There are many options for putting out a small spot fire. One option is hand tools to throw dirt on the fire or quickly cut a fire line around the affected area while waiting for help to arrive. Even better would be dozer or large tractor to cut a larger fire line more quickly.

But sometimes, your best option is some water. A high volume of water in the right place for even a short time can do wonders on a small spot fire. And that's how our wildfire mobile attack unit was born.

Disclaimer

Let me start by saying that I'm in no way advocating that an amateur single-handedly try to attack a large wildfire. That's crazy! This is referring to small-scale scenarios such as the above where a fire has just started, there's no danger of getting trapped or overtaken by the small fire, and a bit of effort in the right place at the right time could prevent it from turning into a full-blown wildfire. Anytime you deal with fire, you must be certain that you always have a solid escape plan and that you bail out before you need to use it.

Standardized Fittings

My goal was to try and use the same type and size of fitting across the whole system for a particular function. For instance, anything on the output side of the pump (pump outlet, fire hoses, tees, nozzles, etc) should all have the same fitting so they can interconnect. Anything that interfaces with the inlet side of the pump (suction hoses, tank outlet, etc) should have the same type and size of fitting.

Why the big fuss about standardizing fittings? When you are under stress and have a time crunch, you don't need to be fiddling with finding the right fittings or adapters. You need to be able to grab stuff and connect it. Also, you never know what unusual configuration you'll need, and if everything is as standardized as possible, you may have more options.

The Tank

I started with a 350 gallon on the back of our 3/4 ton pickup. With our HD springs, it's possible we could have handled a larger tank, but this 2,800 pound load was as heavy as I wanted to go, especially in case I needed to maneuver the truck through terrain. And you want to avoid driving around with a partially empty tank if possible, as the water can surge when you try to stop quickly and cause you to lose control.

On this tank, I threaded a quick disconnect male cam-lock fitting. With this fitting, I can quickly connect the outlet of my tank to the inlet of my fire pump with the short suction hose. In addition, as mentioned above, I can quickly reconfigure my system to pump from a creek and use the one adapter to pump water into my tank. When pumping this way, you can fill the tank up very quickly!

The Pump

Even though I've used a Honda WH15 pump for years with great success, I opted the for NorthStar 2" High Pressure Pump. This little pump has a quality Honda engine, but the pump offers a lot more performance, with around 90 GPM at over 90 PSI!

While the pump did have a part that leaked a bit, Northern Tool sent me a replacement right away for free. Years later, I have noticed a leak develop between the pump and the engine, so I may have to replace the gasket there, but all in all I'm very happy with it. And I have friends with this same pump who use it a lot and have had good success.

Hoses

For hoses, I could have purchased them brand new online from numerous retailers, but I happened upon a Craigslist ad for a pallet of old fire hoses. Some of them were pretty worn out, but I ended up with at least 1,000' of quality 1.5" fire hose out of the deal and if I recall correctly I only paid a couple hundred dollars!

I like 50' long 1.5" fire hoses because they are a manageable size, tough, can move a lot of water, and because they are so common, it's fairly easy to find fittings or adapters. On these hoses, I've mounted quarter-turn quick-connect fittings that will interface with each other, the pump, and nozzles.

Foaming/Wetting Agent

Foaming or wetting agents are additives you can put in your tank of water to make them even more effective. This is really useful anytime, but especially when you have a limited amount of water. I have a good supply of a foaming agent used by some fire departments (FireAde) and know that a proper ratio for mine is 1 gal of foam liquid to one 350 gal tank of water.

When used at this concentration with a normal nozzle, it won't necessarily create a layer of thick foam (that would require a foaming nozzle and setup), but it makes the water much more effective and can even make items you spray more fire-resistant for a while. I don't know about you, but I need all the help I can get!

Hand Tools

Don't forget to throw in some hand tools like shovels, axes, pulaskis, etc. These are invaluable for making a fire line. As awesome as water is, it often needs to be complimented with a fire line of some sort, down to mineral earth that can't burn or smolder.

WildFire Resources

Be sure to check out our podcast episode on dealing with WildFires on the homestead.

And here are some other useful resources:

• Jack Cohen Videos (foremost expert in wildland fire structure protection)
  • Wildfire! Preventing Home Ignitions – A really good explanation for how homes burn down and what you can do to prevent it
  • Protecting Your Home From Wildfire – Jack visits a number of homes and points out the issues that could cause them to burn down during a wildfire.
  • Your Home Can Survive a Wildfire – Some of the topics covered in the above but also includes more modern tests he’s conducted to prove how wildfires burn homes down

The post My Homemade WildFire Mobile Attack Unit appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

• Static water level
• Yield (how many GPM your well can produce)
• Overall depth

This info is important to know when setting up an independent water system for your homestead. But unless you are the one who had the well drilled, you probably don't have a copy of the well log. So how can you find it?

