It's tough to get up to temp. I gave up! Brought 4 bags of dirt in to the furnace room in a cut down plastic barrel.

An electric turkey roaster works good

If your dirt has much moisture content to it, it will take much longer to bring to the right blending temp.

Yeah this still kinda damp. Next year I'll be ready.

Keep cooking it - it will dry.

Hard to beat doing this in the summer.

Almost don’t even need heat if it’s warm enough.

With dry dirt I can make about 5 gallons very quickly using a dedicated microwave.
Great for a small trapline.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M84Y9ksYWs

How the heck do you do that?

Electricity. Lol

Sneaky, this is upper Montana and I’m a Marine. Lol.

You could use a heat lamp as well

This is the only way to make waxed dirt as far as I’m concerned. Even if coyotes are un sellable.

Had I known this two months ago I would have taken this out of my mother-in-law's dump...I mean house

Next year I'll buy it

I have a local man coming over this weekend to make some waxed dirt for him. He is a late bloomer as a trapper and very eager to learn. I instructed him as to gathering his sifted dry dirt, dry sifted peat. He has some type of wax flakes not sure I have seen them. I use beaded wax myself. He is bringing his own propane tank. I have never waxed dirt in December before so we will see how this works out. Most likely may need to open the propane valve more for the cold air situation. It should work, my concern is the time lapse between batches where the mixing drum is going to cool much faster.

I will take some pics. We will use the same set up I use in the early fall. Cement mixer and torch method. I am curious to see how long it takes to bring it up to a working temperature. It is supposed to be in the higher 40's and maybe 50 over the weekend.

Bob, did you make a circular lid/cover for the cement mixer out of plywood? Really helps to heat up faster.

Yes, I have a hinged on 1/4" piece of plywood covering mouth of the mixer. I fashioned mine to keep down the loss of material via dust particulate and choking me and dusting up my glasses. There is more dust than some realize from bone dry material. I mix my dirt with dry sifted peat and dried pulverized leaves. Helps to blend sets nicely. I have it held closed with a bungee cord.

You're a turd deck Marine at that lol

Bob, I think a lot of flaked (not beaded) wax is soy wax. When I smell soy wax I find it has almost no odor compared to paraffin wax which to me has a noticeable odor. I've made some waxed dirt with soy wax and it looks the same and repels water equally as well. I just haven't committed to using it on the coyote line. I probably should.