It's been a couple of weeks since my last post so here is an update on what I've been up to. The weather has been generally excellent. Hot. Up into the low 30'sC some days. I've cut down a few dead trees here and there to build up some stock. Most importantly I got the coach out of here and on the road for a few hours.





I took her down to the dump station at the campground a few miles west of me and dumped the tanks and then put some bleach and some water in the tanks to slosh around while I went into the city. Once in the city I filled up the propane tank and topped off the diesel tank. I forgot to mention that I replaced the fuel filter before I left. The coach ran like a top all day. I was very happy about that since it had sat so long.
My brother Scott had a friend give him an old worn ATC trike so he spent some time on it and dropped it off for me to use for now. That has allowed me to do more exploring around this fairly large property. Today I found and followed an overgrown cut-line through the bush and ended up in the far northwest corner of the property. There are a couple of beautiful wild meadows back there and also a really nice pond in the far corner.

I also came across what I believe to be the old miner's cabin I was told was on the property.



All the above pictures are of the land I am renting and today was the first time I had seen this much of the property. It is 112 acres for those who have forgotten. By the way I have cleared the fallen logs and brush from that trail well enough that I am pretty sure I can trailer my pedal-boat with the ATC back to that little pond. Cool. Yes, I have a pedal-boat that I have owned for years. I've been watching for a place to use it out here. The ground is solid right up to the edge of the pond so I wont have trouble launching it. I'll take pics for sure.

Yes I'm still alive and still living out here near Bragg Creek Alberta. I see people are still investigating this blog and I figured it is about time I gave an update. I had let this blog slide because I was having internet issues at the time and I just plain got out of the habit of posting to it. Sorry about my negligence.

Shortly after I last posted in late July I was asked by an old long-time employer if I would consider coming back. After clearing the table of a few issues we had had, I started back there about mid-August. It pays not to burn bridges. It has worked out nicely and I am very happy to be back working there.

My set-up out here has changed somewhat so I will bring you up to date. The biggest change has been a huge upgrade to my wood-heating arrangement. My brother and I had talked about the advantages of burying the wood stove and ducting in sand so that the sand acts as a "heat battery" once hot. This idea needed to done outside so I began to plan and build it back in September. I wanted the ducting to be through the dining room window this year instead of the more forward living room setup last year. This reason plus needing room for the heat battery on my pad necessitated facing the coach the opposite direction on the pad. Here are some pictures to get us started and to clarify what I did. My good friend Denis (a welder by trade) was instrumental in the building of my heat battery. Thanks Denis!











As you can see it is a cinder block structure including a cinder block floor. All cinder blocks were stuffed with pink insulation. The floor is topped with 1/4 inch concrete board. Particle board was secured to the outside and then Denis framed the whole thing with angle iron to ensure everything held together. There needed to be a piece of plate steel fitted around the front of the stove and across the entire sand cavity in order to keep the sand from leaking out the front. I used the same u-shaped ducting arrangement on top of the stove from last year but this year it is buried in sand of course. I had a dump-truck load of sand delivered and filled up the structure to almost the top. Then I laid R-12 insulation batts on top of the sand and covered the top with 1/2 inch plywood. I had a bit of trouble fitting the chimney through the top so as not to set the plywood on fire. The first test-burn did set the top on fire after a while so that was all redesigned using old bricks I found on the property. Here is a picture of the first burn test. That is my brother Scott in the picture.

Here are some pictures of the finished product. I painted it all black so that the sun could also contribute some heat. Since the chimney needed to be higher than my coach it needed some support so I rigged up some metal supports.





Last year I used a cheap duct blower fan to circulate the air through the ducting. It worked ok but was quite noisy. I am now using a quiet 8" computer fan. I have the fan run through a timer that I have programmed. It seems to work better to have the fan shut off periodically to let the sand immediately next to the ducting reheat itself from the mass of hot sand in the overall structure. I get an average temperature of 100F from the duct outlet into my coach. Once the sand has been fully heated it will retain it's temperature for literally days. The idea is that I shouldn't have to burn as much firewood as there is not near as much wasted heat as last year.
There has only been one real problem with this idea in its current form. My oil drum wood stove has not been strong enough to hold up to the extremely high temperatures in the battery. Especially since it is encased in heavy sand. It has basically been collapsing in on itself so I have not been able to use it for the last few weeks unfortunately. Luckily the weather has been fairly mild for this time of year. The new stove will be a modified old large cylindrical propane tank found here on the property. It has been evacuated of any gases and is ready to have one end cut off to be made into my new stove. It is made of quite thick steel so it should be robust enough to hold up. Sorry I don't have a picture of it right now but will post one later. Everything is on hold right now because of the Christmas season. My friend Denis and my brother Scott have other commitments of course. I'm surviving fine with electric heaters and the diesel Aquahot system for now.
You may have noticed in the above pictures that I have changed the way I have skirted the coach. I invented this idea myself and am quite happy with how it has worked out. I used styrofoam board supported on 2x4's that I installed dowl pins into. The styrofoam boards fit between the dowl pins. The 2x4's each have a single large spike through the middle holding them to the ground. The 2x4's can pivot on the spike as well. This helps when removing boards that have exhaust pipes ported through them. Bungee cords also keep the boards secure to the side of the coach. I have painter's tape strips on the coach where the boards lean so the gelcoat wont get scratched up. This set-up will allow me to start the coach if I want. The air suspended coach can rise up and down behind the skirting. My heat battery ducting will have to be temporarily disconnected to do this however. The styrofoam boards can also be independently removed for access to baggage bays and compartments.

I forgot to mention that I bought a new car!! HaHa---yes I went from being unemployed to buying a new car in a pretty short period of time. I work at a Nissan dealer and it just suddenly occurred to me that with 0% interest and my employee discount a new fuel efficient car would probably pay for itself. It does. It is a 6 speed standard which is very rare for these cars. In fact the Sentra SV model that I have is not even available with the six speed in the U.S.--Canada only. Go figure. Since my commute is almost all highway miles it is averaging about 50 mpg (Imperial gallons)!! Awesome!!. Driving the Ranger or my Dodge van was costing me usually 400-500 dollars a month for fuel. I am now paying less than half that and the car payment is only 228.00 a month! Plus I'm not racking up the mileage on my Ranger.



I sold the old van but still have the Ranger of course. Since I bought a snowblower at the end of last year's crazy winter I have been able to keep the driveway clear. There was no way a car could have got in my driveway last year but this year is no problem. I did buy top-of-the-line Nokian studded winter tires for the car though. They help make commuting a lot safer for sure.

Ok, I took some fresh pictures this afternoon while I was waiting for the car to warm up for a trip into the city. These pics are basically showing what I was describing in the above posts. First up is the propane tank that will be my new wood stove. The big piece of pipe will have about a 2 foot section lopped off of it to be welded to a hole in the top of the tank for a solid chimney. It is a 6 inch pipe so the rest of the stove pipe chimney should attach ok. Luckily enough the diameter of the tank seems to be 24"---the same as the oil drum. Perfect!



Here is a shot of the inside of the current oil drum wood stove. Note the sand pile under the chimney and the roof of the barrel caving in. Also notice the fine grey ash in the bottom of the stove. This thing burns so hot there are no chunks of anything left over.



This is a picture of the bricks surrounding the chimney stack. The bricks actually lay on top of the sand under the plywood. I just stacked them up from there and sealed them a bit with high temperature mortar sealant. Works.



Next up is a good picture of my skirting. You can see the dowl pins poking up out of the 2x4's. The pins are in pairs--one on each side of the styrofoam. I also glued foam tubing along the upper inside top of the foam boards but it was kind of a waste of time really. Notice I also painted the foam boards to match the coach (sort of). The other nice thing about this skirting method is the whole thing can be disassembled and stored in a baggage bay.