While a few states make it very difficult to obtain a well log, most states have a large percentage of their well logs easily available online. Here are the relevant links and instructions for how to access a well log in all 50 states:

The post How To Find A Well Log In All 50 States appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

I've been living off the power grid for almost 25 years and am here to walk you through this important topic. By the end of this post, you'll be able to decide for yourself whether your circumstances are best suited to a grid-tie or an off-grid solar power system.

First, let us take a quick look at some pros and cons:

Now, for a bit more detail. The first one we will look at is the Grid-tie power system and then we will look at what an off-grid power system looks like.

Grid-Tie Solar Systems

For a variety of reasons (environmental, economic, etc.) many people choose this route. Typically this starts by connecting the home to the local power company’s power lines. The home uses power and the meter spins. At the end of the month, you receive a power bill for the electricity you used.

Up to this point, everything is “normal”. Here is the difference. Grid-tie systems use the energy produced from the homeowner’s renewable sources to offset the power purchased.

Basically, it consists of installing a solar panel array (often on the roof of the house). The electricity generated by your solar panels is then directed into your home for use or on to the power grid.

During times when the solar system is producing more power than your home is currently using, the power meter essentially spins backward, selling power back to the power company. Then you get a credit on your power bill. When the power produced is less than your current usage (i.e. at night or on cloudy days), then the power company “sells” you the power you need and you receive a bill in the mail.

The Advantages of a Grid-tie system

The goal of most grid-tie systems is to greatly reduce or eliminate your power bill. You'd want to install enough solar panels to accomplish that depending on your current budget.

Conventional grid-tie systems are typically less expensive (per kWh of power produced) than off-grid systems. The reason? There is no need for equipment to store excess electricity. The power company basically becomes the storage system, selling you power whenever your system is not producing enough.

The downside of a conventional grid-tie system is that when a power outage occurs, you still lose your electricity like everyone else. The solar system automatically shuts down during a power outage so that it doesn't electrocute a poor lineman who might be trying to restore power to your area.

Having said that, it is true that many modern grid-tie systems can be set up with a small battery backup to provide power during blackouts. But this increases the cost of the system, and most on-grid homes are not set up to be off-grid and would plow through any moderately-sized battery bank in record time. So the battery backup systems basically give you a short tether to make it through quick blackouts with only a portion of your home operational. In our opinion, if you go to the expense and effort of setting up a full battery system and making your home off-grid ready, why not just go off the grid?

Off-Grid Solar Systems

An off-grid solar power system is completely independent from the power grid. It produces all of its electricity. When its power sources are generating power (solar, wind, hydro, fuel-powered generator), they are powering the home, and any unused power is stored in a battery bank for times when you aren't producing as much.

An inverter/charger works to convert the power from your batteries or solar panels into usable power in your house, just like you would if you were on the power grid. With the exception of solar panels, you wouldn't know the difference practically in your home. You'd plug in your kitchen appliances, computer, and phone charger into an electrical outlet just like you would normally.

There are some additional components we won't get into on this post, but these are the most basic components of an off-grid solar power system:

• Solar panels (and/or other power sources) - to generate electricity
• Battery bank - to store any unused power
• Inverter/charger - to transform the solar or battery power into regular household current, just like you'd get from the power company

The Advantage of an Off-Grid System

The #1 advantage of an off-grid system is the independence it provides. When your power company is experiencing a local or regional blackout, you are completely unaffected. It's awesome to find out days later about a power outage in your area that you weren't even aware of!

All other things being equal, an off-grid power system costs more than a conventional grid tie system, since there are no batteries with a conventional grid-tie system. However, there are other factors. For instance, most off-grid power system owners choose to become more energy efficient. Therefore, they don't need to produce as much power (or build as large a system), as they would have if they had gone with a grid-tie system. So I have seen a number of off-grid systems that were significantly cheaper than a typical grid-tie system. If done properly and economically, even an off-grid system should pay for itself and end up saving money in the long run. How long this takes will depend on your energy consumption, how economically your system is designed, and the price of energy in your area.

One other factor to consider is the cost of running power lines to a remote property. If you find yourself in that situation, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars for the power company to get you connected to the grid. While this cost varies depending on the distance from existing lines and installation difficulty, I have heard of an $18,000 quote for running power to a location around 1 mile from the power lines; another quote was approaching $50,000 to run the power lines several miles.

One final clarification regarding energy efficiency. We live very normally here. We didn't substantially change our lifestyle to be more power efficient for our off grid system. Instead, we focused on finding equipment that was more power efficient. That's the key to thriving in off-grid success. You don't generally have to do without. It's about choosing wisely.

Because an off-grid system enables one to become truly energy independent, that is what we highly recommend. Are you ready to take your home off the power grid?

The post Uncover the perfect solar system for you: off-grid or grid-tied? appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

Here we go...

The Theory

When the sun's rays arrive at your solar panels, the more perpendicular they are to the array, the more energy will be produced (all other things being equal). Because of this, some companies have produced solar trackers that essentially move your solar array through the day so it stays as perpendicular to the sun as possible. But these devices cost a lot, and with solar power being so cheap these days, they usually are not worth the expense. However, it illustrates the impact that proper vertical angle can have.

