Author Topic: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's  (Read 2370 times)

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Online Pandora

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Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
« on: February 20, 2011, 01:41:49 PM »
Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by michelleo on Nov 12, 2010, 12:28am

Weisshaupt and I have bought or hope to buy some things in case of TEOTWAWKI. I thought I'd share some of our recommendations:

Long Term Food Storage

Bruce & Phyllis Hopkins
Best Prices Storable Foods
P.O. Box 3182
Quinlan, Texas 75474
(903) 356-6443 (9a-6p)

http://www.internet-grocer.net

We bought some things through them and were pleased. Everything arrived on time and in tact. They sell dehydrated food (made by Walton Feed under the Rainy Day Food brand), as well as real canned butter, canned cheese, and canned meat for long term storage.

Woodstoves

We recommend Hearthstone Soapstone woodstoves. We bought the Phoenix model and we're very pleased. The stove is lined inside and out with soapstone and retains heat very well. It puts out a lot of heat and it's attractive too.

Phoenix
Heats up to: 2,000 sq. ft.
Burn Time: Up to 8 hours
Heat Life: Up to 12 hours
Size: 60,000 BTUs
EPA Rating: 2.4 grams per hour
Efficiency: 75%

www.hearthstonestoves.com

Greenhouses

We haven't bought one yet, but we're sold on the Grow Dome by Growing spaces.

http://www.geodesic-greenhouse-kits.com/

The design is a geodesic dome, which has the advantage of withstanding significant snow loads and high winds. The north face of the dome is insulated, and each dome comes equipped with a water tank designed to be a heat regulator - helps greenhouse stay cool in summer, warm in winter.

Aquaponics system

Along with the grow dome, the water tank in the greenhouse can become part of a semi-closed system mixing aquaculture with hydroponics. Grow fish in the tank, use tank water to fertilize plants. The plants (and some nitrifying bacteria) filter the water for use again by the fish. No extra fertilizer is required by the plants. You just feed the fish fishfood. You're growing veggies and protein from fish at the same time. Very cool. But currently unrealized by us.

For more info, see
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/aquaponic.pdf
http://www.jaggartech.com/snsaqua/page2.htm

for complete systems already configured: www.aquaponics.com

More info coming you way soon. Hope this helps.Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by Pandora on Nov 12, 2010, 2:16am

That's a beautiful stove, Michelle. I saw them when doing research for our fireplace insert, which is the way we went - our house is on the small side.

What have you got in mind for cooking?

I've been canning my own butter.Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by libertasinfinitio on Nov 12, 2010, 7:24am

So cool Michelle. My clan is trying to come up with ideas of what to do if the propane tank at the lake runs out. Great links, I will share these! Thanks!Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by irondiopriest on Nov 12, 2010, 8:42am

We just got done painting and re-carpeting the whole house, and buying all new furniture. She doesn't wanna look at worse case scenarios. I'm afraid that by the time I convince her, it'll be too late. Maybe that lovely stove would be a good place to start. It is indeed quite beautiful. Maybe I could make a case on a purely aesthetic basis?

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

"Let us assume for the moment everything you say about me is true. That just makes your problem bigger, doesn't it?"

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Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2011, 01:44:03 PM »
PART II OF THREAD:

Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by johnflorida on Nov 12, 2010, 6:31pm


Nov 12, 2010, 2:16am, Pandora wrote:
That's a beautiful stove, Michelle. I saw them when doing research for our fireplace insert, which is the way we went - our house is on the small side.

What have you got in mind for cooking?

I've been canning my own butter.


How do you do that??Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by johnflorida on Nov 12, 2010, 6:32pm

When I make it north again(if ever) my next house will have well water.

NICE STOVE.Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by Pandora on Nov 12, 2010, 6:44pm


Nov 12, 2010, 6:31pm, johnflorida wrote:

Nov 12, 2010, 2:16am, Pandora wrote:
That's a beautiful stove, Michelle. I saw them when doing research for our fireplace insert, which is the way we went - our house is on the small side.

What have you got in mind for cooking?

I've been canning my own butter.


