Power Outage in December

 A few days ago our power went out at midnight due to heavy rain and wind. That is not a good omen really, what will happen if and when we get a heavy, wet snow? 

 I woke up at 0500 hours and noticed the night light in the bathroom was out and it was a bit chilly in the house. At that point, I did not know how long the power had been out but I figured it had been a couple hours.

 First order of business was to get some light so I could move around the house to get other stuff done. 

 We have an all-electric house and so  emergency lighting is critical. We have a number of battery-powered lamps in a bathroom closet as well as an oil lamp. There are flashlights stashed a round the house so we can grab a light no matter where we are when the power goes out. I have a light hanging from the headboard of my bed, for example.

 Next, get some heat going. We have a woodstove insert in our living room and I got a good fire going. The wood stove has a blower than moves air around the firebox and then blows it out into the room, but that needs electricity.

I bought this from Northern Tools almost twenty years ago. It will heat my entire house and keep it above 60 degrees as long as I can run some fans to move the air around.

 

 I bought am Ecoflow Delta 1,300 "Solar Generator" a few years ago and this was the first time we really needed to use it for back-up power. It was charged to 100% using the four 100-watt solar panels that came with it. The battery capacity is 1.3 kilo watts and it can power anything up to 3,000 watts.

 I hooked up the wood stove fan, a second fan at the end of the room to move heat out into the rest of the house, a recliner, and we charged our phones using this Ecoflow unit. The two fans ran continuously for five hours and ran the unit down to 85%. At that rate, I could easily run the fans for a bit more than 30 hours without a recharge. That would normally be enough for downed power lines. But I do have the ability to recharge the batteries via solar panels or with my gas generator. The generator will charge the system to 100% in 30 minutes. Solar charging is 100% dependent on how much sun there is.

 I have a larger Ecoflow Delta Pro system in the basement that has a capacity of 7.2 kilowatt hours. It will eventually be wired into my home's circuits through a transfer panel. But for this outage, I had to run an extension cord upstairs. I connected the refrigerator and the modem/WiFi router to have internet. After five hours I used 10% of the available power so I could potentially go for just under 50 hours if needed without recharging. I will have 1,800 watts of solar panels set up soon to recharge the system and I can also hook up the gas generator if needed.

You can buy a refurbished system for $1,999. They are repaired at the factory. This single unit is a 3.6 kilowatt hours system. I added an additional battery to bump it up to 7.2 kilowatt hours.

 

 We keep 20 gallons of water in Jerry cans at all times so cooking and flushing toilets is covered. We also generally have a case of bottled water on hand.

 This outage was only ten and a half hours and it was a good drill to practice our preparations and tweak anything that needs to be altered. But, truthfully, everything went as planned so other than getting my larger solar generator wired into the house's circuits, I don't see anything that needs to change. 

Spend a little money to ensure your safety and comfort.

Winter Composting Update

 I have been monitoring my two compost bins to see how well they retain their heat now that we are at the end of December and it goes down into the 20s at night. For the past three weeks the piles are holding at 60 - 65 degrees, which is great. 

 I am still adding small amounts of coffee grounds, obtained from the break room at work. I bring home about a quart of grounds per week, so it isn't much. I do scratch them into the top of the pile but I cannot imagine that they are adding much to the biology of the pile.

 I could turn the pile and possibly generate more heat but the last time I did that I noticed a lot of worms have moved up into the pile and I don't really want to disturb them again. If the pile stays above freezing, the worms will stay active and do as much work as the bacteria would do. The added benefit of the worms is that they produce additional fertilizer through their castings.

 This is the best compost setup I have had and I will get a lot of finished compost by summer, it would appear. I will need it since I built three new beds and will want to add copious amounts of compost to them in the spring.

Getting Organized to Save Resources

 I grew up with a dad that was pretty close to actual genius intellect coupled with an almost eidetic memory. Yet, he never knew where any of his tools, hardware, or other stuff was. Why is that? Partly, because he had the attention span of a gnat and since his brain was always thinking about the next project, trip, or event, his mind was rarely focused on what he was doing at the time. He left most projects 80% done, never to be finished. But the trait that this entry is about was his inability to know where his stuff was. He never put anything away. Typically, his tools would be left wherever they were last used or they were in a bucket or box that he used to carry them back to our shop in the barn

 I was the only boy in the family so I was often assigned projects by my dad, such as repairing a piece of farm equipment or building a cold frame for the garden. Or, quite frequently, I was asked by my mom to complete one of my dad's half-finished projects. Fine, I was good at this. The problem was I could never find the tools or hardware I needed. 

 Every winter, after the hunting and trapping seasons were over, I would go over to our shop, get a good fire going in the potbelly stove, turn the radio on, and get to work organizing the tools and hardware. And every winter I would find the "lost" tools stashed in a box or bucket out in the barn having never made it back to the shop. When I eventually got everything back in its place I would find that we now had two, three, or sometimes four of many tools, extra packets of screws, boxes of nails, packs of wire nuts, etc. etc. These were all new things he bought because he couldn't find what he already had.

 I won't lie, I have a genetic predisposition to be as lackadaisical as my dad but I am fully aware of this trait and so I continue my child and teen year's drive to frequently organize. My biggest hurdle is that I have acquired more "stuff" than I have room for. But I do get my storage and work spaces returned to a reasonable degree of orderliness.

