Edward Stanley

Hi everybody,

We're looking for some help for the season and hopefully longer.  I work at Rushy Springs Farm in Talbott, TN, and we're way short on labor power to get this farm where it needs to be.  I'm working for Jim Smith, who has been farming for most of his 70 years on Earth.

You'll get to work with an expert in chiles and salt brine fermented hot sauces. There are over 30 varieties of chiles being grown.  There are also currently tomatoes, garlic, citrus, bamboo, and many other interesting things growing at the farm.  Even more would be possible with more help.  Jim has a compelling vision of what this farm could mean to the local community and larger society, and we really need more committed individuals to move forward.

There are potential options to live on the farm.  The living situation would depend on the duration of your intended stay, etc.  Jim is interested in WWOOF style arrangements, but he is also open to discussing long term employment opportunities.

Talbott, TN is about 40 minutes (approximately 35 miles) northeast of Knoxville and less than 10 miles from Morristown, TN ( a decent sized city in that it has 30,000 residents).  A nice opportunity to experience eastern TN and learn a lot in the process.  

Here's a link to the farm's website:

https://rushyspringsfarm.wordpress.com/

Send a message through Permies and tell us a little about yourself.  Let us know about your farming/gardening/homesteading experiences and what you're hoping to get out of working on the farm.  Thanks for your time, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Edward

Hi to everybody,

We use permies as a resource any time we have a conundrum present itself. I'm moving to the greater Knoxville area in early September with the intention of buying some acreage and a fixer upper home. We're looking for a short term rental (1-6 months) while we work with lenders, realtors, etc. We have a medium sized dog (55 lbs. or so) who is super friendly and likes other animals. If everybody in the Permies community could keep your eyes peeled, we'd greatly appreciate it. Also, any tips or guidance on the area would be appreciated. We're into natural building (we've done some cordwood masonry), rocket stoves, and the like. Alright, that's all for now. I look forward to hearing from some locals. Thanks.

Edward

Hi to everyone,

My name is Edward, and I'm relocating to the PNW in the next few weeks with my partner, Kara, and our dog Chompsky. We're leaving upstate NY, where we've spent the last few years building a timber frame, cordwood masonry shelter. We put in a rocket stove floor and completed an earth roof just recently. We milled the structural lumber for the structure ourselves with a chainsaw mill, and we harvested all the cordwood onsite. This gives you an idea about our interests, mode of living, etc. We've been most interested in the Olympic Peninsula area of WA, but we're definitely open to other adventures.

We're looking for a cabin/shelter with access to land for growing food, building community, playing music, and continuing our progress through the vastness of skills to learn. We're open to being a part of a farm, communal work type of situation. While we have a focus to our intentions, we're flexible enough to see what opportunities present themselves. We're interested in learning more permaculture practices. We're not seasoned permaculture folks by any stretch, but our interest and curiosity in this area is definitely present. I've been without musical companions for the last little bit of my life. I'm interested in rekindling that aspect of my life and making it a primary focus again. Creative and technically ambitious, sometimes raucous, sometimes beautiful music...I'd say that's good as far as generalizations go.

As far as shelter/living situation...we've pretty much decided that we don't want to camp in a tent throughout the winter. We've done some gnarly enough tent camping in the past, and we've decided that something that'll keep us dry for sure is the direction we're heading in. We're not afraid of off grid living. Electricity is convenient but not necessary. A wood stove being present would be nice... or even better, a place to build another rocket stove. We have a self contained solar panel setup with a sealed battery if the situation is right.

We're interested in doing some more natural building and learning more woodworking skills. We've got the experience of our first building under our belts at this point, and we're anxious to keep learning. What projects are out there? We're interested in doing more with cob, treehouses, whatever sounds fun, inspiring, and interesting. I guess that's a good starting point. I'm looking forward to hearing about whatever opportunities, friends, contacts, homes, etc. come from this post. If you have something to offer, don't hesitate. We're moving to a new area, and I think every bit of input will be helpful to our decision making process. Thanks for reading.

