Brad Howard

I am new to this inner circle...Am I in since I can post here or am I suppose to be in some other forum? Thanks, Brad

Erica, over the last couple of days I have continued thinking about this RMH in the greenhouse I will be building on my farm. I was wondering if you and Ernie know of a way to capture the heat off the RMH by heating water and then piping the hot water via buried PEX tubing into the large back rock wall of the greenhouse. When I build that slip-formed rock wall I could bury PEX tubing into it and if we can heat water and pump it through PEX buried in the wall then that wall could radiate heat for days even if the sun did not shine. Do you know of anyone doing this?

I just listened to the latest podcast with you, Ernie and Paul. I would be very interested in a ship-able core. Thanks for your help! Brad

Brad Howard wrote:Hi Erica,
Thank you for your reply. I will be using double plastic poly that has a small blower to inflate the two layers of plastic. Here in Nashville it can get down to 0 F in Jan-Feb with an average temp of about 28-30 F. Here is a link to our average temps = http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USTN0357 The back and side walls will be made of on-site slip-formed limestone walls about 12" thick with 4" (R-20)of Dow blue board insulation on the outside of the stone using the stone as thermal mass.

I like your idea of running two systems head to tail pushed up against the long rock thermal wall with the second system barrel just about in the middle of the greenhouse. I am concerned about the smoke. Most plants, especially in a closed environment do not do well around smoke from a fire. Are others using this heating technology successfully in greenhouses?

Concerning your draft set of plans, what is included? Are details on your web site? When do you expect a report from your beta-test site?

Thanks,

Brad

Hi Erica,
Thank you for your reply. I will be using double plastic poly that has a small blower to inflate the two layers of plastic. Here in Nashville it can get down to 0 F in Jan-Feb with an average temp of about 28-30 F. Here is a link to our average temps = http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USTN0357 The back and side walls will be made of on-site slip-formed limestone walls about 12" thick with 4" (R-20)of Dow blue board insulation on the outside of the stone using the stone as thermal mass.

I like your idea of running two systems head to tail pushed up against the long rock thermal wall with the second system barrel just about in the middle of the greenhouse. I am concerned about the smoke. Most plants, especially in a closed environment do not do well around smoke from a fire. Are others using this heating technology successfully in greenhouses?

Concerning your draft set of plans, what is included? Are details on your web site? When do you expect a report from your beta-test site?

Thanks,

Brad

I am planning out a solar 24 x 72 ft greenhouse for year round growing in zone 6. I will need supplemental heating at least Dec, Jan, and Feb of each year. The greenhouse will be a Chinese designed greenhouse with a large thermal mass back wall and double poly glazing. It will have gravel aisles and grow boxes built up from the soil. I am thinking about installing a RMH to help keep night time temps above about 55 F during the winter months. If I install the exhaust stack parallel to the thermal mass back wall buried straight down the aisle, how long should I make the exhaust stack to remove as much heat as possible before exiting the greenhouse? Will 1 RMH be effective at keeping this greenhouse above 55F during the winter? Should I install 2? Thanks, Brad

Hi James et al. Thanks for checking on me. I am sorry to say I have made very little real progress so far. My scheduled followup with the earth moving company is around the middle of September to see if we are going to move this thing forward or not. I have made a few calls to tree trimming companies and I think I can get lots of mulch and maybe full logs for build huglekulture beds. If I can get enough mulch and food scraps and then get microbes from http://www.biozome.com/, I should be able to create decent soil.

Even if the earth moving company chooses not to participate I may try and terrace the land by hiring a dozier or I may just get fed up with it all and sell it and go buy better land. The real estate market is getting better around here these days. There is a lot of work to do and I have a demanding job that does not allow me to piddle much. I sure can see having lots of hugleculture beds on it and free range pigs and chickens on it. Maybe things will fall in place. Brad

James thank you so much for your thoughts! Keep in mind this is not a done deal yet. I know soil takes a long time to create. The earth-moving contractor wants a year to remove the rock. It will probably take me another year to sheet mulch the property and then it will take a minimum of 3 years for the mulch to break down. Seriously this is probably a 10 year project for me. Do you agree?

You have brought up many great points and I need to read this several times and think through each one. I do like your suggestion about counting truck loads of soil rather than measuring depth of soil after the soil has been dumped and spread. I have a lot to learn yet. How many cubic yards does a dump truck hold? If I know that I can figure out how many loads I need. I am going to have many questions and may keep this post open as this project progresses...assuming it progresses ). Thanks again for your input. Brad

That is a good point and yes I plan to get it all in writing. I think they are legitimate it just will not happen fast. That is the trade-off. They have asked for 1 year to complete the project once they start the project.

The area they will excavate runs about 685 feet east to west and 300 feet south to north and slopes down towards the south. I may purchase an additional 4 acres on the backside to increase my total acreage to 15 acres so I can get the "greenbelt" tax breaks.

Do any of you guys have smart ideas on how you would want the property to be terraced? How many ponds? Layout? When you think about it I kind of have a blank canvas to start from here. I may end up growing blueberries in one section, vegetables in another section, and fence other areas for rotational pasture grazing by 3 or 4 cows and some free range chickens mostly for laying and a few for cooking. In a lower area that will not be excavated, I may fence off an area for a few pasture pigs. I will start out just raising for my wife and I and maybe my sons. If I get good at it I may try selling some of my food.

I feel like I get one shot at telling these earth-moving guys what I want. I want to get it right. Any ideas and guidance you folks have is sure appreciated.

Thank you for your response Miles.

Please keep in mind that the earth-moving company will remove all that rock and put down 4 inches of top soil just for me giving them the rock/gravel/material they pull off the land. They will install a portable rock crusher and use the crushed limestone for construction projects in the area. No money will exchange hands. The more they blast the more rock they get and the less I have to pay to level my land and dig ponds. I watched them do this last summer on a 4 acre parcel about 4 miles from my land.

As far a sheet mulching is concerned, my understanding is that tree trimming companies have to pay to dump their mulch and would prefer to dump it on my land for free and let me spread it out. This sort of sounds like the "Back to Eden" garden from the guy in California.

Does that make this crazy idea any clearer?

I have 11 acres of very rocky scrub land just outside Nashville in Tennessee. I did not pay much for this property during the recent real estate downturn. I want to develop this property over the next few years to provide food for me and my family. I have been reading tons about gardening, farming, permaculture, and land restoration. I am reading about Salatin and Holzer both. I have tons to learn yet.

Construction is booming 6-10 miles down the road and I have a earth-moving company wanting to come in and clear the scrub brush off my land, blast the rock, remove several feet of rock, level about 4 acres of the 11, blast a few ponds, terrace the edges, and bring in about 4 inches of top soil. After that I was thinking about sheet mulching the area by putting down layers of cardboard and covering with about a foot of green tree mulch from area tree trimming companies and then waiting for the mulch to compost into humus. Does any of this make sense? The property is so rocky and without soil that to get a permit for my septic system from the county, I had to get a neighbor give me an easement onto their property. Basically I need lots and lots of soil to cover the existing rocks or let the earth-moving company clear the land, remove some of the rock and build the soil up from there. Ideas? Am I nuts?