my grandparents home. Afterwords everyone would run out a pick up the dropped coal for the pot belly stove.
My dad and his sister walked the tracks as children in the and 40s picking up coal to heat their house. They lost their dad young and Grandma was a young widow with 4 young children at home. He's now 89 and still talks about it.
@@amybarthel479 my grandfather was covered in coal dust, walking up the railroad tracks. I would hide cause he was so scary with him washing his eyeball in the sink
You know it is cold when the snow crunches under your boots as you walk. Many times, in my childhood, when I walked to school, this is how we gauged the temps. I remember my older sisters telling us younger ones, how dad would get up in the middle of the night to stoke the giant old furnace to keep the house warm. Natural gas was later installed in our area of the city.
A bunch of us had mentioned for the seed room you’ll need to install insulation on the outside and even on the inside some. Otherwise every bit of moisture will turn into ice on that wall. You’re problem solvers, you’ll figure it.
LOL " I think we can get some more in there". " That's all we can get in the tank, because, legally that's all we can have". You guys are great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miss the dogs 😢. Look forward to seeing you guys every week. Such a great team. Would love to see more of your daily routine in your cabin. Especially love all of the cooking and food prep. Love your channel!!!
The problem with being caught up on your videos, is I now have to wait for your next upload 😂 thanks for keeping me entertained on nights that I can't sleep
Greetings from Statesboro GA! 😊 I just discovered your channel not very long ago and I have been binge watching the 2024 season! I’m so impressed with you as a couple & with all of your efforts and planning! I really enjoy your fishing trips! Looking forward to seeing more of your adventures! 👍🏻😊❤️
Seed Room - place some 55gal drums around the brick wall and connect them all in line with PVC pipes. The circulated hot water from your floor system or even use a separate water basin on the oven to heat up water. Circulate the water in a closed loop through your drums. The benefit is that even when you stop circulating or the oven goes out the water in the drums will continue to give heat off. The drums could easily fit under your benches that you will most likely build. Or you can just build a European style heating system with a couple of radiators.
It's great seeing you guys getting ready for winter weather especially where you are there in Alaska getting your home and property fixed up with coal and heating oil it is very beautiful up there even if it's very cold take care and have a great week stay warm and thanks. 🌨️🏔️🇺🇲
Yay a new upload! I’ve been binging the old videos from 5 years ago! Amazing progress in your lives! You should be proud! Thanks for sharing your lives with us!
It really is amazing! Just the steps made when they built the Quanset Hut. From transporting the metal pieces to clearing the land, leveling the land, building the forms and all that entailed. Then getting the concrete poured, leveled, cut and sealed. BUILDING the Quanset hut. It just goes on and on. And we get to watch all that progress, step by step. What a great channel!
Back in the stone age mid 1950`s Ohio. We had coal fired furnace that required a coal bunker and a coal chute. Fancy furnaces had a automatic stoker to feed the furnace. The bunt cake looked amazing!
That sounds like the house I grew up in Detroit. It was in the 1940's, we did not have a fancy stoker. And I remember making baked beans in the furnace. Oh so good.
For the seed room, if you put two eco fans on top of the coal stove and point them at the door of the seed room at slightly diff angles it may vortex the heat into that room and assist with the frosted wall issue. Hindsight: having a double block wall and/or insulation on the outside and including the seed room withon the insulation envelop of the garage would have allowed for better heat distribution. As it is, the insulated wall between the stove and the seed room is disrupting heat transfer and the lack of insulation in the block wall is allowing heat loss. You can always work on that next year, for now eco fans
When we lived/worked in Yugoslavia (pre-war) they burned soft coal in the city, for basically everything. The city was covered in a cloud that never moved. When it snowed the snow began white, turned grey and was dark grey and black when it hit the ground. Good luck.
Great choice for heat! Coal and wood were used when I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin. We'd stoke the furnace about once nightly, and have a comfortable sleep. Love ya'll ❤️
My husband worked in coal mines for decades. He said coal burns way hotter than wood and lasts longer. ie...3 chunks of coal will last all night easily. Looks like your coal stove is working great!!
