Richard Henry

First, for a drain, since you are likely to have considerable dirt and even small stones, when I worked as a geotech in soils engineering, we had a lab sink with a rolling tub underneath that the initial drain water fell into.  This had a drain that flowed water into the regular sewage drains while the sediments settled into the tub.  Depending on the size of the tub and the amount of soil being introduced, it could last a month between rolling the tub out and dumping it.  The water drain plugged into the back of the tub with a swaged fitting that kept it from leaking.

For a quick and easy foot or knee spray faucet, how about using a regular hose spray head fit into a box that held it in the correct orientation for either foot or knee to activate?  The spout of the spray head would preferably have a male or female garden hose connector to allow it to remain inline.

The form of aluminum for this discussion is not recognizable as a metal. It is not protected by oxidation from reactions at this level and from what I read has been been changed in valance at the molecular level. Each metric element can have electrons removed and then can make new compounds. This is easier if you have studied chemical thermodynamics. The form of maltose that has been identified in the paper I provided the link to is aluminum maltone which is a specific form of maltose in combination with aluminum after molecular reactions in an acidic environment. All water contains excess hydrogen atoms which lowers its pH - the definition of an acid. Any aluminum released into an aqueous solution will remain until it finds something to bind to. The percentage is quite small but not zero. Any feee aluminum will be able to bind in a body with malton, a sub-form of maltose to form, in this reaction, aluminum maltone.

Let’s face it, my professor saw this potential process over 30 years ago and it remains a theory. However that theory is now gaining scientific traction.  There are few guarantees in this life.

Not wanting to be an alarmist, but I have always remembered my water quality professor during my graduate training declare that malton was present in many baked goods and that it increased uptake of aluminum by 100 times (not percent).  The form of aluminum that it allowed into the human body was the exact form found in Alzheimer's patients brains.  He was worried that there might be a link between use of alum in waste water treatment and enhanced potential for Alzheimers.  Well, a quick search brought up this article among several others that indicate that Aluminum maltolate actually does seem to increase incidence of Alzmheimers. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01480545.2022.2065291?src=recsys .

I have always been concerned since hearing that and now it appears that a common sugar used in commercial baking to enhance dough conditioning may combine with high aluminum intake from the environment to increase potential incidence of a major nasty disorder.  Note - barley when malted increases in amount of maltose, which is in the same family.  I would be careful about how much barley one malts and adds to the diet if there is any chance there may be high levels of aluminum in the diet as well.  Of course, that would apply to any commercial baked goods as well.  Big Sigh!  I always knew God had a sense of humor.

I can see that this issue is hitting some hot triggers and thought I would try to provide some information.  "Organic" is a very broad term.  The USDA has an entire training section called "Organic 101" to explain what in included.  On the third installment of this training, https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means Within this installment is what seems to me to be a very pertinent paragraph

"When it comes to processed, multi-ingredient foods, the USDA organic standards specify additional considerations. Regulations prohibit organically processed foods from containing artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors and require that their ingredients are organic, with some minor exceptions. For example, processed organic foods may contain some approved non-agricultural ingredients, like enzymes in yogurt, pectin in fruit jams, or baking soda in baked goods."  

So, what we have here appears to be what is technically correctly called "Organic" when what one needs to actually require is perhaps "100% Natural".  The enzyme is a fungal-based product regardless of how it is commercially developed.  A possible compromise might be to suggest that a product without the enzyme included be provided for those who wish a more purist version.  Or, perhaps folks could just buy hard red wheat or other variety and grind their own flour.  It would appear that making a sourdough would take care of leavening if yeast is not wanted.  I found this barley flour version that adds significant healthy fiber to your product https://www.homecookingadventure.com/sourdough-barley-bread/ .

Sorry, but my engineer's brain tries to explore potential alternatives.

Nancy - You have proven my contention that permies provide a wonderful think tank.  What about using the raw and even filthy wool to compress into liners for hanging baskets.  In northern regions, it would be locally accessible and replace the need to buy coca fiber to line the baskets.  I could imagine pressing the wool into pots for growing seeds.  It should be as good as cow manure pots for planting without removal as the roots of the plant should slide right through.  Making frost caps from raw wool for plants recently moved into a garden would utilize the fact that wool absorbs moisture and releases heat to protect from frost.  Think of making wool jackets for your tender plants along with wool socks.  Evening musing.

As usual, this site provides tons of useful content on areas of exploration that the commercial world tends to ignore.  I really like the idea of fermenting the wool to get rid of infestations.  I see that borax has at least two formulations, borax pentahydrate and borax decahydrate.  It sounds as though the pentahydrate is the more active form and would be the best bang for the buck.  

If they only want to sell to a business, how hard would it be to set up a business experimenting on novel construction methods?  Just a thought.  As to drying the wool, do you have any farms around you that grow hay?  It might be useful to use a hay tedder on a field to lift, turn the wool and add loft all at one pass.  Another way to dry the wool would be to hold it above the floor in a barn and use a large fan blowing through the aisle.  That is a tried and true way to dry hay to reduce the potential for spontaneous ignition on farms around my neck of the woods.  Our weather is notoriously hard to predict and sometimes the forecast changes by the hour to attempt to keep up - it rarely does.  Rain seems to be drawn to recently mowed hay fields.

Good luck.  Hopefully the blower placement method works, it sounds really useful to reduce both effort and potential voids.

Cristobal - I was using the term "barrel", but on a bit of consideration, feel that a piece of culvert would be more appropriate and not as difficult to find in sufficient diameter.  Since that would not have a top or bottom, it would not require as much work to place over the kiln and could be as thick as wished to enhance heat retention.  I have noted short pieces of culvert lying around local town highway departments for several years.  Seemed appropriate to attempt to make use of something that was pretty much going to waste.

Really interesting discussion.  Although this may be naive, would finding a large barrel that would fit around the exterior of the kiln and filling the space between the barrel and kiln with vermiculite/perlite provide for more insulation to reduce system heat loss?

I fully understand how a document such as this could rapidly outpace manual updating.  Have you ever looked at the site "Mike"s Weather Page"?  It is a page brimming with updated data from multiple sites that automatically are updated by the hosts of that data.  It would be interesting to see if it were possible to pull automatically updated data from multiple sources and serve it in a central location such as he does.  Not sure if it is possible, but what utility, especially if different areas could access local information!

I notice there was a section for in ground heat pump (no range for different source such as below ground water table or pond sourced), but no values for air source heat pump.  I upgraded my backup propane hydronic system and the contractor attempted to push an air source heat pump as a better system overall than the in ground system.  While an in ground is more expensive, I continue to believe that using a large enough heat sink/source in a phreatic (below water table) system will provide better economics over time, especially if local temperatures climb precipitously.   I also did not see the fact that an in ground heat pump is far more economical for whole home air conditioning.  When one or more family members has breathing issues, the ability to cool and dehumidify the air becomes more important.  Really nice infographic, however.