Today was a great day for winter scenery. I am a fan of Maxfield Parrish so I always enjoy seeing the strong color contrasts provided by clear winter days. The opening picture was taken at noon. On the way to the mailbox, I had to walk under a birch tree. As I did so, the […]
In order to reduce feed costs we supplement commercially-made pellets with fermented whole grains. Here, in Fairbanks, it is hard to find commercial chicken food for less than $0.58 per pound. So, we buy whatever grains or seeds can be found for a better price and mix them together in a tote bin. Usually, it
Our luck ran out. The recent cold spell lasted long enough that I had to turn on the electric heater in the coop. The temperatures were in the -20s, with the coldest recorded temperature being -29F. The fresh air coming in through the pipe that coils inside the biomeiler is still reading 32-37F, but the
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The tire valve on the aeration hose jammed again. I considered solving the problem, but it was -25F, which was too cold for my motivation level. So, I gave up. After being indoors long enough for my brain to thaw, an idea came to me. I will replace the tire valve on the aeration hose
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This year begins with good news. The temperature readings in the biomeiler are, overall, rising. All but two of the thermocouples in the pile were reading 0.2 mV higher this evening than on 12/30/24. An increase of 0.2mV corresponds to approximately 9F degrees of temperature increase. Since the air temperatures dropped by 10F degrees
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This year, New Year’s Eve was celebrated with both manmade and natural fireworks. The aurora was unusually active and it was a clear night. I noticed it when I went out to do the evening chicken chores and informed Melissa and the offspring upon my return. They grabbed warm clothing and headed outside for a
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This morning, I began the aeration of the biomeiler. The temperature readings in the pile indicate that the interior is beginning to compost. The goal of aeration is to switch the composting to an aerobic process, rather than have it be completely anaerobic. For our purposes, the important difference between the two is in
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The latest temperature measurements of the biomeiler have had strange variations. The high temperatures were not so high that I couldn’t believe them, but they were higher than I expected. The rate of temperature change, however, was fast enough to trigger my suspicion. The thermocouple I was using for the reference junction had a plug
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Here in Fairbanks, the winter weather conditions are often just right for a phenomenon my uncle refers to as “lazy snow.” When one snowflake lands on another, some of the kinetic energy involved in the collision is converted to heat. If it is warm enough outside, that tiny amount of heat is sufficient to melt
Today was the shortest day of the year. In Fairbanks, sunrise was at 10:50 A.M. and sunset was at 2:46 P.M., giving us 3 hours and 56 minutes of daylight. Since the Sun moves in a low arc across the southern sky, there is a decent amount of twilight on either end. Today’s photo was