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BY THE GRACE OF GOD --
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APPENDICES ~*~ There's a New World Coming
~ C O M M O N S E N S E * I N I T I A T I V E S ~
Live simply, so others may simply live.Drip Irrigation, Recycling WasteWater, Composting Waste, Making Soap & Vinegar
QUOTE: i have lived off-the-grid for almost 20 years now and i have had to learn to think a little differently to do it well. i don't have running water, but we have a lovely spring on the farm that supplies the needs of ourselves and the horses. i live entirely with wood heat from the forest i live in and i have not had a power bill in many years due to solar power.
One of the first things that i found that 'had to go' was the refrigerator. although one can spend a small fortune to buy a very efficient refrigerator and propane is an option, i have found that just doing without was, by far, the most economical. much of what most people keep in the fridges doesn't need to be there. there are other refrigeration options that can be explored. The only recurring monthly bill i have is the phoneline with its abysmally slow dialup connection. all-in-all, my life is quite simple.
One low-tech way of keeping food fresh is a zeer pot (see bottom of Appendices list). I plan on making one this spring. It consists of two earthenware pots, one inside the other, separated by a couple inches of sand. The sand is kept wet, and the whole thing is covered with a lid or a damp cloth. Evaporation keeps food cool and fresh for some time, even in desert climates.
Science in Africa magazine states that a zeer can keep tomatoes edible for 20 days, as opposed to two, and meat two weeks, as opposed to a few hours.
A zeer pot is quite simple. It's basically two large earthen pots, one nested in the other. The space is filled with sand and water is added. A damp cloth covers the top. As the water evaporates, the inner pot containing the perishables is kept cool in the same manner that a mechanical refrigerator operates -- water evaporation draws heat from the inner vessel. Water is added twice a day.
BAKING SODA :: As far as the history part ... in 1861 Ernest Solvay developed a process to make sodium bicarbonate. His process involves heating calcium carbonate so it releases CO2. ...the CO2 vapors are bubbled through an aqueous solution (meaning dissolved in water) of ammonia and sodium chloride (table salt dissolved in water). ... Sodium bicarbonate will precipitate (come out of solution).
This process isn't really possible at home because strong ammonia isn't really available in a grocery store...nor would it be safe to work with at home by someone who doesn't really know what he/she is doing... Sodium bicarbonate occurs naturally in minerals found in dried up salt water lake beds ... which is how it could have been obtained from the "pre industrial age"
If you can't tell whether a substance you have is acid or alkaline, here's how you can check it. Cabbage serves as a simple "litmus paper," and so if get some cabbage and crush it up get all the juice out and then pour it in little tubes. Add what you want to find out about, if thy are acid or alkali. The colour will change, and then you are going to have to find out what colour is what, as I don't know! x]
COMPOSTCompost 101: :: How to Use Your Garbage to Make More Food.
No garden would be complete without its own natural recycling system, a compost pile. Without a way of dealing with compost, weeds and scraps are waste. But why create more trash when you can turn your garden and kitchen waste into valuable soil-building fertilizer?
One of the first steps to starting an organic garden should be to begin a compost pile. Composting will break down organic matter into nutrient-rich material that builds soil and nourishes plants. And just like anyone can garden, no matter their situation, there are composting possibilities for everyone! Read on to learn how to close the loop and start composting ...
Possible Composting Methods :: How to Use Your Garbage to Make More Food.
MORE ON VERMICULTURE -- Growing better crops using worms to compost kitchen waste. --
Kitchen wastes make up a big part of the solid wastes we throw out. Wastes use space, create bad smells and spread disease, so one simple way to reduce these problems is to use worms to transform waste into good soil wherever you are. Worms eat waste, so they act as factories to transform what is rotting into food and microorganisms good for plants that holds moisture so less watering is required.
What kind of worms? Red worms eat surface leaves and greens; grey worms mix the soils and make channels for air in the soil.
What is needed? 1. Worms 2. A place for shaded boxes to rest; 3. organic waste (vegetable and food leftovers, plant cuttings, dung, etc., chopped and/or shredded, grass, whatever plant materials permit air into the mixture, to "loft" the pile. The height of the pile should be 24 inches; but it can be any width or length. A two-foot cube is suitable for a family of four, a well ventilated box or behind supports directly on the ground-soil. Place 4-inches of drainage material (husks, straw, twigs, bones, crushed eggshells) in the bottom with wetter materials on top. Keep the worms protected from extremes of heat, cold and drying out. If you place meat waste there, you will attract rats also.
