Day 31 still

Today, Stephany and Sally came at 10:30 and we checked the sukumo and changed straw, and packed everything up to take to Stephany's. 

We added 2 pints of hot water and about 3/4 cup of sake.

Then we loaded up the plastic garbage can full of rice hulls, straw, and sukumo, as well as 3 big plastic bags full of straw and the extra rice hulls, and carted it off to Stephany's, where it will live for at least the next few weeks. 

(The dark cloud at the top of the photo is Rich's finger.)

No problem driving to Forest Grove - the barrel stayed upright in the back of Stephany's truck. All good!

Stephany has a great warm place out in her yard - a little plastic greenhouse thing, so it should be fine.

More info to follow!

Day 31: Saturday July 29, 2023

I have not been keeping up here. I have at least been recording temperatures and paying attention to the sukumo.

So, to catch up....

On Day 21, which was Monday, July 18, I moved the sukumo outside and started the changing process. This time I moved the rice hulls from the bottom of the wooden barrel into the plastic garbage can, because I didn't do that when I first moved it into plastic. The rice hulls were completely dry. I kept the sukumo in the bag to knead it, and added 2 quarts of hot water. Then I put dry straw on top of the rice hulls, the bag of sukumo, more straw, weights, heavy plastic, the sheet, and the ceremonial cloth.

The temperature actually got up to 150 by 11:00 PM!

On Day 22, July 19, the temperature was hovering in the 140s. I moved it to the greenhouse, and it got up to 151, but as the day cooled down it dropped back to the high 140s.

Day 23, July 20 the temperature again got up to 150 in the mid afternoon, but then dropped to the 130s. I decided to try the heating pad, so around 8:00 pm I moved it back to the shop and we put the heating pad on top of the lower straw level, so it was just under the bag of sukumo. 

The next morning, Day 24, July 21, it wasn't getting hot enough - it was only hovering between high 130s and low 140s. Although that was the day I should have changed out the straw, I waited one more day to see if it would heat up more. But by the next day it had dropped to the 120s.

The heating pad was a failure because it didn't get hot enough. Anything designed to be touching the human body is not going to get up to 150 degrees. 

So, on Day 25, July 22, I changed out the straw, and kneaded the sukumo, adding 1 quart of hot water and 1 cup sake, to see if that would get things going again. I also tried adding a crock pot, thinking that would get hot enough, but not too hot because of the temperature controls on the thermometer. Again, I placed the crock pot just under the bag of sukumo.

By 3:40 PM the temperature was up to 167. I immediately removed the crock pot. It gets too hot, in spite of the temperature control being set to turn off at 150 degrees. This makes sense because even when it turns off, it doesn't cool down instantly, but keeps heating for awhile because of the heat build up. Lesson learned: anything that is intended to cook food will get too hot!

So, I tried to think what else would work, and decided to try the food dryer heater. I have one of those food dryers that has stacking trays, and then you set the unit with the heating element in it on top, and it has a fan that blows air and heat down through the trays. Brilliant idea. Not. The fan dries out the sukumo. I tried it for a couple hours and it didn't really do anything, so I removed it because of the fan. 

Day 26 it stayed in the 140s. 

Day 27 it was in the 130s.

Day 28, July 25, in the afternoon I changed out the straw. The straw was very wet. The sukumo was fairly dry. I added 3 pints of hot water. The temperature was 90 when I finished. 

Next morning, Day 29, July 26, it was at 138. By 5:30 pm it was up to 155. I removed the blanket and the plastic to keep it from heating too much. By 7:20 PM it was 157, and then by 11:00 PM it was 152.

Day 30, July 27, I put the plastic and blanket back on and since then it has been in the 130's.

Today we are moving it to Stephany's!

I'm thinking we will just need to leave it longer than the prescribed 60 days. Roland Ricketts does it on a larger scale, and he says 100 days. 

This is an interesting article but doesn't offer clues for the process we are using.

https://fibershed.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/production-of-indigo-dye-dec2017.pdf

Day 23 - Thursday July 20

 By 11:00 PM Tuesday night the temp was at 150!

Yesterday morning it was 144. I moved it outside to catch the full sun. At 9:15 it was still 144, so I moved it into the greenhouse. 

