I plan to post about my efforts toward voluntary simplicity, frugality, and debt free living. Much of this is grounded in environmentalism, politics, and social justice.
On the youtubes, the thrifty people I follow are doing this "What if" type thing. Fine.
Things like "What if you only had a half a bag of rice, 3oz lentils, and moldy cheese, and you don't get paid for a week and the money is gone...how would you stretch the food and what would you make?"
Mornings with Granny is best at this because I suspect she's been poor for reals.
I was poor once upon a time and now I'm too lazy/cheap/frugal to run in to town when I am lacking an ingredient.
ANYWAY...recently, the ones I watch are "prepping" or stocking up for power outages. Turns out rice is a bad idea without power. Um...like the electric stove or any of the 2 dozen counter top plug in appliances are the only ways to cook???
JEEZ people! One vlogger was talking, this morning, about a power out where they had no way to heat water or cook food. She has other videos where they grill food outside. Does the propane tank and/or charcoal not work when the electricity is out???
Also, candles under an upturned can with holes cut in the can-sides makes a tiny stove. So does a can of crisco with a wick (which can be a bit of dry wood, twisted fabric, wooden skewers, taper candle jammed in a hole, or almost any cooking oil/fat you have around). PEOPLE!!! Electricity is not the only power.
What about a solar cooker? Or the dashboard of your car in mid day? Heat water with those mid day and then put it in a thermos, or even just wrap up the container of hot water with whatever. That reflective dealy in the windshield works well. ALSO coolers keep things warm. They are don't just keep things cool. Then you can heat that warmish water for washing or whatever.
Also...rice, pasta, grains can be soaked for a while, brought to the boil, poured into a thermos or the pan wrapped up and they will cook much faster with very little heat, e.g. over a candle or crisco heater.
Grills hold pots as well as naked slabs of meat. You can even bake bread, cake, whatever on there.
ALL YOU NEED TO COOK IS A HEAT SOURCE.
Other tips for power-outage cookery:
Think about the size and power of your heat source. Boiling a cup of water over a candle will take a while. Boiling a cup of water on the grill is wasting heat...boil up the big pan of water (tea kettle, anyone?) and store the excess because maybe it will still be warm later. Overnight oats/soaked-rice for 4 is too much to bring to a boil over a candle. Not too much on a grill or in a solar cooker.
Frying is faster. Small bits cook faster. You can fry on a grill. Put the frying pan (cast iron is the best option) on the grill. Add fat and whatever. Cook. Don't wander off.
Grill outside. Want to bring some of that heat inside? Heat up clay plant pots and bring them inside in metal buckets, set them on things that won't burn like bricks or the hearth. You want get super warm, but you'll be busy and a bit warmer and NOT die of carbon monoxide.
Butane burners are great, I use them all the time. But the butane runs out pretty fast if you start with cold water and want to boil it up. Hence lots of preheating on the woodstove and storing the water hot in thermoses (thermosi? thermopodi?)...insulated containers!
Things to do now:
Make a "hay box" for your favorite pasta/rice pan. NOT the insta pot. Don't be an idiot. The pan that you can put on the grill, stove, woodstove, etc. Best if it has small handles but just use what you have. Find a box, card board, wood, or a metal milk crate, that fits the pan with several inches to spare on all sides. Line your box with wool blankets or old sweaters if you have it, or hay (hence the name), straw, cardboard, or even metallic bubble wrap. Make sure there is an inch of cardboard or wood or no-flammable at cooking temps fabric between any plasticky crap or fabric and the pan. Make the lining fit tight around the pan. When the time comes, heat the pan up, like on that grill, and when the food is boiling hard, put the pan in the box (which of course you insulted on the bottom and sides and top) and close it up. If you can heat up a rock or plant pot ahead of time and put that in the box while you finish boiling up the food, that will preheat the box and make it work better.
Don't have a box? Make a bean hole in the ground and preheat it like in the olden days. I will let you google that.
You can boil things mid-day in the solar cooker and transfer to the hay box or bean hole or thermos.
When using a thermos, preheating is best.
These all work like slow cookers. Pasta will get mushy fast, whole rye berries hold up super well as do wheat berries, oat groats, and barley. Quinoa is an excellent option as well.
If I am putting meat in, I prefer it to be fully cooked first, either fried up (sliced thin it fries faster/less fuel) or precanned by me or an industrial canning service.
If using a thermos for soup or flavored grains/pasta, you'll want to not use that for coffee or tea water later. No matter what they say, the flavors linger. I have tested glass, plastic, and stainless steel lined thermoses and all retain that stank. It's fine in the next cooked item, but not great in my coffee.
To make the thermos cooking work: invest in a good bottle brush and good funnels. I use a big canning funnel for the wide mouth thermoses and a skinny funnel for the insulated bottle type thermoses.
The water you use to preheat a thermos is fine to use in the next batch of soup, to drink, to give to pets who usually enjoy the vague food stank, or to soak tomorrow's grains.
These practices always save fuel/money/pollution/resources to why not be practicing now??
So I'm driving home, as one does when work is over AND the power keeps going on and off at the office.
The power was back on in the town where I work, but then, everything was dark. A car was off the road and a tree or two down. Of course, it's 5pm and pitch dark because we are having a wind storm with a bit of rain. Clouds. No moon or stars. Then I notice, also only like one lighted window per house along the road, the occassional porch light, probably solar.
It took me a bit, but then I figured out the power was out. Possibly due to the downed trees or car jammed against a power pole (brand new power pole....busted in half).
At my house, the solar panels are still up (knocking on wood now) and I have as much power as I ever do after a cloudy day.
My life didn't change.
This makes me smirk. All the preppers with crap in their giant a$$ freezers are now finding a bit crap in their pants. I keep shelf stable things that can freeze and thaw a few times (dry beans, dry yeast, flour, pasta in jars). With the wind there won't be a fire in my stove tonight, but it's still 50 degs outside so it's not a problem. Sometimes it gets down to freezing in here on a windy night, but still, I might need to take a couple of frozen eggs and make pancakes instead of scrambled eggs.
Those with frozen meat and fridges are hoping that the massive power outage is over soon, or it freezes hard (well, those who realize they can put things outside if it's cold enough want it to freeze. Those with pellet stoves or electric heat are not that much for it),
Yesterday it was windy, but also sunny enough that I ran a little space heater most of the day when I was inside so my toes were warm. I didn't really need it, but, why not? The batteries were full and everything past that isn't stored up anyway.
Pardon the lame reference to "We're bringing sexy back"...couldn't resist.
The water is fixed.
I'm pretty thrilled.
Friends who know what they are doing taught me what to do. I need one more pipe wrench and a sump pump and I'd be able to do this myself.
The old frost free hydrant probably still would have worked, but I was done messing around. There is a new hydrant on the nipple (heh heh) at the polypipe that feeds water downhill from the cistern.
Thankfully the pump is fine AND thankfully I had one pipe run UP to the cistern and another DOWN the hill to the spigot. The well driller dude said I could save a few hundred on the pipe if I used just one pipe for the whole bit. I said NO. I wanted to be able to cut into the water pipe down from the cistern and move things around, add bits, etc. I think that's easier if the in and out pipes are separate. This time it worked fine.
I do wish I had a shut off in the pipe. Had to drain the cistern. Hence the sump pump because the hydrant is the only outlet right now so it drained into the hole I dug to the bottom of said hydrant.
Pretty amazed with how much I don't know about pumps and hydrants. I know more now and could, with a 2nd pair of hands, replace the hydrant myself next time. Good lord I hope there is NOT a next time.
As I was digging the hole, it kept filling with water. I bailed and let it soak into the concrete like clay that is my soil. When it's wet, it's heavy but I can slice it. When it's dry you have to use a breaker bar to chop it up and then shovel it out. I traded off between the two methods.
When I got to the bottom of the hydrant, there was sticky grey clay. The friend who knows water systems said that IS my red/yellow clay once it is wet and reacting with things like the gravel that bedded the hydrant. Anyway, I'm 4 feet down in a hole, using my trusty Marshalltown 6" pointy trowel to clear out some gravel and that strange clay from the base of the hydrant. I start hearing AIR rushing out the top of the hydrant (see previous post) and water starts shooting out the top and spigot bit. On to my head and the rest of me. Refreshing and surprising. My hair had dirt/clay in it which became mud. But, what are you going to do?
