Scott Perkins

Christopher Weeks wrote:Some premium blenders have both wet- and dry-bladed cannisters. The wet ones have sharp blades -- similar to (but less so) the food processor. The dry blades have flat edges that pulverize instead of slice. If you use the dry blades on grain, it busts them up. The produce is less good than using a stone or burr grinder, but maybe it's acceptable. If you use the wet blades, you get similar results to a first approximation, but the blades are quickly worn to garbage. Same with the food processor blades. Unless you have a steady supply of free or very cheap food processors, I bet you're not saving money.

OTOH, if you were using a grinder, everything you said would be a great tip. Additionally, hand-crank grinders are quite normal while hand-crank food processors are pretty niche -- this is a concern if you're planning for the lights to go out.

I have only  ever used cheap blenders  and all of them had removable bottoms where you unscrew the bottom and take the rotating blades out etc.
on these blades, when you take them out you can sharpen them with a whetstone or fine steel file.   I always make sure the blades are razor sharp.
Also I must add it is vitally important that only about a third of the blender jar be filled up so that the grains will swirl and fly around.  If you fill the blender jar too full the grains will not uniformly mix as the grains on top will not be sucked to the bottom of the jar when blending.   You have to monitor closely when grinding so that you do not over-grind if you like moderately coarse cornbread instead of the "corn-cake" like corn muffins.

I have 18 or 20 domestic ducks on a pond and have tried all kinds of feed for them.
I thought for a while that purchasing chicken scratch at the feed store would be highly nutritious based on all the different grains
and with different brands of chicken scratch I could get different grains.  Many sounded kind of exotic since we dont normally see them
in grocery stores.    The problem with making cornbread was that all the grains are " cracked instead of ground with the pieces way too big to
make  a batter with.   I tried both a blender and an actual grain grinder.  I dont like corn muffins made with powdery cornmeal  and prefer
a more coarse cornbread so the food processor worked great.   I just followed the normal cornbread recipe and it turned out great and you
could barely detect that it was not regular cornbread.  If things go  dark because of nuclear war  or I am really really cash challenged,  I want to
have a 50 pound bag of scratch as I think that is the biggest financial stretch I could make if I couldnt afford regular food.

Also,  I tried a bag of horse feed oats and what I got was a bag of oat berries which is the oat grain before the hull is removed.
Well the ducks would have nothing to do with these oat berries...    So I put some in the blender and ground until a coarse powder
and then boiled like regular oats until  a texture was reached like regular oatmeal  and it was not bad.  Now here is the bonus.  
Apparently the oat hulls are pure fiber  and can do wonders  for your... uh.... bathroom routine.   Funny thing I gave some to my mom
and she became addicted  after a few days and she was telling all her friends and she wanted more to give to them.   At that point I
referred to the  "wonder food" as Race-Horse-Oats  or my mom would kill me if she knew I was feeding her horse food.  

Anyways there is no way to get nearly as much nutrition at a grocery store for the price  so remember if you ever face a survival situation
that you can plan for.   Go to the FEED STORE instead  

PS, the  chicken scratch cornbread   cooked  in iron skiillet  in the oven was seriously good !

I posted before about my old beans..........   This is kind of an update and review..........

So I have two 5 gal home depot paint buckets with snap on lids that I filled up with mostly red and pinto beans with another bucket with rice as my doomsday food storage at the
turn of the century ( 1999  ) and put them in the basement that hovers between 60 F and 70 F year round.   These beans will not soften no matter how much I cook them....   ( I tried 5 or 6 hours.... and again the next day etc.   I determined the beans were cooked but just not soft.    MY SOLUTION
is to cook no more than double the standard cook time and then drain all liquid and  pulverize in a food processer which basically turns out
re-fried beans mush ( like mashed potatoes etc )that is great with chunks of meat, cornbread or tortillias or crackers etc.    I feel like all the nutrition is there, there are no spoiling or bug issues etc.  ( Early on, I did find that I needed to place all the 2 and 5 pound bags of beans in the freezer at 15 degrees F   for 24-36 hours  to kill any bugs or eggs that might have been in the bags.)   I really have no idea what the minimum time is but I tried always to get at least a day or two...sometimes a week or two etc.

Nancy Reading wrote:Looks like they're using some sort of spacer on the back wall of the chimney. If you did the same thing at the front, you'd only need 9 blocks.

Nancy -  I just got an idea that if we did not have a space on the front and back that the front and back bricks might have 3/4 inch space built in
to allow the flame to shoot out along the sides of the cooking pot if it is big enough to straddle the highest prominent (left and right) blocks.

When I  first saw these pictures on the internet,  I  realized I had a few dozen left over concrete cap blocks  leftover from building a
retaining wall at one of my  rental properties.   I will have to retrieve them whenever I visit the rental property again.   In the meantime
I had a concrete CAP BLOCK at home and I took the measurements.    
Thickness   3/5/8 "
Width          7 1/2"
Length         15 5/8"

I will try to build one and when  I do I will try to take pictures.   When I look at the numbers I realize that the creators of the Concrete Blocks
were trying to approach a perfect 4 x 8 x 16  inch  component inclusive of the mortar placement that would be used in   construction of concrete
block walls......  remembering that what we are working with are the CAP blocks only.

Scott in Atlanta

Nancy Reading wrote:Looks like they're using some sort of spacer on the back wall of the chimney. If you did the same thing at the front, you'd only need 9 blocks.

You're right !    Good eye.   I am disappointed that I did not see that.       And further to carry that through with reducing by one overall  brick !
Genius perception.  I want you on MY team.        I was thinking that I would want to extend the height of the chimney by the width of a brick to increase the upward suck or heat draw .... ( more rocket effect )  and that might involve cutting or breaking a brick or two to make it all fit.

Regards concrete block.   I have learned that the culprit is that concrete absorbs moisture  and when heated will break apart from the steam generated internally.    What helps immensely is to always cover the concrete blocks and never let them get rained on.   They may not last indefinitely  but they will get you through  a couple of good fires.

Notably at that chart I am drawn to the structure  named H5 called the "VERTICAL CAVEMAN"      It does not show the precise detail of construction but there are several ways of building this structure if you simply tilted two  4x8  sheets  ( or four sheets )  together and fabricated the front and back openings.    Basically with the required skeleton framing, what you would get is an old fashioned   "A" frame.

Christopher Weeks wrote:You might be interested in the patterns here: https://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_project/Master_List_of_Designs

This is an incredible chart listing the type structures that can be built and how big, how much waste, and how many sheets of plywood is required.  I can say that I would pick several of the  structures  instead of the dome using complete sheets of plywood with little or no waste and much less labor in the cutting of the plywood.    

DONT OVERLOOK this chart !        After seeing these options I dont know how I could justify the effort to prepare the materials  and build the  dome.  

I will be looking for two approximately eight inches long pieces of steel rebar or small steel pipe to set over the fire to hold the cooking pans so that the flames can blow by the bottom of the cook pan.   If the pan is large enough  a few rocks placed on the bricks and under the pan should work.

I plan to reproduce this stove with much larger concrete CAP BLOCKS.   I wonder if the length, width, thickness ratios of the concrete blocks
are the same  ?