Categories
At the Mill Buckthorn Wood Kiln

Simple DIY Dehumidifier Wood Kiln – Part 2 – Does it work in below 0 weather? Finished Buckthorn

Part 2 of my wood kiln tour and my adventures in woodworking with common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). The weather didn’t cooperate with this video, it has been below zero every day for almost two weeks now. The upside was that I got to stress test the DIY dehumidifier wood kiln I made, and I learned a lot about its capabilities.

I also finished drying the buckthorn I milled and ran it through my jointer…WOW! This stuff is very gorgeous, and it has many characteristics in its grain and structure that I have never seen before. I compared it to quartersawn Cherry and flat sawn Black Walnut. Take a look! I think I will make a separate video on the highlights of the buckthorn milling and finishing process.

Related Videos: Part 1 of DIY Wood Kiln Tour and Buckthorn Drying – https://youtu.be/lP5vhE7SXF4

Harvesting and Milling the Buckthorn – https://youtu.be/anzKsypOS-U

Thanks for watching!

driftlessinwi

Categories
Hydroponics

How to Propagate Strawberries in a Basement Hydroponic System

Can you grow strawberries in a hydroponic system at home?

Yes! They are growing like weeds! I guess this is a good thing…seriously though, I found a neat way to propagate strawberries easily in a hydroponic system. I have a NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) system in my basement where I grow vegetables and now strawberries. This setup seems to work great so far. I plan to post a follow-up video once these get further along. I may even use this method to grow starters for planting outside in the Spring.

My kids are going to be so excited to pick all these strawberries, which will be good because I am probably going to need a lot of help!

If you build a basement hydroponic system, all the money you save on building a greenhouse can be used to buy a nice set of lights for your system…I use these: Lights for Basement Hydroponic System – driftlessinwi

Full List of Things You Need to Build a Hanging Basement Hydroponic System:

  • 4 ten foot long PVC pipes that are 4″ in diameter
  • 1 four foot long PVC pipe, 4″ in diameter (for cutting stub pieces between the elbows)
  • 4 to 5 five 2×4’s
  • Some 3″ long wood screws
  • I made a simple to use list on Amazon where the rest of the items can be found and purchased easily: Items Needed for Basement Hydroponics System
  • Larger items like the garbage can and even the rubber PVC elbows, are probably cheaper to buy at a big box store if you are going there anyway so be sure to check pricing first

driftlessinwi

Categories
Hydroponics

Basement Hydroponic System

Hanging Basement Hydroponic System

After trying several different ways of growing with a hydroponic system, I found a simple, fairly inexpensive, way of growing in your basement. No need for a greenhouse and you don’t even need to build a stand or structure for the system to rest on, it hangs from the joists in your basement.

This hanging hydroponic system is easy to disassemble and move if needed, and because it is off of the floor, it is easy to clean under and you don’t need to worry about basement flooding issues or risk wood rotting that is touching the floor.

All the money you save on building a greenhouse can be used to buy a nice set of lights for your system…I use these (Amazon link): Lights for Basement Hydroponic System – driftlessinwi

Full List of Things You Need:

  • 4 ten foot long PVC pipes that are 4″ in diameter
  • 1 four foot long PVC pipe, 4″ in diameter (for cutting stub pieces between the elbows)
  • 4 to 5 five 2×4’s
  • Some 3″ long wood screws
  • I made a simple to use list on Amazon where the rest of the items can be found and purchased easily: Items Needed for Basement Hydroponics System
  • Larger items like the garbage can and even the rubber PVC elbows, are probably cheaper to buy at a big box store if you are going there anyway so be sure to check pricing first

I don’t consider myself a greenthumb and thankfully this system is pretty idiot proof, so don’t be too intimidated by trying to build it.

One of the best things about this system is that it is weather proof, even on the coldest days in Wisconsin. Few things are better than fresh salads from the basement in the winter!

driftlessinwi

Categories
Case FarmAll 75C Fabricating Fun Prototyping

Modifying a Case FarmAll 75C to Use Skid Steer Attachments

I really want to use my skid steer attachments on the back of my Case FarmAll 75C utility tractor. I have had this desire to give my tractor a skidsteer mullet (tractor up front, skid steer in the back) ever since I bought it, in particular I really really want to use my 4 in 1 bucket on the tractor. The 4 in 1 bucket is a perfect attachment for the back of the tractor.

The limited range of motion of a 3-point hitch make the 4 in 1 a good fit because it can pick up loads and dump them without needing to fully tilt forward. In addition, the bucket will act as ballast, a carry all, dozer blade, box blade, post puller, tree puller and more.

This modification wasn’t as easy as I had hoped and I still need to make some tweaks. The 3 pt to universal quick tach adapter has some limitations and needs a good range of motion on your hydraulic top link. I had to fabricate an extension to the adapter to help tilt the hitch more towards the back. This is part 1 of a two-part series on upgrading my 75C to handle skid steer attachments.

