Argosy-Post 4 Removing Interior Skin

My decision to start blogging my restoration process happened about 6 months after purchasing my Argosy. The previous posts were to get caught up and new posts should get into more detail. If you have purchased one of these and decide to restore it, you will find out that they come apart relatively easily. It's time consuming; removing what seems like a million pop rivets, but the pieces come apart little by little. In terms of resources to learn about what to do; the Airstream Forums provides and enormous amount of information. Often the best way to search is using Google and not the internal search engine. The other resource, which I appreciate a bit more is the Argosy Facebook Page. Folks here are positive and encouraging and provide both feedback and moral support.

Once you have most all the interior cabinets, partitions and "things" removed, it's time to start taking out the interior skin. The bulk of these are long strips of aluminum. The longer the Argosy, the longer the panels. One of the biggest challenges for me was removing the very top course. It wasn't really riveted in place but secured between two aluminum J-channels. Under this panel is where the wiring runs live. This panel curves to fit the ceiling. To get this out, I had to create a reverse curve and try not to kink the panel. I started at one end and used a 2x4 inserted between the panel and structural ribs to do this. It took time. I did have to "open up" the J-channel in places but by and large, the center panel came out relatively unscathed.

I'm doing this renovation by myself so finding ways to manage the bulky items can be challenging at times. I rolled the panels up to get them out of the camper door. Thinking ahead, I don't want to deal with cleaning when I put things back together so, after removing each piece of skin, I cleaned them. On the back of each, there is a coating of paint. My Argo was filled with critters, there were mouse tunnels EVERYWHERE. So, the back of the panels had mouse pee stains which needed cleaning (and sanitizing). In reading the forums, 409 seemed to be a favorite cleaner. Bleche-Wite was also recommended by one poster. I bought both to compare. I was hoping the BW would clean up the discoloring on the interior surface. Both worked equally well at cleaning. The BW did nothing to brighten the ambering of the interior skin. I used the 409 mostly due to it's disinfecting properties.

As my Argosy sits out in a field, away from formal power and water, I bring over a few jugs ( I use the 3 gallon cat litter jugs) of hot water each day to wash as much panelling as I can. I use a bristled brush as the sharp rivet holes eat up scotch brite pads. So, I have a panel or two on the ground that gets washed as I am working to remove another. When both sides are clean and dry, I roll them up as tightly as I can and secure them with cord.

Removing the insulation is by far the worst experience I have encountered. Not only was my Argosy infested, the insulation is old fiberglass and disintegrates on contact. Expect to be itchy. I did not want this stuff, any of it, in my lungs or eyes. Goggles fogged up with the respirator so I used safety glasses. Gloves were mandatory. It was too hot for long sleeves. I tried to roll it up as I took it out of the walls. Insulation came out of the walls and right into a plastic trash bag for disposal. Once insulation was removed, I used a small shop vac to clean out each "bay". It did a great job of getting most of the rest of the fiberglass.

I have run out of storage space in my garage/workshop and I needed a place to keep things that would keep out rain and snow. I used mostly scrap wood to build a "tarp shed". I am lucky that a local farmer has a saw mill and I used rough cut lumber for the wood pieces I was lacking . Pallets make up the floor.

Argosy-Post 3 Removing the interior furnishings

The first thing I found was a breaker box hidden behind a night stand between the two rear bunks. The power cord is in the rear bumper and comes directly into this box.


















In tracing wiring, things quickly became scary. The circuit that feeds the power converter ran into this corroded box which arced at some point and fried the wires.

 The battery box (bottom left), converter (not shown), blackwater tank and heating duct were all packed into a compartment below the driver's side bunk.











This wooden platform supported the shower/shower seat. It sits over the wheel well on the driver's side. On the left of the shower wall was where the sink was located.

At this point, my workshop is full of Argosy parts. Panels that separated the back bedroom from a closet, the series of bathroom walls, the bathroom sink, overhead storage compartments and doors, kitchen cupboards, etc.


While I don't plan on reusing many of the removed partitions or cabinetry (due to water damage), I'm keeping things as templates for new construction. As this project will take me a few years and as my memory grays with time, having the pieces will help rebuilding immensely.




Finally, with the shower walls and supports removed, there are the plumbing runs.


I have begun to tinker with how to repair some of the removed plastic pieces. Some of the plastic was thin and cracked. Trailer movement, age and removal have also taken a toll. Years ago, I built two kayaks using mahogany plywood covered with fiberglass and epoxy. I know how strong this is and have begun using it to repair some of the interior cabinets. It seems to adhere well and the fiberglass lends support and shape to voids. I'm using System 3 Epoxy (ordered via Amazon) and fiberglass cloth which is available most anywhere they sell auto parts.

Argosy Pre-Restoration Post 2

 These pics are taken after delivery. She doesn't look too bad for being 38 years old.

It was the end of the 70's and, this being a 1979, was the last year they built the Airstream Argosy's. I have heard that the Argosy line was the bargain camper where they both tried new concepts and used things they may have damaged while building the shiny campers. While most of the exterior shell is aluminum, the exterior endcaps are steel.

I can't decide how to describe the interior patterns. The bin doors are either "tiger stripe" or some sort of "aboriginal" pattern.

The interior wall coverings in the bathroom are some "Peter Max" like floral pattern.

The furniture was covered in a southwest, Navaho type blanket pattern.

Tambour sliding doors are used abundantly in the upper interior end units, on a spice cabinet in the kitchen, in the bathroom and on lower storage units in the main living space and in the rear bedroom. Most are still in workable condition.

The bathroom sink unit & wall cabinets are all plastic and in fair shape (not brittle). Storage bins in the bedroom end table, kitchen and in the living area below the couch are plastic and on roller glides. The plastic was thin and there are holes in the weak areas.

While all of this looks decent from the pictures, the wall coverings are dirty and sticky from the plasticizers deteriorating with age. There is spot mold on the bathroom walls, the fake woodgrain is delaminating and the plastic has yellowed significantly.

There is extensive information from those that have restored before me (Airforums.com) and a very nice bunch of folks on the Argosy Facebook page as I embark on this journey.

Onward!

The Argosy

I've renovated/restored numerous dwellings; a few houses, a single-wide trailer (never again!). My travels to/from school for the last 5+ years take me by a business that sells mobile home parts and old campers, some of which they restore and sell. I watched an old Airstream Argosy (the painted version of the shiny Airstream trailers) move around the lot for a number of years. I finally stopped to look at it and you can undoubtably figure out what happened shortly thereafter.

This was one of the first pictures I took to try to sell my wife on getting this. Let's just say she's still not keen on the idea. What actually started my thinking about restoring this was a comment from her that I should build a tiny house to put on our 50 acres. I mean, after all, this is a tiny house, right? And wouldn't it be more fun and less expensive to restore one of these than to build a tiny house? And, we could take it camping if we wanted. Plus, I think it's epic.

So, I've had it now since last winter and I've started the process of renovating. It's taken this long for me to decide that I should document the process of restoration.