Once you have chosen the best composting method for your needs and lifestyle, you can learn how to build a composting set-up and start turning your veggie scraps and weeds into valuable garden fertilizer. But before you start, here are a few tips and reminders.
Composting Guidelines :: How to Use Your Garbage to Make More Food.
Compost is an artform that’s best learned through practice. Everyone has different methods, which you’ll learn as you experiment. Composting is simple, inexpensive, and very eco-friendly. It’s recycling you can do right at home! You may be amazed at how little ends up in the trash can once you start composting, and instead of filling the landfill, you can turn waste into delicious home-grown produce!
Baking soda is a mild alkali used for cleaning, which when mixed with vinegar, produces a foaming-reaction forming an active salt and water, also for cleaning. I usually add just a drop or two of liquid detergent, and the mixture foams up so it is useful for spotting a carpet or upholstery.
If baking soda is not available for cleaning, but you have vinegar to work with, combine soapy water (soap has lye in it, a strong alkali) with some vinegar for a similar effect: foam that truly cleans up a mess and its smell.
If you can't get LYE to make soap, use ashes, the original always-available ingredient for homemade soap, as in former generations.
RENDERING LARD
Here is step-by-step guide to rendering lard, a technique that works equally well for other kinds of animal fat. It is very easy, though somewhat time-consuming.
1. Start with 5 pounds of back fat. This is, not surprisingly, fat from the back of a pig. It has little meat and lots of fat bound up in the cells and tissues. At one local butcher, it cost me $1/pound. I bought 5.5 pounds for the lard, and reserved a pound in the freezer for lining terrine molds, grinding into sausages, or making lardo, salt-cured back fat.
2. Chop the fat into small squares. The higher your surface-area-to-volume ratio, the quicker the rendering and the higher the yield. But there's no need to go crazy either. I cut the fat into roughly 1"x1" chunks.
3. Add to a pot with a little water—about half the volume of the fat—and bring to an uncovered slow boil over low heat, stirring frequently. The water moderates the temperature so the fat doesn't burn or stick to the pot. Eventually, the water will all evaporate; the golden liquid left behind is melted fat. You'll know when this has happened because the bubbles will look different. Keep cooking until the solid fat has melted. Your kitchen (and perhaps much of your house) will have a wonderfully warm meaty smell. Stir occasionally to mash up the fat bits, and skim often as foamy scum collects on the surface. I added more water than I should have: I cooked it for a few hours on the stove top, then overnight in a 225° oven, and even then I had to cook it more the next day. Eventually, you'll be in diminishing returns mode. There will still be some solid fat left, but you won't feel like it's worth rendering. Turn off the heat, and pour the liquid fat through a cheesecloth-lined strainer into a large container. If you did have some meat on the fat, don't toss it out. It's been slow-cooked in one of the world's best fats for hours. Eat it. Use it in a salad. Put it on toast points.
4. Let the fat cool until it's just warm and still liquid, and add a lot of water. This clarifies out some of the little protein bits in the fat. Store in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, you'll have a thick slab of lard sitting atop a tub of water. Remove the lard slab and dry it thoroughly.
5. Chop the lard into pieces, and melt over low heat. Ladle the liquid fat into jars, let cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate. Here's a tip; make sure you've got plenty of jars on hand before you start. I found myself rummaging around for extras to hold the 9 cups I made. The jars will keep for a long time in the refrigerator, even longer in the freezer.
6. Lard makes an unbelievably flaky pie crust; I use about 50% butter and 50% lard. It also makes excellent soap.
Up until the 1850s, when the general store started stocking provisions, folks made most of their household supplies themselves, including lye soap. Three ingredients went into the making of lye soap: lard, lye, and lots of hard work.
Lard was rendered and saved for soap-making from the annual hog kill that took place at the time of the first hard frost in autumn. Lye was made from the ashes left over from the wood stoves. (Most people kept a wooden bin with a side spigot just outside the house, into which they'd dump their ashes. When it came time to make lye soap, they poured water through the ashes and siphoned off the liquid lye.) The third ingredient of lye soap had to be supplied by a pair of hard working hands.
