The largest lake in the world by area is Lake Superior at 31,820 sq. miles- WHOA.
The largest by volume is Lake Backal, Siberia, 5700 cubic miles.
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" it is really nice to weed and harvest without bending over"?
Just how “raised” are are those beds? I tried raised beds approx 16" with soaker hose, but my very “well”
drained soil needed more watering even with a lot of mulch.
I went back to ground level gardening, soaker hose and mulch. My soil profile here,
1 foot or so of organically developed top soil (compost, cover crops tilled in, rye grain
winter cover). Under that top foot or so is 11 to 12 feet of sand down to solid clay that
the ground water stays on top of. I don’t know how thick the clay layer is, but I suspect
3-4 feet on top of bed rock judging from where the rock starts showing on the down slope
to the river which runs over solid stone for miles, then a mud basin for 10 or so miles
before dumping into the west shore of Lake Champlain.
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The neighbor with the raised beds is at the top of the hill from me. I don’t know just how they are built but the hill is probably 15 feet high and pure sand. It is property which was part of this farm back in the 70s my grandfather sold it for development as it was useless for farming. The beds are about knee high maybe slightly higher with landscaping timbers making the walls. I suspect it is filled with mostly with horse manure as they have had horse my entire life which means probably shaving and manure in equal parts. I do think they have to water but they are really nice gardens.
My garden is in the ground.
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Different strokes for different folks when gardening.
This 30 foot by 70 foot plot been three full generations gardened on has fully supported families of four and five hearty eaters in the past. Back then they had the full 17 cow dairy barn manure pile; 50-100 chicken pen litter to annually spread out onto the garden area.
So at only ~1/3rd wide-between rows planting I consider it mostly preserved set-aside with just the two of us now. Someday if/when the need to accommodate/refuge more family core-friends here in the two houses we’d then have the work-for-food labor.
I actually did area water today (goona’ be two weird regional Inland Empire across mountains down outflow compression air days of 95F+ with just teens% humidity) with just two sets of the 6 foot ladder mounted oscillating bow sprinkler. 5:30 AM to 7:30 AM.
Raised beds do work for some but as Pepe experienced not a do-all solution for all conditions. Had one sister “convince” her husband to make her up the raised bed planter boxes. Worked for a few years to save her knees. Wooden boards sides of the boxes broke down. The bed pack developed viruses and roots eater bugs after three years. So she’d had to go AG-chemical for these.
Got her worst knee replaced. I gave her some of my long handles made up converted Japanese/Korean headed fine weeders so she in back to stand-up level ground area vegetable gardening.
Now the 3-4 foot dense wide strips planting does work good here too.
Ha! Just cannot convert the wifie. Yet.
Deep make-roots happy, double deep spading of her rows works wonderfully here to as I proved last few years with my parsnips and rutabega’s. This creates a U-shaped trench bowl below the surface that consetrates the irrigation water and added mineral and nutrients right where the favored plats can use them. The between rows bare, still able to sun bake sterilized for ground virus and bugs.
Rocky soil and the best plan is to haul in rock-free dirt and raise your self up above the rocks. With formerly 21 acres, now down to 8 acres I am doing that a few wheel barrows, year by year.
This year I did haul out ~12 cubic feet of rocks. Amendmint-mix into the rows at least 2 cubic yards/60 cubic feet of rich-grow. Ha! It soils deconpses firther and densifies.
'Bought even as far as raiseing back up the gargen gound level.
Next year I’ll have to either remove less rocks. Or add more screened native dirt. For sure buget in buying out more prepared amendment.
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I thought I would put this video where everyone could view it. I have been talking to a lot of people about the DOW site and gasification after the Agros Woodgas Meetup Event.
With all the rain and flooding storms Mike and I drove through to Argos the gasifier sucked up alot of water and turned it into steam through the muffler preheater and then into the whole gasifier system. A new shut off valve will prevent this from happening again when driving long distances on dino fuel and not driving on wood.
A new preheater box will be constructed to replace the old one that develop a muffler leak inside of the box which caused the problem in the first place. This was built in 2012 over 30,760 miles. Not sure if mufflers were brand new or not. Pretty good life for the mufflers that were in a box of steel that could have condensation in it,
I would like to personally thank @Chris, the builder of the Automixer, and @gasman who with advising helped, and the other’s who helped me make my goal of having a truck that anyone could drive. Even if they have never driven a wood gasifier vehicle. I think there were 9 or 10 people at Argos that got to drive the 92 Dodge Dakota from the book. I feel this is a proud moment for everyone in Driveonwood.Com membership. Thanks to all for the help, I couldn’t have done it with out you all. Even Wayne got to drive his old truck again.