Officially, she's a 1979 30' Airstream Argosy with a center bath and double bunks in back. As is typical with most all Airstream trailers that aren't regularly sealed, water has leaked in around the joint where the shell meets the trailer bed and the floor has decayed. This brings condition of the frame into question so I am planning a full, "shell-off" restoration. As often as I can, I will document my progress here.

Thoughts on Changes in Educational Philosophy, Common Core and Standards-based Learning

Life for me has always been one big experiment. Perhaps it was my youthful, wage earning years as a scientist for big pharma; maybe I've just always liked tinkering to see what I could fix. But, I spent a good deal of time last summer pondering how I teach science. As a science educator for over 10 years, I've rarely had a textbook to use. Never in Chemistry. I have copies I've purchased as resources, but never a class set. So, I have a constantly evolving digital data base of "schtuff" that I write and use that changes based on the circumstances I am in and feedback from my students. And yes, those of you that teach know how long it takes to create your own "schtuff". For me, it's just part of what I do on a regular basis.

 At one point in my life as a scientist, I returned to school to obtain a Masters degree in Environmental Education. In the 80's, environmental meant all things associated with the natural world; things like ecology, resource protection, air and water pollution, alternate energy, etc. This word has evolved over 30 years into the word sustainable. If the environmental 80's represented an age of an awareness of the importance of the natural world, then the word sustainable that is used now,  represents more of a feeling that our resources are finite and that we are moving towards a "point of no return". And, that we should embrace a way of thinking that is not so short-sighted.

It would be really nice if we started using the word sustainable in regards to education. It seems changes take place in cycles. We jump (or are forced onto) the bandwagon because someone out there is willing to try something different, perhaps better, but we forget about long-term causality.

NCLB (No Child Left Behind) was a lovely idea, but without input from those working with our kids, was troubled from the start. If we look at the roots of Common Core, funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and (again) there were few (if any) educators involved in the process. I'm not saying that CC is a bad idea; I like standards-based education. But if you don't involve the folks on the front lines, then workability becomes a significant obstacle. For the record, NGSS (NextGenScienceStandards (the not quite yet Common Core for Science)) was created by both professionals in science and educators at all levels. I'm not saying that any of these are "bad" or "good", just that most often it is the implementation of an idea that ends up being faulty. (Note: I should have included some citations for this information. It may not be stated as accurately as it should be but the above is fairly common knowledge. There is a good article in a recent Yes! Magazine)

To my mentors in graduate school, thank you. I learned from them to look deeper into the meanings of words. Their definition of "environmental" was much grander than mine at the time. Not only did it represent an interest in the natural world but to them, it was also about the interrelationships that existed and impacted the natural world. It meant things like global economy, politics, local resources, seasonal changes and more.

Experiential education was a big part of my graduate program. We spent a week on (perhaps more accurately; "descended upon") Nantucket investigating how an island was a microcosm for other places. We went to Costa Rica and explored the 7 different major ecosystems there. I was part of an exchange program and went to Estonia before the collapse of the Soviet Union. While my host visited me here, Estonia declared themselves an independent nation and we celebrated. So I was immersed in some really cool learning experiences.

I'm in a place now where I'm thinking something experiential would be really great to do with my high school chemistry classes but, the more I ponder this option, the more complex it gets. In graduate school, we were all eager to move beyond the traditional realm of "being educated". I'm dealing with a general population of high school students, many of whom are living for their next text message and have the attention span of a gnat. How do you get 20+ students to willingly go where few students "have gone before"? On a professional level, how do I combine "standards-based" with "experiential"?  It's the same dilemma I have dealt with before. How do I work within the constraints of a system to get my students to approach knowledge and to think outside of the box?

There were no standards in grad school on what needed to be accomplished; it was as much or as little as we wanted. It was, after all, "experiential" and more of an opportunity for personal growth. What our professors did was to create a challenge that was open ended; relying on us to assign roles to members of our group and our drive as adult students to learn and grow.

In my current high school, each of us has a set of standards that dictate what knowledge our students are supposed to walk away with. This sounds very "cookie-cutter -ish" but it is far from that. Coming to a common understanding of what each "standard" means is no small feat. There is also a level of proficiency students must meet for each standard. Determining what "proficiency" means is also no small feat. These fundamental questions will drive each educator in different ways. It will drive each school in different ways. And there is more.

With the discussion by teachers of what standards are and what proficiency is, other relevant issues come to light. There are a set of skills our kids need to develop. These skills include both professional skills (like work ethic and problem-solving) and social skills (right-place, right-time).

The most important take-home message from all of this newness is, for both education professionals and for those looking in from the outside, that this is a journey of learning for all of us. What makes standards-based education different is that, as an educator doing this for over two years now, I find myself constantly asking questions about what the "standard" means and what proficiency looks like in my students.

For me, each day represents a new opportunity to look in the mirror and grow in my profession. I am someplace now that I never would have imagined two years ago.  In ten years of teaching, this is the first time I've actually felt like a professional educator. And this comes from someone who spent the previous 20 years as a professional scientist. So, be reasonable, give it a chance and don't forget to enjoy the journey!

Pushing Back the Trees & Long-term Ecology

We made the decision to burn wood over two years ago. I work full-time as an educator and have summers "off". Most folks think teachers have it easy. The school day ends at 2:30 and we have summers off, right? Yes, there are some of us that work the clock but most of us are committed to our students, our curriculum and our school. This means that grading student work comes home with us and is scored after we eat with our family, that more than a few hours are spent on weekends doing what can't be completed during the week and that we spend some part of our summer thinking about what we will do differently and even creating material to use in the fall. Yup, that's me.

So, outside of my life as an educator, I have this passion for things outdoors. We have an organic garden that provides good veggies. We have a home garden and this year I've created a garden on our 50 acres (about 1 mile from where we reside). I'm experimenting with winter crops like potatoes, onions and squash. The soil is much richer than at our house and the plants show it! My 9 year old son is also very excited as his pumpkin plants there are HUGE! I'm hoping the critters don't find too much of what I've planted edible.

On our 50 acres, I'm slowly pushing back some of the fields that have been taken by trees over the last 100 years. The hardwood burns in our wood stove in winter. The soft woods are sold for pulp. I'm also dealing with poor logging practices.  Our acreage was logged a few times, about 12 years ago being the most recent. The memories of this are still there; deep ruts in softer soil and old oil cans strewn about. Some of the skidder trails are well placed and these I fix and turn into access trails for both walking, skiing and winter access for selective harvesting. This sounds like quite a bit of work (it is) but I take my strategy from Helen and Scott Nearing. It's a long-term plan with many interweaving components for successful land management. These components are designed to work together in one summer or over years of management.

Let me provide one example for areas where I am re-establishing open space.

Our forest is mid-stage succession. In this area of Maine, there are maple, oak, cherry, birch and beech but also pine and balsam fir. When I'm clearing, I have different things I do with the different parts of the trees. The hardwoods obviously are cut into burnable chunks, split and stacked to dry for winter fuel. The remainder is cut into "brush" and "poles". The brush is piled into a row on my access road and shredded with my field mower. Sometimes I leave this as it makes a nice base for a woods trail, sometimes I rake this up and use it elsewhere. The poles are stacked and can be either chipped or used as part of a "You Rot!" pile (read further).

