Tomatoe cultivars can be divided into two basic growth habits, specifically, "determinate" and "non determinate"
"Determinate" varieties will grow to a fairly predictable height at which point vertical growth stops......
"Non-determinate varieties will continue to grow indefinately or or at least until they run out of support, terminal height basically being limited only by environmental factors with the number one factor usually being how high you've built your actual tomatoe cages.
Chickens are worth their feed, merely from the fertilizer value.
I actually have chickens this year also (leghorns, a huge mistake). I will definitely save every bit of litter.
i
Also, suggest stay away from horse manure--it is fine if you are wanting to convert raw land into pasture but in the garden there usually will sprout way too many seeds that weren't killed in passing through the horse's intestines.
Anything that only cost about $5 to build and does not take up much room sounds interesting. Can I have more details?
Dan
Buff Orphingtons have a pretty good temperament esp if you like letting them out to wander and forage during the day.
Green chicken manure from a poultry farm smells bad.
Uncontrollable automatic gag reflex bad, in fact.
Worm castings are a lot easier to live with.
-- Experience is a good teacher, but she send in terrific bills. -- Minna Thomas Antrim
I don't.
I had New Hempshire Reds last time, they were awesome, very calm, friendly, and docile. These Leghorns are very flighty and scaredy.
In addition, they are not quite as hardy as far as cold weather goes.
I have no problems with that smell, I kept some manure mixed with water in a bucket, for 3 weeks. It did smell quite a bit, but I am okay with that.
iDan My folks have a NZ made Hansa chipper -
I would appreciate some photos especially of how the cutting edge is attached to the disk. 13 hp sounds like a good compromise between cost and having enough power.
The invite to come visit is still open. Maureen's sister Anne is coming this next fall. She usually travels with lots of luggage, but we might be able to get her to take something back if it is not too big or heavy. They moved and are now out in the country south of Auckland.
Dan
Basically a 1 x 2 foot box with expanded metal ($5) mesh bottom suspended by a chain from one end in a frame. The other end has wooden pillow blocks riding on a pair of eccentrics mounted on a half inch shaft. These eccentrics have a larger diameter section concentric with the shaft which also run in wooden pillow blocks mounted to the main frame. The eccentrics were turned from 1 1/4" steel trued up and drilled for the shaft, then offset 1/8" and the centre section turned down to round (1") and parted into two pieces three inches long. The pillow blocks are made from 2 x 4 maple from pallet material, grease nipples (1/4-28) were threaded into drilled and tapped 1" long 3/8" cap screws into tapped holes in the pillow blocks. A 1" ID washer was used between the pillow blocks for clearance and to provide positive longitudinal location. The bores of the pillow blocks are about 1/32" oversize for free rotation and chassis lube liberally applied. A 1/3 HP motor belted to the eccentric shaft turns it at about 900 RPM. Both frames are made from scrap 2 x 4 cross bolted with
1/4" all-thread. The chain suspended end of the screen box hangs about an inch bellow the driven end. In use, I set the shaker on saw horses over the wheel barrow and put three or four 3" stones on the screen to break up lumps then toss in shovels full of compost and stir it around with a garden trowel and pick out roots and lumps for further composting. I also mix in soil from my pile of surplus materials from edge trimming etc. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
Sounds like a sound design. I made something somewhat similar for cleaning concrete off bricks. Used the crankshaft out of a Briggs and Stratton engine and a connecting rod with hardwood bearing surface. Had some expanded metal that scraped the brick. It was not much faster than cleaning bricks by hand, but a lot less work.
Get a goat. :)
John
Get to do something with a home built that a rental could do in less than a quarter of the time at one tenth of the effort but with twenty times the satisfaction! Gerry :-)} London, Canada
The Bedair chipper looks to be a fairly rugged fabrication.
This Steve Bedair does very good executions of very well-thought-out designs. I'm familiar with his 9x20 lathe improvements from years ago.
WOW, impressive project this fella did.
Karl
Wow, Mr. Bedair does good work. Nice project, nice pages.
-- Experience is a good teacher, but she send in terrific bills. -- Minna Thomas Antrim
As much as I like building machines, when I have brush and branches to cut up I use a tall chopping block and a hatchet or machete. Once the branches have been reduced to mostly straight or Y pieces they pile compactly enough on the compost heap.
jsw
Steve W. Inscribed thus:
That is one hell of a heavy duty machine !
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