Installing the Wood Stove

It's mid-December now and time to get the wood stove going. So far, I've been heating with kerosene. It raises the temperture in the tent by 40 degrees so it's been fairly comfortable up until now, but I don't burn the kerosene through the night and mornings are pretty damn cold as a result. Soon, the kerosene won't be able to keep up with the drop in temperature so it's time to start burning wood. I feel safe keeping the wood going through the night, so my mornings are about to get a lot more comfortable, too!

I heat my tent with a Yukon II wood stove. It has a 2 cubic foot firebox which provides a 6 to 8 hour burn time. The stove is specially designed for tents. It's lightweight and easy to install and remove. It has a tent heating capacity of 14' x 16' at zero degrees, and 10' x 12' at 30 below. My tent is 12' x 14' so it really does the job, even during those bitter-cold, windy winter nights, as long as you tend to it properly.

Yukon II tent stove

I ordered my tent with a pre-installed stove jack in the back wall. The stove jack consists of a sewn-in piece of heat-resistant fabric with a 5" hole in the center, just the right size to receive the 5" stove pipe required by the Yukon II. To install the stove, I just run 5" stove pipe from the stove, right out through the stove jack, and then extend it out and up, well away from the tent and rain fly.

Last year, I had a difficult time hanging the stove pipe. Nothing in a tent is solid, so it's a challenge to hang the pipe. I had ended up just cobbling things together with wire and hangers, but I never liked the results. This year, I decided to solve some of those problems.

What was needed was a solid metal post outside, so I drove a 10' piece of conduit a few inches into the ground, then anchored the top of the conduit to the 4x4 rain fly post with a piece of angle-iron.

Vertical piece of conduit attached to the rain fly post

With the metal post in place, I ran a 7' section of pipe from the stove jack in the back wall of my tent to the metal post outside. I angled the pipe upward at about 45 degrees and attached the high end of the pipe to the outside metal post. Then I attached the other end to the interior tent frame.

One end of the pipe attaches to the outside post...

...and the other end to the interior tent frame

The woods that I live in are covered with pine trees, and the ground is thick with pine needles. It's a tinder box, so I can't let any sparks leave the stove pipe. After doing some research, I decided to build my own spark arrestor. I just couldn't find anything safe enough on the market, especially for 5" stove pipe. I constructed my spark arrestor from 1/4" welded wire screen. I went twice around with the screen so the final openings, with the screen overlapping itself, are close to 1/8". That's a lot better then the 3/4" openings of most spark arrestors on the market. I capped the screen with a 6" pipe cap to help keep the rain out, then attached the bottom of the screen to a piece of 5" stove pipe using a hose clamp.

Spark arrestor for the top of the stove pipe

I attached the completed spark arrestor to a 2' section of pipe, then attached the whole assembly to the 7' section of pipe that I had hung previously.

With the spark arrestor in place, the exterior pipes are complete

Next, I moved to the inside to complete the installation. I connected the stove to the outside assembly using a 4' section of pipe and a couple of elbows.

Final section of interior pipe in place

Tonite I'll light the stove for the first time this year. I'll have to leave the door open for awhile because new stove pipe gives off some initial fumes. I'm ready for winter now, and ready to wake up to a warm tent on snowy winter mornings!

My First Anniversary of Tent Living

I don't remember the exact date that I spent my first night in the tent, but I do remember that it was right after Thanksgiving 2011. So it's been a year now.

I remember how tough the first few weeks in the tent were. I was still constructing my front door, so there was nothing but a zippered entrance in the canvas. And the canvas was stretches so tight over the metal frame that I couldn't zip the entrance closed. So I draped a blanket over the opening, but the cold night air moved in freely.

And I was having a tough time installing the wood stove. There was nothing to hang the stove pipe from. Everything moved, nothing was solid. It would take me three attempts and plenty of smoky failures to finally get it right. In the meantime, I was heating with kerosene, but it just couldn't keep up with all the air infiltration.

No toilet in those first few weeks, either. And no dump sink. Much of my morning routine was spent outside. I'd bring a warm cup of water outside and brush my teeth. And I dug a temporary trench for my toilet.

I was cold all the time. Really cold. I slept on a futon mattress on the floor since I was still building my bed, too. Cold. And full of doubt. I felt like I had jumped in over my head. Could I really pull this off? What was I thinking?

But tent living is all about acclimating, and learning as you go. Some problems you can solve. Others just fade away as you get used to the new lifestyle.

During those first weeks, I dreaded going to bed. I didn't trust the kerosene heater through the night so I'd shut it down just before bed. The warmth lingered for awhile, but soon the cold night winds would sweep it away through the canvas walls and out the blanket-covered entrance. Within 10 minutes, the inside of the tent would reach the same temperature as the outside. I'd curl up in a ball in my bed with just my nose and a small bit of my face exposed and try to fall asleep as doubt started playing in my mind. What was I doing out here? What the hell was I thinking?

Then one night, sometime in December, something came over me. It was my first real turning point. I had been living in the tent for some weeks and had gotten used to many of the discomforts. The cold didn't seem to bother me as much, and I was building confidence with each successful day. So that night, I turned off the kerosene heater as I had always done. But instead of dreading the coming cold, I walked over to the door and ripped down the blanket! Cold air blasted in immediately and the heat was gone in seconds! I thought to myself, "Come on in, you bastard! You're gonna anyway!" Then I crawled into bed, laid flat on my back, looked around the moonlit tent, and started smiling, then laughing! My fears and doubts were fading. My confidence was building.