Older softwoods are sustainably harvested for pulp. What little profit there is goes into tractor maintenance, chainsaw blades, diesel, gravel for the roads, etc. Branches from these are shredded and used as above. Sometimes the fir poles will be used for corduroy roads (another experiment). I leave wood standing until I am ready to use it. So, I may harvest the firewood one year and not harvest the fir until the next year.

When clearing, there is plenty of debris that is unusable. This includes half-rotten trees and wood too small to cut up for firewood. This material is stacked in rows into low spots on our property. When it reaches the level of contour I desire, I cover it with a layer of shredded brush (see above) that I have raked up. The idea is to create a moist environment for the organisms that feed on wood to thrive. I'm no soil biologist so my decay piles are each built differently to see what works best. I may eventually spread topsoil over the top and seed, but first I'll wait a year or two to see what nature brings.


We have a low area that will eventually make a nice pond. In this low spot, there is decent topsoil. In late August, early September when things are dry. I scoop out a good pile of soil and put it in a location where it can sit for a year. This way, the pile slowly dries and anything growing dies and decays. When I clear an area and the trees are gone,  I skim coat the surface with this top soil and seed with grass.

Stumps present their own issues.These are cut as low as possible

without running the saw blade into the dirt; then notched. Over a few years, the rainwater collects in the notches accelerating the decay process.  The freeze/thaw cycle over a few winters accelerates the process. The difference in longevity between notched and un-notched is remarkable; notched softwoods and hardwoods decay fairly rapidly.

In my "harvested soil", there are lots of rocks. These are raked out as the top soil is spread. The small rocks go into 5 gal buckets and the larger rocks are piled together. The small rocks are transported to a wet spot in a trail and used as fill, the larger rocks are moved to a pile that will be used to widen my main access road, build the next small bridge abutment or perhaps used in slipform construction to build a foundation for a cabin.

So, there is at least one option (usually more) for the output(s) of each process. Each output ties in with at least two ongoing projects. So, in theory anyway, as one process moves forward, the resources for another project become readily available. As new projects are completed, others are started. The most difficult part of the process is having a long-term vision and realizing that projects may take a few years to complete. In this way, what I am doing is more in line with what nature does when she "creates". It takes years for forest succession to take place so it makes sense (to me anyway) that small, human-engineered changes, should not be a rapid event either.

As I gain experience over the years and observe the outcome of my experiments, I gain understanding about how well certain ideas have worked. What and how I do things now is much different (and more efficient) than how I did things 5 years ago.

Reflections from my first full year of teaching in a Standards-based, Student Centered Environment

I teach Chemistry.

I'm not really sure how I ended up teaching Chemistry. I began as a professional scientist and spent 20 years in that career. Somewhere along the line, I obtained a Masters in Environmental Education. When I first went into teaching, Chemistry is one of the classes I ended up with. Surprisingly, it has been the one I most enjoy. I think it's because I like what it does to kids brains.

At the high school level, we tend to forget that there are cognitive levels. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Chemistry. Because there is a certain amount of abstract thinking involved in this subject area, there are some students who are just not able to grasp, perhaps visualize, some of the ideas in the course. While I enjoy watching my students brains expand with the information they learn, I also enjoy the challenge of developing different ways of delivering information that helps them approach learning.

I am fortunate to finally be in a school district that has embraced an evolving model of learning. When I was a scientist, I always felt that I worked with others in a community where we all had the same goal; the discovery and advancement of knowledge. I've been in 3 school districts in my tenure as an educator and I have never felt like a professional. I learned early on in my first career that progress can only be made when you are in an environment where you work "with" people and not "for" people.

So, to truly change the learning environment, your administrators must re-establish their role(s) and discover how to work "with" the professionals they have hired. This often involves creating a model of "shared-decision making" which allows anyone in the building an opportunity to participate in this process if they desire.

Educators must also be willing to embrace change. Lecturing to the masses is dead. The global economy has undergone a massive shift over the last 7 years. Technology is in every students pocket; they are part of a digital generation. So, education must also change to both embrace the technology we have that is constantly developing and to provide our students with the ability to think and adapt. We don't know where the jobs of the future are or will be so we need to help our students become independent learners.

When both administration and educators connect, there is an amazing cultural shift that takes place. What I have observed in my whole 1.3 years of being a part of this environment is that a new dialog begins. The focus is on education and on students. Hasn't the focus always been on education and students you think? In my 10 years of being an educator in three different school districts, I had yet to experience a place where there was universal, constant dialog with all the stakeholders involved, about how to improve education.

So, I'm still a newbie to all of this schtuff. To give an idea of what is possible, let me just list the changes I have observed in the 1.3 years I have been a part of our district.

With no experience, I was dropped into a standards-based, student-centered learning model 2/3 of the way through the school year (3rd trimester 2012). Trial by fire? Definitely!

2011-2012
Specific Targets (standards) had just been written and adopted at the beginning of the school year. Teachers were working to figure out how to adapt their material for each target, figuring out to move through the targets to complete them by the end of the year and how to create assessments that demonstrated student learning for each target. They struggled with what it means to "meet standard"on each individual target assigned to their classes. Targets often begin with statements like "Students understand and can demonstrate..." so you often think and re-think about what proficiency means.

Students were learning that, if they couldn't demonstrate "proficiency" on an "assessment", that they needed to re-visit the material and re-take an assessment. No longer was failure an option. Pacing became an issue as it became difficult to keep moving forward as there were students that were unsuccessful at completing assessments. The concept of multi-tasking and organization were redefined as some students worked to meet standard on past Targets, many students were keeping up with class pace and some were ready to move faster through the material. Learning to groups students moving at the same pace together was a developing skill. Learning to keep track of everything and document was a developing skill.

2012-2013
The second year of working with established Targets allowed us to appreciate what worked and identify what did not. We were allowed to fix what didn't work well. We were allowed to re-write what was not well defined. Working with the two other Chemistry teachers in our district has been an amazing experience. Together, we reconfigured our Targets into three trimester mini-courses that might be seen as stand alone courses. With so much focus on course content over the past two years, lab activities had been compromised. We're now working to re-integrate laboratory skills that mesh with and reinforce the Targets we teach. And, we are in the process of redefining what advanced courses will look like. Instead of being it's own year-long course, Honors Chemistry will be an additional trimester course that coincides with the third trimester of Chemistry. This will be an introduction to a year-long Advanced Chemistry course.

In addition, in our particular High School, we voted to completely recreate our daily schedule. Science classes have the option of having a second laboratory period much like colleges do. Intervention and study halls no longer exist in favor of Labs where students will go to work on things they are challenged by.

