Extreme Composting

Now you know why farmers used to snake all of their big stumps into a big pile and let them burn for weeks. If there wasn't a ditch to bury them in, the farmer would grow old waiting for them to become useful for anything else.

Martin

Oh, I don't know, Martin....... the last big clearing project I did around here, I think I aged all of an hour, maybe two....while pushing all those quite valuable stumps into three or four gulleys draining off the field and into the woods, where they all serve as the most fabulous wash-stop that can be had.....holding back dirt and water whilst slowly reducing to their organic and nutrient rich elements.

Everything on the farm has a purpose.

Some things even have more than one.

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Yep, if one didn't have a ditch or gully to drag them into, they just took up space and couldn't even be used for firewood. Cousin figured that he could do that with a lot of stumps pushed into a gully and "aged" for a few years. Didn't get a half-hour out of his chain saw chain.

Martin

You should have mentioned the folly of that to him before he started.

I feel for flat land farmers.
There's just so little space for the imagination to roam.......

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Including my nosey neighbor who keeps coming over to see what I'm doing today?

For those who don't understand what Forerunner and I both know, I've made cuts in tree crotches which had been 30' above ground and sparks fly. No sound clue as to how small stones and gravel can get up there but it does. With the stumps which have been dragged, pushed, or rolled to the gullies, they're just embedded with lots of sand and stones all over besides what may be entangled from when the tree was growing. Their best place is right where they were, in the ditch. I wouldn't even try to go at them with a crosscut.

Martin

No farm/homestead would be complete without one of them. Mine decided to become a problem and was told not to come back.

Started a new pile in the backyard Saturday. Built it by layering wood chips, cow manure, peanut hulls, water and some ammonia nitrate(to save time).
Must be warming up because tonight its a little chilly and I found my dog laying on top of the pile.

........and cats, and ducks, and chickens.......

Don't they all know that working for a living produces body heat ?

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Hi, I am new to this site, but not to composting.
Anyone compost Coffee Chaff?
Great pics!
Forerunner can you tell me what is a good/easiest grain to grow & harvest by hand.
I have a power line running though my 10 year old pine trees & thought that planting grain might work there.

Hello Crabtree.

I have good homesteader friends who are taking it back to the land in residential Chicago, proper.
They even have three chickens and they use coffee chaff for bedding and compost filler.

Grain by hand falls to corn, every time.

You can feed four-legged livestock the stalks at any time, whether fresh or silage.
Pick and eat all you want, fresh, if it's sweet corn, and let the rest of the crop dry down for awesome pancake and corn muffin flour.
Crush the still-green stalk to get the juice out and boil 'er down for cheater molasses.
Plant and pick by hand with a real return for the effort; store on the cob for trouble-free curing....use those cobs for tool handles, BTUs, backwoods clean-up, etc.

Yeah.

Corn for me, thanks.

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

I had not heard of coffee chaff prior to this. Had to look it up. Is this something you get from Starbucks or some sort of factory sized roasting operation?

FR - I had not heard of the corn molasses idea. Ever tried it yourself?

I agree with your statements about corn, I'll never have the land and equipment to mass produce grain, so corn makes a lot of sense. But the thing I like about the straw producing grains is the straw for bedding. A few months in the pens to soak up smells and then a few months in the compost pile makes for good fertilizer. I suppose I should try chipping dry corn stalks to see how that works as bedding.

Also, when I lived in Bath, IN (pop <70 if everyone was home from work) we used straw bales to insulate our cabin. Two bales thick and stacked to the roof, we could keep the snow off the walls and the wind from blowing thru. Of course I would hate to see what would have happened if the wood stove blew a hot ember into those bales.

I haven't tried the corn molasses thing, but I've chewed the stalks, green, and know enough about boiling down sweet sap (corn is much sweeter sap than maple......maple is 35-40 gallons sap to one of syrup.....sorghum is six to one, and I bet corn ain't far behind that) and the close relation between the corns and the canes to know that it would work.....

As for chipped/shredded dry corn stalks....you may fall out of love with all previous bedding materials after........

Who says you can't bale corn stalks ?
I have done that......works well enough in a tougher old John Deere 24T.

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

OK, you talked me into it. Next year, corn, then beans on the stalks, then stalks thru the chipper.

I'm curious enough to want to try the corn molasses as well, but I'll have to figure out a way to make a crusher.

Have you seen the old school cane presses......steel roller on steel roller.....maybe one splined to grip the stalks better ?

I've actually got one, been in the extended family for.....hoo boy.....in it's individual components.

Which is to say it's in a box, in little pieces, collecting dust in the shed.
Someday.....

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

I have seen those. Might be able to find one at auction in south Florida, assuming they used that in small scale sugar cane processing.

Peak of the sugar content in sweet corn juice is within 3 weeks after the ears are edible. At that point, there may be 10% sugar in the juice. It will never become crystal sugar but may be cooked down to a syrup similar to molasses or sorghum. Only problem is that there's not much available per plant unless pulped and cooked. The sweetness is there but just takes a lot of work to get it out.

Martin

My ole Pa always used to tell me, when I was a kid........

"Son, the measure of your reward will remain roughly commensurate with your input energy expenditures."

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Smart Dads make for smart kids.

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