Author: bob

New iteration of the old rocket stove

Hello again from winterland– no snow but plenty of cold, it has even gone down below 20 degrees F already. Inside, the lowest it got was in the mid 50s.

With a new stove build in progress, the place has relied completely on sun for passive heating, and yesterday, the first full sun in several days, I even got out a fan, and was moving the warm greenhouse air into the bedroom. Needless to say the sun gave me lots of surplus electrical energy with the new solar array I installed about three weeks ago.

this project is pretty ambitious, a smaller footprint and less passive mass, but with some luck the   water tank will provide an active absorption and transfer of heat to the mass of the floor.

For now the plan is to use a naked water tank, but depending on how well it works I may look for additional transfer with copper tubing instead.

Last night I got the stove ready and did a small test run to make sure I could count on the exhaust fan, and there was no trace of smoke inside. I prefer to have everything completely airtight so even though  the system is not finished, with positive ventilation it is tight enough to start the drying out process. There was very little heat at the exhaust pipe outside, but at this stage that really doesn’t tell anything since lots of btus are needed  to dry it all out.

Once dry the  btus will be available for cooking and heating water. One other effect of the moisture   is the secondary burn chamber did not function very well, at least I hope that was the issue. I noticed a brief period during the burn when it started to ignite so that was a good sign,but most of the burning occurred in the firebox.

So while more insulation is needed, and the water tank needs to be plumbed in properly, for the time being I have a cooktop, and can continue the drying process.

 

Here’s the build history thus far

take off watercoil,remove rocket barrel, notice soot–wasn’t burning too clean (except inside the riser, which was still snow white. The batch box I installed last year was made for a 6″ riser, but lining the 8″ riser with “1 inch” ceramic fiber reduced the riser size too much. There also may have been an issue with the port configuration and the way I typically ran the burns.  Getting used to the batch box dynamics requires a new mind set over typical managing of the burn in a regular wood stove.

gone with the old and a new platform  in it’s place note that I’m working here with wet clay in forms a mock up of the batchbox floor with secondary burn tube. This is the tube I took out of the old batch box, but the new dimensions doubled the  size of the tube I had been using for secondary air supply–this may have been part of the problem with excess soot in the old unit Perlite and clay on the back and left side, refractory cement on the right (shared side with oven) . odd bricks and such inside and out are used as wedges to hold split firebrick liner in place as forms while the clay perlite mix is solidifying

Adding the top secondary burn chamber.

In this picture the floor of the top chamber is ceramic fiber using a bit of water glass as a stiffener, but the final solution was giving a slight slope of the firebrick in the lower batch box reducing the width at the top by approx 1/2″  and precariously using the 1/4 inch or so for support of normal split firebrick. These were secured with a layer of perlite and clay keeping them precisely centered. Picture of oven location

With the oven in place. The final configuration with baffles to channel the heat No door on the oven yet, but since the inside of the oven is outside the combustion gas area it won’t stop me from doing a test run, here’s the top gaskets made of ceramic fiber

with the stove top and water tank in place

finally with a hurry up enclosure around the water tank and the first fire, a power vent replaces a draft, and the vent pipe was just comfortably warm outside after a half hour burn

Follow up tests have raised the stove top temperature to 570 F as the clay dries out. Once the temps start to stabilize, assuming a strong secondary burn,  I’ll be able to more accurately test the effects of different baffle placements, and actual potential of the design.

      view of secondary flame through top

 

views of firebox

This was taking at the beginning of a burn cycle. During the hotter parts of the burn the flames are a continuous robust splash against the amber colored stove top glass.. temps here are just approaching 900F.

Please note  much of the fuel is a bit damp. this slows starting and reduces overall performance.

More about Machinery and Permaculture

Some might not call it appropriate technology,  but machinery may not be all bad when thinking about sustainability. The real test is the overall increased output over the life of the system.

