Gray Henon

Anne Miller wrote:The cosmic truths of cheap grocery shopping is that there is no such thing.

My teenager could probably buy a week’s worth of groceries for himself with 4 hours or so of his starting wage.  It would be non-organic but would include sufficient meat and vegetables.  We may not be at the absolute bottom of food prices, but compared to the rest of human history, food is very cheap.  

Still need to move it to its final resting place, but one project off the list.  Might even be able to trim a little charring material off of it…

May Lotito wrote:The scale you are doing is truly impressive! Could you show some pictures of areas with the biochar spread on as well?

Here are a couple I had handy.  In the first, you can see where the surface of the soil has darkened, but where a creature (dung beetle?) has dug and brought up soil from deeper, it is still very mineral based with lower organic matter.  I figure I have spread around .25” of biochar on the pasture/orchard in the second pic.

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Done!  Might take a break for a week or two and work on some other projects.  90+ temps and high humidity are not very conducive to splitting wood

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Burned another pile of splits made from the well seasoned wood (mostly yellow pine) in my woodshed.  Did it in a steady rain, so it didn’t get quite as hot as the last one.  Used the pipe again and it charred pretty well in the center, but hard to say if it was the pipe, or just the very dry feedstock.  I’ve got a few more loads of shed wood left, then I’ll try the pipe with wetter white pine.  The burn is pretty hard on the thin walled stove pipe, but today a friend offered me a section of old steel flag pole.  It tapers a bit, but I think I can get a pretty good length at around 5” in diameter.  Pics of the fire, the emptied out woodshed, and the woodshed refilled is pine knots unsuitable for biochar production, but fine for woodstove fuel, provided the chimney is kept clean.

6/11/26

A few google pics of what I am thinking, but probably looking for something a bit simpler…

I’ve got extra logs and looking for some art ideas for them.  I did arrange some large half logs in a spiral to make flipping logs, so the visiting kids could look for creatures.  What else do you have?

Greatly depends on the climate, the labor willing to work it, the equipment you are willing to buy/maintain, and the inputs you are willing to import.

I’ve got just shy of 6.  Plenty enough to keep me busy.  We might grow 25-40% of our food for 4.  I used to think I might buy  a few acres from the neighbors but those days are over.  Right now I am trying to figure out how to keep things running when the kids move out.

I like to think about what one person can maintain with minimal equipment and inputs.  Ball parking, maybe 1/2 an acre of garden, maybe 2-3 acres of orchard, and maybe 100+ of pasture.

We’ve been working on establishing silvopasture for many years.  We’ve planted trees in what was previously open pasture and thinned trees in what was previously woodland.  We have found it is much easier to add trees to pasture than it is to remove trees from woodland (absent heavy equipment). Woodland requires the removal of a tremendous amount of material to allow for light penetration and grass growth.  We have found 75% tree removal to be a good ball park figure.  On the other hand, trees can fairly easily be added to pasture at the appropriate spacing, and fast growing species such as black locust start adding meaningful shade in 3-5 years.  

What has been your experience?

Some chickens are smarter than others when it comes to predators.  Saw a video a while back where a fellow was trying to breed survival skills back into laying hens by crossing them with game hens, if I recall correctly.