Parting thoughts.
These changes were brought about in just two years from within by a faculty committed to creating an environment that works for our students. For those just beginning their journey, the changes may seem overwhelming and even a bit insane. Your journey will be different from ours. The hardest part for many will be to let go of what we feel has been working well for us. You have to constantly remind yourself that we are not in education "for us" and that we are working to create an environment that will help our students, all of our students, be successful in their future.  It is not an easy road to take as there are generations of adults that do not understand why we are changing. Many are not willing to embrace a proficiency-based system of education.

As a scientist, I enjoy experiments. The goals of this experiment are to improve what we do. If we don't explore learning how to learn, then we can't get better. How do I know what we are doing now is better that what we did "before"? Simply, by the quality of the interactions I have with my students. They are more engaged on a day to day basis , the questions they ask are richer, the connections they make are deeper. Ask me again in a few more years. I can't wait to see where we go from here!

Student-Centered Learning Two.

Being an educator has it's ups and downs. I was hired 2/3 of the way through the school year last Spring to complete both a Chemistry course and an AP Chemistry course. With standards-based education, this meant I had a predetermined number of topics to cover and complete successfully for each class. In retrospect, it was probably the most intense few months of my teaching career. The students survived the challenge, I survived (with a few bumps and bruises along the way) and we all made it successfully through the course content. Glad I've been teaching for a while!

Most of us that are passionate about being teachers think about teaching over the summer even though we are "off". I'm no different. Perhaps it's my career as a former scientist but I've always been motivated to change my classes to make them "better". For me, this means creating a class where kids learn science the way science in the real world happens. Not so easy in chemistry. I mean, you can't just let kids randomly mix chemicals together...

The biggest shift for me is changing our classroom environment from being teacher-centered to student-centered. This means reducing the amount of lecture time to a minimum. For a relatively seasoned veteran, it can be difficult to relinquish this control! With a lecture based environment, I talk and present, students take notes and ask questions. As educators, we tend to be blind to the fact that well over 90% of our students become disengaged by this process and/or are so busy taking notes, they are unable to absorb the information being presented. It's something that has bothered me for years.

Shifing this paradigm takes lots of time, thinking and energy; something not readily available during the school year. Lab activities most usually are designed to demonstrate one concept. "See? This is what I'm talking about!" It takes a while to create activities that introduce concepts, guide thinking, foster independence and allow conclusions to be drawn all while following the scientific process.

So, for me anyway, challenge number one becomes turning yourself into a resource. In hand with this challenge is finding or creating activity-based projects that allow students to work both independently and together to develop understanding of major concepts. Ideally, we are creating a system where students are learning how to learn and the instructor serves to guide the process of exploration of the content.

Very few textbooks have been created to approach knowledge this way. Most Chemistry textbooks follow a set path and read more like well, textbooks. "This is what we know!" (No explanation of how or why given.) The American Chemical Society (ACS) created the first chemistry-based, contextual text with Chemistry in the Community (ChemCom) (as far as I am aware). It started with a scenario where all the fish in the lake of a community died. It took students into chemistry from an environmental approach most could relate to and did it by using small-group activities. In it's most recent incarnation, I was sad to see that it seems to have deviated from this approach. In all honesty though, I haven't had the opportunity to really look at the changes that have been made to see if this new approach might work better. And, as a disclaimer, I've never used this text as written. I have used many of the lab activities because they are well  thought out and easy to build on.

I stumbled onto my latest favorite as a sample text left by my predecessor in one of my bookshelves. I received a pre-print of this book over 8 years ago and thought it was garbage. This text is called Active Chemistry and it was authored by Arthur Eisencraft and co-developed with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. It is project-based and has students working in small groups on activities. I can't praise this book enough for it's approach! Of course I'm just beginning to use it and am experimenting by using the first chapter with my students this fall. It creates exactly the environment I want in my classroom from day one!

Students work as individuals, with a partner and with small groups. In this book, "activities" can be anything like labs or projects. It reminds me of what I remember as "Project-based Learning". I like the fact that, within a week, students are doing their first lab with chemicals and thinking about the results they observe. This guided-inquiry approach has been touted for years but, until recently, educators have had to create their own activities.

Recently published this year by the POGIL Project (Project Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) and Flinn Scientific are a series of books written/edited by a friend and former colleague Laura Trout. Students are organized into small groups, each student with a different role in the group, and guided through activities geared toward understanding major concepts. The teacher acts as a facilitator, stopping the groups at certain key points, to reinforce learning. The POGIL website is wonderful and has guidelines and sample videos so you can see how this might "look" in your classroom. These activities are thought and discussion-based and address the more challenging concept in science.

Also worthy of note, both AP Biology and Chemistry have (or are about to) transitioned to laboratory-based courses. The hope is to shift away from a knowledge-based approach to science to more of an application-based approach. Most of us that teach AP Bio or Chem are already trying to figure out how to shift our introductory classes in this direction (we'd be silly not to!).

I'll try to update how this is all working when I have some down time; most likely the holiday season.

Harvesting Fir

Without gainful employment at the moment, I have decided to harvest more of the large fir trees on our land. I personally hadn't thought about cutting myself until our neighbor, who logged for us two years ago, suggested it. Funny how that happens. It was one of those "oh yeah, I could do that" moments.

Fir trees grow bigger in our area of town. These start out as those $50 Christmas trees people pay a premium for during the Holidays. They grow naturally here to 60' tall; then they die (which all trees eventually do anyway) and fall over. So, instead of having an area littered with a bunch of dead fallen big trees; I've decided to selectively harvest the larger ones. This also allows me to manage an area of forest I haven't yet and get additional firewood for next season.

So, with a homemade skid plate attached to my tractor, I bundled up and ventured onto our acreage. I have a new respect for folks who cut trees for a living. It's definitely difficult work. The trees are not just large but there are many variables to consider. And, there are many things that work against you. The slightest breeze can push a tree in a different direction than you would like it to fall. Even the most perfect cut doesn't always work like it's supposed to. Other trees catch your tree as it falls. Obstacles, such as holes, rocks and old frozen stumps make it impossible to get close to the butt of the fallen tree you need to chain up to. You accidentally tag the ground with your freshly sharpened saw chain dulling it on one of your first cuts. Yes, the learning curve is steep. And, the work is dangerous.

So, I take my time, take care of my equipment and wear protection (like all good boys do!). Most folks that do this for a living have a winch. After using a skid plate, I can see the utility of a winch. Because I have to get right up to the butt of the tree I'm pulling out, my tractor has to be able to fit. This means having a tractor-wide swath cut right up to the tree at a convenient angle. Each tree creates a unique situation. Collectively harvesting many trees involves creating a strategy. It's a fun challenge that occupies both mind and body.

I know it takes me longer to get my wood. But then again, my goal is not just to harvest but to leave this portion of our property looking nice. I build brush piles for the critters. I cut up the trunks of old fallen dead trees and fill in the low spots. I spread out the branches from felled trees and run them over to crush them and turn them into mulch. I want this area to recover quickly and look nice for the future. I take pride in leaving a harvested area looking nicer than when I started.

