Aaron Hartwig

Thank you guys for the input.

The idea of making fish emulsion first was to have it alredy more broken down and therefore less smelly and easier to mix with the sawdust.
No Bears here just dogs that need to be fenced off.... And flies ( i once dumped 25Litres of fish guts into an underground wood compost and had an invasion of flies bevore I could quickly cover everything up with sand.  Incredible! I didn't know where they all came from in just a minute.

I found an interesting article on this topic

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/dont_throw_away_that_fish_waste

Now I switched my thinking from "making sawdust compost with the help of fish" to "composting fish guts with the help of sawdust" (same same but different)
Creating less, but more fertile compost in an enclosed system like a turning barrel or two well closed compost boxes ( so I can shovel it from A to B)
Always covering the Pile with a layer of smell blocking material like ready compost, earth, sawdust or biochar (got a lot of it).

I will purchase the humanure book for shure as we will have to build compost toilets for our new home in the near future.

Thanks once more.

Dear Permies.

I have free access to sawdust ( pine or eucalyptus) and fresh fish guts from the fishermen.
I know that swadust can take an eternity to break down if it is just sitting around.
I still have a bag of urea at home but I would prefer to make fish emulsion (including effective microorganisms) and mix it with the sawdust to turn into nice, fine and nutritious compost.

Maybe it makes sense to add some aglime too?

Which amounts do I need to get the carbon nitrogen ratio right?

What amount of nitrogen would a fish emulsion probably have?

What would be the best way to to calculate for the right amounts of fish emulsion and sawdust? volume or weight?  (i am pretty bad with mathematics but willing to improve)

I would simply compost in a pile that I may have to turn sometimes.

What would you recomment?

I will post updates about the process, once started ( we a buildig an extension of our house right now, so it might take some time)

Looking forward to hear from you guys.

Hey Chris.

Nice and interesting post.
I would have loved to to read more responses and view points on the Ellen G White method and on your thoughts about it.
Yes, this method provides for sure some extra work.

I might have just tried it out one day and if the trees would grow exceptionally well, believe that it must be the method (especially the breather pipe:) and not maybe just good soil an a year with beneficial weather.

on our property we have a 1,50m. layer of sand on top of the deep soil, so when planting a tree, I mostly dig a big hole and ad wheelbarrows full of earth anyway.
I will try out this method in thew coming Southern hemisphere summer.

I am wondering how much sense this method and its effort make, when being surrounded by sand ( because all the goodness might leach out very fast)


Greetings, Aaron

Hey Guys, thank you very much for your replies!

That is already quite some input for me and I am looking to spend time with checking out the single points, hints, suggestions etc.
(my 3rd child is about to born these days, so it might take some time for me to reply)

greetings and best wishes, Aaron

Dear Permies, people, fellow human beings, creatures of the day who need shelters during cold seasons.

We moved to a new old house built in the sixties (not isolated, old windows), where we will live for 2-4 years.
To reduce heating costs, for general cosiness and to start gathering experience, I am considering to build a secret RMH. Secret because we are currently living in a most expensive area of Switzerland where everything is complicate and.... of course expensive.
So I would find somebody who would secretly drill a hole into our house wall for the exhaust and do the rest on my own.(houses will be demolished in 4 years anyway)
I have to add that I am extremely busy with work, kids, household etc. and that I have got to use my energies, resources wisely in order to keep our family shipping going into the desired direction.

So before I buy any manual, I would like to ask you RMH experienced people for recommendations (please).

Our House: two stories basement. old oil heating system built in the sixties, bad windows.
For our winters I won't expect more then minus 10 degrees celsius (14F)

I am wondering if I can camouflage the RMS as a piece of innocent furniture and the outside part of the exhaust as a bird house ( vaping birds, you know?).

The removing of the RMS should not be too complicate as even getting rid of stuff is very costly here.

And The RMS should of course work well, be save and reduce our heating costs.

On the photo you can see our main living room where I would like to build the RMH.
I was considering as well to just exchange one of the small upper windows (left or right of the terrace door) with a board or metal peace (with a hole) for the exhaust. (so no secret core drilling).
(see foto)

I Prefer to recycle and buy used things to build my RMS, if it doesn't complicate the constructing too much.
I For the mass something that is easy to remove and dumb once we move would be great. (was also thinking of deep soil with I could dump back into the garden I took it from).
Easy to move pebbles would be great too.

What do you think?

Wat type of RMH (from which manual) would you recommend?
Thakyou very much in advance for any advice.

Greetings from Switzerland
Aaron

maybe an "atriplex" variety?

you could google atriplex combined with the name your region..

Thank You Sharon for those very interesting informations. I am definitely interested in the medicinal use of jujube as well. Healthy medicine for curing Insomnia or add like conditions are a good thing to have access to.

The jujubes that grew from the seeds (on the pictures) didn't grow particular much in the first year but therefore survived inside pots somewhere in my Garden without taking care for a whole year!

The jujube tree I had bought in a Vivero and planted into my garden also didn't grow particular much. (The people in the Vivero didn't know what kind of jujube variety they where selling... the leaves look different then those from Dan's trees

I won't give up on my Jujube plans that fast...  

This Winter I will be in my beloved Garden in Uruguay (there will be summer then ;) and see if they grew more. I built a little tree nursery so my young trees are more protected.

at first I thought it might be bitter cress "Cardamine amara"  wich grows in our forest (Switzerland) here.
now after comparing pictures I guess it is something different.
how does it taste/ smell?

first one looks like "Aegopodium podagraria" to me. ( we call it Giersch here).
it can be indeed invasive. Its rhizomes break easily and each piece grows a new plant...

good thing, its edible ( taste between carrot and parsley somehow, and rich in vitamins and minerals.
the youngest leaves that are still curled are the most tender and tasty ones.

as well, slugs tend to like it ( they know what's good), so it can keep them at bay.

take care

Just bought this Ziziphus plant In a local vivero. Can anyone identify it by the pictures?
Greetings from Uruguay!