Lye is an extremely caustic agent, so the soap makers had to be careful to have just the right concentration. Too much lye would cause the soap to burn the skin, and too little would keep the soap from hardening. An old wives' tale held that lye was at the proper strength when depositing a floating egg into the mixture revealed only its tip.
To make lye soap, lard and lye were mixed together over an open fire, and stirred for hours with a long-handled paddle. It is said that when the paddle stuck straight up, the soap was ready. Lye soap was then poured into a metal pan and allowed to dry and harden; a process that could take from two weeks to one month. After the lye soap hardened, it was cut into smaller bars for everyday use. People used lye soap to clean everything from their faces to their laundry. Today, many people still like to buy and use original lye soap.
SOAP-MAKING : This is the basic method for making soap from oils, to keep yourselves clean. Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Everything in soapmaking, except the ingredients that are added in tiny amounts such as essential oils for scent, is measured by weight. This includes the water or other liquid which is used to make the lye solution. This is why you need a good scale. I have a digital scale from Weight-Watchers that is perfectly adequate...the disadvantage of the scale I have is that it weighs in eighths of an ounce instead of tenths, but that's not a huge matter. It also converts to grams, which is very useful.
First you decide how much soap you're going to make. I work on a stovetop in a small apartment kitchen, so the max for me is about ten pounds, which works out to about 40 bars. This weight refers to the OILS only, so the amount of water is not included in the amount of soap although it must still be measured. The reason for this is that as the soap cures, the water evaporates back out. When I say ten pounds of soap I am referring to ten pounds of oils. The pot must be big enough to hold both the oils and the water.
I use the so-called Cold Process as I believe it to be the best, as well as the simplest. It also uses all the skills necessary for any other method except for Melt-and-Pour, which is not really soapmaking as you begin with premade soap from a craft store. This is a method used to produce pretty gift soaps that may or may not actually get used. The CP method can be used to formulate soaps that are not just great soaps, but can be used to address specific conditions such as dry or oily skin, eczema, etc.
My soap pot is just an old stainless-steel stock pot which is ideal. It holds more than ten pounds of oil, but once the mixture has traced and is ready to pour, a larger amount becomes difficult to handle. So ten pounds it is, at least for purposes of this demonstration. If you can make ten pounds, you can make any amount.
My basic formula, which I change in countless ways, is: 50% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 20% palm oil, and 10% castor oil. Each oil requires a specific amount of lye for saponification. I generally use a 5% lye discount, which means that only 95% of the oils will be turned to soap while the remaining 5% will be intact and dispersed throughout the soap. There are several reasons for this. Soap that has too much lye is harsh and can irritate the skin. Soap that has too much oil will become rancid and can even "weep" oil droplets....nasty. Also there is the technique called superfatting, which I'll cover in another post.
You really must learn the math to figure this on your own...for instance, I can give you a recipe for ten pounds of soap, but what if you just want to make six pounds? My test batches for new formulas are usually just two pounds. Also, you should be able to check any recipe for errors. Many online formulas are not very accurate. I don't trust any recipe but my own. The math is as follows, easy with a calculator:
The SAP number for olive oil is 0.136, meaning that for every ounce of OO used, it takes 0.136 oz of lye to turn it into soap. However as mentioned, you want a lye discount, usually around 5%. Therefore, you multiply 0.136 by 0.95, resulting in 0.129. You must use the SAME discount for each oil in the soap, and you must calculate for each saponifiable substance in the soap including things like beeswax and stearic acid, if you use such things.
Therefore, using a 5% discount for ten pounds of soap, you would calculate as follows:
Olive oil: 5 lbs = 80 oz x 0.129 = 10.32
Coconut oil: 2 lbs = 32 oz x 0.175 = 5.6
Palm oil: 2 lbs = 32 oz x 0.135 = 4.32
Castor oil: 1 lb = 16 oz x 0.122 = 1.952
The numbers in BLUE are the SAP numbers for each oil multiplied by 0.95 to obtain a 5% lye discount. These are obtained by taking the SAP number from a chart and multiplying by 0.95. The numbers in RED tell you how much lye you need for each oil in this batch of soap. Add them together, and you get the sum of 11.872, which is how many ounces of lye you'll need for THIS batch using THESE ingredients. This isn't rocket science, so you can round it up to 11.9. Now you have your quantities established for this batch of soap. I always do the math twice to be sure I have not made a mistake.
