Open Source Ecology Blog

Heat Exchanger

Yesterday we tested the heat exchanger for the greenhouse stove. In winter, the greenhouse stove heats both the greenhouse and the rest of our facility. We have PEX tubing running from the greenhouse to our house, with in-floor heating for the homes....

Back to CEB

November 1 is when I have finally returned to complete the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press. By November 30, we will have a working CEB press, spitting out between 3-5 bricks per minute. This is the holy grail of building, as the most advanced natural...

How to find an egg

Eleven young laying hens. Four fresh eggs. Three hungry farmers. The numbers weren’t adding up. Our hens are very free range. Sometimes we even see them wondering in our neighbor’s field. We have nice hay-filled laying boxes available, but...

Piglet

Brittany and Ronny went to Jamesport last Monday and returned with a mouser cat and a sow piglet. The piglet ran away immediately, it was so scared. We said bye bye piglet. We sighted it a couple of times, in the next two days, and one time it came back...

Online presence.

Finally, our website is on. See the miracle at: FactorEFarm.org  it is a constant work in progress. I hope you would enjoy it. -Ronny

The Volunteers Experiment.

Hey, Yesterday’s post was delayed because I got a nasty food poisoning. Canned beans are sure a big no no for me. More over, I spent all yesterday on cutting woods with our chainsaw and almost cut my left leg off. I actually sliced through my black...

Signs of the season

Jack Frost leaves two types of trails: sparkling crystals that shimmer in the morning sunlight, reminding one to put away shorts and get out sweaters; and a spattering of black leaves. It is the second sign that glues a farmer to the weather forecast...

Lister Ailments

Here’s a surprising one on equipment failure. We’ve been running our 1 cylinder, 6 horsepower Lister engine on filtered waste vegetable oil for 2 years now. It’s the backbone of our off grid power. Yesterday, it lost compression. So...

Logs and cookies

  Howdy,  We worked hard for the last to days in order to show you guys the picture above. The addition is almost complete. A half day’s work and it will shine like a diamond. It really made me reconsider my plans about my future humble...

From Humanure to Hawthorns

The worm should never be doubted for its ability to turn waste into want. And yet I did. When we mixed our first load of humanure with a handful of red worms, I thought we had given them the death sentence.  Only months later did I witness the true...