Wullow Still

I've seen lots of video clips of people making temporary outdoor "rocket stoves" by stacking cinder blocks. Can anyone recommend a good design and which type of block/brick/stone is best (something I can buy at Home Depot, including half sizes)? The objective is to burn scrap wood efficiently and radiate heat (cooking optional). Then I'll disassemble the whole unit when the warm season arrives. I have some cinder blocks lying around, but I suspect I can do better. I also have a few pieces of 6" stove pipe I could integrate into the design.

Hazel Brand wrote:Wullow - it's been a few months since you first posted about using kindling in the Liberator. Is it working out any better for you? I am thinking of purchasing one and was also planning on using kindling, pinecones etc. Is it any more efficient than standard stoves?

I am happy with the stove. I have written a review that you can read here (it's a work in progress): https://write.as/uuardlauu/the-liberator-rocket-stove

As for saplings as fuel, I think that others' advice to split all the wood is the key. The split hardwood I stacked 8 months ago seems to be ready to burn. Sitting in the yard with no tarp, it's about 15% moisture. When I bring it inside for a couple of weeks, the moisture goes down to 6-7%. I will know more when the weather turns cold and I start burning again. These pieces, of course, are considerably skinnier than what people normally burn in a stove or fireplace.

I would not recommend pine cones, because of the potential of creosote buildup. They also burn very fast. They do make good starters, but twigs and newspaper (the recommended starter) work fine.

I have passed up many loads of mower clippings for use in composting and mulching, because they included stalks with visible grass or weed seeds (I have mostly tall fescue). It now occurs to me that if I catch these seed stalks early enough and harvest the clippings, they may not be mature enough to sprout later in my compost. Can anyone provide guidelines as to when it's safe to assume this? Is there a characteristic color change in the seeds and/or plants when the seeds mature?

On a related subject: I recently harvested about three years of food-scrap compost and, when I exposed it to light and air, got about 100 tomato seedlings.

Dc Brown wrote:Cut your privet tree so that 1 foot of it is protruding from the ground. Wait a couple of months and new shoots form. Remove them. Repeat. Two years later the tree is dead. If you leave nothing protruding the tree will grow off the root system and create a far worse problem. Landscaping practise is to level the stumps, this is problematic.

Thanks for this good news. I have been leaving a foot protruding as a marker, because I thought I would need to come back sometime and dig up the roots. Now I will just snip the new growth.

One thing I would add for newly awakened privetphobes: If you do nothing else, go after the trees that are producing berries.

Glenn Herbert wrote:I think you need to stack them in a cradle off the ground, with both ends exposed to moving air and a cover to keep rain off.

Here's my harvest from the kindling cracker. It's like a gnomes' wood pile. I stacked it criss-cross to facilitate air flow and randomize weight distribution. Flat stones help to buffer the wind:


The next question is: Is it really worthwhile to provide a rain roof over the wood pile?

Glenn Herbert wrote:Stacked vertically against a tree = one end on the ground soaking up moisture. I would not be surprised that those are not fully dry.

Yep, now that I've split these I can see how the moisture/rot has been moving straight up the interior.

Graham Chiu wrote:I'd get a kindling cracker and split them again. The smaller they are the quicker they'll dry out. Once you split them you'll see how moist they still are inside.

Thanks; I had never heard of this device. Now I'm using it.

Sorry if this has all been covered before:

I have a small pile of saplings, cut to 2-4 feet, mostly 1-2 inches thick, that have been drying for about 10 months. For about 8 months they were uncovered, stacked vertically against a tree. I am now experimenting with burning them in my Liberator rocket stove. Results are disappointing: they burn, but not robustly, and are not smokeless.

I am comparing them to kiln-dried oak kindling, which seems to be the ultimate fuel, but is costly.

Realistically, what can I expect from saplings? Do I need to season them longer, like a couple of years? Are they not as energy-dense as full-grown hardwoods? Do I need to somehow split them, de-bark them, or cut them shorter, before seasoning? Which species are inferior/worthless at the sapling stage?

My grub hoe is at the top of the list. I bought it mainly for saplings, but it makes short work of any unwanted growth, including english ivy and blackberry. Also great for digging and mounding up beds. Next on the list is the 3-prong, long-handled cultivator, also good for raking and moving prickly trimmings and yard waste.

I just bought some hardware cloth to use in the garden and compost area. Then I noticed that package has a warning that the product contains lead. I never noticed this warning in the past. Does anyone know whether I should be concerned about leaching into the soil or absorption through vegetable roots?