Check out the video on YouTube and please support my channel with a subscribe or a like. Thanks!

driftlessinwi

Categories
At the Mill Buckthorn Forestry Sawmilling

Can you mill buckthorn? Harvesting and Milling a Large Buckthorn Tree

You may have wondered, “can you mill buckthorn?” Or, maybe, “is buckthorn wood good for anything?” Common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), or European buckthorn, as it is also known is a a highly invasive plant that grows all over my woods. There are a few places in the woods where this stuff has grown to over 10 inches in diameter. I looked all over for other examples of people milling buckthorn for wood working but couldn’t find a video so I thought I would make this. Includes a few shots of doing atv logging. I made a follow up video on this to show how well buckthorn dries and finishes – Energy Efficient DIY Wood Kiln – Buckthorn Drying

Tell me if you think milling buckthorn is worth it in the comments on the YouTube video! Enjoy, and please subscribe! 🙂

Categories
Gehl RT210 Goats Long Term Review Machine Reviews

Titan HD Tree Shear Review

I have used this Titan HD tree shear for over 3 years now, mainly to clear large buckthorn and honeysuckle in my woods. It has held up great and makes clearing large buckthorn much easier and safer than using a chainsaw. Some additional benefits of a tree shear are: Cut large debris into more manageable sizes for collecting and burning, much easier on the hydraulic system of your machine, and no high flow is needed.

I would highly recommend this for a skid steer, but I am neutral on using it on a tractor…unless you have huge auxiliary pump capacity on your tractor, cycle times will be pretty slow. More importantly, unless your tractor has a forestry protection kit on it, I think it is only a matter of time before you damage something on your tractor when using this.

Where a forestry mulcher is a hammer, this is a scalpel. This is a much cheaper alternative to buying a forestry mulcher and it is much cheaper to operate.

One could use this for limbing trees, but the lack of hydraulic tilt makes it difficult and clunky to use for that purpose.

As always, if you found this review useful and would to see more in the future please Subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Categories
JD 60" Snow Thrower John Deere John Deere 1585 Long Term Review Machine Reviews

How to Change Attachments on the John Deere 1500 Series (applies to the 1400 Series too)

Winter is coming! After a video showing how the JD 1585 broom works, I wanted to change over to the JD 60″ snow thrower to show how easy it is to do, and because we are expecting a big winter storm with over 7 inches of snow. Changing attachments on the 1585 is not nearly as easy as it should be. John Deere could make a lot of improvements to help smooth the process. To see how I do it check out the video and please like and leave a comment if you have any tips you use. The process is probably the same on all the front mount John Deere mowers in the 1400 and 1500 series ranges.

Also, take note of a problem when I test out how things are functioning…it comes back to bite me when the snow finally arrives. Check out the follow-up video to see how this performed clearing snow, spoiler alert: it doesn’t do that well, but the reason is complicated. Check out the other video to see more.

Categories
JD 60" Snow Thrower John Deere John Deere 1585 Snow Removal

Snow Plowing with a Broken John Deere 60″ Snow Thrower on a JD 1585

I recently made a video of using the JD broom to plow snow and followed it up with another video that had me showing how to change attachments, from the broom to the 60″ snow thrower in preparation for a snow storm that was coming. In this video I used the thrower to handle the slightly deeper snow, between 4-5″. I realized when doing a drone shot that the thrower wasn’t working right and only have the auger was spinning. Take a look and see what is wrong with my snow thrower. Luckily I still had my broom to save the day!

I will be adding another video follow-up with some shots of the broom in deep snow to show how it handles it.

Thanks for watching and consider subscribing to my channel on YouTube!

Categories
John Deere John Deere 1585 Snow Removal

Snow Plowing with the John Deere Broom on the JD 1585

Showing how the JD broom handles deeper snow using my John Deere 1500 series front mount tractor (JD 1585). We received between 4-5 inches of snow and my thrower was broken, so I had to take out the broom to clear the driveway. 4 inches of snowfall is about the max of what the broom can handle in most situations because where you have drifts, and in places like the end of one’s driveway, the snow can be much deeper than the snowfall amount.

When you have more snowfall, you have to take light passes and go over multiple times. Take a look at how well it does, or doesn’t do. Let me know what you think in the comments. I will be getting the thrower out whenever we get a big snowfall again to test if the fixes I performed on it actually worked.

Consider subscribing on YouTube if you like the content and the channel. Thanks!

Categories
Cows Farming Gehl RT105 Initial Impressions Machine Reviews

2019 Gehl RT105 – Super Compact Track Loader

A quick overview and demonstration of one of the world’s smallest compact track loaders (CTL), the Gehl RT105. I bought this skid steer because I can tow it behind my half ton RAM 1500, and because it goes where my Gehl RT210 can’t. Don’t let its small size fool you, it still has a tipping load of 3000lbs and weighs in at under 5000lbs. In this video I use it to feed the cows a large square bale (800 lbs) and then put on the 4 in 1 bucket from CID attachments to clean out the cow barn. Pretty nice little setup, but man is it noisy!

I will be doing a more thorough review of the machine in another video, this was just a quick video to show how it performs in the real world.

If you like my videos, consider subscribing. I try to keep my content family friendly, clean, educational, and concise so you are not wasting your time. Enjoy!