tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post1664774376443596624..comments2024-01-19T09:04:03.601-08:00Comments on powering down: utility-free weekend follow upnulinegvgvhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007178148902846658noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-44930028709396968772009-05-05T15:03:00.000-07:002009-05-05T15:03:00.000-07:00Great post. We live on a small homestead with six ...Great post. We live on a small homestead with six homeschooled children. Not only does our bathtub also not hold water effectively but we are gradually trying to do more and more by hand. Your point that doing every day tasks by hand takes much longer (although it is often more satisfying) is very true and has to be experienced to truly comprehend. We use crosscut saws, for instance, and hand wash our laundry. Great team building activities but not exactly speedy.<br /><br />One other point about the cooking - we are huge fans of cook box cooking. Bring a dish to a boil for a few minutes and that is all the fuel you need. We have posted about all of these subjects, or videoed our family doing them and are so gung ho about cook box cooking that I am just finishing writing an e-book on the subject. Gotta find a way to keep the computer humming, though! Great experiment. I look forward to reading more. LesliePocketsoftheFuturehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951717980830820948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-89820506670176652372009-04-21T11:42:00.000-07:002009-04-21T11:42:00.000-07:00Congrats, Aaron!
Commercial radio music, you're r...Congrats, Aaron!<br /><br />Commercial radio music, you're really going beyond the call! On no-electricity days, I'll actually allow myself to use a CD player powered by solar recharged batteries. We've got a hand crank radio but the charge on the crank is getting weak. We hold water in our shower stall in a plastic bin. We've used a rocket stove for cooking and it's worked real well. We're trying to build a bunch more of them. We're planning to try to go totally off the electric grid this summer. Gas and water will have to come later.<br /><br />Keep up the good work!<br /><br />LarryLarryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06958665478516646266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-67548871564581287092009-04-19T15:14:00.000-07:002009-04-19T15:14:00.000-07:00Nice to see you're using the berkey water filters....Nice to see you're using the berkey water filters. I use a <A HREF="http://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com/berkey-filter-systems-c-1/big-berkey-p-182" REL="nofollow">big berkey filter</A> in the same exact way.berkey filterhttp://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-36869704397065885372009-04-18T10:27:00.000-07:002009-04-18T10:27:00.000-07:00Liked your comment that it doesn't have to be all ...Liked your comment that it doesn't have to be all or nothing.<br />Great post.WILDBLUESbysushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05721938956504857045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-17396839893218762962009-04-12T05:22:00.000-07:002009-04-12T05:22:00.000-07:00We do alot of camping so for us cooking on campsto...We do alot of camping so for us cooking on campstove is normalfor us. For coffee we bought a used campstove coffee pot. Takes longer than flipping on power but the wait is worth it. We use that pot when we know bad weather is approaching. Simply because we know our power could go at any time. We also fill up the tea pot. A carafe helps keep stuff warm once made but thermos works better. <BR/><BR/>We also use a solar power radio/flashlight. has a crank on it. <BR/><BR/>I never thought of checking to see how long our tub holds water! I'll have to check it out! <BR/><BR/>Sounds like you had a intresting weekend w/out power!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-11262506869434955902009-04-11T16:40:00.000-07:002009-04-11T16:40:00.000-07:00This is a very inspiring post. It has me thinking...This is a very inspiring post. It has me thinking...Stace'https://www.blogger.com/profile/17019625670602026914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-4828287719354032652009-04-09T18:38:00.000-07:002009-04-09T18:38:00.000-07:00We tried this experiment about a month ago when we...We tried this experiment about a month ago when we got a freak snow storm and didn't have power or water for 3 days. We did pretty well but definitely found some holes we need to fill. Heat was a huge problem, it got down to 45 in the house and was cold! We don't have a wood stove, so we're looking into a kerosene heater or pellet stove. Long term, water will be a major problem.Christyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14920326845870515381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-52160115590646906042009-04-09T12:00:00.000-07:002009-04-09T12:00:00.000-07:00We have a non-electric percolator to make coffee. ...We have a non-electric percolator to make coffee. We typically make it on our stove top, which is electric, but if we're without power, we can use the percolator on pretty much any heat source - camp stove, BBQ grill, the top of our wood stove, whatever. You can also make coffee in a French press without electricity. Basically you just need the means to boil water.<BR/><BR/>I'm glad you mentioned the bathtub thing - I KNOW ours doesn't hold water.Tarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08909872672886308470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-2740516879149968382009-04-08T11:46:00.000-07:002009-04-08T11:46:00.000-07:00With regard to making coffee, here is a good page ...With regard to making coffee, here is a good page about <A HREF="http://www.espresso-machines-and-coffee-makers.com/travel-coffee-maker.html" REL="nofollow">travel coffee makers</A>. It talks about a number of different ways to make coffee without electricity.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-72245749336855022872009-04-06T19:00:00.000-07:002009-04-06T19:00:00.000-07:00If you use pressure cookers you cut down on energy...If you use pressure cookers you cut down on energy use and cooking time.