Answer to the Heating problem!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

I did some research on peat. There is real concern about what wholesale harvesting does to the fragile bog ecosystem. I guess Europe is experimenting with set perimeter row harvesting to allow space for regrowth. It might be a little tricky in the extremely variable habitatas of Maine. ...

Many folks will experiment with different things. I know that they are Scotland and Norway are both harvesting peat commercaly for household heat fuel and for commercial electrical plant fuels. Or so I witnessed when I lived in Scotland. I burned peat to heat our home there.

As we have seen there are textbooks still in publication where they set the standard that peat takes thousands of years to grow. Bogs could be 50,000 years old, slow growing and very delicate.

And yet in reality folks harvest it in a sustainable manner every 8 years.

Last week a U of M professor was here at our place [looking to buy eggs and a cord of wood], and we got to talking about peat. He is still of the camp that a peat bog takes millions of years to form, that peat is a fossil.

I asked him about removing the top six inch layer of growing sphagnum moss, harvesting the underlaying peat and replacing the growing moss back on top, like they do in Scotland.

I showed him that sphagnum moss grows up to 30 inches each year.

I showed him moss and it's peat that has grown here on my land, that I have been transplanting here.

But it kind of goes against what he teaches.

I think it all depends on who is talking. Who buys the textbooks.

A society wanting to push the 'earth is billions of years old' theory will teach that peat takes 10,000 years to form as a fossil.

Whereas folks who do it for a living, harvest fresh peat every few years.

A peat bog is nature's filter, it filters the muck and mud that flows from the forest floor into the rivers. the moss uses the nutrients for growth.

Like any moss, it takes chemicals to kill sphagnum moss. You can cut it up, churn it over, and every 1/2 inch segment will continue growing as new strands.

Moss is very hardy and durable.

If only humans were as 'delicate' as peat is, there would be no disease that could harm us.

[tankratt]

It's not so much who is buying the books, it's who is writing and selling the book, for there class. Many write there own text books

[tcrackly]

I had read about a system where they strip it off in rows, allowing 3 ft. (I believe) btween rows to grow over in less than a year.
Isn't there a lot of processing involved? Pressing out the excess water, then drying to burning consistency? What about creosote production from the smoky, low burn?

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

I had read about a system where they strip it off in rows, allowing 3 ft. (I believe) btween rows to grow over in less than a year.
Isn't there a lot of processing involved? Pressing out the excess water, then drying to burning consistency? What about creosote production from the smoky, low burn?

The first time that a bog is being harvested, you will get a lot of other bushes, trees and logs in the mix, as well as dirt from wind blown dust that has settled.

Spread out on concrete or a truck bed, the junk can be removed.

When a peat bed has been harvested previously, so you doing a successive harvest, then obviously there would be no trees, logs, or bushes.

A rolling barrel 'screen' is used to wash the peat, then it is pressed into the brick shapes. During pressing the water leaves.

10 tonnes of pressing does wonders.

We used to buy our peat in bricks that were 2 inch by 3 inch by 6 inch.

Here stateside you usually get peat in bricks that are about 18inches by 2 feet by 3 feet.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Going back to the original thread title, the simplest solution to heating problems is to adjust your thermometer. Just loosen the metal clips and slide the tube up about 10 degrees. Retighten the clips and the thermometer will indicate 10 degrees higher. It would be just like daylight savings time. ;-)

-break-

The local farm equipment repair place uses a waste oil heater. They burn all kinds of motor oil and hydraulic oil from tractors. They burn oil from vehicle differentials. Much of this has water in it. There is a centifugal purifier that removes water from the oil.

-break-

Some truckers are mixing used motor oil with Diesel in a 50 to 1 ratio just as we do with gasoline for a 2 stroke engine. That makes a gallon of used engine oil worth $3.50. They filter it before putting it in the truck tank.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by Wayne StClair

Personally I always found that the best way to keep warm during Maine's winter was a Maine woman.

"The pride of the north
Yankee lasses;
ahh…those New England girls can love.
They’re not too prim and proper
for lust and lechery;
they learn their skills and ply them too
on dark, cold winter nights.
They’ll keep you going and keep you warm,
make coming in from the cold
all that much more
delightful."

Me

sounds like you got yourself a genuine potato queen from aroostook county. a good woman

[MRVphotog]

I get a chuckle when a vehicle drives by that is run on used vegtable oil. I'm probably crazy but they always smell like french fries.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Here in Maine they smell like fried clams.