Devin Horsman @salamander@merveilles.town

Prior to this, she played a song I've been hoping to hear again for the two years since last I heard it played:
https://youtu.be/c6hiB5L9azA

Blue Lobelia closed out their set in my backyard last weekend with two beautiful songs, ending with a sing along version of Wild Mountain Thyme

I've been struggling with finding a way to share what I've learned over the last decade with other folx in a broader way.

Sometimes it feels like I want to write a set of essays, other times it feels like a monthly podcast or something would be better. Much of the time I worry that doing this work will be wasting the little free time I have.

People that have put the effort into something like this... has it been worth it?

Sculpture: driftwood and hawk wings

Some stone steps built with Anand, Nick and Simon.

Tonight I gave a nerve wracking demo of the R&D project I’ve been working on the last 6 months. Many nights of little sleep over the last month. In the end, it went off pretty smoothly. Now time to rest 😴

On a good night an improvement to an algorithm can save you $250000 in hardware 😅

Had some visitors at sunset.

Around 10 deer came in all.

Shelf

Made our first maple syrup on the land today

Recycled / refinished an old shelf, knit a mesh thingy with @anandra on Saturday

I think it might have been the ash box. I found out the ash tray door handle is spring loaded, and the spring is very firm, so to get a good seal you need to give it a good push while you turn it. The air control seems to be doing a little more now. I'll check the air vent housing next time the stove isn't running to be sure.

I've learned a lot about building good fires. I learned about top down fire building techniques [1,2] and what ratio of kindling is require to start a fire with efficient flame. Finally which level of coals should be left before loading the fire again.

[1] https://www.woodheat.org/top-down-steps.html
[2] (Page 10) https://jotul-static-content.s3.amazonaws.com/usa/Current_Manuals/Wood/F500%20V2/139681_R06_Manual_F_500_NA_EPA.pdf

My stove has been burning it's fuel faster than I would expect it to. The potential reasons are that the ash tray door might be leaking air, the air control might not be working correctly, my wood might be too dry resulting in faster burning, or some other issue I'm not yet aware of.

I'm learning more and more about operation of wood stoves for home heating over the last while.

The Jotul Oslo F500 is the wood stove I have at the Hearth, the main building on the land. I learned that different woodstoves burn most efficient at different temperatures and that most often people underfire their wood stoves, producing creosote in the chimney which creates a hazard that could result in a chimney fire.

Timing diagrams. Not fun to make but pretty useful in understanding a parallel or pipelined system

The fountain remains my preferred film on mortality.

Years later and with more experience with death, grief and ego, it has more impact than each time before.

A worthwhile reminder to help appreciate the high cost of living.

https://merveilles.town/@anandra/105494600705690662