This brings back memories of going with my Dad to get coal for the winter. I was always fascinated with getting the truck weighed before and after. It was the best heat too.
We lived in Pennsylvania for about six years when I was a kid. Everyone burned coal. I remember that inside the collar of my blouses there would be a black ring due to coal dust! Bituminous is dirtier than Anthracite coal. It burn more quickly as well. Peat, if you can get it, also is a great source of heat. Its smoke smells really earthy. Peat doesn’t create much creosote either. I love your cooking segments, your Bundt cake looks fantastic!!
Coal is a great thing: it is caloric, gives off a lot of heat and burns for a long time. But be careful! Coal emits carbon monoxide - a deadly poisonous compound that is invisible. It is important that there is airflow!
Hi Guys: We use wood as our primary heat as well and had the same problem at first. Where we live has a lot of wind during the winter. There are two things we found that worked ! First we had to get a wind cap for the chimney. It will block the wind from whatever direction it comes from and also creates a low pressure area behind the cap which actually pulls the smoke out of the chimney. Also once you use the stove for a few month you will need to clean the chimney regularly to maintain the good airflow.
I remember getting the winter coal delivery in Scotland growing up. It’s such good fuel, lasts ages and gives such a good heat. Very nostalgic memories 😊
Thank you for the stroll down memory lane. Grew up with a coal furnace. We used coal mostly, sometimes wood if we had down trees available. Great heat and remember it going poof (as we called it) on occasions, you would notice black soot in your nostrils upon waking up in the morning sometimes thru the day 😁 Later in my adult years I lived in another old farm house that had a coal furnace with a stoker on it, wow what a difference that was compared going down and adding coal or wood as needed. With the stoker you just filled it up and it ran and added the coal for you, just had to check the stoker bin and keep it loaded, what a game changer. Hence the smaller pieces are called stoker. I also remember we would get klinkers basically the skeleton of the bigger pieces that would not burn, they were really shiny and looked like metal. Best wishes, I enjoy your channel ❤🤗
Very exciting video today. Interesting that there is a difference in how you groom the dryer snow in your new area. The trip to North Pole and getting coal and learning about burning it was fun, I've never seen coal before either. The lemon bundt cake looked delicious . Enjoyed this video so much. Positive thoughts and good wishes for you from so many people around the world. Blessings.
Frost in the seed room, I think that is coming from air that is being pulled in by the stove draft. What goes out the chimney must be replaced inside that building. Being able to provide outside air via a flexible tube At the base of your stove for draft air would probably make a big difference. I would rig up a temporary test, to see the difference. ❤❤ You guys have that building sealed really well. I enjoy your content each week and look forward to your videos.
Coal, I think the stoker is maybe the stage before the hard lump. You can use a bit in your house too. Swedish people use snow and burie their foundations with snow to help fight the cold. Snow can insulate.
Omg there is so much to absorb with your videos, so much to learn, so much to love my no snow pacific NW but so much respect how you love it and how it works for you and thank goodness for your COOKING!!❤️
Exact same - grandma burned great big lumps of coal in the fireplace one lump at a time to heat the farmhouse. I remember sitting on the hearth with my back to the fire screen and boy did it warm you up! Loved that blue flame.
Great video today. Looks like you have all your bases covered for the winter. Thank you for taking us along. See you again soon. Take care from Cape Cod✌️🇺🇸❤️❤️
Hey guys, a possible tip to help you with your fire and smoke coming back into your home. I’m a bricklayer by trade and back home in Ireland. I have built many fireplace and chimneys. The main reason for coming back into a room is the chimney is not tall enough. If you make the chimney taller, it creates a stronger draft due to the increased pressure and difference between the inside and outside air. You should then eliminate the issue with smoke coming back into your home. Hope the tip helps. PS I know you’ve been using the splits off your sawmill. I just hope you’ve given it sufficient time to dry out. This will also eliminate some of your smoke issues. I’m not 100% sure but I think softwoods need 6 to 8 months to dry out if it’s a hardwood like oak or maple you usually give it a couple of years.
