I came up with an idea that ended up killing two birds with one stone. In order to get power to the work zone between the storage trailer and back towards the fuel shed I had to use several extension cords. The other problem was the idea that in order to keep the outside dog comfortable in her dog house as the weather gets cooler, we needed to pack the house with hay so she can curl up in the hay, much like a nest. Of course it doesn't help that the idiot pulls most of the hay out after a while. I ended up thinking about an idea after talking with a friend about a past idea that he did.
My friend had a dog that he kept outside but in order to keep that dog warm he rigged up a little forced air heating setup using some dryer tubing and an off the shelf electric heater. While this idea was pretty good, it involved setting up some extra stuff to make this happen. Fast forward to the present and I had remembered a little electric heater I seen in Walmart that plugs in the wall directly, much like a night light and is thermostatically controlled. My idea was to install an outlet inside the dog house for the little heater to be plugged up to so it can heat up the dog house and do so efficiently on the count of its thermostat. Only other problem with this plan is the idea that I would've needed an outlet near the dog house. This lead me to the other part of the plan, which was to install some outlets through the area that would provide me with multiple places I can plug up power tools to work on who knows what as well as providing me with the outlet that would be needed for the dog house heater. First I needed to get some supplies. This consisted of three outdoor electrical boxes and outlet boxes to go with them. I also had to get a 100' extension cord with which to use as a donor for the power run from the outdoor breaker/meter box. Most of the other stuff I already had on hand, since as stated before, my philosophy is to use shit up that I already have before I buy any new shit. First order of business was to install the first electrical box combo right on the breaker box. Using an old knockout where I had installed a conduit for an old power run, I attached the box to the side of the breaker box using self tapping screws, right over the knockout opening. Before I did put the box up I did apply a liberal amount of caulk around the back of the box to ensure a water tight seal around the knockout opening as well as where the self tapping screws passed through the metal. With the box secured I ran some wire through and attached them to the chosen breaker, then hooked up the first outlet. I topped this off with the outdoor outlet cover portion of the box then installed the plugs in the threaded openings of the box to ensure a complete water tight seal. Next I stretched out the extension cord along the run towards the storage trailer. I plugged the cord into the outlet then wire tied the cord along the ground cable all the way to ground level. Afterwards the fun part began. Using a shovel, I cut a trench for a good 100' from the power pole by the house over to the side of the storage trailer. As I cut 5' of trench I put the cord into the trench and covered it with dirt then continued with another 5' of trench. When I made it to the storage trailer I then went ahead and installed another electrical box and outlet cover on the side of the trailer, taking time to drill a 3/4" hole in the side first for the wires to pass through and caulking the back of the box up before using the self tapping screws to secure the box to the side of the trailer, right by the door. I disconnected the short cable/plug from the outlet box inside the trailer that I was temporarily using to plug up to in order to power the trailer. I ran some regular wires from the box inside the trailer over to the outlet in the outdoor electrical box. What I ended up doing next was really part utility and part necessity. Since the extension cord I trenched over to the trailer was just a hair short, I ended up taking that same short plug I removed from the trailer's indoor box and installed it in the outdoor box, hooked up to the same outlet. This plug was plugged to the trenched extension cord. This took care of the "too short" problem with the cord and also provided me with a means to disconnect the power from the trailer and the dog house outlet downstream if need be. I then had to take another extension cord, one that I've been using to hook up power to the trailer and is pretty rough but still solid enough to be safely used, and laid it out to make the final run between the trailer and the dog house. This cord I cut one end off of the cord and spliced it into the outdoor electrical box outlet. This means that the outside outlet has three cables hooked up to it, the cable supplying power to the trailer, the cable taking power into the trailer to the interior outlet, and the cable going towards the doghouse. I wire tied the two cables on the outside going into the ground to keep things nice and neat. I continued with the trenching from the trailer along for about another 60' give or take over to the tree I chose to use for the last outlet. Once at the tree I ended up using some 3" deck screws to secure the electrical box to the tree since the tree is obviously not a flat solid surface. With the box in place I cut the excess from the rest of the extension cord and ran the cable up through the box and spliced it to another outlet which was installed in the box. With that the whole power run portion of the project was complete. Now at the doghouse, this part of the project went pretty easy. I took a standard metal outlet box that I had laying around with my other surplus electrical shit and used some wood screws to secure the box to the plastic wall inside the doghouse, near the top. I drilled a 3/8" hole through the wall to the outside. I took the short plug/cable and fed the cable through from the outside into the doghouse through the electrical box. The last outlet was hooked to the end of that cable and secured with an outlet cover. Some caulk was used to cover the cable around the outside opening in the doghouse wall. I was able to plug the wall heater up and plug the doghouse up to the tree outlet and activate the unit to get heat flowing. The final thing that I had to do was make a cover for the opening of the doghouse. The easiest thing I could come up with was taking an old car floor mat and cutting it into strips, leaving a few inches on one side uncut so it looks like one of those flappy door opening blockers for allowing factory motorized traffic to pass through the opening without keeping the door open. I secured this cover over the opening with some wood screws backed with washers to hold the mat against the plastic doghouse surface. I also cleaned out all the old hay from the doghouse and took a moving blanket that we got from Harbor Freight for free with a coupon and folded it up to cover the floor in the doghouse. I didn't want hay in there because loose hay with an ignition source seems to not be a good combination. A blanket on the floor can't be kicked up all over along with flammable dust like hay does. It's not to say that a cloth blanket is safe but its much safer in these circumstances compared to loose hay.
So far the heater has been doing its job splendidly as far as keeping it nice and warm inside. With the thermostat set to 72, it is extremely comfortable inside the doghouse even when the temps dip down low. With the thermostat the heater does not run all the time so there isn't really a concern with using a lot of electricity in order to run this device. The heater's 350 watts by itself is still a small number compared to larger heaters that run in the 1100 watt + range. All in all this was another successful project to help make the farmstead a much better place for all of us.
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