“Reafforestation will be the mark and work of the authentic civilization”
Jean Pain. (1928-1981)
I love taking hot showers. I have been known to set off my share of heat detecters and alarms by merely opening the bathroom door after one of my “therapeutic" sessions. Short of living adjacent to a hot spring, generating hot water for showers and other domestic use, without fossil fuels, has been a long term goal. Recently, I bathed in our outdoor shower for the first time with water heated by a 60 cubic yard Jean Pain woody compost mound we constructed. The shower is situated on the outside of the greenhouse and for now has a collection of wooden “trees” we constructed as well as balsam, white pine and maple saplings loosely braced around the concrete platform and a planted northern high bush blueberry for privacy. We added a wall mounted flag post to insert an Albanian flag as a signal of “occupied” to others who may walk nearby. There is a bit of “hippy” atmosphere as my 1972 yellow Volkswagen Square Back Type lll is parked between the shower and the 10 foot high mound, yet it does offer a nice dry place to toss my clean clothes. I turned the water on full and braced myself, mildly disappointed as I stepped into the cool spray. In moments though, the spray turned to a comfortable warm and then suddenly I was turning the cold faucet on to mix with the now uncomfortably hot water. In the time it would take a conventional on-demand electric water heater to bring the temperature up to hot, our mixed hardwood chip compost heap, with 900 feet of 1" flexible pipe filled with147 gallons of water coiled throughout the mass proved equal to the task.
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| Nik enjoying a shower. |
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| Compost thermometer |
According to the multiple thermometer gauges we inserted throughout the mass, the mound in its fourth month, has averaged 125 degrees in temperature, a by-product of the fermentation of aerobic (oxygen present) and anaerobic (oxygen lacking) process of the woody material. We measured the water temperature from the well at 50 degrees while the outgoing water from the shower head measured 120 degrees. There was a 70 degree increase from well to thermal mass of the mound and a roughly 5 degree temperature drop from mound to shower head. The hot water has a slight pine scent and the only drawback is the pure bliss and philosophical atmosphere that makes it difficult to take a short shower. But I am at least not setting off alarms. While we anticipate new uses will arise, our immediate goal of our Jean Pain mound is to generate summer and spring hot water use for showers, winter in-floor heating for the greenhouse and utilize the humus created to amend our gardens, fruit trees and meadow. This adventure of “composting” comes at end of a long journey from land clearing and years of amending sandy soil.
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| Cosmos in our sandy soil |
Our 40 acres is all mixed hard and softwood growing in pure glacial outwash. When we first bought the land in 1983 our goals were simple. We wanted to have a healthy source of water, enough White pine trees for log home building, plenty of firewood for heat, garden space when we cleared and no neighbor in sight. Four years after we purchased our land we had marked and cut all the White pine and hardwood trees in a 2 1/2 acre area, tallied most of the logs we would need for our home,created an open space for the cabin and split the hardwood for cooking and heating fuel. The soil in the open space was sand and gravel, 50 feet deep to bedrock. Establishing a garden, fruit trees and “meadow-lawn” would require an herculean effort to amend the soil.
We pulled stumps and hauled all the brush from the area and raked and removed all surface rocks by tractor and by hand. I then spent the next 12 years, bucket and shovel stowed away in the back of the car, making quick “pull-overs” while traveling to soccer games and swimming excursions with our two young boys. The edge of roadways were my hunting grounds for grass, moss and wildflower seeds and transplants that “expressed” a willingness and ability to grow in pure sand without the aid of a sprinkler. I also interspersed a variety of herbs and medicinal plants for a healthy diverse mix to build the soil while at the same time created a foragers paradise for herbs, teas and tinctures.
Early in the “meadow-lawn succession” process, when our boys, Cori and Levi, were young, they had a trampoline. During the summer months, it became an effective “shade tree” for the new plants and I would have the boys lift it and move it around the yard every few days for uniform plant coverage. The chickens and Guinea hens were free range and their favorite hangout from sun and hawks while fertilizing the soil at the same time was under the trampoline. Spring and summer I approached mowing like a sortie…I was on a mission. To the untrained eye, my insane swerving appeared to lack a sense of pattern or direction while I strategically avoided the small young fruit trees, foxgloves, hawkweed, mints, comfrey, mallow and myriad of other plants cutting them down only when it came time to disperse their seeds. In the fall I would mow the “meadow”, blowing all of the mulch and seeds onto bare spots that had yet to fill in with plants. It was a long process and took lots of patience to wait for all the plants to take hold, but the results have been worthwhile.
I grew up in New England and loved the naturalized gardens on old homesteads. I had a vision of creating a healthy “edge”, a field to forest meadow, and worked tirelessly toward that goal. But we were still building, the kids were young and I would no sooner have a small area planted only to look out the window to see Nik, happily waving to me, oblivious, as he skidded 16’ logs across the “yard” behind his 59 Ford 9N, leaving welts like long claw marks across the yard. The boys were equally rough on the landscape as they went about their day, my informal fledgling meadow was their adventure empire. Despite their efforts at destruction, my choice in vegetation took root.
