Terry Frankes

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since Nov 22, 2018
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Recent posts by Terry Frankes

What is the pH?  If you've got fern coming, you've likely got room to add some lime.  With the right lime, you can nudge that sand in the right direction.  Soil tests for N, P, and K are of no use to homesteaders.  They will always test low in poorly managed soils.  Once you transition to a living soil system, you'll have all the NPK you need and with none of the toxicity.  
1 week ago
A $7,000 excavator is no deal.  If that thing starts breaking down, and it will, it's going to get exponentially more expensive to fix.  Shop rates can be $200+/hr and you have to have the equipment to haul it there, or pay $300 every ten miles for the field truck to come visit you.  

Pumps wear out, engines wear out, hoses get brittle and blow, seals wear out, pins and bushings wear out, etc.  

Revamping a homestead is a campaign, but that doesn't mean you can't rent your way to it and come out way ahead of owning old equipment.  Check for rentals and use some savvy vacation time to rent one for a week at a time.  Write down what you really want to do, and then assign times to each chore.  40 rental hours on a properly sized and newer machine will run circles around a small old machine on weekends.  You'll probably get a year's worth of projects done in 40 hours.  

Backhoe loaders are good when you need a tractor that can periodically dig and also lift light loads, can also get around faster than an excavator.    

An excavator is for when all you need to do it dig and move heavy things.  Machines have the ability to destroy themselves, and tractors with loaders are champions at that.  They will lift more than the front ends, arms, tires, and hydraulics are meant to, and they'll be junk far faster than they otherwise should.  And that amplifies the real cost of that machine.  
1 week ago
Compost will not fix this.  It will help, but that will not last.  You need to change the physics of the soil.  

Heavy clay is an oxygen problem.  You need to mix coarse sand into that soil.  Given the size of that plot, I'd rent a trencher for the afternoon and trench deeply across that garden as tightly as you can while still keeping the trenches open.  Backfill the trenches with a blend of wood chips, compost, gypsum, and sand.  Do that across the whole garden one way, like all east to west lines.  Backfill them all, and level it off, and then do it again the other direction north to south.  The trencher will rip up and through what you just put down, but also rip into all the spots you missed between the rows.  

If you can pick the trencher, get one that goes narrow and deep.  If you're gonna have this garden for many years, I'd do this and get it fixed right, and right away.  Skip the rehab years and just get it done.  
2 weeks ago
Has anyone thought about building a RMH for doing maple syrup?  I had thought about some day getting into it at my place, but I've got no inclinations to make mountains of firewood to cook down my sap.  However, if i could adapt an RMH to host a basin at the top of the barrel, I'd have to imagine this would seriously cut down the amount of wood needed to produce a unit of syrup.  
4 weeks ago
Depends what you're trying to do.  A system will be forever more productive with a little bit of everything.  That was the whole point behind diverse homesteads long ago.  Every animal had a job.  Back when famine was a drought away and there were no chemicals, fuels, and fertilizers, people didn't have companion animals for fun, they all had to work.  

Cow - kept the grass down, provided milk, meat, and fertilizer
Pig - converted waste to meat, could graze on darn near anything, provided fertilizer
Chicken - eggs, meat, kept flies and other small pests in check, provided fertilizer
Goat - cleared the land, kept the brush down
Dog - protected the farm from larger predators
Cat - protected the farm from smaller pests
Horse - horsepower and conveyance
4 weeks ago
Be careful with hairy vetch though.  Once you plant it, you'll have it forever.  If you're not down for that, leave that one out.  
1 month ago

Mitchell Brouhard wrote:Hello everyone. I am looking to plant a garden for deer. I want to know what plants can handle deer browsing. Even if a plant needs some protection until it's established or tall enough to out compete the deer. All types of plants from annuals to perennials to trees and shrubs. I'd like to do at leat 50 percent natives. I live in the rouge valley of southern oregon.


You can double up and get a lot of bee benefits if you design it right, and it can be perennial and almost zero maintenance.  I've been searching for the very same blend for over 20 years.  Here's what I'd put in, and mix this all together.  

Yellow sweet clover
Balansa clover
Alfalfa
Red clover
Winter triticale
Chicory
Hairy vetch

Plant that 8 weeks before first frost, then the exact same time next year, broadcast the same blend in there, minus the alfalfa, hairy vetch, and chicory, and then just press it flat with whatever tool you have.  All those flowers will peter out at the same time, they are ready to flatten easily, and your next crop will pop right up through it again.  That will feed deer every month of the growing season.  It is also quite stunning in full bloom.  Here's a photo of my blend from last summer.  

1 month ago

Glenn Littman wrote:Christopher, my shop is 2,000 sq ft with 15' high ceiling with modest insulation. You're planning 6,000 sq ft. but you haven't given a ceiling height to determine the cu ft. Have you looked at Peter's website and the Building page with detailed specs for sizes up to a 10" system?. That same page provides some calculations for a given volume and temperature differential performance to provide guidance and help you to determine if a single system will be sufficient or if perhaps 2 will be needed. https://batchrocket.eu/en/building

If you happen to know a plumber that installs hydronic heating systems they should also be able to run a BTU requirement calculation for you. I would think that one 10" system my be sufficient based on the numbers published by Peter. You can see that a 10" system has more than 4 times the thermal energy output versus a 6" system like I am running. With that said, it would be good to have someone with the knowledge to run the BTU calcTulations confirm this for you.



It'll probably have 15' ceilings.  I'd like to use the vertical space too.  
1 month ago

Benjamin Dinkel wrote:Hi Christopher,
maybe check out this triple barrel batch box:
https://permies.com/t/193821/inch-batch-box-rocket-mass


That is an awesome share!  I appreciate it!
1 month ago

Glenn Littman wrote:Christopher, where are you located? How cold does it get in the winter? How well is the building insulated?

Hopefully, the science guys on the forum can chime in with their BTU calculations and thermal science but they'll need to know the ceiling height and insulation details.



I'm in the northern third of MN.  It can go into single digits and below zero for 2-3 months up there in a bad winter.  It can go to -30 or more in the worst of times.  I'd say the average performance temp I'd want to be able to best is -15 and above that.  This building doesn't exist yet, I'm just wondering if such a thing could be designed.  I'd have it well insulated if it meant I didn't have to ever pay to keep it heated.  
1 month ago