Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

I hear you. I tried to close out a savings account with Bank Of America, and they said I had to "talk to a banker" to get it done. I had to take time and go to the bank to close the account. While I was there, I just closed out the rest of them and moved them to my local Credit Union. I was steamed, too.

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[chicken danz]

I hadn't seen the animal tax thing but I did see on the news where they are trying to prevent young people from being allowed to work on family farms. That is stepping too far. It could mean the end of the family farm and then only big corporations and government would have control of farming.
I don't like talking politics because people get so upset and argumentative over it. We have the right to vote and that is where our arguments should be taken, but it doesn't happen that way. Some of my children are adamant Obama supporters. Makes me want to just spank them and put them in their rooms! but I just leave the room if they start talking politics. I think ever since Obama went in office, the entire government has been geared to take over everything and gain total control. I just hope come election time we can take the government back and get this country back on track. It will take years to recover if ever, after all the damage that has been done. Please don't get mad, Obama supporters. It is just my opinion.
I am very worried about the state of things. As far as Ft Riley is concerned I wouldn't worry much. They are bringing thousands and thousands of soldiers home and placing them at Ft. Riley. I guess that in itself will help the economy in that area and they can fill some of those homes that were built a few years ago when they added so many soldiers. The problem of course is many of these people are being discharged and that adds to a shortage of jobs again.
I actually feel fairly safe as long as I can control some of my own food source and we still have social security. I wish I could afford to put up a windmill to produce electricity. That would help a bunch. I do fear for my children and particularly my grandchildren. Their future looks very questionable.

 

[Hawkeye95]

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My thoughts exactly on every point politically.

As well-- we would LOVE to go off grid and make our own electric, we've talked about it for years. Talked about adding solar panels, but they are just too pricey right now. We looked into smaller wind turbines-- some of them are made to go on your roof and supplement your electric. In fact, they work very well, but also are very expensive right now. They have a mini 'residential' turbine that will fit on most people's land if they have a couple of acres or more (it's a lot bigger). But bigger means more expensive. I'm sure prices will eventually drop and become more affordable. So I sure hope we can afford it eventually. I looked into windmills about a year ago, and that is a much cheaper option and actually very affordable, but they are not nearly as efficient and will be off more than on. Plus the conversion kits are extensive. I think the solar panels and turbines are our best bets. The downside with solar panels is that over the years they become less and less efficient as they age. (the light cells eventually don't take in as much charge) You also have to have a battery converter shed to store and convert for the house. The upside is that they are building them better as the years go by and they are practically indestructible now-- they won't break or crack in hail storms. If we ever build another house, we'll build in GEO thermal lines as that is a self sufficient way for heating/cooling and very effective. Two of our friends did that, and it was sooo smart! No more reliance on the gas company for heat. This is fun stuff!! I sure hope we can get away from fossil fuels entirely and rely on lubricants made from our own crops and vehicles that can use electric and recharge themselves AS THEY DRIVE. Right now, my DH really wants the Chevy Volt, but of course, plugging it in all the time is going to be a PITA. I'm envisioning engineering that will recharge the cells while you drive the car. I'm sure that day will be here.

 

[Ivywoods]

Danz-I agree totally with you, however, I usually refrain from political conversations on here. I think it is against BYC rules.

If they have improved solar panels then they might be worth a try. I've had some experience with them and not had very good luck. I'd LOVE to put in a big wind turbine and a geothermal system. Our air conditioner and electric heater are TOTALLY ineffecient. We do, however, have an outdoor woodstove that heats about a 300 gallon water reservoir. That water gets to 198 degrees and is pumped into the house and through a radiator type thing attached to our central air. Our house is always toasty warm in the winter. I love that woodstove.

We have to cut firewood, but that is an outdoor activity that I love. I dearly love being out in the woods. We usually only cut trash trees or dead wood and trim up hedge rows. It's nice to have the woodstove outside so you don't have to deal with bringing firewood in and out of the house and have to clean up the mess that always leaves. Another nice thing about it is my hubby is always the one to go out in the cold to fill the stove. He likes doing it and doesn't mind at all. I certainly don't mind letting him be the one to do it, either.

Checoukan has a woodstove very similar to ours and use theirs year round to heat their hot water they use in the house as well. We don't have our system set up to do that. I'd like to get one of those "instant" hot water heaters. I think that would be a lot more effecient than the water heater we have.

I bought some more light bulbs and a short popcorn tin. I'm going to try to make another water heater or two for my chickens. I've been having a lot of frozen water pans lately. They all seem to be tolerating the cold pretty well, though. I got a very heavy sheet of black plastic that they use to separate products on pallets at work. It's about 4'x4'. It's pretty tough stuff. I think I will use it to screen around the back of some of my wire pens to make them a little less drafty. Hopefully it will help keep some of those chickens a little warmer.

Well, I guess I better get busy. I've got a lot of popcorn to eat before I can make this water heater!

 

[chickmama1662]

Ivywoods, we've been thinking about the outdoor furnace for a while. We mostly have hedge trees and have always heard that they burn much hotter than other types of wood. Do you have a problem with that or do you use a mixture of wood types when you use your outdoor furnace? Thanks.

