Home heating the old fashioned (free) way!

sweetcorn

Lovin' The Homestead
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I'm sure cow chips would work too , just wondering what'd smell like when u opened your stove :p Does it have an odor?
 

enjoy the ride

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But with goat berries they would already be sized and pretty dry. No forming at all- just making sure they are dried and stay dry. Can you see Johnson and Johnson advertising goat berry reclaimed fuel like that ad for methane capture from a dump? A goat dairy powered by the poop? Almost a closed system.
I think you would need a teflon coated auger to feed the pellets because those things can really jam up if crushed together- at least they do in my wet/dry vacuum. But if they were kept really dry, they are like little ball bearings- I've taken a few skids in the summer from stepping on them.

You know this might be possible - any mechanics amoung the goat herders out there? :)
 

annmarie

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unclejoe said:
I don't remember where, but I read an article a while back that relates to this. The author was spreading cow patties on his garden. His neighbor, a recent immigrent from somewhere in Asia, was appaulled that he would be wasting this fuel on his garden. He taught him how to make bricks for fuel. Then, and only then, use the ash in the garden! The author went on to explain how he built the brick "forms" out of wood and no longer puts fresh manure on his wasted any more of this free fuel. He said there was no smell from burning or in the ash. Apparently there are plenty of people out there living SS long before we were.

And we thought we were so special. :rolleyes:
unclejoe, the article you speak of is the article I entered the link to in my original posting! You read it in Backwoods Home, about 5 or 6 years ago. Apparently it made an impression on you too! The article goes on to explain the authors experiments with it, and how the bricks were the ultimate solution because individual patties or chips burned too fast, and how there was no smell, and how his wife was at first opposed to the idea until she realized there was no smell and saw that it worked really well. Here's the link to the article again if anyone missed it: (If you haven't caught on yet, I really want someone to try it! ;))

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/hooker87.html
 

unclejoe

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Wow. I never even followed the link. :rolleyes: I just remembered reading about it somewhere. I reread my post. Boy I must have been tired when I wrote that.
 

SandraMort

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My husband asked me a couple of months ago if we could dry the used wood shavings from the barn (chickens and ducks) and burn those in the wood stove. I laughed... but could it be done?
 

DrakeMaiden

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My husband and I have talked about this, but I framed it as a question as to why you couldn't dry & burn human waste. Yeah, it would be way gross :p, but if you were in a situation where you didn't have running water or something . . . . ?
 

Beekissed

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Yep! And I heard that manure fuel has a long slow burn time with no odor involved....I would LOVE to try it if I had enough manure to try. I've determined I don't have enough and noone around here will part with any, either! Stingy ol' manure keepers! :(
 
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