Jeff Marchand

Bob Hutton wrote:I have no ground cultivated at this point, there are large pasture areas of tall grass type vegetation by the beaver pond.  So I would be basically digging a hole to plant something at this point, are we on the same page with your recommendations? This is where I would start with veggies but can't devote a lot of time to it with so many other things to do.  A lot of the area I need to clear is pulling 3'' +/- aspen stumps. I dropped this acreage (hundreds of stumps) in the fall for clear winter solar panel sunlight. Two birds with one stone I was thinking.   I am sure this work was good for a badge or two Lol.

If I were you I would accept that you wont have a typical garden with nice straight rows for a few years until the aspen stumps rot away.  Luckily aspen rots quickly.  I would plant potatoes beside each stump and cover with 6 inches of soil. If you dont have  enough soil you may have to buy in some topsoil or composted manure.  Rent a woodchipper and chip up the tops of those trees and mulch over the 'taters to keep down weeds and hold water.  Do the same in a different area but put in Jerusalem Artichokes .  They will be there forever.

If fertile soil is scarce in your location, research Joe Jenkins and Humanure.  Be your own source of fertility!.

I dont see why you could nt also make a few bigger piles of top soil/ composted manure and plant in squashes in an area that you cleared.  The squash vines will happily grow through the stumps.

I dont have experience with beavers. I would expect some predation of your crops or at least crop damage.   Put up a fence?

Cheers and Good Luck

Hi Bob, I second Les' recomendations.  I'd add to start small.  Potatoes are great colonizers, they will shade out plants that are already there once they are up.  In the mean time you need to keep em weeded. In the fall plant garlic where your potatoes were. Mulch the garlic  heavily to suppress weeds. Keep following your potatoes with garlic and slowly grow the size of your garden.  Rome was nt built in a day and your homestead wont be either.  If you can find a large heavy  tarp, lay that down flat on a future garden area and in a year it will be easy digging.

Anyways welcome to permies and enjoy the permaculture journey!  

Would nt your chickens eat the flies?

I think we are letting perfection be the enemy of the good here. I cure my firewood from April to November cut split and stacked in a 3 sided woodshed open to the south. It lights easily and burns cleanly. No nasty creosote in chimney.  That is good enough for me.  

Yes kiln dried will be drier with a moisture content of maybe 10%ish vs air dried of 15%ish but how would our lives be better?  

Thank you for your replies . I think the consensus is that that this is a bad idea and that I should build with wood instead. That is what I will do.

Once again Permies to the rescue!

I plan on raising chickens on pasture in the spring , summer and fall in a old pig trailer that can be moved around the farm.  I need a winter coop though.  
I have coveted those coverall structures that use old shipping containers as anchors for the storage  and cover they provide.  Do you think converting the south facing container into a chicken coop would make a good winter home?  I would add a door and some windows on the south side for access and light as well as some holes for ventilation on the roof line.  I would also paint the south side black to maximize solar temp gain.

I stress this a winter only coop.  I would think  it would get way to hot in summer.  Are there any pitfalls that I am just not seeing?

Thank you.

I heat with wood and raise beef. Beef soup made from my farm's cattle is a winter staple.  When I have the fire going I like to always have a pot of soup on .  The bones go into fire after I've had my soup and the dog has had his chance to knaw on them. Wood ash + the home made bone meal return fertility to my garden and orchard.    

Nothing organic should ever go to waste on a farm!

Glen, I think its extremely unwise to have a heat source in your home that insurance has not signed off on regardless of whether your home is new or an existing build.  Imagine John and Jane Doe install an RMH without telling their insurer and  have an electrical fire that destroys their house.  We both know the RMH had NOTHING to do with the electrical fire, but the insurance adjustor will come to once the fire is out and see they had a non approved heat source.  Insurers are just looking for a reason to invalidate a claim so they dont have to pay and the Does have given them one. They have lost their home and their means of rebuilding it despite having made their insurance premiums. Now imagine they  still have a mortgage they are stuck making mortgage payments  for the next 20 or so years for a house that does nt exist.  They are likely facing bankruptcy.  

I ask you is the risk worth the reward?

My reasons for not going with a RMH are as follows:

1-The last time I looked for home insurance , very few insurers would touch me if I heated with wood. I am talking about a commercial UL rated wood stove. Something I cobbled together with mud, rocks and an old barrel fawgetaboutit.

2-My woodburning furnace (a Sedore 2000)  is in the basement, I could put an RMH there but I dont want to baby sit it. My current heater needs no tending for up to 14 hours.

3-Home resale value.  Very few people are familiar with RMHs built with mud rocks and an old barrel and would see one as a plus. Most would turn around and walk out upon seeing it. Never mind home inspectors! This diminishes the number of potential buyers for my home and therefore selling price.

4- Yes I am convinced that RMHs are more fuel efficient but just by doing land improvements I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to firewood.  I have a full wood shed, with a full overflow and even a overflow to my overflow! So economizing on wood is a low priority for me at the moment.

I am in the planning phases of an addition to my current home, to make it more senior friendly for future me. It will have a professionally build masonry heater for when I am getting too old to cut so much wood and ground sourced heat pump based radiant floor heating for when carrying in purchased fire wood is too much.  

I might build a greenhouse in the future to start my veggies in the winter. I would put an rmh in there.

I have processed many American white elms into many cords of firewood. Burns hot and long.  Despite what this slanderous poem says.

https://apexchimneysweeps.co.uk/firewood-poem-lady-celia-congreve/

Makes me wonder if English Elm is really that different from what we have on this side of the pond.