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How to use your Estufa Finca

Jul 23, 2011

Photos: 27

Prototype for 55-gallon drum TLUD

On Saturday the 26th of March I took a pick-up truck full of scrap items and in a short afternoon I turned them into a 55-gallon drum TLUD style biochar kiln. I was inspired to build this by John Rodgers very nicely produced YouTube video. Like John I plan on building 3 more of these. On Monday the 28th I did the initial burn. I used a load of 1x,2x and 4x4's, which had been gathered in a nearby alley on Sat. It's Seattle so everything was still a bit damp on Monday, but as you can see this made a great batch of biochar in approximately one hour of burn time.

Mar 28, 2011

Photos: 24

The Farm Stove Pilot Project/ Proyecto Estufa Finca (Costa Rica) Part 3

On January 7th 2011, the Proyecto Estufa Finca team began work on the follow-up and field testing phase of this pilot project. A minimum of two weeks after the households have received their new stove, I return with the members of the UNA-IRET program. Our visits are often paired with lessons on personal hygiene, sanitation, safe food and water storage and recycling. The care and thoughtfulness brought to this task by these National University students and their faculty leader: M. Rocia Loria, is inspiring. The follow-up surveys overlaps two other important aspects of the project: the 18 meal Controlled Cooking Test and the volunteer participation of 22 students and advisers from De Pauw University. This group is brought to the area to work with us for 5 days, by Eco-Teach. The group is hosted by Arturo Segura, The Nubotropico Foundation and members of APORTES.

Jan 22, 2011

Photos: 89

Profile Photos

Album for profile photos

Jan 1, 2011

Photos: 1

The Farm Stove Pilot Project/ Proyecto Estufa Finca (Costa Rica) Part 2

On Saturday December 18th the Estufa Finca (Farm Stove) pilot project moved from the planning stage into the field. Working with the UNA researchers, the coffee farm owners, local and Seattle volunteers, we begin the process of finding and recruiting indigenous families to participate in this study. Our goal is to have at least 30 households signed-up, surveyed, trained and to have new stoves installed by the 1st of the year. From this pool we need at least three families that will agree to participate in a Controlled Cooking Test. This test compares an identical meal cooked three times on a traditional fire and three times on a Estufa Finca biochar cookstove. This will allow us to understand comparative fuel usage, cook times and convenience.

Dec 18, 2010

Photos: 126

The Farm Stove Pilot Project/ Proyecto Estufa Finca (Costa Rica)

I returned to Santa Maria de Doto on Saturday, the 27th of Nov. 2010. The area was still recovering from a series of magor tropical storms and late season rains, which had recently caused extensive landslides and flooding. I will be spending the next two months working with our local partners in a pilot project designed to test our "Estufa Finca" biochar-making stoves in a rigorously monitored in-field situation. We will be monitoring the installed stoves during the upcoming coffee harvest season. This work will be facilitated by graduate interns from the National University of Costa Rica program (UNA-IRET), which has extensive experience working with the mostly indigenous, migrant farm worker population, which we are targeting with the stoves.

Dec 5, 2010

Photos: 92

SeaChar/Nicaragua Biochar Development Project

Aug 29, 2009

Photos: 18

Aprovecho Research Center 2009 Summer Stove Camp

On August 2nd Laura Raymond, Scott Eaton and myself, had the good fortune to attend a week of training and networking, on the topic of clean-burning , fuel efficient biomass stoves. Scott Eaton was to leave in just a week to begin laying the ground work for our Nicaragua Biochar/ stove development project. This proved to be fantastic experience.