Student Centered Learning

I've decided it's time to blog about my life as a teacher. After being painfully unemployed for 9 months, the perfect teaching gig appeared as a gift from the universe. That may sound very esoteric but I've come to believe that things happen for a reason. Being in a position of wanting a job, with a family to support and all, for so long, helped me discover a deep appreciation for many things in my life and a rich feeling of both gratitude and humbleness.

I've been a teacher for almost 10 years now; before that a research scientist for about 16. I'm the type of person that's probably wrapped a bit too tight at times. I love to explore ideas and concepts and discuss the philosophical foundations of almost anything. This process works best over a good beer or two.

Being a teacher has been fun; intense most of the time as I re-learn information and then find a way to make it both palatable and fun for an audience of teenagers. As I grew in my profession, I always felt that there was something missing; that the vehicle for delivery of information didn't quite fit the model for learning in the real world (especially as a scientist/science teacher). I've worked at 4 different high schools and always wondered why they went to great lengths to hire bright educators then put them in a position where they were expected to respond as a minion with little input into creating an environment that worked as a community of learning. I mean, most colleges and universities work that way. Why wouldn't high schools?

Everything happens for a reason; I truly believe this. I have found my niche. I was so discouraged and bitter after leaving my last position, I was ready to toss in the towel as a teacher and go back to science. I'm angry that my talent and intellect was viewed as a disposable commodity and not a resource. Sad.

I'm now teaching in a school (and school district) that has made a commitment to move towards "Student-centered learning". So what the heck is this and why is it different? I'm not sure I know the answer quite yet. I know that I am part of a process (and dialog) that is involved in perpetual change. That we have made the commitment to change how we view the education process, excuse me, the learning process. The biggest difference is the lens we view this learning process through.

• I don't teach anymore, I facilitate (I tell my students I am their "spirit-guide" through chemistry).
• Soon, there will not be specific classes. Students will complete a series of "topics". When they successfully complete a number of these topics, they will get credit for a "Chemistry" class. Topics may occur in more than one class. ie. if a teacher so chooses, a project in one class may cover more than one topic. So, I might design a project on the history of chemistry. Upon completion, the learner would get credit for one topic in chemistry but might also get credit for another topic in history. Or perhaps a topic in english if there is a writing component. So, the structure creates great potential for co-curricular dialog. This piece is evolving and will continue to evolve. Part of our last faculty workshop was a discussion of where we go next.
• A complete K-12 program of topics exists and the topics are assigned at each "grade-level" ("grades" as we know them will go away soon too). So, a complete continuum of learning is defined for all 12 years. How often does this happen? You would think every school district would have something like this in place. NOT! In my experience, there is a complete disconnect when one reaches the exterior walls of a school. Middle school science teachers have little to no idea what learning happens at the high school level and vice versa. The beginning of a class is usually a two-week diagnostic process to figure out what knowledge kids come to your class with. And, if you get kids from multiple middle schools....ugh.
• Students move at their own pace through my curriculum. Yes, this creates a multi-tasking nightmare and poses our biggest challenge. It means that the content of my classes has to be created, complete and designed to allow a great deal of autonomy.

There's so much more. What is most interesting is the outcome. I was dropped in to this mid-year. I always had this notion that Chemistry required a certain level of "intellectual maturity" and that it was a class mostly for juniors. This notion has gone out the window. I have high school freshman that are moving through my content at a pace faster than most of the juniors I've had in my past 9 years of teaching this subject. What a difference empowerment makes!

The biggest difference between traditional education and student-centered learning is; when students are left to moderate the pace of the class, it's much more enjoyable for them as they work in small groups and they move much more quickly than if the classroom is teacher directed. I can't yet attest to student understanding; it will take me a year to get my ducks in a row and be able to evaluate this. I know for sure that the outcome at the very least, is equivalent. But, if I had to guess, I'd say that this is a much more powerful way of learning. Best of all, it's a better paradigm for how knowledge is acquired in the real world.

Interior Storm Windows

As I continued to research ways to keep the heat from our woodstove "in" our home, I ran across something really cool to share. The best part is that it comes from a local Mainer. I'm posting the link to his page because he has covered everything in terrific detail. Well done Guy!

In a previous post, I stated that there is a huge heat loss from windows. Building these interior, "double-pane" storms was very easy. I build a few a week and can feel the difference immediately after installation. They cost between $10-15 each to construct and the materials are readily available. They even look nice! So, if you are the least bit mechanically inclined, think about these as one of the first things you do to reduce heat loss from your home (like even before adding additional insulation). These will give you the most "bang for the buck"!

http://www.arttec.net/Thermal-Windows/index.html

Corduroy Road Update

One of my long-term goals in working our 45 acres is to create access to most all areas of our property. We are fortunate to have some amazing and diverse habitats on our land. We have the headwaters of a fairly major stream. You can trace many of the drainage plains and see the formation of rivulets of water that combine into wet areas, then into actual flowing bodies of water. We have upland pine forest and swamp. We have several vernal pools. We have rocky ridges and huge boulders and the beginnings of a hard maple stand that would make an excellent sugar bush in about 5 years.

Our property was harvested several times in the last 25 years by an absentee landlord (a recipe for disaster in my book). There are areas with huge ruts from large skidder tires. There isn't anyplace they didn't go. I'm constantly finding empty 1 qt. oil cans, soda bottles and broken pieces of 3/4 inch steel cable.

If I was creating access roads from scratch, I would have avoided some of the wet and swampy areas that had obviously been traversed before. I decided to use these previously established routes for a few reasons. One, I didn't have to clear trees and roots. Two, the damage had already been done. Three, it gave me a chance to do some repair work. How many of these areas are there? Only about three. The worst of these "roads" turned into mush the few times I tried to first access it. Between the wet and the clay and the soil, it became a perfect mud pie road with muck over a foot deep. I first tried to remove all of the mud-like material, down to the clay, but it got no better.

I was clearing some young balsam fir when I thought of corduroy roads. The fir were nice and straight and would be easy to clean up and lay down tightly next to one another. Fir gets punky and rots fairly quickly if it gets damp. I read somewhere that the secret is keeping it wet. There's a big difference between damp and wet.

Five years ago, I began my corduroy road experiment. I had no intentions of continuing the road if it rotted after the first year or two which, I fully expected, it would. Read my first "Corduroy Road" Post HERE. After two years, the first ten feet remained intact and solid. So, with interest, I've added to the corduroy every year.

The poles I cut are about 12 feet long and the base of the pole must be at least 4-6" in diameter. I cut them green, don't allow them to dry much at all, and place them in the road bed. I alternate skinny with thick and place them as close to each other as I can. If I have a corner, I use 6' poles on the wide corner-side of the road only and alternate these with the long poles. Once the poles are in place, I gently run over them with the front tires of the tractor to squish them into the soft ground. I make sure I run over the poles, covering the whole road, moving from one side to the other.

Then I bring down some gravel and shovel it onto the poles, raking it into the spaces between the poles. Larger rocks from the gravel are removed and used elsewhere.








 I then run over the road again with the front tractor tires going from side to side. I then add another thin layer of gravel, run over the road again and that's about it. I've been meaning to add more gravel but I don't use the road that frequently and I haven't had to worry about too much wear and tear.





