Communities

Communities

New golf cart batteries

gcb1

Today was the first full day on the new batteries, we had everything hooked up to them, including the new chest freezer to refrigerator conversion, about a month (or so) ago our old one smoked on us, fortunately it happened during the day and I was there to catch it, it might not have gone any further, but as far as I’m concerned, when you see smoke, fire usually comes next. I’ll do another writeup on the new fridge very soon, until then you can read about how I DIY’d the conversion here and here.

Our previous batteries were marine type deep cycle batteries, I’ve been told on more than one occasion that those types of batteries aren’t true deep cycle batteries, in fact the newer ones being sold have cold cranking ratings on them instead of amp hours, and that has little (or nothing) to do with being deep cycle, that has to do with starting motors and such. Those are a hybrid of regular and deep cycle batteries, more robust than a standard car or truck battery but not as heavy duty as a true deep cycle battery.…

Read More »
Communities

Off-Grid hiccups

empty

A while back my current deep cycle batteries began to get weak, they would charge up quickly and not hold much of a charge, unfortunately the batteries are the part of the off-grid system that need to be replaced on a semi-regular basis. I am hard on my batteries, that has never been a secret. This next week I plan on buying four 6-volt deep cycle golf cart batteries. In the past I have used marine type deep cycle batteries, they are more heavy duty than regular automotive batteries, but aren’t near as hearty as golf cart batteries.

As my current batteries began getting weaker and weaker, it began creating problems with my inverter, causing it to go into fault mode for a few seconds, meaning it would cut off the power during that time, it only did it during the day when the batteries were charging or fully charged, never at night, it took me a while to figure out where the problem was.…

Read More »
Communities

Building an off-grid village

1x1placeholder

I had an article on the Guardian web site today about a plan to build an off-grid village. It’s a very difficult thing to do in the UK because the powers-that-be are dead against it. But we have found a possible site in South Wales and we are looking for finance, and for pro bono help from lawyers, architects and housebuilders. (Contact nick@off-grid.net)
IF we do not succeed in raising finance for this project I will be trying to build an off-grid township in the USA where far more people live off-grid already and there are fewer obstacles.…

Read More »
Communities

It’s garden time!

tomatoes-GraphicsFairy

I grew up watching gardening shows on PBS, one of my favorites was the Victory Garden, and during pledge week, they would always have Howard Garrett and Jerry Baker on, I loved watching their easy but effective DIY fertilizers and pest control, Garrett Juice and Jerry Baker’s tonics are easy to make, easy to use and work! Over the years, I have made my own concoctions using a bit from both recipes, yeah I cook the same way…

Don’t tell anyone but urinating on your plants works too, you will have to dilute it to about a 10% solution, and no kidding, if you do use urine, don’t tell anyone, no one will want to eat from your garden :)…

Read More »
Communities

The Truffle

a1
I enjoy looking at alternative, different housing, this is pretty different, both in the materials, design and building methods. I ran across this on FaceBook and had to dig further to find out more about it.

The concept is really simple, dig a pit, insert bales of straw for the center of the structure, then pour concrete around the outside of it, remove the dirt from the outside and the straw from the middle. I said it was simple, I never said it was easy. …

Read More »
Communities

Dollar stores for preps

dollarstorefood
It’s been a while since I have written about cooking, food and recipes, if you follow me any at all, you know that food is very important to me. Perhaps it’s because I’m old enough to have had parents who grew up during the Great Depression. Perhaps it’s because growing up, we were on the poor side of the financial scale, while we never actually went hungry, there were times when food was scarce, my mother had to be very frugal and creative with what we had, I learned a lot from her.…

Read More »
Communities

Air pruning?

01

Ever heard of air pruning? Neither have I… I just watched this video and I’m blown away, I think of all the people who do container gardening for many reasons, some don’t have the space, some rent and aren’t allowed to till up the grass/lawn, others have poor or no soil. …

Read More »
Communities

Pioneer couple

11
I grew up watching Texas Country Reporter, back in the day it was called 4 Country Reporter, that’s when there were only a few TV stations to choose from, channel 4 was a Dallas TV station thus the name was born. This show began back in the early 70s and showcased Texans living simple yet interesting lives, TCR gave us a glimpse into the window of those wonderful people.…

Read More »
Communities

Update on being sick…

addiction-71575_640
With my latest brush with a pretty major upper respiratory infection (URI), I made the decision to work on my stash of meds and educate myself as much as possible about what to take, how much and when to take it. One really REALLY good source of info is the ThePatriotNurse on YouTube. Chances are you already know about her, but if you don’t, or you haven’t visited her YouTube channel in a while, well you need to go there and check her out.…

Read More »
Communities

7 days without utilities

7days

I continually talk about being prepared, and I mean for as many things as possible, while it’s not possible to be ready 100% for every possible scenario, it is possible to be ready for as many probabilities as you can. This guy LDSPrepper decided to test his preparation, he turned off his utilities for a week, water, electricity and gas, he video taped his experiences for that week.

The really cool thing about this was he didn’t get everything perfect before he started, he shut everything off as if it happened without warning, he had dirty dishes, his solar system wasn’t fully set up, he needed to water his garden…. After watching all the videos, it’s clear he has some work to do, but this was a really good run for him and I believe we can all learn something from this, I know he did.…

Read More »
Communities

Being sick away from help

501px-Michael_Ancher_001

I have been going through one of the things that is greatly feared by the off-grid and rural community, getting very sick, I’m not talking about a little cough or feeling bad, I’m talking putting you in bed, wavering between feeling horrible and feeling like I died an hour ago…. it’s the worst sick I have been in MANY MANY years.  This started a week ago Saturday, with a slight sore throat and a little tickle in my throat, from there it degraded to putting me in bed with a fever, coughing fits so bad I feared I would stop breathing, this really tested me and my resolve to take care of myself. There is a point where one gets bad enough to go ahead and see a doctor, I came as close to that point this time as I ever have since we moved off-grid.…

Read More »
Communities

George Soros: Banking “parasites” still leeching off us

Billionaire George Soros says the banking sector is a “parasite” holding back the economic recovery and an “incestuous” relationship with regulators means little has been done to resolve the issues behind the 2008 crisis.
“The banking sector is acting as a parasite on the real economy,” Mr Soros says in his new book “The Tragedy of the European Union” (Buy in the UK).…

Read More »