<BR/>EJAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-21728002815003766612009-04-06T16:12:00.000-07:002009-04-06T16:12:00.000-07:00Aaron wrote, "I also missed coffee ( I know you do...Aaron wrote, "I also missed coffee ( I know you don't need electricity to make coffee but I'm not set how to do it without)"<BR/><BR/>Aaron, I'm not a coffee drinker, so I've never tried this, but I remembered seeing cold brewed coffee awhile back and found this simple way to make it yourself:<BR/>http://www.ineedcoffee.com/06/coldhome/gaias daughterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11625781455690205927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-22817709092258386052009-04-06T14:47:00.000-07:002009-04-06T14:47:00.000-07:00Your wife must be truly amazing, to be able to pla...Your wife must be truly amazing, to be able to play the piano and sign. Even if I knew more than a few signs, it's all my two poor hands can do to just play the piano! ;)Nom de Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05153700215201399299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-22609150533403527072009-04-04T07:33:00.000-07:002009-04-04T07:33:00.000-07:00Hi, I came here from Amy's Humble Musings. This is...Hi, I came here from Amy's Humble Musings. This is a really interesting experiment. It reminded me a lot of when we used to live in Florida and we'd get hit by hurricanes. We were fortunate to have a huge screened-in porch, and we used the grill to cook our food outside on the porch. (We often grilled out, anyway, in the summer to avoid warming up the house with the stove/oven.) The most challenging thing at the time was figuring out how to cool ourselves in the hot Florida August heat.<BR/><BR/>Another commenter mentioned cell phones - we had trouble with this, too, because many cell towers had been damaged from the hurricane, and those that were still working were overloaded. Fortunately we had a landline and a non-electric phone at the time.ashleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10982050095869237882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-70291835601812358592009-04-03T08:15:00.000-07:002009-04-03T08:15:00.000-07:00I've spent a lit of time out in the woods in the p...I've spent a lit of time out in the woods in the past (backpacking, camping, rafting). If you want a warm shower and have no power, the sun showers work really well. Of course you need sun :/ and you didn't have any. I suppose you could fill one with warm water. Off grid cooking is done well in a rocket stove. I've never made one. I've always figured if I really needed to I could take the bricks from my garden edging and make one in less than 5 mins. It is powered with sticks. Or if I didn't mind using a small battery, a Zip stove works pretty well. It also uses small sticks and works about as well as other backpacking stoves, but really needs to be constantly tended. It looks like you had an interesting experiment. I confess I really want solar on my house. I haven't since we are thinking of moving and I'd like to get my investment back. Our next house for sure. I'll probably tie it into the grid though. Everything I've seen about isolated systems say they are much more inefficient. That means when the power goes out so does my house even if it is sunny.Daphne Gouldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305049560953735881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-33906492795477174802009-04-03T07:33:00.000-07:002009-04-03T07:33:00.000-07:00Sorry, just wanted to add that the hot water my hu...Sorry, just wanted to add that the hot water my husband Lyle and I had we used for drinking mostly. When the road opened we 'cheated' and went down the hill a couple of towns over and showered at a friend's place. But my father-in-law heated water for a bath on their wood stove -- yes, they have a wood stove and a gas stove -- the wood one's closer to the bathroom and is big enough you can put several pots on it at once.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11626279.post-70579624084957944942009-04-03T07:28:00.000-07:002009-04-03T07:28:00.000-07:00Interesting weekend! Good discovery on the bath tu...Interesting weekend! Good discovery on the bath tubs -- although you might think about getting some tubs or buckets that you could sit in the bathtub, to hold water? That way you can still temporarily store water in a more out-of-the way space. And you can take them out to still use the tub as a tub if you want.<BR/><BR/>On stove use indoors -- good point about having the window for ventilation. In addition, if you can't cook outdoors, find a way to curtain off the cooking area -- help slow down the spread or loss of heat as needed. Even a sheet does quite a lot to help. <BR/><BR/>Also, invest in some good thermoses -- I like the stainless steel vacuum ones. They keep water or coffee or whatever hot all day. When we remember, we do that in the morning after making tea, and then we can have tea later in the day or night without having to go through the whole process again. <BR/><BR/>Candles and headlamps, great! We also have some oil lamps. Although the fuel oil is usually petroleum based (as are many candles and/or the processes used to make them), you can also use veg oils if need be.<BR/><BR/>PHONE: For true emergency preparedness, find an old-style phone that you can plug in, if you have a landline of some sort. When we got hit with an ice storm this past winter, cell phones, spotty at best in our area, didn't work at all because power to the cell towers was down. Old-fashioned phones that didn't require batteries were the only thing that worked, because the phone lines were still up and the old phones can get just enough power off of the telephone line to operate.<BR/><BR/>My husband and I need to think more on the cooking without power bit ourselves. We might have a cook stove somewhere, but we don't have fuel. We do have a hibachi and charcoal (outdoor only of course), as well as a couple of other grills people gave us. We also have a wood stove but it's primarily for heating, so not great for cooking. During the ice storm if we got desperate for cooked food we went downstairs and used the in-laws' gas stove. On the plus side, we always had hot water for this and that ;)<BR/><BR/>Heather GAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com