Helping the poor help themselves... Great place to check out here in Florida.

[theremart]

Hi guys,

This week, I made a trip to a location here in Florida that shocked me at
how well it was run. I myself am a Christian, and I love supporting
missionaries on the field. After visiting this place I found new ways to
see how this can be done to help both the missionaries and the poor around
the world.

The group is echonet.org, and what I found of interest that would be of
interest of this group is that it demonstrates ways for the poor to become
self-sufficient. This is done in helping them to grow food in more
productive ways. Here are some of the things I really enjoyed:

All of the plants they have seeds for is edible plants, they pick plants
that have the high nutrition value. They teach people how to save the
seeds and how to use many different environments from roof tops to rain
forests.

They had a working methane production setup with 55 gallon barrels, and I
got to see first hand how it was setup and learned that they can cook 3
meals a day from the output of that 55 gallon barrel.

They showed simple means of filtering water with sand, and plastic bottles.

They had about 4 different types of wood gas stoves, and demonstrated drip
irrigation.

They demonstrated a pump that was made from used tires that hand operated.
Everything here was very reasonable for a person in other countries that did
not have the resources that we have here.

Compost methods where shown, as well as use of worms growth for better
compost piles.

Over all I was glad I made the 6 hour drive down to check them out the tour
they gave was over 2 hours and the fruit they have there is excellent, the
people were most friendly and willing to answer questions. I could see
this was really making a real difference in the lives of the poor as they
are learning the means to sustain themselves.

I am hooked!

Mart

[jeanna]

Sounds great, Mart.
Would you be able to describe (or youtube-demo) how to make the methane maker?
I tried to describe it to some folks on ou and since I had only seen it once and that was 10 years ago I couldn't give the details. I only remember it was very easy.

thank you,

jeanna

[rickoff]

Hi Mart,

Glad to see you are having some fun in the sun. It's all back to basics stuff, just like our parents and grandparents were doing many decades ago. And 44 years ago, when I first moved to Maine and learned that I had to be a jack of all trades just to exist, I learned how to live a good life and take care of my family with very little income. I was way further ahead in those days at being self-sufficient than I am now, but planning to get back to the basics as soon as I can sell my home and move back Down East. A big garden, solar, wind, and hydrogen energy, woodgas for my pickup truck, methane production, I'll use it all. My cottage in Down East Maine is already set up for living as people did 100 years ago, so that's a good jump start. I really think that getting back to the basics is going to be a critical factor to survival in the tough times that are soon coming, and that the best way we can help others, as well as ourselves, is to relearn the old ways of doing things. Some day, not too far away, we will be glad we did this.

Keep this thread going, Mart, and share everything you learn. Though many do not know it quite yet, they will soon need these low-tech solutions desperately.

Best of wishes to you Mart.

Rick

[theremart]

Sounds great, Mart.
Would you be able to describe (or youtube-demo) how to make the methane maker?
I tried to describe it to some folks on ou and since I had only seen it once and that was 10 years ago I couldn't give the details. I only remember it was very easy.

thank you,

jeanna

This guy has a video simple setup, and would be easy to post on OU.

YouTube - Simple Methane Digester

I am will be working on getting the fittings for this.

The main thing to listen closely to is to let the first round of gas off, the low concentration at this stage is not a good idea to burn, best to wait till the next round as this guy states.

Cheers!

[theremart]

Hi Rick,

Hi Mart,

Glad to see you are having some fun in the sun. It's all back to basics stuff, just like our parents and grandparents were doing many decades ago. And 44 years ago, when I first moved to Maine and learned that I had to be a jack of all trades just to exist, I learned how to live a good life and take care of my family with very little income. I was way further ahead in those days at being self-sufficient than I am now, but planning to get back to the basics as soon as I can sell my home and move back Down East. A big garden, solar, wind, and hydrogen energy, woodgas for my pickup truck, methane production, I'll use it all. My cottage in Down East Maine is already set up for living as people did 100 years ago, so that's a good jump start. I really think that getting back to the basics is going to be a critical factor to survival in the tough times that are soon coming, and that the best way we can help others, as well as ourselves, is to relearn the old ways of doing things. Some day, not too far away, we will be glad we did this.

Keep this thread going, Mart, and share everything you learn. Though many do not know it quite yet, they will soon need these low-tech solutions desperately.

Best of wishes to you Mart.

Rick

Yes we have many of the same dreams.

I put my order in today for a wind gen and a controller. The 6 golf cart batteries I have, have proven to be reliable sold batteries so I am going to try to boost the energy going in.

But I am so glad for the internet, we can go back to the basics in a star trek fashion, we can take the best ideas and make the simple things work even better.

I picked up a 5 gallon bucket drip irrigation system from my visit, I got it home and was surprized at what all was was inside.

www.chapinlivingwaters.org

I am thinking of using a timer to fill the 5 gallon bucket 2X a day with a reserve supply from my 55 gallon rain barrels.

Anyhow, thanks for the encouragement. And Merry Christmas!!!

I really hope I am just doing this for a hobby, and doing it to stay alive, but nice to have a backup plan!

cheers

[sucahyo]

They showed simple means of filtering water with sand, and plastic bottles.

