F Rose

Mike Philips wrote:Heck, you could even have a water-wheel directly driving a ceiling fan if you wanted to, it’s up to you.

This sounds way simplier.  I don't use electricity for anything.

Mike Philips wrote:He said he could spray water 25 ft [up?]. That means he has about 25 ft of head (at that flow rate).

10 gal/min, 24 hrs/day is 14,400 gal/day.  
I’d be concerned about running the well dry.  

I looked at those Amazon turbines. The specs are highly inconsistent. Best I can tell, the little $10-$15 ones (in yellow&clear, or black) that claim 10 W may produce 2.5 Watts max. There’s a $30 one with a “35 watt” typo, later claims 3.5 watts.

Better to go solar I think. Lasts much longer, less maintenance.

I'm not at all concerned about the well running dry since this water isn't even coming from the well- it's from the overflow of the well and it never stops running even in the dryest of weather.  The line starts as 2" up on the hill and turns into 1.5" for most of the run.  When it gets to the elevation of the cabin, maybe 100' downhill over at least a quarter mile, I'm currently bleeding out most of the water and sending it to the winter pig pasture, and there is a split there that sends water to the cabin in a .75" pipe, I'm also bleeding out water again before it gets to the cabin for a sheep pasture, and then after the kitchen sink I can blast a garden hose 25' straight up if I take all of the remaining flow before it goes to the pigs summer pasture.  If I were serious about power generation, I'm sure there's enough pressure to invest in a system, but I'd be happy with just a little for cheap until my energy needs go up.  I think I used 5 gallons of gas in the generation last year and have not bothered hooking up a 200W solar system that I already have.

I want to power a ceiling fan- it could be mechanical instead of electric.

Eino Kenttä wrote:Yep, pigs. When wwoofing, I saw a patch that I was told used to be full of knotweed until the pigs went at it. When I saw it, the pigs had been moved to another field some time previously, so any remaining knotweed rhizomes would have had time to sprout. The only plant I spotted was right next to/below the fence. Okay, pigs might not be as effective everywhere, since this was in the north of Norway, so the knotweed is probably way outside its ecological optimum. Also, being on the coast, the place was quite wet. I guess in wet spots, the rhizomes might not be able to go as deep, so the pigs might have an easier time digging them out?

I think the hogs just like rooting in the wet areas more because there are more invertebrates to eat.  The hogs do munch on the rhizomes they dig out, but if I don't collect them before the snow, even if I'm sure they're dead, they just reroot.  I don't winter hogs in that pasture for several reasons not related to the knotweed.  Trying to keep them out on it as early and late as I can.  I expect we'll be pretty good in another five years and hopefully I'll be able to pasture them somewhere else for the summer and try put in some tree seedlings.  Not sure what do to about under the fence, (why it's such a big pasture,) or the area between the pasture and the road/driveway.  At least the knotweed is smart enough to grow away from the live wire, (funny how plants know too.)   We've been hand pulling, but these are huge areas too.  I''ll likely expand the fenced area, but I need to figure out how to keep them in next to the road without a permanent fence install.  You can tell where we've hand pulled for four years, vs not, because it grows at half the rate, but it's too hard work and we're not being successful like the hogs.  I would estimate that they've taken out about half the rhizomes in four years.  The breed and age of the hogs seems to make a difference too.  The younger pigs are hungrier and eat more of the plants in the summer, but the adult mangalitsas are the only ones who seem to be digging out rhizomes, (with those long snouts, they're really good at it!)  I currenly have six adult hogs out there on the knotweed and six younger pigs plowing out our next sheep pastures for grass/forage seeding.  Really wish we didn't have the knotweed to deal with, but at least I never have to worry about running out of pig food.

The knotweed exists in smaller patches in a few of the pastures we rotate the sheep through and they have kept it from strengthening or expanding and I consider it "managed" in those zones for now, but they don't do big damage like the hogs do and won't kill it, (and as I've mentioned are only able to eat it in polyculture.)

Dave Left wrote:Has anyone used pigs to get rid of Japanese knotweed yet?  I know they are really rough on the soil and compact the ground like crazy - taking all the air and tilth out of the soil.  But if they were to be used -  and were successful at getting rid of the knotweed - then couldn't a backhoe be brought in to loosen up the compacted earth and add some good organic matter and sand, etc. to help loosen it up?  I would love to hear how this goes.  We have a sizable patch of it at my work - easily a 100' x 100'.  The biggest issue is it's close to a lightly-travelled road, and our irrigation supply pump house.  We could fence it off on all sides, and install a shelter for the pigs if it turns out to be a good idea.  I am looking to others to hear if it has worked first, before we attempt to jump in with both feet.  Thanks!

