Blaze king is not enough

As a T6 [summit] man I have no trouble heating around 2400' in -40 weather. I do not heat my basement. Mind you I use a bit of wood in these temps. My thought is the Blaze King would have no trouble with your size home except for the fact that "1000' is lightly insulated garage". I think in cold country heating without proper [heavy] insulation is asking the stove to do to much. So I give the Blaze King a pass on this one.

perplexed said:

My question to all of you who live that far north is WHY?? Boggles my mind! Makes me shiver just to think about it.

I didn't think you had any 'standing-ups' that far north to burn. Thought whale blubber was used?

How can you stand the cold and the dark for so many months of the year and not go crazy? I live in a state where we have over 300 days of sunshine so you can imagine that we experience nothing like that and things around here get a bit testy come late Jan. early Feb.

My hat's off to you for living in such places. My oldest son (19) is looking to go up to Alaska this spring for a job and to 'find himself'. Me thinks he will be home sooner than he anticipates. Dislikes heavy duty work and long hours. Personally, I think it will be a good experience for him. Time will tell if he actually heads out. He has had many plans like this in the past and nothing has come of them.

Impressed that one stove keeps you heated!

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Tell the kid to come on up. If he's adventurous and loves the outdoors and wide open spaces, chances are he'll call you and have you send him the rest of his things.

I've been here 51 years. I'm at 64 degrees North. I live here because I can. Born and raised, and will be planted in the frozen tundra. Traffic is passing one car on my way to work, a real snowstorm comes down horizontally. I know everyone in the grocery store when I go shopping, there's little crime. I don't lock my house or vehicles...ever. My kids play in the street. There are no property fences...anywhere, and no No Trespassing signs. The view from my couch is the Bering Sea, I watch the sunrise every morning. I have cable TV, the internet, a cell phone, lots of guns and fishing poles. I have a well paying job, two recreational cabins, a boat, 5 ATV's and 4 snowmobiles, and fill my freezer with meat and fish every fall. I own a nice 3br home that rivals one in Anywhere, USA. I fish King Crab through the ice in the winter within eyesight of my house, and give loads away to friends because I tire of eating them after a couple of months. I pay no State income or sales tax, all residents are exempt. The State gives me an oil royalty dividend each year (for the past 20), that this year was 2 grand. When I need firewood for my stove, I just go cut it....anywhere, no permission needed from anyone.

Why do I live here? Beats me!

Sounds like heaven on earth to me frostbit, as soon as my kids are out on their own I am comming up to check it out.I love panning for gold,fishing and hunting here in michigan and you have all those things...SQuared. Hope You will still have a piece of it left for a michigander.

You paint a great picture, but if it was easy, everyone would be there. Just too dang cold. Even the blaze king literature states that to get the most btus out of their stoves you need to be constantly feeding them. They seem to be made for the low and slow burns.

"Just to dang cold". My wife and I often remark that its lucky we have cold in winter or everyone would be here. The attitude that its too cold is great and i hope everyone keeps it. Of course with no near neighbors and being snowed in most years puts off many. The best thing here is we are surrounded by Crown land so I think we are safe from the southern hordes.

Highbeam said:

You paint a great picture, but if it was easy, everyone would be there. Just too dang cold. Even the blaze king literature states that to get the most btus out of their stoves you need to be constantly feeding them. They seem to be made for the low and slow burns.

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I made no mention of it being "easy", 'cause it ain't. TV shows make it looks like a hostile environment, with nothing here. Fine by me, it keeps the Californies away!

Frostbit said:

perplexed said:

!

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I've been here 51 years. I'm at 64 degrees North. I live here because I can. Born and raised, and will be planted in the frozen tundra. Traffic is passing one car on my way to work, a real snowstorm comes down horizontally. I know everyone in the grocery store when I go shopping, there's little crime. I don't lock my house or vehicles...ever. My kids play in the street. There are no property fences...anywhere, and no No Trespassing signs. The view from my couch is the Bering Sea, I watch the sunrise every morning. I have cable TV, the internet, a cell phone, lots of guns and fishing poles. I have a well paying job, two recreational cabins, a boat, 5 ATV's and 4 snowmobiles, and fill my freezer with meat and fish every fall. I own a nice 3br home that rivals one in Anywhere, USA. I fish King Crab through the ice in the winter within eyesight of my house, and give loads away to friends because I tire of eating them after a couple of months. I pay no State income or sales tax, all residents are exempt. The State gives me an oil royalty dividend each year (for the past 20), that this year was 2 grand. When I need firewood for my stove, I just go cut it....anywhere, no permission needed from anyone.
Why do I live here? Beats me!

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Welcome Sarah Palin.

Sarah lives there because of the meth availability!

But, in all honesty, the "beauty" of cold is that it keeps SOME of the riff-raff out (notwithstanding Wasillians) - Even Maine, VT and NH do that, as does some other cold locales.

Ah, that socialist oil royalty - down here they would call that welfare and say you were a slacker. And how dare you make $100K doing carpentry? Down here they would bust up that scheme really quickly and make sure that the lowest paid person (legal or illegal) would do your job. After all, misery loves company.

So move down south - carpenters start at $12 an hour...no benefit.....and working in 95 humid Atlanta weather is just dandy....
%-P

On second thought...........

Webmaster said:

Sarah lives there because of the meth availability!

But, in all honesty, the "beauty" of cold is that it keeps SOME of the riff-raff out (notwithstanding Wasillians) - Even Maine, VT and NH do that, as does some other cold locales.

Ah, that socialist oil royalty - down here they would call that welfare and say you were a slacker. And how dare you make $100K doing carpentry? Down here they would bust up that scheme really quickly and make sure that the lowest paid person (legal or illegal) would do your job. After all, misery loves company.