Edward

Thanks, Al. I appreciate the advice. I also appreciate you getting that indoor propane heater conversation out of the way. I feared getting an onslaught of chastising words. I'll apply the changes you suggested, try some stuff I picked up on Donkey's board, have some fires, and give an update. Happy rocketing.

Edward

Hi everybody,

I posted some questions a while back and got some great feedback from the permies community while still in the planning phases of my RMH. Well, our cordwood project has since matured, and we've reached the point of building our first rocket stove that will use an earthen floor as the thermal battery. The pictures tell a lot of the story, but I'll fill in the gaps.

We pretty much stuck to the plan in the Ianto Evans book for the 8" system as far as the CSA and other dimensional aspects. I didn't insulate the feed tube or burn tunnel. There's no insulation under the stove. The heat riser is insulated with clay coated vermiculite contained in hardware cloth. As you'll see in the photographs, there's a pretty adequate transition area from the stove to the duct work (too adequate, perhaps?). The duct work exits the stove and is not yet covered in cob. We're waiting at least a few weeks until the temperatures rise above freezing regularly to resume cobbing.

So far I'm pretty excited by the three or so times we've fired it, but I'm having the same recurring problems and can't figure how to piece all the possible variables together. The stove works well for the second half of a 2-3 hour firing, but it tends to only work with the door open. For the first few minutes, it fights backdrafting. This seems normal to me, considering the fact that we're essentially cold firing it, the duct work is exposed, and it's 12 degrees out. Once we get past that phase, the system wants to "pulse", putting it self out and drawing again to reignite itself. With the door closed, it generally just puts itself out. Any ideas there? Is it just a bad idea to be firing it under described conditions?

The cleanouts aren't 100% sealed either. Apparently, I purchased components from two different manufacturers and the caps don't fit the t-shape cleanouts without taking some pliers to them. I know I can seal them with high temperature sealant but that seems to defy the convenience of having frequent access to that portion of pipe. I was running a propane space heater in the space too. There's no fan on it, but it's definitely affecting the temperature in the room. Could this affect the draw? There aren't any obstructions in the pipe, as far as I know. There's a cleanout that I embedded in the cob above the transition area, but I feel that the cob is still a bit too fragile for me to try and get this out just yet. This will obviously give me more insight on what's happening on that end of the system.

The chimney is currently only about 4 feet tall outside. I've run it higher to 8-10 feet with similar results. Will a taller chimney help me?

That's about it...sorry if it's a little stream of consciousness, as I'm just sort of spitting out the details I remember from the last few firings. Thanks to all the rockety folks around.

Edward

Thanks, Al. I appreciate the advice. I didn't realize this thread was still active, and I missed some of your feedback until now. I built the system, and I'm having some backdraft related issues. I'm going to start a new topic and post some pictures to get reopen the conversation. Thanks again.

Edward

Hi Beth,

Thanks for the feedback. It's nice to hear some advice/experience from someone new at this too. Also, always nice to hear a different approach.

Edward

Hi all,

Been lurking for a while and got some great information. I need some help...

We have an upcoming rocket mass heater project in a cordwood cabin, and I have a few lingering questions that I would love some feedback on. First off, I've read the Evans/Jackson Rocket Mass Heaters book, and I feel like I have a decent grasp of the concepts covered. I'll describe the project briefly and list some of my concerns. The structure we're designing is 12x12, with a net interior square footage of 100 sq. ft. It's being built in upstate NY near the Berkshire region of MA, so we'll need some decent heat. We are building a stem wall that was originally designed to be 12" tall. The layers of the floor will be contained within that stem wall and will leave the floor being about 2 inches from the top of the stem wall (10 inches of floor). The primary in-fill for the floor is going to be gravel. I intend to route the pipe from the rocket stove through the gravel. The layer on top of that will be the earthen floor, which will serve as the thermal battery. We'll have the top of the heat riser pretty close to the top of the barrel, as we intend to use it for some cooking.

