Dan McCoy wrote: I have forgotten who it was that has published a description of this technique, but I recall hearing of a woman who set up a system where she used 1/2 of a hoop house to house her chickens. Their manure would be left to compost and the heat generated was vented into the other half of the hoop house to provide heat. When the composting was complete, this was added to the planting beds... My memory is faint on the details... I do recall that there was one issue that needed to be resolved before this system could be effective--she had to figure out a way to filter the ammonia out of the air as this would build to toxic levels and would interfere with the plant growth... but I understand that she was successfully able to do this.
Sorry that I'm short on details... maybe I can find a reference for this. If someone is interested in learning more, perhaps they could research this idea further... Perhaps someone out there is already familiar with this work and could do a better job of reporting than I...
http://www.windward.org/internship/solviva2.htm
http://www.solviva.com/visit_solviva.htm
Her name escapes me, too, but her invention was the "Earth Lung," something she pioneered as part of her Solviva project. Really hope to replicate this some day...but I'll have to keep the biological moderating effects of a good Montana freeze in mind...evidently extending the season and creating that artificial environment you spoke of can be a real hazard if certain populations build over an entire year or two and are not exposed to all that our winter climates have to offer.
