Erika House

Nicola Bludau wrote:It depends on how well your soil holds water, but  I would dig a bit more to make the whole thing worthwhile. Sepp Holzer has some videos on how to seal ponds. A packet of bentonite would help to seal it but watch these videos (I hope there's something in English)

Any and all digging at this point is less  digging and more breaking up the rock into small removable pieces. And the edges of those pieces (and any rock remaining in the hole) are very sharp.  I doubt I'd need outside clay to seal it since pretty much my entire yard is pottery worthy clay.  I've watched most of the Sepp videos, as well as the ones here on permies, about sealing ponds, but they seem to be in mostly sandy soil and not the rock that I have.

When I moved onto this property one of the first things I did after observing where the water pooled when the snow melted was dig out that area and fill it with wood chips. This is where the overflow from my rain barrels, and water from our rare rainstorms, ends up.

I recently dug out the nicely decomposed wood chips and was going to refill it with fresh ones, but I wonder if I could turn it into a small pond for the frogs and birds to enjoy instead?

The problem is the rock that is at the bottom. It's layered in with very sticky clay and when dug into it breaks into lots of sharp pieces. The water drains in about 12 hours, and dries out completely in 2 days if there's no fresh influx of water.

I could use permies' help to figure out if and how it could be turned into a small pond, or if I should just go back to the wood chip fill.

paul wheaton wrote:


If you are good, then when you die, you get seasons 2 through 10 of firefly!

THAT is a reward I will join a cult for!

Thanks for all the responses.
I wasn't thinking of spending money to get briquettes to do this with, I was more thinking of if they were available as "unusable" because people had left them out in the weather or something like that.
I have plenty of available wood to make into char, but was hoping that maybe I could turn another (considered unuseable by others) source into usable char.

I know that BBQ charcoal briquettes aren't good for biochar because they aren't purely carbon. However, could they be put into a retort and have all the other stuff gassified out of them to then BECOME the perfect char for making into true biocha?

I have never heard of  alfalfa being toxic to itself. I have alfalfa growing in my yard and comes back on its own year after year. Its an amazing green mulch.

"Do you prefer Star Trek or Star Wars, and why?"

While I am great with outdoor plants, I am abysmal with indoor plants. I even somehow managed to kill a Cast Iron Plant!

The one exception to my indoor black thumb is Swedish Ivy.  I know it wants water when the leaves get dull, but if I don't notice (or forget for another week or two) it perks right up as soon as I get to it. It's really easy to propagate through cuttings as they root equally well in water or soil.  We even have some of them on the plant wall at my school, where they don't get any water during summer break.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Erika;
No, a J-Tube is not more efficient than a Batchbox.
In fact, it is the same efficiency, but a Batchbox burns hotter and for significantly longer.
They can heat a much larger mass.
They are also safer, with no openings directly into the fire.
A J-Tube and unsupervised children can lead to toys and other items being dropped into the fire.
Cats love heat, long bushy tails, and an open J-Tube could make things warmer than the kitty intended!

J-Tubes are excellent for sitting and enjoying the fire while adding wood every 30-45 minutes.
Batchboxes are for busy people who have things to do, including leaving for work all day.
Either choice is 100% better than using a metal box stove.

Once you heat with bricks (or cob), you will never have a metal box stove again.

That's good info.  Somehow I had it backwards in my head.  And I do have cats, so that's an important consideration.

Glenn Herbert wrote:Erika, if you built a batchbox style RMH, you could have a window in the door for fire viewing. Do remember that an RMH, unlike a woodstove, will not be burning all day, but for an hour or two per day in most situations.

Isn't a batchbox style less efficient in fuel usage than a j-tube?