This is a shot of my new Sentra and also a collection of wood crates and pallets I have brought home from work for outside fires.



These next two pictures are from the aftermath of a massive snowstorm that came through on September 10th!. Yes you read it right--September 10th. Crazy. The city got it just as bad. Since all the trees were still in full leaf it did major destruction unfortunately. Although I had many trees bowed over out here I didn't have many broken ones. The city of Calgary however lost thousands and thousands of trees. Very sad.

Up next are a few pics from the fall. The first one is taken from the side of highway 22 driving towards Bragg Creek from the TransCanada highway.



One Saturday my brother Scott came out and we uncovered his dune buggy that has been stored on my property. A really cool little unit. We took it into the back meadows on the property. He sold it a few days later.









I discovered this past summer that I have several patches of wild raspberries. One really big patch. The bears have discovered them too!.



One last pic of a snow squall coming through one day.



My neighbor lost one of their house cats to a cougar one day. His wife happened to look out their kitchen window and saw a long tail! She then looked out the next window just as the cougar was snatching up the cat and off he went! That was right up on their deck next to the house. A full-sized cougar. She was a bit shaken by it from what I understand.

Water. Tonight's post will be largely focused on my water situation. First of all, when you live like I do and have to haul in your water you quickly learn how you have previously taken its availability for granted and also how much you actually use. A normal lifestyle consumes a huge amount of water---way more than I think most people realize. Soon after I bought this coach in February,2013 I began living in it at my old location of Chestermere, Alberta--just east of Calgary. I had access to a water hose there right where I was parked. I used the hose to fill up my 100 gallon tank when needed as the situation there didn't allow me to remain hooked up to a water system all the time. Since the water was so readily available I just carried on my normal lifestyle I have always led. I was showering daily in the coach, using the coach toilet, washing dishes regularly, etc. That 100 gallon tank was lasting about a week! When you have to manually fill jugs and tanks and haul it home you suddenly become a water conservationist. Obviously the shower and the toilet use the most water. All summer long I used the bathroom in the old mobile home for my showers and the toilet in there for sit-down business. Although the water from the well on the property is murky with iron deposits it worked fine for dumping in the trailer's toilet tank for flushing. The shower water I was hauling in but in summer I can get water 10 minutes down the road from a local campground. One 5 gallon water jug will provide two "military style" showers.
Winter is different altogether. The campground shuts off its water in October so then I started hauling it from my place of work.
At that point I also have to start heating the trailer bathroom to keep things from freezing. The well water setup had to be shut down to prevent freezing issues also. Therefore I switched to using the infamous port-a-potty again. I tried to keep the trailer bathroom and shower operational for winter but it just wasn't going to be feasible. One morning I forgot to dump antifreeze down the tub drain after showering and that was that--frozen. Readers of my blogs here will remember that last winter I used a shower where I worked all winter long. That was a different dealership. The dealership I'm at now does not have a shower in the mechanic's locker-room. However, there is one in the bathroom of the owner's private office. I was offered the use of it and you better believe I took him up on it! Very lucky. Between using that shower at work and using the port-a-potty my need to haul water is a fraction of what it is in the summer months. A full coach water tank will usually last me at least a month. The necessity to dump my grey tank is really infrequent now as well although I will dump it sometimes even when only at 1/2 full. If I have any errands in the city on a Saturday I will stop in at the dealership and use the shower. I still use the coach shower on occasion on weekends.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I finally disassembled that water utility bay to fix my "break" from last winters' cold snap. I just couldnt wait for my bro any more and took it all apart one day last summer. It came apart way easier than I thought. After the panels and covers were all out of the way I could see lots of pex piping and the ends of all three tanks. I started pumping water into my fresh water tank to look for the leak. Well guess what? No leak. NADA! What the? Readers will remember that I ended up with water/slush all over the ground under the rear coach area after trying to fill the water tank last winter. I had -40 degree temperatures in the preceeding days. I naturally assumed something had broken. Apparently that was an incorrect assumption. The only thing I can think of to explain it is maybe a part of the fill pipe or tank entry point froze over and the water I was trying to install was just getting diverted to an overflow port or something. I really don't know for sure to this day but the entire water system is tight with no leaks or seeps what-so-ever and I'm happy with that!

