Andrew Pongratz

I have a good friend who lived on Cape Cod and had a pig he fed lots of fish scraps, when he harvested the pig, the fish taste had permiated the entire animal and he ended up throwing out the whole thing. Stick your head in the food you will feed the pig, if it smells fishy so will the pork.

I would have saved myself and all the nice helpfull people a lot of time had I read the book first........ Once I have read and understand the principles, not just looked at videos, I will rebuild and get back here with pictures. Thank you all for helping.
Smokey

I have been harvesting rabbits for a couple of years now and cervical dislocation is by far the way to go. Rabbits are stronger than you think and need to be held with two hands, scruff of the neck and back legs with gloves (they can give a nasty scratch with sharp claws).
I have seen the wringer videos and found them to be a wealth of knowlege when it comes to how hard to pull and when to stop. I happen to have a hay feeder with bars that are welded together, the opening is large enough for the bunny head to fit in and I then slide the animal down the V till the bars on its neck are very snug, at that point, one hand on front shoulders one holding both back legs and pull till the neck streches a couple inches, you will hear and see it break. You need to pull enough for the neck bones to pull apart, ( watch a Wringer vid and you will see the point at the neck bones come apart) it may give a few kicks but it will be mostly limp. Once pulled apart the head comes right off with a sharp knife no chopping needed. If you can't cut the head off easily with a sharp knife you did not pull enough. Bleed into bucket, skin, gut, remove feet then cold water bath to get body temp down fast and keep bugs off, takes about 5 min. Feet and fur to the compost pile everything else to the pigs. They are great on the grill.

Its late...I mean early.... I will try to get vid on another time..

Thank you all for your help. I took the barrel off, fired it up and did get a good burn with only a little smoke but as soon as the barrel went back on it was smoke galore.
I have seen other units with masonry risers with no insulation, do I need to insulate the riser? How about air leaks, the burn tube and some other joints are not totally airtight, do they need to be? I am using a 30 gal drum and the riser is within 3-4" of the top of the barell when over the riser. Pic #193 has the barrell on so you can't see the exhaust port but I have included a short burn vid with the barrel off and at the end you can see the port, it is about 2" tall by 6" long and the smoke winds thru blocks stacked side by side and finally up a 4' block chimney. I think I will work on getting the whole burn tube and riser section air tight and will include some more pics in the next update.
Thank you all sooo much for your coments and Erica I have sent an email to the Maine workshop person for availability on attending.
Andy

Hi Ken, I hope the pictures help. when I fire it up it kind of drafts a bit then smokes out the burn tube, if I blow into the tube to help the draft along it kind of drafts but not strong at all. The smoke that exits the end is a strange kind of green-grey and smells not like smoke but almost like some chemical smell.
Thank you for your help,
Smokin in MA.

Hello all,First a little about us. We live on a small farm in MA with chickens, pigs, goats, cow, bunnies, a beautifull wife and four kiddos 2-9. I have been reading Permies and permaculture stuff for years and have incorporated tons of the great ideas onto our farm. We bed the animals with shredded paper, chickens and rabbits have 55 gallon drum water containers with nipples that only need to be filled monthly, they also have large wall feeders that take 50 and 100 pounds of feed at a time. Some chickens free range or live in the tractor that moves around our yard. The goats provide us with all the milk we need and we will be breeding the short horn cow for beef. Our pigs are a great way to turn all our scraps and leftovers ( local establishments drop off day old bread etc) into great food and I smoke my own bacon, ham,hocks etc. We recently added two 155 gal rainwater barrels and a 24 panel solar array. Next on my list is a well and a greenhouse. All that being said we are truly blessed to have the farm provide all the meat, milk and eggs our family and friends need.
Now to my question,with the northeast having such a short growing season I am planning an earth bermed greenhouse with a rocket mass heater. I have built a mock up of the heater all out of masonry blocks with a 30 gal drum and firebrick for the heat riser but have not been able to get the thing to draft let alone rocket. I have taken it appart several times to check that all the parts are in the right place, still no rocket, any help would be appreciated.
Smokey