I had some plastic netting around the kale and cabbage plants in the back yard. I removed it for another project that I'll write about later.
I don't know what the weeds are that are in there. I do know that the chickens gobbled them up when I pulled them and left them laying in the yard. So I figured that without the fence there they'd clean it out for me.
Well did they ever!
They tore up everything! The purple kale was pulled from the ground, but not eaten. I was able to harvest it. I was surprised that they ate the green kale since they've never shown any interest in it before.
I was kind of annoyed, but you live and learn. On the bright side, they did get rid of all of the weeds. So... Umm... Mission accomplished...
I'll take some space here to to explain the above abbreviations.
FPT = female pipe thread
MNPT = male national pipe thread
MPT = male pipe thread (same as MNPT)
S = slip connection (PVC cement is needed)
I put this here because I was quite confused by it for a while. Back when I was first putting in my rain barrels
I bought several PVC fittings to connect to the barrel overflow
outlets. They wouldn't go on cleanly. I could force them, but I knew
something wasn't right. It turned out that the barrel had what are
known as "hose threads". From what I've found, garden hoses have hose
threads and pretty much everything else uses pipe threads. There are
adapters to go from one to the other. You can read more about it here.
With the parts listed above I made this. I used teflon tape on the threads.
Then I put the PVC pipe through the Uniseal in the bottom of the trash can.
Next I filled the barrel. I've been saving kitchen scraps, and the pulp from the juicer in a 5-gallon bucket. Luckily it's been cold so it didn't attract bugs or rot too much. A 5-gallon bucket of kitchen waste didn't do much to fill the 55-gallon barrel. I added a wheelbarrow load of chicken manure and pine shavings from the coop. It still wasn't full, so I added half a wheelbarrow load of leaves.
Then I ran a hose from one of the rain barrels and filled the blue barrel with water.
Here it is full of water. You can see that the mess in there floated. Before the water was added it was only as high as the trash can.
Finally I installed the trash can. I had the ball valve open and slowly submerged it over the material to be composted. It took a while to get all of the air out. Once it was finally down I closed the ball valve. I placed a few chunks of concrete on top to weigh it down.
In theory, most of the oxygen should have been pressed out from under the trash can as it was submerged. The trash can should rise as the methane is produced. At that point I'll be able to collect or use it by attaching a hose or balloon to the barbed fitting and opening the valve. That's the theory anyway.
I've written about composting previously. That compost was all aerobic, meaning with oxygen. Anaerobic composting happens in the absence of oxygen. Why would you want to do that? Well for one, you don't have to turn the pile. And two, it produces biogas.
Biogas contains a lot of methane, or natural gas. Percentages vary, but according to the Wikipedia article it can range from 50-75%. While researching biogas I came across the following video from the Urban Farming guys. They demonstrate how to build a methane biodigester (or anaerobic composter).
It looked easy enough. So I thought I'd build my own. First, acquire a barrel. I found mine on craigslist. They are all over on there. I think I picked mine up for $15.
Then cut the top off of it and wash it out. I don't know what was in the one I got, but it was strong. It had a real strong--like burn your nose strong--peppermint odor. I washed it out good with the hose and let it dry.
I picked up the cheapest trash can that I could get at Home Depot.
It was actually a really nice trash can. I felt bad about cutting the top inch or so off with the Dremel. I had to do this so it'd fit in the blue barrel.
Then I got out my handy-dandy 1-1/4" drill bit and put a hole in the bottom of the trash can.
Then it was time to install the Uniseal. These things are great. They go right into the drilled hole and then the PVC pipe gets inserted through making a watertight seal. I can't remember where I bought them. It was either here or here. The one pictured here is for 1/2" PVC pipe.
Here's the Uniseal inserted into the hole in the bottom of the trash can.
That's as far as I've gotten for now. I'll post more updates as I make them.
Well, it's January. That means that it's time to start seeds. I actually started hot peppers on January 15. They take two weeks or more to germinate. I hope to see them do something soon. The bin on the far left and the one on the far right contain the hot peppers. The bin in the middle with blue lid has Roma tomatoes. I started those today. The other bin has the pots ready to go, but I haven't put seeds in them yet. I haven't been watching the temperature in the garage, but I'd guess that it's 50-60* in there. I have a heating mat under the left bin of peppers. Now I just have to wait, and wait some more. I really don't have the patience to be a gardener.
Well, we lost a chicken today. I came home from work and before I got in the house my son told me that Leia had been attacked by a hawk. He was taking the dog out and saw the hawk dragging the chicken. He must have startled it because it flew away. It lurked in a nearby tree for a while. The other chickens were visibly spooked. Two of them were under the coop, one was under the deck and 3 were in huddled in the back corner next to the fence. I went over to see if they were OK. Once I got there they bolted for the coop.
We were all pretty upset. She was one of the original 4 that we got. But, that's how it goes. Nature can be cruel.
Below are several of the pictures of her during the few months that we had her. Leia was a black Silkie and the first of our birds to lay eggs.
The first batch of barley fodder worked out so well that I thought I'd try again.
I did a few things differently this time. I had some issues with rotting/fermenting seeds on the bottom last time. So this time I grabbed an old seed starting tray. I used it last year for starting seeds and never threw it out. I put two 2x4's across the sink and put the tray on top. Then I drilled drainage holes down the center of the tray. After the holes were drilled I filled each of the squares in the grid with barley seed.
I put the grow lights over the seed, but did not use the heating mat this time.
Here's a picture on day 7. The grow lights have been removed for clarity.
Day 7
Day 9
Day 12
You can see in the picture below how I had to stack 2x2's onto 2x4's to raise the grow lights as the barley grew.
Day 12
This is day 13 with the grow lights in place. This time I had a 2x4 on a 2x4.
Day 13
I finally pulled it on day 14.
Day 14
You can see the roots are around the plastic grid. I thought this might be an issue, but it separated rather easily.
I think this worked rather well. I didn't notice any strange smells in the garage. I didn't see any slimy rotting seeds on the bottom of the tray either. I watered the barley in the morning before I left for work and again at night when I got home. If there was anything to complain about it would be how long it took. When I used the heating mat it only took 8 days. This time it took 14. In any case, the chickens are going to be happy to find this when they get up tomorrow.
The first rain barrels I got worked out so well that I decided that it was time for more. I called my rain barrel guy and he brought me these.
I found my rain barrel guy on craigslist. He offers plain black barrels for $15. He also converts them into rain barrels by adding a spigot, overflow, and mesh top. For this he charges $55 for one, $100 for two, or $140 for three. I could probably convert them myself, but I've never been able to find all of the parts needed at Home Depot. It also saves me time to have him just do it. Also, most rain barrels I've found on the Internet and in stores sell for $90-100 for a single barrel!
I installed two more next to the one I had on the front corner of my house. I put Y-valves on the spigots and connected them with garden hose. I had an old hose that sprung a leak. I cut it to length and put female hose connectors on both ends. I did this so all of the barrels would fill and empty at the same time. The alternative is to connect the overflows to each other. Doing that causes them to fill in sequence. The first barrel gets full and then overflows to the second, which then gets full and overflows to the third. I'd rather use all three of them in parallel.
I connected 3/4" PVC pipe to the overflow connectors. I didn't bother gluing the pieces together.
The third barrel went under the down spout next to my driveway. And look at that. There's still enough room there for two more barrels!
