Branch shredder

[bc.gold 3,399]

Found an old V4 Wisconsin engine at the farm with a Rockford clutch attached, I'll know this evening if I own it.

 

On a side note the young mechanic that works in Sandy Lake lives off grid they have a a Onan running on propane but not enough amps to run his welder.

 

Told him this morning to drop into my place after work, I'm gifting him a Lister SR2 8.5 Kw generator along with a few parts from another Lister I had dismantled and will not fit onto my Petter PJ2 15kw gen set.

 

Right now the kid is happier than a pig in a mud wallow.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

Generator and grain cleaner are gone, couple more weeks and I'll be able to see the floor.

 

Three cylinder Perkins from a Toro commercial reel mower for the farm, it will replace a V4 Wisconsin currently in a scissor style man-lift. Colin asked me to do the transplant.

 

This evening when I'm over at the shop will get the model number from the lift, I need to figure out how to idle the engine down once the lift is in position.

 

Hopefully the Wisconsin uses some type of electric solenoid connected to the carburetor that can be easily adapted to the diesel engine, the hydrauic pump is driven via a coupling with a love-joy.`

 

Radiator may pose a problem.

Edited March 3, 2020 by bcgold

[Darb1964 1,014]

That covers it

[Darb1964 1,014]

That covers it

[bc.gold 3,399]

5 hours ago, Darb1964 said:

That covers it

 

I suppose it does, not my problem.

 

With or without the Rockford the Perkin's belongs to the farm.

 

The radiator was thought to be the tricky part, but with an electric fan Colin can mount the rad in any location.

 

I delivered the Perkin's engine this evening but have no answer on the Rockford, Colin's father has been a paraplegic for the past twenty years.

 

Somehow he broke a leg which went unnoticed until the leg turned black, Rob has been in and out of hospital these past two months. Colin had to take him in this afternoon and he's now on oxygen.

 

They can not put a cast on the leg, instead put a brace on it, my other half said this evening why don't they amputate, same reason they can not put a cast on the stump would not heal over.

 

Rob has run this 20,000 acre grain farm from a wheel chair and his specially equipped Van, often when I'm working on a personal project in their shop Rob will motor up and chat.

 

I don't think he's going to be with us much longer and this is one friend I'll truly miss.

 

During one of our chats Rob mentioned that keeping the farm in the family after he is gone is one of his main concerns. I told him why not personalize it by having a family cemetery, they certainly have enough land to qualify for one.

 

The Ranch I purchased in British Columbia had  a cemetery dating back to the original family who homesteaded the land.

 

The parcel I bought the home site was a only small portion of the original stake.

 

Edited March 3, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

Just need to feed it.

 

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

Spring is here.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

The sawmill has not cut  any spruce for a number of years and is now cutting Aspen, yesterday went over for a truck load of sawdust, purchased an old WWII Hobart generator and made a deal to inoculate the may acres of sawdust piles with mushroom mycilium.

 

I'll have mushrooms and the mill owner will have compost to sell.

 

Then I also have the many piles of chaff etc from Vern's seed cleaning plant that can be inoculated on site.

 

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

Compost piles at Vern's seed cleaning plant is a no go, it would require pasteurization to kill off the ergot spores.

[bc.gold 3,399]

My hardware disease paid off, years ago found a 2 and 5 gallon Webster pressurized paint pots along with the diaphragm compressor.

 

To work with mushroom cultures the equipment and growing media from the mycelium needs to be sterilized, boiling in hot water on the stove top works but takes forever.

 

Most people use a large pressure canner as an autoclave, then I remembered the Webster paint pots and figure the 5 gallon would make for the perfect autoclave.

 

The rocker keeps the internal pressure at 15 psi, the safety relief valve has been adjusted to 50 psi still to install is the pressure gauge but may use a gauge that will do both vacuum and pressure. Then I can also use the pot as a vacuum chamber for RTV work.

 

[Cvans 1,009]

Your skunks look just like ours. The ones around here are great carriers of Rabies so get eliminated on the spot. 

Sure seems to be a lot of people into those essential. It will be fun to see how your mushrooms turn out. 

[bc.gold 3,399]

21 minutes ago, Cvans said:

Your skunks look just like ours. The ones around here are great carriers of Rabies so get eliminated on the spot. 

Sure seems to be a lot of people into those essential. It will be fun to see how your mushrooms turn out. 

 

We have a lot of wildlife passing through our yard, a few years go the guy that delivers bread to the store roared into the yard to inform me  there was bear in the yard.

 

I asked him if the bear was bothering him then when he replied no. I told him then we shalt not bother the bear.

