The month has been pretty slow as far as backhoe work, and the rush I put on last month during a dryer period was well timed and made a few critical additions to keep further possible flooding under control.
Mostly though this month has had more moderate rainfall,and the main work started was installation of a larger drain in the upper dam. At first it was quite piecemeal, with the pipe only half way through the dam. This allowed the pipe to be put in below the water level at the time and then digging out the couple feet that remained allowed the water to flow to the drain pipe.
With the water level brought down substantially by the 3 inch temporary drain, lower rainfall and continuous running of the existing 1 inch pipe drain got the water level down much further. Finally this week the top of the dam had dried enough to do a proper installation of the drain pipe at an even lower level. At present I need the pond to stay at least down to this level, but when all the excavation is completed there will be a stand pipe placed on the drain regulating the water level at whatever is desired.
January also saw the chipper back in action,and more work cleaning the back of the pond of debris is needed so more clean clay can be excavated for the dam wall. The wood chips will also come in handy for mulch projects.
The lower water level will dry out the access routes on both sides of the dam, but it is likely that regardless of rainfall, the final dam height will not be reached until July or August simply because of soil saturation and the time it will take to dry everything out really well.
The garlic is doing well in the garden, these new plants are a calculated upgrade to what had been planted in other years which I got from the local farmer’s market. the technique was simple, clean the soil, pulling really big taproots and wire grass. Then a layer of cardboard, punching a hole for each clove, setting them in place, and then covering them with about three to four inches of grass and leaves finely chopped with the lawnmower.
Other beds need some serious attention, grass invaded most of the strawberries, and the underground runners make it tough to weed, so very soon I will be going through making a hard choice of sacrificing everything to a deep cardboard/newspaper mulch, followed by pine needles, and new plants set in a handful of fresh soil within the pine needles. I may also opt for some drip lines under the mulch.
The small Koi I bought in the fall have done quite well inside this winter. I set up a separate solar panel and a couple batteries to keep a small filter going, and gradually I’m getting them to be a bit bolder coming up for food. The goal is to train them to take food from my hand.
This of course takes the idea of a Koi pond out of the realm of a possibility into the world of necessity. And the more I think about it, the more likely it will become an extension of the pond at the corner of the kitchen garden. But of course much bigger and fancier than the existing small pond.
It will eventually be fed from part of the house roof drain, so that should be one of the cleaner sources of water. And of course it will be much closer to the house, where I can keep my eye on it. It’s tough to think about herons bothering goldfish, but even more difficult to think about them eating an expensive Koi.
There are other changes planned for the spring, moving the banana plants away from the house, relocating a rose bush/clump that has taken over too much of the garden, along with a cherry tree that dove down into the soil there and to lift the pot it was in would likely kill the tree.
Swales to build, and trees to order and plant. I’m currently thinking about hundreds of whips,- willow, locust,plum, hawthorne, mulberry, and many others.
Down below the lower greenhouse is an area in front of a cut I made in the bank to get material for the middle pond. That area seems a likely place for a micro climate for the many figs I currently have in pots moving in and out of that greenhouse .
upper dam,
middle dam,
and contour pond. The pond just above the contour pond is really just a hole in the ground that doesn’t hold water, and i call it somewhat optimistically the ridge point pond. The very top pond is a potential gully dam , that may never actually be completed since it overlaps the property line and would require a joint cooperation .
note the new visions fry pan “door” to the batch box, The lid I was using had broken into two pieces possibly from rough handling, possibly the lids are not as thermally robust as the pans
These gasses that are further cooled start to sink to the bottom as they circulate. The “stack” entrance is below the bottom of the tank in back of the system, so the exhaust comes in contact with about 270 degrees of the surface of the tank, with some minor contact top and bottom. Note that this stack is actually a powered exhaust by a very cheap, low wattage (about 10)fan. This provides a more or less guaranteed exhaust even at startup, and the exhaust is so cool (around 100F) that more robust (and expensive) equipment is not needed.
