Preparations Update

[Amish Heart]

I finally mailed off my seed order today, snail mail. Going to try a few new things for animal food.

 

[joel]

I finally mailed off my seed order today, snail mail. Going to try a few new things for animal food.

I just go a True Leaf Market seed order & am going to sow some Black Spanish Radish seeds this month.
It is a little late to plant, but I want to see if they will make, it was 57F today.

 

[Amish Heart]

I have radish and beet seeds in the ground, can always till that under in the spring if they grow and bit and then rot.

 

[joel]

I have radish and beet seeds in the ground, can always till that under in the spring if they grow and bit and then rot.

How cold will it get & they still make in your garden?

 

[Amish Heart]

I planted them last month before any danger of frost, in ground. Doubt that they'll grow much. Depends how cold it gets here this winter. Yesterday we broke a record, highs in the low 70's. Last February it was a low of negative 13. I don't expect much. If anything rots in the ground, or helps keep the ground from being compacted, it's all good. Meanwhile just dumping coffee grounds, egg shells, chopped banana peels, and rabbit poop all over it. We'll take a tractor to it come spring. Greens are growing in the greenhouse.

 

[Terri9630]

Bought a distiller. One daughter and family has moved into our guest house and my dad moved into the basement indefinitely, all the other kids and grandkids live within 20 minutes of us now so I decided no matter how much alcohol I had stashed it wouldn’t be enough if TSHTF.
Bought a bunch of the rechargeable lightbulbs, seeds, and ordered some composting worms to start a worm bin. Started growing super worms to feed the chickens.
I’ve been busy baking cookies to sell at my daughter’s thrift store. Can’t bake them fast enough to keep up. Apparently homemade from scratch cookies aren’t a common thing anymore & I’ve been cashing in. We’ll start woodworking projects to sell at the store this weekend with the boy. The proceeds will all go to enlarging our chicken yard and coop.

The little guy with the lightbulb was very slow loading and I was trying to figure out what a rechargeable seed was.

 

[joel]

It was 70F today & I planted radish seeds & red beet seeds, so I will wake up to three feet of snow tomorrow.
Or maybe I will get a few radishes before it stays cold.

 

[Amish Heart]

Or maybe you just planted your ground cover, and it'll add good nitrogen to your soil by spring.
Either way it's a win! If you don't get to eat it, the soil gets nourished

 

[angie_nrs]

Took delivery of some LTS foods. I noticed I didn't have any dehydrated onions for cooking, so I got some from the LDS store. I appreciate all the suggestions for the LDS site on another thread.

Took delivery of some solar water heaters. Heating some hot liquids for tea, coffee, or other things without needing a fire could come in really handy some day. They only heat 17 oz. at a time, so I bought a few.

I bought some more toothbrushes, supplements, tools, and gifts while I was out and about. I also nabbed some tools for gifts that were a good deal in the gift pack set. Home Depot and Lowes have some good packages right now for Christmas.

Got extra glasses ordered for hubs.

Took delivery of a small frig for backup. Sadly, these friges aren't made like they used to be.

I bought a few chicken wings and just a few other things for the freezer. I don't have much space left, so I had to be careful of what I buy to freeze. However, we should be all set for Christmas breakfast, dinner, and snacks.

 

[Caribou]

Topped off the heating oil. While they were here I had them fill an empty 1000 gallon fuel tank. In a bad winter the oil truck can't get here. This gives us enough oil to heat the house for a year. It is a hedge against inflation, and it moves cash out of the bank. When I paid that bill I ordered 250 gallons of gas.

 

[kd4ulw]

Due to have strong storms after midnight so have charged various electronics, lights, and phones. I have multiple backup power sources but it’s good to have them all ready if needed. Kerosene lamps and heaters on standby.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I found a 1000 watt inverter charger on sale at renogy for $307, I have been looking for one since coming to the conclusion that having something that will charge batteries off the grid can be a good thing. I have come to the conclusion that renewable power is not reliable power and I wanted to hedge my bets. I also ordered 4 more solar panels. This will allow me to have a mix of options going forward. I guess the only thing I need to add now is a couple of the LiFePO4 type batteries for inside the house (if I can ever find some that I can afford).

I also ordered a variety of indoor vegetable seeds, they have been shipped and I am looking forward to seeing how they work out. They are from a company that I had never heard of but my wife pointed them out to me so I figured it best to order them.

After 6 months my wife's high end sewing machine was returned yesterday after being sent back to the company for repairs. We ended up buying her a low end work horse type machine for use while during the wait, I guess having an extra sewing machine would be a prep....

 

[CalicoKatie]

. . . . I guess having an extra sewing machine would be a prep....

Especially if it's a treadle. They're nice to have if the power goes out.

