Matt Marksman

I'm not talking about dehydrating it. Just throw it all in the heat riser as is just for a college try. Sorry if somewhere i it came across that way. I'm sure the moisture would leave quickly in the riser or just let the dog turds dry out a little on the ground before you shovel them in there. Maybe rabbit crap would work good, then you'd have bio-char balls when done lol. These choices are more viable in the winter when the feces may be piling up more than in summer when it's gone in days from rain or sun drying it out too much. Fertilizing non edibles may be another choice where the stench won't irritate anyone.I unfortunately live on 1/8th acre lot and it sucks if you do step in poop barefoot. A dog is almost pointless unless for security when in such small quarters. We have a husky and you could steal everything we have or do whatever you desire while the dog would just sit there. It also doesn't bark when anyone shows up. Only wants your food so that's kinda a money pit but i'm not the one who bought it. Sorry after all that the reply i just notice wasn't directed at me. I just replied from my email. Any way..........

I would have to experiment but what if you filled the riser in heat stove with feces instead of vermiculite etc. Stinky mess or biochar chamber maybe? Play with holes and other stuff like that in the temporary removable riser.

Wow, thats the closest i think a pdc has ever been to me. I'm an hour south. But since i'm a corporate slave in the service industry i work every saturday. I'm trying to find a ohio pdc to schedule my 2013 vacation to attend. Midwest permaculture seems to be the most consistently scheduled but they have nothing for mid 2013 and my exciting job makes us schedule sick days and vacation in october prior. I guess it will be up to me to get a pdc and put ohio on the map with a place to obtain your pdc.

An idea i think would be interesting and tedious would be to aerate the lawn and break small twigs or pieces of wood to put into each hole. Not above the grass where you would hurt yourself though. I think it would decompose sort of like hugelkulture but it would in very small plugs throughout the lawn giving it more water retention through the wood plus the added surface area. Some air would still get into the holes too. I may try it this year just to see. I know my yard is compacted from the last 100 years of people walking on it. I wish i could plant my who yard as hugelkulture raised beds but the mrs. doesn't like that idea.

Sterling engines are a great idea. I haven't built one myself yet. I know you can out of a soup can if you want. I've thought about the many uses would could get out of them while multitasking other chores with the fire or heat. I'm sure there is a way to integrate a sterling into a gasifier if you keep the gasifiers heat contained within and the sterling. You would get thermal power plus the gas from gasifier. After that you would have even heat use plus the biochar after the process is done. Would could be using sterlings combined with solar for power when there is sun out and heat difference for sterling. I think it would take a long time to recover the cost of building it plus maintenance of posible bearing failure or some other failure. I just try to think of stuff to use if some reason oil just stopped for awhile or became unaffordable. I'd rather be independent
before then not after.

No problem, i will have to look more into clovers too to see what technically would be the best and find out where it was that i heard of the white being annual. Maybe depends on zone too. This year i'm just goin to chop and drop weeds that come up too. Except grass, i'd like to just not have grass at all in the garden. Purslane loves my garden when i used to till and it's an edible anyway. Some other plant too that gets very wide and stays on the ground, still have to figure out what that is. I love deans videos he makes for eattheweeds youtube videos. No sure if he really practices permaculture, but he just lets his yard do whatever and rides around eating weeds all over florida. I've learned of 12 edibles growing in my yard so far. Some taste good.

All the fun stuff grows in zones below me. It'd definitely be awesome to have the ability to have a climate controlled green house that was divided up and had every zone in it. I can grow apples here, woooooo.

I won't have all the answers but i will try for some. I believe the crimson is perennial and white clover is the annual. I see people argue about whether to turn it under or not. You have that matter underground for a quicker nitrogen fix but i i think it'd be more effective cutting it down in the areas you are planting and using the cuttings as sort of a mulch for the new seedlings and give them a chance to grow ahead of the clover. Once they are established you would most likely be fine. I'm definitely done doing any tilling myself. They have some hand tools to loosen soil some to relieve compaction or even better do raised beds and never walk on it again. I have a smaller garden right now that i am going to try various other cover crops with clover. And i'm burying piles of wood that fall out of my trees to turn my whole garden to hugelkulture raised beds with clovers and anything else i can fit. In my area i have both clovers just come up in my yard anyway so i can harvest from them if i want to not mow at all. Check out Fukuoka's stuff. From what i understand you see the results of the clover after a couple years rather than immediate if you just keep it there and use it for living mulch.