Must have just been water in the pipe because it stopped.
Once the friends got here Saturday, I finished digging because apparently I needed a bigger hole.
Having the sump to keep the water (which continued to flow in...must have bene in the ground from the years of draining from the frost free hydrant or something) down to a reasonable level really helped.
The nipple was a good surprise (unlike nip-slips which are generally NOT a good surprise for me). It meant the new hydrant could just screw right on.
Before we did that, we removed the old hydrant and ran the pump enough to make sure there was no clog and the water flowed well. It did and it did.
Then more pumping to clear room for me in the hole. At one point, I was within an inch of wet undies...and COVERED in clay from tip to tail to boot.
We start screwing on the new hydrant. And keep trying and trying and trying and trying. It just will not thread.
The water-guy friend tests the screwy end of the hydrant with a plastic thingy. It won't thread either. DAMMIT!!!
I call the hardware store where I got the 6' hydrant. They don't have another but they have a 7' hydrant, same brand. FINE. Sold.
I change my pants and shoes (too much clay/mud on me to get in their truck for the hardware run). So, half muddy, we march into the store. The store guy tries to tell us it's fine. He's using a threaded nipple (heh heh) to test it and it goes on about 1/2 a turn. We test the 7' version and it goes on a good quarter INCH, several turns, before it jams up. I say I want that. The 6' should not bind that fast. It does taper so it gets tight, but that's nuts.
We get back to the ranch with the new hydrant, which is too long for the pick up bed and hangs over the tailgate corner a bit, and with new pipe dope to seal it up. Back in the hole we get it threaded on and aimed fine with me on the base and the friend on the pipe. Then I start the pump to fill the cistern enough to test it....no dice. WIERD. The friend reads the instructions and we should not have cranked on the pipe, instead I should have had both wrenches on the bottom on fittings. Damn.
Off it comes, more wrenching. I have both wrenches in a hole filling with water (nearly to the undies). More pumping. We get the hydrant back off and all is well, AND the pipe seriously BURPS and gets pressure. So, now we have a hold full of water and we're screwing the hydrant back on with me running both wrenches, sometimes with my feet halfway up the walls and my butt on a little ledge I didn't dig out and the water rising. We get it and open it up...I make them wait until I am out of the hole.
It works. We have water with pressure! It's been a month since I've had that. YAY.
The water dude has us cut up a plastic bottle to make a void around the outlet at the bottom of the frost free hydrant. I tape that one and we test it. Still working. Can see the water and hear it shooting into the void. The hope is that keeps the clay from filling in the little hole again...as least I know how to fix it in a few years when it does happen. We bed it in gravel (I kept that aside in buckets as I dug). They take off. I put a cut up shopping bag, the woven plasticy type, around the top of the plastic bottle cludge to try to filter any clay flowing down from the top trying to infiltrate the void.
Throw in the rest of the gravel and start with the clay. I would say dirt or soil but who am I kidding? It's clay. I get it 1/3 to 1/2 full. The hydrant is pretty stable and I'm beat so I give it up. I will put more in today.
The clay I dug out is on tarps so once enough is off a tarp I can roll the rest off by pulling the tarp across the hole. I will tamp it down as I go to try to keep it from sinking too much. We'll see.
But at least water is coming out at a reasonable rate.
It didn't last long though.
Seems like some sort of wonky clay clog.
I have help coming. I've been without adequate water for a few weeks now. It's kind of sucked but not more than some other things.
Tomorrow...in theory...we finish the dig out (which involves a sump pump now....cripes) and we go from there.
I hope I have a drop cord long enough to run that little pump.
Anyway, I have a new hydrant to install and took my time digging it out because I was being careful of the pipes and whatnot AND because my shoulder and back will only take so much punishment in a day.
Yes, that's right. I made a bad reference to "Love in the Time of Cholera."
I'm also covering showering off grid in the summer here.
The 'rona has forced me to buck up my ideas about a shower option at the wee shed.
I'd become gym dependent. Now the gym is gross.
So, I tried many options, got a new camp-shower bag deal for 15$ because they won't be on sale until fall at the earliest and camp stuff was selling out willy-nilly. The old camp shower served me for a few years, but had given up the ghost and leaked faster than I could shower. Certainlky faster than it could heat water. Black painted jars and other options didn't work out as well. I ended up buying a new one.
Now I have 5 gallons of HOT water each evening after work and a few gallons of warm water in the alternate options I tried to used.
I found an insulated beverage dispenser at a thrift store, like the "igloo" ones you see on construction sites but smaller. I fill that with HOT water when I get home. It holds a gallon or a gallon and a half. That goes on a step on the folding extension ladder I got at a yard sale a few years back, and an old bedspread is tied around the ladder toward the top to make a 3 sided semi-private (more so after the sun goes down since the highway is east of me...) open to the west, away from the road. I put a rubber tub in there to stand in so I'm not stepping on thorns or wasps while I try to clean up.
The beverage dispenser holds the water hot enough for a shower until a bit after sundown so that's easier. I live in a bit of a ravine. By "sundown" I mean when the sun goes behind the hill, not actual sundown time.
I can get a decent wash up using this system and a spray bottle which I fill from the warm water. You don't stand there and meditate in the shower, but you know, you can get clean enough.
I don't do hair in there because there isn't enough water. I do sometimes use the water from the camp solar shower thingy. On the weekend I pick a day and if I'm doing dishes on the rocket stove (more anon) I use the last couple gallons of hot water for the hair washing.
A big bowl (thrift) is both the dish pan and the hair washing basin. I rinse it out with the hose before switching to hair so I don't get cabbage bits and grease on my head.
Fill it with warm or hot water, get the hair wet in there by sticking my head in it, and using a cup to move water over the parts I can't submerge. Then, scrub the scalp with the baking soda slurry like usual. Rinse. Rinse with more warm water. Rinse with the hose which is right by the shower AND the dishes station. The hose water is cold but it's been hot weather and I finish with a cold rinse anyway so not a problem. Then I do the vinegar rinse like always. Rinse again. Cold hose rinse. Done. It gets cleaner or better rinsed than when I try to do this in a regular house or gym shower stall.
Takes 20minutes. Wrap up in a towel and go. Not really up for doing this first thing in the morning so I've had to let go of the idea of starting the day with totally clean hair.
I'm washing once every week or two since I keep the hair in a braid at all times and actually, 2 or 3 braids during the 'rona times. It keeps the hair out of my face and keeps it from fighting with the mask.
24 Say Thank You. When people give you something, do a favor, pass on a tip or whatever, say thank you. People like that. It's what sets us apart from the animals. That and our need to spend money on crap we don't need. Maybe...just maybe...SEND a thank you note in the mail. You remember the mail, right?
25 Negotiate. Make a counter offer. Make it with a smile or a wink or a scowl. Whatever suits your fancy. You can't get a lower price if you don't ask about one. A used car salesman has NEVER said "hey, wanna pay less for this car and still get the undercoat?" Recently I asked for a break on a price at a thrift store. The item, a super cool rocket stove, was missing a part. Not a part I really needed but a part. It was being sold as "new in the box" which it was except this one bit was gone. I got 30% off. I donated that much to the animal shelter because this thrift store supports the animal shelter. I do want the puppies to eat but I also wanted to practice negotiating.
26 Think. Stop and think before you buy. If it's not on the list, then you probably don't need it...see the previous editions of this series for the importance of lists. If you really really still want to buy it, figure out how soon you will use the item, how often it will make life easier, etc. Like the rocket stove noted above, it wasn't on the list because I didn't think I'd ever see one in a store or garage sale. BUT there it was and I'd seen it around on the internet or something similar. One thing that was tough, I didn't know how much it would cost new or on the 2nd hand market. I don't have a smart phone or an wifi device on me at all times like many people, so I couldn't check. I did know I'd wanted to make a rocket stove and this cost less than the parts I needed to get to make a rocket stove. So, I bit the bullet and risked it and asked for a discount which helped keep the price down low where I could stand it. I would have waited a few days if I thought it would have stayed in the thrift store but like a dehydrator...it was not going to spend much time on the shelf.
27 Know your local market. I mean the 2nd hand market. I know that in this area, there are offgridders all over the place and you don't dare leave handy solar powered items or camping type items in a thrift store to think about them. So, I think about what I could resell it for if I decide I don't want it. I also know which thrift stores are cheaper on which items. One has cheap canning jars, another cheap work clothes, and the hospice one is a goldmine for scrubs and little skid-proof socklets. I know about what to pay for things 2nd hand. Garage sales are often a better deal, BUT they are inconsistent and I'm not often in town on garage sale day and the extra gas would cost more than most savings.
