crazy that my intermittent gerd went away with drinking kombucha. Homemade and not as strong as store bought.  keep up us on your progress.  Haven't seen ya since permaculture classes many moons ago. Good luck jeff

I've never treated mine just let air dry and have had for twenty years. I just clean it water.  Mine is just a firewood round with a broomstick in it.

My elderberries keep dropping fruit before they are ripe. I wonder if the extra nitrogen would help with that?

If your ridge beam cannot support the weight of the rafters, ie, pushing out on the exterior walls, one can add collar ties to resist that force. Otherwise, your walls will be pushed out and are only being held together at the end of the building.

Warre hives and beekeeping is also another option.

Aislinn Caron wrote:And for my next newbie question....... i live in a cold zone - i can't overwinter biennial veg in the ground. So, thoughts on selecting for or actively  breeding for annual ones instead?? So i can save seeds from the darn things without a major hassel! Carrots, beets etc. Just to be clear, I'm talking about a carrot plant (for example) that would grow, produce an edible root and set seed (if not harvested) all in one season. Is it possible?  A bad idea? Thoughts??

You can try to store root veggies in dirt I believe and then plant in the spring.  Or you can mulch when ground gets just a bit of frost and cover plants with dry mulch and something to keep mulch dry.  And pray that mice and voles don't find your stash.

I find them to be slimy at times.  I do use two foot sections of boards from pallets to sprout seeds.  Is a great way to germinate seeds and works like a charm in the dry summer months.

Time is our biggest factor.  So I would say try to analyze how much time it will take verses costs savings.  My garden for example used a lot of grass clippings from my yard and has made weeding easy since it is so well under control.  Try to do things within reason and do the best ya can with what's available. Can you raise chickens without bought en feed? Maybe, but other options might be better like ducks or geese that are herbivores. Rabbits are a good choice but don't give us much fat, needed more than most realize.

I would add enough wood chips  to keep on drier side.  I would use comfrey  and make a comfrey bed with plants about 4-6 feet apart.  I would only add in spring to mid summer and store the rest till spring.  I think adding during winter months when there is no plant growth allows leaching into soil and contaminating ground water. Comfrey is a very good at absorbing nutrients and can be used as fertilizers.

I don't mind seeds so I core tomatoes and put three or four in hot water. When skins start to peel off I scoop out and place in metal bowl. Place more tomatoes in hot water. with rubber gloves I remove skin and place in clean jars.  Don't take long and have seven jars filled with very little mess. can off in hot water bath.  the tomatoes separate in jar and can be strained to separate with strainer.  I enjoy juice so that isn't wasted and what's left can easily reduced on stove.

I second the choice on guinea fowl and find a way easy way to get em in coop at night, like a special treat.  I heard millet only given at dusk is a way to coop em.  Predation is always a problem.  If chickens, you can an automatic door.  

Peter van den Berg wrote:Hi Jeff,
Looks nice, I'll give you that. The top of the firebox is restricted/lined with firebricks but the sides of the firebox are still steel as I see it. Lining this also with firebrick, full or split ones, would help a lot in burning temperatures and through that, cleaner burning. I fully expect insulating the riser as well would raise efficiency again, gaining more heat out of the same fuel.
All that done, you would be able to add a second barrel to extract more heat. And burn the paint off, no doubt, I sincerely do hope you have doors in front and rear of your garage to vent the muck outside.

My original 6" development model started with one 55 gallon barrel and ended with three of those, while the first one already impressed me no end.

Thanks  Peter, the sides are firebrick, the metal is just a brace holding the firebrick in place.  As far as insulating the  riser, once the riser reaches a certain temp, won't it just stay there?  I would think that insulation would just allow it to reach temp sooner, correct?

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Jeff ;
Neat little rocket stove you built.   I see one major problem.  Your barrel is still painted!!!  When that heats up, it is going to give off vast amounts of noxious smoke, really nasty stuff!!! I know its in a shop but still...

If that barrel is not getting  hot enough to burn off the paint then your not reaching rocket temps.

Its still a neat stove and if its doing the job of heating your area then it will do. Considering its  mid winter any working stove is better than none.

Do you have any suggestions on removing the paint?  Sander, grinder, paint remover?  Top of barrel is 550 degrees so far,  don't know how much hotter it will get with that much surface area.