It is easy to think that a dam will last 1000 years and therefore becomes worth the immense amount of energy it takes to build a good one. Of course who is going to be able to be around to make sure the dam does not become simply another earthwork to be undone by others in the next generation. The reality becomes one of making projects immensely valuable to new generations so they are respected for the prosperity they bring in the future, not just for the single generation that creates them.

Bill used to talk about creating food forests that were later destroyed by new owners who only wanted to raise cattle. Misuse like that can quickly ruin a dam and even  invasion by trees with taproots could  threaten it’s existence. Almost all dams are going to silt up, so at some point in their history they will need to be cleaned out to remain as water bodies, but this can be a positive productivity, generating fertile land for crops.

To the extent possible, it is good for the dam builder to take responsibility for creating sustainable plantings around and on the dam, and perhaps even guide the next generation of owners in the care and use of the dam for greatest reward. Silt ponds and other  installations can aid in keeping dam maintenance an easy process, but there is no crystal ball that can foresee every possible future assault on the dam’s integrity.

For me, my projects are never guaranteed to be perfect. Like most patterns, the pattern of building a dam with swales to control erosion and hydrate the landscape is one that often works exceedingly well, and as time goes on there will be more and more applications of these patterns as they demonstrate their value. This awarenmess in turn starts to act as a protection, insurance against the vagaries of human insanity.

So I’m willing to spend large amounts of money and material and even fossil energy to create these earthworks as another demonstration to help our public expectations of normal use  evolve / improve.

If it is normal or expected to have well hydrated, highly productive systems, and the mechanics of the systems are well known, then more and more will be built. If a few don’t survive there will be many more that do. So in a sense everything we do to restore more natural water systems is a gamble, but the odds are good enough that overall they will guarantee success and become a new standard in the mainstream.

That being said, I’m currently struggling with the hydraulics of my second hand backhoe. Struggling is perhaps not the right word, but lately it has not been totally smooth sailing. A lot of the work is simply my own ignorance of machines, and being imprecise with my maintenance.

I would encourage anyone trying to keep a used machine running to know as much as possible before turning the key. New machines may be properly set up with great dealer support, but old machines may have a history of misuse leading to more trouble. Sometimes it requires special skills to repair and then maintain past troubles, but there’s no reason it can’t be done. Just be ready to give the machine a rest now and then when something breaks and follow through on finding the cause and the correct upkeep that keeps it from breaking again (if possible).

My example is the power steering cylinder, and I have installed two new ones that have each failed in turn, which has prompted me to examine the state of the hydraulic fluid in the entire system. It has always seemed a milky color, and a friend told me that was normal, and that the cheapest tractor supply fluid was good enough.

After two new cylinders going bad one after the other in quick succession I finally got the idea that maybe the problem was the machine system, not the cylinder. Dedicating some time to study the issue  I’m convinced of the need to change the fluid- all 25 gallons of it, and put in a premium fluid without so much water contamination.

The next step will be to see if the stop leak product I saw advertised is really a good idea or not. In fact, this whole thing has me seriously thinking about devoting a day out of every five to renewing some system or another in preventive maintenance.

I guess I’m sort of doing that already, replacing seals and greasing fittings, but I know there is a lot more about the machine that I’m just praying I won’t have to deal with. The more rational approach would be to accept the fact that sooner or later I’m going to have to learn it anyway, and the proverb of the stitch in time saving nine is as true now as it was in Ben’s day.

Maybe it’s time for an engine oil change too!

TWT

Remember, if you’re not having fun, you’ve got the design wrong. I’m still having fun- mostly, so I must be doing some stuff right, and the dam is growing incrementally with each period it is running and not sitting idle waiting for a part. Overall the machine does so much work so quickly, that my only regret is that I can’t afford a bigger, newer machine to do even more work.

😉

 

 

 

 

 

My Ponds with Photos

I’m currently in the process of adding newer photos to update progressAt the top of the kitchen garden, this new pond is a salvage that I had to repair using plastic welding techniques.  I tried to create a clay based pond  in this place, but all last year it filled many times and never held water very long, even with lots of clay added to try and seal it. In general, I would never spend money on a Plastic prefabs, but when the price is low and I can repair it, the energy audit becomes much better! I’m also finding that for smaller ponds a liner of some sort is probably going to be the only way to go.

