Bethany Kennedy

Danielle Venegas wrote:Subbing. Very interesting topic. I have 2 Russian Poms in pots waiting for spring.

Would you mind sharing the variety and where you found these? I'm trying to grow more unique trees/shrubs and I would love to add pomegranates to my 5b area. I've looked all over online though and no one seems the cold hardiest ones. I know 5b might be pushing it some people's opinion, but I think if I put them in a good microclimate and/or acclimated them and/or wrapped them I might have a chance. From one fellow zone 5 to another....

I ran across this topic and am just very curious to know.....how did the experiment go?

Thanks you guys! This is a neat concept. It seems like it would help make it even more efficient. I'm surprised more people don't seem to use it. I can't find anywhere though how a person would attach it to a rocket stove. Am I right to guess that this would be directly next to the rocket stove to take the gasses in? The other thing that doesn't seem clear is...wouldn't this mean the exhaust would come out quite higher? It seems it needs to be vertical for the gasses to rise properly, but then it would exhaust at the top of the barrel or bricks (or whatever the bell was made of).

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Bethany; How much lower are you talking? the top of my mass pipe is probably 4" lower than the bottom of the burn tunnel and it works with no problems. I will say that i have a rather large horizontal transition area , that max described as a mini bell when i posted pictures during my build. Do you have a nice tall vertical chimney at the end of your mass ? I believe that a tall chimney with a good draft really helps to keep exhaust moving in the right direction. One thing that i have noticed is the ease of relighting my rmh. After your mass is totally dry it should have a wonderfull draft once you have fired it up for the season. I can't get my long lighter to light if i hold it down at the burn tunnel height, i have to start it up in the feed tube then drop into my paper & kindling ! Keep at it ! building a rmh will be one of the most satisfying things you can do ! Tom

Thank you so much everyone!

Can someone send me a link about a bell? I've tried to search around before but I can't find any information on them. I've heard OF them, but really don't know what they are or how they work.

Tom. Thanks for your encouragement. I've been researching a lot and I've been scrounging for materials. I'm almost ready to build a mock up and I'm so excited!! I'd have to go outside to get an actual measurement, but the drop would probably be about a foot lower than the burn tunnel. The plan is to build the mass into the floor so that's why there would be the drop from the stove at floor level. There is an ever-so-slight mention of this in Ianto's book, but he doesn't seem to go too in depth. It's for a greenhouse, so if I needed to I could dig down and put the stove lower as well - it would just be a little more difficult to work with. I'm going to experiment on the chimney at the end of the mass, but at this point I'm going to start with 8' I think.

The exhaust, as in, going out under the barrel and into the heat mass. So the pipe going through the heat mass would be lower than the stove (including the burn tunnel) until the end of the pipe, where it would turn up and come out like a "normal" chimney (at this point, higher than the stove).

I've read Ianto's book and I thought for sure there was a place where it said to make sure the exhaust came out at a certain height in proportion to the burn tunnel's height. I've been scouring the book and can't seem to find anything. Maybe I read it here somewhere. Or am I making this up in my head? I'm wondering because the area I'm putting the stove would make it so the exhaust comes out several inches lower than the height of the burn tunnel, proportionally. I just want to make sure it's not going to hinder the air flow, etc. Do you have any experience or have heard anything about this?

allen lumley wrote:Bethany Kennedy : Yes the top couple of inches is frozen, and I would not run equipment in the -30 dF temps we are living with right NOW, but excavation work
can totally happen in a 48-72 hour break in the weather, besides i doubt that the frost is over 6''[ deep yet ! Now is an excellent time to make phone calls, the
workers and bosses will not be out on the road they will be in house working on projects that they saved for weather like this, Maintenance, Welding, Painting,
overhaul, signage, O.S.H.A. Mandatory training ! Piss tests ! Now is a great time to call ! For the Crafts ! Big AL

Hmm. Alright well thanks! I'll look a couple places up and give them a call.

allen lumley wrote:Bethany : Now would be a great time to make a series of phone calls, Because just outside your door you have a mishmash of Village, Town, County, and State
Roads, you have local crews from all four Groups. To talk with anyone, you will need to call early, Zero700 or earlier (7 a.m.). The local crews know where there is
a road cut through a hillside, where after heavy rains, the hillside is liable to slide down into the road ! They Know just how much equipment and man hours it will
take to open a road again ! Think clay !

A l@@k in the yellow pages will help you find an Excavation Contractor, he will know about all of the soil types within a 50 mile cycle (or larger ) of his place of
operations, Clays, Clay Types and expected depths ! Further as he has to pay to remove clay from his excavation site, he is looking for a place he can dump his
excavated soil, for free and the closer to his dig site the better ! If you have a low spot you would like filled and leveled he is your guy, do not allow him to deliver
any loads without being there to receive it. When you get through to the boss tell him you want ''clean Fill'' if you only ant 6 or so 5 gallon buckets tell him you will
come and pick up a load yourself ! For the Craft Big AL!

We have a local excavator, but road crews is a good idea, and you got me thinking about a local development being built. I bet I could find some clay there to get delivered right to my driveway. Thanks! The only problem is everything is frozen and covered in snow at the moment.... :/

steve allotment wrote:Hi Bethany

How about building it on a reclaimed paving slab? thats what mine is on.

That could work too. Good idea.

Al,
I forgot I was going to go back and add my location info. Oops! Thanks for reminding me.

So a double layer brick is probably overkill. Got it

As stated I want to have a base of non-fire bricks, and then build the rocket stove on top of it out of rocket bricks. Since you're saying cement for a base, I'll guess that the bricks would be okay. It's freezing temperatures for several more weeks so unless I was to invest in expensive cement, there wouldn't be a way for me to get it to dry.

Our (relatively) local yard waste disposal area accepts clay so I can check with them, but my guess is it's covered in snow.