Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil world) 2

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1397

Pops,
I left out about the iron that heating slowly and evenly is crucial with cast iron to prevent cracking it. Also, with cooling.

The screw was where he put the oil to cool and lubricate, NOT the casting, since rapid cooling would cause uneven shrikage and cracks. Very important point here.
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Local fix-it guy..

wisconsin_cur

Finished the foundation for the new barn.

Now I just have to hope that the accomplished carpenter friends who are going to help put up the barn don't give me too hard of a time.

I figured I would just tell them that I will serve them the veggie burgers if they harass me too much.

On the whole it ought to work just fine for a barn.
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"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller

"Remember Krondstat"
-Smallpoxgirl

wisconsin_cur

Spent some time with the tomatoes and other things currently awaiting transplant and came to a conclusion based on an experiment this year.

I took half of the toms and when I transplanted them from the starter pots to the larger ones, half when into store bought potting mix and half went into rabbit manure, fresh from underneath the rabbit.

The rabbit manure toms are stronger and much larger. I will look forward to see how they do in the garden. I am guessing the extra boost will keep them ahead of the others the entire season.

Next year I will try starting half in rabbit manure and half in potting mix... assuming I can pick ax enough manure from the frozen ground in Feb or early march when I usually start the toms Laughing

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"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller

"Remember Krondstat"
-Smallpoxgirl

RedStateGreen

I got in another strawberry plant, leeks and onions to put into the garden, and a stevia plant! Oh, my, stevia tastes great! I also cut up a pineapple I bought the other day and put the top in water to try and root it.

I also got a 25# bucket of local hard white winter wheat berries to put in storage. A little over sixteen bucks, which seems like a good deal.

Not to mention I got to see Shanny when I went to the co-op to pick everything up today. The best part! Very Happy

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Shannymara · Master Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5136 Location: Oklahoma

Thanks!

I felt the same way. Very cool running into you like that.

I also got 8 strawberry plants (what a great deal!), and a few cucumber, eggplant, and squash seedlings. And a couple of those buckets of wheat. I think I paid $12/bucket for 25# buckets of organic hard red wheat - really a great deal! Especially considering it was already frozen to kill bugs, and sealed up in those buckets. I am going nuts over this co-op, it's just great. I'm going to see if I can sell some goat meat and milk through the co-op, and also eggs. $4/dozen! Zowee!
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"Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young

PeakOiler

I checked the little garden this evening and harvested the first of many cherry tomatoes. 48g from three tomatoes (They are big for cherries!). And lots more on the way! The reg toms are swelling from the recent rains and going from green to yellow. Received another 1.5" of rain last night. My rainwater storage is well over 4000 gallons or about 40%.

Smile

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About my avatar: A glassy sphere and a mineral particle magnified 1500 times using a scanning electron microscope.

ohcomeon · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 10, 2006 Posts: 69 Location: USA

Picked up 5 new chicks, 3 new cucumber (pickling plants), 6 sweet potato plants. Have small tomatoes starting on my container plants. Also, small peppers.

Can someone tell me how to use the fresh Stevia? I know how to use it in it's powdered form you buy, but I have a fresh, beautiful plant that I don't know what to do with. It's really growing, though.

RedStateGreen

dunewalker

Any place that one can meet Shannymara AND RedStateGreen at the same time has got to be on Jivah's map! It has to be a veritable garden of Eden...
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"I believe that a wise Vermonter lives more by lack of expense rather than from income."--some Dartmouth professor from across the river

WisJim

I picked up an Evans cherry at a local store, as the 2 that I grafted a couple years ago didn't make it through the snow and rabbits of recent winters. We planted our 4 dozen tomatoes today, and put in our winter squash, too. Seems a little funny to only plant that many tomatoes after planting closer to a hundred not so many years ago. Did a lot of odds and ends around the place as I had taken a day off work, and it turned out to be a lovely day in May in Wisconsin. High about 75 or so, nice breeze and mostly sunny, but might rain a little this evening. I put my gutters back up on the chicken/machine shed, that I had taken down to prevent snow damage. Now I need to finish connecting up the big water storage tank before it rains too much.