Low Gully Pond

Due to bad weather at the time of creation I was unable to finish  building this dam with the rented backhoe,The water actually started to fill the pond from the bottom, and that water came in as a blue green color, but run off filled it most of the way, and that water was heavy with sediment  then it took weeks of hand labor to get it the rest of the way to this height.

It  overflowed during excessive Spring rain events. but drastically receded during the summer last year because of irrigation water use and being emptied to keep the goldfish pond  filled. The dam  holds water very well and I’m waiting to see if the summer gets dry enough to bring down the water level so I can move in the backhoe and complete the construction.

I’ve already started to build up the first part of the dam wall, but it’s tough to compact clay right at the water line

In another month, if the water is not down, I will drain it and then finish building the dam. (it’s great  to swim in at this level) Once completed I plan to stock it with Koi.

 

PlanThis is an overview of the  half of the property(red boundary). Difference in elevation is about 100′ from lower right to upper left and the two ponds  at the bottom of the picture are all in the same gully that runs downhill from right to left. The small pond pictured just above those two

has never really held water yet, but it does show signs of improving it’s water retention.   This may change over time with organic matter and better integration of the swale, but that requires completion of   the Low Gully Dam.

At the very top of the plan drawing the pond touches a neighbors property and there needs to be some sort of written agreement to establish clear rights and responsibilities regarding it’s construction, use, and maintenance before beginning construction. At present the long connecting swale ends just before the pond location, and if no arrangement is reached that swale will be extended  up along the property line to collect more water that would otherwise flow off the property.

This picture was taken  at a very low water level, and believe it or not there are

catfish that survived the winter at this water level (only a couple feet deep). This year they are  over a foot long!

 

This “high gully dam” is in it’s second year. It overflowed once,

filled two or three times, but is still filling the “back country”. Dams are meant to hydrate the landscape, and the process generally takes about seven years. Currently this dam is the focus of most backhoe energy, while it may not be obvious in the picture, the dam has been holding back the flood with a wall thickness of only 2 feet or less at the top but as this picture  shows, the added mass will more than double the width of the dam wall, and the actual compaction will also be much better.

and a great deal of mass has been added to the dam wall, as well as clearing much more of the area to the left  and top of the picture  to prepare for further excavation.

Goldfish pond (not shown on plan), a bit murky after a rainA close in snapshot of the gold fish pond. This was created when the driveway was put in about 15 years ago, and has boasted hundreds of fish, all descended from a few 38 cent babies from Walmart. There have also been crayfish, herons, and one huge snapping turtle that have all visited the pond at different points. Needless to say I try to discourage the heron(s) and snapping turtles with varying degrees of success.

Last year the fish in this pond suffered with dry weather throught the fall and winter, and the fish population was cut in half. Some of my favorite older fish disappeared and many smaller ones as well. But this year they are making a comeback and water levels are doing pretty good, so with luck they will continue to increase populations again.

 

Nuclear Energy and Permaculture

It can be intoxicating watching u tube videos on Thorium and molten salt reactors. Not enough so I want to dedicate my life to it, but certainly enough to binge watch and change my general attitude toward ALL nuclear energy.

Of course the whole molten salt reactor story seems to reinforce my general theory about government being the best friend of big business, and unable to see beyond the profit motives of powerful corporations/individuals. So it generally appeals to my long standing distrust of all big government, both Republican and Democrat, and as such fits nicely into my world view paradigm.

Of course many of the molten salt researchers and advocates fit very nicely into the 9-5, big business establishment, except  that they have stumbled onto one of those world changing discoveries that could actually remake civilization more toward that Star Trek world of the future where people have all their basic needs supplied for free and no one works for money but simply as a contribution to the common general well being, according to their  personal desires.