-Which diameter of pipe? I feel like I understand the benefits of 6" vs 8", but it seems like it will be difficult to squeeze enough piping for heat extraction with an 8" system under a 10x10 floor. If I switch to a 6" system, how will that change the size of the barrels needed for the feed barrel and heat riser? Will a 6" system generate enough heat for upstate NY?

-Depth of floor...As I mentioned above, the floor will be around 10" thick, does this in any way still leave enough room for a 6 or 8 inch pipe without promoting overheating through the floor system. Don't want to end up with a floor too hot to stand on. The depth of the floor is pretty flexible at this point. We can just extend the height of the stem well to allow for more floor depth. How deep should we have this pipe under the earthen floor? Will I be leaching too much heat to the earth beneath the pipe and gravel to see any real benefits on the floor level?

Path of pipe... I originally designed it to just weave back and forth with elbow connectors, but I was a little concerned that the path I had in mind would offer too much resistance for the heat flow. I recently looked at the design on page 26 of RMH for the daybed, and it encouraged me a little bit to just keep that pathway in the design. Anybody have any alternative suggestions? Split it up into two more direct paths out of the structure? How to cram all of that pipe in for proper heat extraction, etc? As I mentioned above, we'll be using a lot of that heat on the front end of the system with the intention of cooking. Can we cheat the length a little bit?

I know it seems like a stretch to put a RMH in a structure so small, but we're so drawn to the efficiency/future wood savings of this type of heating system.

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your ideas.

Edward

Hello everybody,

We have an upcoming rocket mass heater project, and I have a few lingering questions that I would love some feedback on. First off, I've read the Evans/Jackson Rocket Mass Heaters book, and I feel like I have a decent grasp of the concepts covered. I'll describe the project briefly and list some of my concerns. The structure we're designing is 12x12, with a net interior square footage of 100 sq. ft. It's being built in upstate NY near the Berkshire region of MA, so we'll need some decent heat. We are building a stem wall that was originally designed to be 12" tall. The layers of the floor will be contained within that stem wall and will leave the floor being about 2 inches from the top of the stem wall (10 inches of floor). The primary in-fill for the floor is going to be gravel. I intend to route the pipe from the rocket stove through the gravel. The layer on top of that will be the earthen floor, which will serve as the thermal battery. We'll have the top of the heat riser pretty close to the top of the barrel, as we intend to use it for some cooking.

-Which diameter of pipe? I feel like I understand the benefits of 6" vs 8", but it seems like it will be difficult to squeeze enough piping for heat extraction with an 8" system under a 10x10 floor. If I switch to a 6" system, how will that change the size of the barrels needed for the feed barrel and heat riser? Will a 6" system generate enough heat for upstate NY?

-Depth of floor...As I mentioned above, the floor will be around 10" thick, does this in any way still leave enough room for a 6 or 8 inch pipe without promoting overheating through the floor system. Don't want to end up with a floor too hot to stand on. The depth of the floor is pretty flexible at this point. We can just extend the height of the stem well to allow for more floor depth. How deep should we have this pipe under the earthen floor? Will I be leaching too much heat to the earth beneath the pipe and gravel to see any real benefits on the floor level?

Path of pipe... I originally designed it to just weave back and forth with elbow connectors, but I was a little concerned that the path I had in mind would offer too much resistance for the heat flow. I recently looked at the design on page 26 of RMH for the daybed, and it encouraged me a little bit to just keep that pathway in the design. Anybody have any alternative suggestions? Split it up into two more direct paths out of the structure? How to cram all of that pipe in for proper heat extraction, etc? As I mentioned above, we'll be using a lot of that heat on the front end of the system with the intention of cooking. Can we cheat the length a little bit?

I know it seems like a stretch to put a RMH in a structure so small, but we're so drawn to the efficiency/future wood savings of this type of heating system.

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your ideas.

Edward