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Apatite do you still have your motorcycle? A few weeks ago I rode a neglected yamaha xt225 around for a few hours and had a blast. I already have an ATV (but don't have a lot of opportunity to ride it) and a big-boy motorcycle, but a low seat height dual sport seems like a necessary addition to the stable. We have tons of state forest / fire roads I could be riding on. Maybe sometime. I also rode a DRZ400 (which I think you have) and the power was nice, but I didn't like the extra weight or seat height, the XT225 was just so dang nimble and easy to ride. I don't even have to leave my backyard to find all kinds of freaking mushrooms, it's a bit ridiculous.
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Jul 28, 2015 14:29
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Leperflesh posted:Reducing your impact on the world does in fact make a positive impact. Also this thread is making a positive impact. It's OK. Here's a raccoon skull from earlier in the thread: And the current one:
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Jul 28, 2015 16:27
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The middle one looks like a giant ant. I, for one, welcome our new overlords.
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Jul 28, 2015 21:17
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rdb posted:They do. I can't keep the turtles out of mine, the largemouth bass take care of all the frogs. My property is a fenced suburban backyard. I could see, maybe, a frog or two finding their way in, if some very close neighbor also has them. I'd definitely get salamanders and newts. Turtles would be a miracle. They'd have to somehow scale fences or drop from the sky.
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Jul 28, 2015 22:26
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Became a snail, joined the circus, hard to post
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Aug 7, 2015 16:52
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Leperflesh posted:My property is a fenced suburban backyard. I could see, maybe, a frog or two finding their way in, if some very close neighbor also has them. I'd definitely get salamanders and newts. Turtles would be a miracle. They'd have to somehow scale fences or drop from the sky. Carried by an eagle I bet. 
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Aug 24, 2015 10:58
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Small gods is like my second- or third-favorite discworld book. So yes.
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Aug 26, 2015 00:55
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Snail Fact: One of the steps on the road to snail sex is a snail fight where two snails try to stab each other with things that are totally not penises but the snail who does the stabbing isn't the snail who acts as the "lady" during copulation. But it's totally different from penis jousting and not at all gay. apatite, you strike me as the kind of person who'd evaporate maple sap with heat from a wood gasifier if given the opportunity. Let's say you had 5 or so 55 gallon steel barrels, and some guy on craigslist is selling a stick welder for $40. What would you do?
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Aug 28, 2015 01:37
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DreadLlama posted:Snail Fact: One of the steps on the road to snail sex is a snail fight where two snails try to stab each other with things that are totally not penises but the snail who does the stabbing isn't the snail who acts as the "lady" during copulation. But it's totally different from penis jousting and not at all gay. Snail penis jousting should be an olympic sport. I'd get in on the betting pool for sure. Thank you for that picture, being a snail now it is quite arousing whereas before it would have been slightly disturbing. quote:apatite, you strike me as the kind of person who'd evaporate maple sap with heat from a wood gasifier if given the opportunity. Let's say you had 5 or so 55 gallon steel barrels, and some guy on craigslist is selling a stick welder for $40. What would you do? Would probably cry myself to sleep because you're gonna hate life if you weld barrels with a stick welder. I ran out of shielding gas and was welding my evaporator with .030 flux core wire, it was an incredibly frustrating experience and might as well have just riveted it and used furnace cement to seal the gaps. That poo poo is THIN THIN THIN THIN THIN THIN THIN metal. For instance: quote:Great Western Containers new steel drums (barrels) are manufactured from top quality cold rolled steel and are available in gauges ranging from 16 (1.4 mm) to 22 (.7 mm). Most of the dudes on the welding forums say welding 16ga and thinner with a stick welder is for the pros, which I am definitely not but maybe you are Then again, $40 stick welder hell yeah, if it's a lincoln tombstone or something jump on that poo poo and figure out how to make it work for what you need. Spot welds and furnace cement? You can do it don't let me get you down.
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Aug 28, 2015 22:11
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Keetron posted:Carried by an eagle I bet. I'd give you a million likes for this if I could. R.I.P. Sir Terry.