 If you are a long time reader, you might remember that while in the Army I had access to dumpsters and worksites where way too much brand new hardware was simply thrown away to avoid re-shelving it back at their shops.  Consequently, I have loads of misc. nuts, bolts, nails, and other small hardware items. I had them in various large boxes, Tupperware, cans, bags, etc. But it was hard to know what I had when I needed something for a construction project or a repair. Last year I decided to fix that.

 I used some scrap 2x4s and one inch plywood pieces from an old entertainment system cabinet I took apart for the wood to build this shelf unit for my hardware parts trays. The top two shelves are for purchased boxes of screws and some catch-all bins for misc. pieces. Behind me, when I took this picture, is an old jelly cabinet I hung on the wall, which has dozens of peanut and coffee cans full of bulk nuts and bolts, hose clamps, etc. (It is astounding the stuff that gets thrown away at construction sites and by the Army maintenance workers.)

 I used to keep my hunting, fishing, and camping gear in the basement but two years ago my wife emptied some shelves that are in the hallway between my house and our attached apartment. I brought up the fishing and kayaking gear that I use the most so that I wasn't going up and down the stairs so much. After a season of grabbing stuff and then hastily putting it back at the end of a weekend, this area was in a sad state of disarray. Yesterday, I fixed that. 

 I have a couple pieces of salvaged peg-board in my basement workshop and I wanted to be able to hang a few items for a grab and go. The grey cabinet came from a local firehouse that was renovated two years ago. I mounted the peg-board to that shelf with some salvaged oak I got at a cabinet factory. The hangers for the peg-board were salvaged from behind a retail store many years ago. Now I can see the items that I need for certain weather conditions or the type of fishing trip I will do.

  The two brown shelf units were part of a German Schrank (living room cabinet unit) we had when I was in the Army. The other parts of the Schrank eventually broke or became unsightly but these two pieces are still solid. I spent two hours sorting all my lures and putting them into trays by type or by the location they will be used. I have one tray that is just for use on a certain river I fish in New York and I have another tray that is lures I use on the Lehigh River in my state. These lures are those that work best at those locations and this way I can just grab that one tray when I go fishing at those places.

 I have two larger lure boxes that hold components for building lures; plastics, creatures, hooks, weights, spoons, etc. I build most of my own weedless lures and like to have all the components easy to have on hand. I now have a well-lite work space to do that kind of work.

 So, final thoughts. Having all this stuff organized generally prevents me from buying components and parts (hardware especially) unnecessarily. I can see what I have quite easily. When I get low in something, I put it on my shopping list and pick it up whenever it is convenient. I can make my own repairs, saving thousands of dollars a year, or I can build things I need at a fraction of the cost of buying the item new. These are good skills for an uncertain future and the money saved can go towards securing food security and buying other necessities.

Recycling Pickle Juice

 This is something I have been doing for a couple decades. I was in the Army for 36 years and have worked for the Army another seven years as a civilian. I move around a lot. As I move from place to place I try the local foods and the local commercial brands of all sorts of stuff. 

 I like pickles. I don't care for some flavors, but in general I do like pickles. It always seemed a shame to pour the leftover pickle brine down the drain once the pickles were gone and I always thought that other vegetables, like onions, peppers, and cauliflower would taste good pickled in that flavor brine. So, I started experimenting with reusing the pickle juice.

 It is a simple, basic process. There is usually enough juice left to make a pint of something else and I have a couple pint-size canning jars. I make sure the jar is spotlessly clean and I always wash the one-time use lid and the reusable sealing ring. I run hot water from the tap into the jar to pre-warm the glass. At the same time, I put the pickle juice in a pan and bring it to a boil. The vegetable I am going to use has already been washed and cut to size to fit in the pint jar. Then, I blanch the vegetable in boiling water for three minutes.

 Next, I empty the warm water from the jar, pack it with the vegetable and then pour the boiling pickle juice in to fill the jar up to one quarter inch below the rim. (Note: You must leave an air pocket in the jar to get a vacuum seal.) I wipe off the rim and lay the lid, rubber seal side down, on the jar and then screw the ring on, snug but not tight.

 The filled jar now goes into a pot of boiling water for five minutes then taken out and set on a cooling rack to cool down. As it starts cooling, it forms a vacuum seal and you will hear a loud, sharp "pop", when the canning jar lid gets sucked tight and slightly indents. 

 Let the jar cool to room temperature and set the jar on a shelf in a cool, dark place and leave it be for a month or two. By then, the vegetable will have absorbed the flavors of the pickle juice and you now have a delicious treat. 

 It takes very little work, costs next to nothing if you are using vegetables from your garden, and it provides long-lasting food for the future. I am currently eating pickled green beans ("dilly beans" some folks call them) that I picked from my garden three months ago. I used leftover brine from a gallon jar of German pickles. This is a good way to utilize excess fresh produce. Pickled onions and peppers are great in a salad, on sandwiches, or just eating by themselves. You retain all the nutrition of the vegetable and add the health benefits of vinegar. 

 

Staying Warm When the Power goes Out

  Modern home heating is effective, efficient, and comfortable. But what happens when the power goes out? All modern heating systems require electricity to operate. My house is 100% electric so when the power goes out the heating system doesn't work. Natural gas and home heating oil burners are also controlled by electrical components. No electricity and they don't operate either.

  One solution is to have a battery back-up or a generator to provide that needed power. It won't work on a 100% electric house like mine, the power requirements are too high, I would require a very powerful, whole-house back-up generator set-up. Those are quite expensive. But if you have coal, oil, or natural gas as your heat source, you can get by with a fairly small amount of battery back-up.

