<<TableOfContents()>>
= Rock Garden Chimney =
== the arch returns Oct 9 2022 ==
{{/arch-support.JPG|arch-support|width=80%}}
{{/arch-the-moment-of-truth.MP4|arch-the-moment-of-truth|width=80%}}
{{/arch-success1.JPG|arch-sucess|width=80%}}
== plan a Oct 8 2022 ==
Found this design this morning.
[[https://walkerstoves.com/super-hot-ceramic-fiber-cores.html]]
then I spent the rest of the day making a home for it. Most rocks stacked in any single day so far!
{{/2022-10-08-rock-rebuild1.jpg|rebuild-day1|width=80%}}
== destruction Nov 2021 ==
Months have passed since I last posted to the chimney page. Since then Chris helped me come to the conclusion to ditch the water heater idea and go for simple warm stove, a good simplification.
Current plan is to build a firebox from firebrick, include an air intake like a Lakota fire pit, and top with an insulated chimney built to radiate heat.
Given that I will have to be building the firebox behind the existing wall and given that both Monica and I really have disliked the section of wall to the left of the arch, I decided to demo and rebuild from the arch leftward up to first column of the tower, and today I took the plunge.
{{/2021-11-07-destruction.jpg|Destruction|width=50%}}
I'm a bit surprised to find myself feeling very solid as I look at the wall-with-missing-tooth. Where I would have expected to feel anxiety about whether I made the right choice, I am feeling happiness in moving forward. Where I would have expected to feel worry about "oh my gosh will I ever finish" I am feeling curiosity about how it will all work out.
== location June 2021 ==
{{Rock_Garden/Chimney_Placement.jpg|Chimney Placement|width=50%}}
== chris asks a question June 2021 ==
I feel such gratitude for you my friend, Chris for asking the question, "what do I see happening around the chimney?"
I see you sitting comfortably in front of the stove on a chilly winter night while Monica and Carmen look on from the hot tub. You're strumming your red electric slide guitar while I play tuba lines on the cello from under the Japanese maple. You croon along with Prema who toasts herself on the other side of the fire.
Alice DiMicele joins in from the couch. The night goes on every one trading places and occasionally heading over to the pool for a cold plunge.
== Rock Garden Chimney Musings-Chris June 2021 ==
Whenever I can avoid dealing with plumbing...that's generally happy sauce for me...(and I can have the plumbed systems I need).
I encourage you to go the route of two stoves if you want to have a wood fire heated hot tub setup...Snorkel wood stoves have been around for a while...I have never used one...but I am guessing that they have been refined to be fairly effective by this point in time. In my understanding the stove goes in the hot tub...It is fired up hours before the soak session...I recommend investigating them...What this does is avoiding a complex fabricated system involving moving water from point a to point b...which will involve trial and error...Take the complexity out of the water heating by having a dedicated stove for the hot tub...
Then you could absolutely fabricate a simple stout steel rocket stove type of thing in the rock chimney zone and not have to worry about integrating a water jacket and piping 2 and from the hot tub...much more forgiving setup...Because with the plumbing you are going to have to worry about pipes freezing and the maintenance that comes with that...
Or do the rocket stove for warmth and firey ambiance and then get a fiberglass hot tub and wire it up... and enjoy minimal hassle with a commericially built hot tub...
I want you to do a couple of simple drawings of this zone...Do the first one where you wing it just like a brainstorm...don't worry about measurements or practicality...just go with the spirit of your fun vision...
Then take some basic measurements of the area you want to play with in the chimney zone...rise and fall of elevation... 2 dimensional area...where you see the hot tub...ideally use graph paper...and just see what you've got to play with...
Clear out the space of clutter to the extent you are willing before you do drawings...
In my experience having a clear work site supports moving forward, clutter blocks me;
clearing it out shows me that I am taking my creativity seriously (it's self respect)
Then I want to hear how the vision has developed.
Happy Dreaming Scheming and Making
== idea June 2021 ==
the water jacket shown in this link looks the best, could we have this fabricated?
[[https://www.milkwood.net/2011/08/03/our-rocket-stove-water-heater-2-5-years-on/|milkwood rocket stove shower]]
our stove will differ from milkwood one from the link above in these ways:
* the firebox will be below ground inside the wall behind the "M" opening
* there will be a separate air intake and fuel loading openings
* air intake will be a tunnel coming in from the right slanting downward to a hole in the lower right wall of the firebox
* fuel loading will be thru large opening on left. this could be a brick tunnel or an iron door
* will there be an issue with getting smoke coming out of fuel loading opening when loading more wood into an already going fire?
* firebox will have window looking out thru the "M"
build a firebox out of firebrick with an opening on lower right for a air intake pipe and a large stove door opening on left. window in the front looks out from the "M". window could be a fixed stove door or mounted square of glass.
place insulated heat riser barrel and water jacket on top of the firebox, heat riser will be partly underground
can it be made to also radiate heat to those sitting next to the chimney?
lowest brick under "M" slides out for ash cleaning.
{{/2021-06-06-rock-garden-design1.jpg|Rock Garden Design 1|width=45%}}
== origins March 2021 ==
While visiting my friend Scott house I was admiring his rock retaining wall and noticed his wall had a little alcove - a small shelf indented into the wall with an arch over it I think a small statue stood inside. I liked it. I wanted one in my rock wall.
I was particularly keen on building an arch and located 5 rocks with nice angles for an arch. After hours of trial and error my arch stood. For some reason I didn't continue right away. Perhaps it was winter. The arch stood for some time before I returned and while making adjustments, the arch fell. I repeated this process quite a number of times until an arch kept standing and I had filled in the wall around it.
Gazing at the arch I started to imagine what I would put in my alcove, and I noticed that the inner lines of the rocks made a big "M" and since my love's name is Monica