How do you do that??


You pressure-can it.

Do you have a pressure-canner? It's not a pressure-cooker.Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by johnflorida on Nov 12, 2010, 7:06pm


Nov 12, 2010, 6:44pm, Pandora wrote:

Nov 12, 2010, 6:31pm, johnflorida wrote:


How do you do that??


You pressure-can it.

Do you have a pressure-canner? It's not a pressure-cooker.


I'm gonna check into one.

BTW i got my yearly supply of canned maters. So I can rotate I'm up to 7 cases on hand.Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by charlesoakwood on Nov 12, 2010, 8:25pm


Nov 12, 2010, 7:06pm, johnflorida wrote:

Nov 12, 2010, 6:44pm, Pandora wrote:


You pressure-can it.

Do you have a pressure-canner? It's not a pressure-cooker.


I'm gonna check into one.

BTW i got my yearly supply of canned maters. So I can rotate I'm up to 7 cases on hand.



Yeah, Po'boy - low intensity is my selected technique.

Pantry, shelves, and canned goods- always rotate (oldest up front).

I may be in a moment of nirvana but my fears of internal problems are on the wane. And this little incident in the Pacific will get the Navy off its arse and they will forget this "persons" BS and man up.

If I lived where it got cold I'd marry that woodstove of michelleo's.
Good lookin', Hot, and low maintenance; what more could a fella' ask for?





Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by Pandora on Nov 12, 2010, 8:38pm


Nov 12, 2010, 7:06pm, johnflorida wrote:

Nov 12, 2010, 6:44pm, Pandora wrote:


You pressure-can it.

Do you have a pressure-canner? It's not a pressure-cooker.


I'm gonna check into one.

BTW i got my yearly supply of canned maters. So I can rotate I'm up to 7 cases on hand.


You can can everything with a canner.

If/when you get the canner, get Bell's Book of Canning, it'll tell you how in there. To quickly recap: the jars have to be semi-boiled, the butter needs to be heated just to boil, the butter goes in the jars, they go in the canner and .... the pressure and time is in the book.

What kind of maters?

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

"Let us assume for the moment everything you say about me is true. That just makes your problem bigger, doesn't it?"

Online Pandora

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Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2011, 01:45:30 PM »
PART III OF THREAD:  (Oy!)

Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by michelleo on Nov 12, 2010, 8:51pm

I've canned tomatoes, fruits, and jams. Haven't tried butter yet. I'll have to get pointers.

As for cooking, the woodstove top can get up to 500 degrees, so if we have no power we could probably still boil water, fry an egg, etc. We think we can still draw water from the well even without power.

The key though is to not run out of power. So we're considering now a solar/wind power generation system.

Weisshaupt's been doing some research and so far really likes

wholesalesolar.com

because they offer pre-wired power centers. And he likes the Outback inverter for a grid-tie battery backup system that can be used without the grid if necessary. Wholesale Solar sells prewired outback panels with everything you need figured out for you so you don't have to buy piecemeal. Their features include the ability to charge battery packs with a combustion engine generator just in case. And they're "stackable."

[image]

As a possible wind generator system, we haven't found anything we like yet.

Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
Post by libertasinfinitio on Nov 15, 2010, 7:34am

Huh. Don't know how viable solar is in my neck of the woods. Can have a fair share of days on the cloudy side up here. Do they draw enough on good days/have capacity to store reserves?

I'll have to look into this a little more. My clan has mostly big-ticket stuff left to contemplate getting, everything else is set.

FYI - Re: butter, you can always buy the powdered version online, store that, until you get the pressure-can process down. We have the pressure-cooker for canning everything else, so we have the powder, for now.

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

"Let us assume for the moment everything you say about me is true. That just makes your problem bigger, doesn't it?"

hemm

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Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2011, 08:15:27 AM »
Pan you are doing great work, Thanks!!

Online Pandora

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Re: Long term food, woodstove, greenhouse rec's
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2011, 12:35:21 PM »
You're quite welcome.
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

"Let us assume for the moment everything you say about me is true. That just makes your problem bigger, doesn't it?"