I’m down to just a few minutes on my laptop, so a super quick update.
I’ve uploaded some photos from last Friday’s fire. A fire crew has been returning every day to check on the fire, and today was the last day. Nothing re-ignited, so I think it’s all good. I also got to talk to the fire crew a bit, and they know I’m out here, which may someday be useful for them or for me.
On Saturday, I went into Redding again to finish some shopping that got cut short by the call from my neighbor. I got some foam insulation boards to put up on my roof, as well as some materiel for my water tower. My current plan is a simple platform with 4x4x8 legs to perch my 55gal drum on, built onto the side of a tree for stability. I got a 12V pump to pump water into the tank, but it’ll be up to gravity to get water out (though I can also pump water out if I had to). Hopefully, I’ll get that up this week, so that I can setup irrigation for my garden.
Otherwise, everything’s back to normal, sans neighbors. I’m having a great time up here, enjoying the beautiful scenery and amazing night skies. I feel fortunate to have what I have, and to be where I am.
Laptop and a Rifle 
Do you catch rainfall somehow?
Good luck with the fire…
and
“I got some foam insulation boards to put up on my roof”
I noticed that you’ll be insulating your roof. So I thought I would pass on some usable information on some amazing radiant heat barrier (ceramic laced) paint called super-therm.
http://www.superiorcoatingsintl.com/index.php/products/super-therm
“R-19 Equivalent Rating – Super Therm® reflects over 95% of radiation from the sun replacing the 6 to 8 inches of traditional insulation to block initial heat load.”
The above statement is from the Super-therm website – Its sounds absurd that a “paint” could be as effective as 6″ of fiberglass, but its true. That paint would easily add a couple points to your HAI!
Concept: Heat is transferred via wave energy right? UV waves, visible waves, and IR waves. This paint reflects 95% of the wave energy back to which it came. Thus not allowing heat gain or loss, depending on perspective. Fiberglass/foam simply slows the heat transfer. Supertherm reflects it. Check out a series of supertherm youtube clips for a better understanding.
Paint the interior keep it warm, paint the exterior keep it cool. As long as you have no air leaks you’ll be as cozy as a bug in a rug.
Note: There is another product (same ceramic make-up) called “Insuladd” . You purchase a ceramic powder and mix it with any paint. Great for the interiors. (works best with lite colors) http://insuladd.com/paint-additive.html
Note2: Super-therm is also used as a fire barrier in commercial buildings… being that you are near an approaching forest fire I thought it would come in handy.
Great Blog…
Mike
I haven’t looked into Super-therm explicitly, but I just used this stuff called Reflectix in the dessert, and it does a great job of reflecting radiant heat. However, radiant heat is only one form of heat, and most of that stuff is less effective in slowing conductive heat. But maybe this Super-therm is magical… I’ll look into it.