 

I use waste restaurant oil as fuel in my English diesels the engines run fine on it, I had an open 55 gallon drum of oil being filtered and had left the shop door open. The bears are not shy, came in a tipped the drum over and made big mess.

 

If I forget to take newly acquired 16 liter pails of used oil into the shop often the pails will go missing.

 

For the past two years we've had owls nest on the property, four chicks not yet able to fly were sitting in a large willow when one of the chicks lost its grip on  the branch and found it self handing upside down. It was hilarious, after a bit of flapping managed to right itself.

 

At the rear of the property there's a slough, we get all sorts of birds coming a going some stay long enough to raise a family, last summer while cutting the grass cam across a very large painted turtle that must have weighed 5 or 6 pounds.

 

The squirrels are the biggest nuisance but the cat does a good job of culling them.

 

 

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

Alice with her front end loader finds a job in the Village, last summer the arborists trimmed the trees and left piles of chips on a vacant lot, I'm guessing there's about 80% coniferous mixed in so I'll need to find a mushroom species that favors that medium.

 

BOLETUS edulis are better known as porcinis by the Italians, and cep by the French. Foraged during the summer and fall, these prized and delicious edibles can look like a bread bun protruding through duff, the decayed organic matter on the forest floor under conifers.

 

Features that announce this delectable mushroom are its bald cap of any of these colors: brown, yellow-brown, or red- brown, and underside it are pores, a sponge like layer, that when young it is whitish, and turns olive green as it matures; it does not turn blue when handled. Just below the stem, a net like design decorates it.

 

A most desirable mushroom when sliced and dried, it makes a tasty and flavorful soup

 

 

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

For a start I've ordered blue and golden oyster mycelium.

 

The sawmill has acres of sawdust, the farm with its firewood processor has several piles of sawdust, the RM had a tree limber come in last summer and they deposited the waste on  vacant lot in the village then i figure the waste from Vern's Ag seed cleaning plant is safe to use as the heat from the compost would have destroyed any Ergot present.

 

Rather than truck the waste home I'm going to inoculate these piles of waste onsite, in total I'm estimating that I'll have two to three acres under cultivation. With next to no effort on my part.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

Dealing with junk mail.

 

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

The New Jones Crop?

2011/05/18 by Farmer Shannon Leave a comment

Mushrooms are sprouting from the compost pile

No, we aren’t becoming mushroom farmers – these fungi are spontaneously sprouting from the compost piles! Because mushrooms aren’t plants, they can’t make their own food. Instead, they feed on decaying plants and animals and play an important role in recycling nutrients back into the soil. Because of the cool, damp weather conditions we’ve had lately (and the fact that we don’t turn this compost pile often) the mushroom spores that landed in this pile have grown into huge mushrooms. While we wouldn’t dare eat these mushrooms without expert identification, we’re happy that the fungi are helping us break down the wood chips!

These mushroom caps have huge gills underneath!

 

 

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

I do the dumbest things, took an agar dish with the lid removed, waved it around a few times in our living room to see if any stray spores would be captured.

 

After a couple of days we have visible growth, appears to be some sort of mold. The mold would have carried on harmlessly had i not provided a suitable environment.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

A couple more spores are growing, the white and tan colored. Thinking that pair wants sunlight, I've moved the dish outside to observe any improvements and if natural UV light kills the black mold.

 

If the white and tan shows growth in the next day or two, I'll transfer those puppies into separate dishes.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,399]

On 4/29/2020 at 3:51 PM, bcgold said:

A couple more spores are growing, the white and tan colored. Thinking that pair wants sunlight, I've moved the dish outside to observe any improvements and if natural UV light kills the black mold.

 

If the white and tan shows growth in the next day or two, I'll transfer those puppies into separate dishes.

 

 

 

Placed outdoors in direct sunlight all have perished.

 

The mushroom cultures arrived, from each 10 cc syringe I've made two Blue / Golden Oyster liquid culture jars and eight grain jars each injected with 1 cc of mycelium.

 

The liquid culture medium is just boiled potato water with a dash of corn syrup, with in 24 hours of being inoculated I can already see new growth. Nothing happening in the grain jars.

 

In the future will stick with liquid culture, easy to make with no fuse application whereas grain spawn would have to be raked into the grow medium, I believe grain spawns were developed for ease of shipping and perhaps long term storage.

 

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

The grain jars are full of slime - mycelium, this morning I inoculated the sawdust brought home from the mill and this afternoon the birds are having a feast.

 

With full crops they'll soon need to poop, mother nature doing my work spreading the mushroom spore.