  Gas and oil furnaces need some electric, but not much. You can operate them off of a car battery, the battery from your boat's trolling motor, even the battery from your lawn tractor. Click on this link to see how easy it is to do. (88) Did You Know You Can Heat Your Home With A Car Battery? - YouTube

  You need three things: 1. A 12-volt battery. 2. A DC (Direct Current) to AC (Alternating Current) inverter. 3. An electric cord rated for the amps of your furnace.

  Notes: The bigger the battery, as measured in amp-hours or watt-hours, the better. You will want a DC to AC inverter of at least 600 watts (I would go with 800 watts as a minimum, but they get more and more expensive as they get bigger. Check the label on your furnace to see how many watts and amps it draws.). You probably don't need to buy an electric cord; most likely you have some un-used ones laying around from broken appliances or computers. But they need to be thick, heavy duty cords.

  If you live in an area where the power might be out for extended periods of time, you'll need a means to recharge your battery every two or three days. The best way is to have two batteries so that you can use one while the other is being charged. To recharge your battery, re-install it in your car and run the car for 20-30 minutes. This presumes that you didn't totally discharge the battery to where it won't crank your car engine. If you recharge it every other day, it shouldn't be a problem. 

  Alternately, you can buy and install a small 12-volt solar panel to charge the battery. I keep a tractor, with a snowplow mounted on it in the winter, out in a shed. On very cold days, the battery has a hard time starting the diesel motor. To keep it fully charged, I bought a 15-watt solar panel that has alligator clamps that connects directly to the battery. No charge controller is required for a low-wattage panel such as this. In direct sun, this panel will charge a nearly dead battery in three hours. If you have an access point, you could run the cable inside from outside and continuously charge the battery as it is being used.

  Above is a small selection from Amazon but these panels are sold in lots of places such as Northern Tools and Harbor Freight. For the purpose of emergency backup power, I would go with a minimum of 30-watts since winter days are short and you never know how much sun will be available.

  So, the above information is how to power your furnace. But what do you do if you have electric heat, like I do? It would take a very expensive to buy, and access to a lot of fuel to run, whole-house generator to operate the electric heating elements. For these houses, you will need to have some sort of a combustion heat source. In my case, I installed a wood-burning stove in my living room. I had an existing fireplace, but they are next to worthless for providing heat, Better than nothing, to be sure, but very inefficient. I bought a small woodstove, with an internal blower, and inserted it into the fireplace opening. It will heat the room without the blower operating but it is most effective and efficient with the blower operating; that requires electricity.

  Several years ago, we lost power during a snowstorm and the power was out for five days. Outside temperatures were well below freezing. I got the trolling motor battery out of my dad's boat, connected a 400-watt inverter, and ran my woodstove's blower fan for five days (off and on, not continuously). We were also able to run a box fan at the hallway entrance to the living room to move warm air into the rest of the house. We were able to maintain the house at 65 degrees the whole time with this simple set-up.

  After that experience, I decided to buy an Ecoflow solar generator with 400-watts of solar panels to keep it charged. There are many companies making these solar generators now. Do your own market research and buy the best system you can afford. My unit has a 1,300 watt-hours of power storage capacity and with the panels I can keep it charged indefinitely. My emergency essential power needs are fairly low but yours might be higher. These systems come in all sizes and price ranges. Watch for sales. I recently bought a 7,200-watt hours system at 55% off the normal list price. That is enough power to keep my home going for many days, even without recharging. But I will buy some used solar panels to keep it charged.

  Worst case scenario: You have no power, and you have no means to generate power and you don't have a fireplace or woodstove, how can you keep warm? The best way is to select the smallest room in your house or apartment and congregate there. Human bodies generate heat and getting all your heat into one smaller space will help to warm it up. Bring all your blankets to that room, maybe also enough mattresses so everyone can lie down to sleep and not be on the cold floor. If you don't have a small space (think open floor plans), you can divide off a smaller space with excess blankets, tarps, drop cloths, whatever you have. Remember making forts inside the house when you were a kid? Now that experience can save your life. Use a tent if you have one. Set it up and get everyone inside. Unscented candles are a great source of warmth for small spaces. Place one inside a can or cook pot or something to prevent it from being blown out or coming in contact with people or things that burn. An upside-down terra cotta flowerpot works well so long as there is a wide drain hole on the bottom for air.

CLAY POT HEATER TEST | Does It Actually Work?! (youtube.com)

 NEVER use more than one candle at a time. WARNING OF FLOWER POT CANDLE HEATERS FLASHPOINTS! - (Saving Lives & Saving You Money) (youtube.com)

  There are also indoors safe propane heaters such as the "Mr. Buddy Heater". You should still crack a window to reduce the buildup of carbon monoxide. They work nice, but they go through a lot of fuel.

  Gather your supplies BEFORE you need them. Store them in a convenient place. Inspect them every year.

Recycling Lead

 One of my many hobbies is metal detecting and we find a lot of lead. Lead bullets, lead fishing weights, lead used in plumbing. (The Latin word for lead is "Plumbum", which is where "Plumbing" comes from. The symbol for lead on the Periodic Table is Pb.) Lead has a low melting point, only 621.5 degrees f, which means it can be melted on a simple fire or over hot wood coals. Because of this, lead was used in the old days to make repairs in lots of things. You could melt it and pour it into a cracked pipe to seal it, for example. Thus, lead spills are found on almost every farm.

