Bio Diesel Update

The biodiesel project is complete! After washing the concoction and letting it sit for about a week and a half, the water finally separated from the diesel and it is ready to use. The table top recipie I used called for 1 liter of new vegetable oil and 250 ML of sodium methoxide. That mix yielded 875ml of usable biodiesel. The next step is trying it out in the tractor... I'm not sure if I am ready to see the results. It passed the flame test with flying colors... no sputtering or anything. I wonder if there is a better way to test it? I guess it'll be mixed with about 6 gallons of petroleum diesel so it will probably have little effect, even if it was bad.

We'll see soon enough...

Natural Pest Control

Wouldn't it be great to have built-in, organic pest control for the yard and garden that doubles as an alarm to let you know when people are visiting? Guinea fowl to the rescue! Nine guinea keets of varied colors (helmeted, lavender and white) and joined the staff here at Red Clay last Friday morning after hatching on Thursday and are doing well. Of course, it may be time to get them out of the dining room and into something more secure before they start escaping from their make-shift brooder.

Guineafowl are great for pest control. They patrol the area searching out bugs and sometimes even snakes. I understand that they especially enjoy ticks. They are much more garden-friendly than chickens because they don't scratch the ground looking for food like chickens. As an added bonus, if somebody enters their area, they will raise the alarm and let everyone know. These guys will have the run of the property and hopefully will help us with some outdoor bug control over the summer. Boy, do we need it!

If you're planning to add guineas to your place, here are a few tips:

Don't buy adults because they will most likely wander off an disappear. Guineas imprint on the place they were raised and will feel little attachment to a new home as an adult. They must be brought in a keets if you want them to free range.

Find a reputable local source for your keets. You can buy them from hatcheries for reasonable prices, but hatcheries have rather large shipping fees tagged on to the price at checkout. I found my source on craigslist.org and had a long conversation with her before agreeing to buy from her.

Keep your keets warm and well fed for the first few weeks of life. You can find an abundance of information about brooding guinea keets on the internet by doing a quick Google search so I won't attempt to recreate that info here. The bottom line is this; for the sake of the birds, do some research before jumping in.

These little guys are fun to watch. They are much more amusing than the chickens ever were. Get yourself some guineafowl today and enjoy!

Aquaponics Update

Just a quick update on the aquaponics experiment....

So far, the goldfish are doing well. I've not found any floaters and they are self-sustaining, subsisting on the algae growing in the tank (of which there is PLENTY). 

The lettuce is doing well. In fact, it is taking over. It is crisp and tasty and makes a great salad. The tomatoes are OK.  I have some sort of fungus developing on them. I think we also have spider mites as well. I'm not sure what to do about that. The pepper plants have been crowded out and are not doing much. I many have to move them around.

The arugula did not do well. Apparently, it does not like to be wet all the time. It bolted quickly then died.

I have recently planted some luffa gord plants in the grow bed with the intent of letting the vine grow and cover the water tank. If it works, then hopefully the plants will shade the tank from the intense SC summer sun.

Biodiesel

My First Batch of Biodiesel. The top, lighter layer of
liquid is the biodiesel, the darker layer at the bottom
is the glycerol separated from the cooking oil

A few years ago, I worked with a guy who ran his '80's something Mercedes diesel on used cooking oil he got from a friend of his who ran a diner. He would filter the cooking oil as he poured it into his garage holding tank, and then pumped it straight into the fuel tank when he needed a top-off. I always thought that was a great idea!

It's entirely possible to run a diesel engine like this, but it can cause some problems with the engine over time (which is why my friend used an old car). He said that he would frequently have to change his fuel filter and that his car smelled like french fries going down the road.

There are relatively simple processes that will allow a person to convert used cooking oil (animal or vegetable) into biodiesel that can be used by any diesel engine without the challenges that burning straight, used cooking oil presents. Today I spend an hour or so learning to make my own small batch of biodiesel.

There are many places to find info on the subject of biodiesel brewing, but for this table-top version, I turned to the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service and their biodiesel page. They have a PDF entitled Biodiesel: Do-it-yourself production basics that has the recipe for this small batch. I was surprised at how easy it was to make it - just three ingredients and about 45 minutes and it was done.

For this particular batch, there are a couple more steps before it is useable biodiesel. I still have to separate the glycerol and wash the biodiesel to remove the soaps, residual glycerol, methanol and lye. Then it should be good to add to Bob the Tractor's fuel tank. The idea of being able to make my own fuel from waste oil is exciting! In the summer we use about 6-10 gallons of diesel every month. That's a $30-$40 savings every month if I could make enough. Plus, it removes waste oil that may be sent to the landfill and is cleaner and more efficient than petroleum diesel.

If you decide that you want to make your own diesel, be careful! The process uses some pretty nasty chemicals; methanol and lye specifically, that are bad for you. Make sure you wear rubber gloves and eye protection. Also, make sure that you don't release the chemicals where they can contaminate the environment.

Red Clay Alpacas

I am probably crazy but we are now an alpaca farm.

Over the past month I made a deal to purchase a small herd of alpacas. We added 8 registered females and three males (one registered) to the three (unregistered females) we already had. The person who owned them prior to us lost her battle with cancer and her farm was liquidated. These animals needed a new home.

So, what does one do with 14 alpacas? Well... stay tuned and find out. As soon as I figure it out, I'll let you know.