George Green

I'm not sure if broad beans will shade out everything but I might try one area that way. I was thinking to till only once and from then on keep it mulched.

The pasture is quite short grass now with cracks in the clay in areas, I'm not sure if that's because the grass was too short in dry summer or if it happens every year but I have a feeling it's because it was too short and I'm not sure if the cracks will close or if it will stay compacted without one tilling. A big learning curve ahead.

We have some hay that was slashed and raked into windrows to top the bed, but that will have grass seed in, and I'm not sure if I should use it.

I'm planning to grow some crops on my father's land which is pasture in NW Tasmania. I'll put in some garlic and broad beans very soon and then I have more time to prep for spring where I'd like to grow maize, corn, buckwheat, quinoa and veggies. We bought a rotary hoe to help clear the grass but once the cropping area is established, I hope to maintain it with mulch. I'm looking for advice or suggestions about how best to approach this.

For the spring crops I'm thinking to prepare the area this autumn.

Plan so far:
Once the rains start and the soil softens, I'll add gypsum and dolomite lime (soil is slightly acidic clay).
Till an area to hopefully remove grass (never used a rotary hoe before).
Water in microbial solutions when it is raining over winter (JMS, Compost tea)

I'm just a bit nervous about cultivating an area too early and having it just grow back but I'd like to give it a good prep of microbes before planting. Maybe it would be good to till this autumn, apply microbes through winter, then till again in spring just before planting? Any advice is much appreciated.

Warren Connors wrote:Hi George
Just wondering if you live near me?
I'm in Elizabethtown with 400m2 of vege gardens and 30 laying hens.
I make all my own compost as we have a horse as well.

Cheers Warren Connors

Hi Warren I live in Smithton so far NW. A horse helps the compost pile a lot right! I don't have one but I get to collect from some friends horses.

William Bronson wrote: Many years ago I came across a post about  heating off grid cabins.
The author used barrel stoves, which he installed in dirt floored cellars beneath the cabins.
He surrounded the barrel stoves with tons of thermal mass in the form of dry stacked stones.
By firing the stove with hot, quick fires, he charged the mass with enough heat to keep the cabin warm while he was asleep or away, and it kept the cellar dry.

To appease your wife's legitimate concerns wife buy the cheapest legal woodstove you can find, surround it with bricks and other thermal mass, build hot and fast fires whenever you can.

If you want to use a homemade stove,  you can build a shed, greenhouse or hoophouse  just outside your home and put the stove in there.
Let the stove heat that space use vent pipe to move the heated air into a mass located inside the house.

I think we posted at the same time and I missed this! The thermal mass stove under the floor is a really cool idea. I also like the out-hot-house idea too, we will have a roofed area out the front door soon and eventually walled so we can do that in the future.

We do have a wood stove we got for $5 at a garage sale, its thick steel but the door is cracked, might see if we can get that fixed and just wrap it in bricks or cob.

Thanks for looking over it guys, I think I'll be looking at other options for now. The liberator stove looks nice but I'm in Aus and I reckon shipping would be a bit. Gonna keep an eye out for second hand pellet heaters.

Cristobal Cristo wrote:Hi George,

Is the firebox with the barrel inside of the house?

Hi Cristobal, the whole system would be outside, thanks.

Hi all I was hoping to run this idea by a few of you to see what you think.

I've attached a pic of the design, I thought of using a steel 200L barrel over a rocket stove where the flue passes through the barrel heating the air inside, which I was hoping the natural rise of heat would carry it into the house, otherwise a small fan pushing the air in could push it into the house. The rocket stove under the barrel would probably be made of mud or brick.

We need to heat our house this winter as the condensation from a small home even on double glazing will mould the window sills and affect our health. Because the air intake will be external air, would the air coming inside still contain humidity?

If so I don't think it would be too hard to pipe air from inside the house and through the barrel via a small fan.

What do we think of the design? I chose the idea as it would be very simple to build and my wife doesn't want any experimental fireplaces inside. The alternative is going to be a $4000 pellet heater! I really appreciate any help with this or direction towards a simple cheap solution, thanks!

Hi all my name is George, living in NW Tasmania

My wife and I live on a ~600sqm town block on the edge of town by some forest. We built a small house (5x7m) 1.5 stories The grass was dug up and piled into beds, a variety of trees  were planted and we are 3 years in now. A few cubic meters of biochar was added early on, roughly 15cubic meters of woodchips have been laid on paths, many loads of silage, a few loads of compost, many loads of sea grass, a few loads of kelp. It disappears into the black sandy silty soil a bit but the top soil is building.
There is a 4 bed hydroponic system built from IBC tanks, it's essentially a flood and drain aquaponics system but no fish. I feed her a hand full of blood and bone, a hand full of chicken poo pellets, a hand full of ash, some duck poo, some pee, whatever really lol. If I fed her more the plants would probably be booming but we get a decent handfull of strawberries at the moment. She runs from a solar panel and a single battery, with a light sensor switch so she turns off at night.
There are 5 female muscovy ducks who keep the slugs down and lay eggs and are just the sweetest.
We built a ~3x8m greenhouse from recycled windows and a 1.5m brick wall on the south side. There are some blue drums full of water which keep the temps a little warmer overnight, oh and a banana plant...
Lots of projects on the go but the next is heating for the winter so I'll go over to the rocket stove section and make my post!