28 Just don't do stuff. I just don't get my hair cut. Not since 1989. Think of the savings. I honestly have no idea what people spend on haircuts. I don't use makeup. What have I saved? I have no idea. I gave up shaving the legs and pits ages ago. Turns out I don't have leg hair or pit hair anyway so what was I shaving? People at yoga have mocked me about hair removal and I'm tempted to make pit wigs just so they buzz off. If you are doing things that bring you no joy, add no value to your life, but society seems to want you to do them, try just not doing that. Maybe you don't really give a crap about coffee. Then don't buy fancy coffee drinks or latte's or whatever. I don't like the taste of wine. So I just don't buy it. That probably saves something.
29 Pick hobbies that save or make money. My hobby of making mustard is now an accidental mustard business. I'm not sure it's making money, but it's not losing money. I like to cook, can food, ferment stuff (hmmmm....I like food). I've taken up gardening, chickening, beadwork (not great beadwork but some beadwork) and other things. These have resulted in gifts, trade-able items and occassionally income. They are also great for networking.
In fact, I got 2 more chickens today...Bonnie and Clyde. They will get their own blog post later. Since I have a coop (Coop 3.0), I can say "yes" to chickens and keep a hobby going. Haven't bought eggs since May and have had eggs to share since June. I share eggs with the lady down the road and she shares seeds and manure and stories with me. I also like to fold boxes and seed starter pots out of random bits of paper. I use them or share them. Make my own envelopes and sometimes give them as gifts or write thank you notes and send them in fancy home made envelopes. I save money on gift boxes, seed starter pots, and envelopes. Other hobbies result in gifts.
30 Support local business. I know during the 'rona lots of us are shopping at big chain stores that can do more curbside business or ordering online from the enormo-business I shan't name that has so many accusations of worker abuse that it's not a joke. I'm avoiding those as much as I can. Local businesses MIGHT cost more now and then, but the keep people in the community employed, they are more likely to help you out once you establish a relationship, and to remember what you want or need and be willing to stock it so you don't have to have it shipped from some abusive warehouse far away. Recently I went to the local hardware to get canning jars for my mustard business (see above). I had a coupon. Because the dude behind the counter knows me, he got out his own membership card and scanned it so I could get the member discount. A dozen jars for 7.50$!! That's a good price. It saved me money and I made more on that batch of mustard sales. He would not have done this if I didn't shop there regularly. It's not that I routinely pay more in that store, I don't. I compare prices or call ahead and when I can, I purchase there. I remember that gas and shipping cost money and going down a rat hole of targeted ads and links on the internet can also cost me money. If I just need 2 bolts and a washer, walk over to the local store and get them. Maybe you'll spend and extra quarter that day, but you'll save more later. AND they usually take returns and exchanges.
31 Learn to cook. If you take up no other hobby, skill or thrifty interest, learning to cook will save you a mint. Ingredients are cheap. Prepared meals are spendy. Restaurant meals are prohibitive. Learn to cook. You don't have to do fancy crap like on the TV. Learn to make eggs, pasta, and soup. Learn to fry a burger. Maybe someday, refrigerator dough bread. Granola...here's the recipe: Mix up rolled oats (old fashioned oatmeal), whatever nuts are cheap or sunflower seeds (not in the shell, dufus), a few tablespoons of oil, a few tablespoons of sugar or honey if you have it, and toast it all on a cookie sheet in the oven. Then put it in a jar or covered bowl or cool it off and put it in baggies. It's CEREAL and you'll save about 3$lb on it compared to bagged/boxed cereals and a buttload compared to store bought granola. You can throw in raisins or bits of other dried fruits, cocoa nibs, chocolate chips, a few spices and herbs. WHATEVER. Now you know how to cook and have a snack to take with you so you don't have to buy crap on the road (though I do love buying crap on the road). Those are the direct savings. The indirect savings include better physical and mental health (less crap in the diet helps with those and any move toward self sufficiency helps with the mental health). You also avoid some trips to the store because you can cook with what you have. Fewer trips means fewer impulse buys.
32 Learn to eat new stuff. The Ultimate Cheapskate (Jeff Yeager) wrote a few books on saving money and living how you want on less rather than earning more to live how other people want you to. One of his sayings has stuck with me: A dollar a pound, all year round. That's his rule of thumb for food shopping. If you buy the cheap fruit and veg, whether or not it's organic, you will eat what's in season all year round. I've made a habit of checking the local grocery store flyers to see what I'd be eating if I followed that. This week I could have potatoes, onions and carrots (you can almost always get those veggies for under a buck a pound), cantaloupe and bananas for fruit and veggies. There wasn't an advertised meat under a buck a pound, but two types of chicken were under a buck fifty so I'd go for those and check the reduced for quick sale. Also: Dried beans are usually right at a dollar a pound and cook up to 2 or 3 pounds per dry pound so are a super good deal in general. Same with dry lentils and peas. With the dollar a pound, try to pick stuff with nutrients not just off brand soda. Anyway, while doing this, I end up trying new fruits and veg. Whatever is cheap if I haven't tried it, or not lately, I try it. I learned to eat greens when they were cheap. They aren't always! So then I learned to grow them. I've always LOATHED bananas. Banana bread good. Bananas...puke in a skin. BUT they are cheap, nutritious, usually available and low on the pesticide warning lists. So, I learned to eat them. Still can't gag them down raw but since I learned to cook (see above), I make banana-egg pancakes about once a day either in a skillet at home or in the microwave at work. Add some cinnamon and nutmeg (bought in bulk on sale) and it's like banana bread for breakfast. You can also add a tablespoon of cocoa and it is delicious and high in fiber and iron.
33 Learn to grow stuff. I'm hearing on the interwebs that some urbanites are feeling pressured to garden and like they can't during the 'rona. Well, no. But you can sprout! I've done it when living in a camper without any propane or electricity. I've done it in the wee shed. I've done it at the office (yes, like Creed Bratton)
You can grow a few herbs in a pot. Herbs and spices cost a lot of money per ounce and pack a giant nutrition punch. Same with sprouts. Cheap to grow, expensive to buy, worth eating.
34 Learn to regrow stuff. About half the carrots in my garden are the top ends of carrots from the store that had leaves sprouting out of them. Leave a half inch or more and stick it in the wet ground, keep it wet, and you'll at least grow more carrot tops. Carrot tops are like parsley. Add them to salads or fry up in eggs. I also like to regrow celery from a celery bunch base stuck in water and romaine lettuce from the base of that head.
35 If you go out to eat,get a doggie bag. Don't worry about looking tacky. You're cheapskate. That wait-person will be retired if you go back and who the hell cares what random waitstaff think of them anyway? Restaurant meals in the low/mid cost range tend to be HUGE and salty. You're better off splitting them into a couple of meals anyway.
36 Tip the waitstaff. Don't be a dick. Tip the waitstaff. They are not wealthy and those tips are assumed when their wages are set. This is not the place to be cheap. AND if there IS somewhere you eat out now and then, the staff can let you know what is worth ordering or which new item is worth tasting, etc. This saves you sending back food or not enjoying food you paid for.
37 Enjoy what you have. Remember to look at the food in the house before you decide to go out. Maybe there is something you forgot and love to eat and will be a treat so you can skip the trip. For me it's usually clothes. I get sick of my clothes because I buy good quality and wash them carefully and they last FOREVER. So, soemtiems I rotate things into longer term storage. When I get bored again I try to remember to check the back catalog of shirts and pants. Usually I find something that I haven't work and remember liking and can rotate it back in and send something else out. I do the same with books and movies. Since I live small, only a few are in the living space. With the libraries closed for the 'rona times there, I wasn't getting different books and movies. I stopped by storage, found the box of flicks and swapped some out. Ran into some books I want to reread so swapped those out as well.
38 If you don't enjoy having it, pass it on. In the aforementioned clothing swappage, I ran into a caftan that I theoretically love but in reality do not wear. I don't like baggie clothes that twist around while you wear them. Caftans SEEM comfy but for me they are super irritating. I have a friend who was mooning over caftans so I passed it on to her. It's a lovely batik one from thrift. She won't mind that. And she might wear it. If not, she'll do something with the fabric. Now I don't have to store it or be annoyed by it. By the time I left her place today she'd loaded me up with some lamb sausages and free lumber. Oh...and those chickens. I never get ahead of her with the swapping so it's nice to pass something on.
39 Drive slower. I used to carefully hyper mile when I had to commute further. Now I try to remember to do that. It helps. Gas mileage is MUCH better at 55 than 70. If you live in the flatlands, try the cruise control. Here with the windy and the hilly, I do better gas mileage wise without it and being aware and trying to hyper mile. When I was devoted to it, I could save 10-20% on gas.
40 No Spend Days. Each month I set a goal. It's a number of days with zero spending. I have to remember to gas up the cars on days I'm shopping for groceries or paying bills or something. I find that days I stay home it is MUCH easier to not spend. If I stay home I rarely spend money. Before I had the wifi, I never spent money at home. You can just shift all the spending to other days, but the "no spend" days are a challenge to use/eat/enjoy what I have and they make me stop and think before purchasing something that occurs to me. No spends at work got easier when I started and office pantry.
41 Office Pantry. Keep a few things to eat at the office. Saves eating out, running to the store, and can facilitate the no-spend days. I keep eggs and bananas for the banana egg breakfasts. A few spices. Often a jar of dry oatmeal or cracked wheat so I can make that if I'm doing a no spend and forget to pack lunch. Or some granola which can be hot or cold, dry or wet. If you don't have access to a fridge and microwave, then even DIY oatmeal packets, granola, or energy bars will help avoid snack runs (and the intestinal runs from when the snacks go awry).
The plumbing (owner permit...a.k.a ME). I buggered it up the first time. Slammed through another day with new help and MUCH more knowledge thanks to the friends who helped me through the first draft and passed the inspection 49 hours after the "fail". I got a green sticker on a random pipe sticking out of the ground. I also ended up with 2 big boxes of unused bits and pieces to return to 3 or 4 different hardware stores. As soon as I have slept a bit, I will get on that.
The first two assistants taught me a TON! Thanks Jyl and Snuff! For reals.
The final one...I told him that since it passed I would think of him every time I took a dump. He was flattered.
So, the hole was filled and tamped. Gravel...tamping, more gravel...more tamping...lather, rinse, repeat.
Got the permit Thursday morning at about 8:30 AM and by 5pm Friday, 90% of the rebar is in. The builder had a question about a detail (rebar drawn as though floating in the air...hard to pour concrete
on that and keep it in place). So, he added some more rebar, had me take a picture and send it to his boss (aka Mrs Builderman) and hopefully the engineer will OK the slight modification.
At one point, the Mr Builderman said, "I tend to overbuild things." Yep. They should put that on the sign.
This morning 3 people showed up, 2 barely know me!!! And helped me rough in the pex tubes that will distribute heat in the slab in the imaginary magical solar future. We'll see....
I'm sleeping on it and then in the morning I will go back and start tying them more definitively to the rebar. The helpers (no names...well, they have names but I don't like to name names) were SUPER good. None of us had done it but we watched the how-to video. I watched it on a loop for a couple of hours and took notes because I am me.
Anyway, here we are:
And the tubes. I will neaten them up a bit. I may have help tomorrow morning for that.
I will try to fish out some plumbing pictures too. Perhaps one of the EPIC plumbers crack on the last assistant. Cripes!!! It reminded me of the "credit card" joke my sister told me once.
You can admire the beautiful green "right to poop" sticker on the vertical black post.
The builder labor guys complimented me on having all the plumbing in one spot. YA!! AND interior wall. The shortest heat tube goes through the kitchen and bath areas on either side of that. Kitchen faces south. The roll of tubing on the left of the picture is where the manifold will be. It ends up under the kitchen counter. I had wanted it in the bathroom but at 4'10" wide, with a 2'6" door...and a water supply pipe (that might actually be in the kitchen??? was supposed to be in the bathroom but the wall is 2" thick max so things have floated back and forth around it. I don't really care...drill a hole and voila...water supply and most incoming water plumbing back in the bathroom), it was too crowded. So I remembered I didn't have to put this near the hot water heater. If I put solar units on the south 2nd story wall or porch roof, I'll want that thing on the south wall anyway. And it sorted out the tubing plan.
I must have done a dozen tubing lay outs. All of which would have worked and none of which we ultimately used. Bits of each. The boards are where walls will be more or less. It struck me last night on layout 3001 that I had TOO MANY TUBES going through the bathroom if the main manifold is in there. I'd be melting the toilet wax ring all damn winter. That is apparently a thing based on the BIG RED LETTER WARNINGS in the installation manual. Moving the manifold simplified the layout and limited the number of tubes that had to cross each other.
Turning also turned (HA) out to be the biggest installation challenge. So, at the suggestion of EG, a super friend and helper, we went the long way on the north living room and south/east living dining area. BINGO. Saved tubing and labor and it was easier to get into the vestibule where the solar batteries will live.
I thought to switch the supply/return path on the north loop so the sleeping area will get the water after the living area. I like a chilly bedroom.
Now I'm wondering if I could hook up inground tubes through the landscape around the house but deep in the ground and chill the floor in the summer.
One helper (Hi C!!) suggested that this heated floor will be excellent for passing out drunk so I need to start drinking ASAP.
Cousin-in-law BG (not a real relative...no Norwegian has that status) had already suggested drinking when the first plumbing inspection was a fail and there was 2 days to hit the next inspection. I may consider it next week. The concrete pour will either happen or not happen. Either way, I will be stressed out.
In better news...my hair is suddenly down to my belt! And NO I did not switch to high-waisted pants. Since I am the shortest waisted person in the west, I'm sticking with the low waisted ones. I keep the hair braided pretty much all the time so I hadn't noticed it got longer.
SP and JH let me mooch a shower today and I went for the hair. My head was encased in a hard cap made of dust and scalp grease welded to hair. Like adobe...hairdobe? I can't imagine what it did to their drain. But hey, if they need a new drainpipe run, I not only know how, I have enough plumbing parts in the car and on the porch to do it.
Thank you to one and all who have helped, visited, encouraged and brought sustenance and expertise (except the Norwegians)
Since I'm mostly showering at the gym, especially in winter, it's kind of a pain to do the baking soda and vinegar rinse. It takes a while and I hate to have the shower running for 20 minutes. In the summer, using a bucket or big bowl of water, it is easier to get my hair wet (natural oils repel water...probably one of the reasons head hair evolved was to keep the brain warm and keeping cold rain/snow off the head helps with that) and I don't have a shower running the whole time. Shutting the shower off at the gym and hanging out in the stall just raises questions.
So, the system no is to mostly just rinse the heck out of the hair while scrubbing my scalp with my finger tips and nails. This is followed with a some diluted vinegar in a reused small dish soap bottle scavenged from work. I can squirt this all over my hair and work it through, let it rest in there while I finish up showering, then rinse and finish with a cold rinse. I step to the side of the main stream of shower water and just put my head in for the cold rinse. Fortunately the gym has big shower stalls with room to hang a towel and clothes and get dressed...and to step away from the water during the cold hair rinse.
I brush it well every couple of days.
In the last week I've gotten multiple compliments on my hair. Apparently this is working.
I do the rinse bit once a week or 10 days. Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I'm not out working in dusty conditions while sweating. Winter is good for that.
I am also keeping my hair braided most of the time including at night. My hair tangles easily and in the past I've had whole chunks of hair missing from coat-collar length down due to tangles and rats from rubbing on coats and shirt collars. Even in a pony tail it was suffering snarls and breakage. Keeping it braided seems to prevent those issues.
It's braided overnight because in the winter I wear a hoody to bed. Or sometimes a hat. It's warm when I GO to bed, but not always when I wake up so the head cover really helps.
The braiding, less washing, brushing, etc, has resulted in longer hair than I've had in a while. I haven't had a cut or trim since 1989 so the length is related to the health and breakage alone.
There is a question mark on that because the discussion is so often presented as "must save 1million dollars!
It's as if f Dr. Evil were in charge of retirement planning...
There is no way in heaven or hell, or even in places that actually exist, that I will have 1 million dollars for retirement. Not happening.
So, can I retire?