We've been pasturing our mangalitsa pigs for four years in a two acre knotweed infestation.  They have been doing a great job weakening the knotweed and have even eradicated it in the wetter areas.  It's not their favorite forage, but they do eat it, especially when I help and knock it down.  In the fall, they start digging up the rhizomes which then reroot in the spring if I don't gather and burn them.  What was once a wasteland of only knotweed is starting to grow other plants now.  We're a long way from knotweed free, and the pigs can't patrol outside the fences.

We tried sheep and goats, but they got bloat from eating a monoculture of knotweed and died, so we're not allowing our flock in the knotweed pasture again, (they do eat down the smaller infestation in another pasture for us, but there is a balance of forage there vs the monoculture so their biome can handle it.)

Best of luck everyone!

Mike Haasl wrote:My little part of the world historically only gets too hot and muggy about 10 days a year.  Therefore our house doesn't have an air conditioner..  Unfortunately we're going to tally our 10th day of hot and crappy weather tomorrow with a 7 day forecast of more heat and humidity.  So I'm starting to consider our options.

Is there some magical new technology out there to achieve dehumidification without all the infrastructure/cost/energy use of an air conditioner?

I have central heat so adding a coil to the furnace would be very workable.  I do have a cold pond at my disposal that I might be able to tap into.  But I'm also curious about options that would work for people without a pond.

I'm in a temperate rainforest in the Green Mountains of Vermont.  In the summer it rains almost every day and the cloud breathes through our cabin with constant humidity.  We don't have electricity.  To combat the mold, we've taken to running the wood stove every few weeks in the summer to dry everything inside out well.  Of course, this makes it hot inside the cabin until the fire burns out, but it checks the box of what you're asking about.

So, I've been living off grid in Central Vermont for four years now.  I have a couple solar panels and an inverter and a couple car batteries, but never bothered hooking them up when we moved.   Insted, the focus has been making due without electricity, not generating it ourselves.  In the winter, I go to be early or use candles and oil lamps.  (Maybe our sheep tallow and bay berries will be helpful for this someday, but I'm currently buying lamp fuel.)  Used to buy ice in the summer, but don't bother any more.  Between pressure canning and one pot cooking, I've been able to minimize food waste without a fridge.  Cook with propane and woodstove.  We compost our human waste.  I have a 15 gallon steel kettle next to the indoor sink that I heat up dishwashing water with.  We get our water from a well way uphill of the cabin and have gravity fed water for our animals and I ran the piping right through the cabin to be able to use it at the indoor sink for both hot from the kettle and cold from the line.  So long as it flows, it doesn't freeze even when it got down to -30F.  Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has experience with microhydro on a 3/4" gravity line.  We have a bunch of pressure from the hill and could consider putting something in line before the final outlet for the pasture, (not sure what it would be rated, but I can shoot water 25' high from the garden hose if I want to.)  Not sure what I'd use the power for, but it would be nice to be able to grind/blend in the kitchen.  (Currently only use our generator for juicing fresh forage, and when the sheep sheerer came last week she used it.)  I charge my computer and devices with mikita batteries that I charge while driving around in the car and truck.  Don't have a cel phone or internet.  Why do people think they need so much power?
Anyway, I do want a ceiling fan in the winter and I know I can figure out how to get the wood stove to power it.  Anyone have a simple method for this?  I don't need to generate electricity, just turn a fan above the stove would be nice.

43, married but seperated, central Vermont land owner and farmer seeking woman to share time, life, and dreams with

I'm out here on 34 acres next to Camel's Hump in Vermont.  Been camping up here four years and finally own it.  Totally off grid in a cabin built from trees harvested on the land.  Compost toilet.  Gravity fed water.  Raising mangalitsa pigs and jacob sheep.  Expanding the food forest- currently growing some perennial fruit: apples, pears, plums, cherries, serviceberries, quinces, crab apples, hawthorns, oaks, beech, mountain ash, aronia berries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, currants, jostaberries, gooseberries, cranberries, highbush cranberries, roses, blackhaws, choke cherries, strawberries, thimbleberries, elderberries, grapes... expanding all the time with diversity.  We're in a rare northeastern mountain rainforest so it's a fight against the molds, but the plants get hardier every year with input.  Just doing my thing trying to save the world a few acres at a time, a labor of love.  Peace and Abundance is the mission.  We're working with a community loan organization to create (on grid) low income housing on the property hopefully breaking ground next year.  (Currently in permitting for one of the first true gray water systems in the state in support of the existing cabin.)

Looking for someone to share it all with and collaborate magic.  I love to dance, ski, dream...


Yes, this is me: