Wood Stove Project

A country home is not complete without a wood burning stove! In Chile these stoves are very common and relatively cheap to purchase. The stove we chose came pre-fitted with the copper piping in the combustion chamber to heat water. Below is the plumbing diagram:-

1. Security expansion Valve
2. Hot water exit
3. 150 litre tank
4. Chimney
5. Hot water flow into tank
6. Pre heated return
7. Cold water feed
8. Copper 'Serpentin'
9. Wood Stove


The water tank (point B) should be 50cm above the stove hot water exit (point A) for good circulation.

Given this requirement I positioned the stove next to an exterior wall with easy short access to the expansion tank. An unused kitchen doorway was filled-in to provide a suitable space. I constructed a simple stand to support the tank at the correct height. Then fitted the pipework and plumbed in the hot and cold feeds. Insulating foam was wrapped around the heating loop to and from the stove.

I fitted a 'T' connector and valve in order to drain the system if necessary.

The system was filled and tested for leaks. In takes around 2hrs to heat a tank full of piping hot water - enough for several showers! Once I was satisfied with the functionality of the system, the tank was fully enclosed to protect it and be more visually acceptable :-)

All that is left to do now is to stain the wood enclosure to match the rest of the house.     

Vegetable Garden - Part 1

Approximately 50m2 of turf has been cleared in preparation for our vegetable garden in Pucon. The next step is prepare the soil for the plants and seeds that will be sown in spring.

Ash cloud visible from Pucon

I took this picture Sunday afternoon with my iPhone from the marina in Pucon. I was very surprised to see the plume of ash coming from the eruption of the Puyehue volcano range which began Saturday evening. It was a beautiful afternoon, warm autumn colors, no tourists! 

La Serena - Temuco (1,233km)

First thing Monday, I ran around getting my motorcycle paperwork up-to-date - insurance, road taxes etc ... then had a fantastic lunch at John-Micheal's parents house where my bike was stored :-)

That evening I met up with some of my former group from Gemini at a nice restaurant in town. It was good to see them again. I then returned to Las Tacas to prepare for my ride home.

I had every intention of leaving at the crack of dawn, but that ended up being 09:30! It took me a while to pack up the bike and close-up the apartment, but I felt better for a more relaxed departure.

The road conditions were fair, quite cold and foggy between Las Tacas and Los Vilos. The plus side was there was very little wind which can be quite fierce. Things warmed up when I got closer to Santiago. Traffic was quite heavy through the city center, and practically nobody respects motorcylces so you have to be ultra alert at all times and try and stay out of harms way, which is not easy in heavy multi-lane traffic.

I was glad to clear Santiago, my target was a hotel in Curico which marked approximately the half way point. 600km in one day is a long ride, my upper body was really suffering and to make matters worse it was getting dark and I had another 100km or so to go. The risks rise significantly riding at night, poor visibility and it was getting really cold and foggy again!

I stayed at this hotel during my ride up to La Serena last year, so I knew exactly where is was and was very relieved to get there in one piece. I immediately took a very long hot shower and got an early nights sleep.

Breakfast at 07:30, and I was back on the road again at 08:30 ... another 600km to go. Conditions were much the same cold and foggy. I stopped every 150km or so to refuel and warm-up with hot coffee. Fortunately, I had no problems with the bike - in all a very smooth ride despite the cold.

I reached Temuco around 16:00 - Anita was waiting there for me with hot food on the table ... I was staving. Given that it would get dark soon and limited storage space in our garage at the moment, I decided to leave the bike in Temuco and drove back to Pucon with Anita. Our dogs were pleased to see us :-)   

Tower construction on hold for now ...

View looking north

Winter Wonderland