How well is your building insulated?  

Just finished my batch box rocket heater.  It is not a mass heater though, just designed to heat up garage.  Used a mama bear fisher stove, easier for our skill level and has the advantage of a well made box with a nice door.  Batch box is kinda short, only 15 inches deep and 12 inches wide and 12 inches tall. Port size is 2.5 inches wide and 9 inches tall.  Riser dimensions is 6 inches by 6 inches and is square and is 50 inches tall.  Used  six inch exhaust and it worked out just fine.  No secondary intake, not sure I'm going to add one. Didn't insulate riser either.  Fire brick for riser was standard, non insulated.  

I'm in my fifth or six year of beekeeping and have never treated.  A beehive in it's natural state has a debris floor to the best of my knowledge.  I don't think it's natural not to have one cause one of the ways bees control mites is to groom them off and where would they fall? A debris pile of course.  And what type of floors do most standard hives have? Solid bottom board, does this make sense? Doesn't to me and that's why I use freeman trays, I.E., screen bottom boards with oil tray.  This method and natural selection has worked for me, now I just need to raise queens from my best hives.

If you harvest early remember you need to shock it. I don't how you dry your wheat but if it molds it causes all kinds health problems consumed.  I harvested amaranth last year and dried it in my attic but ended up with less than a gallon when I was done.

I've had SB for at least ten years and I've not had a problem with them spreading.  I mow with a mower and that seems to a good job of keeping them in check.  

I'm in the same camp with the greenhouse folks.  I have between 4-7 birds over winter and they have there four by six portable coop on a wagon and a 8 by 16 a frame greenhouse.  I give them their water and feed in the greenhouse so they have no choice but to go in there.  I usually throw a couple of bales of straw, leaves and other stuff.  There sure are happy in there and scratch  like the dickens in there and have plenty of room.  I don't notice any ammonia build up in the winter. I can't image having birds without a greenhouse in the winter months.

HI Jocelyn,

My wife thought it would be best if we did a trip together and we are going someplace that week.  Would like to come in Sept if I can get the time off work, thanks jeff

I have the first week of august off and wanting to come out  as a gapper of course and was making sure that it would be ok before I get a plane ticket.  The 100 bucks seems more than reasonable.  I would like to make some kumbucha, beef jerky, fermented chicken feed and other stuff when I come out.  Would be camping, ie tent or hammock.  Wouldn't mind a phone call from an ant if possible.

Corn might be good for change in variety but it's protein content is a little lower.  Glad to here she is liking the fodder.

I haven't planted in large areas of sod but one way to really stun an area is too put chickens or rabbits in tractor in the spots and let it get eaten to bare soil.  I've had really good luck planting in hard soil with a lawn plugger. I put in mixed grass seed and clover in swale. The sat for a bit and the clay became really hard.  The lawn plugger did a great job of having a spot for the seed to drop into and get covered with a bit of soil with the next rain.  The seed came up nice and even, better than one could expect and some hard clay with a little bit of slope.

I just use the heated pet bowl also.  I put my up on a three legged stool so it stays much cleaner.  I have two structures.  One is my coop, 4 by 6 that has no feeder or water and a 8 by 16 greenhouse that I put their feed and water in.  With their water in the greenhouse it is out of the wind and keeps the coop drier.  Pet bowls use very little  juice but don't hold much either.  

This looks like a great tool for growing trees in the desert.  http://www.dewharvest.com/index.html  And you can reuse up to ten years, found this very fascinating.  I would definitely look at your landscape closely and try swales and gabions  and see what areas that you are going to give you the best bang for the amount of labor that you have available.

I've grown it but semi-no till, using mulch and only on a small scale.  You might want to try different varieties, blue hopi was not to fussy for me, nitrogen needs didn't seem to bad.  I might try it again this year and may put chickens in there for  weed control.  If you could grow a ground cover that would die before you plant that would be cool.  You're way down south, is there much corn grown in your area?  I would think rice would be a more natural choice and if could flood, weed control would be a snap.  Jeff

I have a rather large patch of sunchokes about (30 by 30) and didn't even know if they like em when they are just sprouting, didn't think they did and didn't hurt the patch at all.  Sunchokes are now an important part of my chicken operation.  They provide cover, I can throw weeds,  wood chips, scraps and such in there and with all that shade, they just take over.  And don't forget, chickens for me has kept out voles and mice in my patch, very important.  I keep about 5 to 7 birds.