Our neighbors, the Myatts have a wonderful farm where they care for and raise horses, alpaca and llamas. Each spring they have graciously taken time out of their day to fill ours and the beds of our other neighbors trucks with the rich manure, saving hours of hand labor by using their loader. I would periodically spread the manure and transplant plants from other areas of the yard to the open spaces not yet filled with vegetation. I am eternally thankful for their generosity over the years. With recent awareness of the impact of plant sources for human and livestock feed base from GE (Genetically Engineered) seeds, however, I found myself contemplating compost with no possible trace of GE for our vegetable garden and fruit trees. I began to look to the woods for inspiration and contemplation for alternative options.
During this past winter I stumbled across an internet PDF copy of the 1980 self published book by Jean Pain, from Villicroze, France. Simply summarized, his goal was to imitate naturally occurring decomposition of woody materials by hilling and packing chipped leaves, needles and branches, providing appropriate moisture and air and then harnessing the energy (heat and methane gas) produced through the fermentation process. The mound produces heat as it ferments acting as a thermal mass which when coiled water-pipe is added throughout the pile, creates hot water for domestic use. When completed he would utilize the resulting humus for reapplication to the nearby forest floor. The humus would create a thick carpet, reducing moisture loss from the soil and thus an added bonus of prevention of forest fire. He would also apply the rich humus for a fertile weed-free garden. This model of soil building was an agreeable method to me. Jean Pain built his mound in the arid southeast of France at the foothills of the Alps. I found references of successful replica mounds throughout the northeastern states. Waiting for the deep snow to melt to build our own “experimental” mound was alleviated only by the bustle of maple sugaring.
My main concern was locating enough wood chip material. In June our available time had been stretched to the limit with spring chores, Nik's full time boat restoration and Adirondack great camp caretaking business. We were managing our forest, cleaning up from a previous year microburst that had felled about 100 trees. We processed the logs for firewood and sawlogs but producing 70 cubic yards of material from the tops would require more than a week of our efforts…time we didn't possess and the effort would still not yield enough for our project. I called around to local highway departments and small arborists who might be willing to contribute chips for our pile. As foresters ourselves, while we tend to lean toward the small-scale logging operations, we were unable to obtain the material we were looking for. We then pursued a large logging operation underway on nearby private land. We found we could achieve an economy of scale by sourcing from one larger supplier rather than piecing together what we needed through many small operations.
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| Seaway Timber chipping wood debris into Trudeau's truck |
Tim Curran, one of the owners of Seaway Timber Harvesting was intrigued with our experimental Jean Pain Mound. After allowing us a close up view of the huge debris pile from their chipping operation and viewing our proposed site he offered to front one truckload in support of the project. Mark Trudeau, from Trudeau Sand and Gravel, in the spirit of the project, provided our trucking and gave us one transportation run toward the project as well. We took roughly 50 cubic yards from the logging site in three truckloads and had them dumped adjacent to the location of our mound. We spent an additional two days chipping brush from our recent sugarbush thinning for an additional 10 cubic yards.
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| Nik anticipating the taste of good food once this pile of chips breaks down and is added to the garden |
Hulberts is our local plumbing and supply store and we purchased 1000' of 1" black water pipe, insulation for the pipe, 100' each of perforated and unperforated footing drain tile, elbow fittings, shut off valves and miscellaneous fittings. From garden suppliers I purchased 36" and 72" compost thermometers.
We sent out invitations and on May 24 gathered all tools necessary for the days work. Shovels, garden rakes, large cinder blocks, hand saw and propane torch for water pipe fittings, garden hose and sprinkler, neighbors with bucket tractor, one stellar college student and managed to wrangle the perfect, if a bit hot, day. As with most Adirondack mid-May to mid-June projects, the black flies wanted full participation in the event and we were extremely creative in our defense utilizing all manner of headgear and dousing ourselves with Nik’s homemade Adirondack Caretakers’ Bug Dope.
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| Nik prepping for the air intake perforated and unperforated drainage tile |
Early in June, John Duprey, another area caretaker, had brought his backhoe over for a few days to take care of our long list of tasks. Along with pulling stumps from the driveway, digging holes for garden areas and cutting the bank back behind Nik’s boat shop for better movement and a root cellar, he also prepped the Jean Pain Mound site by digging into the bank and roughly leveling a twenty foot diameter area adjacent to the greenhouse. We hand dug a 2’ deep trench along the outer edge of the mound site to run 50’ of the unperforated footing drain tile. We then laid down 100’ of the perforated drainage tile, for the air intake, by coiling it flat on the base of the mound and kept within two feet from the outer edge and connected the two pipes together. The intent was that during the winter months running the intake air beneath the surface would warm the air to ground temperature before it arrived at the underside of the mound. Once the pipe was laid down, the trenches were re-filled and Pete scooped up the first of many bucket loads of chips to create an 8” covering over the footing drain tile on the bottom of the mound.
