Now We're Cooking With Gas!
My grandfather who was from the old country, had a saying. "Now we're cooking with gas!" He'd say that when something went right. I've been using it since I was 10 years old. Mostly to myself.
Well, here at the Shack, we are indeed cooking with gas. In the past, actually for the past 20 years, I've used propane camp stoves with those little 1 lb bottles. What a pain.
Well, now that the Shack has become SuperShack and I've built a real kitchen with a sink and everything, I also as part of my RV appliance program - RV appliances are less expensive than normal appliances and are designed to be more off grid - I purchased a Flame King propane cooktop for RVs.
Since the Shack isn't designed to be lived in all the time, we can use what you might call "offbeat" ways to do things. Since we're off grid there's no reason to have a full size stove - having a cabin/vacation home is a lot like having a camper only it doesn't move.
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left: The location of the stove propane tank. I installed it in a corner for weather protection.
These are designed to run off of 20 lb propane tanks like what you see on a camper. Over the past few days, I've installed the cooktop and installed the propane tank in it's own little house outside.
One of the great things about buying from Amazon is that they show you what other people bought when you biuy something like this cooktop.
The cooktop and the dual regulator hose (10 feet long) fit perfectly the first time around. All I had to do is cut a hole in the counter for the cooktop and another hole in the wall to run the hose through.
Another key issue is the fuel level of your outside tanks. While a 20 lb tank will run the stove for 300 hours, it's still good to keep an eye on how much fuel you have left so I ordered a fuel gauge that goes between the regulator and tank.
Left: The little house that I built for the propane tank. You can't really see it from this photo but the cover is tilted so that rain drains off of it.
Another issue is the weather in northern Michigan. It gets pretty crazy. It can be in the 90s, it can rain buckets and you'd better expect 7 feet of snow on the ground in the winter. It's called a snow belt.
So the little house I built for the propane tank is pretty simple. Two pieces of plywood with a 2 x 4 corner brace on the inside and a cover for the top. The cover I mounted so that it has an angle so rain can drain off of it easily.
Below: The nice little house for the propane tank. You can see the 2 x 4 corner brace in this photo.
Cooking With Gas, PT 2
Left: A propane fuel gauge. There are two ends, the black one goes on the tank valve side and then you attach your hose as usual on the other side.
No matter what size propane tanks you use, not matter if they're on your RV, at your cabin, or even your BBQ, running out of the magic gas when you're in middle of using it is a pain in the rear of epic proportions.
At the Shack, we're 30 minutes from the closest store to exhange or refill propane tanks. This makes knowing how much propane is in the tank pretty important since we use the 20 lb variety for both the stove and for heat.
What you can purchase is a fuel gauge for your tanks. These things are pretty inexpensive and are attached to the tank before the appliance hose is.
It's Treetastic!
Know what's really cool about northern Michigan? The trees. Endless miles and miles of trees. Hardwoods, Birch, Pine. Trees all over the place.
Know what sucks about northern Michigan? The trees. Actually, the dead trees, especially if you have land with a lot of trees, taking down the dead ones can be pretty dangerous if you aren't careful. You don't want them falling willy nilly because you could be under them or your car could be or even your house could be the victim of a tree falling. It's best to remove them in a controlled manner. But it can be dangrous as I mentioned. A good friend of my wife was cutting trees on his northern Michigan land and died two years ago.
Our handyman Dann, and I have both taken down trees for many years and are very aware of the dangers. Trees can kick out and hit you, fall in the wrong direction onto your house, they can hit other trees and become lodged in them.
Anyways, Dann heats his house with wood and I don't really have a use for the wood so Dann gets a free source of wood.
This past weekend, we took down some more dead trees and cut them up in 2 foot lengths for splitting. I also kept some of the logs for use in my Weber grill.
Lagging Behind
The two halves of the Shack, the old side and the addition side sit right next to each other, the two back walls butted up against one another. There is, however, an issue.
The old side of the Shack had some frame issues 20 years ago - it was leaning towards the back (the side that the addition is now against) so I used a 4 x 4 and my pickup truck to push it upright and did some major frame work to stabilize it - two walls and a rebuilt end wall.
This worked great. However, when I pushed it up straight, I went a little too far (by 1 1/2 inches). So when we put the addition in, which was level, there was a gap at the top. So we used a building jack to raise up one side and put 2 x 4s under the raised up side.
This has the effect of making the addition lean in too far. It's very noticeable. So I'm using a series of lag bolts (12 of them) and bolting the addition to the header of the old side. Once that's done, I'll lift the addition, remove the 2 x 4s which will pull the old side back level.
