Today I made / bought / learnt (for a post oil world) 4

[rangerone314]

Super list, rangerone, I think I'll copy it.

Here's a little help:

camass spp. http://www.vanengelen.com/

For several of your other plants, try http://jlhudsonseeds.net/

Goji http://www.onegreenworld.com//product_i ... ts_id=2876

Thanks, I had already added a few after posting and incorporated some of that too.

[Ludi]

Finished and planted a hugel bed; placed an order for seeds.

[Ludi]

Planted a bed of unusual edible plants:

Tiger Lily Lilium tigrinum
Lovage Levisticum officinale
Large-leaved Lamb's Lettuce Valerianella locusta
Miner's Lettuce Claytonia perifoliata

[rangerone314]

Planted a bed of unusual edible plants:

Tiger Lily Lilium tigrinum
Lovage Levisticum officinale
Large-leaved Lamb's Lettuce Valerianella locusta
Miner's Lettuce Claytonia perifoliata

I like lovage, good herb. Put some in stews or salads.

[Ludi]

I'm glad it's tasty! I hope it grows for me. I'm trying a lot of new things to see what makes it. So far we're having a very mild Fall so perennials should have a chance to make some growth. No rain though, it's super dry. Most of my plans and actions now are geared toward improving water retention on our place. We're really hoping to get another pond dug in a few months before the Spring rains (if we get any ).

Today I spent several hours working outside - digging rocks from the garden, collecting a truckload of hugel wood, expanding the perimeter fence around the "homestead." Now the dog can run all the way around the vegetable garden to keep the deer and sheep from trying to get in.

[rangerone314]

I converted my list of zone 7 perennial vegetables into a spreadsheet, which gives me the advantage of sorting by column, and got about 2/3 of the information (soil & light requirements, height, width etc) for the plants inputed from book.

I'll be able to sort by website to order, and then re-sort by requirements when it comes time for planting.

I do have additional perennials that weren't listed in the book to add from PFAF (Plants for a future) database.

[rangerone314]

This past week/weekend I worked on area C (one of three sections of blueberry bushes etc) and got it de-grassed and de-weeded, mixed lots of compost into the clay soil, and put a thick layer of mulch over the improved area to keep weeds down. (Also using a few logs and landscaping lumber to form a boundary with the non-improved area)

Also started using the woodburning stove for stuff like making tea.

[argyle]

Pictures of my geese (two couples)

http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m342 ... 424044.jpg
http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m342 ... 947363.jpg

[careinke]

Started working on my Rocket Mass Heater for my green house. Here is a time lapse of what I did today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtX0B00qIeA

Tomorrow I think I'll have my son up the frame rate from once every 15 seconds to once every 7 seconds.

[Homesteader]

Give us a report on how it works when you can.

[Ludi]

Planted some blackberry plants and some asparagus.

[careinke]

Actually got to light the stove today! It draws (pushes?) very well. Now to work on the mass storage.

Lessons learned:

1. It's easy to add too much water to your cob mixture.
2. The video gets boring when you are off making cob.
3. Pyrex cake pans explode!!!

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3cs4uZpufc&feature=player_embedded

[patience]

Water Independence Day!

For us, anyway. We are officially off the county water system today, and using from our cistern. I replaced the electric pump yesterday, and finished the plumbing today. Recently had 5" of rain, which put nearly 3 feet of water in the cistern, topping it off at a bit over 6,000 gallons. We will leave the county water hooked up, and use a little of it, just to keep the account current, but try to limit our use of it to what we get for the minimum charge.

This project has taken several months to complete, and cost us close to $2K for rehabbing the concrete block cistern, lining it with trowelled on Quikwall (fiberglass mortar product), and replacing all the plumbing. We also have a gravity flow outlet in the basement, for draining the cistern, or for simple non-electric use, and a hand pump on the back porch = top of the cistern. Only half of the house roof is used for collecting now, but I have piping to hook up half of the front side of the house also. Our last month's water bill said we used about 3,000 gallons from the county supply, so the cistern has 2 months worth of storage, not being particularly frugal with it.

Wife loves the soft rainwater for washing her hair, and after a particulate.charcoal filter, it tastes just fine. We're lovin' it! Next is to finish building the woodstove. Have the room ready for it now.

[Homesteader]

Actually got to light the stove today! It draws (pushes?) very well. Now to work on the mass storage.