 

 

 Common sources of lead, for metal detectors, are shown above. At the top are large caliber lead musket balls, each one is about an ounce of lead. In the middle are .22 caliber rimfire bullets, these typically weigh 40 grains (there are 428 grains to the ounce). At the bottom is lead that was spilled onto the ground. I have also found lead pipes, lead toys (they didn't know that lead was toxic back then), lead figurines, and even lead buttons.

 

 Until recently, a good source of used lead, if you needed it, was at the local car repair shop. The weights used to balance a wheel were made from lead. The normal practice was to remove all the weights before rebalancing the wheels and they rarely re-used the ld wheel weights. Yesterday, I picked up over 50 pounds of used wheel weights from a local garage.

 

 Because lead is toxic, many states have banned the use of lead wheel weights (California, Minnesota, Illinois, Maine, New York, Vermont, Washington, New Jersey and Maryland). In those states (and most others) you will find wheel weights made from zinc, steel, or copper alloys. Zinc and steel are the more common forms. Zinc melts at 787 degrees f, so you would need forced air over coals to reach that temperature to melt it for recycling. You are not going to be able to melt the steel weights, but you could fill buckets with them and take them to an iron recycling center.

 Last year, I had more bits of lead than I had space to store it so I decided to melt it down, clean off the dirt/waste materials, and pour the lead into easy to store ingots. To do this, I went to a local antique market and walked through until I found heavy-duty, cast iron ladles, and a cast iron muffin pan. Then all I needed was a hot bed of coals.

 The two ladles I bought worked fine for small batches. This year I bought a much larger one that holds five times as much scrap material.I use the iron rod to stir the melted lead to get the dirt and waste material to float to the top so it can be skimmed off. Lead is very dense so almost any other material in the ladle with float on top of the lead, making it easy to remove.

 Then all you need is a hot bed of coals. I make a fire in my fire pit with hard wood and let it burn down to a deep bed of coals. I then fill the ladle with the scrap lead and place the bowl onto the hot coals. In less that five minutes, the lead melts and sinks to the bottom of the ladle. I use the spoon to skim off the floating waste and dirt and drop that into the can for later disposal. I cannot emphasize enough that lead is toxic. Only do this outdoors when there is a breeze blowing the fumes away from you. Do not spill any lead or the waste material you skim off the melted lead (it is called "dross" and rhymes with "gross") on the ground. If you do, that soil is contaminated and needs to be dug up and disposed of in the trash.

 The ladle and the spoon will get VERY hot. You can use welder's gloves if you have them, to protect your hands. I have a pair of fire fighter's gloves that work great for this task.

 Once you clean the lead, return it to the coals for another minute or two to get hot again. I often times scrape the inside of the ladle to make sure no dirt or foreign material is stuck to the sides. It will float to the top and you can do a final cleaning. Then pour the molten lead CAREFULLY into the muffin pan to the top of each cup. It is a good idea to warm up the muffin pan until it is too hot to touch. This ensures there is no moisture in the cup (pouring molten lead onto moisture will cause a steam explosion) and prevents the pan from cracking due to an extreme temperature change.

 What you end up with is purified lead (probably 90-95% pure) in an easy to stack and store shape. Bars would be better, but I have never seen a bar-shaped cast iron mold though you can purchase bar-shaped ingot molds on the internet. Each one of my lead "muffins" weighs 1/2 pound. I currently have twenty of them safely stored in my basement.

 Now what? That depends on your thoughts about the state of the world I suppose. Lead has many uses for repairs, casting bullets, casting fishing weights, etc. You could sell the lead via online marketplaces. Or, you could hold onto an amount of lead for future bartering.

Chef 5 Minute Meals Ration Taste Test

 

I bought this ration pack a year or two ago for a kayak camping trip but I didn't eat it. It has been stored in my basement since then. Last weekend I consolidated all my camping rations into one large tuff box that I got for free. Someone had placed it out at the curb to be thrown away. These boxes go for anywhere from $79.99 to $119.99, depending where you buy them. What a great save for me.

As I was going through the various freeze-dried foods, cans, and pouches, I came across this 5 Minute Chef meal. I checked the date and the "Best By" date was in August 2023. I am no stickler for these dates, which more often than not are just marketing ploys designed to entice you to either throw food away or quickly eat it and but more. In my cool, dry, dark basement, this meal packet would still be good to eat years from now. BUT, it was the only meal of this type I had on hand and I decided to eat it for lunch at work this past week.

I decided to heat it in the microwave and keep the chemical heater for later use. That is a very small portion, 9 ounces is what the label says. But I took along some naan bread, carrots, radishes, scallions, and a slice of pie for dessert so it ended up being a good meal. By itself it is basically a child's or a small woman's portion though. A full sized adult doing some physical work, such as hiking, would be very hungry afterwards

I give it two thumbs up for taste, texture, and appearance. I very much enjoyed it. It only has 210 calories, making it little more than a snack. It does have 15 grams of protein, which is pretty high for only 210 calories. It had a surprising amount of meat in the sauce. The little oblong meatballs are a perfect size for eating the meal with a spoon. Sodium is not too high, compared to most foods of this type. Sugars and carbs are low, which is one reason why the total calories are so low. Most people would probably want to shake some hot sauce on it to spice up the flavor.

It comes with a chemical heater, which has detailed instructions printed on it. I presume the idea behind the name is that it can be heated in five minutes. These chemical heaters can get very hot and can give off gases that are unpleasant, so it is best to use these outdoors.

