We have been using our new wood stove for a week now. It is wonderful. Initially I am worried that since we put it in the basement the heat will not travel up the main floor. It does take a long time for the heat to travel up the stairs but eventually it is warm (about 20 ºC). The trick is that the wood stove has to be hot and the basement is warm enough before the hot air rises up. It is very comfortable in the basement so sometimes we would sit there and talk or sing hymns together.
Burning wood is a lot of work and I can’t believe the amount of wood we burn everyday. If we want to heat the whole house we need at least 20 pieces of wood (16″ in length and 3-4″ across). Nevertheless, it is cheaper than oil and the kids like watching the fire. If there is a power outage, we know we are not left in the cold.
All posts by Derek
Cutting Firewood for winter
After much consideration, we have decided to install a woodstove this year. Our oil furnace is an old type and low efficiency. Heating oil is getting more expensive and the furnace does not always start. We have decided to spend about $3000 for the new wood stove, including the Pacific Energy Super27 stove, installation fee and chimney pipes. It is very costly but with firewood, the installation can pay itself in 3 years.
But heating with wood is a lot of work. First you need to buy seasonsed firewood. It is better to buy in spring and season them yourself. Since we did not know this we simply paid a premium for seasonsed firewood. However, most comercial firewood is not splitted small enough for the wood stove so we have to split it further ourselves. This is where technology comes in handy. I bought a small electric log splitter with 4 ton force. And it is fantastic. It slices through the firewood like butter. This sure saves my back. After splittig the firewood to a range of pieces 3″ to 6″ across, we have to stack them properly.
I don’t have a wood shed to store the firewood so I am going to put tarp on them. I laid down a row of pallets (free) and pound some steel rods on the ends. While we stack the firewood about 4 level high, I tied a twine around a piece of firewood about 4′ away from the steel rod. I make a knot on the other end of the twine and tie it to the rod. This will stablize the pile.
The girls are a big help to me and they are having fun stacking and operating the log splitter. Hopefully we can get our wood stove this year.
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The Maxwell Family Conference
The Maxwell Family held a conference at Lighthouse Gospel Church in Port Burwell along Lake Erie during the weekend. It is a 3-hour drive for us and we were managed to stay at a B&B in town. Believe it or not, this is my first time driving a trip that long. Before that was 2-hour drive to Marineland.
Port Burwell has a windfarm and a beautiful beach. Although it is cool in the fall, we still headed out to the beach and let the kids play sand.
About 400-500 people showed up at the conference. Friday night was concert by the Maxwell family. They have 8 children aging from 12-31 (only 7 were there because the eldest is married). They all play at least 2 different kind of instruments. Wow. Steve talked about vision for the family after the concert.
Saturday was full of individual session for dads, mums and teenagers. What a blessing. I learned that everything the happens in the house is the father’s responsibility. I have to admit that I focus on my kids’ physicall need more than their spiritual need. I pray to God that He will teach me and guide me to be a better leader for my home. I especially like one of the session “Keeping our children’s heart”. Tiffany is almost 8 now and I feel that if I don’t do something, I will lose her heart to the world. So I am going to read this book and work on this. It is the same idea as Michael Perl’s Jumping Ship articles.
In the conference, we met some new families and saw some families with 8 or 10 children. All of a sudden having 5 kids do not seem that many. My father-in-law and my mother always speak against us having more kids. But we believe that we should let God to decide this, if we call him Lord. If God gives us a child, we believe He will also give us the energy and resource to train and feed him/her. The Maxwell family cleary demonstrates that the whole family can be part of a ministry altogether. They show that a large familly can be debt free, run a home-based business, helping other families that struggle while spreading the Gospel at the same time.
I have been troubled by working in the corporate world for some time. Everyday I cannot have breakfast and lunch with my kids. I drive to work, stare the computer for 4 hours, take a lunch break and then another 4 hours before going home. I thank God for giving me this job to support my family, however, I think having a home-based business where parent and child working together is the best model. How else can I better understand their physical and spiritual need without spending time with them?
Since the kids are older and more capable in helping around the house, I think it is now a time to sit down and seriously consider quitting my job and start a family business. The only thing that draws mean back is the money. I have passion for farming/gardening/building things. I learn woodworking,wiring and plumbing by myself and from friends. I enjoy working with my hands. But my job does pay a decent salary with benefit. Unless I am fired, I don’t know if I have the courage to let go all of that and dive into a new world.
I will continue to pray about this because I don’t want to make hasty decision. I thank God that my wife supports me in all these areas. I am sure when our parents learn what I am going to do, they will jump and say I am crazy and being illogical.
Square Foot Gardening – Extend the season
I have decided to try extending the growing season this year. It is quite easy to do so in SFG. Materials you will need:
1. 6 mil poly, or vapour barrier. Usually comes in a row.