All in all I got quite a bit done today, and should get a lot more of the garden in tomorrow. Usually (meaning 5 to 15 years ago) we would have waited until early June to put in the peppers and tomatoes, but it sure warmed up quickly.

RedStateGreen

I planted two more tomato plants and my first batch of seed potatoes. I decided to try the 'cage' method of growing potatoes, as the 'box' method I was using wasn't working.

Doesn't sound like much but I'm tired, had to do a lot of other maintenance stuff today (changing bunny litter) that wore me out. new_sleeping

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What, so I'm in no end game
Move my piece right off the board

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1397

My daughter painted our harrow, rescued from the scrap yard, so it's about finished. Just needs a couple pieces on the adjustment lever. I spent half a day with the gas man getting the new stove hooked up, putting new regulators and a valve on the old tank, and leak testing, flow testing. Now ready to use-it works. They will fIll it for $1.99/gallon next week. That's $800 for 400 gallons, which I'm estimating should last 8 years or more = $100/year to cook and do canning. We'll top it up at the first sign of a problem with supply, and will do some cooking on wood next year, so it could be even less usage. Trying to stay one jump ahead of the devil here.

Later, we went to help my brother in law who is moving back to Indiana from Texas after retiring. There are 2 siblings and 2 of their kids on grandma's 20 acres now, all of which are JUST starting to "get it" about energy. There is a pond on the place, and another under construction, plus a spring, some woods, and about 10 acres tillable. Two of the bunch are farm kids, and one sold wood stoves for years. They are heading in the right direction, so I'm encouraging them.
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Local fix-it guy..

DryObserver · Coal Joined: Feb 23, 2008 Posts: 11

Several days ago I posted an 'invention' -- an inexpensive, renewable home-heating device -- on another forum, and then on LATOC.

The version described under 'Update,' below, is really just an extremely cheap, wind-powered version of an archaic form of electrical generation. And no, I haven't built a prototype, but this is a free, public domain 'invention.'

And yes, if it can help large numbers of people cheaply and sustainably, so much the better. But if just helps a few, so be it.

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Note: As Originally Posted on Another Forum

Given the cost of heating homes in many colder climates, quite a few homeowners could use a cheap, renewable source of warmth to get them through the winter.

So, take a small wind turbine like the ones once used (and occasionally still used) in the Midwest to pump water from wells. Use a belt to transfer momentum from the turbine down into your house, possibly using a pipe of some kind as a shaft to shelter said belt and the route it takes into your house from the elements. If you need this shaft to rotate in order to provide freedom of movement to the mini-windmill above, put another pipe inside the first, secured with spinning rotor rings at each end.

At the bottom of this shaft you'll have two things. One, a copper disc driven by the belt that will spin in tandem with your wind turbine. Two, a 'U'-shaped bar magnet. You set the bar magnet up so that it can be locked in place when needed, and unlocked and removed (or simply flipped back if you have it on some kind of a hinge) when it is unneeded, the apparatus is overheating or your automatic thermostat is regulating the temperature.

The first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disc, used exactly this setup to produce electrical current.

The downside, owing to the fact that the current tended to immediately redistribute to the area of the disc away from the magnet, was that it generated very little usable power, and the movement of electricity in the disc created a lot of heat due to resistance.

In your case, you would not be tapping the current, but rather employing the excess heat generated by all of that current impelled within the disc to supplement your normal heating methods. Obviously, you would have to be very careful not to burn or shock anyone or set anything on fire with this setup. You may want to put some kind of a fire-resistant cage, mesh or grill around it to keep debris and curious onlookers back. An electrically insulated barrier may also prove wise, depending on the charge generated (possibly some shatterproof glass would be useful, but it all depends on how much electricity your system can generate at top speed). Of course, magnets will lose their magnetic properties when heated past specific temperatures, but this point is pretty high for most magnetic materials, and will reverse again once they cool.

