|
|
Post by templeton on Sept 18, 2013 16:21:07 GMT -5
Ah, the Weber. Next time there's a hard rubbish collection I'll keep my eyes open. BTW holly, I've got some fava pods from a market stall drying down, can send a few seeds if you're still interested.
T
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Sept 18, 2013 16:21:24 GMT -5
Ah, the Weber. Next time there's a hard rubbish collection I'll keep my eyes open. BTW holly, I've got some fava pods from a market stall drying down, can send a few seeds if you're still interested.
T
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 18, 2013 17:57:33 GMT -5
That's absolutely brilliant Holly!
|
|
|
|
Post by bunkie on Sept 19, 2013 10:15:33 GMT -5
Hey Jo, that LUD systm sounds a little like a rocket stove?! We make biochar every time we have a BBQ. So we save the bones from all meat eaten in the freezer. I start a BBQ of last harvested corn cobs or bean shells and fruit wood from trimmings and the old bones. When our food is cooked, I close all the vents on the Weber. Next day, I have clumps of charcoal and smallish bones. I take all of these and add them to a bucket. These buckets are tucked away in bushes. As the urge takes someone, they administer their urine into the bucket. When the buckets are 1/3 full of urine, I drag them to an "old garden bed", add 1/3 of a bucket of water and then dump them on the ground. I keep doing this through the season. It takes about 4 buckets to do one 25' bed. Since I started this project, I've done 8 beds. That bed is then left to sleep until the following season. So the ones I've been using all summer will be planted to favas this fall. (which is hard upon us). I like that everything from the farm is being recycled and put back into the field. The burning of the corn cobs and bean shells also have eliminated much of the pesky weevilish type bugs that sometimes arrive at the farm. We also can't burn in the open, but BBQ's are allowed just about everywhere. Cool Holly! I cook our corn cobs down to make broth, as i do with the beef, chicken, etc... bones. I know the cobs will burn after cooking/drying them, but the bones get crumbly to the touch when dried...they're still in hunks... . Would they still make biochar this way? |
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Sept 19, 2013 16:22:18 GMT -5
Oh heavens yes. I always get one more boiling out of our bones before they go to the Weber. How else would I get broth for polenta?
Templeton, Leo has a moratorium on incoming seeds until I clean the ones that have come out of the garden and put them away. Currently, there is no room at the inn. Every counter is full, every table in the barn, the garden cart, the wagon, and the wheel barrow.
Thank God I can't post a picture. I'd scare you clean to Halloween.
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 19, 2013 16:39:35 GMT -5
A rocket stove??? That tickles my brain... I think I have heard it called that before but I'm not certain! It certainly looks a bit like a rocket stove! We are having a dickens of a time finding barrels to make a full size model. But I've got TONS of tin cans of all sizes now, just waiting for me to fiddle with them!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by steev on Sept 19, 2013 20:42:36 GMT -5
I don't know whether they're still used, but 5-gallon soy-sauce containers used to be square cans 18"X18"X24" maybe (maybe they use plastic, now). That would strike me as a very good alternative, if available; much easier to cut-to-purpose than a 55-gallon barrel, though less durable.
I have a vintage 60's? collapsible rocket stove, in its original packaging, which I am saving for when SHTF and I have no fuel but dry star-thistle, with which to cook my meager meal of the unwary.
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Sept 25, 2013 4:41:39 GMT -5
Went to the caterers at the cafe at work, took in a huge bunch of bolting parsley by way of introduction - they are putting aside some empty 'caterers tins' 5 litres i think, so a small scale TLUD biochar facility is on the cards next week at Casa Templetonia.
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 26, 2013 7:14:17 GMT -5
wow.... I am SO EXCITED! I can hardly wait to hear your results! Something deep in me says that the TLUD can be a MAJOR tool for a lot of things in the EOTWAWKI scenario. I wasn't totally impressed with my results because they were on to small of a scale. Yours I think, will be just right for "home" use... GOOD LUCK!
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Oct 8, 2013 1:19:49 GMT -5
Sorry, Jo, can't get the photo thing to work from picasa again! Frustrating that I'm so thick  . Can't waste any more gardening time. For info, I've made a great biochar kiln from 20 litre oil cans, it really pumps! When my patience returns, I'll have another attempt at posting pics. T |
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Oct 8, 2013 17:50:06 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Oct 8, 2013 17:57:20 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Oct 9, 2013 21:08:02 GMT -5
DUDE!!! That is totally EXCELLENT! And it works you say? You look rather dashing with the pith helmet too!!! LOLOLOL
On the top of the big can(s)... Are those slits cut into the sides as well? Which chamber has the fuel? IS there an inner chamber?
Great job with the photos! I certainly feel your pain with Picasa and all other photo related issues.
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Oct 9, 2013 21:44:26 GMT -5
Jo,
The two cans i got for the burning chamber had no tops or lids, so I had to modify the design a little from that shown on the vid. Hope the following description isn't too tedious.
These cans are designed to stack on top of each other -there is a gentle taper in the can in the top few inches, thus the diameter across the top of the can is just a bit smaller than the diameter of the bottom of the can proper, so they stack neatly. If you cut one of the cans in half across, the resultant halves will just slip over the top of the uncut one - but be stopped from sliding right down by the the little bulging bit a few inches below the top rim. Don't use the top part of the chopped can - ie the bit with no top or bottom. Use the bottom half of the can, and turn it upside down - this will provide us with an 'afterburner' chamber, and a ' lid' to mount the chimney on. chop a star pattern in the new 'top' and fold up the spikey bits. this is the hole for the chimney to get mounted on. Chop lots of slits or drill holes around the sides of this afterburner half can to let air in.
Bottom can has drilled holes in the base to let air in. It has no top or lid. fill this full of chips and stuff, stand on three bricks so air can get in the bottom,then light a small fire on top until it's burning well.
The 'after burner' is placed on top, It should fit nice and neat over the top section of the fuel filled bottom can .then the chimney is placed on top of the hole with the spikey sticky uppy bits pointing up inside the bottom of the chimney Be careful! as soon as you begin to lower the top afterburner over the bottom can, it starts to draw the fire up the chimney hole, and can get hot in a few seconds.
I've modified the chimney setup in the last few days, using a section of 100 mm diameter galvanised pipe about 3 feet long instead of the little caterer's cans. Will post pic when i find fresh camera battery.
T
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Oct 10, 2013 18:18:29 GMT -5
A pic of the final model. Note chimney has been split, and flared a bit at the base so it sits on the top. I then Tecscrewed it to the top. Was still a bit wobbly, so added some wire stays, which I hope you can just make out in the pic. Also note the discarded half can leaning against the watering can, and to the right, the top chopped off a newly aquired can which had a top - I use this as a lid for the burner when it has finished burning and I've removed the chimney structure.  T |
|
. Can't waste any more gardening time.
