Life goes on - Summer 2022

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#701

Tone I do have two diesel engines here that could be electrical generator capable. The three cylinder Yanmar/950 John Deere tractor. And a water cooled single cylinder Chinese “ChangFa” type engine. Both very, very efficient fuel sippers. And I have the synchronous generator heads I once was going that route. I even every 2 years replenished the 5 gallon can of diesel fuel, giving away the old aged remaining to someone with an older diesel pickup truck
I have been following your conversion work with interest.

A few years ago I decide to go away from rpm-locked synchronous to variable speed&loads engine driven Inverter-generators systems. Here U.S.ofA. these are gasoline/propane engines.
We have two now. Smaller, so not very friendly to wood gas with. And I do not have the woods, or climate to even want to go down the charcoal black-hands road.
The next Inverter-generator will be much larger easily able to woodgas with.

E-V-E-Y-O-N-E should have a series of timed powers out fall back plans.
24 hours. You actually do nothing but enjoy the candle light, battery LED lights. Propane water heat and cook. UNLESS you have household medical electrical needs! You had better have set up a 24 hour battery bank and maintained it! It must be functionable!

Then 24-72 hours. That is were a stored engine fuel generator systems are used. You will need dependable power for on-hands perishable foods and medications.

Past three days and you really into the long term. Then depending on your outside of household obligations; you CAN stay at home; and Operate the needs an aware operator systems.
Crack out, crank up, fire up, the woodgas and charcoal gas systems. Plain facts of it is only you who built these, will understand these. Be able to kick, prod, shake these to keep them producing. Change out a gone-twitchy relay. Clear a clogged valve.

Ha! Just wooden headed, obstinate me. A recent quote wisdom, point of US law, that I wrote down.
“A person cannot ignore the probability that a fact is true.”
Steve Unruh

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#702

Questain moved too tips and tricks.

#703

The Koreans raise a lot of rice and rice has anaerobic conditions, but just because ‘they have done it for a 100 years’ doesn’t mean it is good. just look at moldboard plowing. I have also seen a lot of bunk on youtube and have found issues with numerous videos. What I will say is it might work for a while. And honestly the Korean method that probably works is the guy that is growing mycorrhizae fungi.

Anaerobic conditions lead to root rot and pruning. It is a huge deal and hydroponic systems almost all deal with aeration of the water to prevent root rot. I tried the one that didn’t involve aeration, and the plants had a lot of root rot. I had one lettuce plant that grew well and 5 others that didn’t. (I need a more accurate scale, before trying again).

I will leave you with a video. This is Laura Ingham, she is a phd in soil science, and if you take a college level soil science class, they will most likely mention her. She is the person that ‘discovered’ this, and she was considered ‘nutty’ for a while as traditional agricultural was dependent on adding the right chemicals.

One of her students, or another person explaining the method, does a better job and sounds less nutty, but I forgot what video it was, it might have been one of the seminar videos from these guys right in NC.
https://livingwebfarms.org/multimedia/videos/complete-hands-on-workshops/

What I can guarantee is that if a sharecropper was on the land, it was the least productive land to begin with…

I actually thought the same thing. The rest of the planter does an accurate job planting though, and it doesn’t skip or double seed much. They use them a lot for intercropping or like 5 rows tightly bunched together, and they are small enough to use inside a hoophouse.

Which got me over to looking at old row units which I have seen for 100-150 bucks fro sale, but you need a few other things to make them actually work. Then I found the russian vacuum seeder videos, which I posted last year some in some thread.

commercial openers and closers for like a JD planter are super expensive as well, but that is all hardened steel, and commercial duty stuff made for 1000 acres a year, which makes the 600 dollar planter look a bit less ludicrous.

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#704

I was considering getting the Earthway Precision seeder, and making my own discs for it. They work well on their own if you have decent soil and only cost 150 dollars.

I only have maybe 5 acres of open land, most of it is sloping lawn, the hay is for local cattle so I can’t just go and cut into that big patch, he can keep his meat prices low because he doesn’t have to pay us for using the field. It’s pretty well established, I haven’t seen him bring out the broadcaster or sprayer in 4 years now.

I wouldn’t promote that anaerobic liquid fertilizer if I hadn’t seen the results. David says to not use it near harvest because of the conditions it’s made, and to only use it once a week at most and cut with at least 8:1 or more, using plain water for the rest of the week. I typically use urine cut with a lot of water more than anything else. Hopefully with the no till I won’t require much amendment.

#705

Here is a guy doing it aerobically.

I have an antique Planter JR, that well lets just say, the earthway blows it away for seed accuracy and spacing, but I don’t think I would want to plant 5 acres with it unless I was doing seedbeds and doing it commercially. It is totally possible though. I don’t think the earthway is a bad investment. I just have the russian vacuum planter stuck in my head.

