Greetings my fellow classic Christmas song enthusiasts! Today we’re going to explore another oft-overlooked aspect of farming – winter living in an 1820’s farmhouse. We’ll also touch on the roles of feminism in firewood splitting, technology to prevent pipes from freezing, the infrared light spectrum, shivery puppies, and providing farm animals with water when the pasture looks like Antarctica. Right then, off we go.
I must speculate, a farmer from 200 years ago was cut from a tough cloth. Consider a house with no insulation, no modern HVAC system, Thomas Edison hasn’t fought Nikola Tesla yet to invent electric blankets, and you’re basically relying on a few fireplaces throughout the house and whatever wood you split from the back 40 to survive the winter.
During a recent New Year’s Eve celebration at BOTL Farm, our resident hydrologist brought some of her fancy electronics to do thermal spectrum imaging. We pointed them at the house to see if we could find any insulation. We didn’t find any insulation, but we did find some amazing numbers. Here’s a picture from January 1st 2018 of the backdoor into the farmhouse:
You might notice two things astute reader. The first is the wheeled firewood cart that we use to bring in fuel for the woodstove. The second is the temperature scale on the right. We can see the boiler driven hot water heater chooching out an impressive 103 degrees. We can also see the baseboards around the door are sitting comfortably at 1 deg Fahrenheit. Please note that this picture is INSIDE the house.
Let’s have a look at one more picture:
