Learnings from Greg & Sandy David farm for India village application?
Bob Chalice
If anyone whoever has any additional suggestions regarding ideas below, please email me. We welcome all improvements. I have also attached recent Adire village pics of stoves, brickmaking & biogas digester,. Tx. Bob Chalice, volunteer www.adire.org
Learnings from Greg & Sandy David’s farm near Watertown for India village application may be as follows (please revise as you see fit):
1. We need more stove testing, evolution & improvement. For example use a 3ft to 4ft metal fire-starting chimney or possibly just build higher brick chimney. Extend fuel feed /ash cleanout from one end of stove to the other far end along the full base near the ground. After cooking is done, it is desirable to be able to completely shut down all air by covering all openings for log feed & chimney & ash cleanout in order to conserve unburned fuel for next cooking session – it’s therefore critical stoves be out-doors or extremely well ventilated to guard against any carbon monoxide (CO) which is deadly. Any CO produced should be measured with a digital CO detector which may be purchased at Menards for about $35. Stove needs to be air-tight if completely shut down. If stove is used indoors, the use of a full chimney is critical to vent all harmful gases outdoors. A damper may be tested on the chimney to see if it safely improves combustion control. We also still need to add four 1” rocks to support pot as well as adjustable metal pot skirt that goes nearly to top of cooking pot with .5 to 1” gap in between pot and skirt.
2. Possibly build stoves completely from adobe i.e. no bricks if possible to reduce cost. Also, if Greg comes up with an efficient metal village stove design, can we cast that design in adobe clay as two halves using his metal stove inside a form which is removed after drying. Two stove halves are then joined together to form finished village stove in adobe.
3. Our India biogas systems may need improvement. Will regular stirring with paddles help output? Paddles may be driven by a large gear or pulley which is in turn driven by small gear or pulley connected to motor driven by local grid electricity, solar generated electricity, person power, water power, wind power, or ? Can we make a cheaper biogas digester from a long plastic silage or greenhouse ventilation tubes as Greg did? Can we better use various animal manures mixed with food waste?
4. Expand sustainable (organic) farming e.g. orchards, vegetables, mushrooms, flowers, livestock (chickens, geese, etc). Better utilize animal power e.g. horses, cows, etc. Use natural pesticides e.g. diatomaceous earth insecticide formulas like Greg used on his apple trees. Greg also promotes insects such as wasps which destroy smaller crop destroying insects. Honey production and pollination via bee hives. See www.beepods.com which is the hive Greg is using. There are descriptions on this web side to build a similarly efficient hive at http://beepods.com/content/learn/beepod-parts To build a simple hive, also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IpqiYtpagg Also see the BeePod video Greg posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6VEl_F0PyU
5. Sustainably plant with smaller height plants nearest incident sun and largest in back. Water drain into successively irrigated areas and eventually fills ponds for farming and harvesting fish.
6. Grow mushrooms to cleanse and better break down soil.
7. Have an integrated farming system where one operation feeds the next .e.g. animals to manure to digester to fertilizer to water distribution/irrigation on land to crops and to fish pond to crops and to biogas stoves and unburned char back to fertilizer… etc.. etc. i.e. linked sustainable systems that possibly (nearly) form a loop.
8. More energy and resource efficient homes. More renewable energy e.g. solar, wind, geothermal, etc.
After reading the above I wonder if Greg and his wife Sandy have any comments (or from anyone else too)? Can you also please email me the websites you feel would be most beneficial to us?
We had a great visit and we thank you very very much.
Best Wishes to all, Bob
jfkerler
Dredging up some rather ancient discussion here, but I wanted to share an interesting/disturbing article about the challenges of converting the 3rd world to clean biomass stoves. Maybe others on the list will have more to say about this.
Jim Kerler
mikethe...@aol.com
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Bob Chalice
Thanks Jim for your added info beow. I will pass this on to Adire.org. We continue to work with the village on various projects including biomass stoves as well as biogas production. Feel free to add any other relevant info or discussion. Thanks, Bob Chalice
From: jefferson-county-comm...@googlegroups.com [mailto:jefferson-county-comm...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of jfkerler
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:03 PM
To: jefferson-county-comm...@googlegroups.com
Subject: {Jef. Co. CSE} Re: Learnings from Greg & Sandy David farm for India village application?
Dredging up some rather ancient discussion here, but I wanted to share an interesting/disturbing article about the challenges of converting the 3rd world to clean biomass stoves. Maybe others on the list will have more to say about this.
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