Stew Haggerty

As a Canadian, I am absolutely blown away whenever I hear about health care in the US.  I'm a 52-year-old man and I can honestly say I have very little idea how my healthcare works.  Whenever I or a member of my family is sick or injured we go to the doctor.  Simple as that.  I know my taxes pay for it but I have never, ever had to think about medical care.  It seems wrong to me that the wealthiest people get better health care than the poor and the stories of medical bankruptcy are absolutely astounding.  Putting insurance corporations in charge of medical decisions for the individual seems to me to be a horrible idea.   When have they ever chosen the individual over profit?

First thing that came to mind was silver maple for me as well.

I have some heavy weatherproof material that I am planning on wrapping the barrel with that is black on one side and white on the other.  I'm hoping that it will extend the life of the system in the spring and fall if it heats the water so that I don't have to winterize so early.  In the summer I can just turn it inside out to reflect light.  The problem as always is that there just aren't enough hours in a day, particularly at this time of year.

I've went ahead and built the frame for the rainbarrel using some reclaimed 6 x 6 that I had laying around and it all went rather well.  I had chicks arriving this past Tuesday so after reading everyone's suggestions I went ahead with my plans.  I ran a hose to some 3/4" pvc that I attached some small bowls to, so that should hopefully be the chicks main water source for the next 2 weeks until they're out on pasture.  Then my layers will have it as they're main source until freeze up.  As you can see I haven't had time to actally put up an eavestrough yet so I've just filled it using the hose for now.  I also have room for a second barrel if I need it but I think one should be enough.

I'm not to worried about bacteria as any system has to be "scrubbed" every now and then.  I thought there was a mineral deficiency in rainwater that makes drinking it hard on the body as it leeches minerals from the body or something of that nature.  Again, I can't remember where I heard this, I think when I was looking into harvesting rainwater to drink in our house.  

I am planning on harvesting rainwater from my barn roof to make it easier to water my chickens.  The plan is to have a 55 gallon drum feed 20 chicken nipples.   My roof is 10' by 16' and is covered with tin.  In the past I have heard that this shouldn't be done but I can't remember why.  Something about rainwater needing to be treated or amended before giving it to livestock but I really don't know what it was.  Can anyone help me out with this?  It would be a great chore to get rid of,  checking the water sounds so much better than filling.

Just signed up! Thanks!

Sorry I didn't reply sooner but I was out boiling yesterday.  Thankfully it was a small batch so I wasn't out all day.

Sugar is a natural antifreeze. Put the bucket in the freezer over night. Throw out the ice the next day. Repeat.

This is actually the reason I was done so early was that we had a cold snap and there was an inch of ice on all the sides of my pail so I was able to get rid of a lot of the boiling.  Normally, I'm able to get rid of a lot of the water due to ice but this year it has been really warm.  I do have a freezer available though and I may as well use it.  

I would avoid a water heater for boiling for toxicity sake.

I'm not sure what the inside of a water heater is made of exactly.  I think it is lined with a ceramic coating which may be a problem  for cleaning but because it is household water I don't think I have to worry about toxicity.  I think my biggest worries will be surface area, mounting it and making sure it doesn't scorch.  

a reverse osmosis filter

I love this idea, I never thought of this.  Now, being as frugal as I am, surely there's a way I can build my own.  It may not be able to get as much water out, but there has to be a way to do this without paying the big bucks.  I think this will make a good project for next year.  

you really should look into getting a typical "commercial style" pan.

I have been looking around at different forums for ideas but I really hate to buy something I may be able to build.  I'm not much of a welder but I saw sheets of stainless at the scrapyard so I was thinking of trying my hand at making my own.  However, first I need to do some research to see how I would go about doing it.

Thanks everyone for your ideas.  If you have pictures of your setup I would love to see them for inspiration.

Thanks again for the advice.  Looking at the drop tubes I don't think they will work for me they way my stove is right now but I love the idea.  I'm thinking that I need to probably go 3 blocks high and build the horizontal chimney like you said or maybe do a total rebuild.  Right now I am only 2 blocks high and there is not enough room for drop tubes.  I checked out mapletraders for some pics and I see what you mean about the fire only having to be in the front.  I was thinking I needed to change my pans but I think the biggest change I have to make is to the stove itself.  If I can add 2 pans, put in a chimney and rebuild my stove to be more efficient that should save me some time.  I figure Sunday will probably be my last run for this year as we were hit really early so I'm going to be on the lookout for some possible stove shells.  
By the way, you keep using the word arch, I am thinking that that means stove or the fire part of the evaporator, is that correct?

If so, copper drop tubes can just about double your boil rate on those buffet steam pans.  

Thanks for your feedback Mike.  I've never heard of drop tubes before, what exactly are they?  I enjoy plumbing and have lots of copper pipe that I have salvaged over the years so I have the materials, I'm just lacking the knowledge.
Also I've thought of adding more pans but I'm worried that as the length of the stove or burn chamber grows that I may lose the draft or just not be able to get fresh wood down to the far end of the burn chamber.  I find that as it gets later in the day the coals build up and it is harder to get a hard boil as all of the coals end up choking the fire.  When I've tried to take coals out I get a lot of ash blowing around and in the pans which is never a good thing either.  How far is your fire from the bottom of your pans?