By 3:15 it was 151! Because it was in the 90's and very hot outside, I moved it out of the greenhouse and took the plastic covering off. At 7:30 pm it was 147 and I moved it back into the greenhouse.

At 9:00 pm it was 144 so I put an old comforter over it to keep it as warm as possible overnight.

This morning at 8:00 it is 137.

Since the goal is to keep it at 150 for 5-6 days straight, and then 145-150 for several more days, I think it is time for the heating pad. We'll do that this afternoon or evening, depending on how high it gets being in the greenhouse. 

The thermometer Stephany got can control the temperature. 

https://inkbird.com/products/temperature-controller-itc-308

The top number is the temperature reading, and the lower number is the setting. We'll plug the heating pad into the thermometer, and then set it at 150. It will turn the heating pad on and off based on the temperature reading from the probe stuck into the middle of the sukumo.

Day 21 - Tuesday July 18 We reach 148 degrees!

 After Saturdays' drastic measures, moving the sukumo from the wooden barrel to the plastic garbage can and adding hot water, the temperature rose rapidly to 145 by mid afternoon the next day, but then it started slowly dropping again. By 9:00 am this morning it was down to 129. 

For today's changeover, we completely emptied the plastic garbage can and moved the rice hulls from the wooden barrel into the plastic. The rice hulls were completely dry. 

I left the sukumo in the burlap bag again and kneaded it while in the bag. It was dry and compressed. 

Over the course of about a half hour I kneaded it, broke up the clumps, and added 2 quarts of hot water. 

then I put dry straw on top of the rice hulls, set the bag of sukumo on top of the straw with the thermometer probe tucked neatly inside, piled in more straw, but weights on it, put a huge plastic bag over it all, then put the sheet and the ceremonial cloth on stop and tied it down. 

Previously when finished the temperature has been in the 80s. Today it was 105 when I finished at 11:50 am.

By 12:43 pm the temp had risen to 128. We were gone for the afternoon, and when we got home at 5:17 pm it had gone down to 126. I made sure it was catching the full early evening sun, and went inside and had dinner and a Zoom meeting. We were planning to put a heating pad in with it, hooked up  to the thermometer to control the temperature. 

We went out at 8:36 to do that, and found this:

The highest temperature so far and only 2 degrees from our target. So no heating pad yet. We moved it inside and will check it again at 11:00. We won't put the heating pad on it tonight regardless, because we wouldn't be able to monitor it throughout the night, but will do so in the morning if the temperature has dropped. We need it to be at 145-150 for a good 10 days in order for the compost to work.

Stay tuned,

Drastic Measures: Day 18, Saturday July 15, 2023

After rising to 133 at 4:15 pm yesterday, the temperature again started falling, to 132 by 7:30 pm, and 131 by 10:00 pm.

This morning at 8:30 am it was down to 124, and by 2:00 it was at 120.

So....

I decided to move it into a plastic garbage can, just to see what happens. If it starts getting too hot, or if it doesn't do anything I'll put it back in the wooden barrel.

I put straw in the bottom of the plastic can. No rice hulls for now. Then I moved the bag of sukumo, added hot water, and mixed it around as much as I could. In spite of the water Stephany and I added on Wednesday, it was the most dry that I have seen it since we started this. Even after adding 2 spray bottles of water, there were STILL dry spots. So I mixed it around as best I could, stuck the thermometer in the middle, closed up the bag, and piled more straw and the weights on top of it.

105 degrees when I finished at 2:35 pm. And it is outside. The air temperature is 93, which is theoretically too hot. But I will watch it all very closely.

Just checked it again before I post this. 2:49 pm and it is 106 degrees. That's a 1 degree rise in 15 minutes. So it is rising, but not alarmingly fast, but hopefully will get up to the target 145-150. 

Again, I promise I will watch it closely!!!!

Day 17: Friday July 14

The temperature is up to 134 at 2:10 pm. Yay!!! 

Let's hope it's still rising!!! it needs to get up to 150.

Day 15: Wednesday July 12, 2023

 Well, the target temperature for today was between 145 and 150. This morning it was only at 120, 3 degrees cooler than it was at 9:00 last night.