Japanese people add seed to filter other harming substance. My version here:
How to Make a Water Filter

[theremart]

RE: Filtering..

Japanese people add seed to filter other harming substance. My version here:
How to Make a Water Filter

Thanks for that input Sucahyo,

Interesting we are both network admins


I have done the method you mention, only with a twist, I use two containers with a pvc pipe in between. Into that pipe goes cotton. This keeps the chlorine on one side. You end up with very acid in one of the containers and very alkaline on the other. You can then drink the alkaline, then use the very acid side to spray plants.

I used stainless steel from kitchen ware.


The big problem overseas is having these resources to start with often they are too poor to get batteries etc.

As you mentioned using seeds. There is a great demand at echo for a tree called the "Miracle tree" it seeds are used to purify water and the leaves are highly nutritious. Getting these seeds to the poor can make a BIG difference.

More info...
Moringa Garden Circle - Official Tree - Moringa Olefera - Horseradish Tree

"
Dr. Samia Al Azharia Jahn with the Deutsche Gsellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit in Germany found another unexpected use for the seeds. Suspensions of the ground seed of the benzolive tree are used as primary coagulants. They can “clarify Nile water of any degree of visible turbidity.” At high turbidities, their action was almost as fast as that of alum, but at medium and low turbidities, it was slower. The doses required did not exceed 250 mg/i. Coagulating the solid matter in water so that it can be easily removed can remove a good portion of the suspended bacteria. “River water is always fecally polluted. At our sampling site, the total coliforms amounted during the flood season to 1600-18,000 per 100 ml. Turbidity reductions to 10 FTU were achieved after one hour, reducing the coliforms to 1-200 per 100 ml. Good clarification is obtained if a small cloth bag filled with the powdered seeds of the benzolive is swirled around in the turbid water.”
"

I do believe if we could get these trees there they would have food to eat and seeds to clean the water. The other trouble may bee is getting them to take ownership and water and protect the trees.

[theremart]

Found it!

I found how to make methane from echo web page awesome step by step how too for small scale 55 gallon drum

They have a wealth of files in their download section.

Jenna, this is what you are looking for...

[sucahyo]

Interesting we are both network admins


I have done the method you mention, only with a twist, I use two containers with a pvc pipe in between. Into that pipe goes cotton. This keeps the chlorine on one side. You end up with very acid in one of the containers and very alkaline on the other. You can then drink the alkaline, then use the very acid side to spray plants.

. You already ahead in implementation .

As you mentioned using seeds. There is a great demand at echo for a tree called the "Miracle tree" it seeds are used to purify water and the leaves are highly nutritious. Getting these seeds to the poor can make a BIG difference.

Very nice info .

It is unfortunate that the fecally infected river is the main source of tap water here. Some even produce bottled water or cie block from it with inadequate filtering. Lab test show that those water still contain a lot of coliforms?.

I guess a combination of alkaline processing and those seeds are best.

There is water plant that can help purify water. However it require a large pool for the water container. Some water treatment here use them. Not practical for simple water filter.
Eichhornia crassipes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The roots of Eichhornia crassipes naturally absorb pollutants, including lead, mercury, and strontium-90, as well as some organic compounds believed to be carcinogenic, in concentrations 10,000 times that in the surrounding water.[15] Water hyacinths can be cultivated for waste water treatment.[3]

Google translations from Indonesian language, a research on reduction of heavy metal and pesticides in 24 hours.
http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eceng_gondok

Although water hyacinth is considered a weed in the water, but in fact he played in capturing heavy metal pollutants. Series of studies about the ability of water hyacinth by Indonesian researchers, among others by Widyanto and Susilo (1977) who reported within 24 hours of water hyacinth is capable of absorbing metals cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and nickel (Ni), each for 1 , 35 mg / g, 1.77 mg / g, and 1.16 mg / g when the metal is not mixed. Also absorbs water hyacinth Cd 1.23 mg / g, 1.88 mg Hg / g and 0.35 mg Ni / g dry weight when the metals were in a state mixed with other metals. And Sofyan Lubis (1986) concluded that metal chrom (Cr) can be absorbed by the water hyacinth is the maximum at pH 7. In his research, the original Cr metal yield up to 15 ppm down 51.85 percent. [7]

Besides can absorb heavy metals, water hyacinth is also reportedly capable of absorbing pesticide residues.

Thanks for the methane link too . If man power is not a problem water hyacinth is a good source for biogas too.

Because of its extremely high rate of development, Eichhornia crassipes is an excellent source of biomass. One hectare of standing crop can thus produce more than 70,000 m3 of biogas.[8] According to Curtis and Duke, one kg of dry matter can yield 370 liters of biogas, giving a heating value of 22,000 KJ/m3 (580 Btu/ft3) compared to pure methane (895 Btu/ft3)[9]
...
The high moisture content of water hyacinth, adding so much to handling costs, tends to limit commercial ventures.

If water hyacinth is used to clean the river or water source, it will contain the toxic from the river, I think it is best to use it as energy source instead as food or as handbag material.


However, it just occur to me that if water hyacinth collect poison from water, would it be safe to use it as bio energy source? where should we dump them. water hyacinth may move the water pollution elsewhere...