News from Armenia

I wrote in an earlier post (The Handmade House) about the house that my son is building and the fireplace he has been working on. Well, he has just finished his fireplace. Pictured here is one of the first “test” fires and it is working well. We built the first stage out of fire-brick and concrete blocks but the rest of it, including the chimney, he formed up and poured with concrete. This may be a one-of-a-kind. In any case, I have never seen a chimney of poured concrete.

It is amazing how well this design works. It draws very well but yet most of the heat is deflected out rather than up the chimney. The whole thing is free-standing, as it is in the center of the house rather than on an outside wall. You can click here if you would like more information on Rumford fireplaces.

The whole thing will eventually be faced with cut rock and will be beautiful as well as functional.

I wrote in an earlier post that my son had a house-building project going on. He does.

This house, when finished, will be almost all handmade. Cliff and his partner, Roger, cut the tees down, hauled them to the sawmill site, and sawed them into lumber. The lumber that comes off of the chainsaw-driven Logosol mill that he uses is beautiful and is as smooth as if it had been planed.

The frame is pine and cedar posts and beams and the exterior siding and roof decking is mostly cedar planks with a little pine thrown in on the roof. A green metal roof tops it all.

Just lately we have been building the fireplace and chimney. This is interesting, especially if one has never built a fireplace and chimney before. It is a Rumford fireplace. A Rumford style fireplace is built to a unique and innovative design which allows it to burn very hot and efficiently. I can’t wait until we fire it up for the first time.

Still much work to do but the house is dried in and has plumbing, electricity, and soon, a fireplace - and just in time for winter.

My wife, Gwen, and I live on a small farm in rural Chester County, South Carolina. The northwest section of the county we live in is called Armenia after an old Methodist church in the area. We’re not farmers: there are mostly horses and sometimes cows and calves, but they are non-profit if you know what I mean. Actually, the horses and cows are mostly my son’s.

Besides the horses and occasional cows there are many other creatures that come and go on the place. Right now we have the dogs Captain, Izzy, and Cheyenne; the cats, Miss Kitty, Butterscotch, El Diablo, Leopard Paw, and one other whose name I don’t know. There are also seven calves that Millie has named. I do not know all of their names so will not mention any until I do. As soon as I can get them all together and get them to be still I will take a picture and post it.

It’s generally quiet and peaceful around here. The most exciting thing right now is the house-building project my son has going on. (There will be a full post with pictures on this as soon as I have time to put it together.)

Armenia is a place where your dogs can roam freely and if the horses get out they don’t go far and they always know the way back home. Wherever I roam it’s my way back home, too.