While it's not practical to manually rotate your solar array from east to west each day through the day, there are some other adjustments we can make less frequently that can have a serious impact. In fact, it only takes as few as 2 adjustments per year to get most of the benefit.

You see, not only does the sun appear to move from our eastern horizon to the west each day, but it's also making a very gradual move each season. In the summer, the sun glides more directly overhead in the middle of the day. However, during winter it can be much lower in the southern horizon. The effect becomes more exaggerated the further north (or south) you go from the equator. The only place this stays the same all year is directly on the equator. For more details, see this post.

Thankfully, if you take this into account when setting up your solar system, you can easily make some occasional adjustments to maximize the power potential of your off grid solar array.

The Easy Way

If you choose your solar mount carefully, adjusting the angle will be a breeze. Here's a look at how easy it can be with a solar mount like the one I use from MT Solar:

Other Options

Some other types of solar mounts can also be adjusted. For instance, if you build a false wall and mount solar panels using adjustable angle iron mounts like this:

With this option, holes are strategically drilled in the bottom metal runner at various locations to allow for the solar array to be tilted to different vertical angles. If you go this route, you may want to limit your number of adjustments each year since it isn't as easy.

And that brings us to the next question...

How Often Should I Adjust My Solar Panels?

You don't have to adjust them at all. And for many mounts (like roof mounts), you won't be able to adjust your array. But if you are able to adjust them, you can improve the power production from your array, especially during the winter when they struggle more.

Unless your array is super easy to adjust (like mine is in the video above), I suggest only adjust your solar array twice per year. Once in the spring and once in the fall. But if it's super easy to adjust (or you just enjoy doing it), you could do it once a month or even more (especially during Spring and Fall when the sun's arc is changing more rapidly).

Is It Really Worth It?

You might be wondering if adjusting your solar array's vertical pitch is really worth the work. And that's a good question. The answer depends on how difficult your solar array is to adjust and whether your solar array is oversized or undersized.

If your solar array is oversized--even for the winter months--then it probably isn't worth the work unless you have a mount that is super easy to adjust like mine. However, if you are undersized in the winter, then the bump you'll get could make a difference.

Here's the NREL Red Book data for our area, and you'll notice that the "Latitude + 15" row produces more solar power in the winter months than "Latitude" or "Latitude -15." What does that mean? It's a formula for the vertical pitch of your solar array, in degrees. In other words, if you are at 40 degrees of latitude, then "Latitude +15" would equal a vertical pitch of 55 degrees.

As you can see, the bump in power production isn't huge, but it can sure help--especially in those winter months that already have shorter cloudier days.

So the short answer to the question is, it depends. But for me, it's worth it.

The post How To Squeeze More Power From Solar Panels appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

We had to buy "applesauce" from the store.  And what is worse...we were actually eating it!

Yes, we don't put much stock in the nondescript, store-bought, beige colored substances that loosely resemble applesauce :-).  But this family REALLY likes applesauce and our homemade supply from 2 years ago was exhausted.

Needless to say, we were REALLY looking forward to apple season this year!

Awesome Apples--For Peanuts

Our all-time favorite apples for eating or applesauce is the Honeycrisp variety.  The name is a perfect description.

Once again, this year we were able to purchase an entire orchard bin (600-800 pounds) of blemished Honeycrisps for a ridiculous price ($150 this year).  So we were golden--or actually, our applesauce was!

We're in business!  Now it's time to churn out some of the most delicious lip-smackin' applesauce you ever did put your teeth into!

The Not-So-Secret To Applesauce Success

Good Apples - When you start with good apples, it doesn't take much to turn out delicious applesauce.  But if your apples are bland or of poor quality, it's going to take more work and additional ingredients to get it tasty.

Victorio Strainer* - This marvelous non-electric appliance is a life-saver!  You can turn out a serious amount of applesauce in no time when using it.  The Victorio Strainer makes peeling and coring unnecessary since the strainer removes all the undesirables.  Just chop your apples into 1/4's or 1/8's and cook them.  Then dump them in the Victorio and turn the crank.  Voila--you have applesauce.  And get this...they even have kits with an electric motor* so you don't have to use the hand crank.

Lemon Juice & Sweetener - If your apples are good, it is possible to make applesauce without any added ingredients, especially if you are freezing it.  But if you are canning it as we do, it's likely going to turn a rather dark color.  So we add 2 T. of Lemon Juice to each quart of applesauce.  This keeps it looking nice and fresh and also adds a little additional acidity for safety.  In order to offset the tanginess of the Lemon Juice, we also add around 1 T. of organic Raw Cane Sugar.  If desired, you could probably use your favorite sweetener of choice, but be sure to experiment with a small quantity first.

Reusable Canning Lids - If you do a lot of canning, buying a bunch of lids each year gets old.  So we purchased a bunch of reusable canning lids and have been very happy with them.  The company that made ours is out of business, but the old standby is still going strong--Tattler Canning Lids.  You can get them by the dozen*, or you can save a bunch of money and get 12 dozen of them* for a great price.