What about Social Security? I hear that it might go bankrupt any minute. But will it? Just because less will be coming in, fewer workers per retiree etc, doesn't mean it immediately heads to zero or that we can't start taxing the wages above whatever the current top limit is for SS tax (seriously, there is a top limit...I'll never hit it). But, what if it DOES still pay out at something near the current rate.
Here is a spot to find out approximately what you'll get: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/
You can see it in today's dollars or future dollars. It did NOT say "zero." I will get something.
I have a retirement plan at work, 401k type. I contribute to get the maximum match from my employer.
I could contribute more but I'm going a different route.
I'm cutting expenses.
IF I can get expenses down below my estimated social security payment, then my work retirement account will be there to cover slack and unexpected expenses.
First, I do not currently have any debt and I take drastic lifestyle measures (to some, they don't seem drastic to me) to avoid debt. E.g., I live in a shed and a camper. I paid cash on the barrel head for my current car. For my land. I have a small solar system for which I paid cash. Same with the well. My only recurring monthly out of pocket expenses at the moment are my cell phone and a storage unit with the stuff I hope to put in the future cabin I hope to build without debt. Annually I pay car insurance and a healthcare/fitness program that I choose to fund and find worth the expense at this time. The healthcare/fitness could be dropped if I lose some income. As could the cell phone. There is no TV expense, no internet, no utility bill of any kind (no utilities...like I said, some might find that drastic).
And of course, taxes on the land which I am working to keep to the minimum, like everyone else.
I do spend on travel, gifts, and other things. Those expenses can be minimized or eliminated if need be.
Food...I'm going to need that. I'm always trying to find ways to be cost effective with food. Eating crap processed foods...which I do...is not the best. While it can seem cheaper up front, one is not healthy on that. And, turns out it's not cheap. So, I try to eat as much whole food, cooked from scratch, as possible. I'm also working on growing more food. I have space, but not much decent soil so it takes time to get that going. I do have 2 apple trees, some berries, and a small garden. I have access to a cheap fishing license and stocked trout ponds which I could take better advantage of.
In the coming months, I'm going to focus back on eating whole foods, more fruits and veg and working to get my "added sugars" down to the recommended levels (6 teaspoons a day...which is 24 or 25 grams). Since it's hard to tell how much of the "sugar" on a food label is added, the easiest way is going to be by not eating food that comes with nutrition labels! Hello produce aisle, farmers market, and maybe a CSA. And of course, gardens, sprouting jars, and the like.
I doubt I can totally eliminate packaged or restaurant food (much added sugar there too) or that I want to, but as I eat up what I have and even throw out some of the worst, I'll focus on replacing it with actual produce and meat.
So, I need to move many straw bales. I've been moving them by hand and with a wheelbarrow.
Why do I need to move them? I'm stuffing them in the erosion problem and spreading them over the bare dirt that will run down the hill this winter without some help. When one's land is made of snot (actually, it's mostly clay. Clay and live gopher meat), one must try to keep it in place. It needs some organic matter.
So, I got a bunch of straw bales. Chopped straw is used on erosion issues.
I don't have a picture of the bales stuffed in the erosion issue. The "erosion issue" is also known as "the path of the water line from the well head many hundreds of yards up the hill to the storage tank." With the top of the tank also just being bare clay dirt that turns into runny snot. The waterline path was an actual river all last winter and spring and eroded into a mini-canyon with depths varying from 2 inches to 2 feet, width from about 4 inches to nearly a foot. Cripes. SO. I thought long and hard and decided if everyone else puts a few bales crosswise, I will also put a few bales crosswise to the problem, and a whole bunch more stuffed down IN the problem. Then, I plant them with whatever seeds I can get my hands on.
The bales I got are not organic. One only has so much money and time and I appreciate the farmer letting me know what the main herbicide is. No broad leaf type things will grow. BUT the bales will double as thistle killer so that could be handy. I will try to get organic next time. For now I am working with what I have.
Anyway, moving them by hand, carrying, turned out to be OK when they were dry. At least OK for the first dozen and if I wasn't going far. It's hard on the back. And the butt. I started using the wheelbarrow which was much better, but required that I carefully place the bale to avoid tipping it over AND that I balance the thing on the way to where it went. Still, a good option for part of the job.
Removing all of the lifting seemed like a better idea. So I got a utility sled:
It is "Otter" brand. I haven't tried others. It's made to move stuff around. I measured the interior below the curve on the leading edge. It is just big enough for 1 bale. If I got one big enough for 2 bales, I'd try to do more weight than I could handle.
Here it is with a bale in it.
Works great. The bales were stacked so I could put the sled by the side of the pile, pull a bale over the edge so it fell in. Then I pull it with the included rope (which is crap but when it breaks I'll find something better), to where it goes. Tip the whole thing over and go get the next one.
I had all the bales stuffed in the path of the erosion issue so I was spreading some out around the bare earth. I cut the strings off and raked the straw over the exposed ground, which had some seed on it.
As for the bales in the erosion issue. I've added "nitrogen" to almost all of them now (yes, pee). I also spread rye grass seed and whatever other random seed on them. They are also sprouting lots of wheat. WHATEVER. All biomass is good.
As I was raking this straw about over the bare spots, it was covering clover and rye grass and winter pea seed. It was also upsetting the odd gopher. A group of vehicles on the highway were treated to the site of an old woman with a garden rake madly slamming it randomly and wildly into the ground. Had they been closer, they could have seen that I was trying to impale a gopher. So much for my karma. Though I'm pretty sure he escaped unscathed.
Or I could have called it "The Accidental Orchard"
Or "What Am I Thinking"
Or "Good Lord I Hope the Well Pump Gets Fixed Before All the Trees Die"
Anyway, I was talking to my gramma (I'd say "Hi Gramma" but seriously, a 95 year old woman without a computer is NOT going to read this and could give zero craps about a shout out on the internet), and she asked what I'd been planting and I offered to write up a list. While doing that, I realized I hadn't made an overall list before so best to get on that and make a copy before I sent it.
Here it is, along with a very very bad sketch map of what is where. If you click on them for biggification, you can read any portions of the pictures that the internet is hiding from you for reasons I don't understand.
Is it any wonder I have developed a creepy "Madonna" vein in my left arm? You know, the icky sticky outy steroid-addled-weightlifter type vein also seen on the aging and underweight singer, Madonna
For the record, my arms are not that gross and my boobs do not look like creepy welded on orange-halves.
Anyway, I've been driving a shovel quite a bit lately. FINALLY those months of archaeology fieldwork have come in handy. I can quickly dig a very tidy hole in the ground. I'm getting better at stuffing a tree in it. Or a raspberry, or etc.
Did a few minutes of online research today about where to put the remaining trees. The mulberries will probably go west of the cabin site near the aronia berries. I'd like them a west and a bit north to shade the west side of the future imaginary slightly larger cabin, but we run into hose length issues.
The lindens probably down in a low area with more soil than the hill sides and more moisture. Will be a pain in the butt for a few years while I have to water (no hose will reach, dipping buckets from the creek or walking buckets down from the max reach of the hose will be the options), but after that, the trees should be happy and self-supporting. I may have a couple of these trees already. Need to check out a tree identification key. I'm assuming the library has that. These trees have edible leaves that make a spinach or lettuce substitute. Nice.
I'll be getting fruit, greens and protein from trees. The Siberian Pea shrubs are nitrogen fixing and put out a peapod like thing which you can eat like a peapod and if you let them mature, the seeds can be used like lentils. The leaves are nitrogen rich and can be spread around nitrogen weak areas. I may want more of these.
The ginkos aren't picky about where to live and grow. This is actually making it harder to decide what to do. Do I stick them up the hill for a spectacular attractive display from the road? And years of carrying water UPHILL until they are established? Put them in the wooded area by the creek so that as the other trees die off, these will be established and filling in? Or down in the lower area with the good soil near the lindens (which are also called basswoods...I remember the basswood from our house on 4th avenue...the one that pruned itself on to the suburban)?
With the chestnuts (heh heh...I said "nuts") and a couple of other things I reviewed what the tree/shrub wanted in an environment, because I never have ALL of that in one spot, how big it will want to grow, and that sort of thing, then picked one up and carried it around a bit until I hit a spot that seemed like a good compromise. I have decided to call this "Tree witching" (like water witching) and that it makes me a tree whisperer. But I shan't advertise my services until it's clear that I'm successful in finding just the right spot.