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| Digging for the water pipe to the greenhouse |
Additional prep work was done by hand digging a three foot trench from the mound to the greenhouse and laying the water pipe so that two ends were against the building. One line of the pipe was for hot water. This pipe travelled from the greenhouse to the center of the mound. We attached a 90 degree elbow fitting to connect enough pipe that would go straight up, ending two feet below the intended top of the mound. This end would attach to the final end of the coiled pipe with another 90 degree angle fitting. At the same time the second pipe was inserted for the cold water intake. It traveled from the greenhouse to the mound to form the first of several rows of coils. Once the pipes were in place and the insulation wrapped around and on top of them, we filled in the hand dug trenches.
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| Nik and Dave laying down the air intake pipe |
We started coiling the pipe, careful not to crimp the line, from the center outward on a flat plane. Each coil round was about 6” apart from the next and the whole level section was roughly two feet from the edge of the mound. To keep the pipe flat, we stood on it as well as layered the cinder blocks on top. Once in place, Pete would again scoop multiple bucket loads of chips to provide an eight inch layer over the water pipe.
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| Pete putting down the first load on the pile, while Nik rakes it out evenly. |
We have several friends who own local restaurants in Saranac and Lake Placid and they were more than agreeable to gather their organic vegetable prep scraps for a two week period. On our annual anniversary dinner night at the end of May, we travelled to the Downhill Grill, Eat and Meat, Blue Moon Cafe, and Lisa G’s where we loaded up my car with buckets and bags of compost material from greens to coffee grounds. It was a token amount of green compost material but we felt it would sweeten the pile and help kickstart the decomposition process.
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| Shannon, Nik and Pete stomp, rake and hose down the pile.
We continued adding layers until the mound measured 10' high and about 18' in diameter at the base and about 3’ diameter on the top. Wood chips absorb a lot of water so we left the sprinkler on top of the mound for the rest of the day to provide thorough moisture and eventually turned it off altogether as we were fortunate to have a few rainy days which kept the pile moist.
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We raked the chips out level, spent several minutes dancing and stomping to compress the pile, spread out a thin layer of vegetable compost and sprayed the whole pile with copious amounts of water. The cinder blocks were removed and we started the whole process again, bringing the long pipe up from the first row to continue its coiled path onto the next row. We kept the coil inside the edge of the pile for insulation and lay down block to hold the pipe while we covered it with chips. We stomped, spread green compost and watered the next layer. And when we ran out of pipe, we connected another coil to continue the path.
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| Watering the completed pile |
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| Nik hooking up the greenhouse in floor heat |
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| Erica, my Greenhouse and Garden Intern 2013 |
I enjoyed my shower completely but the real test of the hot water system had yet to begin. My niece Erica had lived in our guest room in the greenhouse the previous spring and summer and when she wasn't working at her wilderness therapy job she was my Garden and Greenhouse Intern. Together we would be prepping and planting the vegetable and flower gardens, collecting, drying and concocting herbal mixes, picking blueberries and strawberries, saving garden and wildflower seeds, brewing up Kombucha tea and canning Dill pickles with Nik, making our own vanilla for baking and putting up preserves in the kitchen. What we lacked in finesse during the process we more than made up for in enthusiasm in our variety of ideas and products. I was having a wonderful summer and was energized for next year. I had begun to dust off my old medicinal, herbal and gardening books while Erica signed up for a six month long herbalism course with the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine slated for the following spring and summer season.
Erica and I communicated throughout the spring and summer. During a field trip to the Adirondacks the class of twenty students, led by the schools Director and Instructor 7Song, camped in our greenhouse guest room, lean-to, living room and yard for two days. While at our home they located, identified herbal and medicinal plants as well as discussed site, collection, plant properties, uses and wildcrafting techniques. It was a fun and scholarly weekend and I cannot say which was the greatest part of their visit. While I thoroughly enjoyed the lessons in herbalism and botanical medicine I was thrilled to see the unlimited hot water produced by the mound while the group indulged in the shower.
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| 7Song and his class from the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine identifying plants and their properties in my garden |
My wish is to take my last shower in the first snow storm before the heat is transferred to the greenhouse. But the heat will be transferred come late September, snowstorm or no. Until then, we will add the coils for the floor heat, and insulate the building where needed. We will continue to monitor the temperature of the mound throughout our Adirondack fall and winter and tweak the system when needed. We will also test the humus, once the decomposition has run its course, to determine the quality of the soil. For now, though I will continue my daily trek to the greenhouse shower with my cat Dove’ in my shadow and enjoy the bounty of this wood chip produced hot water…the only alarms I will hear are the blue jays who seem more concerned with the cat than the temperature of my shower.
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| Dove' (Doe-vay) keeping watch |
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