Each year, when I clear more. I add to the road as the trees become available. If I don't have enough, I'll leave them standing until I have enough to do another 20 feet, then harvest them and add to the road.

Heating Our Home With Wood, Part 3

This will be a blog of updates.

Mid-October: It's been a wonderful fall with only two nights of frost so far. We've used the wood stove sporadically to "take the chill off". It's so nice to have a place to go in our home to warm up. It's nice to have wireless so I can start the stove in the morning with a cup of coffee and sit in front of the stove.
Much of the wood I am burning is smaller stuff; standing dead wood and small maple mostly.The stove starts easily and heats up quickly.

With all the posted negative press about catalytic converters, so far I am impressed with the Vermont Castings Defiant and its ability to heat well. Once the burn is established and the stove top temp is 600-650 degrees, I close the damper to force the exhaust through the catalytic converter and the stove just hums along belting out a consistent heat.

It takes a while for the first floor of our house to heat up; about 2-3 hours if not longer (the stove is in our basement). I'm certain this is due to all of the construction materials in the basement absorbing heat. If we start the stove in the evening and I fire it to last the night (more on this later), I wake up in the morning and the floors are warm and comfortable to walk on barefoot! Even after the stove has been out for over a day, the house still radiates warmth. This is something that we never felt with hot water baseboard heat.

Early November:  The stove runs day and night now. I've been keeping an eye on thermometers located on the 1st floor and 2nd floor thermostats. Early this morning (4:30 am), the stove had used up all the wood I had packed into it the night before. There were some coals left and the stove top temp had cooled to about 150 degrees (normal operating temp on the stove top ranges between 500-650 degrees). Outside, the temperature was 21 degrees. The second floor temp had dropped to 64 degrees (from 68) and the first floor temp was about 69 degrees (from 74 the evening before). We are still not using any oil to heat our home. I am in the process of adding more insulation to our attic (previous post). I'm also building some really cool interior storm windows (for the second floor) that look great, still allow you to see outdoors and feel as though they will do a great job of helping to curb heat migration. More on these later.

Late November: Still loving wood heat; not really feeling the love about our Vermont Castings Non-catalytic/Catalytic Woodstove Model 1975. When you buy the mac-daddy of woodstoves from a premier wood stove manufacturer; you expect to get something that not only works, but works well. The day before Thanksgiving, I opened the top to add wood and was surprised to find that the ceramic backplate had cracked into two pieces and fallen into the firebox. I've learned in my lifetime to give the benefit of doubt. So, I went to the dealer and they gave me a new backplate. Two days later, I was adding small wood (1.5 in diameter) to a small fire. A stick of wood bumped the backplate and the backplate broke again. I'm on my third plate and I'm beginning to be wary. The night before last, I awoke startled and very freaked out (I sleep deeply) to a very strong odor of smoke. It was so strong, my wife became extremely nauseous. Thankfully the house wasn't on fire and I spent the next two hours sitting in front of our stove trying to figure out what happened. The next morning when the stove had cooled, I opened up the catalytic converter housing to find that the converter was cracked. So, we're in the process now of contacting VC and will be talking to the dealer again. Sent an email to VC and 24 hours later they still have not responded. Will update as the story progresses.

Late January: I should have updated this a while ago as our issues appear to be resolved.  VC finally responded (albeit over 10 days after my email). In a nutshell, they drop the responsibility back on their stove vendor. So, if you are buying a VC woodstove; make sure you feel good about who you a re buying it from! Mazzeo's in Rockport, Maine, has been very good about providing me with parts during this frustrating period. They put their heads together and came up with a very reasonable explanation for what was happening in our situation.

It was my fault for reading the directions. Yes, it's true. The manual that came with our VC Defiant said to clean out the ash pan whenever it was full. So, every morning, when the stove was filled with just coals, I'd clean out the firebox, filling the ash pan, which I would empty. This situation coupled with 3 floors of chimney created a very strong draft through the stove causing too much heat, too quickly. The stove didn't get over temperature, there was just too much heat moving through the firebox causing the backplate to become too hot and brittle.

Solution. Let the ashes accumulate to 3-4" deep in the bottom of the stove and empty them only once every three days to a week. Apparently anyone who has been using a woodstove for a while knows this. Yet, it wasn't important enough to add this to the instruction manual. Chalk this up to a rookie mistake; how was I to know? Since making this change, the woodstove has been working even better, I have been using less wood and the backplate hasn't broken since.

The issue with the smoke also had to do with the tall chimney and the weight of the air in the chimney on warmer days. I'm not going to get into the details but this issue too is resolved now that we understand this nuance.

Our Defiant keeps our over 2000 sqft home comfortable down into the teens. Below 10, the house cools off at night when the stove gets throttled back. Still, we've only used our oil heat once this winter (so far). Note: I have built these really cool interior storm windows for our upstairs windows. These have had a HUGE impact on heat loss!

I have also installed two fan units experimentally as the convection thing was working but not well enough to keep our home comfortable. One fan (an inexpensive bathroom vent fan) pushes warm air up to a second floor register in the hallway in the middle of the house. The second fan (an Airflow Breeze Ultra made by Airflow Technologies), sits in a first floor wall register I put in and pulls warm air from above the woodstove in the basement through a 4x10 opening out into the middle of the first floor. The Airflow breeze works very well (it has 3 speed settings and two fans) and at about $100 was a bit expensive but worth it. It's fairly quiet on it's medium setting where it runs most all the time. As soon as we have a bit more $, I plan on replacing the bathroom fan with something quieter and  a tad more powerful to get more heat to the second floor.

I do have to comment on the feeling I have knowing we don't have to invest money in purchasing home heating oil every year.

• Yes, it's labor intensive cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for a winter's worth of heat. 
• Yes, it takes time to bring wood into the house every few days. 
• Yes, you have to monitor the woodstove regularly throughout the day.

It's definitely more work.

However, there is a great feeling of complete satisfaction inside that I don't feel often.
I think it comes from taking one big step away from the large dark shadow of big oil. Inside,  I'm glowing with the feeling that I have regained some of my freedom.

Winter 2013-14: This is our third heating season with our Vermont Castings, Defiant Dual Mode Woodstove, Model 1975. This is probably the most important post if you are considering purchasing this stove. There are a number of design flaws you should be aware of. First, the catalyst sucks. It lasts maybe two months before the catalyst honeycomb begins to disintegrate. After 4-5 months, I pulled my second one out and it completely fell apart. This was my second (and last) catalyst. Apparently most folks (including us now) just run the stove without it.

Secondly, the ceramic backplate is prone to breaking. VC has replaced about 5 of them now for us free of charge. The latest incarnation is thicker and without a design embossed into the front which is supposed to increase the integrity. My last (thin) backplate lasted over a year when it broke on me this fall. It was replaced with the newer thicker one; this one broke today after only 3 months of use.

VC has been sold (again) to an employee-owned company down south somewhere. Perhaps they will bring the quality back to Vermont Castings that has been lost.

