RMH in a Tipi

We talk a bit about the tipi:

From the cutting room floor of the dvd building a cob style rocket mass heater.  This is 45 minutes of the intro and outro for the tipi build.   About 35 minutes more than what is in the dvd.   So bonus footage that could not fit on the dvd:

This is about an hour from the DVD mashed into eight minutes:

New photos of the wheaton labs Tipi!!!

The rmh isn't working too good, so we pop off the barrel to have a look:



The gap is a bit tight - so it gets widened.  Eventually we open a bunch of spots to discover that a wood rat made a home in the duct work.  

Jen Tuuli is taking a bunch of great pictures of the tipi as she stays in it at Wheaton Labs!

looking beautiful in the snow!

She took a great video of starting up the rocket mass heater in the tipi, too!

Last night was my last night in it before our new boot arrives to stay in it for the rest of the summer. I loved sleeping out there. Nights definitely got down in the 20s inside, but last weekend, with a lot of wood and milder temps outside (40s?), I had it up to 67F.

I had a little cast iron pan I'd heat up my breakfast in on the stove top, and a kettle for my water. Those were both about all I needed for simple breakfast/dinner fare.

I strung up a rope around the poles inside in a star pattern of sorts to hang things from (my backpack, boots, bibs, pants, etc.). If I wanted warm/dry clothes for the morning, I'd have my outfit hanging near the stove at night so it dried out (from the snow and mud) and warmed up after my morning fire.

With a lot of precipitation, I found the opening at the top allowed the moisture (melting snow etc) to drip on the foot of the bed. I had a waxed cape acting as a blanket tarp covering that area of the bed, but recently put up a stray rain fly overhead to see if that might help the next person.

It needs a full liner. The current one only goes about 3/4 of the way around. It also needs a taller liner; maybe get another one to overlap this one to be taller. There's a 6ft liner in there now, but 6ft on an angle is not 6ft tall vertically. A 9ft liner might work, but maybe two 6fts instead? An ozan would also make a big difference, I think. Having a lower ceiling to help retain Some of the heat would help. Eventually, new poles as well. The current ones are bowed in and are allowing the canvas to sag due to lack of tension. These things all cost money, of course, so as funds allow I'm sure we'll get to this. If someone(s) wanted to sponsor the tipi project it would probably get done faster.

All in all, I loved being in there and am kinda sad to move back to Basecamp. Waking up to hearing deer and elk crunching through the snow outside has been a delight. 💖

I love the new tip gate that Jen posted!

Here's the epic tipi gate in the snow (thank you Lara for the beautiful picture!)



And Kyle took this picture of the tipi looking so cozy and inviting!

I can't resist pretty snow pictures, and here's one that the new Boot at Wheaton Labs took (check out Jeff's Bootcamp thread here!)