Don't Forget To Freeze - While we don't think it's a good idea to use freezing as a primary food storage method, it sure is nice to have some things frozen!  So before we are done, we'll probably freeze some applesauce, since there's sometimes I really get a hankering for frozen applesauce.  And the added perk is that freezing applesauce requires less work than canning.

How Long Does It Take?

This depends on how many people are helping and how diligently you work.  Even if working by herself, Lisa can usually handle over 100 pounds of apples in a day--with 2 kids in tow.

So we figure on a few days of work in order to get a goodly supply of applesauce put up--for the next year or two.  Not bad!

And oh, how delicious!

*This page may contain affiliate links that help support this blog without costing you a penny.

The post How To Make 2 Years Of Applesauce In A Few Days appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

I’m a granola guy.

No, not in the cultural sense. But I really like to eat granola for breakfast. I could eat it for breakfast 300 days a year (or more)! And for years, Lisa has worked to dial in a granola recipe that we all really like.  And she has nailed it!

Here it is…

The Best Granola Recipe

(from The Contemporary Artisan's Collection book)

• 10 cups organic rolled oats
• 6 cups organic quick oats
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 2 cups sunflower seeds
• 2 cups of chopped walnuts or slivered almonds (optional)

In a separate bowl, combine:

• 2 cups organic raw cane sugar
• 1 1/2 tbs Himalayan salt
• 1 cup organic coconut oil (melted)
• 1 cup organic olive oil
• 2 cups water

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and combine the wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix each bowl individually, then combine and mix thoroughly.  Spread on a cookie sheet and place in the oven (or other source of heat) at 150-200°F overnight.

For granola that melts in your mouth, use a dehydrator to dry it (or try out our homemade solar dehydrator).

Beware of Toxic Oats!

For years, Cheerios had been a staple in our home.  Lisa and the kids REALLY enjoyed them.  We felt good about the non-GMO statement on the box.  They are whole grain and low sugar.  What’s not to love?

Then one day, our Cheerio was turned upside down.

A friend of ours shared a recent report that found surprising levels of glyphosate in Cheerios and other breakfast cereals containing oats and wheat.  Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the popular herbicide Roundup.

We were disappointed and a little skeptical as well.  Why on earth would Cheerios have such high levels of an herbicide?

Desiccation

A little research revealed that in northern states and Canada, glyphosate is sometimes sprayed on grains like oats very shortly before harvest.  You heard me right…very shortly before harvest!  This technique is called crop desiccation.

As crazy as it sounds, this is for real.  If the farmer is looking for a more uniform harvest or feels that he needs to dry the crop sooner, he may spray an herbicide (such as Roundup) on the crop to kill it for drying and then harvest it at the right moment.

Now it all made sense.  That must be why these breakfast cereals are testing so high in glyphosate residue.

Here’s What Glyphosate Can Do To You

In case you are not aware, glyphosate has been classified as a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization.  And interestingly enough, a 2009 study found glyphosate to be an endocrine disruptor in human cell lines—in other words, it can disrupt your hormones.

Another study found that endocrine disrupting chemicals (like glyphosate) can have unpredictable consequences when exposure is at “low” doses--lower than what is traditionally evaluated during toxicology testing.  Those are exactly the kind of doses we are being exposed to in many foods.

This is why we use organic oats!

Toxic Homes & Hormones Class

This is just ONE of the many ways that our body’s endocrine system (including hormones) is under attack in this age of chemicals and toxins.

With this in mind, Lisa taught a class on this very topic, since it has impacted her profoundly since the time she was a child. This class covers:

• how your hormones are under attack
• how to detox your home and body, and
• how to balance your hormones

CLASS TITLE:  "Toxic Homes And Hormones"
PRESENTER:  Lisa Meissner
COST: Free!
HOW?: For a limited time, you can watch the class right here:

The post Mouthwatering Homestead Granola appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

Your water is gone within a couple flushes, your freezer is going to start thawing out, and the food in your fridge will start spoiling shortly.

But no worries…remember that generator you bought a few years ago?  That’ll light your house up again, right?

Maybe.  Or maybe not.  There’s a good likelihood that your fuel has gone bad (if you even have any stored).

So here are some key tips to make sure your fuel is in top-notch condition when you need it.

First, The Generator Stuff

#1.  You’ll need an appropriately sized generator.  It all depends on what you are needing to do with it, but many folks find 6-8kW to be sufficient to run the basic necessities like water pump, fridge, freezer, a few lights, etc.  If you are wanting to power bigger things like an electric water heater or HVAC system, then you’ll need a much larger generator.

#2.  You’ll need an approved way to connect the generator to your home without electrocuting anyone (including the power company linemen).  That means a transfer switch that has been installed by a licensed electrician (unless it is a model that wires into your existing breaker box—in which case you could do it if you are handy with electrical wiring).

So you have both of those squared away?  That brings us to the biggie—#3.

The Big One - Fuel

Question 3A - do you have any fuel?

Question 3B - do you have enough fuel?