Thank you for this info, you just helped me!
😮 thank you for sharing !!
@sonyashams You're welcome
Save coal when it burns down fill it with wood, then coal,you have a pile of wood.
As you were grooming the snow, I thought of Bo and Bandit and imagined that they’re probably in their Speedos sipping Pina coladas in the Caribbean. Miss them. Glad you still have Pepper. 😻
Ok ... Republic of Ireland gal here! Dad was a block, brick and stone mason... he didn't just educate his only son, but his 3 oldest daughters! The chimney needs to be higher lads! Hugs and kisses from Cork Ireland 🇮🇪 😘 ❤
We used coal and wood to heat our house when I was a child. There's an art form to it. Dad would line the bottom of the stove with wood - not too thick. Then he put a lump of coal on top of that and some more wood around that. The wood would catch fire first with the kindling, and then the coal would eventually catch. The coal would still be hot in the morning when the wood was long gone. It's great for burning all night and keeping you warm.
We did this at our house and coals last all night
Just a word of warning, don't throw coal dust into a fire, it will explode.
True, I think coal is one of the ingredients in making black gun powder.
Sounds like a neat party trick
Brown coal, mate
WE LEARNED THE HARD WAY - "WHEN YOU BUY QUALITY, YOU ONLY CRY ONCE"! NICE WARM VIDEO
Amen to that.
When I saw them dog's running around I thought about bandit and Bo 😢 R.I.P. BOYS
Hi Arielle, this is Sheryl, Larry's wife and we started watching you guys a couple of years ago. I just wanted to take the time to say that I think that you are very amazing doing all that you do. I just love it when you do cooking on the show, and baking even more! Have you thought about maybe putting out your own cook book?
Your attitude in the face of hardship is admirable. I look forward to the next video!
Hi Sheryl, we appreciate your kind message. I have considered it but I am wild in the kitchen and don't make recipes over and over much, I pretty much never measure. I would need much more spare time to get all my stuff together and get a book out :) Thank you for watching!
@@SimpleLivingAlaskawe all have access to plenty of "regular" cookbooks, what I love about your cooking is how you use a bunch of different ingredients to make similar recipes, the variety of tacos you make for instance. I would love a cookbook that encouraged using substitutions instead of "you have to use this and this specific ingredient"! Living in Norway I often don't have access to local ingredients that are the same as what a recipe asks for, it would be awesome to cook with more local food! In addition it would be great to have some canning recipes for beginners 🤩
In regards to the seed room and your frost drive. You guys would be best served with wrapping the exterior of the blocks with at least 4” of foam board. Preferably in two 2” layers so you can stagger the seams. Three layers would be even better but just depends on your budget. Later in the spring you can side over the foam with roof metal or boards to protect the foam.
I agree with layering foam around the outside. Next summer think about covering the inside block with waterproof concrete paint to reduce mold.
I did this with an old masonry block home and it made it very quiet and a lot warmer. The thermal mass is inside the insulation so the house changes temperature slowly.
First thought I had too. Block the cold (and eventually heat) before it even makes it to the brick and inside, the more continuous the insulation the better! Less thermal bridges.
Actually, I was thinking of foam board as well, but I would put inside then cover with some sort of paneling. It would create a nice ledge along the wall to place small pots :)
@ Well it is beneficial to put the foam board on the inside it is better on the outside. As the concrete wall will act a thermal battery once heated and you want to protect that from the outside as it gets extremely cold in the interior of Alaska.
Still seems very strange not seeing the pups.
Y’all are awesome, hardworking people.
Yea. That crossed my mind. too.
Hey guys,
Helicopter Pilot from Germany here;
When storing diesel or Jet fuel, you should keep it stored cool and dark. We had microbial growth in one of our tanks and it killed a helicopter and nearly also the pilot. So maybe use a fuel filter suited for the pump throughput and a fuel stabilizer to stop the growth.
Take care and thank you for sharing your life with us.
The cutest couple on the internet! Sorry I don’t speak English, but I watch all your videos!