It is actually this design:

which it looks like he has two openers, but you can also mount it to a bar on a 3pt, or trailer it. (actually mount it to like a lawn tractor and maybe use the lawnmower drive belt for the vacuum) Then you can increase the number of holes in drum to accommodate more rows once you figured out row openers that work well. There are other videos, of very similar designs using like bike sprockets and chains.(what they don’t show is the internal seed release mechanism) And you might be able to do the drums with pvc pipe.

There is actually an I believe italian company that makes these.

You have MUCH better fab skills then I, and 99% of the veggie farmers.

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#706

My only concern with the Earthway is they say it has “rust proof wheels”, I’m hoping that means powder coated steel and not just plastic. I’d be disappointed if it came with plastic wheels.

Edit: it has plastic wheels.

I might just make a wheel hoe and use a narrow plow end to scratch open the ground, then come back over with a PVC pipe seeder and rake it back over.

I forgot to mention I wouldn’t make any other huge fields for growing, I need to measure how big the one I started yesterday is. I wanna say it’s about 2500 square feet if that. Anything else I can just make raised bed boxes for stuff like tomatoes and cucumbers. I already grow potatoes in a barrel.

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#707

Just had a brownout for the second time in two weeks. Power shutting off for about a second, like when someone hits a telephone pole.

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#708

It is well worth the investment to get the spacing right, and ‘git r done’ for stuff that needs to be in rows and not hilled. I wouldn’t completely dismiss plastic some types are pretty darned strong. But that being said, I would be tempted to cast an aluminum one after you are done planting… :stuck_out_tongue:

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#709

I don’t doubt that it’s sturdy, I’m just considering how much it should weigh to really cut into the ground. After looking at a few reviews it don’t work well in clay heavy soils, even if it’s been tilled or broken up with a broadfork.

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#710

In part, that is why I said I couldn’t imagine doing acres with the planter jr. But it is metal with wood handles, so tilled it works okay… It just doesn’t seed nearly as accurately as the newer designs.

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#711

I have an old cultivator tine, it really looks more like a narrow plough head. I’m thinking of building a push plow with that as the workpiece for furrowing open the mulch. I’ve seen some really simple seed droppers using just a PVC pipe and a funnel. After this year I’ll probably use leaf mulch and pine straw since I can just drive into the woods and fork that up into my truck bed. I won’t rely on ChipDrop to give me what I need, and it would be a waste of fuel to chip my own wood. Corn stalks, maybe, but I wouldn’t need a super duper chipper to do that.

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#712

Here is my semi automatic seeder

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#713

Because the kid is doing all the work, I would have to say it is fully automatic. :rofl:

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#714

If they can dump chips for free and I doubt there will be any problem except timing. worst case is they make a huge pile that rots down in a couple of years. Maybe sprinkle some dirt on it to inoculate it (or get some of that stump rot stuff that uses bacteria and fungus) and flip it a time or two. It should break down in a year or two.

If you want it faster you might char it then innoculate it, but biochar and clay aren’t always a good mix.

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#715

It is 6 PM here in Alabama and just got out of the hay field. The feel like temp is 109 F Those temps sure makes the watermelon go quick and also no worry about condensation in the wood burners freezing :blush:

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#716

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This truck has a brand new target master 350 in it. I rescued this truck in 2008. We gave my buddy the septic tank it had on it. We needed to dig post holes and trench for a solar project, so my son and I welded the mount for the backhoe, and attached it to the hydraulics on the truck.
Look at all that space for a gas producer behind the cab!

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#717

That is a SASSY ol Chev!

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#718

Just found out about Broad forks. These are exactly what I need for my heavy clay soil. Looked up how much they cost.

Some as much as 200 dollars for an overgrown afro pick for soil!

Going to make my own, I have a pile of old lawnmower blades, I’ll probably only need 2 blades to make 4 long teeth. That’s as wide as I’d need to fluff up the clay some and remove pesky turf.

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#719

In a week Midsummer festivities start. On the news they say there will be a snaps shortage in liquor stores. That was the last straw…isn’t that right @KristijanL ? :rofl:
I just brought the planer outside to prepare some lumber. I just got started with a few boards and from nowhere a rain shower. Hurried to back the trailer back in, cover the planer and pushed the chunk trailer under the carport. Sitt’n on the porch (veranda) waiting for the rain to stop.

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#720

Same. Same here far-west Pacific Northwest J.O.
Very wet, wet still cool Spring, early summer.
I am still making morning chill chasing woodstove fires.
None have been able to get spring growth hay in. It is over maturing now losing nutritional content.
None here able to get field crop or seeds planted gardens started. Soils are still too wet.
“Nice” green, and pleasant compared to the hot sweltering across most of North America.
But the local/regional west-side foods crops growing days now tick-tock’ing down until the first frosts in early September are far less than 100 now. Be no corn, drying beans, oats, or tomatoes here now.

Thankfully the trains and trucks still ship in bulk foods. Here is where the Dino fuel prices will really, really hurt come next Fall and Winter.
S.U.

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