One Good Turn

Meg in New York with Mormon Helping Hands after Hurricane Sandy

This past Thanksgiving weekend I was planning to prepare my garden for the winter. But Hurricane Sandy had hit New York City hard that fall, so I joined a group of volunteers to help clean up in Queens instead. The damage was amazing, even several weeks after the storm hit. Here were a few more pictures I took during that weekend. The first is a car damaged by the storm, the next one of the houses we helped clear out (this picture is after the dump truck took away most of the contents of this home, newly remodeled only the prior November).





I dont regret the time I spent in New York, but my own yard remained messy throughout the winter. There were remains from various projects, yard debris, and general unkemptness. Heres a couple of shots showing the mess:





Then my local Mormon missionaries stopped by this past month. "Is there anything we could do to help you?" they asked.

"Anything?" I said. "Well, I could use some help with my back yard..."

They were good to their word and showed up last Saturday, ready to make quick work of a mess that had bothered me all winter. Heres a couple of shots after theyd moved the trash out of my yard:





Yeah missionaries! Many hands make light work. Now I can get started on my spring garden without hours of dirty, heavy lifting in my way!

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Keeping things warm

I hate working outside in the cold.

Unfortunately, I didnt get my two heating solutions finished before cold set in. With work, family, and short days, Ive not had the time Id hoped to finish things off.

Another concern Ive had is getting things too warm. Since my greenhouse is so tiny, I had visions of scalding water and melted plastic. So I wanted to measure temperatures with the rocket mass heater without it being connected to the greenhouse.

This past week I finally got the rust stripped off and painted the drum and lid (from a second-hand 22.5" Weber grill) with high temperature paint. The high temperature paint is supposed to be able to go to 800 degrees Fahrenheit without out-gassing or burning off.

Ive got a video here showing how I assembled the innards. I want to be able to disassemble the rocket mass heater, so making the components of cob isnt my first choice. If I had a chance to do this over, I would cut two 8 inch holes into the base plate or "lid" of the barrel.



Ive found that its a bit tricky getting these heaters to start. The method that ended up working for me is to start off with crumpled newspaper and a wax & eggcarton fire starter. Then feeding in small diameter sticks with the occasional piece of junk mail works great.

In my initial burn, I found that the top of the barrel (inside the domed lid) got to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The sides of the barrel warmed my hands when held about an inch away, and the top of the domed lid provided a similar level of diffuse heat.

If I had a greenhouse that was taller and could make a second version of this, I would consider having the heater inside the greenhouse. My greenhouse is short, however, so the roof plastic would only be a few inches above the domed lid. And this first version has the big rough rectangular hole for the exhaust, so I would be concerned about the exhaust fumes leaking in the enclosed space.

My next step will be constructing a nicer base out of bricks and connecting the exhaust to the duct work and structure inside my greenhouse.

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Q A Keeping fish waste from clogging the sump pump

From time to time someone tracks me down and asks a great question. I usually end up spending a minor chunk of time answering. Heres a recent question I thought might be of interest:

Hello Meg,

Thanks for 365 Aquaponics. I find it very informative for my future plans in aquaponics. I had some quick questions- How do you keep fish waste from cloggin up the sump pump?

Thank you very much! Regards, R

Heres what I do:

• I have relatively narrow pipes taking overflow water from my fish tank to my sump. This is not a good thing - if I were doing this over again, Id make sure my drain to the sump was at least 2 inches in diameter. Its a solids lifting overflow, so its supposed to suck the fish tank wastes out, and it does, to a certain extent.
  
  
• I dont have a swirl filter. This is also not a good thing. I really like the swirl filter in the HD Aquaponics youtube videos (episodes 28 and 29 show it, as I recall. I have all the parts to implement a swirl filter constructed out of a 5 gallon water bottle sometime soon.
  
  
• I have goldfish in my sump tank. They love to munch on stuff. So they keep the sump tank pretty clear. I also have a cover over my sump tank.
  
  
• My pump is slightly elevated. I originally put it on a 1 inch thick plastic mesh pad (repurposed the internal pump filter) because I wanted to reduce the noise of the pump. But elevating the pump does three other great things:

1. The plastic mesh isnt inside my pump. Leaving the plastic mesh filter inside the pump can leave you with a nasty slimy mess that you have to clean frequently. If you still want to have some waste filtration, put an external mesh bag filter over your pump.
   
   
2. The waste that is in the system falls to the bottom of my sump. Since the pump is ever so slightly elevated, chunks of gunk are less likely to get sucked into the pump.
   
   
3. If the water level in my sump tank gets low, the pump stops emptying the tank when theres still an inch or so of water in the tank. My goldfish who live in the sump tank are still able to get around and remain in water, so Im pretty happy about that "accident."

Good luck!

Meg

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Aquaponics Videos at PlanetStewards com

The Planet Stewards website went live a few days ago. And the free teaser (32 minutes worth) is the video they shot of me and my daughter, Tara Phillips, at the September 2011 Aquaponics Association Conference.

I remember being very happy and very tired that night. But its fun remembering that weekend. I explain a bit why I started designing my own system (because I couldnt bear to pay for shipping for the systems then available) and some plumbing improvements I either discovered or imported.

Other videos from the conference are available for $20 apiece, if I recall correctly. Considering the price of air fare, hotel, and conference registration, thats a good deal (not to mention the fact that time travel to a past event would be prohibitive).

Visit PlanetStewards.com or click here to just watch the interview.

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