The next steps are: GET MORE HOSE! Good hose, preferably drinking water quality as I'm sick of pouring icky chemicals on the planet and down my gullet. Most garden hoses are full of toxins that are released especially when hot, like say while out in the sun and full of water. Barf. I probably have hose poisoning from my childhood when we drank out of them all the time. I bet we had to do that because Sher wouldn't let our filthy butts in the house (Hi Sher!).
I'm at the LIMIT of what I can hope to keep watered and take care of for now. So, I'm declaring a tree/shrub moratorium until late fall. By then I should know what seems to be doing well, what needs replaced, and have some idea of what I'd like more of. I will also know if I can care for any more in year 2.
Already I'm noticing a few stupid choices. I THOUGHT I had planned the open route down the hill from the cabin site, and the imaginary future cabin site, and kept it clear of the orchard plants. But then this morning I walked to and then got in the car, parked at the creek at the bottom of the hill east of the cabin, the hill with many many of these orchard plants. On the walk I thought "why did I plant the THORNY black berries right in my walking path?"...those may need to move. We'll see. Once in the car, I looked back up at the cabin and CRAP! A plum is right in the path for deliveries of things like wood, dirt, supplies for the future imaginary cabin. These things may need to move. We'll try it through the summer and see how it goes.
The location of the spigot turned out to be more important than I had realized. It's in a pretty good spot so it's workable, but I do need more hose. I want to leave lengths of hose strung to the far flung areas and just haul the shorter bit connecting to the spigot around to hook them up for watering. I will need to water for a year or two. If this summer is as hot as last (Sweet Bee-sus* let's hope not!), I will be watering one area or another or multiples every evening.
Let me also thank Sweet Bee-sus* for my realization a few years back that I had to get in better shape if I was going to make a go of this off-grid nonsense. I lost some tonnage, not a huge amount but every pound off the butt is a pound of water (which is about a pint) or whatever that I can now haul around. Obviously there is a lower limit to this metric and I'm nowhere near it but do not plan on losing any more weight.
Then a year and a half ago or so, I decided to fix the bum arm and build some muscle. Been working out since then (which may have contributed to the icky madonna vein, see above). It's been worth it. I made at least 10 trips up and down the central hill yesterday, most of them hauling a plant, a hose, and/or water in a bucket, and once my composting toilet bucket, and I was able to get up today without more than the usual amount of groaning.
So, that is where I'm at right now. The next blog entry will review the places I've been getting most of the plants. Both are awesome. (Crap...now I've ruined the ending!)
*Bee-sus is a reference to a text exchange amongst friends and family (not that I'm not friends with my family) about my bees when I got them. See this entry for an explanation:
No offense is intended, it's just that since getting that hilarious text, I have this cartoon character of "Bee-sus" in my head. A shout out to the contributor of that pun! Hi Cupcakes...you know who you are.
Well, so far so good. I'm still "no 'poo" and still using the baking soda scrub with apple cider vinegar rinse.
This is slightly difficult to maintain when traveling, especially outside the US where I may not know the local word for either product. In those cases I've used a good scrubbing of my scalp under hot water, followed by a rinse with whatever acid I can get (any light colored vinegar or lemon juice diluted in water), and a cold finishing rinse. Works well.
A few times I've been traveling in the US and too busy/harried/tired to get to a store after a flight to get vinegar and baking soda, or I forgot. In that case if I've got no acid source (batteries are NOT an option...or I would have stolen them out of the remote at a variety of hotels), I do a conditioner only job. Just we the hair good, scrub the scalp with fingers to get up the 'druff and larger crud. Then glop on lots of conditioner and work it through well. Then rinse. Keep rinsing. Still rinsing. Always rinsing. Finally, a cold water rinse. It works OK but there is some itchy scalp from the chemically product my head is no longer used to and it doesn't last as long as the baking soda/ACV method on my hair.
It's been pretty easy doing this off-grid in the summer. A jug of water in the sun for the day is plenty hot enough to wash hair at night. For the cold water rinse...the ice water melting in the frozen jug in the cooler that's always there does the trick. well!
Winter off-grid with no home shower has been tougher. When I travel the first thing I do upon arrival at a hotel, if I drove, is get out the baking soda and ACV and have at it. Then again before I leave at least a rinse with vinegar and cold water. I've conditioner-onlied at the gym (where I shower most of the time) but it takes a while and one doesn't want to hog the public shower. I've also gone to a friends' house and bogarted a shower and hair wash.
It's nearly warm enough to go back to the outside washing which is my favorite now. Uses the least water and I throw the used water on the shrubbery so it's not wasted.
As for the hair. Still nice. Most days when I've washed my hair it's too slick to stay in a pony tail so that's about the only day it's down. People often compliment it. There are broken bits here and there, but there always were and they correspond to where my pony tail holder hits (yes, it's metal free, but my hair is thin and wispy compared to most), where my glasses hit, or some other mechanical breakage source. I don't think I can blame the no 'poo.
And pretty non-greasy even if I have to go 10 days without a wash. I do go to the gym and lift weights and get sweaty so it isn't that I'm just keeping it clean. There IS less dust in the winter around here so that does help keep the hair less grimy. Anyway, as long as I brush it well with a boar bristle brush a time or two a day, I can get away with 10 days without a wash. I'd rather wash more often.
This one is my fault.
I know I live in a hay field and park the car on the edge of it, over the wee bit of gravel. I also know that it is winter and that the mice, and they are legion, are running out of food.
I also know that I eat in the car and that that is a bad idea. The idea was to keep the mice out of the house. So not eating in the shed-home because that would draw mice, you see. And also, it would make everything in the wee space stink of whatever I just cooked. So a bit of soup and boiled eggs (which does make it stink of boiled eggs) now and then, boiled water for tea and coffee. That's about it for cooking in there this winter with a couple of exceptions (which is how I really learned that if you fry sausage in there, your clothes smell of sausage...all your clothes...and the walls).
Anyway, I haven't actually seen the mouse/mice in the car. But I've seen there work. By work, I mean poop. And a chewed finger of a glove.
So, I warned them and then put out some poison. Turns out De-Con isn't what it used to be. It's little bricks now, not the blue pellets. And it's missing the ingredient that stayed in the dead mouse bodies and poisoned whatever ate them, and whatever ate that, etc. So, the mice/mouse started munching on that. A lot. Either I had a lot of constipated mice (there weren't that many poops), OR I had one giant mouse with a high tolerance for whatever the lesser poison is in that little brick.
It ate for days. And days.
I was going to be gone for a bit and parked on pavement at the airport (stupidly I forgot the overall plan and parked near the shrubbery at the edge of the parking lot, but whatever, fewer mice than at home). I put out all the little bricks, 3 or 4 of them. And left it for 2 weeks.
I have seen no further mouse signs but I'm keeping an eye out and being very vigilant about keeping all car food in a sealed container. It will still attract them, but they won't be eating it. I hope.
Yes, not having food in the car would be even smarter, but also super inconvenient.
The car was in for oil this week and I asked if they saw any mouse signs in the engine...NO! Yeay. I don't know if I should put poison under the hood or if it is also a bait and every mouse would take a bite of wiring as it made its way to the poison-bate.
So I've been thinking a bit about water. OK. I've been thinking a great deal about water. Like I need a well and it's expensive and you don't know the price until it's done and in.
I'm still hauling water a gallon at a time from work and from friend's houses and from wherever I find myself. I keep the empty gallon jugs in the car and fill up as I go. A friend just asked if she could have a couple of gallon jugs for a raft trip and I blanched...uh...they are all in a constant rotation and in use.
There you have the first useful thing: Gallon jugs. Bigger containers are fine too, but not as useful. One can discretely fill a gallon. Filling a 5 gallon is less discrete and requires a spigot and/or a hose or filling a gallon which you then dump into the bigger jug. FYI: garden hoses are chock full of toxins that they leach into the water. I don't want to use them for drinking water.
Here's my current system for the gallons: Fill 2 or 3 per day during the work week. 2-3 at a time are in the freezer part of the work fridge. These are swapped out every 2 days and taken in a transport cooler to my homestead where transfer them into the 2-3 coolers I have with chill foods in them. The thawing gallons from the chill food coolers go into the empty transport cooler. One often just becomes the current drinking supply. The chilly thawing ice water is used for the final hair rinse or refreshing drink. I also use that transport cooler and the thawing gallons to chill left overs or new foods headed to the chill coolers. That saves my frozen gallons in the chill cooler for an extra several hours. I can usually make it 2 days, unless it's in the 90s, on one ice transport. The weekends are a challenge when it's hot. Sometimes I will run errands in the town where I work, which is not the preferred errand town, so that I can pick up fresh frozen gallons. Not ideal, but cheaper than a well and an electrical system.
