How to Make a Simple Fuelless Cooker or Hay-box - No Power? No Worries. Hot Food.

Here's a quick and easy way to use less fuel, less water and still have a tasty and nutritious meal from a cardboard box. Get one ready in case of power outages or for hot food on a journey or emergency.

The Hay-box or fuelless cooker was a popular item around the turn of the 19th to 20th century. In particular during the World Wars and the Great Depression when people were often displaced and the price of fuel rose steeply and/or was rationed. Furthermore, it provided a form of cookery which used less water and in which, precious food, cooked at an even temperature by residual heat had no chance of burning and becoming spoiled. There was also the added and important factor that nutrients were retained through the slower and lower cooking times and temperature.
 

 

We cook all our meals and heat water with our wood-burning cooker. In the colder weather it is alight most of the day heating the house as well. As we move into the milder weather we tend to eat more raw food and as we have no need of the heating so the cooker is alight just around meal times. This poses a problem in that we do need hot water for washing hands when we come in from the garden prior to preparing our food .

 

We solved this problem by using a Hay Box to keep the water, heated at meal-times, hot. We made our first box from scrap wood and filled it with organic lucerne hay which we are given by the organic dairy farmer from whom we buy our chicken grain.

The idea is not a new one, in our 1920’s copy of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management the Fuelless cooker was used to cook meals for a fraction of the fuel cost. Nowadays it is just as important to consider the fuel-saving benefits of such a system as well as bearing in mind the possibility of providing hot food during power outages in the colder weather.
 

The principle is that the heated food is placed, in its pot or saucepan, into a well-insulated box , the lid which is also insulated is put in place and that’s it! The food takes about 4 times longer to cook completely within the box and may need to be reheated prior to serving but the only  energy consumed has been that needed to get it to boiling point. Of course, the ‘box’ part of the system is only required for safety and neatness and possibly transporting, I know of others that have simply wrapped duvets around the heated pan and achieved the same end result and have a warm duvet to boot!

 
 
ORGANIC LUCERNE HAY

ORGANIC TRITICALE STRAW

ORGANIC VEGETABLE FIBRES

ORGANIC HEMP AND LINEN

HOLZFLEX WOOD FIBRE

ORGANIC SHEEP'S WOOL


I used an ecological, non-toxic insulation for my box and there are a multitude of suitable insulation you can use: fleece material, multiple layers of corrugated cardboard, hay, straw even expanded polystyrene, the choice is yours. 

The first box I’ll share is the simplest and cheapest. We are very fortunate in having a local ecological building supplies company (in fact it’s next door to our organic supermarket) and I could buy single panels of  wood wool insulation 30mm thick for around $3,00. On  the same visit to buy the insulation we popped into the organic shop and picked up two cardboard boxes of similar proportions but different sizes. 

The insulation needs to be cut to line the four sides and base of the larger box and the smaller box should fit in the cavity that remains. I was able to find cartons whose sizes differed by about 60mm hence the 30mm insulation on the inside walls of the larger carton would be sufficient to form the space for the smaller carton.

 

To make the lid to the Hay Box I cut two rectangles of cardboard to the size of the larger carton and made a ‘sandwich’ with the insulation between them. The lid was held together with broad masking tape. I adhered the tape around the perimeter of the lid so as to seal in the insulation.

And that’s it, the box is ready to go. When the saucepan is put into the box, the voids at the box corners can be filled with triangular-shaped pieces of cardboard (a bit like ‘Toblerone’ boxes) or stuffed with tea towels, ideally any kind of insulating material which will reduce heat loss due to convection currents.


Next time I’ll share  my design for a wooden hay box, more robust than the cardboard one it is more suitable for carrying hot contents in a car so you can enjoy your own hot food on a journey.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to, sit back and enjoy the film:

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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Home-made Indoor Pallet Wood Trellis Planter Part 2 - The Trellis

Trellis is something that we always seem to need a lot of in our garden and it is often expensive and sometimes not very well made. 

When our first lot fell apart we found quite a handy alternative in the faux astragals in the double-glazed units we salvaged from a joiners. This however, has now finally rotted and I thought it would be a good idea to make our own from our plentiful supply of pallet wood. Having made this for the planter, I will now go on to make some more for the garden including an arbour in which we can eat, without the risk of marauding chicks.

The trellis back to the planter was so as to provide a structure up which climbing plants could grow and provide us with more space for growing food indoors. Furthermore, it gave the planter a more 'furniture'-like appearance. We were just in time in getting the plants in from the greenhouse, the aubergines were already touched by the first frosts.

