Member MartHale7
MemberForum Replies Created
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I normally don’t dehydrate here in the summer, I save up items in my freezer for the winter as the heat is great to warm up my room. Mold is a huge issue here in Florida so I must rely on the dehydrator.
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Yeah, on American Homestead channel he talked about how few people that goto the food banks know how to cook fresh food. He said often food would goto waste because there was no demand for it. Glad you have bonus food.
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Looking back at the data I collected that last couple of days.
I have a sand battery with 4 – 5 five gal buckets worth of sand in the battery.
The temps range from 107 deg to 132 degrees. This impresses me for the amount of sand that is in the battery, and the length of hours it takes for it to cool down.
I believe this could be made into a solar powered thermal cooker by removing 1/2 of the sand from the battery I would be in the range of cooking food..
If I use this setup as it is, I could use this to create ideal temps for making methane, or make alcohol just by adding or removing sand. Or perhaps a germination chamber for getting seeds started by adding a few more buckets of sand…..
I plan on adding more insulation to the pex lines, and check for where I am getting heat loss in this setup. A bit more tweaking and i should have a sand battery hot water heater that I can take a hot shower in the morning from the heat stored from the previous day. The temp ranges I am seeing is encouraging me that I am on the right path.
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At the very start of your time, is the time to plant fruit trees if you have not already…. The sooner you get them planted the better the harvests will be in times to come. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
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Today I really improved the insulation, more than before with the sand battery. I am glad to see that the sand is starting to hold energy. I believe with more tuning I should have some decent heat stored with the sand. The chart below tells me I am on the right track. I have about 3 gal of water in the system temp hit 180 degrees yesterday.
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When I came to Florida, I asked the real estate agent if I could search for homes that were NOT HOA….. So I went looking. I found a home that matched all of what I wanted and there was an old tractor left out in the field next door. That was perfect for me. 🙂
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There is a video I would recommend to you to see with this. A man in Hawaii has made a system of matts he lays on the ground in his chicken pen. The chicken manure on the matts which allows the poop to go thru. The worms consume the poop but the chickens can’t get to the worms. Then he lifts the matts then the chickens can get at the worms and he ends up with great compost.
https://www.amazon.com/Olomana-Gardens-Albert-Cloutier-Jayne/dp/B006U5SLDM
He has a great system with worms.
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I have dried several 5 gal buckets of sand in my rocket oven wet sand is not very good at storing heat.
I now have built a solar hot water heater able to take 5 gal of water at 80 deg to 132 deg in 5 hours.
Now I have put 100 foot of pex into a black container, connected to the solar hot water heater and pump I am now re circulating the solar heated water thru the sand. I hope to use the sand as a battery ( like a hot water heater ) to capture the heat for later use. I have covered the sand with a bag of loose styrofoam, and put some insulation underneath. Finally I can get some data on what this sand battery can do.
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Yeah, that is more in line with what Jesus said was the greatest commandment of all. There is only God, no second to God.
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One prepper meeting I was at talked about you have to think about the distance from a city a tank of gas will get you. When things go bad people will flee the cities en mass, and where that tank of gas gets them is where there will be lots of trouble.
With hurricane Irma here in Florida the gov was ordering people to leave their homes. I became more aware of how resources dwindle when that many people move, it is like locusts moving out and consuming everything. Grocery stores, gas stations just cannot keep up with that demand. The roads clogged and the time to travel doubled or trippled.. I took notes, and I decided that the best place to be is where the most people are not.
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I have been taking notes from Venezuela, and Cuba on how they have deal with governments that are out of control, and loss of foods / supplies.
I did consider moving to Mexico as they are already used to living in poverty and making do verses here where everyone for the most part is entitled to have things in their thinking. People went thru the great depression with struggle, but today I do believe there will be riots because people just don’t know how to cope with providing for themselves, or taking care of what they have.
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Ok I found one on Ebay 15″ for 30$ I went with it….
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Lodge BOLD 14 Inch Seasoned Cast Iron Pizza Pan, Design-Forward Cookware
Is this the one you got off Amazon?
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The circular sheet of cast iron, what do you call that, and where did you buy it if I may ask?
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I also recommend looking up deep mulch with chickens.
https://www.rootsimple.com/2011/04/deep-bedding-for-chickens/
It does generate super soil.