“I Read the News Today, Oh Boy!”

My apologies. I don’t really have a post for you today.

As the Beatles sang, “I read the news today, oh boy . . . .” I just learned that an artist and kindred spirit passed away. I had written what I felt to be an adequate tribute, intending to post it here, but the more I wrote, the less I felt right about it.

So, if you promise not to send any condolences to me, I’ll tell you a little about what’s going on, then leave it alone.

snow on the Zeiger family homestead

The weather matches my mood . . . and it’s time to sweep the solar panels again (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

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Heat Shielding for the Cottage Wood Stove

After we incorporated homemade heat shielding into our water heater install (see An Alarming Debut) we turned our attention to another problem on the homestead: the wood stove in the cottage.

We’ve made fires in the cottage wood stove for years without thinking much about the stove’s proximity to the adjacent wall. I confess, we installed a new stove in place of an older one, matching the proximity to the wall, and didn’t worry much about the difference.

wall damaged by wood stove heat

Before: We obviously had a problem. Note: holes in wall come from the toredo worm wood used as decorative paneling (Photo: Sarah A. Zeiger).

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