When I was a kid, our house was heated with coal and wood-a true art form in itself! Dad was the maestro, carefully laying a bed of wood, not too thick, then topping it with a solid lump of coal, like the crown jewel. More wood surrounded it, and with a little kindling magic, the wood would ignite first. But the real star? That coal would catch and stay red-hot all night long, keeping us warm while the wood turned to ash hours earlier. By morning, the coal was still doing its job-quietly powerful, like a midnight guardian against the cold.
My grandpa used to buy a load of stoker coal to supplement our wood heat and grandma used to take pieces, set them in little dishes and put iodine on it to make pretty colored crystals.
Growing up in Pennsylvania i also grew up with coal, anthracite coal. My dad mined coal and had his own breaker for a little while. It is an art to keep it going.
A lot of folks in KY burn coal. Of course, there are tons of coal in the mines up in Appalachian Mountains of eastern KY. My family burned it for years and years. It is a dirty business but very warm. We always bought lump coal by the ton. Anyway, one year I couldn't find the sledge hammer to bust up some lump coal for the stove. My husband was at work. I had the genius idea of using a cast iron frying pan to bust up some coal. Well, of course, I literally broke the bottom out of a cast iron frying pan! I did get some smaller lumps for the stove though. So - don't try using a cast iron frying pan to break up the coal or you will own one less frying pan. I also lived in AK from 1977-79 and was there when the pipeline opened. I loved it there and have always wanted to return. I watch y'all faithfully and so miss the adventures up there so it is a great feeling to share your experiences vicariously. Keep on keeping on.
You are the coolest, most fascinating, most informative of any shows.
a lot of us think the same thing!
That is so cool that you are going to the north pole around christmas. Oh my gosh I just realized the correlation of coal and the stocking of Santa.😂😂😂😂
Don’t take us to a culinary edge….then stop!! Tell us how the lemon cake tasted! 💜 from Texas!
I used coal years ago. I used the smaller sized coal because of the size of my stove. The biggest thing to remember is to have patience and burn your coal gas completely off before closing down the stove! This is talking from experience! Otherwise, you will blow your stove up!
We used to use coal when I was younger at home. I don't like to use now. It is dirty for a house. We used lump coal. It holds a fire better. Stocker coal is sent through a furnace on belt that takes small amount at a time in small layer. Don't let it lay in big pile can smolder and cause explosion. If you use keep in small layer. The lump is better for stove made for coal. There are stoves that you can use both lump coal and wood. It will keep fire longer. If I lived in Alaska I would use coal but wood, is cleaner. I used to have hands with coal on all time.I have always used a wood and coal stove. I am 71
You made me chuckle when you held coal for the first time. I was a reminder of just how OLD I am. Coal was the only source of fuel for heat we had when I was growing up. Plus, we learned about the types of coal in elementary school.
60 years ago my family relied on an open coal fire. My job was to make paper coils (in those days we has a daily paper). Those went on the bottom and then wood kindling and the coal went on top. My grandfather had a lump hammer to break up the big lumps which was what you got a century ago.
I just realized I must be sitting here every sunday at exactly video release time. Because i'm always one of the first people to see the video come up.
Too good to miss anytime
I looked like 5 times today and finally voila! I needed this🤗❤️☮️
when you post before the video is fully uploaded and you get DM'd. HOW YOU DO THAT!?
Its always easier for a pump to push rather than suck. Put the pump down below where its closer to the suctionpipe
If you put a little 12V clip on fan in the door way to your seed room, at the top pointing up into the seed room, it will generate a surprising amount of convection, or one of those vehicle window fans. I would not use those box fans you have. Those things are cheap but not very good and they suck to much power. If you do not want to use any power, get you a few of those stove fans and have 2 of them pointing at the doorway to the seed room and one pointing out into the shop. Also, use your tractor bucket to load firewood onto your deck. That is what I do. Simply raise and tilt the bucket so you can offload standing on the deck. Super convenient.
YES! Stove fans will be a great help in so many ways. Maybe even cut a hole so one fan could blow directly into the seed room?
You guys are just a great team and it is fun to watch what you do.