Once again, I used pallet wood planks, Unlike with the planter  I did not plane the faces of the wood. Instead I used a circular saw to cut the wood into  21mm-22mm wide strips. I selected the width so as to obtain the maximum number of strips with little or no waste. I usually obtained four strips per plank.

These strips were secured to an outside frame which provided stiffness to the trellis and provided a means of attaching the trellis to the rear face of the planter. The frame uprights and bottom were cut to about 36mm-37mm (1.5") width and the top portion was cut to 50mm (2").

I decided the bottom of the trellis (the 36mm piece) would rest on the top edge of the planter so that this piece would support the weight of it and any vegetation. The screws used to attach the trellis would not, therefore have any excessive shearing stress placed upon them.

Constructing the trellis.

The uprights of the trellis were to extend to the floor. The uprights were placed onto the workbench, the overall width was the planter rear wall width. The lower trellis edge was laid onto the uprights at a distance of the planter height from the bottom end of the uprights. The wider top trellis strip was laid at the top end of the uprights and the whole arrangement was checked for squareness. These frame pieces were then joined together with two staples at each corner. I found that the staples were not sufficient to hold the structure rigidly enough, but were adequate for a temporary 'tacking'. The corners were then also nailed, the staples prevented the frame pieces from jumping around during nailing. Once these four framing pieces were joined together, the intermediate trellis laths were laid onto the uprights, I used a short piece of wood to set the distance between each lath. The trellis was assembled using an electric stapler (two staples per joint).
 

The laths were then trimmed flush with the uprights.

Without turning the trellis over, the vertical laths were laid into position and stapled to the laths below (two staples per joint). The surplus was then trimmed off.

The lower edge of the trellis was placed onto the top edge of the planter and clearance holes for the screws were drilled through the uprights where they touched the upper and lower outside rails of the base.

I attached the trellis once the planter was in the house.



Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film:

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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Humanure - Two years of living with a dry toilet

For over two years now we have been using our home-made dry toilet and have just been able to start using the compost from our first bin which has been lying idle for over eighteen months. Idle perhaps isn't the correct word for in that time a whole host of activities have been occurring within it.

   Hands on Experience - Paying dividends after eighteen months.

Humanure is like death and taxes it's something we all know about but as the elephant in the room, are most loath to mention it. It is this inability to cope with our own waste which has led us down the path of least resistance, removing  it as far away from our dwellings as possible and leading many countries literally to the brink of overflowing. What we need to do is face up to the problem as individuals and stop flushing this precious resource along with equally valuable water down the pan. We need to stop being afraid.

Changing language - changing attitudes

The word humanure is an interesting one in that it seeks to redefine what was once perceived as waste and place it in the context of a resource. Along with chicken, horse, pigeon and cow manure, etc., humanure becomes no longer a waste material which needs to be disposed of but a useful product to be composted and recycled for reuse. 

So how does it work. Firstly, in order to run a dry toilet system efficiently and ensure a quality breakdown to a rich compost without pathogens, one needs two basic 'cover' materials to provide carbon, with which to balance the nitrogen in the humanure. These also have a role in absorbing moisture and preventing the escape of odours from both the dry toilet recipient and compost bin. The most popular cover for the former is sawdust and the latter straw. In our case we recycle the certified organic hay and triticale straw used in nest boxes, hen house floors and our hen-powered propagator. The further important function of the cover material once in the compost bin is to provide the tiny interstitial air spaces for the necessary aerobic thermophilic microbial reaction to take place.

Everything pivots around language and nomenclature, once the concept of humanure can be explained 'scientifically' rather than in the old 'muck and mystery' ways of the organic and ecological movements of the early 1920, many more people begin to feel comfortable with it. It is also important to remember that these systems are as removed from the old chemical toilet outhouses as they are from the modern flushing wc.

  

The aerobic decomposition of the humanure, or thermophilic composting includes a hot stage of 45 degrees C or hotter. There is no exact timing for this stage because it is dependent on a number of variable factors. These include, the mass and composition of the mix, ones geographical location, the ambient temperatures, changing seasons and humidity levels both inside and out. One of our reasons for including the lid on our bin is to prevent the excessive humidity caused by the ingress of Normandie rain! 