That system brings up another extremely useful thing for this makeshift water system: a good cooler. Right now I have 5. Only one was bought new and that was about 2 decades ago. One is a vintage metal cooler. It's rugged but doesn't hold cold very well so it is a transport cooler and has another task that will appear later or in another blog. One was a cast off from a friend that I meant to use just for one trip, but it fit so well on the floor of the car and is a great size in general...a frozen gallon fits well and leaves room for a dozen eggs right on top of the gallon (this is the non-handle tall square gallon water style, not the milk jug style). The other two are recent thrift buys because the system is better with a spare or two.
At the end of a day, if there is a partial gallon and I'm not short on drinking water, I empty the partial into a sun tea style glass jar with a spigot at the bottom. I have a one gallon one inside the camper at the sink for hand washing and whatever. A 2 gallon model is on the old library desk that serves as an outdoor kitchen area. It is over a 5 gallon bucket so the drain water can be reused.
Which leads to the 5 gallon buckets...so many uses. In the water system they are my drains and my irrigators. Often one serving both purposes. If there is nothing greasy or soapy in the drain bucket water (and I try to keep both out of there), it can go on the garden or compost pile. If it's greasy or soapy it goes either down a gopher hole as gopher harassment, or into the bucket-trap for mice.
I also use buckets, these a bit smaller than 5 gallon, to haul water from the creek to the holding tank buy the garden bed. We'll get to the tank in a moment. The haul buckets are smaller because 1) I had them on hand and 2) easier to carry 3 gallons on each hand than 5 gallons on each hand. They are 3 gallon buckets from the recycling center's free-bucket bin. If people have used buckets or rubber tubs or whatever, they put them in the bin and anyone can take them and use them. I have another bucket at the creek. I walk down to the creek, not far, yards rather than miles, use the creek bucket to fill the haul buckets. Then up the bank and pour into the holding tank.
So...the holding tank. This is a LARGE plastic tub I got at....the recycling center free bucket bin. Lots of things go in there. It holds about 10 haul buckets worth of water. It would technically hold more but the wall strength isn't there. It's starting to break so I keep the level down. I do haul two final buckets from the creek and just leave the water in the buckets. For a hot week, I haul twice a week or so. On a not-hot week, once a week will be enough for the raised bed and all the containers to stay watered. The holding tank isn't totally necessary, but really helpful. For one, it allows the sediment to settle out. For another, the water warms through the day and I tend to water in the evening when the shade hits the garden. This way the water soaks in and the plants have time to take it in before it evaporates in the morning. The warmer water won't shock the roots.
There is another portion of the water system...warm water. A few elements contribute to this.
Solar shower. I have one. It's 2 years old and I left it lying outside all winter. Still good. 15$. Worth it. It says it will hold 5 gallons but then I'd have to lift 5 gallons over my head and tie it up. That's a great deal of weight and water. I usually have 1-2 gallons in it. On a sunny day it heats up nicely. On a not so sunny day I can add a tea kettle of boiling water and it's good enough.
Tea kettle...for heating water for everything including showers, tea, coffee, and dish washing...on cloudy days.
Clear 3 gallon jugs are another key element in the warm water system. These look like the jugs one sees in office water coolers, but smaller. I have 2 3 gallons and also have 4 of the large 5 gallon versions. All but one of these is from the free bucket bin. The other is from next to a dumpster at a state park. I cleaned them with borax followed by vinegar. The new, shiny, clean ones are drinking water storage. The questionable ones are the warm water system. Just fill and leave in the sun. It gets plenty warm enough to do dishes, wash hair, fill the gap when I forgot to ready the solar show in time to heat it up. The 3 gallon size is manageable. the 5 gallon size is heavy and awkward which is why they ended up as long term storage rather than active use.
That's about it for the water system. It works well and other than buying gallons of water initially, often at the dollar store, to get the gallon jugs, it's free.
So, in no particular order let's start with the bread and breadlike products:
This bread was quite heavy since I made with 100% sprouted whole wheat flour, a bit of yeast, salt and water. That's it. It rose really fast due to extreme heat. I punched it down and threw it in. Then it didn't rise so much but it's QUITE good. And it is keeping well. I've left it in the pan (metal plus lid equals mouse proof...also, I took it in to work with a jar of almond butter I got on super sale to use for lunches this week)
This is service berry bread! Service berries are similar to huckleberries or blueberries but grow on tall bushes and are easy to harvest. IF you beat the birds to them. It took me 3 or 4 days to accumulate a cup and a half. Birds love them and I'm not going to put netting over random shrubs and make life harder for the birds this year. Anyway, first I soaked the berries in my homebrewed honey vinegar to make a sort of shrub liquid to add to water, ginger ale, whatever. It's delicious. The berries are of course still good and a bit tangy. I drained off the shrub and used the berries in this.
The berries are a bit vinegary and tart, in a good way. So I cut out one egg and added extra baking soda. The soda mixes with the vinegar as leavening. The vinegar made for a less sweet bread. I'm liking it a lot. In fact, it was gone in 3 days. It was also made with all sprouted whole wheat flour but was not too heavy. Quite moist. Here's a view of it cut.
It was baked in a stainless steel fridge container with a slide on lid (hello mouse proof!) which made it easy to transport and works super well in the solar cooker. I left the lid on for about an hour then took it off for a bit to let the top get a bit more crusty like I like it.
This and the bread above were cooked the same day. The oven ran about 325 steadily without too much turning or aiming. I was a totally sunny clear day with almost no smoke or dust haze. I'm not sure why the oven wasn't hotter. I may need to do a better job getting dust off the mirrors and glass cone.
Here's an earlier whole wheat bread that was WAY too heavy. I still ate it though.
The cooker was running even hotter that day and things got a tad burned.
Below is yet another bread. This one part high gluten flour to help along the sprouted wheat flour. It turned out fabulous. The downside was i ate it all way way too fast.
In the skillet is a squash and amaranth frittata (my word for stuff in eggs, baked or fried). It was actually SO hot and sunny that day that when I opened the cooker and took the lid off the skillet to check the frittata, it was sizzling! The cooker easily hit 375F that day. Putting the cast iron skillet with lid in there, I suspect the frittatta was a bit hotter than that.
All this cooking was in the "Death Ray" or "Solar Chef".
I do still use the cardboard box corner with foil cooker to make my weekend coffee. It isn't ready at 8am, but a lovely cup of coffee at 9:30 or 10 is a good reason for a break from hauling garden water or fretting about plans or whatever. I was talking to Gramma last weekend as I drank that coffee and since I don't bother with careful filtering as I pour it into a cup, I noted that I had hit the grounds. She said her dad's answer to that was another spoon of sugar and then chew. I hadn't added any sugar but I may try it with the grounds.
And finally...my laundry triumph:
2 loads of laundry on the awesome 6$ thrift store purchased rack! (the same one that was inside before) Yeay! That saved me about 4$. And wear and tear on the clothes. And I must say I much prefer the smell of sun and breeze on my clothes to leftover-bounce from public laundromat dryers. These euro style drying racks are more compact than the american ones. So far it's holding up well. The cardboard under it is in case something fell off. And to keep the grass/hay seeds off my clothes. I spend too much time picking pine needles and seeds out of surprising places.
How's that for a dull title? Dull and to the point.
So, I'm living in the camper full time now. Have been for 12 days, though 2 of those nights I was working and didn't get to be here. I'm here now. I think it's the first I've used my computer in the camper. I was trying to watch a DVD but it turns out I have to be connected to the damn internet to set up the DVD player on the computer. Cripes. I've watched other DVDs but I think those videos were burned as computer files and would not have worked in a DVD player. These are actual commercial movie DVDs. Anyway, it ain't a-workin' so I'll work on a blog post that I can put on the interwebs while I'm setting up the damn DVD player. Maybe tomorrow.