I agree & they love the work & each other so much, It’s very obvious!!!
Respect ❤
I worked at a coal mine in utah for 27 yrs. I've used about 700 tons of coal in my time. Loved using it great heat with coal but it will cause more creasote than wood, a great way to minimize that problem is to burn quake aspen wood from quake trees if you have it up there, you two are a hoot to watch been watching you for 2-3 yrs. Love your channel.
I just get white fly ash.
I think that the only way you'll get your seed room block wall to warm up is to put 4 - 6" of rigid foam insulation on the outside of it. You'd need to figure out a way to cover and slope it a bit just below the windows though... Not an easy fix as a retrofit. You could put insulation on the inside, but with your windows sitting on top of that wall, it will stay far warmer in there if you manage to insulate the outside. Then the wall actually could act as a (positive) thermal mass to radiate heat back out to the plants in the evenings when the temps outside drop.
i wouldnt even worry about the inside of the block as thermal mass insulate both sides of the block wall and feel the cozy warmth!
@@thebackforty939Right. They probably lose most of the heat through the windows. Insulating either side of the blocks should slow heat loss, but the interior would be easier to cover now that it has snowed and the ground is frozen.
"Not everything every day goes our way." Nicely said, Eric
I grew up with a whole house coal furnace and I would put a light layer of ashes on top of the coal before bed each night so we would have heat all night, its called banking the fire.
Hello Eric and Ariel , Tks for video. I remember my Grandma putting coal in wood stove at night, I was maybe 4 or 5 yrs old. She cooked on a woodstove. I am 64 yrs old now and the time just flies by. Much love to both of you from North Carolina.....
A stock run, some tinkering, and a bundt cake. This feels like 3 videos in one. You guys are my heroes. I hope that fuel pump is a quick fix.
I really was not Hungry until you made that yummy cake , Then you went and put the toppings on. Magnificent
Hahaha 🤣 literally every time these guys prepare some food, that's it, I gotta go eat too
Of course they have coal at the North Pole! Thanks for yet another enjoyable video❤
Eric at night when you get ready to go to bed load your fireplace with wood and top it off with a couple pieces of the sla coal . You won’t have to get up at night to add firewood and you will still have a bed of coals in the morning.
From what I remember, Stoker coal is just the smaller chips from lump coal; there isn't a difference other than size. With the smaller pieces you did get a more even burn rate as the larger chunks burn at different rates. From when we burned coal, we'd start the fire then burn the larger chucks to get the temperature up fast, but overnight we'd bank a lot of smaller pieces to burn slow and long.
I do remember that we needed to extend our chimney when we started burning coal because we needed more height to get the proper draft going. The company that installed the fireplace insert back then did the math for us and added about 18 inches in height to get the proper draft.
Might want to get a larger version of those convection fans to sit on top of the stove in the shop-- get that heat moving.
Hi guys, I live in Northern Ireland and I heat my house with oil and coal. Our heating oil is around 3bucks per litre, and lump coal is almost 1thousand bucks per ton. Keep a good eye on your chimney as the coal can burn very dirty and put up a heavy layer of soot in it. Great vid guys.
Surprised to see that you don't cook on your wood stove in your cabin more often I cooked a mine all the time I loved it I was actually even thinking of building a metal oven to put on top of my wood stove but never got around to it I have an old antique cooked stove in my house too used to use that for quite a few years loved it but the small skinny pieces of wood and the small box for firebox wasn't enough wood to keep it running all night so it became a real pain into heat in the house at night it's still in the living room just off to the side of the wood stove now that I don't use my wood stove I'm thinking of hooking the cook stove back up more or less just for the looks plus maybe I could use it once in a while being that only takes little tiny pieces of wood I loved cooking on just my regular wood stove too its pretty easy low and slow and using my Dutch oven on the top of the stove worked very nicely😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
A metal coal bucket is so much easier to load coal into the stove because of its shape.
he's talented to design and build one.
Something about this video makes me feel like Alaska is a whole other country, not just another state. Very interesting.
cutting the tops off those totes was a great idea for that type of storage. Never would have thought of that
Cutting the top off. Also discourages theft. 2nd hand ibc sell €150:00:each. No top =zero.😂
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This makes me think of my Dad and my Granny.
