Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[perchie.girl]

Quote: What about pumping water?

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: They make Diesel powered Welders that operate as a Generator as well. Thats what I want for my house up in the desert. That way I can use it for all year. I have a couple of art projects I want to do some fencing to make It would be nice to have a welder around.... Plus Diesel engines like that can run off Red Die diesel.... No road tax on Red Die diesel. AND if you get in a pinch you can run it off french fry oil....

Diesel engines were originally invented to run off peanut oil.. They will practically run off Motor oil....

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Rocket heaters are pretty cool.... Key in the words Mass Heater. They are very low tech but incredibly efficient. the vapor that exits the building is pretty much warm air. Yet another thing I want to do.... I believe though they need to be on a slab?

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: EGGCELLENT!! VBG. Do you know if they can be built in a house that has a crawlspace? I have two conditions in my house... the main part of the house is above grade with a crawl space. My bedroom used to be an art studio and it is on a slab...

deb

 

[sarahsunshine]

EGGCELLENT!! VBG. Do you know if they can be built in a house that has a crawlspace? I have two conditions in my house... the main part of the house is above grade with a crawl space. My bedroom used to be an art studio and it is on a slab...

deb

Best to be built on a slab because they are very heavy. They also are best for heating one room - so I would go for the bedroom part - or build up inside the crawl space to support it.

 

[Triple Willow]

Regardless of whether you have a breaker box or fuse box, the principle should be the same.  You are required to have some sort of isolating mechanism that will physically disconnect your house from the power line.  On my old house, there were two extremely large fuses that were outside inline with the power coming in to the house.  By removing those, it has the same effect as flipping off the main circuit breaker in the new models.  There should never be a reason to remove or modify your meter to make it work.  The code requirements for decades have been set up to allow the isolation.  In the old days, everyone did a bit of their own electrical work.  But now, most just make a phone call and have someone do it for them.  That's the other part of homesteading: the knowledge to make things work in emergency situations.  Excellent point on the carbon monoxide.  It's not something most think about, but it can kill you.
I don't pretend to know the electrical schematics of all the houses around here and don't know the newer requirements. I do know that a large percent of the houses probably wouldn't be considered up to code because they are 50++ years old. The house I live in is crowding 50 years old. We do have one breaker switch that cuts everything off but there is no place to plus a cord in. I would say a real large percent of the houses are like this one. That makes it a whole lot more sensible to dismantle something outside (at the meter box) instead of tearing up your electrical work inside your house, so that is what people did. They must have known what they were doing because they had electricity yet they didn't burn their house down and nobody died. LOL

I find it ironic that a huge part of our metropolitan area buries all of our utility lines underground, even though we never have bad storms.  Every neighborhood built in the last 20 years or so is that way, and yet you constantly hear about places around the parts of the nation experiencing catastrophic storms that still have above ground lines.  You would think they would put in the time and effort to make it more storm-protected.  If you are having to go through and replace a huge stretch of damaged line, take a little extra time and effort to bury it during the repair.  Over the next decade or so, it'll be a huge improvement over the exposed systems we currently have.
Had they took the time to stop and bury power lines (through a couple inches of ice in below freezing weather) as they were fixing them we probably still wouldn't have much electricity around here five years later. LOL The problem wasn't so much the line as it was the poles that snapped in half. I forgot how many tens of thousands of poles had to be replaced in our county alone. Not to mention that somebody has to pay for all that line burying. We have an electric coop, the members pay for most improvements of any kind.

Tax refunds are coming in and I'm seriously considering taking that small, extra step of protection.  My wife has slowly come around to a bit more of the self-sufficiency ideals.  When we lost power for two hours in the middle of cooking dinner last year, I broke out the camp stove, too.  It was quick and simple, but she was a bit surprised and impressed.  Immediate "Hey, I know what to do."  Plus, we have a propane barbeque grill that has several extra tanks all the time.  I'm a flashlight hoarder, so that made the light situation easy.  Besides, we have long daylight hours and plenty of windows.  From a survival aspect, Arizona is a really sweet environment that is very easy to live in. In the winter our daylight is from about 6ish in the morning until about 4:30ish in the afternoon. You figure out real quick what "going to bed with the chickens" really means. lol My "grilling" was done wrapped up in 20 something degree weather, not real relaxing. lol But the situation did make that hot food all that much tastier. A BBQ grill doesn't work so hot in that cold of weather.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Bee... I do like my cell phone. It started out "for emergencies" - in case I was out and needed back home. It is much cheaper for me to use my cell phone for all phone calls including long distance plus unlimited internet and it is available for emergencies which do happen - all for $45 a month. No way could I get landline phone service with unlimited long distance and unlimited internet for anything even near $45/month. And I do have a solar charger for it. lol Oh, and not to mention if I want to watch a movie, sermon, news, etc. And yep, I can do all of that from anywhere most of the time.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I was afraid of that..... There may be a spot I can do in the Living room area because it doesnt feel like it has empty space below it... My house is a hodge podge. It started out life as a plain old Mobile home. One bed, kitchen small living room bath.... The one year someone built a house over the top of it... The living room is an add on.... the old living room is now a dining area then the laundry room was built on a slab. On the south side of the house is or was a green house. The church I bought the house from had poured a slab over the dirt floor to turn it into a dormatory.... Then my room is off the green house and its on a slab... It was the original owners Art studio.

I dont use heat too often because the walls are over a foot thick... Double wall construction so the R value has to be off the scale. Same goes for summer when its 110 outside its only around 95 inside without AC.

deb

 

[Beekissed]

@Bee... I do like my cell phone. It started out "for emergencies" - in case I was out and needed back home. It is much cheaper for me to use my cell phone for all phone calls including long distance plus unlimited internet and it is available for emergencies which do happen - all for $45 a month. No way could I get landline phone service with unlimited long distance and unlimited internet for anything even near $45/month. And I do have a solar charger for it. lol Oh, and not to mention if I want to watch a movie, sermon, news, etc. And yep, I can do all of that from anywhere most of the time.

And what will you do for all that if and when you can no longer get cell service in an emergency?

 

[sarahsunshine]

And what will you do for all that if and when you can no longer get cell service in an emergency?

I call it a relief!!!! LOL!!!