The amount of water (or milk or tea) you will use is around 30% by weight, depending on several factors such as: if you use an ingredient such as pine tar which you know will hasten trace (thickening), use more water. With pine tar soap I use 33%. Too much water and the soap will take forever to cure. Too little, and you won't be able to mix and pour fast enough. I generally figure 28% which in this case would be 2.8 lbs of water.
The first thing to do is weigh your water in a heavy Pyrex bowl and place it in the freezer. You want the water to be nearly frozen. Then you weigh out your various oils and place them in the pot over low heat. The hard oils (coconut and palm) will melt slowly and as they do so, stir them gently to mix them. Making soap is a fairly leisurely process, with lots of time for taking breaks. You do not want the oils to get over 110°-120°. This method is called cold-process because no additional heat is needed...other methods involve baking the soap or making it in a crock pot. Later on I'll discuss why I don't do this.
When the oils are melted and the water is nearly frozen with a crust of ice, then and only then do you open your container of lye. One reason for this is safety, and another is that lye will absorb moisture from the air, which diminishes its strength. Measure the lye into a separate bowl. It's just like weighing table salt. Don't be scared of it. It won't jump out of the container and bite you. Just don't spill it.
Place the container of water in the sink, and slowly add the lye. Use a chef's or candy thermometer to check temperatures - I use one in the oil pot and another for the lye. As you add the lye to the water, it will go from 32° to about 180° in seconds. It will also release fumes which you don't want to breathe. They aren't deadly, just irritating. A good snootful might burn your mucus membranes though, so use adequate ventilation. Some people carry it outside for mixing, but I think the danger of spills is too great. I do it all in the kitchen. Now you must wait for the lye mixture to cool. You can fill the sink with cold water, even ice water, to hasten the process. Or you can just wait....making sure the oils don't get too hot on the stove. Or too cool, if you turn the heat off while waiting. 110° is what I shoot for although 120° is fine. With practice you can put your hand on the side of the pot and tell when it's about right.
One thing you must do is consider your logistics beforehand, because once your soap reaches trace, you must move quickly. Know ahead of time where you will put your empty bowls etc, and where to have the mold for pouring. Every kitchen is different so I can't lay this out for you. Just have a logical sequence thought out. You do NOT want to stumble around with a bowl of hot lye solution in your hands!
While waiting for the lye to cool, you can be mixing any additional ingredients in a separate bowl. I use only glass, enameled bowls, and stainless steel. No other metal is suitable for caustic substances, and many plastics are unsuitable as well. Don't use implements for making soap for cooking as well.
These additional ingredients will be the ONLY ones you do not have to weigh, although for extreme accuracy it's not a bad idea. Weighing out a gram of something is not necessary when half a teaspoon is just as good. They may include essential oils (about 1 Tbs per pound is about right), herbs, and exfoliants such as ground walnut shells or pumice. Premix these and have them ready. If you're using hard ingredients such as shea butter, warming them gently in the microwave is helpful.
When the lye is around 110° and the oils are the same (roughly), slowly and carefully pour the lye solution into the oils, stirring as you go. You will immediately see the mixture become cloudy and soapy looking. Keep stirring. Depending on the oils you've used, the temperature, and other ingredients, you will reach trace in anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour (sometimes longer). If you're using something like pine tar, it will trace in 30 seconds or less. Depending on the total quantity and the ingredients, I use either a stick blender or a paint stirrer (which is used for nothing but soap) attached to a cordless drill. You could use a wooden spoon, but you'll be there all afternoon. The stick blender turns MUCH faster than the drill and will hasten the process. Use the blender in 30-second bursts to avoid burning out the motor.
Eventually the mixture will thicken to a pudding consistency. When you lift the stirrer and drizzle the mixture on top, it will leave traces of the drops on the surface...this is why it's called trace. When you begin to get a light trace, this is the time to begin moving more quickly. Stir in additional ingredients you have premixed. As soon as the mixture is thick but still pourable, you can put it into the mold.
Set the filled mold aside for a day or two until it's solid. Remove from the mold and slice into bars. These must be set aside on a rack to cure for 2-6 weeks before the soap can be used, to allow the water to evaporate back out. The longer the cure, the harder the soap.
Anything can be used for a mold. Pringles cans are popular, although I don't like hockey-puck soap. Pizza boxes lined with plastic wrap or freezer paper are good, too. I like to use vinyl downspout molding from Home Depot, cut into 14" sections. Each section holds roughly two pounds or 8-10 bars. It's a little hard to get the soap log out of the mold. I can cover that later, too.
