wayne fajkus

Surplus eggs has been like a gateway drug only good. It went like this:

Instead of "just add water" pancake mix i switched to pancake mix that included eggs needing added. Then i thought, why buy a mix when i can make it with flour and baking powder.

So now that i buy flour, why not make my own bread. Even better, why not make PASTA! Boom.

Look at all the plastic I'm not biying now. Just in bread and pasta packaging.

The funny part is both are easy to make.  I encourage anyone to give it a try.

Taste and versatility in cooking (for me, an American) would be the reason. We do have sheep and it has been our staple once we decided to no longer buy meat. Sheep was an obvious choice from the viewpoint of a lot of quick harvests to meet our immediate needs.

But once the first cow goes to slaughter this September, i will question the need for even having the sheep. One cow will be 600+ pounds of meat. Our sheep is like deer. 20 to 30 pounds of meat.

Once the fencing is up so that sheep can go behind the cows, the sheep will provide a great service of eating the things the cows dont eat. Without this, i have to mow.

I harvest/process sheep on the homestead. Nothing leaves. The cows will have to be trucked offsite.

Theres a "rainwater harvest" section under the "building" section.

I've got 9,000 gallon capacity strategically spaced for home, chickens, turkeys, cattle, annual garden.

Close to end of day 4. Looks like the last segment of the underground key is being tamped in. The dam width seems about 20ft wide now and is higher than the original ground level.  They said after day 2 things would look slow. Most of it is sorting and finding clay.

Its gonna get real interesting at some point. The sediment pond above this (not yet started) will not flow straight into this pond. The overflow will flow about 100 yards in a different direction then zigzag back to this current pond. It will irrigate a pasture as well as pickup adfitional water from my house area. The water at my house area bottoms out at a big shop i have and runs through it. This is the most brilliant part of his plan. Cant wait to see it done.

A guy came by and said he needed one of my timber logs

I asked " how long?"

He said "a long time. I'm building a shed"

I use tire slime. Its common in usa in automotive stores.  With no air in tire, you hand pump  or pour the slime into the tire valve (after removing the valve itself). Then air it up and use it. I think it hardens when exposed to air so it will flow into a leak then seal it.

What i don't like about your suggestion is how to know the tire is full. What if it is 3/4 full of the aircrete, leaving 1/4 as a big air bubble. How does air get from the valve, through the aircrete, to where its needed,? It  seems like the chance to totally ruin the whole tire is high. I envision a big flat spot in the tire that is worse than just being low on air. I also don't know that it would have more compression strength than foam.

I have had forklift tires foam filled.  It was done professionally. Over time i had exposed foam from pieces of tire coming off. It never crushed. Cost is not feasible for a wheelbarrow, but for commercial machinery it is viable.

Morning day 3. I noticed this puddle yesterday. I'd guess its 8 times bigger overnight. The key he put in basically dammed the underground water flow. This is the evidence of it.

Morning day 3. This is the key dam. Its at ground level. Its been compacted again by the excavator tracks(driving over it). He has level marks painted on it. All the accumulated clay has been used. He is now excavating the pond itself in the same slow fashion. A little at a time so topsoil can be separated from the clay layer  the new clay will be the above grade dam.

Its beginning of day 3. I want to talk about Zach and Ben from Elemental Ecosystems real quick. As I am having my morning coffee, they are out there working. Both days they have been out there til dark or almost dark. Their work day is over 12 hours long because thats the length of our day. He said the projects where he kept to 8 hour days, he has regretted it. Like a rain storm shutting down the project. Had he worked full daylight hours the rain storm wouldn't have impacted his schedule.

Zach is JUST like you see in his videos. I remember one where he was knee deep in a pond in Ecuador,  pulling select plants that may be overtaking the pond edge. A busy bee. No telling what he will do or where he will be any given moment. Here he is jumping in holes. As clay is going into the key trenches he is pulling big roots out of the mix. Day one he was pulling iris plants and fruit /nut trees so they wouldn't get destroyed.

During all this i have 100's of questions. He was answering them, then scurrying off to do something, then coming back to finish. I feel like i should leave him alone but the dual setup with Ben on the excavator and him "all seeing " works very well to hasten the project and allow time to interact with client.

He expressed that in other countries, where labor is cheap and they opt out of bringing Ben in (they just pay for Zach), its a much different flow. Zach is running the excavator, jumping out several times an hour to check the trench depth,  pull roots from the clay,  using site level to determine height of key dam. While it could be done without Ben, having him allows so much more education for the client and more accomplished each day. The machinery rental is a big cost, probably more expensive than Zach. So having the people to keep it running may actually save money on the project. The knowledge and experience i am gaining is 1000x's better than Pauls pdc course on water retention, which includes Zach doing a one hour slide presentation and question and answer. I think Paul would agree with that also. Doing vs teaching if you will. It gives a better understanding.

I am SO enjoying this week.

Today, the key of the dam was made. This is "go" time for the crew. It's like when you start pouring concrete, no time to stop so better be ready. This is evident in the test slice i posted yesterday. It went from a dry hole to 30" deep in a short time.

The readiness is having the clay at the right moisture content piled and ready. This was done by sorting the dirt as he removed it. The 3 piles in the previous post. Plus having room to place the excavated soil that is removed.  They did a long line of " test slices". Each test slice was dug out. Zach was jumping in and out of the hole. He needed to dig past that underground flow and into dry clay. Once he determined the depth was good, it was immediately filled with the clay mixture. It was placed in and pressed down with the excavator. The slice was slightly wider than the excavator bucket and maybe 12 ft long. He then did another slice in line with the one he finished. I'm guessing 7 of these slices. They are arched to form the dam. After the full length is done (at ground level) the remaining clay will be added above ground. The bad dirt will be added to the front and back of dam. Zach doesn't want the clay to be at the surface. A clay core dam is better than an all clay dam.