 

[Ivywoods]

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We can burn pure hedge in ours, however, hedge does burn hotter, and it really doesn't need to be that hot to heat the water to 198, so once the temp reaches that on the water, the thermostat shuts the damper down a little and the wood burns slower. The hedge just lasts longer in ours. If we had enough hedge to only use nothing but hedge we would do that. Hedge has more BTU's than just about any other kind of wood. We generally mix it, however, since we have a mix of hardwoods.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, we don't have an outdoor wood stove, but have family that does & they love it. We couldn't do that very well with the way this house is built. We just have an indoor wood stove & we got a newer one a couple of years ago that is way more efficient than the old one that was here when we bought the house. We burn hedge in it because we have so much of that around here to use. I personally hate hedge trees, they're evil things that tear up my arms & legs when I have to mow around them & I step on the thorns when the branches fall. We just bought a new mower last summer & the old one had so many patched holes in the tires that we couldn't believe they even held air at all. We use that slime stuff in the tires & it's a life saver. This house is built for a passive type of solar heat with the cement walls it has since it's built into the hill & windows all across the front. The days that there is sun it heats the walls up & the house doesn't get that cold until later on in the evening usually, then I start a fire in the stove. We got a new heat pump/furnace last summer too. It seems that everything was getting old at the same time here. We put on new siding & replaced windows while they had the tax incentive. The next person that buys this house will get a better deal energy-wise than we did. Yeah, you're right it's probably not a good idea to talk politics on here, it gets people too riled up.

I bought one cookie tin so far, but haven't done anything with it. I would like to find some more tins before I make them & that way can do them at all once. I would like to get at least 3 made so I would have them. BTW, Danz I did get those bulbs delivered yesterday that you told us about & they're very nice for that price. I only bought a few, but I only have one place to use them right now. They will be nice to have though if we get some particularly nasty weather. I think my chickens are fine in their coop unless it gets extraordinarily cold. I never used heat lamps in my barn when I used to have chickens unless it was just horrible & they did fine.

 

[Ivywoods]

Oh, I don't mind the hedge trees at all. I'm a born tree lover, and I kind of like hedge trees.

What I don't care for is the thorny locusts we have, and we have WAY too many of those. They grow like weeds around here. I always tell DH he can cut all of those he wants. The trouble is, who wants to? Some of them are so thorny you can't even get close to them. Often we cut them down and let them lay for a year or two. During that time many of the thorns fall off, making it much easier to deal with them. I did have a locust thorn jab deep into the front of my thigh one time. Then it broke off.

It took weeks for that thing to work it's way out. Also my DH and I love to hunt. I have butchered deer that we have harvested and pulled huge thorns out of the meat that evidently was imbedded under the skin as they ran through the woods.

The locust are also hard on our dogs. Every once in a while our GP's come back limping. We've had to pull more than one locust thorn out of their feet. Darn locust thorns!

As far as the mower. We use the green slime, too. I have no idea how many times the tires have been patched on my mower. I still have to air the tires up every time I use it. They stay up just about long enough for me to finish mowing.

I'm still eating popcorn so I can build this popcorn tin heater!

 

[Trish44]

IVY, well the only thing I think hedge trees are good for is burning! If I had my way I would cut down every last stinking one of them, I just hate them. There are so many other pretty trees I would rather have than those. I had a couple of those Honey Locust trees in my yard in Derby when I lived there. They were still small when I left, so I don't know how big they are now or if they're still there. I know some of the trees I had planted there are still there, but I don't know if they all are, I haven't been back for awhile. I miss that place so much, sometimes I wish I had never left there. Gosh, that must have really hurt to have that thorn in your leg, ouch! I just hate getting scratched up by the darned hedge trees every time I mow in the summer. Those trees grow all of those sucker branches all over the trunks & they get in my way when I mow. I cut them off & they just grow back. If you cut one of those trees down you get 10 more in its place because it just grows little ones up where the trunk was. We try to treat them, but it doesn't work that well. We're trying to cut a path to be able to get the truck down to the horse shed, but so far DH has only made a dent in it. Maybe he'll have more time when he gets out of school in December. He went back to school 2 years ago just to add some more to his resume in case he needed it, it never hurts & his work company has reimbursed for it, so why not. I applaud him for going back to college at his age, he's done great, he's gotten straight A's all the way through!

Keep eating that popcorn IVY!, ha!

 

[chicken danz]

If I had some foresight when I bought this place I would have had a geothermal system put in. I put in a new top of the line heater and back up heat pump when I bought this place. Our bills are ridiculous! And this was supposed to be the most efficient system they made. One of my sisters has a geothermal system and her bills are probably a forth of what mine are and her house is much bigger.
I so wish I could throw some money into some renewable energy systems and produce my own electricity and stuff. Many years ago when I lived in OKC we had solar panels installed on our roof. This system just produced hot water but the water got so hot we had to have cold water added to it all the time. It was done automatically.
Hawkeye, If you have a link to some of those really efficient systems I'd love to read about them. Living on rural electric is so much higher than city utilities. If I can come up with some figures on how many kilowatts I could get out of a system I can figure out how many years it would take to pay it off.
My apologies. I wasn't aware there were rules about not talking politics. Sorry all. Won't do it again.
Seramaslover came up from Wichita today and picked up a few birds. She is so sweet. She gave me a gift with a nice card. Thank you BYC for giving me a place to meet such nice people.