So  some of the “advantages ” of a molten salt reactor aren’t really advantages to a person who understands Permaculture, and there still needs to be some training in simple things like water and soil conservation, as well as better agriculture techniques to reduce energy inputs.

So  Permaculture principles do not disappear simply because of cheap abundant energy sources that do not pollute or cause climate change.

Bill was pretty emphatic that Permaculture needed to permeate all realms, micro and macro, and the swales and ponds I dig on my land are just as important as the molten salt reactors reducing CO2 output and consuming nuclear waste.

That’s right, consuming nuclear waste. Did you hear me?

I said Consuming all those spent fuel rods and misc items of nuclear crap trying to find a home, and turning them into electricity, or heat to melt steel, all with limited extra energy inputs, and amazing energy outputs from the process.

Without doing actual computations, it appears that these reactors would actually solve many other waste problems from man’s current activities and supply unlimited sources of energy going forward into the future. And the reality is that Our use of the thorium would simply be a more targeted application with very small quantities (relatively speaking ) of this same element that has been protecting and sustaining life on the planet.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to the day when we lay down all our tools, stop work and simply walk around in the garden  as supreme co creators , but I also see the hypocrisy of anti nuke enthusiasts benefiting from coal and fossil energy and unwilling to support something that promises to be even less toxic than solar panels.

If I thought solar and wind could scale fast enough to meet all electrical needs I would still want to know what you plan to do with all that nuclear waste.

Where’s elon musk when you need him , he might have an idea:-)

Mornings,

Taking away the pressure to “earn” a living puts me in a somewhat different mindset of what to do with my days. Watching projects unfold, keeping the rates of progress slow, making very careful observations as well as just mindlessly walking around in the early morning can guide and reveal and give perspective.

Often it is difficult to remove a set of existing features and substitute a different design/landscape, until the physical reality actually changes enough to be able to see the underlying hardscape, and what needs to be done to best achieve the desired ends.

Sometimes the original plans need to be totally abandoned, but more often it is a slight detour, postponement, moderate redesign, always of course with the idea of cooperating with the existing natural predisposition.

I’m going to guess that much of this “indecision” at the beginning has to do with my lack of experience, and as I become more adept I will see through existing features and guess the underlying reality more quickly, although, I think even with great experience there is still a responsibility to be alert to any changes that may be needed to make a better design.

Anyway, this morning as I walked around, I noticed many different things about ongoing projects, things that have no special meaning at this time, but may become important later on.  Do the two older beeches in an area get to stay? I had never noticed them until I opened up an area already choked with debris. Pulling out and chipping dead branches and clearing areas below a terrace allowed a more thoughtful penetration into the types of trees that actually populated that area destined to become a food forest.

How many times since clearing that area have I walked through there and not noticed that what I thought were poplar trees were actually beech trees with younger poplar saplings distracting my vision from the actual canopy.

What about some of the tall oaks in an area to be cleared, could they be pollarded and left to grow> Maybe I should finish untangling that wire that has been blocking access and stalling forward progress in a specific area (I did).

Often, without any specific idea of what I “want” to do in a day, the morning walk turns up tasks equally or more important than any plans I might have made, sort of like seeing ripe fruit ready to be harvested. Some jobs are “ripe” at a given time and can be completed easily, with great advantage. Other jobs are ongoing and call for a bit of attention to keep them from stalling out totally.

I have known for several days the next big job is for the backhoe, continuing a swale to a point where I can plant a couple pecan trees sitting in the wings. So while I see other things the backhoe might work on, I really need to get the path to the swale ready so the backhoe can get there.

That is the advantage of having a backhoe as a personal tool, I can take the time to do the preparation jobs well, and not create more work  by simply rushing the backhoe in and cleaning up the bigger mess later. I really like the idea of not being hurried, and my temperament resonates with that. Others might find it too slow or boring,  but I get a satisfaction out of watching jobs grow organically.