My Dad was a coal miner in eastern Kentucky for many years. My Granny heated her house with coal in a potbelly stove. I loved visiting Granny's.
So good to see the kitty still living the good life!
😅
Wow! You guys never stop testing and learning. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
The in-floor heating is surprisingly efficient. Once you get the going you may be able to back off on the amount of wood/coal you are burning to keep that big space warm.
I totally forgot about that!
That's our hope, it's on the agenda but we are trying to get our generator and solar system running smoothly first :)
Every video I'm in awe of you guys for various reasons. This video is your love of the cold weather. I like snow and all, but I do not think I could live up where you guys do due to the cold. Hug you kitty extra for me. Lost my Jaydee this morning due to a serious injury that happened yesterday. Hate the aspect of loss on our fur babies. Their time is never long enough with us, especially when they leave before their time.
So glad to see this video! I needed some cheering up this week!
Grew up in Glace bay Nova Scotia Canada. My family were all coal miners. Every kid knew how to start the coal stove. Best heat ever…. Love the channel.
In Elmsdale, Nova Scotia myself. Waves Hello ! 🇨🇦
It’s winter! Winter in Alaska, with you two, is the best. Thanks.
Grew up in a farm house with a coal fired gravity fed furnace. We were always shivering upstairs. Farm house life.
We had one of those to, I was lucky the chimney went up in my bedroom, down side was if the wind blew from a certain direction it was a bugger to keep lit, I remember the bellows being used and the occasional the air turned blue if Dad got really fed up. Sweet memories
Back in the 60’s at my grandparents house in West Virginia. The coal trains would ride by right in front of my grandparents home. Afterwords everyone would run out a pick up the dropped coal for the pot belly stove.
My dad and his sister walked the tracks as children in the and 40s picking up coal to heat their house. They lost their dad young and Grandma was a young widow with 4 young children at home. He's now 89 and still talks about it.
@@amybarthel479 my grandfather was covered in coal dust, walking up the railroad tracks. I would hide cause he was so scary with him washing his eyeball in the sink
I grew up in Detroit and we used a coal furnace. It worked great heating the whole house. Wow, it brings back memories. 80 yrs ago.
❤❤
The footage at the end of the video is just so pretty. I’ve never seen a coal fire before.
You know it is cold when the snow crunches under your boots as you walk. Many times, in my childhood, when I walked to school, this is how we gauged the temps. I remember my older sisters telling us younger ones, how dad would get up in the middle of the night to stoke the giant old furnace to keep the house warm. Natural gas was later installed in our area of the city.
A bunch of us had mentioned for the seed room you’ll need to install insulation on the outside and even on the inside some. Otherwise every bit of moisture will turn into ice on that wall. You’re problem solvers, you’ll figure it.
Amazing what you two have accomplished. Respect.
LOL " I think we can get some more in there". " That's all we can get in the tank, because, legally that's all we can have". You guys are great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miss the dogs 😢.
Look forward to seeing you guys every week. Such a great team.
Would love to see more of your daily routine in your cabin. Especially love all of the cooking and food prep.
Love your channel!!!
Did they lose the other dog?
@@patburns3081yes, they’ve both passed away 😢
Have fun getting the coal out of the totes. I recommend cutting a hole at the front near the bottom and fill your bucket from the bottom.
It looked like the tops were already cut out of the totes & placed back on to transport it.
Back in 1968, I remember the barracks I was housed in was heated with coal. I woke up every morning with black soot around my nose.
The problem with being caught up on your videos, is I now have to wait for your next upload 😂 thanks for keeping me entertained on nights that I can't sleep
Greetings from Statesboro GA! 😊 I just discovered your channel not very long ago and I have been binge watching the 2024 season! I’m so impressed with you as a couple & with all of your efforts and planning! I really enjoy your fishing trips! Looking forward to seeing more of your adventures! 👍🏻😊❤️
Im 66 years old and I grew up using coal n wood in our house for heating and cooking i love watching you guys thanks for the memories take back.