That's it...you have now made soap. The entire process takes roughly two hours. Now you have the cleanup. Your soap pot is an oily, caustic mess. Don't sweat it. Put it in the sink and wait a day...that oily mess is now SOAP which will clean up easily.
ALWAYS add lye to water! NEVER pour water onto dry lye! The reason is the heat released. If you pour water onto a pile of lye it will instantly flash into steam, resulting in a wet explosion that can leave you seriously burned. I learned this way: Do as you oughtta...add the lye to the watta. Someone with a more poetic mind came up with: Snow on the lake. Either way, this is a most important thing to remember. NO EXCEPTIONS! (By the way, the same rule applies to mixing acids with water in the lab).
Lye is a common catalyst used in many industrial processes. You used to be able to buy it at any hardware store or even the grocery store, as it's used as a drain cleaner (it saponifies the grease in the trap, turning it into crude soap which then rinses away with hot water). Recently the stores learned that it's used in meth labs, and began taking it off the shelves. Now you usually have to go to a chemical supply house or buy it online. I always take a soap sample with me and let them know what I'm using it for. If you're fortunate enough to find lye at the hardware store (Red Devil and Roebic are the common brands of lye used as drain cleaner), make sure it is 100% sodium hydroxide. Any other ingredients will spoil the soap. Be totally sure what you're using. I now get ten pounds at a time from a local chemical supply.
The last time I bought lye at a hardware store I picked up a dozen cans of Red Devil. The checkout clerk REALLY scrutinized me with an evil look. "What's up with that," I thought...shortly thereafter I learned it's also used to cook meth. That's when I began introducing myself and giving a soap sample. I don't want the cops breaking down my door because they think there's a meth lab in my apartment.
Make Your Own Vinegar
VinegarVinegar is easy to make, from a variety of products. And you can make your own mother of vinegar too, although you don't actually need it. All you have to do is add already-made vinegar to apple cider, in a proportion of 1:4. However, to make mother of vinegar, expose a mixture of one-half vinegar and one-half cider to a temperature of 80 degrees for a few days. The thin scum that forms on the surface is mother of vinegar.
Vinegar can be made from apples (cider vinegar), grapes (wine vinegar), berries, other fruits, or even from a 10 percent sugar solution. Most homesteaders who make vinegar make cider vinegar.
The strength of the finished product is in direct proportion to the amount of sugar in the original solution. For this reason sweet apples usually make stronger vinegar than tart ones. Not always, though: Some sour apples actually have a high proportion of sugar which is masked by a high fruit acid content.
Use only fresh uncooked cider or grape juice without any preservatives. Preservatives will prevent it from turning to vinegar. Fill a one gallon glass jug to the neck.
The jug will need an airlock. If you don't have one for winemaking or don't care to purchase one in a winemaking supply store, make a stopper from a dry corn cob. Insert a piece of grape vine, sumac, or some similar material with a large pith, lengthwise through a piece of the cob that will fit into the jug's neck. Punch or burn out the pith with a hot wire. Fit one end of a piece of rubber or plastic tubing over the grape or sumac, and put the other end in a jar of water.
With this setup, as the juice ferments the carbon dioxide passes through the tube and bubbles up through the water, but no oxygen can reach the juice. The first fermentation will take four to six weeks at room temperature. It's not necessary to add yeast to start this process, because the wild yeasts which are always present will do the job. The grey foam that forms on the top is excess yeast, which is harmless.
When the bubbling stops, the sugar has all changed to alcohol: you have made hard cider! To make vinegar, you need a second fermentation that will convert the alcohol into acetic acid.
Unlike the first fermentation, which occurs through the liquid, the second takes place only on the surface. It is caused by an entirely different organism. It requires oxygen, and the larger the surface area in relation to the volume, the faster the vinegar will be produced. To have more surface area, divide your brew between two jugs, so the liquid will be below the narrow neck portion.
This is when you add the mother.
Actually, wild spores floating in the air will act as a starter, so the only reason for using a mother is to get things going faster. Put a bit on a piece of dry corn cob and float it on the liquid.
Tie cloth over the openings of the jugs to admit oxygen but to keep out dust and bugs.