So move down south - carpenters start at $12 an hour...no benefit.....and working in 95 humid Atlanta weather is just dandy....
%-P

On second thought...........

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Whats meth?

I have seen where folks living in colder climates, as in Alaska etc, don't get sick as often as the warmer climate dwellers. I guess at 40 below even germs find it hard to survive.

Uh, -44? Cold. But...

I worked in Antarctica for 12 years - no, not straight, but back and forth. My longest "stint" was 14 months at the South Pole in 2000/2001. -108 was the coldest I saw, 13,500 in elevation. 4 "Summers" at McMurdo, 2 Winters at Palmer Station - where we had a wood stove. I spent many a happy "night" (6 months of darkness) beside the stove, specially after swimming. Palmer had open water for many months.

Throw hot water up in the air at -70F, it will freeze before hitting the snow. Spit? Nah. It rolls up into a ball on hitting the snow surface. Exposed skin is problematic too. My glasses froze to my face once. I pulled off my glasses, and lost two nice chunks of my cheeks.

300 club... I didn't join, and in retrospect, I'm still o.k. 200F in steam room, -100F outside. Take a naked run out around the ceremonial Pole and back into the Dome.

I really hope to go back someday. I miss the adventure and the stark beauty. Besides, I'll never get to be an astronaut.

Frostbit said:

Highbeam said:

You paint a great picture, but if it was easy, everyone would be there. Just too dang cold. Even the blaze king literature states that to get the most btus out of their stoves you need to be constantly feeding them. They seem to be made for the low and slow burns.

Click to expand...

I made no mention of it being "easy", 'cause it ain't. TV shows make it looks like a hostile environment, with nothing here. Fine by me, it keeps the Californies away!

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Hey, I resemble that remark! :coolsmile:

Webmaster said:

Sarah lives there because of the meth availability!

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....sorry, don't get it. Splain please :sick:

If it needs plaining, it ain't funny........
But Wasilla is the meth capital (meth is speed - a drug) of Alaska, and it is the only way I can explain the behavior of some folks around there. Like meth is to Alaska as Pot is to California, etc.......

Webmaster said:

If it needs plaining, it ain't funny........
But Wasilla is the meth capital (meth is speed - a drug) of Alaska, and it is the only way I can explain the behavior of some folks around there. Like meth is to Alaska as Pot is to California, etc.......

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I gathered that....thanks though.

Pretty harsh on Alaskaganders 'round here....what up with that?

I got hardwood and low 30's and raining outside, my stove cooks me out of the house on low. I just opened a window in fact! Your BK must be broke or sumpin' ;-P Seriously though, I drove to Skagway from Kelso 4 years ago in winter and felt -44 in Watson Lake. Thats cold. We stopped one night in the middle of the AL-CAN highway at 2:00am after almost hitting a moose, watched the aurora for a while, and I pulled off my glove to light a smoke. My hand instantly hurt. Quite an experience for someone who thought 10 was cold.

wolfkiller said:

FYI Most of Alaska loves Sara for all the good she has done for this state. If I was administrator of a wood burning forum I would try to discourage political slander for the can of worms it is bound to open.

Happy burning

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Uh oh!

wolfkiller said:

FYI Most of Alaska loves Sara for all the good she has done for this state. If I was administrator of a wood burning forum I would try to discourage political slander for the can of worms it is bound to open.

Happy burning

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I'd like her too if she gave me those big checks......

Anyway, I get your point.......just having some new years fun.

I think many of us in the lower 48 got to know more about urban and suburban Alaska than we really ever wanted to know.


and now, in the new year, we are gonna be subjected to People Magazine paying Levi $300K for pics of his out-of-wedlock underage baby. When will it stop?

We liked it when Sarah was all yours....

(ducking for cover)

Since Web feels we are all on Meth up here and perplexed figured we have no trees. Heres our Purple Haze and our hallucination of our standing trees all in one. What a trip Man. Peace.

Give Craig a break he still pines for John Kerry!! :cheese:

Let's see Massachusetts had John Kerry and Alaska had Sarah Palin. Nuff said!

I was never a Kerry fan, but Purple Haze is cool.....

BTW, not exactly warm here in New England today, but caught these teens at the beach getting a quick dip.

They did survive......

north of 60 said:

perplexed figured we have no trees. Heres our Purple Haze and our hallucination of our standing trees all in one. What a trip Man. Peace.

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Don't know much about forestry....What I do know came from a children's book I read to my kids years ago titled 'Baseball Bats for Christmas'. Took place up North where there were no trees so the kids were very surprised to receive wooden baseball bats at Christmas. I never researched that but just assumed that at some point up North there is a timber line. Trees on one side - none past a certain point.

I live in Colorado and know our mountains have a timber line due to altitude. I just assumed same held true to our globe and Northern latitudes.

Thanks :coolsmile:


P.S. I started another topic on the list somewhere to ask North dwellers such as yourself how much wood you burn in a day to stay warm. I'll ask it again here since this thread is still getting responses. Figure I'll get some answers somewhere....

perplexed- we do have a timberline on our mountains. also the northern third of alaska is treeless for the most part. i think it has more to do with the permantly frozen ground. if you look at a map alaska is pretty treeless from the southslopes of the brooks range north. although many people collect driftwood north of this along the coast. have been here 54 years myself. feel like an ant in an antfarm when i go to the lower 48. couldn't tell you exactly how much wood i burn cuz it usually doesn't get stacked. try to keep it a low effort endevour as have plenty of other things going on. just built a new hot water furnace will try to get pics posted soon. am very happy with it. take care , only -35 here tonite.