Seed Room - place some 55gal drums around the brick wall and connect them all in line with PVC pipes. The circulated hot water from your floor system or even use a separate water basin on the oven to heat up water. Circulate the water in a closed loop through your drums. The benefit is that even when you stop circulating or the oven goes out the water in the drums will continue to give heat off. The drums could easily fit under your benches that you will most likely build.
Or you can just build a European style heating system with a couple of radiators.
Bituminous Coal is a soft coal. I live in the coal region of eastern pa. Anthracite coal we have is a hard coal. Pronunciation is bi-toom-inous
It's great seeing you guys getting ready for winter weather especially where you are there in Alaska getting your home and property fixed
up with coal and heating oil it is very beautiful up there even if it's
very cold take care and have a great week stay warm and thanks.
🌨️🏔️🇺🇲
OH, THAT CAKE! I would clean your entire house for one slice!
I would clean the chicken coop!!! haaa :)
I would drive to Alaska for a slice!
Yay a new upload! I’ve been binging the old videos from 5 years ago! Amazing progress in your lives! You should be proud! Thanks for sharing your lives with us!
It really is amazing! Just the steps made when they built the Quanset Hut. From transporting the metal pieces to clearing the land, leveling the land, building the forms and all that entailed. Then getting the concrete poured, leveled, cut and sealed. BUILDING the Quanset hut. It just goes on and on. And we get to watch all that progress, step by step. What a great channel!
That shop has turned out so good. So much time and hard work, but its a helluva accomplishment.
I love watching you cook with the old aqua Pyrex mixing bowl! Just like my mom used. 😁
Back in the stone age mid 1950`s Ohio. We had coal fired furnace that required a coal bunker and a coal chute. Fancy furnaces had a automatic stoker to feed the furnace. The bunt cake looked amazing!
That sounds like the house I grew up in Detroit. It was in the 1940's, we did not have a fancy stoker. And I remember making baked beans in the furnace. Oh so good.
For the seed room, if you put two eco fans on top of the coal stove and point them at the door of the seed room at slightly diff angles it may vortex the heat into that room and assist with the frosted wall issue.
Hindsight: having a double block wall and/or insulation on the outside and including the seed room withon the insulation envelop of the garage would have allowed for better heat distribution. As it is, the insulated wall between the stove and the seed room is disrupting heat transfer and the lack of insulation in the block wall is allowing heat loss.
You can always work on that next year, for now eco fans
It's amazing how rapidly the climate is warming here across Alaska
I can't say it with ease but we do wish it was colder here like it use to be.
When we lived/worked in Yugoslavia (pre-war) they burned soft coal in the city, for basically everything. The city was covered in a cloud that never moved. When it snowed the snow began white, turned grey and was dark grey and black when it hit the ground. Good luck.
Best Alaskan utube show.
YEP AGREE 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Just wanted to say you are both incredibly smart and fantastic problem solvers, and your food makes me salivate!!!
Awesome, my Sunday is complete. I love you guys.
Great choice for heat! Coal and wood were used when I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin. We'd stoke the furnace about once nightly, and have a comfortable sleep. Love ya'll ❤️
Great video about staying warm. Lots of work. Y'all get it done.
My husband worked in coal mines for decades. He said coal burns way hotter than wood and lasts longer. ie...3 chunks of coal will last all night easily. Looks like your coal stove is working great!!
I love it when you guys break out the sleds for the season!! Favorite time of the year 8)
This brings back memories of going with my Dad to get coal for the winter. I was always fascinated with getting the truck weighed before and after. It was the best heat too.
One of my Favorite contents. You two are amazing in how you share your experiences. Really enjoy the videos. Thank you for sharing.
We lived in Pennsylvania for about six years when I was a kid. Everyone burned coal. I remember that inside the collar of my blouses there would be a black ring due to coal dust! Bituminous is dirtier than Anthracite coal. It burn more quickly as well.
Peat, if you can get it, also is a great source of heat. Its smoke smells really earthy. Peat doesn’t create much creosote either.
