EZBurn Outdoor Corn-Fired Boiler

Outdoor Corn-Fired Boiler
We use an outdoor corn-fired boiler to heat our home, our shed, our hot water, and our hot tub, our swimming pool. The boiler we use is manufactured by EZBurn Manufacturing, Inc. We own the company, MDH (My Dear Husband) is the manufacturer. We'd love for you to see the stoves, please visite EZBurn.com to see details.

Our outdoor corn stove is located in a shed that we built specifically to house the stove and the corn storage bin. (There's a picture of the corn stove shed top left of this screen) Inside the shed is a corn storage bin which holds 200 bushels. That's the top of the grain bin sticking out the roof, I painted the galvanized steel to blend it with the shed.

MDH fills the bin using an auger and gravity feed trailer that our corn provider loans us whenever we purchase the corn. We buy our corn from a farmer who lives about 10 miles away.

This text is a description of a unit MDH built which he will use to keep the corn stove full all the time. Before we had this device, MDH would fill the hopper of the corn stove using his electric auger. The auger extended from the bottom of the grain bin over the hopper of the corn stove. And periodically MDH would have to check to see if the hopper was getting low on corn and turn on his auger to fill the hopper. Making sure to stand by so that the corn didn't overflow.

Now, with this device, the hopper will have corn in it to a specific level as long as there is corn in the bin. (There's always a gotcha......) The unit operates like so: if the corn is out of the tube, and the thermostat in the house calls for heat then it will start filling because the switch turns on.

When the level of the corn gets up to the level of the tube, the tube is filled and then the switch shuts off the auger. Here is a picture of the stove storage bin with the tube that fills it.

Here is a picture of the auger coming off the storage bin

Here is a picture of the motor and everything hooked up to that tube.

The switch that controls if the auger is on or off, is in the white box with red label.

Plaster Tin Wall?

Hi, I've been busy lately, sorry! We're in a mad rush to get this house finished and presentable for the Holidays. After four years, well - it's time to stop spending every weekend on the house and do something else.

I have a wall in the stairway that the drywall is sort of rough on. It's my fault, I'm not a professional. Anyway, I really need to hide some of the roughness and so I'll be doing a stenciled plaster treatment on that wall to match my dining room ceiling. Here's the ceiling in the top left. I was shooting for a tarnished copper look with the paint colors. I didn't get that, but in real life, it's not boring.


So I just thought I'd outline my process for plaster stencil, since I worked it out myself and it seems to be a valid method. I make my stencil from the material that you buy to use in lining shelves with. It's about 1/8 inch thick, like foam rubber. The advantage of this material is that you can wring it out and wash it like a wash cloth when it gets full of plaster - keeping your stencil clean is important.





To make my cutout, I got a ceiling tile picture from the internet, put it into photoshop and reduced the grays to outlines. I sized it to my ceiling tile size which is 12 inches square - printed it, put it on top of my stencil (shelving liner) And Cut Out The Stencil. That's the finished stencil next to the original image.









So, you have to water your plaster down some for this, if you're using one of those buckets you can get from one of those "Home Stores". I like it to be the consistency of cheap peanut butter.


The process is easy, might take you a few to get the hang of it. Position the stencil with your left hand and with your right hand holding the trowel full of plaster, start by pressing the plaster against the top of the stencil, and draw your hand down LIGHTLY pressing the plaster into the stencil. At this point you can stop holding on to the stencil, the plaster's got it stuck to the wall. You need to go over it a few times, to make sure everything's filled in. Here's another picture, with the stencil stuck to the wall. You can see here how it needs a few more passes so it can be filled in.



Anyway, I don't have it painted yet. I"ll see if I can update this page when it's painted. Hoping it turns out!