On the upside, the stove heats well. It keeps our 2000+ square foot home comfortable until either the temps drop to single digits or the wind begins to blow. Two fan units keep the warm air circulating. The bathroom fan was replaced with a 4" inline centrifugal fan (to push more air to the second floor) and the AirFlow Breeze is still working great. The stove is nice to look at and has given us a new living space in our basement during the winter.

Heating our home with wood, Part 2

We are moving into fall here in Maine. A few of the maples have begun to change color, the nights are cooler and the days relatively insect-free. So, we are approaching the home heating season with curiosity. How much will our investment in wood heat pay off? I'll post an update in May when all is said and done. I'll summarize where we are and the associated costs.

As stated in the last post, we purchased a Vermont Castings Defiant (model 1975) with a catalytic converter. There is quite a bit of negative press about catalytic converters but it's important to note that there are many stoves with these out there with happy users. This particular stove can be operated with a damper open, bypassing the converter, or closed, utilizing the converter. The stove came with two EPA energy efficiency tags for each of the above. The tag for the open damper gives an approximate efficiency of 77%; the tag for the converter gives an efficiency of 84% (a 7% increase). This may not seem like much but consider that this is 7% less wood needed to heat. As I get older, I'm sure I'll appreciate that 7% less cutting and splitting!

I investigated all sorts of chimney options. Stainless steel or a regular masonry flue; inside the house or outside the house. All the advice I received regarding location told me to put the flue inside the house for two reasons. One, the chimney stays warmer and this is better for draft. Two, the chimney itself heats up and that heat contributes to keeping your home warmer. The stainless chimney was going to cost upwards of $2500. and the masonry chimney we installed cost about the same when all was said and done.

I chose masonry because I felt more comfortable putting something made of concrete inside my home. I also liked the idea of having the thermal mass of a concrete block chimney to absorb and radiate heat energy. I feel metal will eventually corrode (though this may take years) and because the flue has to be enclosed inside sheetrock, I felt there was no way to monitor this. Metal would have been quicker but helping to build the masonry chimney was much more enjoyable for me personally. Plus, I like learning how to build things, I got to know one of my neighbors much better over the course of the few weeks it took to construct the chimney and it looks better on the house.

The cost of the chimney was approximately $1000. in materials for three floors; from the basement to the new brickwork around the whole chimney above the roofline. Labor was also $1000. This probably cost less than usual as I used the masons discount and went to the masonry supplier myself to purchase supplies (they delivered). And, one of my neighbors who is a mason by trade, built our chimney over a few weekends as I played laborer and did all the grunt work. I also removed and replaced the walls inside our house and did all the associated structural work to create a chase next to the existing chimney. Then, there was the plumbing and wiring that needed to be relocated....yeah.

An expense I didn't account for was the cost of connecting the stove to the chimney. The heavy gauge, single wall stove pipe and insulated double-wall stove pipe (by code for thru the wall into the chimney) cost close to $800.

I decided to build a brick heat-stop behind our new wood stove. The mason had a large pile of used brick he said I could scrounge for free. With a bit more sweat-equity and a rudimentary knowledge of masonry, I built a pretty decent looking brick wall.

To date, we have only test fired the stove a few times as suggested to season the stove and burn off the organic components of the stove pipe paint. This involves starting a fire, regulating the temperature to let the stove get no hotter than 500 degrees and then letting the fire go out. Based on the instruction manual, this is a low temp fire. I can't wait to crank this baby to see what it will do!

Burning wood for home heating.

Reducing our home heating oil bill has become a top priority. As we end our heating season and total up the expense for heating our home this past winter, the cost exceeded $4000. Included in this is an insurance "budget cap" that guaranteed we paid no more than $3.85 (I think) per gallon of fuel oil this year. We can't afford to pay by the fill so we sign up for a budget plan that estimates our usage, the cost of oil and splits it all into 12 monthly payments. When you sign up for one of these budget plans, in the small print, it tells you that the insurance costs an extra $149. per year. And this cost doesn't even include yearly service on our oil burner.

In an area with abundant wood, it makes sense to investigate burning wood (in multiple forms). The ideal situation would be to burn cord wood. Living in Maine, we have an abundance of wood and good folks that make their living from cutting and selling firewood. We ourselves have 55 acres of woods. So, for the cost of my labor, we ideally pay little for the wood we burn. For each of the options I investigated, it's important to calculate the payback period. This is the time it takes to "pay ourselves back" in savings vs. our initial investment. Any of these options requires operator addition of fuel. So, yes there's a bit more effort involved in burning wood but eliminating most of $4000. to heat our home (2010-11 costs) is worth the trade off.

Option #1: Pellet stove.
Pros- Easy to use. Minimal install (one, 3-4 inch hole through the wall).
Cons- Need to pay for pellets at $250/ton. Uses electricity. Weekly take apart and clean. Pellet stove can't heat whole home; maybe basement & 1st floor at most. Still have to burn oil. "Space heater".

Option #2: Wood Gasification Boiler
Pros- Would use existing hot water baseboard plumbing to distribute heat to whole house. Burns cord wood that we could cut off our lot = little cost for fuel.
Cons- Price tag starts at $7500. not including install & chimney. Requires electricity. Would have to build small addition to our home to keep boiler inside heating envelope. Couldn't afford water storage system that would increase efficiency of boiler.

Option #3: Wood Stove
Pros- No electricity required. Burns cord wood we can get ourselves.
Cons- Would have to install $2000. chimney which requires some interior remodeling and loss of closet space. May not heat whole home. May still have to burn some oil. "Space heater".

We've chosen option #3. Our financial resources are not unlimited and this was the most affordable option with the quickest payback. We've purchased a Vermont Castings Defiant. It was the end of the heating season and we received $280. off. This list price of this stove was about $2800. We have yet to get a quote on chimney costs and are comparing steel double wall vs. traditional masonry. We're estimating about $2000. for the chimney.

At our annual cost in 2010-11 of $4200 year, here are estimated payback figures.

Option 1: Pellet Stove (incl. vent kit) $2800. = 0.67 years*
     (BUT then subtract 5 tons pellets at $250. per year, $1250. per year and the cost of fuel oil, $2100.)
     (*this option may only reduce our heating oil expenses 50%)

 Option 2: Wood Boiler (incl. chimney, install) $12,000. = 2.86 years
     (may still have to burn some oil early in the morning and if it gets real cold)

Option 3: Large wood stove. $2660. + chimney $2000. = $4660. = 1.1 yr payback
     (may still have to burn some oil early in the morning and if it gets real cold)

While none of the options are ideal (what is ideal?) We feel investing in a large wood stove (this is the biggest they make) has the potential to reduce our heating cost the most.

A consideration. Both a pellet stove and wood stove are space heaters. They will be warmest closet to the appliance leaving cool spots towards the walls. So, we will add some vents between floors to take advantage of natural convection and also install a duct over the stove to take heat to the second floor.

I'll add more as things progress.

Reducing home heating costs.