 

[WVDragonlady]

Just been adding the usual to the preps.
Canned goods
Paper products (but not all at once. tp one week, paper towels the next, etc.)
Extra cleaning products (I buy something different each week)

Its getting a little harder with prices going up and using the sales, but I keep at it. Just not as much as I used to buy at a time. Now its only maybe 6-8 cans of different veggies instead of 12 each.
Laundry soap one week softener the next, etc.
And I've never been brand loyal. Whatever is on sale and the cheapest lol
I only have so much each pay period

 

[Neb]

My mechanic said there are delays finding some parts so I scheduled the tires on my Jeep Liberty for next Wednesday and...

Another set of tires for the wife's car when she switches out the winter tires next spring.

Better to be ahead of the game.

Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

Glad I finished putting new shoes on our vehicles back in the summer. Wife's car takes a weird size anyway.

 

[Amish Heart]

Sams Club online...ordered a bunch more batteries for lanterns and flashlights. We did fine last night, but realized that the kids have been helping themselves to the battery stash. Jumped our farm truck this morning, and got it down to the local guy who put a new battery in it. Ready to go for the winter. I have a hard time remembering to drive it at least once a week since it's our beater truck. Got a couple more cases of beans, peas, and pinto beans at Aldi today. Theyve been out of canned corn for 3 weeks. For storage protein, I bought more corned beef and tuna fish.

 

[Aerindel]

Installed a hot water pre-heat tank next to my woodstove.

Just an old electric hot water heater, free from the dump with all the insulation and electrical stripped off it until its just a bare metal tank. Plugged all the holes, piped my holding tank water into the cold inlet, and ran the 'hot' outlet to my propane on demand hot water heater.

For the past several summers, I've run the same set up on my roof, bare black metal tank plumbed in as a pre-heater, saves massively on how much gas is used just brining the water to warm-room temp before actually heating it. This should do the same for the winter months as 24/7 I have a woodstove burning and this tank is right next to it so the once it warms up it should be about 80º, which should make a huge difference in how much propane I use.

 

[SoJer]

Installed a hot water pre-heat tank next to my woodstove.
...Plugged all the holes, piped my holding tank water into the cold inlet, and ran the 'hot' outlet to my propane on demand hot water heater...

Awesome.

I'd planned something similar for Our BOL (we Did get one of these: https://www.campchef.com/back-patio/propane-water-heaters/portable-water-heater-triton-5l.html ..but given that Propane will (eventually..) become a 'finite resource', also planned to have a 'Thermal-capillary action-powered' water-heater, for the Wood Stove..

..This is the 'tester core' I made for it:

..The 'ultimately-used one' (larger / more coils..) would get housed inside an 'Outer-pipe' to trap the heat-transfer better, that would simply 'sleeve' over the Smoke-flue, which this would wrap-around..

..Cold water is 'thermally-capillaried in' from the bottom, quickly heated-up by the Flue / 'pushed out' the Top, which then feeds into an external 'scrap holding Tank', similar to what you describe yer doing. And, just from my small-scale testing - it Does work - albeit, of course not as "fast" as a Propane-sys, with pressure behind it, etc, but..

..'Plan for the worst', and all and it gets it Plenty Hot.. Nice to see you 'pop back up on the Grid' for a bit..

jd

 

[SLADE]

We use a ss loop in our wood stove to heat all the hot water we can use.
The loop feeds into a 40 gallon insulated heater tank.

 

[hiwall]

my propane on demand hot water heater.

Doesn't your water heater burn the same no matter what the incoming water temp is?
Asking because I do not know the answer.

 

[LadyLocust]

Installed a hot water pre-heat tank next to my woodstove.

Just an old electric hot water heater, free from the dump with all the insulation and electrical stripped off it until its just a bare metal tank. Plugged all the holes, piped my holding tank water into the cold inlet, and ran the 'hot' outlet to my propane on demand hot water heater.

For the past several summers, I've run the same set up on my roof, bare black metal tank plumbed in as a pre-heater, saves massively on how much gas is used just brining the water to warm-room temp before actually heating it. This should do the same for the winter months as 24/7 I have a woodstove burning and this tank is right next to it so the once it warms up it should be about 80º, which should make a huge difference in how much propane I use.

Awesome.

I'd planned something similar for Our BOL (we Did get one of these: https://www.campchef.com/back-patio/propane-water-heaters/portable-water-heater-triton-5l.html ..but given that Propane will (eventually..) become a 'finite resource', also planned to have a 'Thermal-capillary action-powered' water-heater, for the Wood Stove..

..This is the 'tester core' I made for it:

..The 'ultimately-used one' (larger / more coils..) would get housed inside an 'Outer-pipe' to trap the heat-transfer better, that would simply 'sleeve' over the Smoke-flue, which this would wrap-around..