Stephany came over and we did the changing of the straw and kneading of the sukumo. It is quite lovely - crumbly and dry this time. The bigger chunks just crumbled apart instead of having to be broken apart, and there were tiny hard chunks as well. So we decided it was finally time to add water, and we are hoping that the renewed moistness will help the temperature to go up.

We started at about 11:15 am. The temperature was still 120.

We worked on it for about an hour, spraying water periodically until it finally felt moist enough. Altogether we probably used between a pint and a quart of water. 

And then we carefully stuffed it all back in to the barrel 

and closed it up again at about 12:15 pm. Usually after the changing the temperature is in the low 80's. Today it was only 71.6, probably because we added the water. By 8:30 pm it was up to 76.1, so hopefully the temperature will continue to rise and will get up to where it is supposed to be. It is definitely composting, and the texture changes a little each time we open it up, so the temperature may not be something we need to worry about - it might just take longer? We shall see. 

The air temperature in the shop is staying between 70 and 85 or so when it was really hot outside, so that is right where it should be.

Day 12 - Sunday July 9

Started the change over process earlier today because I was concerned about the temperature. At 10:40 am the sukumo was 115 and the air temperature in the shop was 72.5.

It's possible we didn't have enough straw in there. The straw I pulled out was damp again, so again I chose to not add water. The sukumo was in bigger chunks than it was the last time - maybe from being weighted down. The big clumps were much easier to break up than the smaller chunks, so I think it is getting more dirt like rather than mud like. 

 

The process was much quicker today. 

I packed a bunch more straw in so the barrel was overflowing, and then I piled 2 of my heavy hypertufa pots on top of it.

As I closed it up at 11:15 am, the temperature was up to 87.4. 

Temperature worries

Since I changed the straw and mixed up the sukumo on Thursday, the temperature has been at about 137. This morning I just checked it and it has dropped to 116. The target for day 10, yesterday, was 140. Yesterday I put a bag of wool on top of it just to insulate it some more to see if it warmed up, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. 

Today is another changing/mixing day, so I'll do that earlier rather than later. The book suggests putting a heavy rock on top of the straw to weight it down more, during the plastic barrel stage, so I just replaced the bag of wool with a heavy stone flower pot to see if that raises the temperature in the next few hours.

Day 9 - July 6 2023 Thursday

 The temperature has been between 131 and 134 since Tuesday afternoon.

Opened the barrel at 3:30 PM today. The smell has faded, or maybe I'm just used to it. I changed out the straw which was very damp again, and worked with the sukumo to break up the lumps. Because of the lumps and the wetness of the straw, I decided against adding water again. Maybe on Sunday? It was definitely dryer today, and lovely bits of mold forming.

I was visited by a yellow jacket, a bumble bee, and a black soldier fly - all very interested in what I was doing!

Back in the barrel and closed it up by 4:45 pm. The temperature was 87.4 initially, and up to 101 by 9 pm. Air temperature in the shop has been in the low 80's all day - the highest it got was 83 in there. It was in the 90's outside. Tonight it is expected to drop down to the low 50's. The shop should hold the heat okay. 

Day 6 - Monday July 3 2023

 Sally and Les came to help! We opened the barrel at 12:30 PM. It smelled of sake - strong and sweet. The straw was much wetter than it had been of Day 3. 

The temperature before we opened the barrel was 129, and the air temperature in the shop was 77.

There were lots of clumps and a little mold starting to form. The book says the mold is a good thing. We opted to still not add water.

We finished at 1:20 and stuffed the dry straw back in on top. The air temperature had risen to 79 in the shop, and when it was all packed in and covered, the sukumo was 80.9 degrees. By 9:00 pm it was 97.8, and by 8:00 AM the next morning it was 137!

  

Day 3

Day 3 (48 hours after starting) is time to change the straw and take the sukumo out and knead it more and add water if necessary. I did not need to add water. The temperature when I first opened the barrel was 104°F. After the process it was down to 88.2°F. 

By 9:00 pm it was back up to 103°F.

The graph in the book shows that the temperature should be around 120°F on Day 4-5. We shall see.