But Question 3C is what gets so many people—is your fuel still fresh?  In other words, has it gone bad?

You see, both gasoline and Diesel fuel can go bad in an amazingly short period of time if the conditions are right and if you have not stabilized it.

I consider fuel to be the number one issue that causes problems when people want to run their backup generator.

How To Keep Your Fuel Fresh

It all starts with where you bought the fuel.  Is there a lot of turnover at that gas station?  If not, your fuel could have been sitting there for some time before you bought it.  And if the gas station didn’t set up their tanks properly, it’s possible that there could be water or other contaminants in the fuel.

Next, I STRONGLY suggest using ONLY non-ethanol gas for any small engine.  There are numerous issues with this, but the only one I’ll mention here is that ethanol absorbs water and is going to make your fuel inherently less stable.  Many gas stations are starting to carry non-ethanol premium gas, so check around and you’ll likely find some.  Yes, it’s spendy, but most small engines don’t use a lot of fuel and it will be well worth the cost when you get reliable performance.

Next is your storage tank.  Generally, I’ve found larger tanks to store fuel better than smaller ones.  Just think of heating a pot of water on the stove.  The smaller your pot is, the quicker it heats up.  Likewise, there is more temperature fluctuation in smaller tanks.  And it’s more likely that you’ll leave a small tank out in the element.  On the other side, larger tanks are harder to deal with.

If you find that a smaller tank (such as a 5-gallon fuel can) is more convenient for your situation, then I would suggest storing it in a dry covered area.  If possible, it would be great if this location doesn’t have a lot of temperature fluctuation either, but that may be unavoidable in a place like a garage.  And I recommend plastic rather than metal containers.  There is less potential for condensation to gather on the inside of a plastic tank.

And with that in mind, KEEP THE TANK DRY!  I can’t stress that enough.  Water is an enemy of good fuel.  If your generator is a Diesel, I recommend installing a water block (water separator) on the input fuel line.  This will help to keep any condensation out and your engine on.

Finally, we come to my secret weapon for fresh fuel…

Stabilize It

Since gasoline and Diesel are so unstable, you MUST add a stabilizer to it unless you will be using it up within a week or two.  Yes, I know you may have done it for a few months without stabilizer in the past.  But that doesn't mean you can count on it happening again.  You need to be able to count on your fuel and using a good fuel stabilizer is a big step in that direction.  But be aware that all fuel stabilizers are not created equal.

By far, my favorite fuel stabilizer is PRI-G (for gasoline) or PRI-D (for Diesel).  This stuff was made for massive fuel tanks at shipping docks, where thousands of gallons of fuel are at stake.  I have been using it for almost 20 years and have experienced remarkable results—firsthand.

For instance, years ago we stored a couple drums of gasoline in a hot and humid location (not a good idea!) and 6 years later it ran just fine in a car.  That was with only the initial treatment.  Pretty amazing!  The president of the company states that those kinds of results aren’t unusual.  He says “On average, one dosage will keep fuel fresh for about five years – sometimes much longer. We have had some fuels in storage as long as 12 years – and they are still refinery fresh. “  However I do recommend that you follow their recommendation of re-treating the fuel every 18 months.

I almost always add PRI-G to any container of gas that I fill up.  The only thing I don’t use it for on a regular basis is in the car since we plow through that very quickly.  But I even run it in the car occasionally to clean things out (I can tell a noticeable difference sometimes).

Since it is so concentrated, one 32 oz container of PRI-G or PRI-D will treat over 500 gallons.  So I consider it a really good value.  I’m told that if you keep it out of the sunlight, both PRI concentrates should last 10 years or more.

The Cheap Stuff

Please save yourself time, money, and wasted fuel.  Don't get the (not so) cheap stuff like "Sta-bil" that is commonly found at hardware stores.  That stuff doesn't hold a candle to PRI.  Just try storing fuel for a couple years with Sta-bil or one of its fellows!  Even 1 year is probably pushing it.

What you and I need is industrial strength fuel stabilizer that just plain works.  And that's what I've found PRI-G and PRI-D to be after nearly two decades of use.

How To Use Fuel Stabilizer

The ideal time to stabilize fuel is when adding it to your tank.  When I fill up a 5 gallon can, I try and remember to add the appropriate amount of PRI-G to the tank before filling it up with non-ethanol gas.  In a 5 gallon container, that works out to less than 1/2 of an ounce.  There’s a handy measuring contraption built into the bottle.

If you are adding the stabilizer to a small tank that is already filled with fuel, you could roll or shake the container around to mix the stabilizer in.  But if you are adding stabilizer to a large tank that cannot be early moved around, your best bet for mixing it is by inserting a short length of clean garden hose down to the bottom of the tank and then blowing into the hose for several minutes (or use an air compressor to do it).  The action of the bubbles rising to the top will help to mix it in.