..Cold water is 'thermally-capillaried in' from the bottom, quickly heated-up by the Flue / 'pushed out' the Top, which then feeds into an external 'scrap holding Tank', similar to what you describe yer doing. And, just from my small-scale testing - it Does work - albeit, of course not as "fast" as a Propane-sys, with pressure behind it, etc, but..

..'Plan for the worst', and all and it gets it Plenty Hot.. Nice to see you 'pop back up on the Grid' for a bit..

jd

We use a ss loop in our wood stove to heat all the hot water we can use.
The loop feeds into a 40 gallon insulated heater tank.

Doesn't your water heater burn the same no matter what the incoming water temp is?
Asking because I do not know the answer.

Would love to see a thread - maybe over in building category - on this topic w/ diagrams &/or pix. This is something I am very interested in. When we have our own place again, my intent is to have a water cistern on the wood stove so any related info. would be appreciated.

 

[angie_nrs]

My mechanic said there are delays finding some parts so I scheduled the tires on my Jeep Liberty for next Wednesday and...

Another set of tires for the wife's car when she switches out the winter tires next spring.

Better to be ahead of the game.

Ben

Good move. We have done the same. I got 4 new tires on my vehicle with 2 more new on rims ready for summer driving. Hubs has 4 new tires on his vehicle as well. We bought the kid (and hubs helped install) new brake kits for the kids vehicle and got new all season tires too. It was a pretty penny, but that vehicle should be all set for a while now. The tires will likely outlast the car. Merry Christmas kid! LOL!

Just like DragonLady, I've been slowing adding things here and there. A few more packets of gravy mixes, supplements, OTC meds, footware, socks, shirts, spices, etc. I got a great deal on socks last week at WM. A 3 pack of heavy socks for $1. I think I bought a dozen packages or so. I probably should've bought more, but I already have quite a few in storage. If nothing else, they'll make nice gifts.

 

[WVDragonlady]

We had a sock factory here and they would have big sales on stuff that wasn't perfect. Like the name brand wouldn't be stamped in the right position or the detail stitching was the wrong color. Things along that line. You could get a 6pack of heavy work socks for $2. A 3pack of regular cotton socks for $1. They had men and women's dress socks, kids socks, and women's stockings and tights.

We stocked up long ago on socks lol We have a whole plastic storage container full of socks of all kinds.And even a couple of bags too still in the bottom of my closet.
If nothing else, we could barter them for stuff if we had to. People always want or need socks

 

[Aerindel]

Doesn't your water heater burn the same no matter what the incoming water temp is?
Asking because I do not know the answer.

Thats the best kind of question.

The answer is, no, even simple on demand heaters have to have the ability to change both the speed the water flows through them, and the intensity of the flame in order to regulate water temperature and not just be a water warmer, or an on demand steam boiler. Mine is very simple and only needs two D batteries to operate and the gas and water flow are adjusted manually, most whole house systems are automatic.

Did the math today when I woke up.

It takes 27100 BTU's to heat 50 gallons of water from 45º to 110º

It only takes 12500 BTU's to heat 50 gallons of water from 80º to 110º

So in theory, you can either burn about half the gas, or run the water about twice as fast if it starts out at 80º instead of 45º (my situation)

Which also means, that by pre-heating with wood, I've effectively doubled my propane supply.

 

[TeeJ]

Just did my easiest seasonal prep. We have an old Ford 12 seater van that we use for hauling stuff to conventions for my better half's business. It's a nightmare in the snow, so it gets parked for the winter. 35 gallon gas tank gets filled up and stabilized before it gets put to bed. It's nice knowing I have a little extra fuel on top of my regular storage when the weather is the worst!

 

[goshengirl]

Overextended one of my knuckles, now I need to keep it straight to keep things stretched out while it heals. Discovered that finger splints are relatively inexpensive and a good thing to have amongst the first aid supplies. They arrive tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm making do with some of hubby's golf tees and a big band aid as my make-shift finger splint.

 

[Amish Heart]

You can also tape two fingers together

 

[LadyLocust]

Overextended one of my knuckles, now I need to keep it straight to keep things stretched out while it heals. Discovered that finger splints are relatively inexpensive and a good thing to have amongst the first aid supplies. They arrive tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm making do with some of hubby's golf tees and a big band aid as my make-shift finger splint.

Popsicle sticks work also (in addition to what AH said.)

 

[goshengirl]

Thanks, @Amish Heart and @LadyLocust. The part that curls funny is the top of my longest finger, and neighboring fingers aren't long enough to tape and straighten. But your suggestion reminds me that I should have a variety of tape in the first aid supply (Thought of that earlier and forgot already - oh look! a squirrel!)
And I thought of popsicle sticks, too! I bet they'd be good for a number of things - maybe they should be a prep item, lol.