It also comes with a plastic spoon and paper napkin. The spoon is way too short, you would never be able to get at the last of the meal without getting sauce all over your fingers. I always carry my own Army MRE spoon with me (several actually), because they are extra long and very sturdy.

This short "spork" is way too small. Oh, the meal pouch does not come open easily, I had to use the scissors of my Swiss Army knife to cut both the main bag that everything came in, and the pouch with the food in it. 

Final Grade: A for flavor and edibility, C for ease of use and serving size, F for long term storage.

These sell for $6.99 and I would consider that a good price for what you get. But you really should only consider it as the entree portion, you will need to add other items to make it a satisfactory meal.

Cash on the Side

 I work out of state and am only home two and a half days a week. But when I fully retire there are some opportunities to earn some cash on the side.

Today, I removed the flail mower from my biggest tractor and hauled it from my farm to my residence, three miles down the road. When I bought this tractor, a Kubota, it was advertised as including a five foot wide underbelly mower. What also came with it, and was not mentioned in the ad at all, was a five foot wide, front mounted snow blower. What it didn't come with was an operator's manual. But I grew up on a farm using 1950s tractors and equipment and our family built and ran a campground, which also had some equipment. As the only boy in the family of seven, it was up to me to do most of the farming and maintenance at the campground (from age nine until I left home at 18). Result" I'm pretty handy and mechanically inclined. I figured out how to mount and operate the snow blower.

The first year I owned it we had significant snow (32 inches in October) and I was in between jobs. I went around my village and volunteered to clear neighbors' driveways and parking lots. Some accepted the free offer and some declined. Some that accepted offered me money after I was done, I hadn't asked for any. Some of the offerings I accepted and some I declined. I know the relative economic standing of most of my neighbors. If I knew they could afford to give me ten dollars, I took it (fuel costs money).

I didn't go far, just immediate neighbors of my small village. But, when I retire, I will go around and offer my services, for a fee, as a sideline business. There are a couple people that I won't charge, like the lady whose grass I have been cutting for two years. She is on a rather small fixed income.

I already have the equipment, do all my own maintenance on it (I replaced all the blowers' bearings two years ago), and enjoy doing the work. In a winter that we actually get enough snow that my services would be needed, I could probably make enough to pay for all my grass cutting gas and diesel fuel requirements for the year. 

I also have unlimited supplies of standing dead trees and bundled firewood sells for $7.50 a bundle in my area. I used to cut and bundle five to six hundred bundles of wood to sell at our campground every year. We sold it for 50 cents a bundle and my parents gave me five cents a bundle. It was a lot of work for $25 a summer but in the early 1970s, that money went a long way. If I sold just one hundred bundles of wood a year, I could make $750. The trees need to be cut and cleared out off my land or it gets impossible to drive through and I need to cut three cords of firewood each year for my home heating. I need to keep my woods healthy, open enough to drive through, and maintain a low risk of forest fires by reducing the dead wood on the ground.

A few people have suggested that I hire myself out as a river guide for canoe and kayak trips. There are three major rivers within an hour of my house; The Lehigh (ten minutes away), the Schuylkill (thirty minutes away), and the Susquehanna (an hour away). I am familiar with all of them and could do this one on one with one or two guests. I know the full histories of the miles that I routinely paddle so if they are interested in learning, I have the knowledge. That could be fun.

What are your skills and what resources do you have at hand that you can parlay into a little bit of a side income? Extra income means extra food security.

Minding the Cold

 As November 2023 comes to a close, the weather is getting more and more like winter. There have already been many mornings with temps in the low 20s. Most of the time, it is still warming up into the 30s and 40 during the day. But as soon as the sun sets over the horizon, the temperature drops quickly.

I went kayak camping in the third week of October and the early morning temps were in the mid-20s then already. One can only carry so much gear in a fishing kayak so I did not have enough sleeping gear to stay warm. Then, this past weekend, my son and I were deer hunting and it was in the low 20s again in the mornings. But, unlike when I was paddling the kayak, I was just sitting in an elevated blind while hunting and wasn't generating any heat. It was cold.

But there are some hacks you can do to stay moderately comfortable in the cold. Staying dry is critical. If you are too warm you sweat and if your clothes get damp from sweat, you will soon freeze. The object is to stay cool, but not cold. Layering helps because you can take off layers of clothes if you are heating up too much and then put those clothing layers back on if you start to get cold.

In the deer stand, I brought along a bivy sack to get in. A bivy sack, or bivy bag, is like an outer shell for a sleeping bag. The one I have is an Old School sleeping bag shell from the old 1970s version of the Army mummy bag sleeping bag. I hated that sleeping bag, it was too confining for me. But the outer shell, made of light weight canvas, makes a great warm weather sleep system component and if you button it up with your lower body inside the bag, it keeps the wind away and is surprisingly warm. It holds your legs body heat around your legs.

Another trick is to place a lit, long burning candle between your feet and drape a blanket over your body with the candle beneath you. The rising heat will keep that small, enclosed space quite warm for as long as the candle burns. You can be sitting, squatting, or kneeling to do this. I have a small candle lantern that just holds a Tea Candle inside a lightweight aluminum lantern, with a glass chimney, which makes it safer to do this. There is no exposed flame.