Human Pathogens: -  viruses, protozoa, bacteria and intestinal worms

There has been a great body of research carried out on the efficiency of the thermophilic environment in eradicating the above, with the conclusion that when composting has been carried out efficiently there are no pathogens detectable even in cases where the initial level has been a heavy one. It is after this initial hot stage that the next part of the process, the cooling stage begins, after which comes the work of nonthermophilic microorganisms and our old friends the compost worms, wood lice and fungi. Then follows a stage known as 'curing', which allows time for all the work to be completed.  This last stage leaves you with the dry friable mix and a valuable resource for your garden.
For a comprehensive essay on the above:
http://www.agrowingculture.org/2011/08/humanure-part-iii-thermophillic-bacteria-composting-stages-the-sanitization-of-compost-joe-jenkins/
and a well presented factual short article:
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/microorg.html

Facts and Figures: Our own system

 
Water Consumption: prior to installation 80m³ per annum.
Water Consumption: post installation  36m³ per annum.
Volume of  sewage:  which would have been sent for re-treatment in a year: 44m³ (over 99% of this would have been potable water!)
Volume of dry waste: actually produced per annum 0.24m³

From the above, the benefits of installing a dry toilet are great both to the pocket and to the environment. Furthermore, the astounding difference is in the amount of 'waste' or rather resource engendered by the process. This is particularly important to highlight because many people believe erroneously that only country people with land can use this sort of set up. Interestingly Sue and I gave several demonstrations over this Summer of all things repurposed, including dry toilets and I had a great conversation with guy from central Paris who has exactly the same set up as ours. His only problem is sourcing the sawdust! It is worth pointing out too that we also have a liquids only toilet within the bathroom, which we can remove when visitors come to stay and give them the choice which toilet to use.

Our system was designed and made for and from repurposed pallet wood and a minimum of fixings and comes out at a cost of under 10 $/Euros/£. The three films showing how to make the compost bin, cabin and toilets are all on this blog as well as on my Youtube site*. There are obviously a multitude of designs both to make and purchase and many of which are specifically tailored for an urban environment. 

*http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic 

Conclusions

 

The Industrial Revolution removed vast numbers of ordinary people physically from the land. However, it did more to them mentally, holding them captive in a system, where they no longer had dominion over the management of their own lives. Further generations would be taught to look down upon the provision of food and composting 'waste' until World Wars obliged governments to force them back to it. The rallying cry of the post war period was about spending,  consuming and throwing away and the scale of its repercussions are only just beginning to be openly realised on our personal health, happiness and our one and only Planet. In the present economic climate, more and more are moving back to the land by choice and finding joy in the rediscovery of old skills and autonomy. Dry toilets are just a leitmotif for this paradigm shift. It is up to personal choice where you put the resultant compost. It is also an individual choice as to what you include in your mix. We are purists and have a dedicated bin just for the contents of the dry toilet. When we raise a glass of kir containing home-made crème de cassis this New year we will be drinking to the success of another year of thermophilic microbial reaction or rather the toast will be: "To Muck and Mystery!"

Now sit back, if you will and watch our dry toilet 'reveal' and find the answer to the questions that decades of flushing can no longer keep from you. The film still below is of our current working bin just to show the 'cover' materials and the worm activity - nothing to worry about!

 

Thanks for dropping by and if you have enjoyed this post please share and feel free to comment and ask questions.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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Horsepower, Pedal Power and Willpower - Sustainability is Our Future.

We are leaving our children with some really difficult environmental problems, so it's great to see innovative and original ideas like the following.
 

The pedal-powered Merry-go-round at Guichen's (Brittany) annual Organic Fair

I just chose a handful from our local area but this will be an on-going theme, which I hope will inspire and make you aware that so many people are already working towards a sustainable future for us all.

Horse-drawn Taxi

We loved this idea for an innovative and stylish Park & Ride system. It was used to carry people and their purchases back and forth from the Organic Salon to the car parks. 

 


Low on fuel, even if a little heavier on organic oats, this 'hippomobile' is  symbolic of the shift in organic agriculture back to animal traction and the welcome return of the Heavy Horse to farming.

Also operating before the event is a network for 'covoiturage' (carpool) which allows people going to the Salon to contact others on the same route both to save fuel and also meet others with the same goals and interests.

Pedal-Powered Carousel

 

 

This is both fun and educational because you can see that the children on the ride are equally interested in how the merry-go-round works. They are also playing with real physical materials, in this case sand rather than a virtual scenario in CGI!

As these are probably repeat customers, it's a great idea that every year the theme of the roundabout changes. Last year it was Sue's favourite with another great hands-on natural play environment - straw and papier maché poultry.

Manual Savoir-Faire

 

 

Another great idea for a sustainable future, a group of dedicated people, who pass on their skills in hand tools and workshop practice to the next generation of builders and craftsmen (and women).

A great message too on the group's van!

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

Confucius 551-479 BC

 

Raw Organic Milk at the Press of a Button

 

The milk in this vending machine is straight from the morning's milking so you can't get much fresher than that. Comments on my Youtube channel have suggested that a cow, a three-legged stool and a tray of glasses would be even simpler but on a pavement in a neat little seaside town I think you'd be pushing it!  

Another great innovation for this year in Normandie is the production of the first ever AOC (Appellation d'origine contrôlée) Camembert  made exclusively from the raw organic milk of the heritage breed; la Vache Normande. This breed, reputed to have been brought to the Normandie coast by the Vikings, is a gentle and beautiful creature, which was completely decimated in the World Wars and brought to the verge of extinction. Now experiencing a welcome comeback mostly through the efforts of organic farmers, we see more and more of them in the fields around our area. See our blog on raw milk and A2 type cows here

 

Aaaaaaawwww!

Gold, silver or Galléco?

 

   

A local currency, which can be exchanged for Euros and used to buy environmentally and ethically responsible local goods. An interesting concept which takes money out of the hands of the too- Big-too-Fail and too-Big-to-Bail.

  

An Alternative Shopping and Social Centre

 

Fed up of all the rubbish in the shops at the mall? Well Guichen's new (under construction) straw bale shopping centre is taking the idea literally. 

One of its first shops will be stocked with all the stuff from the Dump, which can be repurposed and reused by others.

Where we lived in Warwickshire before we came to France, our local Dump financed itself from its own shop containing all the useful stuff removed from its skips. Bad news for all us scavengers but it's good news for the Environment!

Hoping you have found these ideas inspiring, I'll leave you with our film showing some of them in action.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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DIY Pallet Wood Hen House Chicken Coop Part 4 - Assembly contnued and Finishings

Natural Finish - A piece of buddleia branch trimmed to make way for the Hen House is used to fashion its doorknob.

It's day three of the Assembly of the new Hen House. The chicks have spent their first night in their new home. It's bigger and roomier than their old one, never again will I design or make a hen house which doesn't have space for us to stand upright! I also found that putting a door in both back and front makes for ease of cleaning and is a good way of removing perches and keeping the house aired in hot weather. The house is sited on the far side of the garden and is in the angle of the back wall of a neighbouring longère and the North bocage (raised hedge). In the Winter it receives the sun quite early in the morning, when the rest of the garden is in the shadow of the house, which runs the entire length of the garden, some 50 metres (164 feet). It's  a regular suntrap in the Summer, which is why the fig tree does so well there and the hens, sybarites through and through, love it.

 

Breakfast in front of the New Hen House.  

Raising the Roof

We start the day by putting the gable ends in place. These are temporarily held in position with diagonal supports to the walls, which will be removed once the ridge purlin is in place.

 

Using a straight edge ensures that the wall and gable end are in line so that the ridge purlin brace may be fitted.

The House is now beginning to take shape with both the gable ends in place. We are now ready to fit the ridge purlin.   

The ridge purlin is measured and cut to length once the gable ends are in place.  

The ridge purlin is screwed to the inside face of the gable end apex. Screw holes are drilled through the gable end frame prior to fitting the purlin in place.

Once the purlin is in place, the braces can be fitted to each end of the Hen House. These braces are designed to take the roof load off the screws securing the purlin to the gable end. The roof load is thus borne by the side walls and floor. 

Once the ridge purlin and brace have been screwed together, the temporary diagonal supports may be removed.

 

Furring strips are now fitted to the ridge purlin. 

The roof is now ready for the panels to be fitted.

The panels are screwed to the walls and gable ends from the inside and from the outside to attach the ridge purlin.

  

The most expensive part of the Hen House, a good quality tarpaulin, can now  be fitted.

The surplus material is trimmed off and battens cut from pallet wood are used to fix the tarpaulin to the underside of the roof panels.

The open sides of the pallet base are sealed with planking, nailed to the wooden blocks.

The decoration with découpage is made from paper napkins.

The building inspector calls to assess the job. He's a white-laced buff crested and bearded Polish, one of three brothers who are joint heads of this house.







If you want to see our Polish chickens in action:

There is another post here, which shows how I used butt joints to construct the roof panels of pallet wood too. This makes the house even cheaper for those of you who don't have left-over or recuperated tongue & groove cladding.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to share this article, comment, ask questions and if you'd like to be assured of getting the next post, then sign up to follow this blog.

All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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