Texas' Toll on Trees

My fig tree before and after the Texas Summer

I go back and forth on whether to maintain this blog or not. It sometimes seems like a long ramble, and so I am considering a more focused approach, perhaps a short self-published e-book or downloadable PDF, something along those lines sometime in the future.

Anyhow, I am now back in the desert after my tour up the East Coast by train. This last month (after the tour), I have been visiting with friends and family in Houston and Austin, and somewhat dawdling my return to the heat of the desert. Now that I am back, I find the heat quite tolerable. Even though I don't have AC or even a swamp cooler, allowing my body to adjust to the gradual heating and cooling between day and night is easier for me than constantly going back and forth between very cold AC interiors and the scorching outdoor temps that have settled over Texas this Summer.

Sadly, my fruit trees (one plum and one fig) didn't make it through the Summer heat and drought. My water catchment and timer system was foiled. This is because either a good intentioned neighbor or a very evolved rabbit or coyote turned off the faucet that my timer was attached to. I know that I left it in the right position before leaving because I monitored it for the few days leading up to my tour. Perhaps someone was just thirsty and needed water. Who knows? But I've realized that an automated system is far inferior to a manned system when it comes to being a caretaker of life, or of anything for that matter. It is OK. I feel fortunate that everything else is intact. Many people around here lost homes, property and livestock from fires caused by the drought. I may try to plant new trees this Fall. Or just focus on harvesting what this area provides naturally, i.e. mesquite.

Our Week of Winter

This supercooled bottle of water was just waiting for a disturbance to change properties from water to ice in seconds. This happened to me last week and took me by surprise. The next day when I found my water bottle in liquid form again while it was 15 degrees outside, I grabbed my video camera and hoped it would give a repeat performance. It did!

Other winter images...

110 in the shade

I never would have thought that 110 degrees would feel pleasant, but it does in the desert, as long as there is shade. Don and I stuccoed for most of the day at above 100 degrees. It sounds hot, but I'd take it over 85 degrees and humid. The nights are still cooling off into the 60s. 

One way to keep cool out here is to dip your shirt in a bucket of water, ring it out, and then put it back on. It is COLD, even when using warm water. This is due to evaporative cooling. This form fitting AC unit is good for about 30 minutes before it has to be recharged. A siesta is also a good way to avoid the hottest part of day, though I still have yet to adopt that pastime.

But the BEST way to cool off around here is at Agua Fria, a year round cold spring about 12 miles from my place. Don and I went there during the hottest part of the day today. Heaven!

Don's Cousin, Ludell, also in her 80s, tracked him down through this blog. She is coming down here next weekend to reunite with Don after about 20 years. 

Anyways, I am getting pretty good at stuccoing. 

We are making very good progress on the dome. We have put the bricks in place so that the dome is now level and ready for the rest of the foundation to be poured. The dome is also mostly lathed and we are now framing the windows and the door. There is a lot of detail work involved at this stage, so it is a bit of a lengthy process…more than I thought. I knew it would be more than I thought so it is turning out to be about what I thought I thought I would think it ought. We hope to start with the stucco next week. We will also be adding the electrical conduit and outlets.

We have had some very cold nights here...low 20's at night. Our water is usually frozen in the mornings, but it doesn't take too long to thaw after sunrise. I bought a small propane heater to heat up the small train compartment that we now have on site. In the train compartment, we have set up a small kitchen, shelves, a card table, and a light. It is surprisingly livable and makes a great temporary living space, though we still sleep in our tents at night.

Rocket Fuel

Today, we made a rocket stove…similar to a wood stove, but cheaper and more efficient.

It’s a simple underused concept. We made ours with a 25 gallon barrel, and some stove pipe. The barrel we found at Don’s place. It was on old army barrel used to store emergency supplies. The only parts we purchased, were the stove pipes. We used three of them, each costing $7. We thought about looking for free ones, but they usually contain paint, which would have to be burned off...a nasty process.

Emile had built a couple of rocket stove in Portland, so he knew the basic formula, but he also brushed up on his skills from a book I picked up from the Natural Building Colloquium in Kerrville. Leslie Jackson, one of the co-authors of “Rocket Mass Heaters”, graciously gave me a copy in exchange for a CD.

The stove took us under an hour to make. We borrowed Don’s metal cutting tool. That made it a whole lot easier than using our teeth.

We purchased the stove pipe at the right diameter for the feed tube ( 6 inches ). We used the same size pipe for the exhaust tube, but overlapped it on itself to make that diameter 4 inches. We joined two of these together for the exhaust pipe.

Next, Emile traced the pipe diameters onto the top of the barrel to prepare for the metal incisions…one for the feed pipe and one for the exhaust pipe. We then cut a circular opening into the top of the barrel like a shark tooth pie (the cut can be started by hammering a nail into the center of the circle a few times). We bent the teeth on the opening for the feed tube inward, and bent the teeth on the exhaust tube outward. The teeth help to keep the pipes in place while also help to direct the heat flow. The bottom of the feed tube must be several inches above the bottom of the barrel to allow for air flow, which is important when you want a fire. The smaller diameter tubes snap together and then snap onto the barrel.

That’s it.

Starting a rocket stove is much like starting a campfire. Start with paper, or dry grass…then add kindling…and then the larger pieces of wood…all through the feed tube. Once the exhaust pipe gets hot, a draft is created…. making the stove roar with heat while directing any smoke out of the exhaust pipe.

We spent about 30 minutes gathering wood and kindling. Most of the creasote trees ( more like shrubs around here ) have a bunch of dead branches on them. Using this wood prunes the trees while at the same time provides the perfect size wood pieces for feeding into the feed tube. In just a short time, the stove got so hot, that the metal started glowing red. Cover this with a little cob and you got some great thermal mass to heat up an enclosed space quickly.

The idea behind a rocket stove is to use the least amount of wood necessary to create a very hot fire, while storing the most amount of heat as possible with thermal mass. They are much more efficient than a fireplace and even more efficient than a wood stove.

snowstorm

I got stuck in Alpine for the night. I tried to make it over the mountain pass, but it was not working. Alpine received over a half a foot of snow last night. Terlingua only received a few inches or so. From what I've been told, it snows about 3 times a year here. The low temperatures at night have been getting down into the mid 20's. But the days get into the 60's. Later this week, the temperatures will be back into the 70's and 80's again. I have been bundling up at night in a down sleeping bag which I purchased used from the army. I have also tried sleeping with my down jacket on, but that was too warm.

Stormy Monday

A powerful storm definitely makes one appreciate the idea of permanent shelter. Last night, an electric storm with strong wind gusts and frequent cloud to ground lightning, slipped into Terlingua Ranch after looming in the distant mountains for awhile. Storms are common in July and August, but more rare in May, which is typically a dry month. I took shelter in my car, which I am told is one of the safest places to be in a lightning storm. I have recently learned that the dome structure, once complete, will be an incredibly safe haven for storms. The web of steel bars acts as a force field, absorbing the electric current from a strike. A dome also redirects strong winds around it rather than at it. Round houses, like aerodynamic cars, have much higher wind resistance than flat or square houses. Traditional square houses can sometime lose the battle when the wolf huffs and puffs. Earthquakes ? Round houses win there, too. Over time, a dome becomes structurally stronger and stronger because it compacts upon itself in all directions.

Overall, this has been a rather wet year for this region. Vegetation is very green and many desert flowers are in bloom .