Perhaps using insulated Fire brick at the port would get the port to temperature more quickly (it is currently standard , full fire brick), and adding ceramic fiber blanket over the stove top might also enhance the temperature build up by reducing convection and radiation losses there.
Note the opening to the left of the tank, exhaust gases travel counter clockwise around the tank once the insulated top is installed
Two water connections to the tank, hot through the upper pipe, cold through the pipe that exits the enclosure botom
I prefer to think of the junk you see as a parts depository, the stove pipe comes up in the center of a poured concrete 2′ wall from the basement, runs horizontally, then down to the ground
The wider area of the pipe after the angle pointing down houses a small fan,
Though it looks solid from the sides, there is actually quite a wide openiong for the exhaust to exit. This configuration keeps the fan dry, allows for a small amount of falling for the exhaust as it cools, and protects pretty well against strong wind
The tank enclosure has an insulated top and sides, with just enough room to circulate exhaust around and over the tank to transfer as much heat as possible to the water.
If it ain’t broke…. well, this was broke, out with the tarp, these first two roof sections are a bare beginning, with lots to do before they are in their final configuration, so you could say this is still temporary, but it definitely is moving toward a finished roof.
move the solar panels to the side ,slightly less power, but at least some continuity–these will be replaced with larger panels when this project is done.
new fascia board helps to stabilize rafters
When I look around from this vantage the trash really jumps out at me. But in that “mess” is water storage, structural elements, tools and actual garbage. I know, get busy!!
gone with the old and a new platform in it’s place 
note that I’m working here with wet clay in forms 
a mock up of the batchbox floor with secondary burn tube. This is the tube I took out of the old batch box, but the new dimensions doubled the size of the tube I had been using for secondary air supply–this may have been part of the problem with excess soot in the old unit 
Perlite and clay on the back and left side, refractory cement on the right (shared side with oven) . odd bricks and such inside and out are used as wedges to hold split firebrick liner in place as forms while the clay perlite mix is solidifying
Adding the top secondary burn chamber.
Picture of oven location
With the oven in place.
The final configuration with baffles to channel the heat 
No door on the oven yet, but since the inside of the oven is outside the combustion gas area it won’t stop me from doing a test run, here’s the top gaskets made of ceramic fiber 
and the first fire, a power vent replaces a draft, and the vent pipe was just comfortably warm outside after a half hour burn
view of secondary flame through top
views of firebox
At the top of the kitchen garden, this new pond is a salvage that I had to repair using plastic welding techniques. I tried to create a clay based pond 
in this place, but all last year it filled many times and never held water very long, even with lots of clay added to try and seal it. In general, I would never spend money on a Plastic prefabs, but when the price is low and I can repair it, the energy audit becomes much better! I’m also finding that for smaller ponds a liner of some sort is probably going to be the only way to go.
The water actually started to fill the pond from the bottom, and that water came in as a blue green color, 
but run off filled it most of the way, and that water was heavy with sediment 
then it took weeks of hand labor to get it the rest of the way to this height.
has never really held water yet, but it does show signs of improving it’s water retention. This may change over time with organic matter and better integration of the swale, but that requires completion of the Low Gully Dam.
that survived the winter at this water level (only a couple feet deep). This year they are over a foot long!
while it may not be obvious in the picture, the dam has been holding back the flood with a wall thickness of only 2 feet or less at the top
but as this picture shows, the added mass will more than double the width of the dam wall, and the actual compaction will also be much better.
Goldfish pond (not shown on plan), a bit murky after a rain
A close in snapshot of the gold fish pond. This was created when the driveway was put in about 15 years ago, and has boasted hundreds of fish, all descended from a few 38 cent babies from Walmart. There have also been crayfish, herons, and one huge snapping turtle that have all visited the pond at different points. Needless to say I try to discourage the heron(s) and snapping turtles with varying degrees of success.