Living in an area where winter is and the ground freezes solid for 4 plus months a year, heating our home is a major expense. According to my calculations, we spent approximately $4000. per year just for fuel oil to heat our 2000 sqft home and hot water (values have been rounded for simplicity). This was in 2010. Next to our mortgage, this is our largest single expense. As fuel oil prices will most certainly continue to rise (and my income most likely will not), I've been doing a bit of research and thinking about options to reduce our heating costs.

By far the most important, least expensive option when it comes to saving heat energy in the winter is insulation. Obviously, the most prudent thing one can do is to find ways to hold on to the heat one has. Insulation is a one-time expense and saves you money whenever  you move into the heating (or cooling) season. Insulation can be done progressively so the outlay of funds doesn't have to happen all at once. Insulation is something that can be done relatively easily by most homeowners. For all these reasons (and more), this is the most sensible place to start.

There are a few fundamental principles to consider when it comes to thinking about how to insulate (here comes the science teacher part). Heat energy always moves from an area of high concentration to low concentration. So, in the winter, if the temperature in your home is 70 and the temperature outside is 20, the heat in your home wants to escape to heat the outdoors. Insulation doesn't prevent the heat energy from doing this, it only slows it down. A second, less thought of consideration, is that the same principle holds for moisture. Moisture will also move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. Water molecules are dissolved in the air and, as you know, water as a gas will turn into water as a liquid when it gets cold. This is something you obviously don't want to happen inside your walls. This is why vapor barriers are included as part of most fiberglass insulation.

The second principle is simply that heat rises. So, if your heat source is downstairs, the heat will rise gradually to the upstairs. Subsequently, cool air is more "dense" and will sink to the lowest part of your home. The combination of these two processes is called convection. There's many good images out there to convey the idea. Click here for one.

So, to best way to figure out how to approach adding insulation to your home is to think of these two concepts together and decide how the heat energy is escaping your home during the heating season.

One of the most obvious places heat energy leaves your home is through the windows. If your walls are 6 inches thick and your windows are 3/4 of an inch thick, this is a no-brainer. As much as 30% of a homes heat in winter may leave through the windows. Nice Fine Homebuilding article on windows here. Windows are rated in U-values. Insulation is rated in R-value. R-value = 1/U-value. So, even the most energy efficient windows with a U-value of 0.25 means that the R-value is 4. No matter how well they insulate, they are still holes in your wall that lose heat because they have less insulating value than standard wall insulation.

Consider that heat rises. So, even if you are conscientious, turn your upstairs thermostat down during the day (if you have one), the heat from the downstairs is going to migrate upstairs and leave through the windows. One of the most prudent things to do to your windows is, when it gets cold, add a layer of clothing to keep more of the heat in. For me, light is a necessity, especially in winter. So, while using a rigid insulation insert might work well for filling this "hole in the wall", it blocks out light. Not an option for us but may be for you.

Visit your local hardware or bigbox store in the fall and you'll see kits for seasonal window sealing. Frost King is the one I see most often. This stuff is nothing more than shrink wrap attached to inside window frames with double-sided tape. This is fine if you don't plan on using your window, accessing blinds, etc. and it is designed to be seasonal. I have found that the double-sided tape degrades and the plastic comes unstuck by the next heating season. A 3-pack can be found for as little as $4.00. So, if you have 12 windows to cover, it might cost you $16.00 to experiment next winter. Not a bad investment to investigate this option.

One of the things I've decided to do this summer is build light frames that will friction fit into many of our windows. These will be covered with shrink film on both sides. The idea is that they will act as an additional double layer of insulation. They will create a layer of dead air space between the two layers of plastic within the frame and a thicker layer of dead air space between the window and this inside "storm window". I'm not sure how long the film will last, how well they will store over the summer months and what mischief our cats might make but I feel it's an inexpensive solution and worth the experiment. I plan to use rough-cut lumber as we have a local sawmill in our area and buy a roll of industrial shrink with a heavier weight. I haven't found a low-priced source for this yet. Visit this post for an update!

The second thing I am doing is adding to and modifying the insulation in the ceiling above our second floor. R-30 insulation was used but wasn't installed correctly and was just loosely stuffed in to the spaces between joists.

We also have recessed light cans in the ceiling. Once in the attic, I discovered that these cans each acted as little chimneys that sucked the heat out of our upstairs into the unheated attic space. I have just completed building "boxes" out of 1.5 inch thick blue foam board. These surround and cover each light in the attic space. I caulked each joint with 30 yr caulk and "pinned" the boxes together with nails.

[On high density insulation board. Now, I'm not an advocate for using more fossil fuel products but, if their one-time use saves regular fossil fuel use in the long run, it makes sense to me in terms of cost-benefit.]

I'm also in the process of ripping blue board into strips that snugly fit in between the joists in the attic. This  high-density insulation is getting placed closest to our living space as it acts almost as a vapor barrier (technically its not) and, in a heating climate, this is where you want your vapor barrier. I'm also caulking these into place as the fit between the joists isn't perfect and I want to limit the heat/vapor permeation to the foam board.

On top of the blue board and between the joists, I'm adding R-13 fiberglass insulation (no vapor barrier) to fill in the remaining space to the top of the joists (white insulation in photo). The existing R-38 insulation will have its vapor barrier removed and will be placed in the opposite direction, over the top of the joists (pink insulation in photo). I'm hoping this will almost completely eliminate the gaps that exist in the insulation now and add to the R-value of this uninsulated space substantially. In total, the R-value of the attic will be almost R-60.

There are areas of the ceiling I am unable to get to without ripping something apart. But, I think that if you are approaching this kind of project, a certain type of philosophy has to prevail. "It's not about what you can't do, it's about what you can do that makes a difference".

More later as I complete this project and investigate interesting options for heating our home.

The leaves have fallen...

With the days noticeably shorter and cooler and, with the insects gone, one of my annual fall projects is to work on one or two of the numerous woods roads that transect our land. Most of these are old skid roads and have been left with occasional deep ruts; the scars of logging too late in the winter. This fall, I tended to finishing a road I'd started two years ago. It's part of my cross-country ski loop which placed it on the top of my priority list. Two deep ruts were filled with rock, the road leveled, graded and seeded. Another 250' of woods road completed. With a few warm days left, I'm hoping the seed I spread germinates. I use a conservation mix which includes a variety of grasses and clover.

The fill rock came from an old farmers rock pile originally left from clearing land over 100 years ago. For some reason, this pile was placed in the middle of a field. Tearing the pile apart was fun. The kids spent several afternoons digging to find "treasures" which included old cow bones and fragments from both china plates and earthenware.

Much of the rock from this pile went to leveling yet another portion of road I am working on which provides access to the back corner of our property. Part of this road is corduroy I placed two years ago. I'm not sure how long the corduroy (wood) portion of this road will last. It's fairly quick to build but the wood eventually will decay. Rock lasts forever and, while it may take a bit longer to move and set, is inevitably much more durable. Big rock goes on the bottom, smaller rock gets placed on top. Finally, the road gets a coating of gravel to fill in all the gaps. In Maine, we have plenty of rock....

The larger stones went to rebuilding a stone wall but that's a story for another day.