Where To Get It

We don’t carry PRI-G or PRI-D anymore, but you can find it on Amazon for a reasonable price (and it'll help support our blog without costing you a penny):

Pri-G (for gasoline)

Pri-D (for Diesel or kerosene)

Questions or Comments?
↓↓↓Fire away below↓↓↓

The post How To Keep Your Fuel Fresh & Your Lights On appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

These multi-purpose tools hold an assortment of tools and fold up into a compact package.  The Swiss Army Knife was popularized in the MacGyver TV series from 1980's, where MacGyver is constantly using his Swiss Army Knife to solve all sorts of problems.

When I think of essential oils, Lemon is the one that comes to my mind as the all-purpose "Swiss Army Knife" of oils.

Here are just some of the many things you can do with Lemon Essential Oil...

Uses For Lemon Essential Oil

Click To Enlarge

• Removes all sorts of sticky residues (including pine sap!!!)
• Improves your mood / brighten your day (especially if you are feeling depressed)
• Makes a non-toxic furniture polish
• Makes a great fruit/vegetable wash
• Aids in digestion
• Supports your body's respiratory system when taken internally (having seasonal respiratory difficulties?)
• Makes your laundry smell fabulous (and helps front loading washers with their chronic moldy issues)
• Improves the grease cutting capability of your natural (or homemade) dish soap
• Helps to cleanse the air when diffused in your home
• Can be used as an awesome ingredient in food to add some "zip" to it
• Helps remove the early stages of tarnishing on silver
• I could go on and on and on...

Pretty amazing, right?

How We Use It The Most

• 1-2 drops of Lemon Oil in a quart of water to flavor the water, support the body's metabolism, and aid in digestion.  Sometimes we also use Wild Orange, Grapefruit, or other citrus oils.
• As an ingredient in our wonderful all-purpose cleaning spray
• As an ingredient in our Non-Toxic Deep Clean Toilet Scrub
• Diffuse to purify the air in your home while cleaning.  I usually mix 2-3 drops of Lemon with 2-3 drops of Melaleuca to help with purifying the air and decrease allergies, etc.
• Use lemon to remove the impossible adhesive from removed labels on jars.  We use it straight (not diluted) for this job.  Usually, a few drops does the trick.
• Add 3-5 drops of lemon oil to your wash load (the laundry smells amazing and it helps kill mold).  Just drop the oil in the same place your laundry detergent goes.
• We've been known to add 2-3 drops in the blender when making a fruit smoothie.
• Add 5 drops to our Raspberry-Lemon muffin recipe
• Several drops in hands or on clothes to "cut" pine sap.  Previously, the only thing I found capable of that impossible job, was gasoline.  But Lemon Oil works great and is a super healthy alternative.  And hey, it also cuts grease.  So now you have a healthy hand cleaner to remove grease and grime.

Cleaning Recipes With Lemon Essential Oil

Produce Wash (for hard-skinned fruits and veggies like apples, oranges & carrots)

• 1.5 cups of water
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 10 drops of Lemon essential oil

Makes 16 oz. (a spray bottle works best).  Spray on produce, let it soak for a few minutes and rinse.

Produce Soak (best for thin-skinned fruits & veggies like lettuce and berries)

• Sink full of water
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 10 drops of Lemon essential oil

Soak produce for 5-10 minutes then rinse.

Natural Dish Soap Recipe

Non-Toxic Deep Clean Toilet Scrub

Non-Toxic All Purpose Cleaner 

Cooking Recipes With Lemon Essential Oil

• Lemon Kale Chips
• Rosemary Lemon Hummus
• Sautéed Brussels Sprouts and Asparagus

Where To Get Lemon Essential Oil

So many of the "essential oils" on the market today are diluted and contain impurities.  Unless you have the time and money to have them tested at a lab, how would you know?

doTERRA Lemon Essential Oil (as well as all of their other oils) goes through a battery of tests, including 3rd party tests that are made public to you.  Each bottle of oil contains a tracking number that you can use to download the lab test results from that particular lot of oil.  Talk about transparency!

This purity issue is critical.  In so many oils, you have no idea how pure it is and what other constituents are added.  Those unknown substances can affect your health.

A friend of ours told us she was allergic to Lavender Oil.  We were skeptical about whether she really truly was reacting to Lavender or whether she was reacting to some additive or contaminate in the oil.  So we asked her to try doTERRA's Lavender Oil.  You know what?  Zero issues!  Isn't that amazing!

And as far as the strength of the oil, we have personally experienced the difference between the real thing and cheap knock-offs.  If you need repeatable results, you need to know that each bottle will be the same--time after time.  And that's a priority with doTERRA essential oils.

So if you'd like to get ahold of the finest Lemon Oil in the industry, go here to get it individually.  I recommend starting out with one of their excellent kits that are seriously discounted and come with a free membership for a wholesale discount.  Here are our 2 favorite kits.  And if you sign up through one of our links, you'll also get the help and support of our team in learning how to use your oils safely and effectively.

Other Uses

The post Lemon Oil - Swiss Army Knife Of Oils appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

Right about now, lots of wood burners are taking stock of their firewood supply to make sure they have enough for winter.  If it’s been a busy summer, you might be running late and only now starting to acquire your winter’s supply of firewood.