With all the water that was throughout the gasifier system it ran quite well, I was happy with the performance of the truck. This is a testimony in It’s self of how GOOD of a design the WK Gasifier is and it just keeps getting better with everyone’s new builds and ideas that are added making it better.
While writing this I just remembered that I did not check my hay filter and gas lines to the front of the truck for water. Will check and report on what I find.
Bob
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Steve,
All that work getting the garden ready will provide so much exercise you won’t have to wear a Fitbit, or drive your 500 hp All-Wheel drive SUV to the gym with all the mirrors! I seem to spend hours and hours pushing a wheelbarrow. A neighbor give us several hundred cement blocks if we would haul them away immediately. They work well for a slightly raised bed, but first we removed all the soil and sifted it to get the rocks out. We took it to the compost pile area (in wheelbarrows), mixed it with biochar infused compost, brought it back to the beds after a second screening. Yep, once beds are in place, double deep spading is the way to go, but the charcoal builds up over time. All root crops absolutely love biochar infused compost. We have been digging potatoes for the last month, and eating as many as we can. We have been giving them to our neighbors, along with onions, peppers, greens, and tomatoes. No chemical fertilizers, no sprays, plenty of water, and bumper crops. Everybody thinks the crop is fantastic. They even ask for compost and a bit of biochar for the flower pots. Then, to rub it in, they burn their slash pile during a rain storm to a white ash.
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Okay here is the update on what I found. Dumping the water out of the hayfilter, it seemed normal to me and there was no water in the 2"" gas lines going to the front of the truck. Things could have dried out, it has been in the 90’s this pass week.
Bob
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People just don’t get it Ray. Unless you already have perfectly good soil, you have to make it. And even then you have to keep it healthy. Every 7th year let it rest and recuperate don’t even till it. The next year will be a huge bump crop after the land has layed at rest. Last year one of the three garden plots layed at rest and we just had volunteer planets come up. Lots of big squash. This year will be a bumper crop for sure. This soil started out poor soil with lots of rocks , we have been building it up for years now. Still more building of the soil has to be done.
Bob
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I was one of those people that you let drive that truck. It was fantastic, it Gets up and goes👍 Thanks again bob
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Yes.Yes. Your-way is the way I’ve been trying to sell the wifie on RayM.
Cinder block made raised beds.
She actually did find some set-aside purpose made Urban concrete cast 3x3x6 planter tubs. The salvage owner sandblasted then and made them into very nice roadside planter boxes. M-a-n-y asked to buy his rare finds. No way.
Her in-Virginia friend with the mini-CSA has taken her southern facing sloped clay&rock erosion prone hillside and poured concrete walls terraced that. Amending building up her growing soil in each step. You stand working from a lower inner step onto the next up waist high higher step.
I’ve been trying to introduce this lives in hardwood country friend to charcoal making for bio-use. Maybe someday. So far she power chips for her chickens bedding. The bigger stuff into the fireplace and the wood-stove.
I had to bury one of our cats from early morning coyote kill just this morning. The cat/dog grave area is a pure-soil no rocks spot here visible from our east-side house porch. But a lose 15 days in June and 15 days in early September half days trees shaded frost dip pocket. 1000 feet from the hump-high in full sun garden area. Ever come the real urging I could soils transfer.
Valley floors frost dip pockets are just like low spot puddle/flooding areas . . . you must move UP; or away. Old German family grand’ma used to grow cow fodder beets in these short season troublesome areas.
I remember this for the day when people beets as a basic carbohydrate may be needed again.
Ha! I like my beets sweeter yellow type, and infrequent. A treat. Not a necessity.
Regards
Styeve Unruh
My son in Dallas is looking for some planters for his backyard remodeling and said he found a listing for reject concrete caskets.
My newly installed “hitching rail” of solar panels is sending 8 amps into the 250 vac line at solar noon. I believe I can get a bit more by elevating the lower end of the panels by another foot or so.
The two panels on the left are not yet connected to the power, but more cabling should be delivered tomorrow.
So, on to other projects. A neighbor called yesterday at noon and asked me to come and get some wood. Here’s a photo of the load.
