Clifford Gallington

WE wound down the second year of our garden recently here in Topeka Kansas (north east Kansas), it was just grass before and a patch of very poor soil that may have been brought in years ago to fill an old systern or septic tank, the first year of the garden we mulched with grass clippings for a while then switched to hay to keep the weeds down and to hopefuly help the soil condition, then in the fall we cleaned out the chicken house and it was scattered around and then we covered the entire garden with leaves about 6 inches deep and let the chickens in all winter, the leaves and hay broke down really well, we then plowed it under in the spring.  This year we have added about two yards of composted stuff from over last winter and this summer as well as chicken house hay and the leaves again, my wife has rabbits and we have been adding that waste to the garden all summer when available and will continue doing so when she clans the bunny barn out.  We tested the soil with a little kit from the store and it shows the nitrogen level to be very low.
Our goal is to improve the soil from its poor clayish form to a consistancy that will be workable with a fork and avoid plowing or tilling if possible and have a good health levels of twhat makes a good soil.
Our garden produced ok each year so far but not what would be expected from other gardens I have had in the past.
What steps should we change or add to improve the nitrogen level without getting some commercial bagg of manufactured stuff?
the soil consistancy has greatly improved from it's almost concrete hgard state when we first brok the ground so I feel we are making improvements.
Should we add something different over the winter?

Thanks
Cliff

Cam Haslehurst wrote:So tonight I attempted the make a center punch

In shop when I was in school all of the projects was to make a cold chissle out of a piece of rolled steel, shape and harden the cutting surface, the grade was pass or fail, when you finished our teacher would take a nail and lay it on the anvil and then use your new chisle to cut it in half, if it cut the nail without damaging the chisle edge you passed, if it made any indention in the edge you failed and started over.  one fella had hardened to far up the shaft of the chisle and when the nail was cut it also broke the chistle.  The reason your punch is not hardened all the way to the end is it would be like that one fellas and brake, the softer steel alows it to absorbe energy both when being hit and the equal reaction from the object being cut.
we hardened the edge by cooling it in used motor oul after heating it.

K Eilander wrote:Saw this and it seems like a useful trick.

Apparently they make welding filler rod made of high-strength tool steel!

this has been around a while, we used to take the valves out of a water pump on a water well drilling rig and build them up like this and then have them machined back down so they would seal up propperly.
they had to be hard surfaced like this because these pumps carried a lot of sandy muddy water through them and wore down if not a hard surface.

This was definantly worth letting folks know about for sure!

here is a link to a post in the frugility section I did a couple of years back showing how I patch dennum jeans.
this is how mom did it for jeans worn out from loading hay bales, some times the whole area from the thigh to just over the knee was cut out and patched .
https://permies.com/t/19028/patch-jeans

At the time that this oportunity came my  way I was set on getting a couple of pieces that would be suitable to make a flintlock rifle stock out of because I have been working on a piece of walnut pre cut for a stock and have it in my mind I can do one from scratch someday , what I had understood a decent starting thickness for blanks was 3 inches which alows for shrinkage and then gives plenty of room to to remove what does not need to be there.  When I talked to the man who had a setup to mill lumber using a chainsaw he said he would get me as much usable slabs as he could and this is what came out.
I had read that it takes quite a few years to cure lumber this think so I felt no pressure to hurry and get busy, some times I just go down there in the shade and sit on the stack and enjoy the smell of the wood and ponder what could come of these pieces.

My neighbor gave me pick of what was left over after the tree service guy took the huge pieces away so I went back to his wood yard and picked out two large pieces and he brought them over while he had the skid steer handy, these were quite heavy we estimated that the two pieces would be around 1500 pounds.

I have heard that good quality walnut stock blanks are hard to come up with if you want the full length that the early flintlocks have, the two that are narrow I believe these are what he thought I would like the best.

These are various thicknesses ranging from 5 quarters or 1 1/4 inch,  7 quarters 1 3/4 inch , 9 quarters 2 1/4 inch and 16 quarters  3 inches. I think I may make a bench out of the one of the thinner slabs but I do not know even how long they need to dry yet.
I do agree they are beautiful.

Anne Miller wrote:Clifford, what are your plans for those slabs?

They look very think so maybe benches? They look to think for tabletops and other things I can think of.

Or do you plan to make lots of smaller boards?

Those slabs are seriously beautiful!

Joshua States wrote:In the knife-making world, we call that a serious score.  Nice heartwood walnut like that makes excellent handle material. How thick are the slabs?

Yea that sure is a serious score for a bunch of knive handles for sure!
These are various thicknesses ranging from 5 quarters or 1 1/4 inch,  7 quarters 1 3/4 inch , 9 quarters 2 1/4 inch and 16 quarters  3 inches.

Mike Haasl wrote:Hi Clifford, I don't think I hit water but I'm not sure why water was disappearing down the pipe.  I tried some other spots without success so I've kinda given up on the sand point...

My dad was a well driller and windmill man, I grew up in the late 70's early 80's working with Dad.  

If you hit some formation like sand stone, gravel or maybe even sand the water would soak into that, this could be why your water dissapears.

Do you know what the average depth is for wells in your area?  are there any wells on neighboring property?  
We lived on a crick in SW Nebraska and had several wells that were 19 ft deep  the folks further away from the creek had no water on their property.
it is possible you are above water table and just need to go deeper.

I was in the right place at the right time earlier this summer and was given some walnut, I was also able to get it cut into slabs with a chanin saw now it is sitting and curing waiting, I do not have any specific plan for it other than two pieces that I want to use to make a stock for a flintlock rifle that I think I want to try and make someday.
sure is prety wood, I painted the ends and stacked it up with sticks inbetween and put a couple of straps around them to hold them there.  
It only cost me $75 and two pounds of fresh honey to get the slabs cut, I figure when the time is right I will come up with a project, my wife hinted a bench would be nice.

when you take your pump apart take a screw driver or something that you can use to really spread the leathers oou so they really make great contact with the walls of the pump cylinder, also you can soak the leathers in water for a while.  check that the valve at the bottom of the pump is holding water and not leaking back to fast.  
These pumps were designed to pump from a cystern at about 20 ft, with trying to draw through the sand point and screen  you add additional resistance.

Is it possible to go deeper with it?  get your sand point oput first  

What makes you believe you hit water?

Mike Haasl wrote:Hello friends!  I am putting in a sand point well, I think I've hit water but I can't pump it up with a pitcher pump.

Background:  1.25" driven well with a 3' sand point on the bottom.  No foot valve down in the casing.  I augured a hole about 10' and then assembled the point and started driving it deeper.  I'm currently 17' into the ground with 1' of casing sticking out.  There is water in the pipe  The water level is 12' down and 6' from there to the end of the point.  So that seems to be a good sign.

I took a bucket of clean house water and poured it down the pipe to see if I could fill up the pipe.  It disappeared as fast as I could pour it in.  I think that's a really good sign.

I bolted on a relatively new pitcher pump and poured water in the top of it and started pumping.  After a while it feels like most of the handle's travel is just creating a vacuum.  When I lift the handle (lowering the piston), at the very end of the travel it feels like the vacuum is done and I made a tiny bit of progress.  But after pumping and pumping, eventually the vacuum feeling doesn't go away and it just seems like I'm creating a vacuum and then releasing in as I raise the handle.

I disassembled the pump and the cup leather looks good, the flapper looks good, the jiggly weight at the bottom of the piston is jiggling well and seems to be sealing well.

It seems like if I can pour 2 gallons of water into a pipe and it soaks in as fast as I can pour, I've hit water.  Why can't I suck it up 12' with a pitcher pump?  

Do I have a crappy pitcher pump?  Am I priming it wrong?  Any suggestions?

Once I am pumping water, I'll drive it down another 18" so the fitting is at a convenient height.  Hopefully that will only make things better for the water supply.

Thanks!

is it silver maple?

Jordan Holland wrote:This one's from the same log. It should be a givaway.