Episode-2088- Lessons and Planning from the first 3/4s of 2017
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The Timber Frame Pond – AKA “Miyagi Pond” is the Nine Mile Farm Home Run of 2017
Here are Nine Mile Farm we have pretty much settled into our selected systems on a lot of things at this point almost 5 years into the journey. Our ducks run on a clock work like system, feeding, paddock shifting, egg collection, etc are all quite fine tuned at this point.
The trees require very little maintenance and most of our desired infrastructure is now installed. Still we are constantly trying and testing out new things. This year we have found some really great gems of knowledge and we have also come up with some quite refined plans for our future.
A lot of the new stuff is going to be built in winter, because here in north Texas that is the most pleasant time of year for construction work and out door projects. Today I am going to do an old school sort of “chat with Jack” episode on what has worked well this year and where we are taking that knowledge to in the future.
Join Me Today to Discuss….
- The aviary and aquaponics system has become a great asset in need of tweaking
- The timber frame pond (Miyagi) is the most trouble free aquatic system I’ve built
- Thai water spinach is an amazing and delicious plant
- Peppers do fantastic at 60% shade here in Texas anyway
- Tomato blight continues to be the bane of my existence
- Elevated ponds and gardens are the way forward due to the ducks
- Our in ground pond is pretty much a disaster, we may have to nuke it
- Bluegill and other sunfish are about the most trouble free and economically viable protein here in Texas
- Bullheads do not seem to be a good aquaponics option
- A Steven Harris Battery Bank and a cooler make a great live well
- Plans for this winter
- Build a bigger, better Miyagi
- Grow out koi for the Miyagi’s
- Develop a large wicking bed system that is 100% duck proof
- Design a planting plan for the new and old systems
- Meat chicken run in 2018, no new ducks this time
- Take another go at the orchard that failed
- Duck Free Zones and an Outdoor Kitchen
- Look to simplify systems and automate everything
- Final thoughts
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- Join Our Forum
- The Year 59
- Walking To Freedom
- TSP Gear
- TspAz.com – support TSP when you shop on Online
- Grandaddy’s Gun Club
- Bullhead Fishing Information
- The Lodge Cast Iron Wok – Item of the Day
- GunWerks – Youtuber of the Day
- There Was a Time – Tom Fogerty
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Dear Jack,
I’m somewhat saddened that you ignored talking about the Land Institute’s Prairie Festival in Salina, Kansas from Sept 22 to Sept 24. There work on perennial crops would have been of interest to your permaculture followers.
It saddens me that you would waste this opportunity to support Dr. wes Jackson.
You know I wake up every morning and the first thought I have is, “I really hope I don’t do something that saddens or disappoints Joseph DuPont”.
That is my main goal in life, and my entire business is dedicated to fulfilling that mission alone.
Seriously I don’t get the tone of your comment at all, how the hell did I “ignore” it? To ignore something you have to know about it. Perhaps you emailed me and think I have a folder called “Joseph DuPont’s Special Snowflake Folder” that gets top priority over my 9,000 other emails a week. 9,000 a week is not an exaggeration by the way.
Seriously WTF are you acting out like this for?
I have sent you notes about this and the kid you said was going to revolutionize the algae oil business.. I going out to the land institute on a mission and maybe,just maybe before it is too late to donate a few minutes to what they are doing. Maybe you ask you expert counsel to go to landinstitute.org..And I guess my question to them would be .. is this organization worth of Jack Spirko’s times.
You also never dealt the the fact that pot belly pigs were never meant to eat. The raise them for their fat as the fat has a special taste for cooking ask Chef. what ever.
I think you slipped and hit your head recently or something. I have no idea what you are on about when it comes to the pigs by the way, but yea they are a meat animal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_Pot-bellied
Dear Jack Spirko,
I’m truly offended that you did not take time to talk about the shiner rock that the kid who lives down the street found the other day. I’m not really sure if it that much shinier then mist rocky but he’s a good kid and you’re a real jerk for not talking about his rock.
Also, I’m a bit peeved that you haven’t mentioned that cabbage is a good methane initiator. Could you please ask the expert council to explain why you are such a doodoo head?
David S
ROFL
EL OH EL
Real WTF moment hey Dixie? How goes your travels, sorry we won’t be seeing you at Nine Mile Farm this workshop.
I wonder on that Miyagi Pond, if you double the length to 16 feet. You may need a center support of some sort. I am not an engineer and do not know how much weight the water places against the structure.
Those above ground pools hold a lot more water and they do not have a heavy structure. Maybe it is not a problem.
I haven’t finished listening to this whole episode yet…but i have been thinking about the larger Miyagi’s. The most efficient way to build one, material wise, strength wise, and volume wise would be a circle. this is why pools are circles, right? Since wood doesn’t come in curved beams, they should be made with as many equal length sides as reasonable. This would also make better use of the liner (although i don’t know what sizes they come in) and will make the ‘folding’ of the corners easier.
Also, pressure on the sides is determined by the depth of the water. the lower rails will take the most pressure while the top will take none at all (unless they are tied to the lower ones thereby helping them with the load). One could possibly be more efficient with materials by using larger beams on the bottom and smaller ones towards the top.
I could run some calculations on this if i can find some good data on wood ( i work in metal). my guess is that the corners, no matter how many sides, are the weak point.
Well you have me thinking a great deal right now! Forming an octogon from timbers would basically double the water capacity much more easily and as you say be more efficient and easier to manage lining. The top rails would need a bit better carpentry work on making nice miters and I suck at that but have plenty of friends that do not.
The only issue is it would change the layout design for the full system with surrounding wicking beds. When I get home I am going to stake it out and consider it. It may result in two of them.
Thinking deeper on this…near positive the corners are the weak point. Specifically I think failure will be the wood splitting at the nail or whatever is used. I think I would use 3/8″ galvanized conduit as a pin through drilled beams to make sure the pressure was evenly distributed through the whole board. The more corners there are the more the load is rotated to be inline with the grain of the wood, increasing its resistance to splitting. Would be good to shellac the cut ends or something to keep them from degrading.
Another thought, the intermediate beams that do not go all the way to the corner don’t really serve a purpose other than to keep the liner from bulging out. It looks good, but the structural benefit is nil. The lumber cost could be significantly reduced if one could replace this with something else, not sure what though.
Cedar fence boards. I bet that cuts lumber cost by 40%. Should look cool too.
On the new one I’d use landscape timbers. The old one was a converted base that originally was to be a platform for a water catch tank. The only reason it was 4x4s is sometimes you given an intern your credit card and instructions and all they see is your credit card and they buy what they think you need.
Timbers last for damn near ever and only cost 4 bucks each.
I thought landscape timers was a regional term…googled it, that’s a great deal! Can’t get them in the northwest (at least that i can find, HD doesn’t carry them), best we have is PT 4x4s for $8-9ea. I can get Doug Fir 8′ peeler cores for $1-2 4-8″ diameter, but they are not treated or milled flat. So the material is here, just not the end product.
Last thought, I am sure you will be talking about these Miyagi’s in the future. Might consider mentioning child safety around them. My 2.5 year old runs free on our property so its something I always consider, but everybody else does not necessarily think that way.
Jack, you mentioned in the episode that there were videos on this pond. Do you have links to them?
Jason F, I too am in the PNW and have found landscape timbers at Lowe’s, Home Despot only carries them East of the Rockies. My understanding is that they aren’t pressure treated but only sprayed, so their longevity in the PNW would not be very long.