Category: Homesteading


Food Harvest Preservation

Filed under: Food and Nutrition, Homesteading, Sustainable Living — 2 Comments
May 21, 2012
  • Root Cellar
  • Pickling and Fermenting
  • Salt and Sugar curing
  • Smoking
  • Canning in Jars
  • Vacuum packing in Mylar and Canning Jars
  • Retort Vacuum packing and Canning
  • Refrigeration
  • Freezing
  • Drying or Dehydration (Jerky, Pemmican, Biltong etc. as well)
  • Freeze Drying

Root Cellars

I have heard of several methods for making ground temperature storage. Depending on where you live this ground temperature may vary from 70 degrees on the gulf of Mexico to 58 degrees F, in Arkansas where I live to 50 degrees in southern Canada. That’s quit a difference.  None the less using the ground for its year round constant temperature is a great thing to do.  Humidity plays some role as well.  Some sections of underground storage you may want to be more humid or other sections dryer. Containers may affect humidity as well. For example you could remove oxygen and humidity and seal the container then store in a humid or not, underground location.

A root cellar may be a simple as a barrel that has been buried where any exposed parts such as a lid are well insulated. This might be buried horizontally, vertically or at some angle in between. Other types of cellars might be a house basement. Might be a storm cellar. Might be a bermed out building with earthen and insulated roof. One interesting potato cellar I saw while traveling in the Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon area was an A Frame structure with roofs sloped at about 45degrees with earthen cover. Its possible that on the inside it was not exactly A frame shape, and may have had vertical walls on the sides up some distance from the floor to the A shaped ceiling. All of these methods use some combination of earth, underground, insulation to keep the inside temperature near ground temperature year round.

Another method similar in root cellar concept is to store food items in water either stream or pond or lake. If pond or lake then deep enough to get down to the cold water. And could a root cellar be cooled artificially? Sure it could be cooled with typical A/C Unit. If so insulation may be required between inside space and the ground. Hey we could even make a highly efficient walk in freezer this way? Sure. Commercial freezers are above ground and are insulated to about R60 to R80 standards. As an example consider the typical house 2×4 walls at R11. Meaning you would need a wall about 7 times that thick for your freezer. Or around 28″ thick. But that’s using fiberglass batt insulation. With styrofoam at 5R per inch we would only need 16″. Or with papercrete at 3R per inch we would need 25 inches or so. The cheapest insulation here would be by far papercrete. Straw and sawdust could also be used as insulation. Though both would have to be carefully protected from moisture. I would suggest those two used as moveable insulation kept in some kind of sealed containment. As in most insulating efforts shiny polished metallic surfaces are good to add for heat reflection if possible.

By the way eggs may be pickled and raw eggs may be stored in a water and mineral oil or water and “water glass”  or sodium silicate solutions for up to 6 months or longer in a cellar. They say if the big end is beginning to float the egg is near bad. And you may add ventilation for use in winter to achieve below ground temperatures in the root cellar. This would especially help keep eggs during winter months.

Pickling and Fermenting


Pickling is a procedure where food is preserved chemically by alcohol, salinity, alkalinity or acidity.  Fermenting is usually an initial procedure before chemical pickling where bacterial action works on the food item until agiven alcohol content or acidity or alkalinity is reached.  This is a matter of creating an life barrier for bad bacteria which would otherwise feed on the food item. Salt and vinegar (high acid) is usually used along with other possible spices which stunt bacterial growth.

Just about anything we can think of can be pickled. Meats may be pickled and in fact salt and sugar curing is a form of pickling. But plant matter is fermented not meats. Fermentation at different temperatures give different results. Vegetables and Fruits both are pickled. Once pickled a food may be left at room temperature, though I usually keep them in the frig after opening. Unlike canning pickled items are not completely sterilized, though they may be canned and sterilized as well. I’d have a difficult time with meat that was pickled but not canned properly. Though I do eat beef jerkey and it is not canned, only pickled and dried.

Salt and Sugar curing

From what I understand meat is buried all the way around in salt for salt curing, and in sugar curing salt is also used but not as heavily. This salt pack or salt sugar pack dries the meat out so that there is little moisture and also kills bacteria. I know little about this method though I think the FoxFire series books talk about how old timers did this.

Smoking


Smoking not only flavors meat’s it dries them out. Smoking is antibacterial but only protects the surface of the meat. Smoking should be used in combination with other methods of preservation. Liquid smoke while adding flavor does nothing for preservation. Smoking and drying or dehydrating in my opinion might go well together.

Canning in Jars

USDA Canning Guide PDF

The industry can’s in “cans”, bags, bottles and jars. But we at home can in glass jars mostly (I talk about retort bags below). Equipment for this is a large pot with sealing lid called a caner. Note that some you may see are only pressure cookers and not caners. A caner such as a “Presto” will come with a pressure gauge. In general 3.5, 7 and 15 psi are pressures needed. 20 is too high and will cause pressure to be released via a safety valve or else the pot might explode. The higher the pressure the higher the temperature that can be achieved when canning. PSI means pounds of pressure per square inch above atmospheric pressure. So 15 psi is really 30psi roughly, or double atmospheric pressure. The food boils in the jars within the caner at temperature above 212 degrees. At 15psi it will boil at 240 degrees or higher and kill all life period, not question about it. Meats are canned at 15psi. If meats are canned at lower pressures then lower temps will kill bacteria but not spores which are like bacteria seeds. Later if the meat is opened these seeds can cause the bacteria to grow again and become deadly fast. Lids for jars are made such that they sink in after cooled to show that a slight vacuum seal has been made and the food is indeed sealed and protected. If you set hot jars out and they begin to cool you would hear popping sounds as the lids sink in. As the contents cool they also shrink and reduce in volume slightly causing a slight vacuum. Canned items can literally be good for decades if kept in cool dark locations. Though as they age they do loose nutritional value over time.  I would like to suggest the canning dates on store bought cans are set for this maximum nutritional drop off, not for spoilage. Though eat out dated canned items at your own risk, not because I told you it was OK.

Note on canning of fish or anything with small sharp bones. Pressure canning will soften bones and scales for that matter to the point where they may be safely chewed or eaten. Personally I wouldn’t want to can the scales though. One thing a person might do is first pressure cook the fish and then remove larger bones and scales. Can the remainder(mostly meat). I have read that one may cook up sausage patties the size of a jar, then fill the jar with patties finally fill the jar with melted lard which will solidify over the sausage. The lard actually protects the contents though If you throw on a lid it will vacuum seal as it cools.  Other things to know is that wax poured on top is sometimes used to seal in some items such as jams and jelly’s. This is possibly as a secondary precaution in the case a jar seal is not made tight.  Finally, not all canned items have to be pressure canned. There is also hot water bath canning. And there is simply pouring something boiling hot (212F) into a jar and throwing a lid on it.

Vacuum packing in Mylar and Canning Jars.

I feel that vacuum packing in Mylar is expensive. Mylar is special kind of plastic that does not breath as other plastics do. Its a bit tougher and not cheap. Mylar bags might be reused however if washed and trimmed.  Though each re-use will reduce the volume of the packaging. Great advantage to vacuum packing this way is that you conserve space in storage.

I suppose “Food Saver” is a well known brand of home vacuum packing machines. Food Saver also sells an attachment so that a person may vacuum pack in a regular canning jar. I think this is a super idea. Jars may be re-used with ease. And its a good thing to do with dry goods and items you want to put under refrigeration for shorter term storage. Vacuum packing anything wet will help it to last longer simply by removing the oxygen. If it were something dry I think I’d also add a small bag of something that absorbs moisture or robs oxygen in the jar.

Retort Vacuum packing and canning

List of chamber sealers for sale. Note these chamber sealers are not cheap $600 to $2000. List of Retort pouches from the same site. Note these bags cost around $250 for 1000 depending on the volume.

A retort bag is a bag that was invented to contain food for the space program and for the military. Retort bags are now in use in your local grocery store. I have seen spam, tuna, salmon, sardines etc. canned in retort bags. Retort bags are a little more expensive than cans or bottles. Basically a special plastic is bonded to a given thickness of aluminum foil. This makes a tough bag that is puncture and tear resistant and keeps out light. You may buy a special machine for vacuum packing and sealing a retort bag. Then the canning process is identical to pressure canning in jars or cans. Food preserved in retort bags may be stored for decades. Though again may loose nutritional value over time. Retort bags may be washed and re-used. Though like the re-used Mylar bags become smaller in volume on each successive re-use. I think you may even re-use the bags from store bought retort bagged items.

Refrigeration

Keeping food items as far below ground temperature as you can and yet just above freezing will preserve them for weeks otherwise they would only last for hours and even days at ground temps or room temps. Air and light here play the most important roles. Air is most important. Depriving any refrigerated item of oxygen is key. Sealed containers help with this greatly by reducing air flow and spread of microbes from one item to another, though vacuum packing would be better. Dryer items last longer than wetter items. Pickled items last longer than unpreserved items.

Freezing

Freezing will preserve most anything but not indefinitely. Freezing only slows down greatly bacterial growth. Freezing does not kill bacteria. Colder is better in freezing. Quick freezing and quick deep freezing is better than slow freezing. If frozen quickly enough ice crystals will not form. This is what you may have seen in the grocery store as IQF or Individually Quick Frozen products. I used to work at a Tyson’s chicken processing plant. The meat industry first began using freezers that were made for quick freezing vegetables and fruits. These freezers have conveyers that circle through the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes at -60F.  The only thing I’ve seen wrong with IQF products is that it seemed to me that they were frost bitten quickly. I think frost bite in food is something like a freeze drying effect on its surface. This toughens and disturbs the flavor of the food item as well as the cooking properties. Meat packaged in butchers wax paper seems to do well and not get freezer burnt quickly.

Blanching is a technique where you partially boil an item for a few seconds, then freeze. I think this works by coating the outside of the food item with a consistent layer of ice. Meaning no part of the food item is exposed directly to air. If food items are frozen in water then they are completely sealed off from air which prevents freezer burn and freezer taste from getting into the food item. Fish is normally frozen in water. Frozen items may last for a year or more.

Drying or Dehydration

Food dehydrators are commonly sold but are easy to make. Even an aluminum foil lined box with hot light bulbs can work. I’m sure you may see videos on Youtube for home made food dehydrators. Beef Jerky, Pemmican and Biltong are all basically the same thing’s, dried meats. They differ in cut’s and spices and processing procedures. Beef Jerky is well known here in the U.S.A and I have commonly seen deer jerky made by individuals. In stores beef is the main meat used however you might find chicken, turkey and pork as well. Even some smoked dried fish such as salmon. I would suggest that dried meats are also somewhat pickled but not usually fermented. However there is this notion of aged beef and venison. Aging is in essence fermentation of meat at cold temps and given moisture presence. Meats are usually dried from the raw state. However diced meats might be dried from a cooked state for addition into soup mixes.

Beef Jerky usually is somewhat sweet, whereas Biltong (African Jerky) is not. Pemmican is basically what was a nutrition bar for mountain men in the USA during the western migration period. Pemmican is pureed fruit, finely minced meat and solid animal fat such as lard (not liquid oils) combined and cooked into a bar form.

Vegetables and Fruits are commonly dried in ovens, dehydrators and even by sun drying. Sun drying would be more effective in cold and dry climates. Dried veggies make great soup mix material. Dried fruits mixed with nuts make energetic snacks.

Once dried food items again must be protected from the usual heat, air, light, water to be long lasting. I wouldn’t hesitate to vacuum pack and/or refrigerate or freeze dried items to even further increase their lifespan. Remember refrigeration can be as simple as storing in a root cellar. During the drying process anything that you may to to remove humidity will help as well. Refrigeration and Freezing usually remove humidity. A room dehumidifier might be a good idea as well. For example you put the room dehumidifier and the dehydrator in an enclosed space together. If you are under central heat and air or any a/c, then dehumidification is part of that process as well.

Rock salt and even powdered milk(I heard) (in coffee filters tied up) can be used as a moisture absorber. Both might have the moisture removed by cooking in oven.

Freeze Drying

It appears that to freeze dry on the commercial scale one might need to buy a large freeze drier which will cost $4000 plus and require 3 phase electrical connection probably 240 volts.  This might be doable for a group, but is most likely not practical for common home freeze drying for most people. This is a 2 step process. First the product must be quickly frozen to somewhere between -60 and -120. This prevents ice crystals from forming. Next a vacuum is drawn and the product is slowly warmed back up. As it is warmed moisture under a vacuum will vaporize from frozen to gas immediately skipping the liquid state. This is what happens to liquid water in space, instead of forming a ball it quickly vaporizes or boils away.

I have heard of a method of freeze drying which will work for certain foods or foods prepared a given way. In this method you use a typical deep freeze to freeze items in canning jars. Next you take them out of the freezer and screw on canning lids which have an L shaped fitting to a 1/4″ vacuum hose. This line goes to a group of connections where other jars are connected into. A 6 millibar vacuum is kept on all the jars until complete. A vacuum can be purchased for $350 on Ebay which will do the job such as, “Robinair 15600 6 CFM 2 Stage Vacuum Pump”  This is a 2 stage, 120v, 1/2 horse vacuum weighting 27lbs. Once put on vacuum the are simply left to warm back up to room temps. When they are warm they are usually  done. Some foods (those that are very wet) may require a 2nd treatment.

One way to go might be in using a Savant Vapor Trap which cools down to -50c or even -105c These cost between $600 and $2500 at the time of this writing. They have 120 and 240v models. Different models probably have different volumes which they handle.

Remember

Light,moisture , temperature and oxygen are key components in food preservation. If something is kept in a clear or translucent container it must be kept in dark or near dark storage. When it comes to temperature colder is usually better, but freezing some things can cause problems in taste or break containers. Remember when liquids freeze they expand. Expanding ice can crack steel even.

Final not of caution.

Some preservation methods and chemicals can render food toxic if too much is eaten over time. Such as salt and high blood pressure as well as other illnesses that need low salt diets. It would be wise to research illnesses related to preservatives.

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Square Foot Gardening

Filed under: Food and Nutrition, Homesteading, Outdoor Hobbies — 12 Comments
January 28, 2012

This is an article about 100 square feet of square foot gardening. The boards you see here are 2″x12″x10′ and 2″x12″x5′ Treated pine. I am combining SFG and Hugelkultur. The goal of SFG is to maximize the space. The goal of Hugelkultur is to make good use of waste wood from around the property and create a spongy mass underneath the garden bed for holding water. So the foot or so below the garden bed will be wood such as rotting pine, manure or bird litter and small bit of top soil from the hole. On top of that will be the 1 foot of garden soil mix. This will be 1/3 top soil, 1/3 manure, 1/3 composted leaves, wood chips, grasses and such. In our case the manure will be horse manure that has been composted. The Chicken litter that I will add to the Hugelkultur section has been composted as well.

We will get the compost for the soil mix from the city land fill at $20 per pickup bed load. I intend to sift this a bit and add the larger pieces of unrotted wood to the Hugelkultur section. We hope there will be little to no weed/grass seeds in the soil mix when its done.

We will not plant this year anything that uses up a lot of square feet per plant unless we can have it grow vertically. Some unusual things I’d like to try will be wheat, barley, buck wheat, oats, cotton, sugar beats, sugar cane. Everything will be annuals. No fruits to speak of, just survival veggies and foods mainly.

If I can get everyone’s cooperation we will log harvest by day, with plant type and weight in pounds and ounces. At least until we get good solid data on each plant type. In this way we can report on pounds of whatever per square foot harvested here on the blog.

Next I flagged out the 2nd bed location.

Next I flagged out the 3rd bed location.

Next some wilderness hikers came along and I recruited them to help with digging efforts, at gun point of course. (joke) The big guy on the left was singing “Swing low sweet chariot.” as he swung the pick axe. (not a joke)

Next you see some roots that we will have to deal with. And a hole, The hole goes down to 2′ deep. The main section is only about 1 foot deep. We were getting into some red clay/gravel/stone mix at this depth though it was not too hard to dig. If we go deeper it will take longer than the first foot though.

Again here I show the 2 foot deep hole. I first intended to go 2 foot deep with the hugelkultur section below ground level. I may change my mind and do only 1 foot however.

This is about a yard of dirt that was removed in 4 hours with a little help from the hikers.

This is the 4th bed flagged out making 200 foot square. The beds are 5×10 and set 3 feet apart.

The below chart is a list of plants that I propose we plant this year, at least some of them. I just took my best guess for yes plants based on what I have studied. Opinions and even facts may very a little from the chart below. If anyone notices any major blunder, let me know.

  • SHTF (Stuff hit the fan) Survival foods (bad economy etc.)
  • Protein (plants with higher protein content)
  • Vitamin(plants with higher main vitamin contents)
  • Sugar (plants high in sugar or starch)
  • Aromatic (plants with mainly color or flavor enhancing qualities)
  • Fiber (plants high in dietary fiber)
  • Nitrogen (nitrogen fixing plants)
Plant Group SHTF Protein Vitamin Sugar Aromatic Fiber Nitrogen
Red Potato 1.1 Yes Yes
Sweet Potato 1.1 Yes Yes
Idaho Potato 1.1 Yes Yes
Russet Potato 1.1 Yes Yes
White Potato 1.1 Yes Yes
Carrots 1.2 Yes Yes Yes
Beets 1.3 Yes
Turnips 1.3 Yes
White Onion 1.3 Yes
Purple Onion 1.3 Yes
Yellow Onion 1.3 Yes
Sugar Beet 1.3 Yes Yes
Garlic 1.3 Yes
Radish 1.3 Yes
Peanuts 1.4 Yes Yes
Green Beans 2.1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
English Peas 2.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Black Eye Peas 2.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Snap Peas 2.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Snow Peas 2.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Pinto Beans 2.3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Lima Beans 2.3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Soy Beans 2.3 Yes Yes Yes
Black Beans 2.3 Yes Yes Yes
Large Tomato 3.1 Yes Yes Yes
Med Tomato 3.1 Yes Yes Yes
Cucumber 3.2 Yes
Egg Plant 3.2 Yes
Yellow Squash 3.2 Yes
Pumpkin 3.3 Yes Yes
Cantaloupe 3.3 Yes Yes Yes
Small Tomato 3.1 Yes Yes Yes
Corn 4.1 Yes Yes Yes
Sugar Cane 4.1 Yes
Sorghum 4.1 Yes
Celery 4.2 Yes Yes
Asparagus 4.2 Yes
Bell Pepper 4.3 Yes Yes
Okra 4.3 Yes Yes
Banana Pepper 4.3 Yes
Cotton 4.4
Roman Lettuce 5.1 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Iceberg Lettuce 5.1 Yes Yes Yes
Kale 5.1 Yes Yes Yes
Collard Greens 5.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Spinach Greens 5.2 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Cabbage 5.3 Yes
Broccoli 5.3 Yes
Cauliflower 5.3 Yes
Brussels Sprouts 5.3 Yes Yes
Wheat 6 Yes Yes Yes
Buck Wheat 6 Yes Yes Yes
Barley 6 Yes Yes Yes
Oats 6 Yes Yes Yes

Here I am getting chicken litter from this 100 foot long 6 foot high pile inside an old chicken house. The guy I’m getting this litter from has 10 houses, each 500 foot long and 50 feet wide with about 50,000 birds per house.

Next Tommy Lane is loading it in a trailer I borrowed from my brother. This trailer has 1 foot sides its 16 feet long and 6.5 feet wide. If we leveled the chicken litter in it with the top of the sides it would hold 3.85 yards of litter. This would be around 3,850 lbs of litter. If we heaped it a little we would be hauling 2 tons of litter. I figured this by weighing a 5 gal bucket with a fish scale. It weighed 25 lbs and 1 cubic foot is 7.1 gallons. So 1.4 times 25 is 35lbs per cubic foot. I rounded it up a bit to come up with 1000lbs per yard (27 cubic feet) of litter. My van with a 350v8 pulled it fine. I stopped him about about 2.5 yards of litter(6 tractor buckets) thinking it would take us hours to unload it. I bought two plastic scoops to unload it with.

This litter had been composted 4 weeks and was fairly dry. It took two of us only 30 minutes to unload it.

Here I traveled to a nearby lawn and gardener guy named Smiley Vinson from London Arkansas. He has huge mounds of compost. I was charged $40 for one bucket of his loader that should be about 3 yards of compost. This is leaf, grass clippings, twigs that has been turned routinely for over a year. It was nice and black and looked like manure. I weighted this out at 1350lbs per yard and it was a bit damp and wet.

Next we begin unloading with scoop shovel and snow shovel. Took us about 30 minutes to unload it.

Now we need horse manure for the 1 foot deep soil mix. There is a neighbor with a nearby horse barn that needs to be cleaned out. The horse manure was amazingly light. It weighed in a about 600lbs per yard. Took about an hour to load and 30 minutes to unload it.

Here we have piles of rice hull chicken litter on the right, compost on the left and horse manure in the back.

Here is the pile of horse manure.

And again here is horse manure on the left, compost on the right and chicken litter back left.

Here I have a chart showing plant types and planting arrangement and density. Circled number means number of square feet for one plant. Number without circle means number of plants per one square foot. I have a 3 letter designator for each plant type. There is no logical arrangement for the chart below, its merely an example. Light Green means spring planting(mar 1 to apr 1), and Dark Green means Summer planting (apr 1 to may 1) as a rough guide.

  • WHE Wheat
  • ALF Alfalfa
  • SFL Sun Flower
  • PHP Purple Hull Pea
  • CRN Corn
  • CEL Celery
  • RAD Radish
  • SPN Spinach
  • CAN Cantaloupe
  • CBG Cabbage
  • ASP Asparagus
  • BAR Barley
  • RDP Red Potato
  • GBN Green Bean
  • PBN Pinto Bean
  • LTM Large Tomato
  • BLP Bell Pepper
  • MTN Med Tomato
  • CAR Carrot
  • STM Small Tomato
  • BRO Broccoli
  • SGB Sugar Bee
  • WPT White Potato
  • EPE English Peas
  • LBN Lima Bean
  • CUC Cucumber
  • BNP Banana Pepper
  • EGG Egg Plant
  • OKR Okra
  • YSQ Yellow Squash
  • CAL Cauliflower
  • BWH Buckwheat
  • SWP Sweet Potato
  • BEP Black Eye Pea
  • BBN Butter Bean
  • BEA Beet
  • ONN Onion
  • COL Collard Greens
  • PUM Pumpkin
  • ZSQ Zucchini Squash
  • BSP Brussels Sprouts


And this shows four beds 5×10 or 50ft2 and 200 ft2 total

Next I show more digging. Russ Terwillinger made sides for one of the boxes using sand bags. Because we were digging this seemed logical. We will have to find a way soon to UV protect the sand bags. Dry stacked stone would probably be the cheapest method. I began filling in wood and chicken litter in the first box.








Soil Sample Test Results

Understanding Soil Test Results PDF

Of the images below we see 3 test samples. The first is 1/3 top soil, 1/3 leaf/grass/twig compost, 1/3 fairly old horse manure. The second is 1/3 top soil, 1/3 leaf/grass/twig compost, 1/3 4 to 6 week old rice hull chicken litter. The 3rd would be from last years beds which were made up of horse manure and soil and city wood chip compost. These 3 test were free. We also sent off a sample of chicken litter only but it cost $18+other fees and totaled $23.50 per non soil type sample. I wanted to test also the leaf/twig/grass compost but haven’t done that yet. I wanted to test the horse manure but have not done that yet either.

Concentrations Conversion Calculatormight be helpful.




Got the chicken litter report in. Remember this report cost $20 per sample (one in this case) and total of $23.65 with shipping.


Chicken Litter Analysis
PH 8.9
EC(Electrical Conductivity micro mhos/cm) 8820
%water 28.99
dry/wet report
nutrient dry as is(29% water)
%N 3.37% 2.39%
%P 1.39% .99%
%K 3.03% 2.15%
%Ca 2.42% 1.72%
%Carbon 31.96% 22.69%
lbs per ton as is basis (with 29% water)
N 47.8
P2O5 45.3
K2O 52.0
Ca 34.4
Total Carbon 453.8

I did a quick search on the net and came up with these examples for nutrient contents of given nutrient sources. With the commercial fertilizers you can get just about any mix such as 10-20-10 or 20-50-10 or you name it.After talking with a man at the extension office I have a few things to share. First the Nitrates and Sulfates are a constantly mobile value. They go up and down depending on conditions. They basically are measuring gasses. I suppose certain nitrogen containing molecules or sulfur containing molecules give off nitrogen or sulfur as gas. The plants then absorb the gas through the roots.

Nutrient Sources
Source N-P-K
Commercial Nitrogen 37-0-0 or 27-0-0
Urea 54-0-0
Blood meal 13-0-0
Fish meal 10-2-2
Bone meal 4-12-0 or 1-13-0
Feather meal 13-0-0
Chicken Litter 2-1-2 to 3-1-3
Wood Ash 0-1-10
Muriate of Potash 0-0-60
Phospate Rock 0-32-0

After talking with a man at the extension office I have a few things to share. First the Nitrates and Sulfates are a constantly mobile value. They go up and down depending on conditions. They basically are measuring gasses. I suppose certain nitrogen containing molecules or sulfur containing molecules give off nitrogen or sulfur as gas. The plants then absorb the gas through the roots.

The values in the reports above that have — “dashes” instead of low, med or optimal or above optimal mean that they are in normal ranges. The NO3-N value for the Old bed was near optimal. The other two were OK but much lower. The recommendation to add urea or nitrogen fertilizer of 2 to 3.5 pounds per 1000ft2 is a minimal amount to add. Its only meant to bring the nutrients up a bit. To find out more on what plants can tolerate or need search the web for “plant nutrient sufficiency and requirements”.

We have 200ft2 of beds of which 100ft2 is going to be square foot gardening. At any rate we were going to use the horse manure mix for these beds. 200ft2 is 1/5th of 1000ft2 so 2lbs divided by 5 is 4/10′s pound. or 1/10th pound per bed. Its recommended we sprinkle this on top and water and mix into the top layer of soil. We may use feather meal or blood meal instead of urea. In which case the amount will go up by about 5 times. Or 5/10s pound per bed. We will also add muriate of potash to the beds 1/10th pound per bed. Its not more complex than that unless you use something other than what is recommended in which case the recommendations serve as a guide for calculating how much more or less you might need of something else.

In the following photo’s you will see us completing the Hugelkulture beds and then finishing off the planting soil. I was going to mix it but pressed for time I decided to layer it lasagna style. There was 4 layers of (top soil,horse manure, compost also layered) for 1 foot of bed depth. It took us probably 5 to 7 hours to fill in one bed. We were resting as much as working, being out of shape.














Below is the layout for garden box 1. 50ft2 or 5×10. MUG is mustard greens, COG is collard greens, LET is lettuce, TUR is turnips.





Apr 20









May 1









May 5



















May 10





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Blue Gold: Water Filtration, Purification, Flocculation, Sedimentation, Distillation, Condensation and more

Filed under: Homesteading, Sustainable Living — 15 Comments
September 2, 2011

build it solar.com

Lets talk about the bad things in water. All of these things in the list below have acceptable levels. For information on pathogens (bacteria, virus and protozoa) please do research for the area which you intend to visit. This is because there are simply too many. Also with good water treatment, all of them (from any location) will be deactivated, killed or eliminated. Since we are going to do a nuclear attack with residual disinfection, knowing which kind you are dealing with usually is not important at all.

  • Bacteria (Too many kinds here to count, mostly from rotting animal and plant matter or fecal matter and urine)
  • Virus (too many kinds to count)
  • Protozoa (larger than bacteria, kind of like microscopic worms)
  • Poisons (pesticides, herbicides, mining byproducts or products, chemicals)
  • Heavy Metals (lead, mercury etc.)
  • Radioactivity (radon gas, nuclear fallout)
  • Acid/Alkaline (from trees and rocks)
  • Minerals (iron, manganese, calcium)

Someone in live chat ask me what would I possibly do with all this clean water that I would produce. I have to reply that I don’t want chemicals in my garden soil. I don’t want high levels of bacteria or heavy metals fed to my barnyard animals. And my hot tubs, swimming pools or swimming ponds, water gardens and aquaponics, hydroponics and aquaculture use a lot of water.

This will be an article about how to make water more usable (safer form) for animal, plant and human consumption. I say “more usable” because no method purifies water 100% when it comes to the bad things in the above list. Some types of filtration remove some types of bacteria yet not other types. Distillation will get you water that is roughly 99.5% pure on the first run. This percentage may depend on the exact distillation process used. Double distillation will get you closer to 99.9% pure. Water that has been distilled or purified by other means, with no residual disinfectant, can still acquire bacteria and disease in the distribution system or storage system. Reverse Osmosis(RO) will remove near 100% of toxins and heavy metals but may let bacteria through imperfections in the membrane. Also bacteria may somehow get into the product water side. Boiling water kills all bacteria but not some spores (bacteria seeds). Only pressure cooking which will get temps up to 240F(115C) or better kills all life. This is what happens during the canning process. I need to mention that if you “can” water in bottles, packs (retort bags) or cans, residual disinfection is not needed because it is sealed then purified. However boiling or canning does not remove toxins and heavy metals. Filtering removes most toxins and heavy metals. And some forms of filtering remove bacteria and diseases as well. Water in distribution systems or water that is not used immediately after purification must have some form of residual disinfectant such as chlorine or chloramine added to it. Sodium Hypochlorite is house hold bleach and can be used for this purpose as well. My overall point in this is that you can’t completely 100% purify or sanitize or de-poison water. You simply get the bad stuff down to very minimal levels that your body and immune system can deal with or tolerate. Conversely it is good for our bodies to be exposed to some bacteria and disease in small doses because it helps us to build immunity. Immunity means your body can handle lager accidental doses without serious consequences. Point being that 100% clean water or anything could actually be harmful. (Read a book called “In Self Defense” about the immune system).

Its funny to me but water filtration and purification is the same or nearly the same for both production of potable water and treatment of raw sewage (black) water. This gives me an idea. Why not use filtering, concentration and sedimentation methods to make fertilizer from fish ponds. This is also the idea behind aquaponics (aquaculture(fish grown in tanks) and hydroponics).

There are varying scales of methods used when talking about acquiring clean potable water. I show the scales in the list below. In the material in this article any points may be discussing thoughts on any of these levels. Its up to the reader to decide how they apply in their own situation.

  1. Survival water
  2. Camping water
  3. Homestead water for gardens, livestock, aquaculture, aquaponics and hydroponics.
  4. Water for hot tubs, swimming pools/ponds, gold fish ponds and other water gardens
  5. Municipal, industrial, military water

Barriers in water treatment systems are outlined below. Thinking of the system in barriers means being aware of where contamination can get into the water supply.

  • Source Water
    • rain, condensation, dew
    • springs and wells
    • lakes, ponds
    • rivers, streams
    • oceans, seas
  • Processing system
    • flocculation
    • filtration
    • purification
  • Distribution System (storage system)
    • pipes, connectors, valves
    • bottles, tanks, bladders

Water sources can not only become contaminated but can also be designed so that they aid in purification and clarification. For example terrain shape and type of plant life help. Deep water tends to lend to good settling. Terrain where the water runs slowly and circulates aids in clarification. Running water into falls and rapids oxidizes the water which helps with separation of dissolved solids as well as odor and taste removal. Winds and wave action affect turbidity. Certain plants and algae aid in bacterial and disease control. UV(sun light) on flowing water can kill algae and stop pathogens from reproducing. What we are looking at here is ways in which nature purifies water. The cleaner it is going into the processing system the less work, repair and maintenance is needed per given amount of water processed. Filters are not clogged as quickly.

On a side note water that is more turbid (polluted) after processing can be cleaner than clearer water that is processed. The reason for this is that the coagulation and flocculation used for more turbid waters actually make the filtering process work better. One more note on the water source would be that all watershed area at higher elevation above the source that enters the source should be monitored for new pollution or contamination from human activities. This area needs to be regulated as well. Probable sources of this pollution or contamination I’m guessing would be industrial and agricultural or municipal. Keep in mind that anything that changes runoff patterns might also introduce new pollutants via erosion or flooding.

The processing system itself can have contamination or become contaminated. Bacteria and diseases that have been removed or was never present can find their way in or begin to grow and multiply. As we are trying to remove organic pollutants from water we sometimes provide fresh breeding grounds for them. This is why residual (meaning it remains in the water and continues to work) disinfection is almost always necessary. Chlorination would be the main method for residual disinfection. Other chemicals can be used and I list towards the end of this article chemicals used in water processing. Inspecting, testing, repairing, replacing and cleaning help to combat these problems in the system itself.

The distribution and holding system can become damaged or breakdown and then contaminated. Water once cleaned needs to be used quickly or it needs to have residual purification chemicals added. Or it needs to be re-purified again just prior to use. Again the main means of dealing with problems in this area is residual disinfection. And as above inspecting, testing, repairing, replacing and cleaning.

Below is a huge list of topics in water treatment. I tried to place the list items in order of treatment.

  • Pre-treatment
    • Design of water shed
    • Straining or sieving
    • Settling (without flocculation)
  • Flocculation and Settling
  • Filtration and Sieving
    • Centrifugal
    • Slow sand
    • Sand
    • Activated charcoal/carbon
    • Ceramic coloidal silver
    • Reverse osmosis membrane
    • Anthracite (similar to activated charcoal by from a coal product)
    • Coke (cooked coal, works like activated charcoal)
  • Purification
    • chemical
    • UV
    • Ozone
    • Boiling
  • Distillation
  • Condensation
  • Airiation (mainly for iron, magnesium and odor/taste control)
    • Bubbling (diffusing through bubbling stones or other means)
    • Falling (through holes in a grate)
    • Paddling (stirring vertically)
  • De-ionization

Pre-treatment is basically any cheap thing that can be done to semi-purify or semi-clarify the water before sending it through your system. This can be in the design of the water source as well, such as man made reservoirs and ponds. Might be use of plants and fish for pre-cleaning. UV, airiation, settling and straining or sieving would be methods of pre-treatment.

Coagulation and Flocculation is where they add some chemical or fine solid such as clay. This adds turbidity to the water so that it almost looks muddy. Very small suspended solids cling to the larger solids which were added. To aid in this clinging process the water is stirred slowly in either a passive manner or an active manner to make it more turbulent (this process is flocculation). Most of the coagulant then settles (precipitates or rains) out in settling tanks to produce sludge on the bottom of the tanks. It also aids filters in filtering by making particles larger which means the filter can block their passage more easily. Water that is flocculated, settled and then filtered is likely to be cleaner than clearer water that is not flocculated and yet filtered. Also coagulation and flocculation remove much of the organic stuff from water such as algae and bacteria etc.

Sieving is merely straining through anything you can come up with such as cloths, metal grates with holes, screens. An example of a sieve might be a kitchen colander, flower sieve, tea leaf strainer or coffee filter. Sieves have a single thin layer and stop up rapidly. You would use a sieve to remove larger debris and particles in water that contains little of this material. Monitoring of the sieve and cleaning routinely or when needed would be necessary.

The subject of filtering is huge. A filter has multiple layers and is thick or deep. Filters are classified based on micron size of particles they will filter out and by the surface area of given types of filter material. Filters stop up sometimes and must bee cleaned, but they do not stop up nearly as quickly as sieves. Filters do block some bacteria etc. Sometimes filters can become breeding grounds for pathogens. Airiation helps filters to grab dissolved solids by separating these solids from water so that the filters can catch them. Types of filters include activated carbon or similar activated materials. Also included are ceramics, reverse osmosis membranes, sand both forced and slow (gravity fed). In filtering, water can be pressurized or gravity flow. They can be up flow or down flow which makes some difference because of how gravity acts on the filter material and debris and particles being filtered. One thing to remember when buying filters is that marketing strategies will advertise what they will filter, they will not tell you what they won’t filter.

Making Charcoal This site has a good design for a charcoal making kiln. Basically you cook wood at 600 to 900 degrees in an oven absent of oxygen. Wood gives off H2O, CO, and H when cooked or heated. CO (Carbon Monoxide) and H (Hydrogen) are combustible but as long as they are in the oven without oxygen they will not ignite. No flames or ash develop. The idea is that the wood in the oven surrounded by gasses other than oxygen will simply turn to a form of carbon, not ash. You may later burn the charcoal with oxygen as a fuel and it will burn hot and then turn to ash. Or you may filter water or alcohol( ethanol) with it.

Making Activated Charcoal This site has good info on making Activated Charcoal. It looks to me that you soak charcoal in calcium chloride or zink chloride for 24 hours. You then wash it with pure water. After this you cook it again in an oven at 215 to 230 degrees for 3 hours. What remains is activated charcoal with a surface area of near 500m2 per gram. Calcium Chloride is commonly used as roadway de-icer.It can be produced directly from limestone, probably by crushing. Another interesting note is that it is used as a dehumidification chemical and in water hardening. Zink Chloride is used in smoke grenades or fireworks. Zink Chloride looks to me to be harder to make at home than Calcium Chloride.

Ceramic filters are made by taking some material such as plastic sponge and saturating it with liquid ceramic or porcelain and then firing it once to dry it on lower heat. Then its fired on higher heat to really solidify it and burn out the sponge material. This sponge can be rice hulls or saw dust or anything that would make it porous after it is fired. I would guess that air must be forced through it during this firing process to push out this sponge matter that is vaporized. Colloidal silver may be added to the liquid ceramic mix to produce a filter that is anti-bacterial as well. Apparently silver is toxic to bacteria, viruses and protozoa. The silver does not leach into the water. There is an organization called “Potters for Peace” that teaches third world communities how to make these filters from cheap locally available materials.

Sand for sand filters needs to be between #17 and #50 sieves (see chart below). Minerox is a web site that sells sieves of varying sizes that you could use to get your correct sand size from any locally available sands. In forced sand filter, the sand is in a bottle or tank and is enclosed, where water is forced under normal pressures through the sand. Slow sand filters are more like pools or ponds. This is layered with larger gavel particles on bottom working upwards with smaller and smaller gravel gradients to the sand layer. Sand should be added with water in the pool so that particle size is evenly distributed in the sand layer. You don’t want size gradients in the sand layer. Water is fed into this pool very slowly by gravity flow. The very top of the sand forms a bacteria which eats away at the other pathogens and organics in the incoming water. Water coming out the bottom of the filter will be 99.9% pure and pathogen or organics free. If done properly this methods is almost as good as distillation. Periodically the top of the sand becomes clogged and must be removed. Gravel and rock can be uses in a similar manner for filtration of sludge from raw sewage. Sometimes these types of filters need to be cleaned with backwashing and scouring. Backwashing is where water is pumped backwards through the filter. Scouring is where the surface of filter is pressure sprayed with water.

Centrifugal filtration is more of a separation which uses inertial forces to separate matter of varying weight and density. This can be used to get sand out of a system that happens to be pumping sand with the water. Sand can damage valves and pipes. This can be as simple as a vertical cylinder that is spun horizontally. This was proposed as a method and I think was used for cleaning up the gulf oil spill in 2010.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtering is where a membrane made of some kind of polymer or cellulose is used at almost the molecular level to allow only water under pressure to pass through it. Membranes are made through various techniques and new methods and types of membranes are being developed all the time. This is a changing technology. In one method hot near molten material is extruded then stretched. The stretching process forms evenly spaced holes which only water may pass through. Another method involves bombarding a membrane material with some kind of radiation. This alters the molecular structure so that holes can be developed. Some kind of reactive agent is passed over the membrane and eats evenly spaced holes in the membrane. One of the agents used in this process is cancer causing and you might see a warning label on your RO filter package because of this. They don’t know how many gallons of water might be needed to wash all of this agent out of the membrane. Except for imperfections in the membrane and imperfections where membranes are connected to the container, they do a perfect job. Small RO filters spiral the membrane in a canister, and probably resemble a rolled up carpet. RO also removes salts and nuclear and biological and chemical contaminants. Military is using RO very successfully to filter contaminated water or sea water at 1000′s of gallons per hour. In reality the RO membrane is more like a sieve than a filter. On the raw water side water is pushed into contact with the RO membrane in which only a percentage of the water passes through the membrane. The rest if flushed out with concentrated contaminants in what is called the reagent stream. This reagent stream is usually sent to house hold black water drains. However depending on what is in it, it might be used as grey water. You could also distill this reagent water. DIY Reverse Osmosis dot com has a systems for home use that produce 50 or 100 gallons per day. They say pressure needs to be roughly 50 to 80 psi. They claim that for every gallon of water you pass through you get half gallon of pure water and half gallon of reagent water. I am guessing it is probably not that good and if that is true then it would have to be at 80psi. The higher the pressure in the RO system the more efficient it is. I think for commercial and military applications the pressures need to be up between 200 to 300 psi to be feasible. To filter sea water you need 600 to 1200 psi.

The industry recognizes that there is a problem in RO filtration where bacteria can build up on the product (clean water side) of the process. This may be because some small amount of certain types of bacteria make it through imperfections in the membrane and where the membranes attach to the housing of the filter body. For this reason I suggest chlorination after RO filtration. I also suggest at the very least a post filtering with activated carbon and colloidal silver ceramic filter. Also note that pre-filtration is needed to lengthen the life of the RO filter and to make that process more efficient. pre-filtration is for prevention of fouling and clogging the RO filter. RO filtration is slow, so a small holding tank for clean water is needed. With all its problems RO filtering is about as close as you can get to the quality of water double distillation will produce. And as slow as it is it is faster than distillation.

Purification by chemicals has its drawbacks, but is necessary none the less. Each type of chemical has its own pro’s and con’s. Some methods develop neurotoxins if done improperly. Disinfection of water requires 4 elements, (time duration of application, concentration, PH, temperature) Chlorination would be the most well known. At the end of this article I list chemicals used in water treatment (research any you intend to use before use.) Iodine is another well known method and has been used by military and everyone in the bush for many many years. Iodine’s only problem is that you can get too much of it. It is bad for pregnant women and very young children. Some people have a medical condition where they can not tolerate it. Water purification tabs are usually iodine based water purification. Though I’m seeing chlorine dioxide tabs now. Walmart sells scented bleach tablets. Pool supplies sell chlorine tabs and powder. Walmart also sells in their camping and hunting section water purification tabs.

UV purification is perfect right? Hardly. If for example you put a bottle of near clear water in the sun for 2 to 6 hours it is purified because of photo deactivation. Meaning the bacteria and disease can’t reproduce. They are made dormant. You can drink the water and your body will finish killing them. But if that bottle of water sits in indirect sunlight something called photo reactivation may occur. This means the live things will go back to reproducing. For this reason you need to use UV purified water immediately or it must be purified again just prior to use.

Ozone may be generated and bubble through water to purify water. I don’t really know much about this type. But I assume its used in combination with other methods.

Boiling water is a well known common method for purification and sterilization. However 212F(100C) will not kill spores which are like bacteria seeds. For this you need canning which is boiling under pressure. Botulism in meats is a well known pathogen that canning kills. The pressure allows the water to heat to above 240F(115C) degrees which will kill all life. Note that heating to 140F(60C) or 160F(71C) will also kill most pathogens. Compost piles achieve temps of 140F(60C) to 160F(71C) through bacterial action which generates heat in the decaying process. Like other purification methods that have no residual disinfection boiled water needs to be used soon after treatment.

Distillation is a well known method for getting survival water. If you have a piece of clear plastic you can place a rock in the middle of it and suspend the corners above a water source. Put a cup just underneath the inverted cone for collection of dripping condensation. This must be implemented using some container or hole with the water in it. A similar method places a bag over a tree limb where the bag is tied off to cause moisture from the tree limb and leaves or needles to condensate and drop to the bottom of the bag. If you leave it on the same limb too long you can kill that limb so its good to move the bag around limb to limb. Survivorman Less Stroud (A TV Series) made a urine still in the sand in a desert using the inverted cone method above. He urinated in the sand around the collection cup.

At the top of this article I have a link to an image of a super simple design for a table still. At I make my gas dot com you can buy a kitchen top still for around $240 that will allow you to home distill water, as well as moonshine and ethanol. In a book called “Fire Fox”, the first in a 12 book series, 3 different methods are shown for moon shine stills. There is no reason you couldn’t use these methods for distillation of water on a larger scale. I have seen table top solar stills for $500, that will distill 3/4 to 1.5 gallons of water per day, for sale on the web. As I said in the beginning of this article distilled water is 99.5% pure and after double distillation is 99.9% pure.

Condensation is where some type of gas is compressed, heat is driven off with fans, and then decompressed in radiator type coils such that in becomes very cold on the surface of the coils. When air is cooled by passing it through the coils or radiator water condenses out of the air. This is because the dew point of the air is changed. Air can only hold so much evaporated water which is the dew point. This dew point is based on the temperature of the air. So cooling the air is like squeezing a sponge or ringing a cloth. Its literally rain making. You can get condensers that produce clean drinking water from Eco Blue. Other side benefits of this process is “cooler air with air conditioning” and “dehumidification”. Condensation water from a/c units, refrigeration and freezing units is considered to be grey water, but not pure water. If you were to collect water from these sources the water would need to be further filtered and purified before use.

Airiation is adding of oxygen to water through bubbling action, falling action or stirring/whipping action. Adding air to water causes dissolved solids to separate from water so that they may be easily filtered. Airiation also improves taste and odor. Its good for removing iron, manganese and hydrogen sulfide. This is why you smell stink when passing water treatment facilities. And some wells contain hydrogen sulfide. Airiation can be accomplished with a number of methods. One is forcing air through air stones which disperse the air as small bubbles. Another is letting air fall through a series of colanders. These are flat not spherical. Gravel is a few inches deep in the colander. A few inches of head (depth) is maintained to evenly distribute the water over the whole surface of the colander. In a closed system air can be forced upward through the colanders to cause airiation as well. Forcing air through the falling water with fans from the sides also helps in the airiation process. The water must fall a couple of feet between colanders. Another method uses a paddle wheel to stir and whip water which also causes falling water. Yet another method uses spraying or fountain water. Airiation or Carbon filtering removes radon gas from water.

De-ionization is something I don’t know much about yet. But it removes some minerals from the water. Similar to a de-ionizing air filters i guess.

Related topics.

  • Water Softening
  • Measuring and Adjusting PH
  • Measuring Particulate Matter (turbidity)
  • Testing for heavy metals, salts, minerals and toxins

Water is also produced from hydrogen fuel cells as a byproduct. Water is the exhaust from the burning of hydrogen as a fuel. The US military is working on a method of getting water from diesel fuel exhaust systems.

  • Water Pumping
  • Water Transporting
    • Tank Trucks
    • Tank Trailers

I could write a whole other post on pumps and pumping. I have some illustrations on my blog post Home water production which show how hand operated pumps work. Search you tube and you will find some good examples of simple hand operated pumps as well. PVC Check valves can be bought for a dollar or two to put inline in your PVC piping system. RV dealers sell 12 volt pumps that give you 35 psi for a little less than $100 as of this writing. The only 120 volt pumps I have come in contact with were submersible pumps and piston pumps. How about setting up a ram pump near a remote water supply to fill a tank. Then you can draw via gravity water from it into your mobile hauling tank? Maybe I’ll have more to write about pumps later.

On hauling water I am a only talking about the small scale. I had a friend who used to live in Oklahoma and the community where he lived shared a 500 gallon bumper pull water tank for hauling water from a local source, then dumped it into their water wells. Who knows, you may produce so much water after reading my article and implementing these principles that you are able to give water away by hauling it or instruction others how to come get it. I think hauling water can be either in jugs, barrels or tanks on this small scale. Typical over the road tanker trucks haul around 7000 gallons. For $1500 to $2000 as of this writing you could have that quantity of water tanked from almost anywhere in America to your location. I have thought about living in a desert where I would own my own large tanker. I’d run somewhere within farm distance of 150 miles to get water and bring it back to my desert location. I could either use it directly from the tanker or move it to cisterns and other holding tanks.

I want to talk about hauling water in typical sizes of smaller trucks and trailers. Just going by manufacturer specs 1/4 ton, 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, 1 ton, 1.5 ton, 2.5 ton and 5 ton. Ton means 2000lbs hauling capacity. Small flat bed trailers come in all sizes. For example a 16 foot twin axle trailer would haul about 6000 lbs which is 3 tons. If you were to haul in a pickup bed you would need to find tanks that fit in the bed. Larger tanks would fit on trailers easier. In both cases find good ways to strap these down. I’d suggest ratcheting nylon straps. Though I suppose ropes and chains would work but know what your doing. Water is heavy. It weighs about 8.34 lbs per gallon. A 5 gallon container or bucket then weighs 41.7lbs. A 50 gallon drum weighs 417lbs. A 500 gallon tank weighs 4170lbs or 2 tons.

1/4 ton truck would haul 50 gallons.
1/2 ton truck would haul almost 125 gallons.
3/4 ton truck would haul 200 gallons.
1 ton truck would haul 250 gallons.
1.5 ton truck would haul 325 gallons.
2 ton truck would haul 500 gallons.
2.5 ton truck would haul 650 gallons.
5 ton dump would haul 1300 gallons.

With the above list I am talking about hauling in or on their bed. In addition trucks can also tow so much weight. This depends on the tow package or tow upgrades. The bumper hitch might need to be upgraded to support the proper tow weight. A transmission oil cooler might need to be added. Trailer break control might also need to be added. At any rate its a matter of matching the trailer, tank and tow weight to vehicle tow capacity. My 1992 3/4 ton Chevy Van will tow 6000 to 8000 lbs. It has a Chevy 350 V8 in it. I probably wouldn’t risk towing more than 3 tons of water with it. When towing water you must realize that especially in larger open tanks it will slosh. Side to side means it might turn over easily if you are not careful. Forward to back means it can actually push you through intersections and/or into other vehicles. When towing water slow down and make every move slow and deliberate. Be careful on curves and take them at 15 miles per hour slower than the posted speed limit. I’m a trucker so trust me I know. They say going too fast for a curve is like a blind man walking near a cliff. Once he steps off its too late to recover. Once you begin a roll over in a curve you will not work your way back up. Its simply too late then.

A millimeter is 1/1000th of a meter.
A micron(micrometer) is 1/1000th of a millimeter(MM).
A nanometer(nm) is 1/1000th of a micron.

Cheese Cloth (as a filter or sieve)

Grade Vertical × horizontal

threads per inch

#10 20 × 12 1400×700 microns maybe? Just for comparison.

#40 24 × 20

#50 28 × 24

#60 32 × 28

#90 44 × 36

Coffee filter
10 to 15 micron filter
Activated Carbon Filter
0.5 to 50 microns or larger

Ceramic filters
0.3 to 1.4 microns or larger will not filter viruses but will kill viruses if silver is added.
Sand Filter
Used for filtering particles of less than 100 microns in size. Sand grains are from 300 to 1200 microns in size.
Particle filtartion
1 micron or larger
Microfiltration
Membrane filtration 50nm or larger.
Ultrafiltration
Membrane filtering for macromolecular 3 nm or larger solutions. Used in blood dialysis.
Nanofiltration
membrane filtration 1nm or larger
Hyperfiltration
This is RO membrane filtration. 0.1 nm or larger

A human hair ranges between 17 and 170 microns. So you see #80 to #400 sieves has human hair size openings.

Types of chemicals used in water treatment

  • Coagulants or Flocculants(Settling)
    • Ferrous Sulfate
    • Aluminum Sulfate (filter alum)
    • Sodium Silicate (activated silica)
    • Sodium Aluminate
    • Ferric Sulfate
    • Liquid Ferric Chloride
    • lime
    • cement (activated lime and clay)
    • quick lime
    • clay (Bentonite)
  • Disinfection (killing bacteria and spores)
    • Calcium Hypochlorite (Hypochlorites)
    • Chlorine
    • Chloramine (chlorine and ammonia)
    • Chlorine Dioxide
    • Ammonium Sulfate
    • Sodium Chlorite
    • Iodine
  • Taste and Odor Control
    • Powdered or Granulated Activated Carbon (baked Charcoal)
    • Sodium Metalbisulfate
    • Copper Sulfate
    • Potassium Permanganate
    • Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda)? Wonder if this works?
  • Water Softening
    • Sodium Chloride (salt)
    • Sodium Carbonate (soda ash)
    • Calcium Hydroxide (hydrated lime)
    • Calcium Oxide (quick lime)
  • Corrosion ( PH control)
    • Caustic Soda (lye which is sodium or potassium hydroxide)
    • Sodium Herametaphosphate
    • Sodium Tripolyphosphate
  • Prophylaxis (Disease prevention i.e fluoride)
    • Sodium Fluoride
    • Sodium silicofluoride
    • Fluocilicacid
Mesh inches mm Microns
1 in. 1.00 25.4 25400
7/8 in. 0.875 22.6 22600
3/4 in. 0.750 19.0 19000
5/8 in. 0.625 16.0 16000
0.530 in. 0.530 13.5 13500
1/2 in. 0.500 12.7 12700
7/16 in. 0.438 11.2 11200
3/8 in. 0.375 9.51 9510
5/16 in. 0.312 8.00 8000
0.265 in. 0.265 6.73 6730
1/4 in. 0.250 6.35 6350
No.3 1/2 0.223 5.66 5660
No. 4 0.187 4.76 4760
No. 5 0.157 4.00 4000
No. 6 0.132 3.36 3360
No. 7 0.111 2.83 2830
No. 8 0.0937 2.38 2380
No. 10 0.0787 2.00 2000
No. 12 0.0661 1.68 1680
No. 14 0.0555 1.41 1410
No. 16 0.0469 1.19 1190
No. 18 0.0394 1.00 1000
No. 20 0.0331 0.841 841
No. 25 0.0278 0.707 707
No. 30 0.0234 0.595 595
No. 35 0.0197 0.500 500
No. 40 0.0165 0.420 420
No. 45 0.0139 0.354 354
No. 50 0.0117 0.297 297
No. 60 0.0098 0.250 250
No. 70 0.0083 0.210 210
No. 80 0.0070 0.177 177
No. 100 0.0059 0.149 149
No. 120 0.0049 0.125 125
No. 140 0.0041 0.105 105
No. 170 0.0035 0.088 88
No. 200 0.0029 0.074 74
No. 230 0.0025 0.063 63
No. 270 0.0021 0.053 53
No. 325 0.0017 0.044 44
No. 400 0.0015 0.037 37
Larger sieve openings (1 in. to 1/4 in.) have been designated by a sieve “mesh” size that corresponds to the size of the opening in inches.  Smaller sieve “mesh” sizes of 3 1/2 to 400 are designated by the number of openings per linear inch in the sieve.

APN Water Treatment pdf
APN Water Purification pdf
APN Slow Sand Filters pdf
World Health Organization Water Treatment PDF

Army/Air Force FM for Water Treatment

EPA Water Born Illness document
Texas Document

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Home Security

Filed under: Homesteading — 13 Comments
March 11, 2011

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recommended books in comments. Comment with negative or positive comments.

The Survival Pod Cast
Off Grid Net

I have read only one book so far about home security. “Home security for idiots.” The orange book I think. No reason for me to rewrite that book here in this blog. All I will say is that it has a great section on how to do a security risk assessment and assign yourself a score for risk. After you do this then you plan your security system and implementation. This risk assessment also explained how to evaluate your local fire, ambulance, hospital and police. When I first began thinking about security I was dreaming up many paranoid plans for how to totally secure a home or farm. This is why the risk assessment is important. It keeps things real.

Some points to think about are.

  • Risk assessment.
  • No cost security features.
  • Low cost security features (can be electronic as there are some cheaper simple implementations now)
  • Higher cost electronic surveillance and walls, fences and other.
  • House Sitters
  • Replacement/Emergency funds
  • Insurance
  • Understanding how humans react to threats.
  • Use security layers.
  • Use security zones.

I already talked about risk assessment a little. Some other things to think about would be how well protected and prepared your home/barns/sheds are from fire and other crisis.  Alarms and escape plans in case of fire. Protection from other chemicals and gasses. Protection from wind, storms and flooding. How to handle medical crisis, with kits on site. How well prepared for crime you are.

No cost or nearly no coast features include secrecy, organization, storage, inventory, ID tags/numbers. On locked things also include secret hidden latches. Inside information is where most would be thieves will base their plans. Windows and doors for fire escape as well as escape from crime. No large windows or sliding glass doors.  Instead for views use narrow tall windows or short long windows.  No cost is where you think ahead and plan and design. Lighting is not exactly no cost, but its something you would need anyway. Proper lighting placement would fit this then. One way to detect thieves that are watching your place and stuff is to put low cost items in the open some they might really be tempted to take and other stuff that isn’t worth as much. For example a small bit of copper wire or pipe next to some well used garden tools. If a thief is smart he would take that only if he could get away with taking everything. Otherwise a poor thief might go for the cheap stuff in which case you will have detected that someone has their eye and mind on your stuff. In the security layering example this easy stuff will be on the outer most layer.

Low cost might be motion lighting and/with signs. Pad locks. Door locks. Theft proof hinges and metal doors and door jams. Double keyed bolt locks are good, this means they have to take the stuff out through a window. Though its not safe to not leave a key in the inside bolt lock when at home, in case you need to get out quick. Locking windows with a stick as well as a latch. Planting thorny shrubs around windows. Hedges while forming a barrier and blocking wind, may block the neighbor’s or police’s view of your place will create a safety zone for intruders.

Keeping guns in your house and shooting small caliber guns at targets in the back yard or garage on occasion so that it can be heard around the neighborhood. If the police drop by just tell them you were using a nail gun.  A 53 foot cargo container would make a nice indoor shooting range, two put end to end would be better with the open ends facing one another. All you need is an area 10 feet wide by 120 feet long. On the target end build a wooden wall and behind it pour in sand as a bullet stop. Used containers could be found for $1500 each for such a purpose at the time of this writing.

Have Electronic security stickers on your windows even if you don’t have a system installed. Maybe a sign in yard saying protected by “AAA security systems”. Locking boxes and storage cabinets in the home. Motion sensing electronic surveillance is fairly low cost now. Get a system with a cell phone dialer and get motion sensors for each room in the house. It will false alarm some but if it doesn’t false alarm it will stop intruders with an audible alarm. (These systems can call the police or fire with cellular, land line phone or internet connections, or a combination of those. Though I had to get a permit from the police, otherwise they would charge me for false alarms. I hear from some firemen that they ignore some alarms to residences if they false alarm too much. This means unless they get a voice call from a human, they are not dispatched.) Use of geese, dogs or other animals are fairly low cost solutions.

Higher cost systems include electronic surveillance with video camera and digital recorders or computers. Zone Minder has some nice free Linux software which will record motion only on cameras and show exactly how the motion progressed across the viewing area.  It will alarm on motion as well, can SMS a cell phone with still photo’s. Other high cost include walls, fences and more complete electronic systems.   Here is one called Smart Fence (fiber optic).  Shaker wire is for fences that detect if an intruder has touched a fence. Other motion sensors use lasers or infrared. Some infrared can tell the difference in human sized or animal sized motions. The range of types of cameras that you can get now is unbelievable. Night vision, infrared, pan and zoom to name a few. Put a dome camera on a pole on top of your home and that would be like being a submarine captain with a periscope. There are window and door open close sensors. There are even window breakage sensors. Also we now have automatic chemical attack such as tear gas, pepper spray and dyes.

Fences tend to be chain link fences. I like the looks of the vinyl black or green coated chain link fences. I suppose you could add barbed wire or razor wire to the top, but that’s a bit much for home security don’t you think? Though you see this a lot in inner cities for business use. In 3rd world countries they often have bars on windows. And every yard is surrounded within a tall wall. The problem with bars on windows is that it could inhibit fire escape. For a fence alternative that you may not have seen before check out Wire Wall. But fences are costly, can be anywhere today from $1 per linear foot to $10 per linear foot for chain link to $60 per linear foot for that Wire Wall.

Safe’s are fairly expensive but worth the investment. For gun’s definitely get a gun safe. Get guns, know guns, learn to use guns and how not to be afraid of them. In the military I was a Combat Engineer. We installed obstacles or fortifications for defense from enemies.  We were told that any obstacle or fortification is worth very little if not covered by gun fire. All of these security measures are good but if there is not threat of gun fire by the home owner, security guard and the police, then they are almost worthless.

More expensive fences can also be the old iron fences with spikes on top. How about concrete block fences? Concrete block fences are blocks made with decorative hole patterns, the blocks are usually perfectly square about 4 inches by 1 foot by 1 foot. And if you have animals for fun or farming, then use tall fences which would pin the animals as sections of security fence. Motes? Sure but in the modern sense, if you have the land, a pond would work great as a mote. I have seen some warehouses in design of which almost totally surround the warehouse and lots with ponds. They usually have a fence just inside between the lot and the pond. The ponds serve two purposes. One is as a mote. The other is for fire safety as it is a huge source of water in case the firefighters need it for putting out a large warehouse fire. I guess I could recommend the all time great 1500 year old book called “Sun’s Zu’s Art of War” at this point. I have read it several times and I think it would be very inspirational in this case.

House sitters are people who you might pay to live in and otherwise watch the house while you are away. One problem here is that they might be tempted to undertake illegal activities while you are away. This is something to be very wary of, especially with roommates of which you are receiving money from for the room (rent). However if you make a contract and the purpose for the person being there is for house sitting and you are paying them some small amount, I would think that this would put a lot more burden on their shoulders. Background checks can be done online now for $30 or a bit more. I think a good business to start might be a security business where the guard must go house to house checking and walking through. Another might be some kind of wifi video surveillance, or internet where  a security guard watches monitors. Though in this case the monitors are only  monitors/cams  with any motion detected. If anything looks suspicious he can call the home owner or police or whatever. One guard could service an area of homes.

Its a good idea to set aside some money just for theft replacement and deductibles. Insurance of course is a must for theft, fire, flood, earthquake, burglary, tornado, vandalism, liability. Also design enhancements for these problems are important. Building codes and other ordinances covers some of this automatically.  Building the house in the first place with these problems in mind is very important. Safe rooms for tornadoes have proven to be very effective. Safe rooms are rooms with walls made of reinforced concrete and have concrete ceilings. Basements with concrete ceilings would serve a similar purpose. Thick walled, passive solar homes with bermed walls on 3 sides will be just about as good as a basement. There are other structural design enhancements that I won’t even bother to cover here, such as ways to connect structural members or tie members down better. None of this is without extra cost. Storm shelters of course cost around $4000 to have installed just outside the home. Personally I wouldn’t want the door of the storm cellar very far from the entrance to the home. Maybe even just a few feet away.

I found a great article on the web about how humans deal with and react to threats once. I can’t find it today though. Something like this might help in the design or upgrade of your security system. As an example how about putting up a sign reading, “Warning, unexploded ordinance in area behind sign.”  Or, “Electronic intrusion detection, alarms silently”. Other things like motion detecting lighting. This is the area to think about what will mess with the head of the intruder the most. Other ideas like using NRA stickers and Veteran Stickers and such.

What is a security layer? I’m not exactly sure, but I’d say it would be like the layers of an onion where the heart of the onion is the thing that would need to be most protected. Layers keep honest people honest. Layers make the thief work for his pay. What is a zone? This might be an area of approach such as the drive way, back yard, front yard, upstairs, down stairs etc.

I will only talk about internet security a little in this post. And have you heard? Game machines can now be hacked too. Cell phones maybe? I hope not. The best protection from internet threats of course is to stay off the net. We won’t be doing that so the next best is to use something like Norton Ghost to make a mirror image of your hard drive just after you get the computer and just before you first connect it to the net. Install as much trusted software from disk as you can before you do this. After this install all of your favorite net downloads from most trusted to least trusted. Make a couple of mirror image backup points as you go. This gives you a perfect way to jump back to a time when you know there was no virus, malware, spyware on your computer. Learn to keep all data together in one subfolder. Keep this data backed up where it can be reinstalled after the restore. As a last resort rely on spyware, virus removal tools and firewall tools. But don’t trust them 100%. Some anti virus software is so system heavy that it can slow your system down very much and be worse than the viruses.

Communications is another big part in security. Ham radio is a handy thing to learn a bit about. Ham radio can be used by anyone in an emergency even if they do not have a license. When all other communications are down, ham radio and ham operators are up and running.

A few more things to think about would be

  • Identity theft protection. Lifelock at www.lifelock.com
  • Bad internet content protection. Safe Eyes  at www.internetsafety.com
  • Credit Monitoring.  TrueCredit www.truecredit.com
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