A thermos full of hot coffee, tea, soup, or broth will make you feel warmer after a drink. I have a small one that only holds a pint and the screw on cup hold maybe four to six ounces. But it keeps the drink hot/warm for a very long time. I have an exterior neoprene cover that goes around the thin thermos, which greatly adds to the insulation.

High calorie food such as chocolate bars, energy bars, Pop-tarts, etc. will give your body the quick burning fuel it needs to generate heat. You don't want too much fat or protein in this snack, they are slow to digest and require energy to break down the food.

Chemical hand warmers are great and last a surprisingly long time. They can get very hot so make sure they are not in direct contact with your skin. Place them over your kidneys to warm your core, in your armpits to warm the blood going into your arms, in your pants front pockets to warm the blood going down to your legs. I like to put small ones between the layers of my shirts at my wrists to keep my hands warm. One or two in your sleeping bag can keep your feet warm but be careful not to over heat and sweat.

Wearing a scarf or neck gaiter to protect your neck is important. A lot of blood passes just under the surface of your neck and if exposed to the cold it will chill you down in a hurry. If you don't have one with you, pull up your collar (of your shirts, sweater, coat) and pull down your hat to cover as much exposed skin as possible. I have often used a spare undershirt or towel wrapped around my neck in emergencies.

Always wear a hat, even when sleeping. Wool socks are best since wool retains insulating properties even when wet. If you can afford it, buy a pair of shoes that are a full size too big and wear thicker socks. More insulation from thick wool socks will keep your feet warm and the extra room in your boots/shoes will allow for better blood circulation.

Winter adventures can be magical but they can also turn deadly if you aren't dressed properly and prepared. Carry a light pack with emergency gear such as fire making equipment, fire starters, some sort of wind-proof shelter material, a bit of food, a metal cup (to heat water), powdered drink mix (coffee, tea, hot cocoa, bullion cubes, etc.), a space blanket (at a minimum but I usually carry an Army-surplus wool blanket roll), and signalling devices (a good whistle at a minimum).

The Power of Loyalty Cards

 Loyalty cards at hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores can save you a lot of money and often provide occasional bonuses.

We buy most of our groceries at a chain store called Giant. Using your card with every purchase "earns" cents off your gas at their gas pumps. The "cents off" is in ten cent increments and Giant has a 24 gallon maximum. So, any time we get up to 30 or 40 cents off, I wait until I am well below a quarter tank of gas, put two five gallon gas cans in the back of the car, and go fill 'er up. If you can max out at 24 gallons you get the most savings.

I live part-time in Maryland, where I work, and I have a rewards card with Royal Farms, a gas and food business. I earn a point per dollar spent. I also get a ten cent a gallon discount so my gas there is usually thirty to forty cents a gallon cheaper than at home in PA. With my points I can get free food and drinks. Royal Farms regularly gives out random bonuses such as a free coffee, free energy drinks, and a free chicken meal on your birthday.

My son travels a lot for work and his employer pays for his hotel stays but he gets to keep the reward nights. So when he and his wife go on personal travels, all their rooms are paid for with the reward points.

Panera Bread also has a reward point system and it takes a while, but I earn free drinks and free pastries after buying a few meals there.

A local car wash in my town has a reward card where after paying for nine car washes, you get the tenth one free. That is, effectively, a ten percent discount.

These cards generally cost nothing but pay off points for money that you were going to spend anyway. You need gas, so earn some free stuff when you pay for it. You need groceries, so get free stuff when you pay for them.

Fall Garden Chores for Spring Success

 Spring can come fast in the north, so getting ready in the fall is the smart thing to do. I'm talking garden chores here. Many people get bored or tired of garden work by the end of summer as the harvest wanes and weeds take over. But if you want to be ready earlier in the spring, there is much that can and should be done in the fall.

Removing all the dead vegetation and weeding the garden beds should be a priority. Pest insects and some diseases will over-winter in the dead vegetation. Getting them out of the garden and raking the top two inches of soil will get rid of most of the pests and expose those left behind to the harsh weather, which will hopefully kill them as well.

The raised bed to the left still needs to get cleaned up but this one is properly cleared of all weeds and dead plant material. Every couple of days I will lightly rake the topsoil to expose any insect eggs to the well below freezing temps at night. This should greatly reduce to number of bugs that hatch in the spring. Later, I will cover this bed with a couple inches of mulch to protect the soil from rains and to feed the soil bacteria and worms.

I built the U-shaped raised bed recently and filled them with soil, which is still settling. The pavers were just hastily put down just to see if I had enough. I will pull them up in the spring and set them in place properly then. The weedy area will become one large bed for larger crops such as corn and potatoes. I need to till it under soon before it freezes.

My compost pile cooled down from 143 degrees to about 70-80, due to lack of oxygen. The compost had been up to 143 degrees a week previously and was hot for over three weeks. But as the bacteria digest the organic matter, they use up the available oxygen and their metabolic processes slow down.
 

So, I used a pitchfork to move the material from this bin to the one on the right. I layered this with some older, half-composted material (to add bacteria) and some fresh plant matter from my flower gardens. This adds much needed air space, to hold more oxygen, and fresh green material to help feed the bacteria.

The result, after three days, is 150-degree temperatures and you can see that the composting process is well under way. I will probably turn and mix the compost one or two more times before the cold winter air brings the composting process to a crawl. But, by late spring, I will have approximately 20-25 cubic feet of good quality compost to add to my raised beds.