 

Also of course, with an older second hand machine, the ability to be careful and not push too hard can save lots of time and repairs later. Yes, I’m talking about the backhoe, although the same might be said for my own body. No sense in pushing it to break, tomorrow is another day and another morning.

But I digress. Some may prefer the evenings to inspect and admire the achievements of the day, and I do enjoy that aspect of this work, but the time that I enjoy most is mornings, when the day is new, and everything presents itself with the ability for fresh perspective and new understandings.

 

 

Seasons Change

No, I’m not talking about Spring to Summer, but wet to dry, or in this case wet to moist. It’s June, and there’s still some water falling occasionally, but evaporation has caught up with precipitation and left many of the plants getting thirsty.

I’ve started to water plants, and plan to start pumping water from the middle pond up to the lower greenhouse. This will leave the thousand gallon cistern (almost full) to be a backup for when the pond gets too low to pump.  I do expect to have plenty of water for the garden and new plantings right through till fall, but keeping the lower goldfish pond full may become a challenge.

Water is no longer overflowing naturally from the middle pond, so the fish pond is already 8 inches low. Last year was a fiasco of loose connections and haphazard attempts to fill the fish pond so this year one of the goals will be to make sure water goes directly to the fish pond from the middle pond when/if it becomes necessary to fill it a bit.

Water here is always a crap shoot, too much/ too little and no way to know in advance what the next season will bring. It is always possible we could get a good strong soaking rain that refills everything, but likely for the next couple months we will be lucky if it waters the plants occasionally.

I also have 4 new trees to plant, dwarf Granny Smith apple, Kiefer Pear, and two different pecans. I know where the pear can go, and have plans for the apple, but the pecans will need considerable space on the north side,  of zone 1 and accessibility there is difficult. Cleaning out a path for the backhoe I discovered one of the locations already has hickory tees growing which I intend to leave there, so the next step is thought and observation locating an alternate space that will accommodate these massive trees.

Oh well, it keeps me busy.

Remember, if you’re not having fun, you’ve got the design wrong.

More Rain

20th May, 2018

 

I hear about deserts that get all their rain in a few short (but often powerful) episodes, and three days later it’s impossible to believe there was ever  water in dried river beds and barren landscapes.

Here in VA we had another 24 hour period with around 4 inches of rain, but fortunately everything held, even the very flimsy repair at the site of the last dam breach. We certainly have more rain overall than a desert, and it can be very lush and green most of the time, but occasionally we do get into droughts where rain is scarce over a period of several months. This means that just like in the deserts, careful water management can go a long way to insuring continued growth of crops.

Both new dams are very full, and the 6″ overflow pipe protected the lower gully dam from further washing out. Installing that pipe was a hasty repair after the first 4 inch episode washed out about 1/2 yard of material in the dam wall.

These dams are not the final stage of the water design, in fact, they are not even completed themselves. The full dam construction and the connected swales will really put the ground hydration into full speed. there will still be water flowing from the land into the creek, but it will have to travel a lot more slowly and service many more features before it moves on.

More contour ponds, more irrigation, and generally larger volumes of water being held back to use at later times when the air stream decides to dry up for long periods.

June 3, 2018

 

Well, we just had about another three inches of rain over the last week, and some of the extra repairs done to the lower gully dam have been paying off. With the new backhoe purchase I have been able to start building up the lower gully dam some more, including a better repair on the washed out section that has raised the water level another few inches, and at one point after the rain stopped this morning, the level rose all the way to the overflow pipe which I had raised up another 5 or 6 inches, along with more clay filled and compacted in on top of the initial repair.

These repairs are still being done in part by hand, but the backhoe is able to at least move the replacement material closer and fill the wheelbarrow so I only have to move the wheelbarrow a short distance and spread the clay and compact it.  The real repairs and finish of the dam will come when the water levels start to recede.

Even though I can start to work on adding enough clay to drive the backhoe on top of the dam, there still needs to be more compacted clay added below the current water level to really create the dam as a stable feature in the landscape.