Lessons learned:

1. It's easy to add too much water to your cob mixture.
2. The video gets boring when you are off making cob.
3. Pyrex cake pans explode!!!

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3cs4uZpufc&feature=player_embedded

The video is great! I'm going to go the same route for our greenhouses. Did you have plans to work from or make it up as you went along?

I have two rocket stoves from stovetec. I'm going to use one to experiment with it as the heating element in a modified propane hot water heater. The other will be for cooking when it is to warm to fire up the wood cookstove.

About 450 km west of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this past September I met an American couple and their two lovely daughters. They have been living in their present location for 13 years. The heating system for their house was installed by some local Mongolians. The heating unit is a woodstove that has had a water jacket welded around it. It is a thermosyphon system. The exiting pipe leaves the water jacket at the top/back of the stove, goes up to the second floor. Near the ceiling on second floor is a small open fill tank. Below the tank is a T which leads to the first and highest radiator. The pipe slopes gently downward to each rooms radiator and then comes back to the water jacket surrounding the stove at the bottom of the water jacket. The stove pipe exits out the back of the stove and winds up and down through a thermal mass wall before it exits the house. The house has 10" walls that are filled with sawdust, and it is about 1500 sq. feet. The owner reports the house stays above 60 F through out the winter, and takes about 90--120 minutes in the morning to bring the house back up to about 70 F. The system isn't pressurized, and works passively on the thermosyphon principle. He says the Thermal Mass Wall downstairs will drive you out of the room from the heat. The water jacket protects the stove from over-firing. I'm going to put a similar system in our house. Likely using a BlazeKing.

[careinke]

Actually got to light the stove today! It draws (pushes?) very well. Now to work on the mass storage.

Lessons learned:

1. It's easy to add too much water to your cob mixture.
2. The video gets boring when you are off making cob.
3. Pyrex cake pans explode!!!

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3cs4uZpufc&feature=player_embedded

The video is great! I'm going to go the same route for our greenhouses. Did you have plans to work from or make it up as you went along?

I have two rocket stoves from stovetec. I'm going to use one to experiment with it as the heating element in a modified propane hot water heater. The other will be for cooking when it is to warm to fire up the wood cookstove.

About 450 km west of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this past September I met an American couple and their two lovely daughters. They have been living in their present location for 13 years. The heating system for their house was installed by some local Mongolians. The heating unit is a woodstove that has had a water jacket welded around it. It is a thermosyphon system. The exiting pipe leaves the water jacket at the top/back of the stove, goes up to the second floor. Near the ceiling on second floor is a small open fill tank. Below the tank is a T which leads to the first and highest radiator. The pipe slopes gently downward to each rooms radiator and then comes back to the water jacket surrounding the stove at the bottom of the water jacket. The stove pipe exits out the back of the stove and winds up and down through a thermal mass wall before it exits the house. The house has 10" walls that are filled with sawdust, and it is about 1500 sq. feet. The owner reports the house stays above 60 F through out the winter, and takes about 90--120 minutes in the morning to bring the house back up to about 70 F. The system isn't pressurized, and works passively on the thermosyphon principle. He says the Thermal Mass Wall downstairs will drive you out of the room from the heat. The water jacket protects the stove from over-firing. I'm going to put a similar system in our house. Likely using a BlazeKing.

I used this book as my primary reference. http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Mass-Heate ... 211&sr=1-1

It gives some important ratios to prevent smoke back. However it does not give exact dimensions. So I read the book, went to the permies.com website (where the author hangs out), asked a few questions, and watched lots of utube videos. Finally, I built several mockups before settling on this design.

I’m trying to dry out the cob slowly, so I am only lighting it a couple of hours per day. So far its performance has continued to improve as it dries out.

As you know, these types of stoves use very little wood. Last night I split up a single round (12” X 16”) of Douglas Fir to use. I was able to get over three hours of burn out of it! It heated up my very leaky green house to 70 degrees F. The top of the stove was around 500 degrees F. This was without the mass storage in place yet. Needless to say I’m pretty pleased so far.

Tomorrow I work on the mass storage bench. Digging the clay is the hardest part, not looking forward to that.

The bricks and some perlite were the only thing I bought new. I have a lot of old bricks, but they were all different sizes. I got the pipe second hand at the local Habitat for Humanity surplus store. The clay and sand for the cob is from the property. Oh, I also had to buy my wife a new Pyrex baking dish. Total cost about 50 bucks.

