Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Smokey Mountains Gathering





The setting for this MHA conference is idealic. Wildacres retreat near Little Switzerland  North Carolina is a great place to hold the meeting. Someone described it as a 'spa for masonry heater masons'. The facilities are all top rate , the location lovely ad secluded and view in every direction is fantastic. 


Here at Wildacres we are surrounded by a panorama of tree-covered mountains and valleys as far as the eye can see (that is, if it's not shrouded in clouds, which is pretty much all day, every day). I guess that's why they call them the Smokey Mountains. 

Using the technical definition I think they would be called the 'Partially Combusted Carbon Based Gaseously Suspended Particulate Mountains'.


When I was strictly a mason and not primarily a dry stone waller, I used to build a lot of Rumford fireplaces. The whole idea was to build something that heated the house efficiently utilizing the principles of radiant heat (which is also the principle form of heat of masonry heaters)  It requires constructing a chimney with the right flue proportions to properly take away all the smoke! 


In keeping with that goal I wonder if we should push to hold the next conference somewhere in the Smokeless Mountains perhaps?