Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

Van Dell,

> Understood that there isn't enough biomass to replace
> oil.  But is it feaseable for one person to do with
> one or 2 vehicles?

Of course it is, there are 'one person's doing it even as we speak.

But in a given geographical area, as far as the fryer oil goes, only a half a 
dozen people quickly use all the available oil.  So if you are the seventh 
person wanting to set up on fryer oil, you are out of luck.

As far as the idea of growing your own soybeans or corn for fuel, the problem 
lies in the fact that growing much corn requires one of two things:  1) A lot 
of work or 2) machines.   Machines use fuel.  

On our farmstead we don't use machines in the gardens and corn patches, it's 
all done with human power and draft animals.  Mainly the former.  As a result 
we don't try to even grow corn to feed animals, it's all for human 
consumption.  The animals are maintained on pasture, hay, and browse.   If we 
(anyone) 
was going to try to grow bio-fuels using our primitive hand methods, they are 
going to work very hard at it.  So hard, in fact, they could walk to town 
many 
times over before they could convert their work into biomass and the biomass 
into fuel.

Doing the number crunching on that, we could use the horses as transportation 
with a very great less effort than converting that much feed into fuel for a 
vehicle.  The old saw that a tractor 'eats' when you run it but a horse eats 
year round is a false comparison.  The horses and donkey eat grass and browse 
which otherwise would not be put to any practical use.

In response to your question I'd opine that it is POSSIBLE, but what would 
feasible mean in this context?