Garden Notes: September 2025

  Rainfall

• 4th: 0.07"
• 6th: 0.33"
• 16th: 0.11"
• 20th: 0.36"
• 25th: 1.34"
• 26th: 0.03
• 27th: 1.0"
• 29th: 0.15"
• Total: 3.39 inches

 Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 51 to 69°F (10.5 to 20.5°C)
• range of daytime highs: 71 to 87°F (22 to 30.5°C)

Garden Notes: It's been a transition month:

• Finishing the harvest for some things
• Seed saving
• Cleaning out beds for either fall planting or their winter rest
• Planting fall and winter veggies
• Starting containers of same to transfer into the greenhouse when the weather is colder. 
• Watering as needed because rain has been scant

Planted

• parsnips
• kale
• blue collards
• garlic
• lettuce
• turnips
• daikon
• carrots

Harvested

• okra
• yam berries
• sweet basil
• parsley
• muscadines
• cherry tomatoes
• onions
• green beans
• green peppers
• elderberries
• slicing tomatoes
• garlic
• field corn
• asparagus
• lettuce

Preserved

• muscadines, frozen
• elderberries, frozen
• okra, frozen
• basil, dehydrated
• parsley, dehydrated
• field corn, dried
• green beans & yam berries, canned

Pictures

Summer tomatoes making a come-back after a hot dry spell.

Summer green beans. They were late producing but are doing well now.

Spring planted Swiss chard. Something ravaged it over the
summer so that I thought it was completely destroyed. But
with the cooler temps and recent rain, it's thriving again.

Greenhouse collards planted about a year ago. These survived much
 neglect over the summer, but survived in a shady spot under a tree.

Late summer planted lettuce

Late summer planted daikon

Late summer planted kale

And a few non-garden pics. 

Lots of eggs! Mostly chicken with a few duck eggs. The little
 ones are pullet eggs from our newly laying Buff Orpingtons.

Brownie sundae with homemade goats milk ice cream.

So that's my garden at the end of September. How is yours?

Garden Notes: September 2025 © Sept 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Test Fire for the Smoke By-pass & Stove Improvement #3

We had a test fire the other day to see if our smoke by-pass worked. Success! It's going to take some figuring out in terms of judging when the thermal mass is heated enough to close it, but that will have to wait. It's still too warm outside to heat the house more than it already is. But by opening and closing the damper we could make some assessments.

One of those assessments were a few smoke leaks in the mortar between the bricks. We noted these last year but waited to figure out what to do. One option was to repoint the brickwork, which involves touching up the mortar between all of the bricks. Dan wasn't too keen on this. The other option was to plaster the entire stove. This would deal with any small leaks and also give the stove an entirely different look.

We considered covering the brickwork with mortar last year, but I liked the look of the brick so we left it. Experience has an amazing way of changing one's mind, however. 

Here's the stuff Dan is using.

Structo-Lite. Dan found it at Ace Hardware for about $26 for 50#.

Structo-Lite contains gypsum plaster and perlite, has good insulation value, and is suitable for high heat applications. 

It dries to an off-white. Coloring is available to mix in, but I thought off-white was a nice neutral color that will go well with any color scheme. 

To get a cleaner edge on the corners, Dan found this trick on youtube.

His brickwork wasn't as even on the corners as he'd like, so the mesh pretty much evens them more consistently for plastering. 

So that's what's up at the moment. Two coats are recommended, and then we can have a second test fire. 

Test Fire for the Smoke By-pass & Stove Improvement #3 

 © 2025 by Leighat https://www.5acresandadream.com

Masonry Stove Improvements: Clean-Out Door

I'll start this post by saying we've just been plugging away here. I'm still busy with the garden and cheese making. Dan has been busy on the stove. After installing the smoke by-pass, his next step was to put in a clean-out door. So at last I have something to show you.  

The clean-out door is a necessity for removing any ash or residue inside the stove. Last year when we designed the layout, we decided to put the clean-out in the back of the stove, which is part of the wall in the front bedroom. 

Originally, the house had double back-to-back fireplaces. This is where it was in the front
 bedroom (now my big loom room). Photos of the original bedroom and fireplace here.

Dan tore the entire bedroom wall out last summer. We wanted to remove the combustible tongue-and-groove wall and also remodel the closet.

To get a good look inside the stove, Dan cut a nice size hole in the bricks. 

What you see inside the stove is the core (firebox). 

Based on efficiency, we had a feeling one of the bricks had fallen off the and sure enough, it had. Dan had enough room to repair the brick and vacuum out the thermal mass. 

Most clean-out doors measure about 8-inches by 8-inches. I suppose that's adequate for sweeping out ash, but for our stove design, we were glad to find one measuring 12-inches by 12-inches. Plenty good for inspecting the inside and using the shop vac to clean it out. 

Door frame in place

Door done. 

We found it on Amazon, the link is here.

So that's done! Dan has one more improvement he wants to make, so more on that sometime. First fire is usually mid-October, so we'll be ready. 

Masonry Stove Improvements: Clean-Out Door 

 © 2025 by Leighat https://www.5acresandadream.com

Masonry Stove Improvements: Smoke By-pass

Last summer, Dan built a masonry stove to replace our cast iron wood heater.

Masonry stoves are based on ancient
technology and are amazingly efficient.

The gist of how it works is that the firebox is located in a large, empty space called a thermal mass. The thermal mass retains and radiates heat long after the fire goes out. 

Last winter, we used it and loved how long it kept the house warm between fires. The downside is that it tends to be a bit smokey with a cold start. Until the mass warms up enough to create a good draft, smoke comes out every time the door is opened, or through any leaks in the masonry. There are tricks for dealing with this (Tests and Tweaks), and usually, people only have trouble at the beginning of the season. For us, however, in our goofy southern climate, there are times when we don't need the stove and let it go out. In a typical winter here, we might restart the stove several times, especially in spring. 

Last month, Dan added a smoke by-pass to use when the stove is started up. The by-pass offers a direct outlet for the smoke created when starting a fire. Once the stove heats up and the draft is good, the by-pass damper is closed and the thermal mass can build up heat. 

Here's what Dan did in pictures.

The first step was to take down the existing chimney pipe. He
cleans the chimney once a year anyway, so that got done too.

Installing the damper required drilling a 6-inch hole in the top of the
 stove. For that, we had to get a 6-inch diamond masonry drill bit.

The damper had to be modified to be a by-pass. This is because a typical damper plate has openings in it. We needed to seal these so that there would be no heat leaks when the damper was closed. To block the openings, Dan added a disc of ceramic fiber blanket. 

Here it is from the damper side, where you can see the openings
and gap. You can also see how the insulation discs blocks them.

Insulation side

To close off the damper when not in use, the disc of ceramic blanket had to be cut larger than the damper plate. But Dan was concerned that the soft, pliable fabric wouldn't stay flat. He thought about it for awhile, and then settled on holding it in place with a round table saw blade.

 

Here it is, reassembled with the new smoke by-pass in place.

It's still too warm to try it out, but Dan has a couple more improvements to work on, so I'll show you those as he finishes them. 

Masonry Stove Improvements: Smoke By-pass 

 © 2025 by Leighat https://www.5acresandadream.com