Thom Bri

I put them in the garage without any cleaning. What starts rot are imperfections on the rind, bug or animal bites or what have you. Eat those first. My squash will generally last until spring, so roughly six months. Some do go bad over that period.

Last night I made pop corn. The bag says 'Use before 2017'. So it's at least ten years old. It smells normal, and pops pretty well. Not quite as well as fresh pop corn, but good enough.
It tastes fresh.
It is stored in the original plastic bag, inside a plastic container, on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard. No special temp control or anything unusual.

If you visit a local gardening store you will find a variety of potted herbs ready to take home. Simply choose one you like.
As for light, south-facing windows are best. If there isn't enough light, a simple grow lamp (also at the garden store) will suffice for one plant.

Burned in it most of the day to cook out the moisture. No significant cracks.

It got too hot to touch. I understand now how the rocket mass heater works. That big mass of clay will hold heat a long time even after the fire is out.

Alder Burns wrote:@ Brian White I never measured or anything, just aimed for a good dark brown tea.  Put a drop or 2 of dish soap in it to help it stick.  The mythology I remember reading is that if you make tea with 2 cigarettes worth in boiling water, and then drink the water, it's a guaranteed fatal dose!  So it's pretty strong stuff.  There actually used to be a commercial insecticide based on this, called Black Leaf 40.  I haven't heard of it in a long time, not sure if it's still around...

Gotta be real careful with nicotine! Even too much handling of green plants can cause a reaction if you are not already addicted. Be very careful with strong tobacco tea. Keep it in kid-safe containers, or don't even make it if kids are going to be around.

Glenn Herbert wrote:You are right that you need more exit airflow, but you could easily get that by making little pillars all around the top instead of a flat top with small grooves in it. I might try six pillars with equal spacing and height as their thickness. Put them toward the outside edge of the top of the chimney so there is just enough inner/upper surface to properly support the smallest pot you want to use.

Tried it with just a heavy grill on top and that did the trick. Water boiled easily and fast. Just that little extra bit of air flow.

If the power went out I could make one of these in an afternoon and be cooking food that night. Even faster if I had bricks. One more survival skill learned. Thanks Permies! I am not really a prepper, but somehow I have half a year's food stored and a way to cook it.

I'd feed to animals. Unless is an economic crisis, facing severe hunger, why eat them? Fresh whole grains are pretty cheap, except maybe specialty products like quinoa.
Corn is $10 for a 50 lb bag. Oats maybe $18.

If you must eat it. Smell it. Musty? Rancid? 'Off' smells of any kind? Avoid.

Alder Burns wrote:I need to grow some next year for sure!  My stash of old chewing tobacco has finally run out.  A tea of tobacco is the only thing I know of that will drop large numbers of aphids dead, and quick!  Nothing else works for me...not soapy water, not D.E.  My rutabagas have them bad right now and I'm out there rubbing and smushing every week.  I've been around some kids that grew it years ago....it's pretty easy once you get the very fine seeds to come up.

In S Illinois you have a plenty long growing season. I grow it from scattered seeds in N Illinois without trouble. I just scatter seeds over bare dirt. A few always grow.

If you have to buy seeds that might not work, since you don't start with thousands of seeds. I literally use handfuls of seeds. If you have few seeds you probably want to start them indoors a month before last frost. Even 2 months. Sprouts of tobacco are so tiny they are almost invisible, and take a long time to get big enough to transplant.

But transplanting is a breeze. Very tough and hard to kill. Just pull them out of the potting soil and stick them in the ground. Not much care needed.

For my next project I may try a brick rocket. I am pretty happy with the adobe one I made this week, but it is heavy, and will be a little pain to move out of the rain.

You mention height as a problem, and I saw that with mine. Adding a few extra inches on top helped.

And, it draws much better now, it actually has a bit of the jet effect now without having to fan extra air. I was able to bring a pot of water to a boil. I loaded the fire box and went inside for dinner. When I came back out, the water was simmering. However, I think some low risers, a raised metal grill of some sort, would make it better. Not quite enough draft with the pot in place blocking air flow.

I have it burning now, reloaded with thicker wood to burn a long time, to help the adobe dry out. This batch I used more sand and straw to the mix, to prevent cracks.