The time the second fermentation takes depends in part on the spores present. All strains work best at a temperature of 70-80 degrees. They become dormant at low temperatures, but high temperatures will kill them. The time required also depends on the surface-to-volume ratio, but ordinarily, you can figure on anywhere from three to nine months.
This homemade vinegar is much stronger than store-bought. Dilute it with water to taste before using it. But naturally there are many other ways of doing it. Here are a few of them.
Sweet apple cider
Use fully ripened apples, free of decay and bad spots. Wash thoroughly and grind or crush, then place in cider press or juice press and extract the juice.
Place juice in an open kettle (stainless steel or enamel) and boil until volume is reduced by one-half, skimming often.
Pour at once into bottles or stone jugs and cork.
Apple cider vinegar
Let sweet cider stand in an open jug 4-6 weeks and it will turn to vinegar.
Put cores and peelings (left over when apples are used for other purposes) into a stone crock or wide mouth jar. Parings of peaches or pears, grape skins and cherries can be used this way too. Cover with cold water and set in a warm place, adding fresh peelings now and then. Keep the jar covered. The scum (mother) that forms on top will gradually thicken.
When the vinegar tastes strong enough to suit you, strain it through several thicknesses of cheesecloth.
Wine Vinegar
Crush cut-up apples, parings of peaches or pears, grape skins, berries or cherries in a crock or tub, each type, a separate batch so everything ferments together. You can include windfalls and bruised fruit, raisins. Cover with warm water, then cover the top of the tub with several thicknesses of cheesecloth, tied into place. Keep this in a warm place 4-6 months. When it tastes strong enough, strain, bottle and cork. If the liquid refuses to ferment there is no use going on with it; throw it out.
You can speed up the process by adding a lump of unbaked bread dough, or two ounces of brown sugar or molasses, or one package or cake of yeast dissolved in warm water, to each gallon of liquid.
For canning, a too-weak vinegar can result in spoilage, and even botulism. It should be five percent (or five grain).
If you make wine, it's easy (sometimes all too easy!) to make vinegar. When the wine is made, just let it stand, covered but exposed to the air. Exposed to summer sun it will take about two weeks; in winter it will take a month or more.
1. Enhancing Beauty -- To improve skin quality, it is suggested that a wash in the fluid at least once a week maintains youth (JUST pee in the bathtub, soak and shower off) keeps the skin smooth, and protects against most forms of dry skin. Actually, urine is used as a cure for jelly fish stings since it releases the poisons in the sting, when used as a soak. Some cultures also take it internally, but I'll pass on that.
2. For the Garden -- If you have problems with animals soiling your garden, the best cure is for the man (testosterone) of the house to catch his first pee in container and sprinkle it around the targeted area to "mark" it with scent. In addition, one part urine to 10 parts water is a great and free way of fertilizing the garden. Also, See CHICKEN MANURE TEA, back up in the COMPOST section.
3. As WOOL-Clothes Dye -- In the past urine has been used as a mordant (this is a substance which helps fabric dye to set, like tannic acid or iodine) to help in the process of dyeing wool.4. Ammunition -- Many years ago, stale urine was used to make munitions. The urine was left for more than a year to ferment. The salts formed from this fermentation were then washed and mixed with wood ash, dried out, then added to sulphur and charcoal to make black powder.
5. Electricity --Physicists in Singapore have published an article in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering about their success in creating a battery to generate electricity from urine. One can see how this easily might work.
Lack of clean drinking water is perhaps the greatest health risk in many parts of the world. Filtering water through a layer of sand is a simple method of removing many of the organic impurities present in the water. The water filter described here is a low-cost system to remove impurities and bacteria from water in order to make it safer for drinking. The following instructions explain exactly how to build a filter. However, the basic idea can easily be adapted to suit the materials that you find available in your area.
MATERIALS NEEDED
SET-UP
Pierce the lid of bucket #2 with holes in a similar pattern to the one shown below at the left. Pierce the bottom of bucket #1 with approximately four to six holes (below, right). The holes can be made with a hot 6-inch nail.
Cut the PVC pipe into three pieces: 9 inches, 9 inches, and 5 inches (23 cm, 23 cm, 13 cm). Pierce one side of a 9 inch piece of pipe with holes. Connect this piece with the other 9 inch piece using a 90 degree joint. Connect the five inch piece through the side of bucket #2 and onto the 9 inch pipe as shown in the diagram below. Now put a layer of stones in the bottom of bucket #2, which contains the pipe. Follow the stone layer with a layer of smaller pea gravel. Place sand on top of the gravel until the bucket is filled to eight inches (20 cm) from the top.