I love your cooking segments, your Bundt cake looks fantastic!!
Coal is a great thing: it is caloric, gives off a lot of heat and burns for a long time. But be careful! Coal emits carbon monoxide - a deadly poisonous compound that is invisible. It is important that there is airflow!
In Poland, a ton of coal costs from 500 to 800 dollars. Fine coal burns very quickly. I recommend coarse coal.
Hi Guys: We use wood as our primary heat as well and had the same problem at first. Where we live has a lot of wind during the winter. There are two things we found that worked ! First we had to get a wind cap for the chimney. It will block the wind from whatever direction it comes from and also creates a low pressure area behind the cap which actually pulls the smoke out of the chimney. Also once you use the stove for a few month you will need to clean the chimney regularly to maintain the good airflow.
I so look forward to your posts! Thanks
I enjoy your videos immensely. Makes me smile every time I see them. Thank you for sharing with us!
I remember getting the winter coal delivery in Scotland growing up. It’s such good fuel, lasts ages and gives such a good heat. Very nostalgic memories 😊
Coal is rock...sedimentary to be exact
Thank you for the stroll down memory lane. Grew up with a coal furnace. We used coal mostly, sometimes wood if we had down trees available. Great heat and remember it going poof (as we called it) on occasions, you would notice black soot in your nostrils upon waking up in the morning sometimes thru the day 😁
Later in my adult years I lived in another old farm house that had a coal furnace with a stoker on it, wow what a difference that was compared going down and adding coal or wood as needed. With the stoker you just filled it up and it ran and added the coal for you, just had to check the stoker bin and keep it loaded, what a game changer. Hence the smaller pieces are called stoker. I also remember we would get klinkers basically the skeleton of the bigger pieces that would not burn, they were really shiny and looked like metal. Best wishes, I enjoy your channel ❤🤗
Dear people,
Niet te veel kolen in 1 keer. Je stookt je hele kachel kapot.
Greatings from the Netherlands
agree
Very exciting video today. Interesting that there is a difference in how you groom the dryer snow in your new area. The trip to North Pole and getting coal and learning about burning it was fun, I've never seen coal before either. The lemon bundt cake looked delicious . Enjoyed this video so much. Positive thoughts and good wishes for you from so many people around the world. Blessings.
The shop looks so amazing. Love when the tractor came up and the light came on.
Frost in the seed room, I think that is coming from air that is being pulled in by the stove draft. What goes out the chimney must be replaced inside that building. Being able to provide outside air via a flexible tube At the base of your stove for draft air would probably make a big difference. I would rig up a temporary test, to see the difference. ❤❤
You guys have that building sealed really well. I enjoy your content each week and look forward to your videos.
Dad always splashed coal oil (kerosene) on the coal then lit it to get the furnace going.
Coal, I think the stoker is maybe the stage before the hard lump. You can use a bit in your house too. Swedish people use snow and burie their foundations with snow to help fight the cold. Snow can insulate.
Good solution for now
Omg there is so much to absorb with your videos, so much to learn, so much to love my no snow pacific NW but so much respect how you love it and how it works for you and thank goodness for your COOKING!!❤️
And it has to taste as wonderful as it looks! The Bundt cake was beautiful!!!❤
My grandmother used coal to heat her farm house in Tennessee, she used the bigger pieces….it really put the heat out……..lovin the video 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤❤❤❤❤❤
Exact same - grandma burned great big lumps of coal in the fireplace one lump at a time to heat the farmhouse. I remember sitting on the hearth with my back to the fire screen and boy did it warm you up! Loved that blue flame.
You guys should look at getting a boiler heating it with coal in the shop and then use the steam to produce power.
It's so cool seeing your beautiful shop lights in the background 😍
Ikr?!! I’m like thinking to myself, I watched y’all put the wiring all in!!! ❤❤❤
A girl after my own heart - get the dessert done first and worry about dinner later.
Great video today. Looks like you have all your bases covered for the winter. Thank you for taking us along. See you again soon. Take care from Cape Cod✌️🇺🇸❤️❤️