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    Spray Table and Sink

    Spray Table and Sink

    This is a sink that will also function as a spray table. It has an adjustable work height to accommodate users of different heights and different tasks and was designed to be used in conjunction with dunnage racks. It was designed and built for the Small Farms program at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon with a Clackamas Extension Innovation Grant.

    Tote Washer

    Tote Washer

    This is a washer designed to rinse off harvest totes between uses in the field. It was designed and built for the Small Farms program at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon with a Clackamas Extension Innovation Grant.

    Freezer Pod for Stationary or Mobile Use

    Freezer Pod for Stationary or Mobile Use

    This freezer was built to provide us with on-farm storage for our frozen meat. The box is built with jacks on all four corners that enable our farm truck to hook up to it for the occasional large delivery or pick-up from meat processors. It is cooled by commercial grade refrigeration components. It can store roughly 3000 lb of frozen meat and hold it easily at -10F. Projected energy costs are $1200 / yr. The documentation of this project will include detailed instructions of how to service the refrigeration components and what tools are needed. These are useful skills for the modern farmer and I'm looking forward to sharing what I know and getting input from others!

    Strip-Till

    Strip-Till

    An Open-Source Strip-Till realised by students at UniLasalle Polytechnique Beauvais (France) with AgriLab and la chaire d'Agromachinisme et nouvelle technologie

    Livestock Manure Fuel Briquetter- The BioBeast

    Livestock Manure Fuel Briquetter- The BioBeast

    Rose Marie Belforti was interested in finding ways to manage excess livestock manure on her small farm. She wanted to design and test a prototype of an affordable hydraulic press scaled for small farm use that would sufficiently compress a raw manure/bedding mixture into brick form to be used as a heating fuel. Belforti received a SARE Farmer Grant last year to design and construct a hydraulic press to form fuel briquettes from livestock manure and to test them. The machine, dubbed the "Biomass Beast" by Rose, was built for $2,375 and Rose demonstrated production of briquettes at a rate of 90 dry pounds per hour for 3 cents per dry pound. The briquettes were found to have 6,481 BTU/lb (at 10.5% moisture content) which compared favorably to dry cord wood (e.g. 5,649 BTU/lb for sugar maple at 10% moisture). They burned easily and well. All in all, the cost of production and the heating value suggests that these briquettes deliver energy at a cost of about $4.4 per million BTU (roughly the equivalent of $105 per cord of firewood or $0.60 per gallon of fuel oil).

    How to turn a bike into a seed pelletizer for use in gardening and restoration

    How to turn a bike into a seed pelletizer for use in gardening and restoration

    Seed pellets encapsulate seeds in a mixture (often clay, and nutrient-rich organic matter such as compost, humus, or charcoal) that will potentially reduce predation by insects and rodents while allowing for increased water retention and seed-soil contact. Seed pellets are an ancient method of sowing seed, and are especially useful in areas with compacted or dry soils. Seed pellets are strewn in the desired location (no need for soil preparation) and remain inactive until heavy rains arrive, washing away the clay and allowing seeds to germinate. Making seed pellets by hand is extremely time consuming and labor intensive. To make large numbers of seed pellets in a reasonable amount of time, we constructed a bicycle-powered seed pelletizing machine that effectively coats seed in clay and compost materials. It is designed to be easily taken apart for storage or transport,so each component fits against the others without being screwed together. The bicycle spins a barrel containing the seeds and coating materials while the operators periodically mist the contents with water. The result is coated seed balls that can be used for restoration or home gardening. Here, we explain how to construct the seed pelletizing machine.

    Weed Weasel Electric Walking Tractor

    Weed Weasel Electric Walking Tractor

    Complete step-by-step plans for building this light electric walking tractor for cultivation and other tasks. Weeding, cultivation, blind cultivation, stale bedding, light tillage, and more with this one horsepower electric machine. Free Plans made possible by Northeast SARE Grant ONE18-324.

    Stackable flow-through Vericomposter

    Stackable flow-through Vericomposter

    A year ago I built some portable, stackable vericomposter boxes that have been successful in raising red worms in central NC through all seasons. This project shows that vericomposting can be effective in a small space, with inexpensive and/or free materials, from easily obtainable materials.

    Stackable flow-through Vericomposter

    Stackable flow-through Vericomposter

    A year ago I built some portable, stackable vericomposter boxes that have been successful in raising red worms in central NC through all seasons. This project shows that vericomposting can be effective in a small space, with inexpensive and/or free materials, from easily obtainable materials.

    Arduino soil moisture data logger for extended remote usage

    Arduino soil moisture data logger for extended remote usage

    This is a simple soil moisture data logger using an Arduino Uno with a power-controller circuit to regulate connection between a battery pack and the Arduino. It has a battery life of months and is suited for remote data collection.