Phil Stevens

From my memory of using elastomeric paint on my roof in Tucson, it was basically a thick latex paint. I collected lots of rainwater there (for plants, not drinking) and it was good quality -- no off smell and attractive to bugs if I left it uncovered. The roof paints that are sold here (NZ) are acrylic latex and most, if not all, are labelled as being drinking water safe. You might be able to ask the manufacturer, or have some captured water tested.

Annie - I've got an Intensifire. It's been in for two years now and it really makes a difference. Not cheap but I would estimate at least a 25% gain in heat output for the same amount of wood, and zero visible smoke, which is a testament to the efficiency. I have to prewarm the flue when I light on days that it's not really cold out, because the downdraft is working against the weak draw of the chimney. The cast refractory parts are starting to wear a bit and I don't know how long to expect them to last, but Jason did replace the height block for me when the first one failed. The stainless flue extension will probably outlive the firebox.

I feel your pain. Practically every summer I start off with big healthy tomato plants, and then just as the fruit starts to ripen the leaves start to yellow and droop. I recently found out that they really don't like water on the foliage, especially in cooler climates like this one. So next summer I'm going to try some sort of canopy to keep the rain off. Where are you located?

Potatoes can be touchy with blights and many gardeners are adamant that you never grow them in the same bed from year to year. I always miss lots of small ones and have them sprout later, and some of those do as well as the ones I plant from "certified" seed potatoes. I would say to try in a new spot next year and hope they don't get stricken.

Moringa has been hard for me to get to flourish outside the glasshouse, so I don't really have any tips there. And the only thing that stops my rhubarb is drought or winter dormancy...but it's doing well right now (still winter) and we have had several nights down to -3 or more in the past couple of weeks. The plants are somewhat sheltered by the feijoas, so maybe that's why they're happy.

I got some of these seedling bags and a grow mat as a gift:

https://www.floatingpeaks.co.nz/shop/garden-gift

I liked them but they might be on the pricey side. I've often thought about felting some of the many bags of wool I've got into matting, but just don't have the time for it at the moment.

Use it to inoculate biochar by soaking. As a bonus, you lose the stench.

Willows are my "carbon crop" trees. I coppice and pollard them, using the poles for garden stakes and biochar, with the added benefit of fodder for the sheep. I can either feed them directly if I cut in the summer or early autumn for drought fodder, or dry them for tree hay to feed out during winter. For actual firewood, I like Tasmanian blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) because it comes up from root suckers without being planted (could be weedy but hasn't been trouble here), grows fast, fixes nitrogen, pollards and coppices fairly reliably, yields a dense, high-heat fuel, and plays nicely with surrounding trees.

r ransom wrote:I just discovered bardcore - it's like medieval music, but with a modern bend.

The songs can be pretty fun.

Paint it black, but make it more medieval

That was just what I needed on a stormy morning. The ending gets very Carmina Burana-ish, which took me to this wonderful digression:




Back to proper bardcore, though...I went looking for Kashmir and came up empty. Might have to put this in the project queue. But this one is so, so good:

Biochar pH is going to be a function of two main variables: Feedstock mineral content, and highest treatment temperature. Hardwoods tend to have more minerals than coniferous species, so the biochar will have more embodied ash and a correspondingly higher pH. Softwoods like pine and fir don't produce nearly as much ash and yield a more neutral or even acidic biochar.

At lower temperatures, the reactions of pyrolysis form various hydrocarbons that bond to the carbon molecules of the char substrate. These are reactive, often acidic, and tend to lower the pH of the biochar. Higher process temperatures destroy most of these substances and leave behind more pure nonreactive carbon along with the minerals, so the resulting biochar will be more alkaline.

I'm a little surprised at that cited article's claim that charcoal is higher in pH. I would expect products made at low temperatures (to retain more of the hydrocarbons for easy lighting and greater heat value) to be more acidic in the same way biochar is. Also, the realistic range for biochar production is more like 350-750 C. Below that the pores are plugged, and once you get around 800 degrees the structure turns to graphene sheets and porosity decreases due to the flattening effect.

If you're trying to fix acidic soils, go for hardwoods and high temperatures. If your soils are alkaline (or you're growing acid-loving plants) then stick to conifers and keep the temps down. Post-treatment like composting or washing with rainwater will also lower the pH of the finished product.

I just watched a PBS documentary on the January 2025 fires in LA, looking at the response a year later and doing some deep analysis of what could have been done to protect the communities that burned. The biggest bang for the buck, stressed again and again, was fireproofing the properties and structures, pretty much along the lines of all the good advice that's been coming out in this thread. There were a few major points that might not have been intuitive to those of us that haven't been through a massive wildfire:

It's much, MUCH harder to fight a fire once it has transitioned from wildland to the built environment. One house in an urban setting takes 10-15 people and 2-3 appliances to successfully extinguish...if the winds are high or water unavailable, they can't be expected to save it. And if the houses around it don't have a fully hardened perimeter, they are even more likely to catch. and now the equipment and people requirement is multiplied by the number of houses involved.

In high wind events, all bets are off. Wind-blown embers can travel hundreds of metres ahead of the flame front, and they get driven into all sorts of places that allow them to kindle new fires. Vents, gutters, shutters, any sort of gap that leads to fuel is a hazard.

Even if there's an ample water supply and hydrants, as soon as a lot of houses have burned then each one of them will have its supply connection running full blast because the internal plumbing is destroyed. Add those together and you get a significant pressure drop, coupled with the loss of supply that's now just running down the streets.

William Bronson wrote:
Phil, rather than a batch box rocket stove to provide heat to your retort,consider a sawdust stove.
They are cheaper and simpler to build, they can burn many hours without any human intervention and the fuel is tight there at your fingertips.

I'd like to do that, because there is a MOUNTAIN of nice clean sawdust. Problem is, it's outdoors and it rains a lot here. Sawdust stoves are dependent on dry fuel, just like a TLUD...I saw one barrel full of wood pellets grind to a smoky halt when the flame front hit a wet zone.

So it looks like I'm destined to go down the track of a monster batch box. Peter's got a chart of dimensions that go up to a system size of 250 mm (10 inch) and I think that will pump out enough heat to get a 1.5 - 2 m3 retort cooking. Apparently someone in Argentina has built one this size, so maybe I'll try to get in touch for some tips.