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Sep 1, 2015 16:56
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Leperflesh posted:My property is a fenced suburban backyard. I could see, maybe, a frog or two finding their way in, if some very close neighbor also has them. I'd definitely get salamanders and newts. Turtles would be a miracle. They'd have to somehow scale fences or drop from the sky.
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Sep 2, 2015 15:29
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I asked in the metalworking thread and I'm 95% sure I'll be heading to civilization between now and October to buy an oxy/mapp welder. In the meantime I found some maple trees a while ago and according to your thread there's money in those trees so now I kind of really want you to post thousands of pictures of of your evaporator because I'm kind of planning to copy you. quote:It looks like you're using that 20L as a holding tank and preheating the sap around your chimney. I remember thinking that was nifty when I first saw it. But how are you metering the flow rate? Have you got a float valve in the top of that tank? Manipulating the height of a float valve inside a tank would be how I'd control flow rate. Like, a fluid will act as though its head is only as high as the height of the float valve filling it. So you could have a 30 meter tall holding tank feeding into your 20L tank, and if you've got a float valve 7 inches off the bottom, it only flows like there's 7 inches of water, total. I believe this is how carburetors work. What did you do?
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Sep 3, 2015 04:50
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DreadLlama posted:I asked in the metalworking thread and I'm 95% sure I'll be heading to civilization between now and October to buy an oxy/mapp welder. He's so much a man that he simply wills it done.
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Sep 3, 2015 13:32
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Cannon_Fodder posted:He's so much a man that he simply wills it done. That and a 1/4 turn ball valve in the feed line that you can't see through the steam  Reasonable people with reasonable setups use float valves. Commercially produced evaporators have "float boxes" on the sides of the pans for just this purpose, which you can also build yourself. Later on in the process I switched to a 55gal drum for the preheater feed tank because I got to the point where boil rate exceeded my desire to be constantly swapping feed jugs I can post some more pics of the evap if you want but it's really just a barrel cut open with some angle iron welded on for pan support
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Sep 8, 2015 21:56
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apatite posted:That and a 1/4 turn ball valve in the feed line that you can't see through the steam Yeah but those float valves aren't connected to a copper pipe around the chimney, they usually use pipes in a steam hood for preheating. I would think a float valve on the chimney pipe would be a vapor lock/explosion waiting to happen. There a lot of barrel evaporator porn on mapletrader, I enjoy this guy's sheet metal preheater chimney contraption, might try that next year. I'm not man enough to do the copper around the chimney, it scares me because I don't like babysitting it. http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?23101-55-Gallon-Barrel-Evaporator-Meet-quot-Mr.-Syrup-quot
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Sep 8, 2015 22:50
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Ikantski posted:Yeah but those float valves aren't connected to a copper pipe around the chimney, they usually use pipes in a steam hood for preheating. I would think a float valve on the chimney pipe would be a vapor lock/explosion waiting to happen. Agreed quote:There a lot of barrel evaporator porn on mapletrader Super agreed quote:I enjoy this guy's sheet metal preheater chimney contraption, might try that next year. I'm not man enough to do the copper around the chimney, it scares me because I don't like babysitting it. Babysitting it isn't that bad and as I've discussed before (possibly in this thread) as long as it is an open system, nothing should be able to explode. If your feed tank was closed it would create a vacuum and the sap wouldn't flow to the evaporator. With it open to atmosphere there should be no explody. Not really an issue for me because my boil rate is high enough that the feed rate stays pretty high, the sap never gets close to boiling (which means it is an inefficient preheater) Basically build something better than what I use 
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Sep 9, 2015 16:36
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apatite posted:Babysitting it isn't that bad and as I've discussed before (possibly in this thread) as long as it is an open system, nothing should be able to explode. If your feed tank was closed it would create a vacuum and the sap wouldn't flow to the evaporator. With it open to atmosphere there should be no explody. Not really an issue for me because my boil rate is high enough that the feed rate stays pretty high, the sap never gets close to boiling (which means it is an inefficient preheater) Yeah, I wouldn't be worried about it exploding, more about if I forget about it and it drains and the residue burns in the empty pipe. I actually built something the other day to help cut my maple wood that I thought you would approve of. I've got an unlimited supply of poplar logs but they're a pain in the butt to cut one at a time so I made a 6' high, 18" wide cradle so that I can zip through a bunch at once, it's handy. 