Burger King Hack

 When you purchase a meal at Burger King there is a link for a satisfaction survey on the receipt. If you fill out the survey you get a code for a FREE Whopper. If two of you are going to eat, have one person buy their meal then give the other the receipt. Just fill it out, get your code, and get your free Whopper. It only takes a minute. You'll still need to buy a drink and fries if you want them, but the Whopper is the expensive part of the meal. 

Sometimes I do the survey while I'm eating my meal then go to the counter and get the free Whopper to eat later.

Why not?

Limited time offer...probably.

Composting in the Fall

Many people more or less give up on their gardens by the end of summer. They are tired of weeding and watering and have picked all the fresh produce that they wanted. Now it's time to get ready for fall and winter holidays, maybe go on one last family trip, put the lawn furniture away, and settle down into a less active schedule.

But, now is the perfect time to get ready for next year and build up your stock of compost. Early fall is my favorite time for composting. For one thing, it is less hot, less humid, and there are fewer flying insects. But mostly because nature gives us the PERFECT blend of composting materials; dry grass, fresh grass, and fallen leaves. 

I have an older DR Lawn Vacuum/mulcher, it is about 15 years old now and is still going strong. There are many other companies that make pull-behind equipment as well as smaller units you push by hand. But, you can also use a regular lawn mower and just discharge the cut leaves and grass in the same direction and then rake up the rows of material. A mower won't chop it up as finely, but it works just fine and that is how I did it for many years.

I have two adjoining properties with a total of just over four acres, minus the footprint of the two houses. I also have many deciduous and conifer trees on the property that produce plenty of leaves and pine needles. That produces WAY more material than I could ever compost and use so I only run my mower and vacuum over the areas with the heaviest accumulations of leaves. You can see different layers in my DR Vacuum that show I mowed over areas with more and less leaves on the ground. 

It's the leaves that I really want, but they have to be mixed with other "brown" (carbon) material and "green" (nitrogen) material in order for the composting process to be efficient. Why are leaves important? Your tree's roots grow to wherever the nutrients and moisture are found. Down through the top soil and into the underlying base earth. What this layer lacks in soluble nutrients it makes up for in vital minerals and trace elements that the tree needs. These elements are usually leached out of the top soil, filtering down into the lower layers. The tree's massive root system extends down into these lower layers and absorbs the minerals and trace elements it needs to grow. They are transported up into the tree and are used in the annual growth spurt the tree does every spring and summer. Much of those minerals and trace elements end up in the leaves. When the leaves drop in the fall, all that mineral goodness is now laying on top of the ground, and you can "harvest" that.

Two years ago I went from a four-bin composting setup to a three-bin system. I miss that fourth bin. But a three-bin layout still works pretty good. One bin strictly holds finished compost where it "seasons" or ages and nutrients stabilize. It still breaks down a little bit through earthworm and insect activity, but bacterial decomposition has more or less stopped. That is the compost you can safely add to your garden and flower beds. A second bin is where I start the composting process by throwing in rough material without much regard for layering or establishing a green and brown ratio. It is sort of just a holding bin, but decomposition still occurs during the warm days of summer. I compost everything; weeds, sawdust, kitchen scraps, animal carcasses from the fall and winter hunting seasons, everything goes in the bin. This year, the bin to the right of the one showing below was the raw materials bin. To the left is the finished compost bin (it is fully covered to prevent nutrient leaching from rains).

In the fall, I mow and vacuum up a full trailer of leaves, grass, and pine needles (about 48-54 cubic feet). Then I start transferring rough material from the right bin to the center bin. I shake it and break it up so the material gets spread out in the new bin, which also aerates it. Oxygen is vital to good composting. I put down a layer 6-8 inches, and then add a layer from my lawn vacuum of 6-8 inches. I alternate layers of old, partially decomposed material with freshly gathered material. This transfers active microbes, worms, and other carbon digesting insects to the new material. It jump starts the composting process.

 

Old and new, old and new layers

 

 

 

This year, I lucked out and was able to get a large, free bag of coffee grounds from a local Starbucks. Most Starbucks will have a bin somewhere in their store (or you might have to ask) where you can get free bags of grounds. Coffee grounds are a rich source of nitrogen and will greatly accelerate the composting process. The micro-organisms also react to caffeine the same way that we do...a huge boost in energy! I spread a heavy sprinkling of coffee grounds on each layer of new material.

Using the old and new material I filled my bin to the top, over 70 cubic feet of space.

Four days later, after 24 hours of steady rain, the compost had settled down about 12-14 inches into the bin, just from its own weight and some initial decomposition. In the center of the bin I inserted a long-probe thermometer to check on how well the composting process was coming along.

Success! Outside air temperature is 51 degrees (F), inside temp is 143 degrees (F)! That heat, if you don't already know, is generated by the metabolic activity of the bacteria feeding on the composting material. This is considered "Hot Composting", which will kill most weed seeds and undesirable bacteria, making the resulting compost safe to use in food producing gardens. This pile will stay at that temperature for a couple days, it might even get a bit hotter, and then it will slowly cool down  due to a lack of oxygen in the pile. I will use a pitch fork to move all this material from the center bin to the right hand bin in mid-November to reintroduce fresh oxygen into the material and it will heat up a second time as the bacteria flourish again. Then the pile will cool down and go dormant during the cold winter days. But in the Spring, I will reap about 20 cubic feet of finished compost for my gardens.

22 October 2023 UPDATE: I had planned to turn my compost to remix and aerate it but before I did that effort I stuck the thermometer deep into the pile again and it was still 140 degrees F. So, I decided that is was doing just fine as it was and I would check it the following week and see how it is progressing.

