Van Zante Biomass

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel. 

(Before you think to yourself "Wow!  That Amanda is REALLY intelligent!",  I should give credit to Wikipedia for the definition.  Keeping true to my own pet peeve of grammatical incorrections, I know I should have the definition in quotes and with the proper reference to Wikipedia, but that would have taken away from the initial impact of the fullness of my intelligence.  Whatever.

Also, is it me or are those two sentences very poorly punctuated?)

Anyway....

These past several days, Josh, with very much appreciated help from friends Kevin and Miles, worked to accumulate our own full winter's source of biomass.  We have an outdoor wood burning furnace that uses hot water to heat the house.  This will be the third winter we've used it. In addition to burning wood, the furnace also can burn paper, sawdust, corn, cornstalks, wood pellets... among other "stuff".   Our choice of addition to the furnace is cornstalks.  We could just use wood, but the addition of the cornstalks makes the wood last longer and the fire burn hotter.  Plus, after the corn is combined and the needed amount of stalks are baled for livestock bedding, the rest of stalks just lay decaying in the field. Why not harvest them and have a supply of basically free heat for those bitterly cold winter days? 

And, like I said, these past few days was the time to gather this year's biomass... better known to the average Iowan as corn stalk bales.



There's the Beast... 




...and there's the fire within.  The furnace works by having a fire in the very middle of the furnace.  Around the outside of the inner fiery core is a water tank.  The water in the tank is heated and the hot water is run through underground pipes to the house.  The hot water is run through a radiator coil thingy additional  on our traditional furnace in the basement, so that when the furnace fan blows air over the radiator coil the air is heated when it comes into our home.  I am so grateful for the blessing of this setup!  We have a rather large, old farmhouse... and with old farmhouses comes the cracks in the nooks and crannies (especially around windows!) that let in little whiffs of air.  Though we've done a lot of work to remedy as much of the whiffs as possible, it can still get pretty chilly in the house.  By being able to burn wood and cornstalks (basically free),  I can crank the heat as high as it takes to make the kids comfortable without the accompanying guilty feeling of burning up  LP (NOT basically free!). 

 The First Day:


The kids and I didn't join the crew on the first day of baling until afternoon coffee time.  Caleb was full of energy and couldn't wait to use his muscles.




He soon realized that the bales were a little heavy for him and that playing on the rack would be so much more fun!



I can just imagine what's going through  Josh's head:  "Hmmm... I wonder how much longer 'til he can help?"
(Actually, he was pretty concerned about Caleb and was making him get down.  If I remember the quote accurately, he said  "The last thing I need to do today is make a trip to the emergency room.  I want to get this job done."  )



Back to work after the coffee time break.

Day Two:



The kids and I had quite a bit of yard work to do before we could join Josh in the field on the second day.  (That was the day we planted all the bulbs and then we had to water all the new trees and bushes.)  While we worked in the yard, we could see Josh baling full force ahead on top of the hill.  Caleb couldn't hardly wait to get out there!  Watching Daddy work and not being able to be there was just a big tease to him, but he did a good job being patient!




After we got all the planting and watering done, the words "Okay, let's take Daddy coffee time!" were barely out of my mouth before the kids took off for the Jeep. 




Really, Caleb...must you hang on?  I'm not THAT bad of a driver!  ;-)




Finishing up...




...under the scrutiny of the kids.  See how Caleb has his hands on his waist?  Sarah Rose watches Caleb very closely to do whatever Big Brother Caleb does.  And this is no exception.  She studied Caleb pretty hard so she could get her hands just right on her waist and was SO proud when she did it!  Cute :-)
(That long white thing in the background is the bag of corn stover that was already harvested from other fields and that I already posted about.)





After coffee time, it was time for the kids and I to help.  We drove the truck pulling the hay rack through the fields so Josh could throw on the bales.  In this picture, the kids are standing in the seat looking out the back window at Josh walking back and forth  between rows picking up and throwing the bales.  Sarah Rose was rather impressed when Josh would throw them high; I heard her say "WOW!" on more than one occasion!




Josh stacking bales.




It wasn't long before Caleb started getting bored.  After fidgeting with all the radio buttons and every gadget/tool/spare and/or random part that Josh and Loren had in the truck cab at the time, I figured it was time to put him behind the wheel.  While I still operated the gas, he steered completely on his own... and did a pretty good job at it, too!  Of course, the job was just to keep the truck going strait, but still!



Of course, what Caleb does so must Sarah Rose.  She had quite a bit more help, although I couldn't let her see me secreting steering.  She thought she was big stuff!



Next was a game of "Guess which hand its in".  They had found a rock or something that actually kept them entertained for all of five minutes.




My kids are very antsy, they don't sit sill for very long.  One would think that having a nice cushiony seat would be something to be appreciative of... but not these youngsters!  When they weren't  standing on the seat looking out the windows, they were standing in the floorboards.  While there are times that I just wish they would settle down and be mellow for just a few minutes, I am eternally grateful that they are healthy and full of energy!



Before too long, Friend Miles showed up to help throw bales on.  Take a look in the side mirror.  You can see that Caleb's taking in all the action of Miles throwing the bales high!



And then the kids started making animal noises out the window to Miles.   Not sure exactly what this game was all about, but Miles answered back so they kept playing!




What goes on the rack must come off.  And into what we refer to as "the old barn" to keep dry throughout the winter... wet cornstalks burn just about as good as wet wood.




Despite the mega dust cloud in the air, the kids had a ball sitting on top of the already stacked bales in the barn watching the guys finish stacking.




Who knew an empty rack could be so much fun!  After this job was the rodeo and left pile I previously posted about.  By the end of the afternoon, both kids were in serious need of a good scrubbing!  Don't you think it would be just grand to be two and four years old again?




And there's Caleb with his hands on his waist again (inspecting something, I'm sure)  and Sarah Rose with her pigtails flying!

 The first day was a Friday, the second day was Saturday.  Sunday's are a day of rest.  Monday afternoon, Josh and I were back at it.  Josh finished picking up the bales as I drove the tractor through the fields and then I threw them off as he stacked them in the barn.  We picked up and stacked 190 on Monday and (as a Facebook status read) I discovered that 190 bales is my limit for the day for throwing.  The first 150 or so was a cinch because I was just "tossing" them a few feet, but then we had to move to another section of the barn and I threw them several feet farther back so Josh wouldn't have to walk as far to retrieve them.  That wore me out.  But all in all, for all three days, we ended up with about 470 bales.  Yep, we'll be good and warm this winter!

We are very thankful to our friends and neighbors Miles and Kevin for not only lending time to help, but also for the use of their square baler.  A big THANK YOU!!!! to you both for everything!


I helped until about 4:30 Monday (until we were finished) and then headed in to clean up and make Caleb's preschool snack for the next day (he was "Star of the Day", thus the snack  and show-and-tell provider).  We had decided on a treat earlier the previous week, one in which he was going to help.  But the play date to Grandma's house that allowed me to help Josh all afternoon also took my kitchen helper away.  So I was left in solitude in the kitchen, just me and one of my favorite cd's, making a special double batch of rice crispy treats:

When you have a mother that's a baker, you can't just take any ol' prepackaged snack to your snack day! 



Nor any ol' rice crispy treat!  It's gotta have pizazz!

The kids eventually came home, I got them bathed and in bed (on time even!) and that was the end of our very busy three days in the biomass industry.  But we can't end this post of memories without a message from one of our cutest sponsors:  



Thanks for visiting...and y'all come back real soon, ya hear?