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Sep 9, 2015 18:58
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Ikantski posted:Yeah, I wouldn't be worried about it exploding, more about if I forget about it and it drains and the residue burns in the empty pipe. I actually built something the other day to help cut my maple wood that I thought you would approve of. I've got an unlimited supply of poplar logs but they're a pain in the butt to cut one at a time so I made a 6' high, 18" wide cradle so that I can zip through a bunch at once, it's handy. How's that work exactly? Load the cradle to the top with logs, climb a ladder, jam the chainsaw on the top of the pile, squeeze the throttle, jump off the ladder, use the resistance given to the saw by the wood to slow your descent like a circa 1790s Royal navy sailor coming down from the crow's nest to join a fracas? Because that sounds pretty baller.
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Sep 9, 2015 22:21
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Slung Blade posted:How's that work exactly? Load the cradle to the top with logs, climb a ladder, jam the chainsaw on the top of the pile, squeeze the throttle, jump off the ladder, use the resistance given to the saw by the wood to slow your descent like a circa 1790s Royal navy sailor coming down from the crow's nest to join a fracas? Basically yeah just harness the inner pirate Start with this  Do this, takes about 4 minutes. 
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Sep 10, 2015 00:57
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That gif is mesmerizing.
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Sep 10, 2015 01:22
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Wow, chaps and hearing protection. Congrats on being smarter than 99% of chainsaw users. That's a good system for cutting massive amounts of small offcuts.
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Sep 10, 2015 01:41
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sharkytm posted:Wow, chaps and hearing protection. Congrats on being smarter than 99% of chainsaw users. I never understand how people can stand to use power tools without hearing protection. poo poo's loud, yo.
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Sep 10, 2015 01:57
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Meh, after a while the noise just seems to fade into the background.
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Sep 10, 2015 03:09
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loving awesome.
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Sep 10, 2015 06:51
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Slung Blade posted:loving awesome. Agreed. Need to build one of those for cutting up beech saplings!!!!!! Thanks for sharing, Ikantski
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Sep 10, 2015 14:08
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apatite posted:Agreed. Need to build one of those for cutting up beech saplings!!!!!! Yeah, I've got a ton of 4-6" hop hornbeam or ironwood to cut up, it's going to be great for that. Learn from my mistakes, in hindsight an 18" wide box with 18" saw isn't great, I'd make it an inch or two narrower that the blade. I'd make it a foot shorter too so there isn't as much outward pressure on the 2x4s and because it gets tippy the higher you stack. Ideally, it would have a couple of perpendicular 2x8 braced on the bottom to be sure it doesn't tip onto you while you're cutting but I've found it pretty stable so far  sharkytm posted:Wow, chaps and hearing protection. Congrats on being smarter than 99% of chainsaw users. Hah, not that smart. If you look close, you can see a nick on them on my upper left leg. It only went through one layer of kevlar but I really need to get new ones, it's nice having legs. Postess with the Mostest fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Sep 10, 2015 |
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Sep 10, 2015 15:25
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I set mine alight with the exhaust on an MS660 that had been working its guts out for 20 mins... If you only damage the outer cover you can sew a patch ONTO THE OUTER COVER ONLY. Cant stress this enough, chaps work by being full of long fibers that will clog up a chainsaw and stop the chain moving, not by being cut resistant. You'll still get a saw into the leg, but it will be a cut that requires stitches, not full blown emergency reattachment surgery. If you sew a patch through the inner layers, they cant pull out and clog the saw and you've basically made yourself a pair of really expensive jeans that have the same protection as denim.