5 November 2023 UPDATE: The core temperature was 70 degrees while the air temperature was 52. I decided to move the compost from one bin to another to aerate and mix the material. There was some half composted material in the bottom of the second bin so I forked that onto a trailer and my intent was to mix this old, cold material into the mix. As I dug out the new material just starting to compost, I made sure to completely break up any clumps by bouncing it on the pitchfork or by twisting the fork rapidly. This created very loose, airy material, which I spread out in the new bin. I layered in some of the old compost as I went. This looser mix, all fluffed up, filled the bin to the top. I checked the temp three hours after I was done moving everything into the new bin and it was just over 60 degrees.

10 November 2023 UPDATE: The compost core temperature was 152 degrees this morning with overnight air temps of 30 degrees. That is a hot pile. Fresh oxygen, and perhaps the introduction of some partially composted material, really kicked the biological activity into high gear.

Basic Emergency Preparedness

   There is an entire movement of so-called "Preppers", people that expend a good bit of effort to ensure they are prepped for any kind of emergency. The extreme faction are the Shit Hits the Fan (SHTF) types that are convinced that an apocalypse or Doomsday scenario is right around the corner. They train, study, practice skills, and stock away supplies enough to live for years if there is a total collapse of the American society. Current events in the news don't do much to prove them wrong though, really. The other end of the spectrum are those that stock up on enough needed items to get through a short-term emergency due to weather/geologic disasters, narrowly focused terrorist type attacks (taking out the electric grid for example), or a short term political or criminal crisis. 

  Either way, it behooves every household to take some basic precautions and have what is needed on hand to get through at least a couple weeks without outside assistance. 

  Food and water: I advocate keeping a 30-day supply of food in the house that can be prepared even if the electricity and gas systems are shut down. Freeze-dried foods last 25 years if stored properly (in a cool, dry, dark location). Basic beans, rice, and noodles will also store for a long time if repackaged in oxygen-proof containers and stored properly. Water is harder to store, plastic bottles will eventually start to break down and leach chemicals into the water. You can bottle your own water in canning jars and you should also buy two, good quality water purification systems. The type and the quality will be based on whatnaturally occurring water is available close by your house. Then you need an independent means with which to cook your food. Camp stoves with plenty of fuel work fine. I have several Coleman stoves and keep two gallons of "White Gas" stored for use. Unleaded gasoline can also be used in a pinch. I also have a "Solo" twig burning stove to supplement the Coleman stove. The Solo stove also works great, it is just a little bit slower to bring a pint of water to a boil.

  You need a means to heat your house if you live in an area where temps drop under 40 degrees. My house has a fireplace in which I inserted a wood burning stove. This stove is far more efficient than an open fire in a fireplace and can keep my entire house above 60 degrees even on the coldest winter days (proven five years ago when we lost power for five days in December). My wood stove has a fan to circulate air around the firebox to gain efficiency. I powered that fan with a car battery and an inverter to convert 12 volt DC power to 120 volt AC power. I also had a fan at the back of the room to move warm air to the rest of the house. Another option is to set up tents inside the house so your own body heat can warm up a smaller, enclosed space. A single long burning candle can keep the air inside the tent above freezing at least. If you don't have a fireplace or wood burning stove, you need to store several dozens of long duration emergency candles. These can be bought online.

  My car battery lasted for the five days but after that emergency I decided to upgrade to a "Solar Generator" power bank. I bought a small unit from Ecoflow, there are lots of companies selling these set-ups now. My system can store and provide 1,600 watthours of electricity and has 400 watts of solar panels to recharge the battery bank each day. That is eight times as much power as the car battery had and it can be recharged each day as needed. 1,600 watthours would power a 100 watt light bulb for 16 hours of continuous use, for example. Modern LED and CFL lights use a fraction of that wattage and could stay on for days. Every household needs to have the means to generate and store electrical power. Gas and propane/natural gas generators are good, but what happens when you can't get fuel? I can charge my battery bank in an hour with a generator and then use that power for an entire day. That would stretch out your fuel for a couple weeks probably. 

  You need a good supply of non-electrical lighting systems. Batteries wear out and just go bad. But you can buy rechargeable AA and AAA batteries and cheap solar chargers for them. Go to the Dollar Store or Walmart and buy a dozen or so solar garden or walkway lights. That little 4x4 inch solar panel will charge a single battery in a couple hours of direct sunlight. Then pop it into your flashlight and you are good to go. I have several motion activated solar-charged lights for my outdoor sheds and garage. These have larger solar panels and you can charge these during the day and then use them as emergency lights in the house and as security lighting at entrances to your house. Candles and oil lanterns are good, plus they provide some heat. The gas mantle lights are very bright though the mantles can be fragile.

  Blankets and sleeping bags above and beyond what you normally have on the bed are needed. Wool is best and you can buy military surplus wool blankets at surplus stores and online. Remember, the house is not going to be heated to 72 degrees so you need more warmth from sleeping bags or blankets. 

  Medications. You need to maintain a fresh supply of any meds you normally keep on hand such a cold and flu meds, pain relievers, allergy meds, etc. You won't be able to replenish once the roads and stores are closed.

  Don't forget about your pets. Stock up on their food and meds too.

  The time to start putting together these supplies is now, they won't be available when a crisis is looming. A few dollars a week is all you need and over time you can build a kit that will ensure your safety and comfort. But you need to start now.