Justifying the use of heavy equipment in a sustainable system requires the creation of productive systems that will last a thousand years or more. Over the lifespan of a dam like these, a week or so of machine labor can translate into thousands of years of increased fertility and decreased erosion,  These dams and swales will do what a climax forest would ordinarily do with the large volume of water held both in the bodies of the trees and the soil that carpets the forest floor.

With careful management over time these systems can help create stable ecosystems that are productive for our needs and stabilize the climate of the Earth.

05/14/2018

I caught the backhoe problem before it did damage, but there is a challenge now with the pins, hardened steel rods about 1&3/4 inches in diameter, that are like axles allowing the bucket to pivot, and the retaining welds have broken allowing the pins to slip.

Looking for replacements, nothing close by, and today I’ll make a quick trip to talk with a local expert to try and understand better why the welds were used instead of the normal retaining clips and bolts, and whether it will be wise to go back to the original equipment configuration. I don’t mind investing money if it means a more functional machine.

Anyway, today is for garden plants, grape trellises, and buying a chipper. here goes another day in paradise.

New, Used Backhoe

Finally a morning where things are a bit quieter, no deeds to do or promises I have to keep. So of course I was out on the backhoe. started going around exhausting a tube of grease on the fittings, and I think I know why the new tube isn’t quite working yet, but I went ahead and did a bit of work anyway, starting it up and pulling a few small stumps, testing the power,  and generally getting some preliminary work done on the high dam. The clean up stage always takes the most time, saving topsoil, sorting out bigger rocks, etc etc.

Then as a change of pace I went to the lower green house where the figs are complaining about the more intense sunlight outside (leaves turning white), but figs are whiners anyway, drama queens that drop their leaves at the slightest change. I gave them a big drink of water, and told them to suck it up and make me some figs.

most of them are going to stay outside once I have the new mini climate set up for them. With a pond in front, and heat retaining wall behind them they should enjoy their new location.

I noticed there are lots of raspberries on the vines I planted two years ago, of course I may be away when they actually ripen.

I put some walmart goldfish in the lotus pond last night, they were dying in their tank at walmart, so if they survive it will be a miracle, but at least they will die free.

I’m also going around putting in tomatoes and peppers and have plans for multiple varieties of squash and cucumbers. I’m also close to having the potato beds ready for planting.

Just another day in paradise.

More big advancements?

I do apologize for the lack of pictures in recent posts, hoping to rectify the snafu in software soon.

 

Well, I bought a new , used, backhoe, so in theory things should start to move ion a more orderly fashion. The rental routine can be a nightmare with machinery consuming every second of the day, sometimes with split second decision making that ends up being counter productive.

 

To be able to move a couple piles of dirt and then take time to sort out rocks and debris before actrually using the soil (especially clay for the dam) is an invaluable time and quality saver. Bigger rocks are not optimum in the clay for the dam, and branches etc can be downright subversive. I have barely used the backhoe an hour or two and have already opened up areas for further hand work.

 

Of course the challenge will be to not try and get too perfect. Hand work is time consuming, and perfection can be the enemy of “good enough”.

Another new development is a working chipper, however this chipper has a 10 horse power motor, only slightly more powerful than the previous chipper, so I am considering a 20 hp chipper that promises to make very quick work of almost everything I can feed into it. the challenge will likely be to keep a perspective and not put too much too fast into it and possibly damage it with inadvertent rocks and the like.

With the influx of cash, I’m also feeling free to purchase things like reinforcing wire for trellises for the garden and gather in supplies that will be useful for longer periods of time. Bill talked about the concept of unused money as a pollutant, and in a very real way, this sort of goes to the axiom that the love of money is the root of evil. Money can be useful when put to use, or it can be a distractant, keeping us from really using it for good purpose, and hoarding it as if it were the actual stuff of life.

At any rate, one more day of travel for yard sales and supplies today, and then settle in for a week of application of these wonderful new tools and supplies.