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Sep 11, 2015 02:15
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apatite posted:That and a 1/4 turn ball valve in the feed line that you can't see through the steam Please do. I haven't done anything like this since the mid 90's. Like you said, I'd like to build something better. In fact, what'd be really awesome is if you posted pics of yours and talked about how you'd improve it. That way this thread would serve as notes in case you ever forgot. Plus, I could blatantly rip off any suggestions you get and use them to build my evaporator. By the way, do you have any terribly thorny pointy bushes growing wild there? I have one: prickly ash. It can grow to be taller than a man, and it's covered with pointy thorns that scratch across your skin like a cat's claws. It spreads by the root, so cutting it doesn't kill it. It keeps coming back. So paths I carved in high-school are now horribly overgrown messes of pointy things that refuse to die. TFR directed me towards a Big Knife that's pretty good, but I know my efforts are temporary. I'm thinking about planting Norway Spruce, whose roots expand along the surface and suffocate out competitors, but they'll take 10 years to get taller than a man, and decades after that to kill everything around them (if they work at all). It scratches at my dogs' faces and cuts their feet so if they go on long walks on the back 40, they spend a lot of the return trip licking their feet. I hate this plant and I desire for it to become extinct. In lieu of that happening, I was wondering if you'd ever encountered anything like it and if so how you dealt with it.
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Sep 14, 2015 04:00
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There have been some studied attempts at controlling Japanese Knotweed in small areas by cutting off all growth at a few inches high and pouring weed killer onto the stems, or by using small-mesh (like, 1/4") hardware cloth to girdle and eventually kill shoots as they come up, thereby weakening the plant and improving the chances for competing growth. How long do the roots remain viable in the soil without shoots to photosynthesize for them? Do they grow new shoots if broken off from their mother plant? If you can remove or kill a majority of the shoots that come up one year, it's possible you would weaken the roots enough to make removal easier the next year. In my dealings with bindweed (another godforsaken hellplant which does not need to be on this earth) I have discovered that mechanical means of removal do NOT work well for root-spreading plants unless you are willing to remove every single sprout several times a year, taking as much root as you can with it, and make sure nothing that sprouts makes it to flowering/seeding or your progress will disappear overnight. Chemicals are an easier (and nastier) option and you may have to work to find one that will sufficiently damage your chosen target without killing all the wildlife in the area. Edit: Are you talking about this prickly ash? It's apparently edible... how much of it do you think you can eat? 
Faerunner fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Sep 15, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 03:04
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Zanthoxylum americanum. I will eventually burn it as fuel in a maple syrup evaporator and/or wood gasifier, so I appreciate its' quick-growing nature. However I would appreciate it not overtaking my paths as quickly as it does.
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Sep 15, 2015 04:09
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'Sup? Long time no post. It is cold out so I am no longer off galavanting and enjoying myself doing fun things with cool people in other places. Yesterday I replaced the single wall chimney (it was only double wall where it penetrated the trailer wall) with a full stainless insulated chimney. It also snowed. Saturday, thanks to a friend that got a nice side gig doing some demolition, the attic insulation went from R21 to R42+. Also have been doing the other normal "it's getting cold" stuff like cutting/splitting/stacking firewood, etc and so on. Boring stuff    The only super prickly thing we have aside from berry bushes are Hawthorn that are taking over the old farm fields. They are super thorny/prickly/assholes.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:01
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Snow inside too? Tough break, dude.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:49
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Wikipedia does not state whether hawthorn spreads via root propagation. May I suggest that you put on your motorcycling / welding kit, grab one by the stem and yanking it out? If you find that the stem tears up out of the soil laterally, you've got root propagation. Prickly ash spreads via root propagation. Here's a story: Last January I cut a generally southward path through some dense shrubland in search of maple trees. I saw a stand along a ridge and figured it'd be good for sugar, but since it was January there weren't any leaves on them and I don't know enough about trees to tell you if they were alive or not. I only know they were maples because I'd been through there once during the Summer in the late 90's. Anyway. I cut a path through mine in January. I returned in August and each stump had sprouted several long spindly pointy arms that reach up past my dog's nose and my knees. The stumps do not die if you cut them. They are fed calories from other healthy nearby stems. They are a zombie plant. You cut them down, and they grow back spindly, flexible, clingy, and with a lot more thorns per inch than they had when they were big. It is not unlike the mythical hydra from the labours of Heracles. I sincerely hope that hawthorn is not as much a pain in the rear end as prickly ash.