2. 2x 4′ long 1/2″ PVC pipe flex. I have used plastic electrical conduit as well but pipe flex is a little bit cheaper and easier to bend.
3. some bricks or stones.
You bend the pipe flex and stick the end into each corner of your SFG bed. Then attach the 6 mil poly on top. You can use clothespin to clamp the poly with the pipe. Then use the bricks to hold down all the sides. In winter, the wind is harsh so make sure you hold down the poly securely. During a warm day, you should open a corner and let some hot air escapes.
What you plant in this small greenhouse also plays a role. Rememebr to choose cool veggies meaning lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, green onion, carrot, radish, etc.
| Each SFG bed can be setup as an indiviual greenhouse. | 
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| Holding down with brick and stone. | 
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| Use a cable tie at the center to attach the pipes. | 
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End of Garden Season
Winter is close and I have cleaned up the garden. The soil needs to be covered by something to protect it from the harsh weather. I used both straw and black tarp. Black tarp can cover large area and will kill weed readily. Straw will gradually break down and become organic compost to the soil, but I need a lot of them to properly cover the soil. Since I live in the country, I pay about $4 for 1 big square bale. I did not have time to grow oats as covering crop this year but hope to grow some next year.
To sum up this year’s harvest I would rate as average. Again, time is an issue. If you want a bounty harvest you need to invest time. That’s why I am going to experience square foot gardening next season. Here is a list of crops and my comments:
- Strawberry – very good crop but a lot is wasted due to dampness.
- Potato – red potato Norland grows well and large while yellow flesh Penta grows small but in large quantity. I prefer Norland.
- Cucumber – good harvest and easy to grow
- Zucchini – good harvest and easy to grow, needs lot of space
- beans – average harvest, will try pole bean next time
- watermelon – poor harvest, might be better to buy from store
- herbs – easy to grow and worthwhile
- garlic – good harvest and will increase planting next year
- swiss chard – good harvest
- cabbage – a lot of pest: slug, moth, earwig. I need to find a way to proplery cover the head. Nevertheless, after peeling off half the outer leaves we can still enjoy some organic cabbage.
- chinese veggies – very poor harvest, mostly due to slug and flea bettles, still need to work on this.
- tomato – average harvest, did not have time to proplery smother the weed and tie the plant to stake.
- squash – poor harvest, only 2 fruit.
- carrot – average harvest, taste good and the kids like to dig them out.
- green onions – good harvest, easy to grow.
- marigold – grows very well.
| We have put black tarp over half the garden to cover the ground. I put some chicken manure on it before doing this. |  |
| I put the straw to cover the ground here. You will need at least 4 inches of straw to properly cover and smother the weed. |  |
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Square Foot Gardening Introduction
I purchased the book “All New Square Foot Gardening”. This is a brand new way to me about gardening. I borrowed the older version from library and read through. Very impressive. The main advantge, as stated by author Mel Bartholomew: “Square Foot Gardening is a uniquely simplified method of gardening that produces 100% of the harvest in only 20% of the space — AND — without all the hard work and drudgery of single row gardening.” So I decided to convert part of my row garden into SFG. Here are my steps to build a 4’x4′ garden block:
| Cut 4 boards of length 48″. I use 2×8 spruce but you can use 2×10 or 2×6. Try to avoid pressure treated lumber because of the harmful chemicals. |  |
| Sonia is helping me to paint a natural preservative. It is called LifeTime Wood Treatment. You can get it from HomeHardware here in Canada. |  |
| Line up the boards into a square and pre-drilled 2 holes at the intersection. This is important because without pre-drilling the holes, the wood splits while you drive the screws into it. |  |
| This is what the finished block looks like. I use #8 – 2 1/2″ deck screw for the job. |  |
| Now setup the grid. Space them 1″ apart to make 16 x 1 square foot planting area. You can use wood lath or plastic strip. I took apart an old vinyl blind and reused those vinyl strips, cheap! |  |
| Put the block into your garden. Add some good soil and compost. So far, I have built 6 of these blocks. Don’t they look nice? Notice I use straw to cover the pathway. |  |
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Drying Garlic
| We pulled up all the garlic and dried them in the sun for a few days. We will pick the big ones and replant them in the fall. |  |
A chicken died today
Yep, a rhode island red died today in the coop. I don’t know why. Hopefully it is not bird flu. Other birds seem OK. It could be a virus or parasite. I would give some diatomaceous earth to the bird to help. Oh well, 1 less egg.
Harvest Time – Part 2
Here are the harvest from our garden at this momemnt:
| Some corn, carrot and cucumber. |  |
| Our corn is a short type. Compare it with the normal size corn you get from the store. |  |
| Our girls are shelling peas |  |
| Flowers from garlic. |  |