Rich Points

I feel the same.  I'm in Beaverton MI, full of homesteading and permaculture aspirations.  I've been here 8 years and my community is tiny, so tiny.  If you're interested in coming by for a tour I'd love to show you around to discuss the potential.

Rich

Hey All,
I put together a Jean Pain compost powered hot water heater in early November to produce domestic hot water for my off grid homestead.   You can check out the build here




Six weeks after the build I put together this follow up and review


Summary, my build was too small and stalled out within six weeks.  If I did this again I would make sure it was no less than a 40 yard pile reaching 9/10ft tall.

I spend my time researching and learning more.

I finally got around to reading Elliot Coleman's book the Four Season Harvest.  If you want to be growing all year this is a great place to start.  First written in 1992 it's still quite relevant
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/four-season-harvest/

Farmer Jessie and No-Till Growers is an amazing resource for gardening ecologically.  
https://www.youtube.com/@notillgrowers

check out their website for a bunch of other podcasts including; The Composter, Market Garden, Collab Farm, Winter Growers and others
https://www.notillgrowers.com/

And one more about No-Till Growers is the Living Soil Handbook which is a great companion to the YouTube channel
https://www.notillgrowers.com/livingsoilhandbook/d9z5gkf1bbnhu0w5xxb3trngiqhwgo

Charles Dowding is a market gardener in England and is an excellent teacher with high quality content.  He also has several books
https://www.youtube.com/@CharlesDowding1nodig

John Kempf blows me away every time I hear him speak.  While the focus is on broad acre farms and larger operations the soil science information found here is invaluable.
https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/

The Real Organic Project is a wealth of knowledge.  Not directly garden related but very relevant.  Great podcast!  Several amazing interviews with Elliot Coleman.
https://realorganicproject.org/

While not directly garden related Ben Falk's book The Resilient Farm and Homestead, second edition is a great read.  This book documents 20 years as a permaculture practitioner and his interactions with the land.  I loved this book!
https://www.wholesystemsdesign.com/the-resilient-farm-homestead-ben-falk

What Your Food Ate by David Montgomery and Anne Bikle is extremely insightful.  This book brings together the worlds of health and nutrition and agriculture.  
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/58999199-what-your-food-ate

Glyphosate - This interview with Zach Bush discusses the problems with glyphosate in great detail.  Grab a notepad and give this a listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL6KHhCTNZo&ab_channel=AdvancingEcoAgriculture

I could go on...

Hope this helps.

Well, the workshop didn't happen because nobody signed up.  But I did get a few people together and we made it happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJwvUia55f0

I'm co teaching with Deanne Bednar from Strawbale Studio https://strawbalestudio.org/ who built  a Jean Pain heater 10 years ago to heat a straw bale building.  

This will be a smaller build closer to 20 yards because of...context.  

So far I have zero sign ups so, I hope it's more than just Deanne and myself working on it.

As for research and implementation things seem to have stalled out.  The Gaelen Brown books Compost-Powered Water Heater came out in 2014 which documents many case studies of Jean Pain as well as the more commercial Isobar system developed by Agrilab Technologies.  Agrilab produced a bunch of videos in the mid teens but I haven't found anything newer than 2017.   Their website is current but doesn't give much information.  https://agrilabtech.com/

The most recent content I'm finding is by a tinkerer, market gardener Earthdwellers Homestead youtube channel.  He's trying all kinds of different methods and techniques.  https://www.youtube.com/@Earthdwellershomestead

Honorable mention:  While not specifically about compost heaters Ben Falk, in his second edition of the book  The Resilient Farm and Homestead https://www.amazon.com/Resilient-Farm-Homestead-Revised-Expanded/dp/1645021106/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.gtr3o9kA-xNl_cjb7JPU7ijkZFJi4-C8K1E3fTP-Mq5hkSYhKIWwBxH4jUyL1FAC8jpa_yxy638mlxIrBljO6BJN1T0wE5PgngywasCyKiJPP5xun26z6OcMoJQSWpBz47DK3cH8xiyEPW3hiozy3KjVKtKC6T_keFG6Jr-MC0px_AWD52W9Cis9_yGY6IpbB6O6y6-RYMKFiZawtduP93HTpCEpHOwIy7AUIV6qAgA.U6yW4DA33hnUN6EyuAbl2ivNy-ItodH1rQzbO-rbxjI&dib_tag=se&keywords=The+Resilient+Farm+and+Homestead&qid=1727792521&s=books&sr=1-1, talks of his experience with a Jean Pain system.  He writes that he wouldn't do it again because he doesn't need the compost.   Which reminded me of one of my favorite permaculture principles of stacking functions/yields; heat and compost.  

Water heaters aside, Ben Falk's book is one of the best homesteading, permaculture books I've encountered in a while.  The highest of recommendation.


Rich

Hey All,
I'm hosting a workshop that will build a Jean Pain style hot water compost pile.  Once the pile is built it will produce hot water to be used in my living space as radiant heat and dish washing.  

I'll be co teaching with Deanne Bednar from the Strawbale Studio in Oxford MI.

I would encourage you to come even if you're not interested in compost hot water but rather to network with other permies in central lower Michigan.  I'm also running a rocket mass heater and various other permie type things if you'd like to check them out.

Saturday
Oct, 24, 2024, 11a.m.-3p.m.
Beaverton MI

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wood-chip-water-heater-hands-on-workshop-tickets-1026822763527?aff=oddtdtcreator

Hey All,
I have a small flock of chickens, 4 hens and a rooster which are just over 2 years old.  The hens are slowing down on egg production so I got a couple new, year old, birds from a neighbor.  The coop and run are 30ft from my living space and I keep a close eye on them.

Things are turbulent.  I introduced the new birds at dusk and the first few days were...ok.  But things got tense and the flock chased the new birds out of the run, I have a 6 ft fence with no covering.  The birds wandered off into the woods and came back at night.  This happened for a few days and one of them didn't come back.  

It's been a week and the remaining bird is having a rough go.    The rooster has been mating with her and will protect her to a point but when the other birds start attacking her he joins in.  So today I had to intervene while all 5 of them were attacking her.  She's beat up and freaked out.  She jumped the fence and is hanging in the woods.

What can I do to help the flock accept this new bird?  

Thanks
Rich

Hey All,
I just made a short video about how I clean my RMH and start a new fire.  Check it out.

I'm in Beaverton MI, a rural area.  I've been practicing permaculture for about 7 years now and it's a lonely pursuit.  I'm doing no till, cover crops and as many regenerative practices I can.  I try to adhere to the permaculture principles to the best of my ability but building community has been very difficult.   I'm perceived as a freak.

I've invited people here on these forums to come see my Rocket Mass Heater but nobody bites.  

The best resource I've found in the state to find like minded folks is the https://strawbalestudio.org/  in Oxford Michigan.  It's run by an amazing woman, Deanne Bednar.  She does a great job of bringing people together.  It's a long drive for me to get there but it's always a high quality experience when I go.

I'm sure there are like minded people in my local community but it's been hard to find them.

Rich