Living off Social Security

[igorsMistress]

I think we can relate climate wise... I suspect you are a bit hotter in the summer time... but same skills apply.

deb

Very true. I want to sell our house by the time my husband turns 65 and move east to find some land. Little bit cooler and more precipitation. I'm practicing skills where I'm planted for now though.

 

[perchie.girl]

PS

I didn't see anyone mention solar cookers. Both sun ovens and parabolic cookers would be a great resource in your environment. I use my sun oven a lot, I'm in Phoenix. You may need a windbreak and they don't work well when it's cloudy.

YEP.... though I dont cook alot using an oven... I want to do a summer kitchen but attached to the house so I can get in with my walker. That is on the north side of the house. and in in the shade all of the year.

I do want to do a rocket stove out there... run it through into the house for whole house heating.... Use it for cooking and heating...

Love rocket stove concept... all round.

 

[perchie.girl]

Very true. I want to sell our house by the time my husband turns 65 and move east to find some land. Little bit cooler and more precipitation. I'm practicing skills where I'm planted for now though.

Make sure your well is good before you buy. Here they go down 500 feet in most places. The water table has dropped a hundred feet in the last twenty years. Drilling the well deeper is as expensive as drilling a new well. (long story) So if I have to I will drill it up closer to the house not 1000 feet away....

People not twenty feet higher in elevation behind me adjoining property lines got 20 gallons per minute not 120 feet deep.... they still drilled 500 feet for a good water coolumn.

My well goes dry if you take a long shower....

deb

 

[igorsMistress]

I love the rocket stove concept too! I have a Kelly Kettle for fishing and we use it often. I didn't know about the different ways to apply it though. It's on my list to dig into for sure.

I'm familiar with the expense of digging a well deeper vs new. My folks had a place in N CA that had one. The previous owner dug a new one rather than dig the old one deeper due to the expense. That makes no sense but what can you do?

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I'm familiar with the expense of digging a well deeper vs new. My folks had a place in N CA that had one. The previous owner dug a new one rather than dig the old one deeper due to the expense. That makes no sense but what can you do?

They have to spend a lot of time adding sections of pipe one piece at a time to get to 500' when deepening an existing well. In that sense it's almost the same amount of work.

 

[igorsMistress]

They have to spend a lot of time adding sections of pipe one piece at a time to get to 500' when deepening an existing well. In that sense it's almost the same amount of work.

That makes sense thanks. Mom probably didn't know that and was just irritated lol.

 

[perchie.girl]

I love the rocket stove concept too! I have a Kelly Kettle for fishing and we use it often. I didn't know about the different ways to apply it though. It's on my list to dig into for sure.

I'm familiar with the expense of digging a well deeper vs new. My folks had a place in N CA that had one. The previous owner dug a new one rather than dig the old one deeper due to the expense. That makes no sense but what can you do?

It all has to do with the casing.... they have to pull the casing in order to drill. which also means pulling the pump... inserting a new pump rated for the deepe3r well and all its cabling.... new casing to be inserted after...

Sometimes the well shaft collapses when they pull the old casing out... Sigh. What I want to do is Set my old to a low pressure pump and only pump about a hundred gallons a day from it in a constant trickle... That way I can keep the livestock tank full and use it for irrigation occasionally... then use the new well for the rest of my water use.

One day

 

[Dharmachick]

The place I'm moving to is high desert. Snow in winter, hot in summer. It has a well that was just worked on, septic that was just redone, including the septic field, but the house is a manufactured one. It has a new heat pump. It comes with a triple garage, which I will use as a workshop, but I also want a rocket stove. Maybe I could heat the garage with that.

It has 2 1/2 acres of old pasture, so I will need to plant trees and shrubbery for the chickens. I would also like a milking goat.

 

[PouleChick]

Sorry totally off topic but as a non American I find your geographical areas (particularly the odd ones that I'm reading in your avatars like 'high desert' just fascinating!!!) Sorry back to my lurking on this thread

 

[N F C]

Sorry totally off topic but as a non American I find your geographical areas (particularly the odd ones that I'm reading in your avatars like 'high desert' just fascinating!!!) Sorry back to my lurking on this thread

Where I live in south central Wyoming, we're considered high desert. Pretty stark, lots of scrub brush, lots of open area, some cactus, trees are mainly limited to water sources (like a river or a town). Lots of wildlife like antelope, deer, badgers, raccoons, hawks, eagles and beaver in the rivers. Dry and windy in the summer, cold and windy in the winter.

In other words, probably a lot different from SW France!