This morning, before the sun got too hot, I got most of that unloaded and cut into smaller pieces. Some will be firewood and the rest will be converted into charcoal. He thinks he has at least a dozen more loads.
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If you have a smart phone download an app called scan the sun and put in your location and the time of year you want to angle the panels for and it will track with the face of your phone showing the ideal angle it is really cool.
Those solar panels look great to me you are one step ahead of me there it is on my project list has been for a couple of years. Right now I am in the middle of a motor rebuild on my loader tractor that I need to hay with this summer so my early summer plans are all messed up again. Seems like I am always too busy to get things done.
But as I got to a point I couldn’t work on the tractor any more this afternoon until my mechanic shows up to show me the right way to do something I did hill one of the two rows of potatoes. I guess you could say I also harvested 10 gallons of cattle feed in the process because there was pig weed sugar weed and morning glory the white safe kind that they got to eat from my weeding.
Same row from opposite ends. The first photo is the fingerlings end the second photo is Yukon gold. I don’t know if I cut the fingerlings too small or if they just didn’t come good but that is part of why I always plant more than one verity of things. I also have another row which is only half cleaned up that is German butter balls and fingerlings. There will be way more potatoes than I can use for sure.
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Hey all, I have not had much time for woodgas projects, but I am getting close to finishing up my new shop, where I hope to get some more work done on a bigger generator. I am going to pour the first half of the slab on Saturday, and try powering the concrete mixer off my little prototype charcoal generator. I will try and get a picture of it in action.
I like to inscribe all my concrete jobs with something for the archeologists to scratch their heads over, does anyone have any suggestions for a good DOW-themed motto? I was kinda thinking that “RIDERE OMNI PASSUUM” has sort of a nice ring to in. Any other ideas?
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The guy at our farmers market has a national weather station. This is from today. I live very close (3 miles) from Brimson MN.
National High and Low Temperature (for the contiguous United States)
NWS Weather Prediction Center, College Park, MD
Issued 8 am EDT Thursday, June 13, 2019
High Temperature for Wednesday, June 12, 2019
(as received by 8 am EDT June 13)
120 at Death Valley, CA
Low Temperature for Thursday, June 13, 2019
(as received by 8 am EDT June 13)
27 at Brimson, MN
Look here! Coldest in the NATION today!!
HOORAY for Brimson, MN!!
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Hey Bill
At 27F I am sure your maple syrup will pour just fine . On the other hand the sorghum syrup I gave you will pour about like peanut butter 
Thanks again for the syrup .
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Your way ahead of me on gardon, though this year first time in allmost 20 years i planted 25 tomato plants and 20 pepper plants from grean house, now if the sun will dry out the ground and make them gro i will be full on vegies this harvest season with no weed killers.
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We were the coldest in the nation today. We did warm up to 72 though.
National High and Low Temperature (for the contiguous United States)
NWS Weather Prediction Center, College Park, MD
Issued 8 am EDT Thursday, June 13, 2019
High Temperature for Wednesday, June 12, 2019
(as received by 8 am EDT June 13)
120 at Death Valley, CA
Low Temperature for Thursday, June 13, 2019
(as received by 8 am EDT June 13)
27 at Brimson, MN
Look here! Coldest in the NATION today!!
HOORAY for Brimson, MN!!
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Hey BillS,
As I told you my wifie treats me to a basic satellite TV service. (actually for herself so she can watch her favorite CBS 1/2 hour comedy shows, and her House-porn channels)
Memorial Day special programs recording and I stumbled across a Discovery Channel drama-mom’ma series: Homestead Rescue. An Alaska experienced homesteader Father, adult Son and Daughter team spending 7-day by invite to help boost build others out of their dark situation corners all around the Rural USofA. A darned see-the-nation in our many variations. Make you appreciate where you toil away seeing the severe challenges others have stepped out into.
2017 repeats; and now a Wednesday night 2019 series.
Actually quite good.
I DVR pre-record so’s I a zip past the odious commercials.
S.U.
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Steve, we went through a 3 month interview with Homestead Rescue to be on their show. They wanted us to be dishonest so they can create drama. Basically they want to depict us as being down and out so the Rainy’s could save us from inevitable failure. I wasn’t willing to go there.
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Good people do not need dishonest people’s monies. Integrity is worth more than gold to honest people. Good for you two on making this kind of good and honorable choice. You will be Blessed for this. And thank you, I have never was watched this Homestead Rescue Show and now I know the truth behind it I will plan to never watch it.
Bob
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