tony uljee

would like to get this enlarged and hang it up in the manshed bar, on the wall of inspiration

if you type in BIOMEILER , and jean pain , it will show a whole lot more on german ,dannish , dutch sites that have built really big systems and some have good details and plans drawn up--just hit goggles translate and bobs your aunty jenny in some of the direct swop over to englash--but you wiil get most of it,cheers

my 5 cents worth --(sorry we dont have 1 or 2 cents here anymore) Jean s priority  in making the large composting piles was not to create hot water  or methane to power his little car or cook with ,but to rejuvenate the forest floor and build up the soil , plus clear the firebreaks of the estate he was managing---he also seems to have been working with a very small number of helpers --if any ?---he needed a quicker way and faster method to compost down the material that had before been considered waste and a fire hazard , on a very large scale but as quickly as possible and with out burning it. Plus he had to take into consideration the lack of water and had to be economical with it, his own design of shredder is still made . The hot water and methane was an added bonus and his hard earned hands on approach gave the best working model of this system , i think in trying to down scale this down is where the whole idea falls flat , his brother has made a few youtube clips which are very interesting and fill in a few blanks of the mans life and a glimpse at his character---and madness---using a small homemade compressor to pressure fill tanks of methane from old truck tube holding reservoirs--then  strapping this onto the 2cv vans roof and driving around the estate----our world is just a little bit less interesting ---he would have made the health and safety mob reach for the drink---with him now gone.

thanks, i have thought about floor timbers and sources of it for awhile now and its looking like 9x2 inch at 18 feet are the easiest to source and to buy as in bulk they come down in price , they are  pre finished and only require minimal sanding --sounds over the top for flooring maybe , but every other option is plywoods and engineered wood as they call it with a very thin "looks like wood" over it---too much glue and chems for me---true old style solid wood plank flooring is way beyond the budget and skill level .started bring out the logs from the forest as well for the beams.

well i am planning far ahead---by way of novelty planting more than a deliberate plan of action as you have going--got 6 parana pine seedlings ranging about a foot to 2 feet high plant over here in ireland and will add about 2 or 3 to that number each year till i have maybe 20 to 30 of them---my decendants  or someone  else  wise enough  to recognise what they have growing in the back field is edible ---and instead of chainsawing it down for firewood may get to snack on them.Your fog harvesting idea , read up on an odd quirky post or a pdf on the web ---under the heading of ---goodbye capetown .

thanks, cottage is 21 feet wide outside to outside walls , walls are 30 inches thick--each side---and its 63 feet long---with a simple A framed rafter roof --its been around a long time so has had several hundreds of years of running repairs , some fairly horrific , but its still here and standing, i have no intention of demolishing any walls or hacking them up any further than they have been already, but the house is too small for us , the existing roof timbers are very old and a mix of hand cut and old  rough sawn timber planks ---all small sizes--no big majestic single log stuff here--and its all full of wood borer. So to solve several issues , going to strip off the entire roof and make up new rafters in a gambrel style --to create an entire full length and width(almost) top floor space with lots of headroom, which can then be divided up into some bedrooms and a bathroom/ toilet. So the plan is to span the width with round pole timbers ---spaced at 48 inches centers and lay plank on top of it as a new floor area---it wont be supporting any roof loads . Would have to bring each pole up to level and thus have a single back cut along their lengths to achieve this-- have had some experience with gum tree poles and they dont take  kindly to this idea ---they split and twist  quite a bit ---so hence my question --as i have very limited hands on/working knowledge of sitka spruce in its round pole---would they tend to do the same or stay stable .thanks

i was reading about some compressed hemp fibre earth blocks ,where a test was being done based on 5 formulas /mixes to determine which or how many solutions could work , one was woodash paste ,clay and chopped whole hemp stalk

been viewing the 2 links you posted up, lots of good work shown , hands on and from the very begining --from the ground up---congratulations

Jean Pain was using the thinnings from his forestry management system of the trees , the green twigs ,leaves and smaller diameter branches---brown and green stuff  -- plus brush cleared from firebreaks--not really chipped up but more of a tearing shredding process in the length --- in his own specifically designed /built machine---to maximise surface area for bacterial action to kick start quicker---and in huge piles /mounds of material , he was in the 50 to 60 ton of stuff at a time.

what you have given has been helpfull and at least gave some ideas ,i would have gotten to an answer in the the end --just a bit later  maybe --but what you gave -- got my thought process on the right direction, i have goggled up some stuff on beam stress calculations again  ,and the pictures are great help too, i have to work with what i have to hand and with what i can cobble together machine wise , i will need to build a simple long enough steel ladder frame on legs and slide a chainsaw along it to cut a flat face off each log---looking at the workshop section on the forum gets me dreaming away---i have an old stick welder , a small grinder and large grinder, hand drill and hammers ,and selection of hand made chisels plus spanners,and a small home built forge and anvil,  thats it really but i have managed to build my man-shed , my teleporter/telehandler s shed , a bucket ,boom and a mixer for that as well , 2 car trailers, car ramps , nissan hut shed roof trusses, several woodstoves ,my own kitchen range cooker, all the beds and some furniture plus several projects /repairs for friends ---but hand hewing beams ---hats off to you for that, cheers ,tony