Happy to see posts so quickly on my first topic, lol. I live in an area that has decent soil. I'm in ohio. I go a north then you get into more clay but where i'm at is ideal but i'm just south of any dependable lake effect (lake erie) weather. Seems like people are on the same page for bio char. If it's not stacking functions then it's not worth it. I would like to try using a bunch of other scraps with some biomass to make it. I'd be interested to see how leaves would work. Once i acquire land i was thinking of starting a tree service with a pickup and a chainsaw just to get the wood instead of it going to landscapers and them just selling it right back to people when the grind it up. Can't beat that money, it's usually 500-1000 to take a tree down for someone, you sell some firewood 50, a truckload or mulch, make some biochar to sell then save some for hugelkulture. I'd rather just live off my own land but i will be hard i'm thinking with an enormous mortgage. I wonder what other materials besides wood or plant based that can be burnt and make something close to biochar that would normally fill a landfill. As long as a gasifier could cleanly burn so it doesn't spu chemicals into air or store them into the char. I see that one guy on here with that process of turning trash or anything with carbon into gas and oil. After i saw that i was thinking it's about time to get a delorean.

[b]BioChar[/b
I'm new on here so i figured i'd throw a topic up that i haven't found except under other topics. BioChar, is it good? I've always been trying more sustainable ways to grow before i heard the phrase "permaculture" Now i've seen about every video on it i can find on you tube and other dvds. I've introduced it to 2 of my friends and they are wanting to get large plot and split 3 ways between us to go big, money being the issue though. Anyway, I've been looking at all the ways to become sustainable using new technology since it's already there and would be useful to have if some sort of depression or collapse happens. I ran across biochar and how it's being pushed to farmers to spread on their fields to build organics back up etc. I think biochar has its place and isn't something i would set as a goal but a byproduct. I am fascinated by all the various ways to fuel engines and i really like the gasifiers. I'm thinking if you have a wooded area that you can use the gasifier to split firewood to burn for heat or use if for a generator if need and you decide to go off grid. So you get free fuel plus the char to enrich soil. I see a few people making their own charcoal briquettes too. I thought about that and instead of making just charcoal briquettes you could soak them in compost tea and use it almost as a slow release fertilizer. I do not agree with any of this if you are taking down trees at a rate they can't replenish. I also do not agree with it on a massive commercial scale. Thats one worry i have about mono-croppers jumping on biochar bandwagon. You will see forests planted of the fastest growing trees before long to keep a biochar supply. It is helping their soil some but robbing it elsewhere. I think it should be used where it is also an alternative fuel source only if needed or even better stick to hugelkulture. I understand though if you buy land that is a spent cornfield with no trees or anything on it. That is the land for sale around me and what i may have to deal with. I love to start from a clean slate but it will take awhile to collect resources to enrich the land again. To get a piece of land stuck between a highway and interstate with a little stream is around 350,000 for 40 acres. That may be cheap compared to the rest of the world though. Farmland is being sold left and right around here in usually 40 acre plots for 300k and it's flat and usually in the middle of another field of someone elses. Back to biochar, i believe it's beneficial used in ways that i mentioned and would love to hear other ideas for it. Maybe we can drive around gasifier cars and tractors again. Mount one to the front of the ol' ferrari. I live on 1/8th of an acre right now and don't need biochar. I take all the neighbors leaf piles that were waiting for city pickup and compost them in my front yard. Throwing in a hugelkulture row in garden, sheet mulch on one row, raised bed on one row then a row of vines climbing and of course throwing in some clover to grow where ever and start cover cropping. I'm done with tilling from now on. My dad debates the clover and says they will choke everything out. He worked for U.s.d.a before i was alive. I like to prove people wrong. I'm done with fancy flowerbed though i have to make them nice because the wife doesn't care about permaculture at all since we don't share food bill and refuses to lay off the taco bell. So this is my endeavor that i hope my newly born son will someday understand. Sorry for making this long and off topic ALOT.