Tom Robertson

Been delivering to hvac shops
I am amazed at the scrap they throw away
I picked up an old oil furnace made from quarter inch steel .
Just need to cut off the top and slide a 55 gal barrel over it .
Well , after the fire box and stove pipe .
They are throwing away good equipment.
If it's old and too expensive to fix
Radiators also known as coils
Ekec motors
Fans

I've also seen gas water heaters scraped

Its the width that gives strength
Example a 2x6 will span 6 to 8 ft
But you need a 2x8 to span further
Doubling up supports more weight  but not increase the span
Search for dimensions for headers

Once saw a YouTube video on cover crops
Can't find it again
But he threw all his veg seeds in the drill hopper .
All mixed up .
I in 5 acres he had normal cover plus the veggies
The town was welcome to harvest
You had to knock down the 3 ft high cover go find
Cucumbers , tomatoes, squash,  pumpkin  .....
It proves there are no weeds
Just competition  for different root zones   each a compliment to each other

At the end he let his cows in .  They loved it

Pool blankets make cheap insulators
Or take a page from the double poly green house .
Though a sheet of poly over and use a fan to inflate it.

BTW.  Glycerin is a by product of biodiesel.

80 percent of your compaction  is from the first 3 passes.
That's why loggers try to use skid roads
If you can make 2 passes then compaction is less.
So anything over 3 passes don't make too much difference.
Driving on wet land is 100 percent compaction.

I'm going off what I've read.
What's your take on metal disintegration in the riiser?

It's not the high Temps per se.
It's that at higher Temps oxygen is pulled out of the  liner.
That's why metal liners burn out.

A liner needs to be non reactive to oxygen stripping.

My family had a coal and timber railroad right of way when they bought it in the 50s.
Outside Seattle
Half mile went though the property
Same work your doing.
We removed all the ties (sleepers)  and all the trees gowing, including the verge.
The grade makes a good road when your done.
The ballast isn't too deep nor of high quality.
So vegetation left to grow will break it down  fairly fast.

I bow to your greater knowledge.
I'm just an interested amateur
I like how something is in the back of my head can come back 30 years later and still be useful.

Here's the engineer with some history too.