lisaann,

thanks for the wall comment. I really like them too. We didn't have them done, came with the house. But the last owners found a stone mason who harvested rocks from the local river then took forever to decide how exactly to lay them all.

I think he did a great job.

nope, won't affect the creosote build up at all. basicly, as the smoke passes thru it, it heats the tubes in front of the fan, pushing the heat into the room. they have a built in thermostatic automatic on/off switch in them so they only come on at 180*(+) ( if I remember correctly) so that they only have any affect after the rising smoke has reached a temp. that doesn't promote cresote production. I see reclaimers for just under $100 around here. It will pay for it's self in a month, trust me. Yes, heat-pump fans are expensive and although simple in operation, they have range limitations as you mentioned. Only real thing they have going for them is they require no electricity to operate. Reclaimers work better.

alaskan,

That wall is great!

It actually makes me want to climb it, like a rock wall!

Thanks for the information MHG, sounds like you have researched this alot!

quote:

Muddy - Does your blower/heat exchanger work? That should be the grating above your firebox on the front. Also, I don't see any damper control.

This blower does not seem to do much exept make a loud noise...should we be using it with the doors closed? The thought of having the doors closed to get more heat doesn't make sense to me, but maybe I'm not understanding this heat ratio thing. Is there more cold air being sucked up the chimney with the doors open? and this cold air is being sucked in from the room, making the room feel colder?

I'm going to try closing the doors and putting a fan there...I never would have thought to try that.

I spoke to dh about an alternative fuel source, and at the moment he doen't want to pay for fuel, when the wood is free from the extensive forest around our house. As you say, it really does not get 'that' cold down here (judging by your guys horrendus snow storms I'm hearing about) The wood pellet replacement sounds like a good option, I'll look into that.

Thanks for the compliments on our fireplace! Although it came with the house, it wasn't our doing...Our house is a real log cabin, with those thick chunky wood logs, you would think it's well insulated, but probably not made very well, because it sure is hard to keep it warm in the winter!

I lost you guys and can't get back, won't let me?

re-start machine-> IM me

muddy - yes, close doors or your heat is getting sucked out by the draw, yes, have heating guy look at fans

Hey, come on back LisaAnn. Got the webcam working!

I'm back on line Liz, can you show me now?

Well, that was about 10 minutes of showing before I got booted off. My whole screen froze up and I just had to abort. What a day! On the other hand, it did work.

....and I now have a garlic potted up so we can watch it grow above grade.

liz.....you live in North Dakota...when do you usually see bare ground?

(Topofthehill, in South Dakota, is implying that she sees bare ground in MARCH).

*sulky face*

Well, Alaskan, I think we have to differentiate between when we might see some bare ground and when it stops snowing. Bear in mind I've only lived here 6 years and I think the winters I've experienced here have been mostly milder (except for 2004 when we had a ton of snow).

It wouldn't be so unusual to see bare ground here during the month of March. We had a big melt-off during the first week of March last year. This year, we haven't really had that much snow. So one or two warm days could make the ground *mostly* bare (except for the pile remnants) in a hurry.

On the other hand, even in the time I've lived here we've had at least one full-fledged blizzard in mid-April and, though I was out of town and missed it personally, in 2003 there was quite the spring snow storm toward the end of May.

So yes, we might see some bare ground in March...

What's your latitude, Alaskan? I just checked mine yesterday and it's 48. I think you get A LOT more snow than we've been getting here. The old timers say we used to get it here, but not so since I've lived here (except 2004 and even then I'm not sure it was up to the old standards).

And just as important to us gardeners ...we often see bare ground here before the ground is thawed out. Lots of standing water on frozen ground.

My latitude is *drum roll* 59!

I looked up and my average snow is supposed to be 55 inches. What is yours?

Our summer is so cool, that if you get all that snow melted off, then there isn't that much more waiting until you can plant. Sometimes there is the waterlogged soil issue. But I plant mostly in raised beds, and also most of it runs off (very sloped area) so it doesn't take forever to dry up. It does make it easier if you cover the bed to keep the rain off. The place I looked me up said "During the winter, temperatures range from 14 to 27; summer temperatures vary from 45 to 65."

I am a little colder in the winter, since I am way up on a hill (1,300 feet elevation) and town is on the flat. My summer temps are about the same I think.