[vtsnowedin]

[ Oh, I also had to buy my wife a new Pyrex baking dish. .

He he hmm hmn. ....I of course have never done any such thing.
It's a good thing our wives are such good natured sorts and put up with our grand experiments as long as we replace the broken crockery. Make sure you don't use Grand Mamas bread bowl or you will be singing soprano.

[rangerone314]

Began a big push in the area of the blueberry bed that was not entirely cleared of grass & weeds... defined an area with a border of landscaping lumber & logs and de-turfed with a shovel the grass, knocked out as much dirt (mostly red clay) as possible and dumped the grass chunks into an area of the yard that is swampy (I've been building that area up for months).

Being clear of grass, I then dump a 32-gallon can of compost and use a broadfork to mix it up and then a pitchform to mix it up more finely. Then I mulch thickly. I am planning on using perennial vegetables in addition to the strawberries that are already planted as a ground cover. Also going to plant some hazelnut bushes and some perennial legumes (like siberian pea shrub) there in 2011.

[Puddnhead]

Began a big push in the area of the blueberry bed that was not entirely cleared of grass & weeds... defined an area with a border of landscaping lumber & logs and de-turfed with a shovel the grass, knocked out as much dirt (mostly red clay) as possible and dumped the grass chunks into an area of the yard that is swampy (I've been building that area up for months).

Being clear of grass, I then dump a 32-gallon can of compost and use a broadfork to mix it up and then a pitchform to mix it up more finely. Then I mulch thickly. I am planning on using perennial vegetables in addition to the strawberries that are already planted as a ground cover. Also going to plant some hazelnut bushes and some perennial legumes (like siberian pea shrub) there in 2011.

Are you acidifying the soil for your blueberries? I've been thinking of trying blueberries, but have a feeling that the mixture of clay and limestone in the soil here won't work so well. I've considered trying to acidify the soil in one area with pine needle mulch.

[rangerone314]

Began a big push in the area of the blueberry bed that was not entirely cleared of grass & weeds... defined an area with a border of landscaping lumber & logs and de-turfed with a shovel the grass, knocked out as much dirt (mostly red clay) as possible and dumped the grass chunks into an area of the yard that is swampy (I've been building that area up for months).

Being clear of grass, I then dump a 32-gallon can of compost and use a broadfork to mix it up and then a pitchform to mix it up more finely. Then I mulch thickly. I am planning on using perennial vegetables in addition to the strawberries that are already planted as a ground cover. Also going to plant some hazelnut bushes and some perennial legumes (like siberian pea shrub) there in 2011.

Are you acidifying the soil for your blueberries? I've been thinking of trying blueberries, but have a feeling that the mixture of clay and limestone in the soil here won't work so well. I've considered trying to acidify the soil in one area with pine needle mulch.

Pine needle mulch will work... I am grouping many acid-loving plants in that area (strawberries, irises, roses, azaleas etc) and it is a relatively small area. Hollytone for the short term, pine needle mulch for the long term.

I finished all but a small chunk of that 100 sqFt area... has 4 blueberry bushes in it and 1 azalea. Another area of the blueberry area I haven't gotten too yet has one blueberry bush and 1 aronia bush in it, and the other area has two pussy willows & 2 blueberry bushes in it.

(The biggest mulched section has about 8 blueberries, 2 rosebushes and an azalea in it, although some weeds have crept back in because I did not mulch to the depth I did with the new areas... mostly grass and ground ivy)

It is rather cold & miserable to garden in Maryland at this time (the ground covered by nice layer of frost). But I'll be done the blueberry bed and also the fruit tree bed by spring and then the weeds & grass will face beds with thick mulch and nice log borders.

[Revi]

Blueberries are no problem in Maine. Most of the ground is acid and covered with pine needles already. I have them growing wild on my rocks on the coast. We just got our first real snow, so it looks like all gardening will be put on hold for a while. I would still like to get a few loads of compost on the school garden now that it's frozen. The truck had a nasty habit of getting stuck before in the muddy ground.

We got a load of green firewood which I painted with different colors of spray paint and covered with a tarp to keep honest people honest.

I have been cutting all our wood up to now, but the idea of having it all ready to go was too tempting to my aging muscles and back.

I still cut 2 or 3 cords of junkwood for the maple syrup evaporator, so I'm not giving it up completely.