This technique may not heat your entire house, but depending on wind strength and consistency, may provide a very substantial degree of warmth for whatever room you have it installed in. Without knowing anything about the windspeeds you will be experiencing, I can make no estimates regarding how effective this system would be in your particular house. If you are curious, however, I would suggest getting a device that can measure windspeed above your residence (you may be able to get one on loan from your local university). If local wind conditions seem promising, you might then set up your heater temporarily outside, just to see how much heat it can produce before cutting a hole in your roof to install it. Remember, of course, that the heat will disperse much faster in the open while the wind is blowing.

But if you then find your wind-thermal system to be worthwhile, you may choose to have it installed professionally. In that case, good luck.
--

And, of course, if the above all seems too complicated, use a waterwheel or water turbine to provide the motive power... assuming you're living next to a substantial source of water power, or could divert one for a micro-hydro project.

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Update: <Again, referring to responses on that Other Forum>

To clarify, since there seems to be some confusion about this invention...

Ultimately what you have here is a U-shaped bar magnet, a rotating disc of copper, and something to turn that disc. Your source of motive power can be wind, micro-hydro or a couple of teenagers working out on a stationary bike (easily rigged up from an old bicycle as needed).

But the point of the system is that someone with very limited resources could find a way to make that disc turn and then only requires a few parts that are relatively easily bought or salvaged (despite recent increases in the price of copper). Why is this important?

Because with fossil fuel prices skyrocketing in the face of peak oil and other economic issues, there are a lot of people who will not be able to afford heating oil this year, and who can not burn enough wood to stay warm in their houses. I have put this 'invention' into public domain because it could make a great difference in some people's lives -- perhaps even save a few. If you do not see it as being the most elegant technical solution possible, in many respects, you are correct. It is only elegant insofar as it is a cheap means for the relatively poor but capable to survive a difficult winter without heating oil.

A further note:
Yes, there are other ways to transfer power into your house besides a belt -- that is just a common method a lot of people have experience with. I am not even sure if the classic water-pump windmill uses a belt.

But having said that, a vertical axial wind turbine could easily spin a rod that descends into your home through a much narrower hole. So long as you waterproof said hole and avoid frictional overheating, that should work out just as well for you... assuming you can rig up a simple vertical axial turbine.

But again, to repeat, all of this is easily within the capacity of a capable handyman with a few parts and scraps. My apologies to any who felt this necessarily replaced their much more advanced generators, and their 12,000-mile supply lines back to China.

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I am hereby placing the above technique into public domain for anyone who would like to use it.

I make no claims regarding the above concept, only to tell you it is here and can now be used by anyone. Thank you for listening.

Ralph Cerchione

AnIowan

*peeks in*

Mine is hardly earth shattering, but it's a start:

1) Took a few pictures and got going selling things on eBay.

2) Walked off distance for the purchase of cattle panels and fence posts for our first enclosure.

Baby steps...... Smile

ohcomeon · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 10, 2006 Posts: 69 Location: USA

In case anyone else is interested, here's what I learned after I "ran into, almost literally" a lady who is an herbalist yesterday. Just as Red State Green said, the leaves are great fresh, but a little goes a long, long way. But if you want to preserve it and use it, you can dry it. Cut it in long stalks with the leaves still on. Hang with a string upside down. When it's dry and crumbly, crumble to a fine consistency. Or use a mortar and pestle to get as close to a powder consistency as you can. You can bake with it as well, but you will see the specks of it in your batter and some people find that unacceptable she said. (I don't care.) She said she uses about 1/8 the amount you would use for sugar, but always does a "taste test" to be sure before putting it on the table. And she warned that if you overdo it you will get an aftertaste. IF you used the most of the powders sold in health food stores there are additives that can cause bitterness as well. So today, I am going to start cutting and drying a little of this stuff so I can make some.

Anyone interested in learning more about stevia can look here:

Stevia Plants

Headed to the farmers market now to see what I can find of the "early" crops to can. And to pick up my new chicks (second set). After that, the Habitat for Humanity resale store where I am hunting materials to start the coop.

As AnIowan said: Baby steps.