I have a quick tip that might save you a bunch of time and money this year if you find yourself running out of both.

Time Vs Money

In years when we have more time than money, we enjoy cutting wood on our property or getting a National Forest permit to cut dead wood for $5/cord.  But as enjoyable as it is, harvesting firewood from all over the mountains takes a lot of time.  And that is time we didn’t have last year or this year.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are years when we have more money than time.  In those years, it’s very convenient to order several cords of already cut and split firewood from a friend of ours who is in the firewood business.  He’s an old logger that knows his stuff and delivers excellent quality Tamarack firewood to your location.  But you end up paying over $200/cord since he has a lot of labor into it.

The last two years, we found ourselves crazy busy AND tight on cash.  Not a good combination!  So we had to find a middle of the road solution.  And that’s what I want to share with you today.

A Really Nice Compromise

We got to thinking that much of the work with firewood is simply finding the logs and the driving time to and from the place where you found them.  So we scoured our local penny pincher paper as well as Craigslist looking for an entire logging truck load of logs.

If we had a pile of logs delivered here to our home, that would cut the amount of time and work down to a fraction of what it had been!

Just to be clear, these are logs that the sawmills didn’t want due to crookedness or other issues, but they are perfectly good for burning. And since they are “cells” or rejects, a load of these logs costs far less than you’d pay for prime logs.

I’ve been told that a log truck load of firewood should shake out to 12-15 cords of firewood, and based on my experience so far, I think that’s probably about right.  But it might be a little closer to 12 than it is to 15 (depends on how heavily they loaded the truck and all that).

Anyhow, we found a logger advertising load of logs for firewood and called him.  He happened to be doing a logging job near us and quoted us around $1,500 for a load with a mix of acceptable species—Tamarack, Birch, Red Fir, etc.  So we went for it!

I’ve seen prices as low as $1,200 for poor quality/species and as high as $1,800-$2K for really nice premium wood of a specific species (i.e. not a mix).

How It Worked Out

We worked off our pile of logs exclusively last winter and now I’m cutting on it again in preparation for this winter.  And I think it’s going to end up being right in that 12-15 cord range that I was told.  That means I’m ending up over 2-3 years of wood at a really good price($100-125 per cord), and with a relatively small amount of work involved.

The prices and species in your area are likely to be different than they are here, but the principle is the same.  Buying unprocessed logs in bulk is almost always going to be cheaper than paying someone to find them, buck them up, split them, and transport them to your home.  And honestly, it doesn’t take that long to knock out a winter’s supply of wood when it’s nicely stacked in your yard!

Do You Have Any Firewood Hacks?

The post Firewood - When You're Short On Time & Money appeared first on Sustainable Preparedness.

And anytime you buy a new appliance, it's an excellent opportunity to become more efficient--whether you are currently off the grid or not.  It will save you money now (on your power bill) and will save you a LOT of money when you do go off the grid in the future.

Be aware that many freezers can add a lot of extra power usage and run up the cost of your off-grid power system.  But if you are careful, shop wisely, and use a little strategy, you can end up with an excellent freezer that is super efficient.

Here's how I chose mine.  Don't feel like you need to choose the same one (models are constantly changing), but I think the process and info I used will help you in making an informed decision.

Warning

I must preface this by saying that I do not consider freezing to be a reliable method of long-term food storage unless you live in the arctic circle.

It's not that freezing doesn't work--it works very well.  The problem is that for most (if not all) of the year, you are depending upon an appliance to keep your food frozen; and if that appliance ever stops working for any reason, your food will go bad within hours or days (depending on the outside temperature at the time).  And while this could happen from a power outage if you are on the grid, it could just as easily occur to an off-gridder when the appliance simply breaks.  If you doubt the likelihood of this happening, go online and read the reviews of several freezers--almost without exception, you'll read about someone who's freezer broke and all their food spoiled.

If you are on the ball and happen to catch it right when it happens, you could go into "emergency mode" and could can or use some other food preservation method before the food goes bad, but if you are depending upon that freezer for a substantial portion of your food preservation needs, you are risking a lot.

So our personal theory is that we'll treat the freezer as a convenience but not depend on it for any substantial portion of our food preservation needs.

With that out of the way, let's talk freezers…

Chest or Upright?

First of all, we decided on a chest freezer.  If you are looking for a stand-alone freezer as we were (as opposed to a combination fridge-freezer), I highly recommend going with a chest freezer.  They can be very inexpensive and are usually going to be more energy efficient.

Size

Next, since we had no intentions of using a freezer for any substantial portion of our food storage needs, we decided that even a very small unit would suit our needs well.  When looking at the energy ratings, we discovered that a larger unit uses more power than a similar smaller unit (all other things being equal).  We decided to focus our search on units that are 5 cubic feet or smaller, but you could easily go with a larger unit if needed--it is just likely to use more power.

AC or DC?