What if we were to give them food with very high moisture content, like sprouts and put em in the greenhouse after 10 am or so, so they don't freeze so quick, just a thought.

Why are we so hung up on chickens? What about ducks and geese?  Geese are pure herbivores and can live nicely on pasture.  Ducks scratch less and forage pretty good too. Chickens should have a good supply of greens, clover and comfrey come to mind. if SHTF, you'll need more space and less birds, my 2 cents.

I put in a 30 by 30 stand of jerusalem artichokes for them to hide in. Mine are in moveable fenced in area by two hundred feet of premier  fencing. I had a goose and I had cooper hawks perch  nearby and wouldn't venture into the area. This year, I had no goose but the nice hiding spot with the jerusalem artichokes.  No loses so far this year.  You can move the moveable fence around with jerusalem artichokes being in the center of the hub.  I'm lucky, I haven't seen any red tail hawks to bother my girls.  

I've never tried it.  I would agree that you would need to have some girls to keep em warm.  Don't know why you couldn't put a moveable structure close to your house that you could run a cord too.  The first two weeks have been critical for me and I couldn't imagine trying to do it in an unheated building.  The first two weeks there are also very small and haven't  created much of a mess for me. i keep my box top relatively closed (in the first two weeks) so I don't much dust from that. Here is a brooder that I tried for the first time and mixed results with it but had problems not related to it.  
http://www.plamondon.com/wp/build-200-chick-brooder-two-hours-20/

I just read a couple of books, Tribe by Sebastian Junger, and 150 strong  by Rob O'Grady.  I am developing a different mindset.  How did the Native Americans live together without owning land?  I think we are hung up on land ownership. We are so intent on owning land and when we die what happens to it?  Does it revert to someone that doesn't even care about what was created there?  My dream would be not to own land but to be shared so when I pass on, the land and the spirit of the land would be used in a way that what we intended it for.  I think of covetousness of accumulation of wealth and stuff hinder us.  Does anybody else feel this way?  Jeff

Hi folks,

I don't have much interest from makes alcohol from sugar and other preprocessed stuff. I grew some jerusalem artichokes to try to make some alcohol and I have the book alcohol can be a gas but still have a hard time getting started on this project. Has anybody out done this on a small scale and was able to locate needed yeasts and other materials to make it from scratch on a small scale, like five or ten gallons? A nice step by step manual with materials and where to get them would be helpful. thanks for any assistance, jeff

Sounds what I am looking for but I live in the Michigan/Ohio border. Would love to hear your past experiences with your attempt at this cause I would like to try something similiar here in my area. I am understanding of problems with dealing with groups of people, I work with em, live with them and vanpool with em. Would't mind talking to you sometime this evening to share some thoughts, thanks spud

Thanks for posting Paul. Lots of good stuff. When you say crazy, I more than get it. In my own household of four, the other three don't get it. They don't care about high quality meats, food, veggies even though I've been demonstrating thru my own example for the last ten or twelve years. It seems like our western world only cares about the superficial and wasting their lives on media that just makes them dummer. I have just been kicked in the ass for the last time and I feel that the only way I will be happy is to do what I feel is fulfilling which is too leave the three adults in my household and pursue my passion of living a life that has purpose like you are creating there. I wish I lived closer cause I would definitely be more content being around people who value hard work and honest values. I am starting my pursuit here in Michigan to find like minded folks for land trust or feudal system. I have tons of varied skills and didn't realize how much till I visited Permaethos last year and realized how much I learned over the years. Wish me the best of luck in my search for a more satisfying life. Spud

I love reading books from times past and one that I really enjoy is called "Little Heathens". It is about life on a farm in Iowa during the great depression. It is rather cool cause it talks about how tasks where handled and it how different ages groups on the farm had different responsibilities. Rarely were chores done by one person and as one was more responsible, more responsible chores could be taken on. This farm had a stable consistent group living there, much different than transient population at wheaton laboratories. An enjoyable read, shows much resourcefulness.

Sorry, the bucket problem was from one of Paul's recent podcast in regards to a bucket of left overs that would never seem to make it to Tim's pigs. Jeff