Day 792 (Daily Post)
Day 792. These chilly overcast mornings have me seriously contemplating getting some compost water heating systems built so that I do not have to use nor neurotically ration the propane that I use for heating purposes. I really like the Jean Pain method of water heating with compost but I think that it could perhaps be improved upon by utilizing thermal heating via burying part of the compost below the frost line, extremely efficient radiant heaters and perhaps a greenhouse-like structure over the entire compost pile. I don't want to get into the aspects of methane harvesting that he did (which by the way are brilliantly simple) but I think that having the option is nice. Overall I could just opt for the 'tried and true' methods of compost water heating but the way I am looking at it is that after the irrigation tubing and radiant baseboard heater costs I may as well squeeze out as much 'energy' (heat) from the system as I can.
I have wanted to experiment with compost water heating ever since learning about it a few years ago and although the tubing array and compost pile itself is not all that difficult to construct having water without any silt or other debris that might clog a baseboard radiator is a tricky prospect working with just a gravity fed system that does not have a high enough water pressure to drive the water through a series of filters. Much like my hydro-electric project I need to create a high pressure gravity fed system that can overcome the resistance created by filtration devices. Fortunately there are some decent springs at a high elevation that I have been slowly developing to produce year round but to get the water from where they are to the homestead is one heck of a long run that also requires generating enough water pressure to get up and over a ridge. I did do a test system last winter to see if that last bit (getting over the ridge) was even possible and although I did manage to do it two things interrupted making more progress on the project...lack of resources and that particular spring did not reliably produce enough water. It was the highest elevation spring though so I figured it was my best shot at producing the water pressure necessary to make it over the ridge. The other springs near it are only fifteen odd feet below it but they do tend to produce water more consistently.
There are so many aspects to getting springs developed (if they only produce a trickle at best) into higher performance and consistency of availability. Then there is the actual capturing process itself which depending on the spring (or seep) can range from as simple as sticking a pipe in the ground and back-filling around it with clay to needing to construct an actual enclosure around the water's 'point of emergence' which will allow it to pool before entering a pipe. That is the simple ways of explaining it but the basic rule of spring capturing is: 'Just get the water flowing into the pipe any way that you can.' Folks needing clean water is a rather consistent constant throughout the history (and pre-history) of humankind so there is thankfully a wealth of information out there detailing various methods and best practices. For myself I got to learn firsthand from a few folks that really knew their stuff about springs and then after doing a lot of research on my own I filled in the blanks in my knowledge base but hey I am always learning and one of the things that I have said for many years now is that 'Every spring is different' so I always find each one interesting and know that it will present unique challenges in one way or another.
Back to what I was getting at before is that one of my larger goals this year is to really dial in my water scenario so that I have some high volume storage, high water pressure and well-filtered water on hand year round. My drinking water and utility water systems are fine for the purposes they serve but if I am ever going to accomplish some of my other goals (mass irrigation, compost water heating, hydro-electric) I will need to really figure some stuff out and procure the necessary resources to make it happen.
I often express my frustration over what I not-so-affectionately call 'a lack of resources' and the root of that frustration is that I have the time, the ability to plan, the ability to follow the plan, the talent to create detailed sketches, the meticulousness to make lists, the vision, the knowledge, the skills and the motivation to not just start but follow through and actually complete projects yet the one thing I lack is the actual three-dimensional matter (resources, parts, materials whatever term folks like to use) that actually makes a project doable. So for me the frustration of such a bottleneck in my own productivity is palpable and grating to say the least. A good example of how I work around this limitation is my current drinking water system. At first I had only the tools (a shovel, rake and mattocks) to start developing the spring and assess it for viability over the course of a year. Then I scavenged together the parts to capture it and dealt with having to hike up into the woods to the spring itself throughout the year to fill my water jugs. After a winter of tromping through the snow and ice doing that last bit I was pretty exhausted with the scenario so I spent the majority of my grocery money on buying irrigation tubing and fittings which got the water a hundred odd feet closer to the homestead and at least to a point where it was on the same side of a creek as the homestead but it still left me having to walk up and down a slippery slope to fill my water jugs. After a while of doing that I once again spent my grocery money on more irrigation tubing and fittings and managed to get the water to the edge of the 'yard' where it is not exactly conveniently located but it is not all that inconvenient either.
What I am getting at is that I shuffle around my limited funds and go without something so that I can have something else and since I don't really have much in the way of non-essentials (as far as expenses go) I unavoidably find myself depriving myself of food. Hunger after all is something that I have years and years of practical coping skills in regards to because basically living in poverty sucks in that fashion. There is no 'woe is me' in all this explaining so please do not misconstrue what I am expressing here. These are simply the ways I can get done the things that I want to get done working with what I do (or do not have) and while I might short myself on food for a month or more I never short the dogs on their food. For myself I am accustomed to scarcity, to deprivation, to enduring all sorts of hardships because I have a fortitude built upon long years of self-discipline and I know absolutely that I can always count on said fortitude to get me through pretty much any hardship whether self-induced or the result of external factors. I have worked hard for it, earned it through experience and own it ten thousand percent without feeling like an arrogant ass for being proud of it because arrogance is perhaps the greatest folly that all too many folks possess and perhaps the largest contributing factor to the woes of the planet and the course humanity is traveling upon.
Anyway all that stuff aside. I have traveled far enough down the rabbit warren of writing for one day and although it is looking like it might rain and I am feeling pretty wiped out from my physical exertions this week, I am seriously considering getting outside today and mowing down some of the 'yard' before it gets too tall for the mower to make quick work of it. All these warm daytime temperatures lately have the stuff growing like crazy especially since it has been raining a lot ever since the fall.
On a good note none of the fruit trees have blossoms so the coming freezes won't be damaging them and perhaps (if they can hold off from blossoming for another month) there will be plenty of apples and pears this year unlike last year when there was only a few apples and no pears.
I hope that everyone is doing well and although this ailment is still lingering I am hoping it will pass soon. Ta ta for now.
@jacobpeacock the fruit trees should not bloom as long as it stays cold, I hope you get plenty of fruit this year.
Yeah @myjob but we sometimes get a false spring, the trees bloom and then it frosts/freezes again which is what happened last year.