In the 1890s John Wesley Wolfe settled in what is now Arches National Park outside Moab Utah to try his hand at cattle ranching hoping the dry weather would be kinder to his injuries from the Civil War than the Ohio humidity. The sizes of the logs available to build cabins out of along the creek in Arches were a lot bigger than those available to build with in Moab, all of which were a lot smaller than those they had where I live in Ohio. #Moab #moabutah #archesnationalpark #Unclemud #historicbuildings #naturalbuilding
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZCqv1e6Xw0
Chicken Soup Hot Springs, Porteneuf River, just outside Lava Hot Springs Idaho. On our way to the Rocket Heater Jamboree in Montana. Stay tuned for some great mud and fire. This might be the cleanest anyone sees me for a couple weeks.
Thank you for supporting our work at https://www.patreon.com/unclemud
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbWpT7d-iM
My Mud Brother Brian and his dad have been turning cob and bottles and junk and rammed earth into something magic in their back yard while building a timber frame for Brian's new house.
patreon.com/unclemud for more fire and mud and junk fun
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AfBVPx_qy4
I've been wanting to get back here for more than 40 years to the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde Colorado. Covid has shut down most of the park, but the consolation prize is these intimate tours to some of the lesser known sites off the main path.
Thank you for joining me. https://www.patreon.com/unclemud
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTaeMG3nfo4
In September 2020 we had another opportunity to visit our friends at Permies.com and work on rocket mass heaters for their cabins. This one is a combination of my CottageRocket core and Paul's pebble mass bench, plus a few new things we each really wanted to try. This heater was designed especially to heat a small space with a raised wooden floor, balancing gentle radiant heat and thermal storage with no "hot spots".
Paul was determined that we have a 1:4 height ratio between the feed tube and heat riser, while keeping the feed tube tall enough to close over the top of his standard 16" firewood. Meanwhile I wanted the pebble bench raised off the floor and lined underneath with hardware cloth to provide thermosiphon ventilation under and behind and through the heated mass to keep it from overheating the wood floor and walls.
A few things you can't see in the video: The feed tube is removeable for easy cleaning of the burn chamber. The standard CottageRocket burn chamber made of milled firebrick is lined outside and below with ceramic insulation board to keep the heat inside where it belongs. The small footprint of the heater fits in the tight space and leaves plenty of room for air circulation. Keeping the heater separate from mass allows it to be easily pulled out for inspecting and cleaning the exhaust pipes in the mass.
The standard CottageRocket uses a 2' tall "5 minute riser" design with ceramic wool compressed inside a 6" stovepipe, which works great for a 24" riser but creates too much friction with Paul's 48" Super-riser so after I ran out of time it had to be replaced with a 6" diameter cast ceramic riser, which works really well.
The 4" exhaust on the previous heater tended to get too cool to provide a good draft so this design runs the vertical exhaust right against the length of the radiant chamber to give it back a little heat to help pull the cooled exhaust through the pipes in the thermal mass. After this video was taken we added a sheet metal heat shield between the heater and the wall with a 1" gap behind it to allow natural airflow to keep the wooden wall cool.
If you like this sort of thing please subscribe to our youtube channel or support our work and get access to exclusive mud and fire content at patreon.com/unclemud
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNnoRbblEmQ