Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

....like next week would be great!
it started snowing here sunday nite, we got 7" dumped then coverd with 1/4" of ice
here it is wed and its still here this crap ain't supposed to stick for more than a day or so i live in SOUTH carolina not NORTH dakota.....lol
i have all these plans and soooo many seeds......i'm having withdrawls from not having dirt between my toes.
i had 4 lambs born in this storm and lost one of them they were my special native white/black face cross super meat critters. i expect 1 more to be born.
rabbits been chewing ice blocks for water for the past 4 days, because the auto water system has to be drained when it freezes. normaly i fill and drain every day/nite but we have not really been above freezing enuff to use.
i did have the good sense to partition off 1/3 of the 28'x100' green house where the wood heater is with plastic 4mil sheating so i could keep the worms from freezing, 6 dogs and 2 litters of puppys have taken up residence there as well. oh yea and so have the farm cats.
folks wonder why i drink

big worm, I just noticed this post. I am with you on the snow and freezing, hate it.

You mention heating greenhouse with a wood heater. How do you manage to keep the hot ashes off the plastic? Any other tips or recommendations. I am considering a wood heater for my greenhouse.
Thanks,
jd

i burn the wood in the heater...not on the plastic
i built one of those 55 gal steel drum heater kits, they sell on the net...northern tools i think. i also got the doubler kit so i have one drum stacked on the other. i plumbed the vent pipe out the end of the house thru the vent at the top of the end wall, after i removed the vent/frame i screwed a sheet of plywood with a hole cut out and used a thru wall vent hole thingie. then piped it out about 3 foot above the top. been heating it for three seasons not a hitch. i will have to replace the drums next year because drums are cheap nowadays.

For greenhouses that are heated with wood stoves, and since you are using steel drums already, one idea that I think would be way cool would be to use the steel drums to make charcoal and get double duty out of the wood. It would heat the greenhouse when making the wood into charcoal then you can use the charcoal as growing media.

These stoves can be fed continuously but they are not selling them right now from what I can see. You could make your own from plans maybe.

http://worldstove.com/products/

Dave, cool idea about making charcoal. Thanks for the link. I am making a little woodstove for a camphouse. The plans came from Lincoln welding website. Don't have link handy.

yea very good idea, i could make charcoal all winter and sell it at the farmers market as natural....never miss a dime guys

dimes don't burn brother....it is frigging cold! I agree, send spring early!

How cold is it there now Deja? It was 65 today and suppose to drop into the twenties tonight. Brrr.

And big worm, I thought charcoal was already all natural?

local? and natural...price just keeps going up

Ya - it went from 60 this morning at 6am to 35 by lunch and supposed to head as low as 22 overnight...That cold front should have hit you by now? Everywhere east of the Rocky's is getting some pretty bad snow...we just skirted it though this far south. I believe there is snow just north of me however.

How do freezing temps affect your system?

46 here. Tornado watches earlier. Have not heard of any touching down yet.

So far it looks like if it just "around" freezing, everything chugs away with just slow growth. The water keeps the plants pretty warm even when it is below freezing. I had an eggplant which survived several mild frosts/freezes, but finally it and the pepper plants gave in at the last freeze. It just lasted to long. Peas are growing and I'll be picking those next week - so it is really about getting the plants in and timed correctly. I have some spinach and cauliflower I put in a little late, and I am worried about them as they are just tiny little seelings right now. The fish seem OK - trout love the cold and catfish seem not to bothered by it although they do not really eat. I have a few catfish though that had been previously stressed and are not doing so good. I expect to loose another one or two of them. The tilapia I had to harvest when water temps were still in the 50's. All in all - our weather is pretty good for this in Texas. We can get fish and veggies most of the year without having to bring the system down for winter like those up north. I'm hoping that one day with a greenhouse, I can get much more vigorous grosth through the winter.

i look to texas when it comes to ice or snow here. when a ice or snow storm hits texas then heads across to atlanta...we gonna get covered bad. the snow ain't to bad it's the ice that tears shit up.
its raining hard here tonite, and it's coming down like a cow pissing on a flat rock.
i brought up 200 pounds of worms to the greenhouse today, and i bet they are crawling to beat the band