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Oct 20, 2015 04:57
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DreadLlama posted:The stumps do not die if you cut them. They are fed calories from other healthy nearby stems. They are a zombie plant. You cut them down, and they grow back spindly, flexible, clingy, and with a lot more thorns per inch than they had when they were big. It is not unlike the mythical hydra from the labours of Heracles. I sincerely hope that hawthorn is not as much a pain in the rear end as prickly ash. Yeah they're exactly that bad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing pro-tip: burn the stumps if you are in a place where there is not a giant risk of burning down the surrounding countryside
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Oct 20, 2015 16:18
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Some pictures from this week:  ^^ these are those Hawthorns I was talking about. They frequently grow up in bunches around other trees. In this instance I was trying to cut the dead, dry standing tree for firewood and had to cut a bunch of hawthorn out of the way to even get to it.  Ridin 20s on the orange hoopty, 18s for punks    milkweed growing wild ( http://monarchjointventure.org/images/uploads/documents/MilkweedFactSheetFINAL.pdf )
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Nov 6, 2015 18:48
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 Welcome back! I recently found out that milkweed is basically all Monarch Butterflies eat and their numbers are dwindling. How much milkweed is around you? Also, what's the progress on your orchard? Have you and your horses(dogs) made any progress at setting it up?
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Nov 9, 2015 20:08
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Hawthorn? More like Hawspike. Jesus. If it's only one stand it might not be too late to burn down that section of forest.
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Nov 10, 2015 03:32
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Cannon_Fodder posted:
We have a lot of milkweed (because we don't mow much). Other people mow too frequently and I never see milkweed in their fields. Hay fields for instance you will not see much if any milkweed in because it gets cut several times a year. There has been a big push by advocacy groups to get municipalities to mow/spray roadsides at different times of the year than they do now so that some milkweed can grow for the poor monarchs. Most places currently have it timed so that the milkweed can't grow on the roadsides at all. Orchard is moving along, got some more stuff planted, deer ripped down some fencing, that kind of stuff. It is slow going. We did get a 'cage tote' tank and a pump and some other stuff so that next summer we can setup gravity fed drip irrigation to most things. There is a spring below(elevation wise) the orchard, so we will use a solar powered water pump to move water up to the tank on a high spot during the day when the sun is shining. From the tank it will go out to the plants. DreadLlama posted:Hawthorn? More like Hawspike. Jesus. Man, I wish! Currently have been just cutting it down and throwing it in piles, sometimes I rent a woodchipper to chip it up or just burn it. The stuff is too nasty to bother trying to use as normal firewood, which is too bad because it is super hard and dense. apatite fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Nov 10, 2015 |
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Nov 10, 2015 17:02
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apatite posted:Orchard is moving along, got some more stuff planted, deer ripped down some fencing, that kind of stuff. It is slow going. We did get a 'cage tote' tank and a pump and some other stuff so that next summer we can setup gravity fed drip irrigation to most things. There is a spring below(elevation wise) the orchard, so we will use a solar powered water pump to move water up to the tank on a high spot during the day when the sun is shining. From the tank it will go out to the plants. schmagekie posted:You should look into building a ram pump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y_WWxWdn5A
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Nov 10, 2015 21:34
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apatite posted:Man, I wish! The thing about points is that they have a lot of surface area. This means they burn well. http://www.tscstores.com/LINCOLN-INFERNO-PROPANE-TORCH-KIT-P21338.aspx Imagine strapping a 20lb propane to your back and unleashing unholy firey fury at the loving insubordinate plant who dared to stand between you and your objectives.
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Nov 11, 2015 06:32
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