Finally, put the pierced lid onto bucket #2. Fit bucket #1 onto the lid (see the diagram on the next page). It is important for this fit to be tight so that water will not leak out. Now add the water to be filtered to the top bucket. Add only three liters at a time to prevent overflow from the area where the two buckets are connected. As this water empties, add three more liters. Continue to add water to the top bucket until water comes out of the 5 inch pipe.
If you want even greater filtration of the water, you may wish to add another bucket, partially filled with crushed charcoal. All of these media must be replaced whenever the water goes off-taste, to maintain effectiveness, perhaps as often as once a season.
As the water filters down through all the layers and fills the bottom bucket, it will begin to displace water out of the pipe. Thus, as dirty water is added, clean water that has already been filtered is displaced out. If you already have a way of clarifying water with a plant, you may want to use that technique to settle particulates before you add the water to the filter for purification. Please contact ECHO about any methods you may have to remove particulates from turbid water (e.g. what species of plant is used; how is it used).
One major point of caution that we would like to note:
The water is not safe for drinking until two days after the filter is built. Upon completion of the building process, fill the filter with water until a small amount is displaced from the spout. At this point you must wait 2 days before using the filter. This is because a bacteriological layer of algae must be given time to grow on top of the layer of sand. If the layer of algae is not given time to grow, only about 70% of impurities will be filtered out. Once the algae has grown, up to 99% of impurities will be filtered out.
After the two day waiting period, the filter can be used continuously since the bacteriological layer will remain once it has initially formed. However, never add another three liters of water to the top bucket until three liters of water has been discharged from the bottom bucket.
A man who promoted appropriate technology in Guatemala told me that he was having problems with this type of water filter because people were unwilling to wait the two days for the formation of the bacteriological layer. The problem is that the water looks cleaner right away and therefore it is difficult to get people to wait two days before using the water from the filter.
How to harvest rainwater growing vetiver hedges and save water by using drip irrigation The idea is to improve your crops by getting more rainwater to stay in the soil in stead of running off. This is done by growing vetiver hedges which at the same time reduce soil erosion.
Introduction
If you do not know anyone who has vetiver plants find suppliers at “The Vetiver Network” www.vetiver.org. Here is what vetiver TILLERS look like:
Many farmers are totally dependent on rainwater. Most areas have one rainy season where it is possible to grow crops, and a dry season where only the few with irrigation can produce anything. Vetiver hedges are a way of harvesting rainwater so you can grow vegetables/crops for a longer period. This works two ways: 1. rainwater running on the ground is stopped or slowed down and 2) the hedge-root system acts like an underground barrier and keeps the water in the ground. Vetiver hedges must be planted in contour (same level) with 10 meters between hedges. They will efficiently stop soil erosion.
Extra water SAVED in the soil will extend the growing season or make it possible to grow crops needing more water. The system can even be used in very dry areas by planting the same hedges in the dry river beds. After the short period of rains when water is running in the river, it will be possible to grow crops behind the hedges. Start making the system in a small area, so you find out the best ways of growing vetiver in your area. And so you can see that it works.
Start by getting vetiver plants. If you have to transport them, keep them out of the sun with their roots in water. Your hedge nursery can start on a small scale by growing vetiver in wastewater from your kitchen or bath. If you are in an area with very little water, you can grow the vetiver directly in a small stream or pond. Vetiver is very easy to grow and can grow under nearly all conditions.
If you have little water for watering, it is best to grow the plants first in plastic bags. If there is enough water for watering, bags are not needed and plants can be placed directly in the ground from the nursery.
When planting your hedge in a dry area:
Save water by using drip irrigation
Availability of water is often what determines the amount of vegetables grown in the gardens. You can make a simple drip irrigation system so the same amount of water can greatly increase the harvest.
Another advantage of drip irrigation is that nutrients can be added to the drum and applied directly to the soil around the plants. This can be made in another container by using manure (from animals or composted plants) in a bag to make a "tea." This should then be diluted so the plants are not burnt by alkalis in the tea. By giving nutrients directly at the root through irrigation, much less is wasted by leaching or bacterial transformation. Compared to normal modern applications, one third less fertilizer is required.
ZEER POTTERY
