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/
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