Mart Hale

L Garnaat wrote:Hello @Mart Hale, you mention an Amish made freezer, what is that?

My friend got back to me....

They bought the

sun star model st 15cf

https://www.sunstarappliance.com/product-page/sunstar-solar-ac-chest-freezer-15cu-st-15cf-ac

Specs..

L Garnaat wrote:Hello @Mart Hale, you mention an Amish made freezer, what is that?

There are two types I am aware of.  

One that uses electricity with a brand name my friend will get back to me later with...

The other one uses the old "ice house"  method with very thick insulation.

Here is a video of creating ice to fill the ice freezer.

https://rumble.com/vwm3dl-freezing-ice-blocks-for-the-ice-house.html?e9s=src_v1_cbl%2Csrc_v1_upp_v

I am running a full sized fridge off solar.        But I have over 30 kWH of battery storage, and about 5,000 watts of solar which has me off the electrical grid, but not the propane grid.

The first limit you have is how much space do you have for a fridge....     This helps to limit down what you can have..


If you have lots of space,  then the Amish made freezers are good options.

Other options include converting a freezer into  a fridge....     Extra complication, but if you don't need the freezer function may be useful depending on the needs.



There are many options to choose from, so starting with how much you are willing to spend, and what your space is is a good place to limit down the choices.

I have an app installed that is open source...

It only works on wifi, but I hit the button and the phone makes noise.

KDE connect..

Took a bit to set it up, but it has several other features I like.

This is my starter soil for plants,  I first screen it to take out the larger pieces which have not broken down yet..

This is what I use to sift the wood chips.

I have often wondered is there a way I could just destroy my credit so I would have zero rating?

I guess I could fake my death, but that brings up other problems LOL.

The credit agencies are so easy to hack, it makes me sick we have no real protection.

I thought I would give this a little test, I dug out a hole underneath the bottom sloped side of my billboard tarp... A light rain, and it filled the tub with water....
I have two ideas...

One use this tub with wicking rope to water plants around the tub, thus self watering plant system..

Two, replace the tub with a 55 gal barrel. in the barrel put a sump pump with float valve that kicks on with a float value when it fills with water, then have it pump the water to an IBC tank, or... another 55 gal barrel that feeds more wicking ropes.....

What I like about this system is it can capture a huge amount of water as it has a vast square footage. I placed bamboo poles on either edge to raise the billboard tarp so it funnels the water where I want it to be.

Ac Baker wrote:I wasn't familiar with "air pruning".  Reading up, I gather that chinampas are built based on oral knowledge passed down by chinampero farmers. One of these Aztec agricultural techniques is starting seedlings in soil blocks, which does what we now call "air pruning" to avoid seedlings becoming pot-bound.

I'm wondering if jute twine could provide sufficient wicking of water in such a system of soil blocking?

Yeah has taken years for me to wrap my brain around air prunning, and a bit longer for me to test if what I thought was happening really happening.  

The best thing to do is to test different wicking materials  cotton will work, but it will rot out about every 3 months and has to be replaced.

I have tried soil blocking, but it takes expensive soil mix to make it work for me,   this method works with my soil mix and saves me $$$.

I love experimenting....

Tummeric with pretty flowers

So...   I have taken some sweet potato slips i start rooting in my 5 gal bucket air bubbler, then  I put them in the wicking rope setup with air prunning pots.      I am very pleased to see to root pruning is in full effect.     Roots trying to get out in every direction...       Next step is I take them out of this and drop them in my grow bags....