Year of Change

[trappnman]

well, that could be- I've always stored it in the bale

but with multiple slices in the plastic to allow for the drying, and since it does dry (meaning air flow) that should, according to the article, eliminate the odor.

but it could be a "plastic" smell.

[northof50]

its carbon and it absorbs odor from all air flow
think of the old days when you put a can of charcoal in the corner to remove mold/ mustyb smell

[trappnman]

I'm a bit confused here- didn't the article say more air, reduces odors? Rather than more air, traps odors?

in any case, wish I could remember how I dried peat years ago- for the life of me, I simply cannot remember. My guess is I unbagged it, fluffed it up and re bagged it in garbage bags.
now- its al lair dried over time.

so, perhaps, I could go back to using just a little- but honestly will not for 2 reasons 1) its working now 2) my thoughts on storage equaling digging is pure speculation

but it is food for thought

[northof50]

I remember some years you run out and the only ones available a a solid block of frozen water from being out in the nursery stock all summer.
On Monday saw a truck on the highway and the bailing of peat this year is from wet stuff this summer , so next year they are gong to be heavy

[trappnman]

locally, only Menards stores it inside. so if I wait until late July, those bottom pallets are pretty dry. one year, they were sold out, had to buy from a nursery at double the price, and wet, wet, wet. then I spread it out on a tarp- what a pain that was!

[natedawg]

No one uses calcium chloride?

[trappnman]

my opinion, from a short period of using it, is it causes traps to rust and if you don't clean them off very well, it continues

[tjm]

Any salt CaCl or NaCl etc. will cause some corrosion of traps, I was taught to cover the trap with ashes; same effect, reduces freezing but turns to lye and becomes corrosive. Which is why I was taught to wax traps; wax keeps the salts and lye from direct contact with the steel.

I want to know more about this 'coal shale', have only heard of it on the forums and a 'net search doesn't turn it up. Description or pictures would help.
I may have some on my land, or not; what I have is black flaky soft outcroppings that we always called slate but people from other places have called shale.

My use of peat is relatively limited, experimental, so to say; I have screened it before hand but prefer to carry it as it comes out of the bale. Under the trap the woody pieces may help stabilize things and in and over the trap I sift it at the set and scatter the woody pieces in and about the set or dump them in a wind row as guiding, then sift some duff over the bed.

[trappnman]

coal shale is basically coal dust

not really dust, but small pieces

we have shale here, but its a black layered rock and not coal-

so coal shale is layered, but coal, not rock- and its those little pieces that are used in trapping. You might well have some on your ground.

tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.Mfc921679d2cbdaab7a1ca03417e64710o0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=300&h=300

[tjm]

Picture looks like furnace coal, rock I used to see in Id. called shale was thin flat slabs of hard rock. Greenish or reddish in color if memory serves, slides of it covering half a mountain. What I have is not coal, does sliver into thin slabs; it's usually water bearing and as such could be used to carry water away from the trap. Must be slate. I may experiment with it. Probably be like my use of peat though, another thing to carry.