THE OWNER BUILT HOME & HOMESTEAD
(Page 7 of 13)
September/October 1972
By Ken Kern
Ensiling sod crops requires much more equipment and expensive storage facilities, though the storage size can be reduced considerably. Loose hay takes four times and baled hay two times as much space as an equivalent amount of dry matter in silage. Silage is not a new process: the Romans knew that crops could be preserved by excluding air. As chopped sod crops are placed in airtight silos, air is driven out by the settling and compaction of the crop. Fermentation takes place as oxygen is replaced by carbon dioxide. Natural carbohydrates are reduced to acids (lactic and acetic) by microbial action. After the oxygen is eliminated silage will keep almost indefinitely. For this reason it is important to force all air pockets out as the silo becomes filled.
RELATED CONTENT
Trench silos are the latest development in sod crop preservation. In many cases they may prove advantageous to the homesteader, so some of the improved designs are presented here.
A final understanding of sod cropping can be gained from a thorough study of the chart with this section.
THE OWNER-BUILT HOME, VOLUME 3, CHAPTER 9
DO-IT-YOURSELF PAINTING
If nothing else is learned from studying the series of chapters in this volume, it is hoped that the amateur home builder will at least be in position to ridicule the main slogan of the organized trades: "Relax-let an expert do it." We should not think of an expert builder as a special kind of man. We should rather think of every man as a special kind of builder, planning and working, perhaps with his wife, to meet the unique needs of the growing family. A certain romance surrounds the home building efforts of a congenial and loving husband-wife team.
It must be confessed that, from correspondence here, it appears that many amateur building attempts met with dismal failure; the owner-builder suffered a major disability owing to careless accident; or he was sidetracked by divorce arising from strained family relations; or he grew weary of well-doing, and relinquished his builder role to the ever-ready vulture-like subcontractor.
Such owner-builder experiences appear tragic to outsiders and humorous to those inside the building field. Yet any amateur building experience is the growing edge of the fundamental relationship among builder, tools, materials, and home that makes a man a man, homus faber. The successful amateur builders do not send woeful letters here; they build. Those of us who have had experience within the fold of the "expert" building industry realize that the only expertise offered is what stems from the grasping of as much monetary return as the traffic will bear. The commercial builder is not, of course, a bad man at heart; but, in addition to the profit motive, he is encumbered with tedious distractions and involvements; unfair competition, unions, estimates, insurance, loans, taxes, contracts, licenses, permits, office overhead, memberships, and dues. But these are only the surface requirements that have to be met before the contractor can start a project: The really vicious aspects of conventional building construction are far more subtle-especially as the building specialists themselves are seldom aware of the corruptions within their own field. This general observation can best be illustrated, perhaps, by a brief historical account of the painting art in reference to building.
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