I'm going to take a minute here to comment on this coach. Again. It deserves the compliments I give it. This coach was not sold or marketed as a "four season" coach. If anyone can say that it is and has proven that it is it's me. Sure it should be skirted and yes I supplement the Aquahot heating system with electric heaters and my wood heating ideas BUT this coach could hold its own with its own equipment. It holds its temperature quite well and the Aquahot can provide plenty of heat--just feed it diesel. I use the electric heaters and the wood heating setup to heat more cost effectively and also to keep the wear and tear down on the aquahot system. I have never been cold in this coach. Even at 40 below zero. I will mention again that I believe it makes a huge difference not having slide-outs. I would not want to try this kind of harsh winter living in a slide-out coach. I think it would be just too hard to keep it comfortably warm in extreme cold.
I have read that this vintage (mine is a '97) of Monaco coaches are known to be quality built solid coaches. No argument from me at all on that. I have several cupboard door latches that have broken--that is a common problem on these coaches. I need a couple of new baggage door gas struts. My drivers seat side window is foggy between the dual-pane glass (common also). I'm struggling to think of what else. I do currently have an issue with the generator. I was using it one evening a couple months ago and it suddenly stopped generating electricity. The engine runs fine--just no power. My brother started to check it out but we need to fire up the coach and get the air suspension to raise up so as to get access to the back end of the generator. We're not sure what's up with it at this point.
In closing tonight let me say that I'm still having fun with this lifestyle. Yes, it involves some hard work but I think it's worth it. It is a very peaceful and beautiful place to live. I'm still single and I don't often get visitors but I'm not the type to get lonely. In fact I don't think I really know the meaning of that word. I like the solitude most of the time.

Time for an update. I'm sure some people have been wondering about the progress on my heat battery set-up. I spent most of January messing around with that and finally got it operational this past Friday night. Most of January was very mild so I got by just fine heating with electric heaters and the AquaHot. I needed help for a number of things to do with the development and replacement of the stove so that took some time as well since I was dependent on other peoples' schedules. I've got a few pictures for you.

Here is one of the propane tank being cut. Of course we made doubly sure it was empty of any gas first, lol.



This is what the old barrel stove looked like after it was removed from the heat battery structure. Major heat damage is apparent.



This next picture is of the new tank stove fitted in to place in the battery structure. One of my neighbors owns a bobcat with a bucket so we used it to lift and then lower the stove in to place.



My brother had mentioned that people using a heat battery like this recommend lining the cavity with styrofoam board insulation so I disassembled last years' heat tunnel and used the styrofoam from that.



The next step was to re-engineer and install the ducting. I had to redesign it so as to fit properly into the cavity since the styrofoam lining made the cavity smaller.



Then I filled the cavity up with sand and covered the top of the sand with 2 inch thick styrofoam board. I bought a new thicker (5/8") 4x8 sheet of plywood for the top. I used the old bricks again around the chimney stack to separate the hot stack from the styro and the plywood top. Many people (including me) would have doubts about the styrofoam holding up in that hot battery. So far, so good. The stove has been in full operation since Friday night and I have not seen any smoke from weird places or smelled any burnt plastic odors. Like my brother said--"If it melts, it melts--so what". I suppose. Anyways, the thing is working great so far. It is holding its heat even better than before. I'm running the computer fan duct blower through a programmable timer. I've programmed it to shut the fan off periodically so as to let the heat build back up in the battery. If the duct fan blows long enough and the fire has burnt down long enough then the output temperature will drop somewhat. Not a huge amount but noticeable. By shutting the fan off occasionally you can keep getting max heat output.