Next, we had to decide whether we wanted a conventional AC chest freezer or a high-efficiency DC model that could run directly off of our battery bank.  My preference would have been to go with a super efficient DC model (I probably would have chosen one from Sun Danzer), but even for the tiniest 1.8 cu ft unit, it would have cost almost $600.  For a 5.8 cu ft model, you'd be looking at closet to $1,000.  So we decided to go with a much less expensive conventional AC chest freezer even though it will use more power.  I typically recommend becoming as efficient as possible, so why would I do this?

Here's the rationale…I direct the bulk of my attention to the impact on my power system during winter months.  During the summer, we have an abundance of long sunshiny days, so I really am not concerned about how much power it uses then, but during the winter, our solar resources are very limited and we have to be more careful with our power usage.  This impacts our freezer because it will be located in our garage which stays very cold all winter long.  This means that it will be running very little during the time of year that we must be careful.  So I'm not willing to spend 5 times the money for a super efficient model when neither one will be running very much during our critical winter season.  If we were going to be keeping the freezer inside where it would be exposed to warm temperatures all winter, that would be a different story and I would have looked at a DC model more seriously.

Brand & Model Specifics

NOTE:  Appliance models are constantly changing, so this section is more to show the method I used for choosing a freezer than it is for recommending a specific model.  Chances are that by the time you read this, that specific model might not be available anymore, but the method for choosing it will still work.  So the info in this section is what I used to choose my freezer one year ago.

Finally, we came to the most difficult part of our search--choosing the brand and model.  In doing this, we have to rely on the energy guide specifics provided on the little yellow tag on the appliance.  The only useful figure it gives is the estimated annual power usage.  Divide this by 365 (days in a year) to get a daily power usage.  Bear in mind that these numbers are done under laboratory conditions and don't always mimic real-life conditions but it is the best we can do unless you have the ability to put a meter on the freezer ahead of time.

A quick look at the EnergyStar website told me that that one of the most efficient chest freezers in our desired size was made by Igloo (this was a year ago--things have changed since then).  I looked up the Igloo FRF452 and it was amazingly affordable and amazingly efficient--approaching the efficiency of a comparable DC freezer at 20% of the cost!  The annual energy usage is estimated at 172 kWh per year which works out to roughly 470 watt hours per day and the cost is less than $200.  So that would be a no-brainer, right?

However, a quick look at the Igloo manual revealed that it must be operated at room temperatures of 50°F or higher (this is referring to the temperature of the room where the freezer is located, not the inside freezer temperature).  That was going to mess up our plans of running the freezer in our garage.  I wanted to take advantage of the energy savings that cold temperatures can bring.  Also, our home is small and bursting at the seams, so putting in another bulky appliance just was not a good option for us.  So what to do?

I kept digging until I found some chest freezers that are capable of running in cold temperatures.

First, I found that most (if not all) Amana chest freezers are able to safely operate down to 32°F, and they have a 5.3 cu ft model that is rated at 215 kWh per year (590 watt hours per day) and costs around $200.  But I kept looking.

Then I came upon the GE FCM5SHWW which is 5 cu ft and is rated at 218 kWh per year (597 watt hours per day).  The manual for this model states that it can operate in temperatures down to 0°F.  Since our shop seldom if ever gets down to 0°F, I figured that would be the way to go.  But the only way I could find to purchase this model was to pay $50 to have it shipped.

Then I found the Kenmore 12502 which is 5.1 cu ft and is rated at 220 kWh per year (around 600 watt hours per day).  The cost is around $200.  This model (and perhaps all Kenmore chest freezers?) is equipped to work in all temperatures.  Obviously, if the surrounding temperature is close to or below the temperature that your freezer's thermostat is set at, the freezer isn't going to run at all.

I decided to go with the Kenmore for three reasons.  One, I'm making a calculated guess that the energy savings I experience from having the freezer outside in the garage during winter months will more than offset the greater energy efficiency of the Igloo operating at indoor room temperatures.  Second, many Sears stores stock or can receive this unit for you with no shipping cost.  And third, I like the fact that Kenmore says this freezer can handle operating in even the coldest temperatures rather than being concerned whenever my garage temperatures approach 0° or 32°.

As mentioned earlier, if we were going to be using this freezer inside during the winter months, I would have likely gone with the Igloo model due to it's amazing energy efficiency and economical cost.  If I needed a larger model, the stakes are higher (more power usage) and there may not be the Igloo options, so then I would start leaning toward the DC models.  Also, if my budget allowed and I wanted to invest in a quality appliance that will last for many years of good service, then I might also lean toward one of the quality DC models (Sun Danzer or Sun Frost).

Conclusion

I suggest that for most folks, a conventional chest freezer is the best balance of cost and efficiency (as opposed to an expensive DC model or an upright freezer).  Don't focus on the specific models I mentioned as manufacturers are constantly changing their models, but use the same method for finding the best model for you.

After having used our freezer for a year, my only regret is that we didn't get one that is a little larger and that we didn't get it sooner!  It has placed very little additional burden on our power system, and it's SO nice to have the convenience of a freezer.  And in the winter months (when solar power is at a premium in our area), the freezer uses very little power.

So all in all, we are very happy with our purchase!

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