MoPID: Month of Permaculture Innovations at Dogstar

MoPID post #16 for Sept 18th, 2022

Torsion Kitchen Scale Prototype

https://permies.com/t/192115/kitchen/Torsion-Kitchen-Scale-Prototype

Feels like a solution still in search of a problem... unless you are in Mad Max world.

MoPID post #17 for Sept 20, 2022

Getting pretty behind on these!  I haven't had much time to work on inventions as I have had other projects going on.  The last two days I was adjusting and calibrating the swing blade saw mill to get it back in working order.  Six bad boards and twelve good boards later, I think it is good to go.  The biggest issue was that the trolley had some tilt to it so the blade was not parallel to the direction of motion when doing a flat cut, it wanted to continue to rise.  The rollers for the long axis had gotten pretty loose too, so the blade could wander almost a quarter inch back and forth.  The water cooling system also needed an upgrade and now it doesn't leak and can do about four boards before needing a refill.

On Sunday, Cory and I fired up Uncle Mud's Rocket Forge and banged on some metal.  A small throwing tomahawk made from rebar worked out really well; it is also a great slag hammer for welding.  We also cut and welded two replacement parts for the Bad Boy Buggy front rack, but I guess I didn't get any pictures of that.

MoPID post #18 for Sept 21, 2022

The (nearly) Zero-Waste Stool

https://permies.com/t/192321/Waste-Stool

The chainsaw cuts took longer than expected, but the stool is sturdy and comfortable and probably a permanent fixture in Dogstar now.  I did end up trimming the excess overhang from the legs which technically does waste some... but that will be used for firewood and future versions won't have that issue.

MoPID post #19 for Sept 22, 2022

Water + Flashlight Lamp

https://permies.com/t/192369/permaculture-upcycling/ungarbage/Water-Flashlight-Lamp

My favorite way to do camp lighting.

MoPID post #20 for Sept 24, 2022

This was the first warmish day in a while and it happened to coincide with me running out of clean clothes.  Perfect time for another run of the two milk crate washer/dryer in the creek and it went well but was a considerably colder experience than it was at the beginning of the month.  I'm not sure I would want to try that technique in the middle of winter...

Having brought my phone down to the creek to document the ordeal, I almost walked into the water with it in my pocket, which would have been bad.  The only thing I changed from the first go-around was using a third milk crate and stacking them facing the same way so that they nest correctly and hold together better.  This makes two separate chambers on the inside but I don't think that is much of an issue.  As you can see in the pictures, I brought my sheets and towels to wash this time too and just did those freehand in the creek.

The other day was really rainy so I made a little shelter for Oni, the livestock guardian dog, out of the barrel from a garden cart and some dry hay bedding.

I also put in a small shelf alongside the bed at Dogstar so my pillow would stop wanting to fall down there every night!  I used an off-cut from the sawmill calibration, and it's nice to have a small nightstand there now.

Finally, I used another off-cut to reconnect the shoring at the back of the cabin and trim over the cut in the boards.  This was to finish up the ventilation pipe adjustment project from a little while back.  I screwed the flashing back in to the new trim piece since the woodstove will be worth using in here pretty soon.

MoPID post #21 for Sept 26, 2022

Eat more leaves (even if you are a human)

https://permies.com/t/192590/Eat-leaves-human

This was inspired partially by the goats, Pepper and Angel, and partially by the fact that I have been trying to keep my diet balanced without the use of a refrigerator.  There are so many plants with edible leaves that are essentially forgotten by our modern culture... but nothing has actually changed since ancient times; they are still edible today.

MoPID post 22 for Sept 28, 2022

Tin Can Camping Stove (with some optimization talk)

https://permies.com/t/192672/Tin-Camping-Stove-optimization-talk

Ha ha!  You thought you'd seen the last of the failed tin can camping stove from the beginning of the month?  Well it's back with an extremely verbose post and it works better than ever... just before the end of the month, phew.

MoPID post 23 for Sept 30, 2022

A million unfinished projects!  Spent most of the day packing the car and cleaning Dogstar, then had movie night with the boots.  Here are a bunch of the things I tried that didn't quite make it to finished projects.