How to Use the Solar Funnel Oven as a Refrigerator

Remember the solar funnel oven I told you about yesterday?  Now the BYU professors that invented it have come out with an update.  They tell you how you can reverse the heat flow at night and it will freeze water, even if the outside nighttime temperature is 60 degrees!  And even if the nighttime temperature was above 60 degrees, the food you put into it at night will be 20 degrees cooler, so it acts as a refrigerator.

Think how happy that would make you when we are out of power in the hot summer after a hurricane!

 

http://solarcooking.org/saveheat.htm

(Remember to print out this document, because when you really want these instructions you won't have any power to look at your computer.)

 

Fabulous Solar Funnel Oven You Can Make Yourself!

Last year I bought a Global Sun Oven for $250.  It works great.  But it was SO EXPENSIVE!

Brother Midkiff just sent me this link to a solar oven that you can make yourself.  It sounds like it even works better than my expensive one.  http://solarcooking.org/plans/funnel.htm

You can see the black-painted jar at the bottom of the oven.

Another great thing about a solar oven, is that you can boil water in it.  So it accomplishes two important things during a disaster:  it cooks your food without any fuel, and it purifies your water.

I have an idea:  Why don't several of us in the ward each make one and give a lesson at an evening Relief Society?  Just think what a blessing it will be to own one of these solar ovens when the time comes when we have no electricity for any extended amount of time.

(And be sure to print out these instructions, because when you need this oven, your power will be off and you won't have a computer.)

You put the food inside a black-painted canning jar, inside a Reynolds poultry-cooking bag, and set it at the bottom of the funnel.  

Got Seasonings?

Think about eating food storage without herbs, spices, and seasonings.  It would be pretty boring, wouldn't it?  Make a list of all the ones you use, and get a year's supply.  You'll be happy you did.

(This picture shows under one of our kid's beds.)

News items: These will affect food supply

First: there is massive flooding along the Mississippi River.  If trucks can't get through, the stores won't get supplied.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110505/us_nm/us_weather_flooding_levee "U.S. to Blow Third Hole in Levee"

Arkansas closed a 15-mile stretch of westbound lanes of one of the busiest road arteries in the nation, Interstate 40, for the time ever due to flooding, according to the state's transportation department. More than 31,000 vehicles travel daily through the section of road closed, and 65 to 70 percent of those are trucks, said Glenn Bolick, Arkansas Transportation.




Second:  Food shortages and inflation, both making food more expensive.  I'm just making you aware, in case you don't read the news very much.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-05/food-prices-approach-record-high-as-grain-prices-fuel-inflation-worldwide.html "Food Prices Rise to Near Record as Inflation Accelerates"

Corn has almost doubled in the past 12 months on speculation that more planting in the U.S., the world’s largest grower, won’t be sufficient to rebuild global stocks. Wheat surged 57 percent over the same period and soybeans gained 39 percent as flooding ruined crops in Canada and Australia and drought reduced harvests in Russia and Europe.

Of the grains, corn “is the most worrisome,” Abbassian said in a statement. “We would need above-average, if not record, yields in the U.S.,” however, “plantings so far have been delayed considerably due to cool and wet conditions on the ground,” he said.

How Did I Know the Water I stored in Juice Bottles Was Safe to Drink?

On ProvidentLiving.org there is a section on how to safely store water.  

"If water comes directly from a good, pretreated source, then no additional purification is needed; otherwise, pretreat water before use. Store water in sturdy, leak-proof, breakage-resistant containers. Consider using plastic bottles commonly used for juices and soft drinks."

Using those instructions, I just wash out juice bottles and fill them with regular tap water.  Then I hide them all over my house.

When our water was out on Sunday-Monday, we used any bottles we found in the house to do washing, flushing toilets, etc.

But when I wanted to drink water, I used only the bottles from a certain room, because I knew I had only put them there in the past two months.

When a really big disaster happens, I plan to use our water filter to filter that small bit of water that we actually drink, just in case any of my stored water has any germs in it.  But the great majority of the water is actually used for washing and cleanliness, and the small chance of germs makes no difference there.

My advice for people who want to buy bottled water- only pay for the bare minimum of factory-bottled water.  Use free used bottles and tap water for the majority of the storage, there is no need to pay for that.

Water Shortage- Here's What I Learned, part 3

Small bottles are more convenient to use than big containers.
I was so happy we had lots of bottles of water- they were small and easy to use.  We have three 55-gallon drums of water in our garage, but they are inconvenient to use.  We never had to use them.

Here is how you flush a toilet:  Get a bucket.  Pour at least 3 half-gallon juice bottles of water into the bucket.  Dump the water quickly into the toilet bowl, aiming for the drain hole.  The surge of water will flush the toilet.  This uses less water than just pouring water into the toilet tank and pushing the flush lever.