Commission - Mural for Sailboat Baby

Oops. This is changed - the mural for sailboat baby is canceled. But we can still do a nice big picture. The reason it's canceled is because the room doesn't have a place for it anymore. But that's good, because I'm kind of busy right now.........
Keep the working notes for later.
Working Notes: A wall of water with a great big boat for this sailboat baby room. The painting is due Sept, 06. It will be 9.5 ft X 8 ft. I'll be painting it on a great big canvas so we can haul it to another state for installation. It should go up like wallpaper. suggested material:

Mural Commission #1

Working notes on the mural I'll be doing for Woods Edge retail outlet. Not much at this point, I'm waiting on their pictures. Basically it'll consist of blown-up pictures of their farm and I may decorate the cinderblock base wall similar to the wall I did at my house. (picture - )

French Country Cabinets, revisited

Kitchen cabinet's turned out good! I'm sorry we don't have more decorative moldings on them, but that can always be added later.

This is the before picture - as you can see, we mixed cabinets in this kitchen re-do. Always something - I like to re-use things when I can.

Below is what they look like after the paint job. Sorry about the light there, it's too sunny! The cabinets that were light colored originally look very similar in the after photo. But they're painted now. It's just that the new finish is so close in color to the original that you can't really tell in the photos.

Country French Kitchen Cupboards

Starting with plain stock cabinets.

Add two stair balisters to the corners of the island for the furniture leg effect.

Remove cabinet doors. Primer everything. First coat of paint is white touched with taupe to make a 'navaho white'. Second coat of paint is the taupe mixed with polycrylic to make a glaze. Paint it on, pull it back off again with a wallpaper brush. Last coat is a coat of clear polyurethane to harden and protect the paint job. Replace the cupboard doors.

Here's a picture of the effect I'm aiming for. I'll let you know if it works out.

Painting a Textured Look wall

This wall finishes up with very subtle colors, and the end result resembles a painted textured wall. Without the texture. I like the way it opens up the room without being boring.

1. Paint the wall with a very dark primer. I started with brown primer. I rolled it on.

2. Sponge on a light lavender color over the primer. - then take a small brush and paint the edges solid with it.

3. Wipe on a parchment color. Use your sponge, but rub, don't dab. This will go over both previous colors, and each will show through the very thin layer of paint you're putting on. (semi-gloss)

4. Dry brush over the wall now, using white. (satin) On the edges, where the lavendar paint is solid, more white on the brush then blend it in to the center where there will be just enough white to hit the high spots left by the primer roller.

This is done in a very small bathroom and it does add interest when you have to stare at a wall.

Painting stone tiles

Today I painted a backsplash and I want to remember how I did it so I can do it again! So this is a great tool for those with no plan (me) who accidentally find something they've done that they want to do Again.

1. Tape off the area to be painted in a pattern that would be done in tile. I did this one with square tiles placed on the diagonal. At the intersection of each tile, is a smaller square tile placed parallel with the floor/ceiling.

2. Paint the area the darkest color of the composition. In this case, I used a deep, olive green.

3. In each diagonal, and using a sponge brush - trace the outline of the diagonal tile but trace it 1/8 inch inside the boundary of each tile. This leaves a slight border. Leave the smaller squares that are parallel with the floor the original deep green. For this color - use your medium. In my case it was a cement gray with tones towards lavender/brown. (Taupe, but greyer.)

4. With a sponge and very closely spaced - sponge over the whole area with the lightest color of the composition. Here I used a very light beige. When you have sponged an area, use a cloth to wipe off the beige/light color from the olive/dark color. Leaving the smaller squares fairly untouched.

5. Remove the tape.

6. Using a brush slightly smaller than the width of the masking tape - paint a stripe of the lightest color overall the tape marks.

7. Mix your medium color with water based poly. 1 part medium color, three parts poly. Use a sea sponge and sponge it over the Whole area. Cover all equally and LIGHTLY.

8. Repeat step seven. Use the darkest color.

9. Repeat step three. Keep your new paint very thin. It should be translucent on the wall allowing the previous coats to shine through.

10. Coat with clear poly.

About the House

http://www.faxt.com/prr/house.html Our ongoing art project - three years and still not DONE

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