By January, things finally came together. My door was in, the wood stove was working, and my toilet and dump sink were installed. My mornings became much more comfortable. Things got a lot easier, and I finished out the winter without too much discomfort.

Spring was easy. I moved to a new location in April, so that set me back a few weeks, but it was a great time of year to move. By May I was pretty much back on my feet again, and the weather was great!

About that time, I noticed another change that had been taking place in me. It had happened over a course of months, and the change was so gradual that I hadn't noticed it. It was my stress level. Sometime in June, I hit a stressful period at work and I started thinking about work during my off-hours, especially at night while I was trying to sleep. It was during that period that I realised how well I'd been sleeping up to that point, and how the stress of my previous lifestyle had just faded away over time. The temporary stress at work had awakened me to this gradual change and helped me realise how relaxed and carefree I had become.

By July, the summer heat was inescapable and it took me until August to figure out how to deal with it. Again, acclimating my body to the outside temperatures played a big role, as it had during the winter months. And getting some shade over my tent made a huge difference. And just like winter, by the time I got things figured out, the season was over and the next one had arrived.

Autumn was an easy time. A time for rest and reflection, and preparing for winter. Autumn was the time that I noticed another change in me. The novelty of tent living had worn off. This place was now my home. Months before, I would often stand and look around my place and smile. Living this lifestyle was a dream of mine that I had finally realised and I would often stop and take the time to appreciate what I had accomplished. But now, several months later, I'd come home from work, walk in the door, light my lamps, change my clothes, and start dinner without thinking twice about my surroundings. Over the months, the tent had become my home and the novelty had disappeared.

And now, once again, winter is only days away. It's been a year now, and oh what a year. This winter will be so much different than last. I'm all set up and ready for cold weather. No doubts. No fears. Just hanging out in the woods this winter, enjoying a lifestyle that now seems more and more normal, my memories of my old lifestyle fading as the days march on.

My Morning Routine

This morning I woke up a little after 6am. I had set my cell phone alarm for 7am but my bladder had other ideas this morning. It was still dark outside and the birds hadn't started their morning songs yet so I knew it was still pretty early. I poked my arms out from under my blankets and was happy that it wasn't too cold this morning. I'm not burning my wood stove yet because it gets the tent too damn hot this time of year. Instead, I'm using the kerosene heater, which means that mornings are cold in the tent.

I had slept well the night before. I always sleep well at my place, especially this time of year. I love the cold nights, just not the cold mornings. My bed is soft and warm and piled high with bedding. There's a futon mattress at the bottom, then a down comforter and a soft blanket. Then me. Then another soft blanket. Then two sleeping bags zipped together and stuffed inside two heavy fleece blankets that are also zipped together. Then a poly comforter, and finally another sleeping bag on top. I'm never cold at night.

My winter bed

But I sure get cold in the morning.

My morning routine takes about 90 minutes, but the first 30 minutes are all about warming things up. Warming up the tent. Warming up some bathing water. And warming up myself with a hot cup of coffee.

The first thing I do is jump out of bed, run over to the propane cook stove, and light both burners. That starts heating up the tent.

Propane cook stove puts out some quick heat in the morning

Then I go out onto the stoop and light the kerosene heater. It gives off a lot of fumes when it's first lit so I let it burn outside while I run back in and jump back into bed for a 5 minute snooze.

That's the coldest part of my morning. As I snooze and wait for the kerosene heater to burn clean out on the stoop, the propane stove begins warming the tent, so the next time I get out of bed it's 10 degrees warmer. This morning, that meant 50 degrees inside instead of 40, which wasn't bad.

After my first snooze, I get up a second time, run out to the stoop, grab the kerosene heater and bring it inside, and jump back into bed for my second snooze.

Kerosene heater in the early morning hours

That's it for the painful part. I snooze a second time for 10 minutes or so while the kerosene brings the tent up to 70 degrees or so. Then it's time to start getting ready.

The third time I get up, it's nice and warm in the tent. I put on a pot of coffee and a pot of bathing water.

Coffee and bathing water on the stove

It takes about 15 minutes to perk the coffee and heat the water, so I brush my teeth, use the toilet, maybe exercise a little, and wake up a bit. By now the sun has started to rise and the birds are singing. I check the temperature. It's still 40 degrees outside, but now it's creeping up toward 80 in the tent. That's bathing temperature.

Once the coffee is ready, I move the kerosene heater closer to the vanity and sit the coffee pot on top of it to keep it warm.

Keeping the coffee warm

Now comes bath time. I put the pot of bathing water on the vanity and start washing up.

Wash tub and warm bathing water

I take sponge baths, starting with my face and hair, then my underarms. Next, I put the wash tub on the floor and stand in it while I pour water over my entire body. Finally, I squat over the tub and wash my...other parts.

With my bath finished, my morning routine is about done. I get dressed, wipe up the vanity, and take the waste bucket from my toilet out to the tree bog. I take the kerosene heater back out to the stoop and shut it down as I leave for the day.