Paper products are great when you don't have much water.
We were cooking and preparing food like normal during our water outage, so we to clean up the mess.  It is AWFUL to try to get shortening or butter off of dishes without wiping it, and paper towels were great for that.  Paper plates also helped.

Shelf Reliance shelves

Go to this blog, http://everydayfoodstorage.net/blog and on her May 2, 2011 post she gives the link to use to get 40% off of Shelf Reliance shelves, (the kind where your cans roll).

(In my ward, Latacha has some of these shelves, and really likes them.)

Water Shortage- Here's What I Learned, part 2- Dishpans

I learned that when you have limited water, and you want to wash dishes, you better own some plastic dishpans.

You have to heat the water on the stove, then pour it into one dishpan for washing and one for rinsing.

You wash the dishes in the soapy water.  You save the water after it is cold and yucky, and later you pour that water into a bucket and then use it to flush the toilet.

The next time you wash dishes, you start with the clean rinse water, and use it as the new dishwashing water (you have to add boiling water to it.)  Then you put fresh hot water in the rinse pan.

If you don't have plastic dishpans, all of these steps are very difficult to do.

Water Shortage- Here's What I Learned, part 1

We had to turn off our water at 10:45 am on Sunday, and it was off until the plumber was done at 9:30 am Monday.  There are 4 people living in our house.  We all tried to conserve water, but we ended up using 21.5 gallons total.

The empty bottles which contained 21.5 gallons are shown above.

That equalled 5.3 gallons used by each person in almost a 24 hour period.

Like I said in my post late last night, 1 gallon per person IS NOT ENOUGH.

I am pleased that I have hidden so much water behind almost every piece of furniture in my house.  I have put bottles between items in the linen closet.  I have put them around the bottoms of closets behind the hanging clothing.  I have some under the bathroom sinks. They are also lined up behind my bed's headboard.

We are so dependent on water, we just can't survive without it.  DO NOT DEPEND ON ALWAYS HAVING WATER IN THE TAP.  SOMEDAY IT MIGHT NOT BE THERE.

This subject is very important to me, as you may notice.  Empty bottles are free, water from the tap is free.  Quit throwing away juice bottles and start hiding them in your closets.  You will be glad you did.

One Gallon of Water Per Day is Definitely Not Enough

This morning just before we left for church, we found water dripping from the ceiling onto the kitchen floor.  We turned off the water main to the house and it slowed down.  I took the computer out of the kitchen (so no water would drip on it) and then went to church.

When we came back from church, there was no additional water dripping but we have not turned the water back on.  (We hope to get a plumber here on Monday.)  We had to figure out how to live with no running water the rest of the day.  We cooked, handwashed the dirty dishes that were in the dishwasher, flushed toilets, some people in the family took "washcloth baths", all with tap water I had stored in juice bottles all around the house.

So far we have used 28   1/2 gallon juice bottles full of water.   That equals 14 gallons.  For 4 people, we have used 3.5 gallons each in one day.

After the water pipe broke, we did not take real showers, we hardly ever flushed the toilets, and we did NO laundry.  Just the bare necessities for one day.

The church recommends storing 1 gallon per person per day as your emergency supply.

I say that is not enough for comfort.  That is the bare minimum for survival, but not comfort. 

So please get it through your heads, you will want to have more than 1 gallon per day.  Believe me.

May Provident Living Challenge

May 2011 Provident Living Challenges:

Do one of these by the June evening Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

1.      Transportation alternatives:   Ponder what your family would do if gas was not available or too expensive, Come up with three alternate forms of transportation that your family could use to move goods or people short distances without gasoline, and report to Amy what you would do. 

 Look for items you already own, or inexpensive items you could buy.  Think of baby strollers, garden carts, wheelbarrows, bikes with baskets or panniers, wagons, small personal grocery carts, or wheeled luggage.  Note:  It is also important for each person in the family to have suitable walking shoes for walking long distances.  

2.     Grind some wheat and make something with the wheat flour.

If you do not have a wheat grinder, there are many people in the ward who will be happy to let you grind some wheat at their house. (Amy will get a list of these people.)  If your food turns out yummy, turn your recipe in to Amy and she will put it on her blog.

Ground Beef Now or Later

Years ago I learned a great timesaving tip.  I learned to bring raw ground beef home, and immediately brown it, then I store the browned ground beef in baggies in the freezer.  That saves tons of time as I am cooking a meal.

Then I started learning about food storage, and the importance of having very little of your food storage in the freezer.  (I don't want to lose all my food when the electricity fails.)

So I learned how to pressure can my ground beef.  It doesn't look very pretty, because the grease settles around the top, but when I open it I throw that grease away.

I still freeze some hamburger every time I buy it, but I keep most of it in bottles.  This gives me a lot of satisfaction because I don't have to worry about the power going off.

(Note:  I don't know why this bottle is only half full.  Usually I put more in.)