Wed 18 Nov 2009
The barrels are in place. The manure, sawdust, straw, leaves and food waste is piled up. The barrels are full of water with 200 feet of water hose submerged in them. The basic system is set up and in place! So here’s a few numbers for where we’re at:
Water coming out of the hose was 60 degrees on the dot. By the time I finished filling the two barrels, the water at the top of each barrel was 60.7 degrees. We left to go to lunch with Ashley’s sister, Brandy, and their dad. After we got back home and settled in, I finally went back out to check on their status – about 3 hours after the initial temperature readings. The barrel on the right had risen to 60.9 degrees and the barrel on the left had risen to 61.2 degrees. And that’s with compost only about half way up the barrels. So I piled up some compost around some empty spots by the barrels and made sure to cover as much as I could without working too hard. (After all, I just had a root canal re-done on an infected tooth yesterday morning… I’m not really able to do too much at the moment.)
While I was piling up the compost around the barrels, I got out the thermometer and measured some of the internal spots in the compost pile. I was pleasantly surprised to see that some spots in the pile are already up to 117 degrees, even with outdoor temps at only 52 degrees. I’m anxious to get some insulation around the pile to keep the heat from escaping so easily and make the water heating time that much quicker. But even 117 degrees is plenty hot enough to mix with some cold water to wash horses in the winter.
Mon 16 Nov 2009
Did you know that the sun is hot? Indeed it is! But what about those cold winter days when the temps drop to below 30? Is the sun still hot? Yes! So if there was a way to capture the heat from the sun and not have to use fossil fuels or electricity from the grid (coal mostly in this area), wouldn’t it be a fantastic idea to do that? Well, I’ve found some designs online that do just that. We’re currently working on building a version of one of them to install on the basement of the house. Hopefully within the next few weeks we’ll be able to post here some preliminary results!
For those of you who follow me (David) on Facebook, you might also know that I’m working on a compost based water heater. You see, as a small horse facility, our horses produce manure. That manure has to get cleaned out of their stalls from the small amount of time that they spend in there. However, what many people see as waste, we see as opportunity. Did you know that in just a 500 pound mound of compost – manure, leaves, grass clippings, table scraps, etc. – there are over 4,000,000 BTUs of energy?
So how do we get that energy into a usable form? Well, with the right carbon to nitrogen mixture (different materials are high in carbon while others are high in nitrogen) and some water, compost piles can heat up to 170 degrees in the middle. The average home water heater is set somewhere between 115 and 140 degrees and the average hot shower is 107 degrees.
So what if we took this heat and extracted it somehow? Well, that’s exactly what we’re working on doing. After quite a bit of research, I’m working on building a prototype of the system to heat up around 110 gallons of water to act as a heat exchanger. At first we’ll primarily be providing hot water for the wash racks for the barn. Since it appears that we’ll have plenty of excess heat available to us, we might run a couple of hoses in a loop to the house and back with a radiator to let that heat migrate into the house for when the sun isn’t heating up our solar heater.
So stay tuned. I’ll get some pictures up here in the next week or so as our eco friendly projects progress.
Tue 3 Nov 2009
First and foremost, the Staples Family welcomes Jackazoom to the family. He is an Appendix Quarter horse ( TB/QH cross for those who don’t know), around 16 hands and 7 years old. And he’s dappled grey. I guess I should rename my farm Grey Acres since Goose and Zoomer are both grey and the boarder who is coming also has a grey pony!
We spent the day Monday getting Zoomer from a north GA mountain home and then headed to Green Acres to pick up Goose. Zoomer loads on the trailer like a pro but Goose had other ideas. It finally took some grain (Goose’s favorite) to get him on the trailer and heading over to PTA.
Both horses unloaded at the house and were greeted with apples and carrots from the parents. After a few minutes of settling in their stalls, they started hamming it up for the camera begging for us to give them their dinner.
Both horses settled in nicely and got along with each other when being turned out today. Everyone that lives here on the property agreed today that it was very nice having horses here again. It was worth all the sweat and work to get to this point.
A couple of items to note: Party to celebrate the grand opening of Pony Tail Acres is this Saturday, November 7th from 10 am to 5 pm. Come out and celebrate with us.
We are getting the new roof on the barn on Thursday (so they say). Cross your fingers we get the roof before the big hay delivery comes! The house got its new roof this past week and it looks great. 
Tue 13 Oct 2009
Posted by Ashley under General
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What a long day! I’ve..
Get up, eat breakfast, dress, put trash in the back of the pickup, clean up, move poles and jumps around, more clean up, lunch, test drive tractors, clean up more, work on the barn, cut down a tree, clean up more, clean up in the house, dinner, then computer work. Oi!
Wed 16 Sep 2009
Posted by David under General
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And yet again another long times between posts. Sorry!
The big front garden plants are about done so I’ve starting pulling them up to replace with a fall/winter crops. Not sure what I will be pulling down yet, any requests?
The house garden is growing BIG! The tomatoes are blooming like crazy so I should have plenty of tomatoes up until frost. Can’t wait .
Getting close to being done with general property clean up, now I really need to work on getting the barn, paddock and riding ring cleaned up. But one step at a time…..
I have been riding…a lot. Mr. Moonshadow and I entered a local schooling show and won champion. I was shocked and thrilled. We also rode in a clinic given by a big shot jumper trainer named Ron Zohar. It was so much fun and I feel like I learned a lot!
Thats all for now folks. I hope to have a party here in the next month or so to show the place off and do some BBQ cooking.
Ashley on Moonshadow
Tue 25 Aug 2009
We took a horse from the Alpharetta area to Chattanoogna today. It was a long drive and very early pick up. It is very safe to say that I didn’t get much accomplished after we got back because I just wanted a long nap.
Long day on the road is still better than sitting in front of a computer though
Mon 22 Jun 2009
Posted by Ashley under General
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I had a long, hot, tiring weekend…but it was so much fun! I worked in the garden, worked at Green Acres, visited the horse show, and had a great dinner with my dad and husband’s dad. We also sold some of our produce at the Canton farmers market. All in all a great couple of days.
Below is one of the working students at Green Acres on Mystic. Don’t they look great?! Mystic is quite the ham.
(Note: Pictures coming soon as we work on restoring old blog posts…)
Thu 11 Jun 2009
Posted by David under General
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Produce for sale!
We have cucumbers, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini for sale starting Friday, June 12. Come and get it!
Thu 28 May 2009
If you are new to enjoying the PTA blog, you might not know that one of the farm goals is to be sustainably run. That being said, we haven’t made a whole lot of progress on this goal since we are having to buy so many new materials.
But as gardening items are starting to draw to a close and we begin to focus on the horse facility, we are seeing the need to both cut costs and find materials which can be reused. Below are some examples of how we plan to reduce our facilities construction impact on the environment.
-veggie support systems made from leftover lumberyard scraps. Free for us, and reuse of items that would otherwise go to the dump or get made into wood chips. Just make sure to wear thick gloves to avoid those splinters! We have lots of wire we already obtained from the debris around the house to use for the runs between stakes.
-barn materials and fencing from a local closed horse facility. If you know the Milton area, you know that builders own several large horse farms that have been shut down. It is our goal to contact the owners of these places and reuse board fencing, electrical fencing, feed bins, blanket barns, ladders, fans, and wood planks for the hayloft floor. Wish us luck in obtaining permission from this developers!
Tue 26 May 2009
Wow, such a long time without an update! I hope ya’ll will forgive me . Well, everything is going along smooth and steady right now. Plants are growing in the front garden, in containers, and in the greenhouse. Here’s some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
(Note: Pictures will be coming soon as we work on restoring the blog…)