As for now in the camper. It's been fine. I don't miss not having electricity. The LED lights, battery, are fine. I found cheapo and reasonably ecologically responsible, though not rechargeable batteries at an outdoorsy store the other day and replaced the batteries in my 2 main LEDs and WOW what a difference. It's like daytime in here at night now. Still, I'm trying to mostly follow the sun for a schedule. I just use them to read in bed. I've only needed them as flashlights one night that was quite cloudy. Otherwise my eyes adjust to the dark and there is enough moonlight and starlight to get to the composting turlet without a flashlight even if I have to make a run in the wee hours.
I am missing having a nearby water source. I'm hauling in water by the gallon in jugs which is fine and most of the world would be delighted to have 10 gallons of clean water at one's disposal at all times. But, hard to wash produce from the CSA and other things without a spigot and running water. The sun shower is fine. The inconvenience is that I live in a draw and the sun goes behind the trees on the west side a couple of hours before actual sunset. At that point, the water in the sunshower starts to cool. I've got about a 20 minute window before it's cold enough to be uncomfortable. When I hit it just right, it's lovely. It does mean that I don't want to do heavy work that would make me sweaty after the shower. Right now that's at like 6:30pm. I'm trying to save making dinner and other non-strenuous activities, but I'm missing quite a few productive hours. A source of warm water and a shower (so I don't have to sleep sweaty and stinky in the trailer and make the whole place reek of armpits and feet) later in the evening would be nice.
The composting toilet...had a bit of a struggle there. I don't have the "bulking mix" (peat moss and hemp) from the factory (cost, allergic to hemp) so I had been using straight peat moss. The turlet started to stink. The point of the turlet is it is not supposed to stink like an outhouse. Hmmm.... So I called the company. I told them I could not use the mix they market due to the hemp so was there something I could do. Yes...wood shavings like you get for your hamster mixed in with the peat. 2 parts shavings to 1 part peat. I've been adding just shavings (you add a cup of mix for each #2, or a minimum of 1 cup per day per person using the turlet) at a higher than normal rate until I catch up. It started stinking less right away. I also added more of the enzyme that is supposed to "activate the composting process." I was also having trouble with ... um ... "material" falling into the lower drawer (that's how the unit is emptied when full) when I did the periodic mixing. (The whole thing is a rotating drum on a horizontal axis. There is a door that you line up with the toilet seat. The door falls open and ideally falls closed as you mix. Turn the drum the other way to empty and the "material" falls out into the drawer to be emptied as fully composted non-stinky product.) The nice lady at the composting turlet company said that sometimes the hinges on the door get "clogged" with "material" and have to be scrubbed out with a toothbrush and the enzyme spray. I, AS A JOKE, said, "I guess that shouldn't be the toothbrush I'm currently using." She, not getting the joke, replied, "A toothbrush you will never use for anything else. Ever." I found one for 50cents. I had to buy one because MY toothbrush is a handle that little fresh brush heads fit into. I've kept dozens of used plastic toothbrush handles out of the garbage stream (not much but one does what one can) not to mention the packaging. I wasn't about to even get the handle anywhere near the "material" clogged hinges. Now I have a turlet toothbrush. If you visit, do not get in the bucket with rubber gloves and a yellow toothbrush and use that toothbrush. Just saying.
After a quick, and icky, scrubbing, I did a test mix and VOILA! It works! Now I'm just missing the little rake used to clean out the "material" that might escape the cleanout drawer. I'm sure something will appear at a thrift store that will be just the ticket.
I'm still considering switching to a simple sawdust bucket toilet after reading "The Humanure Handbook" but so far I haven't taken the plunge. It does sound simpler, though harder to get past the county permit and health inspectors.
Cooking at the camper has been interesting. The stovetop works and it has become clear that I brought too many kitchen items. I brought maybe 10% of what I had in the single-wide. Still too much. I've used the skillet, the tea kettle (for hot water for washing dishes mostly, couple of cups of tea), and a small sauce pan. I did well with the knives though. I brought 3. A Rada paring knife (thanks Sher!), a serrated 5 inch "ginsu" type knife, and a 6 inch chef knife (thanks again Sher). I also have my filet knife. I've used the first three every time I've cooked. Very handy. The spork I got at "The Silver Spork" in DC is my main eating utensil. Fun. (ooo...gorgeous sunset tonight! pink storm clouds). I've been eating mostly off an antique enamelware pie plate. I have other plates but I haven't even bothered getting them out. I've been doing my mixing in (like for french toast) and eating salads out of an oval GI issue stew plate/bowl thing. Coffee is made either in my wee bialli style espresso maker (though it had an issue this morning and may need a new gasket), or my french press travel mug.
I brought 3 thermoses (is that the right plural?) thinking I'd heat up water in the evening and store it in a thermos so I could wash my face in warm water in the morning. Haven't bothered. I have an ice-tea-jar with a spigot on it on the back of the sink. I fill that with water and it makes for a reasonable faucet for tooth brushing and hand and face washing. I use "Camp Suds" biodegradable soap for everything so far. It looks like one small bottle will get me through this time no problem. For showers and handwashing after using the toilet I put a squeeze bottle, like you'd have dishsoap in, with mostly water and a bit of the Camp Suds mixed in, near the turlet/shower area (under the west side of the spruce tree) and that's been working just fine. I couldn't tolerate not washing my hands after I use the toilet. I have the toilet covered with an old sheet (so the sun doesn't wreck the fiberglass it is made of) and I've been using that as a hand towel. I had hung a hand towel up there but it kept blowing off the hook/twig. I'll just wash the sheet like I would the towel. I do admit that after having to scrub the hinges and otherwise deal with the toilet the other day, I didn't find the squeeze bottle wash very satisfying. So I walked 10 or 15 minutes to the far north edge of the land, crossed over to the rest stop next door, and used the sink there with hot running water and industrial soap. The irony is that that industrial non-biodegradable soap will end up in the septic drain field for the rest stop...which is on my land.
That little trip brings us to another fun bit of living here (over all it's fabulous!). On the way to the rest stop I was walking over the septic drainfield vicinity, which I don't often do. At the very north edge along the east-west fence on the boundary with neighboring properties...GIANT POO! Either moose with a mild case of diarrhea from too much fruit, or a bear with a bit of constipation from too much grass. It looks more like the bear poo in my poo field guide. But I've seen moose poo at the north west end, and this was the north east end. Exciting. On the way back from the rest stop I accidentally flushed a large family of quail! I added them to my notes in the bird book (Thanks again Sher!) of what I've seen. There were cedar waxwings eating bugs over the pond the other day too. Very cool. I haven't identified the humming bird who eats at the feeding hanging off the camper. I'm sure it's not exotic but I just haven't grabbed the book while it was actually there eating. It has a surprisingly long beak and isn't very colorful. Must be a female (due to coloring, not beak format).
Gram and a variety of other relatives got me an excellent wildlife camera with external solar panel back up on the battery. I first set it up on the island (now peninsula because most of the water is gone) in the pond. I put it on a milk crate as there wasn't a tree or post. I set it for motion detection and to take photo every 15 minutes. I went back a couple of days later and grabbed it to see what I had. Well, it seems after a couple of hours it fell over. I had many many photos of blurry ground. A couple photos of me setting up the camera. Sigh. I decided to put the camera somewhere handier while I learned the ins and outs of it. It's quite a hike to the pond and I didn't want to use up my precious pre-shower-post-work window running after it. Now it's on the front of the camper on the non-active propane tank. At last check, I had about a hundred really nice photos of an empty hay field. I'd like to point it west past the toilet but I don't have anywhere to hang it that wouldn't also shoot me as I use the toilet and shower. No one wants to see that. Once I get the hang of it, I may try back up at the north end, or if I can find something to hang it on, I'll point it at the culvert crossing the creek on the east side of the property. There is plenty of poo on that so I know things are crossing it. I also know these things are deer but photos of deer would be more interesting than photos of an empty field.
It's 8:07pm and quite dark now. I think I'll bag it for the evening. I'm sure I'll wake up at 4am per usual, but such is life on the land. It's not just that the sun is about to come up and things are getting light at 4am, that's also the time the semi's start going up and down the road again and I don't have much sound isolation from the road here in the camper. I don't mind though. It doesn't really matter which 8 hours I sleep as long as I sleep. The lack of security lights shining in the windows is wonderful! In the single wide I had 3 layers of dark fabric over the south windows and "room darkening shades" over the east windows and STILL I could practically read without turning a light on. I was having trouble sleeping. Not here. It's dark and the wind and frogs and crickets are quite soothing. The occasional thumping on the camper weirds me out but so far it's come to nothing.
