Hal Schibel

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide:
  - a before picture of the mostly empty sand barrel
  - an action shot of the sand barrel being filled during what's obviously summer
  - an after picture of the filled sand barrel
  - a description of how the sand barrel is going to be used

The empty barrel. I put it in the mud room to keep it dry. I've tried keeping burnables in this thing outside with the lid on and it all still ended up wet so this is staying inside.


I went around the field with the wheelbarrow looking for vole hills. The voles kick up a lot of super sandy stuff that is now readily accessible. Thanks, voles.



Almost full. This is about two wheelbarrows' worth of sandy stuff.


Me filling the barrel.


Ta-da. Pretty full. And dusty.


I plan on trying out the method of sanding icy pathways this winter. We usually just break up the ice with a sledgehammer and maybe use a little bit of salt, but this might be easier if it works well. If it doesn't work well, I'll use it to fill in part of the driveway that floods in the spring.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. And your heaters look awesome!

I swear the hardest part of doing any DIY construction is figuring out what materials you need and where to get them.

This was fun! And I only sliced open my fingers four times!

Minimum requirements:
  - useful size and shape
  - smooth
  - something you might actually use
  - made with hand tools only

To get certified for this BB, post three pics.  

 - Your chunk of wood that you are starting with  
 - Progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
 - Final product

This is a spoon that I made from an aspen. I struggled to find a branch large enough for a spoon that I was willing to part with. This branch I cut down is kind of close to a power line.



I measured it against a storebought spoon.



I started out by splitting it on the kindling cracker.





I made smaller slits with a tiny axe multitool and a mallet. I finally have a use for this thing! I just bought it because it was a silly little axe and I was really into multitools. It even has a tiny saw for the knots.





Partway through. I also got a woodcarving-specific multitool with a spoon knife in it. I also learned when it arrived that you should never pull out all the blades at the same time.



When I first started, I was trying to carve it on my crafting table and it was really putting a strain on my upper back. I then moved outside and bent over so that I could hold the spoon in my right hand with my right elbow resting on my knee and only my left arm with the blade was moving. This was a million times more ergonomic and saved my back. Sorry this picture is sideways. But this is the spoon most of the way through.



Sanding.



It's about the same length as the storebought spoon, although the bowl is smaller.



Closeup.



Here is the spoon next to the first spoon I tried carving for the BB that turned out too small.



After oiling with walnut oil five or six times. It kept absorbing it almost immediately. All done!

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Pablo;
Those bricks are called new clay bricks at Home Depot.
They cost.58 cents apiece. I used apx 400+ in this build.

Hi Thomas,

Could you please provide a link to the item on the Home Depot website? I have been scouring the internet all day for "clay brick" and I cannot find anything remotely similar. What I am finding is no less than $3 a brick and either seem to be concrete or extra thin so I am getting pretty confused and would appreciate some guidance.

Would something like this work? Since I'm seeing a lot of posts around permies about dirt cheap bricks, I'm hoping I won't have to spend this much if I don't have to.

Thank you very much.

Edit: An hour after posting this, I finally figured out that I can find similar bricks if I look at Home Depots in other states. I will have to do more research to figure out which one is the closest to me and has the best price.

Thank you so much for the detailed response!!!  Great job on guessing the dimensions BTW, it is in fact 6'x8'.

We haven't actually made ourselves aware of the batch box concept until you brought it up.  Looking around on permies that style definitely sounds like it will better fit our use case!

I want to make sure I understand some of the nuances of your proposed design.  My husband made a doodle of what we think you are suggesting, and would like to know if we are off our rocker on this.

everything drawn over the box is intended to be inside of the box.

Also, would it be possible to make this exhaust chamber out of cinder block? Or should it really be done with brick? Asking because we know a source of an over abundance of cinder block.

red --> brick
grey --> the burn chamber
black --> Bell and exhaust
maroon --> dirt

Hello, everyone!

We had an idea for using an existing platform in the barn as a mass for a RMH. I would appreciate any and all thoughts on this idea (i.e. would this thing work well as a bench or is it too big, would it be stupid expensive to get enough stovepipe in here, do we need gravel or can we just fill it with dirt, etc.).

The barn is probably a hundred years old and clearly had chickens at one point in time. Currently we're trying to clear out all the trash and put in some supports to keep the roof from collapsing. After we get the roof a little more supported we want to put a RMH in there to keep the chickens and their water from freezing. There is an existing platform in the corner that had some roosts on it. I think the idea was that you lift up the roosts and sweep up all the poop from the platform without having to bend down and shovel it off the ground. I think it's just dirt inside but it could be trash knowing all the other things we've found in this barn.







Thanks!

I named my manual baler CRUSH-EE.

Here is my post about the piece of equipment: https://permies.com/t/287661/tech/Building-Manual-Baler

Here is a picture of the baler before branding:


Here is a picture of the baler after branding:

Update: I named the bailer CRUSH-EE because it crushes things. I made a wood-burned sign to go on it.



Here is the sign-making process:

To document completion of the BB, provide proof of the following as pictures or a video (< 2 minutes):
 - Harvested plant material (either being harvested or just harvested)
 - Plant material in oil with a description of the oil and other ingredients you used in the oil or added to salve
 - Making the salve
 - Finished salve in a labeled container

Harvesting the yarrow


Drying the yarrow


Making the yarrow-infused oil (post here)



I used the yarrow oil and a smidge of nettle oil. One cup total.



I melted two tablespoons of beeswax in one cup of oil.



When I added the room-temperature oil to the melted beeswax it did this. Something about this was fun. I probably could have heated the whole thing up at the same time.


All melted.


The only containers I had available were jars.


This seems like a pretty good consistency. It's like lotion.

Minimum requirements for this BB:
- Soup - make 4 types of soup
 - ½ gallon minimum of each
     - Soup (Rocket Stove/Haybox Soup)
     - Stew (Slow Cooker Stew)
     - Chowder (Stovetop Chowder)
     - Chili (Death Ray/Haybox Chili)
 - Minimum of 4 raw ingredients per soup
 - At least 1 is cooked on a rocket stove or Dakota stove (soup)
 - At least 2 are finished in a haybox cooker (soup and chili)
    - You can combine the rocket stove and haybox cooker activities

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 mins):
  - preparing the soups with at least 4 ingredients per soup
  - cooking the soups
  - finished soups that are at least 1/2 gallon each

Soup (Rocket Stove/Haybox Soup)
Ingredients: Leek, carrot, cabbage, celery, sunchoke, ground beef, summer sausage, chicken broth, tomato, olive oil, salt/pepper
Garnish/toppings: parmesan cheese



Stew (Slow Cooker Stew)
Ingredients: Leek, sunchoke, red onion, mushroom, zucchini, garlic, stew meat (beef), great northern beans, summer sausage, artichoke hearts, broth, tomato, green beans, Italian seasoning mix, salt/pepper, elbow macaroni noodles
Garnish/toppings: parmesan cheese


Chowder (Stovetop Chowder)
Ingredients: russet potato, broth, milk, ground beef, broccoli, olive oil, cheddar cheese, nutritional yeast, salt/pepper
Garnish/toppings: bacon, gorgonzola, green onion, kefir sour cream



Chili (Death Ray/Haybox Chili)
Ingredients: red onion, garlic, tomato, tomato paste, an assortment of beans, broth, apple cider vinegar, balsalmic vinegar, salt/pepper, olive oil, ground beef
Chili-free chili spice mix (recipe credit to Jenkin): 1.5 Tbs cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp nutmet, 1 tsp oregano, and some turmeric
Garnish/topping: add frozen leftover rice to cool it down and pad it out for more servings