Turkey Frier and Berkey info.

Yesterday we didn't go anywhere. It was very nice. I would love to get that time that we go nowhere up to a week or so, but can't do that yet. We still have to go for gas every other day for the genereator. But, it's getting better. And, after this week when the inverter arrives, maybe we can stretch it for a week. We'll have to see.

I have a battery pack that will hopefully run my apnea machine for a night or two. If so, then 1 can of gas will run us for an extra night! That is so exciting and something to really look forward to. We currently have two 5 gallon gas cans. I don't know about storing large amounts of gas, it could be very cost prohibitive if the price of gas goes back up. Not to mention dangerous. I know that a lot of farmers have tanks installed that they get filled once a month or once a year, I wonder what it takes to get that installed? Either way, right now our best option is just another gas can or two and a steady rotation. Keep adding battery packs and viola, we won't have to worry about being snowed in for a week. We already have enough propane to last us a week, and we are adding to it this payday too.

Breakfast this morning is corned beef hash. Don't know yet what dinner will be. Soup? Ramen? Some kind of sandwhich? Don't know, haven't thought that far ahead yet this morning. :D I haven't thought beyond turning off the generator and sitting down to write for the blog as a matter of fact.

oh! The British Berkefeld. My sister was asking about what a berkey is. So I'll take some time to talk about it here. It's a wonderful invention for purifying water. It's a two chamber system with a ceramic filter. The bottom chamber is solid (think of a bucket) construction with a spigot built in. The top chamber is formed so it sits on top of the bottom chamber. There are two ceramic filters (they are a little obscene looking when you pull them out of the box) that you screw into the bottom portion of this top chamber. They filter out girardia and other nasties in the water. There are other filters you can get to ADD to these filters that are smaller and black and they filter out lead, mercury and the like, I don't have them yet. Anyway, you then pour the water in the top chamber and via gravity it filters through the filters into the bottom chamber. When you want water, you get it from the spigot in the bottom chamber. Simple as pie... No, wait, pie is harder. Simple as Ramen then. With this system you can pretty much filter sewer water and drink it. It was invented for the British military to take into places that are 3rd world and still get clean and clear drinking water.

http://www.britishberkefeld.com/

Even without the secondary filter for lead, mercury and more, my berkey has taken the plastic taste out of my old stored water 100%. We run ALL of our water that we injest through it, even if we buy it at the store. the filter is good for about 3000 gallons. At 5 gallons a day that will last us 2 years or more. And you can wash the filter and reuse it again. So these filters will probably last me almost 3 years. Needless to say though, I am going to be purchasing some more ceramic filters, and some of the black filters sometime soon. The black filters don't last as long, but I won't need them until we start using more questionable water. What we get from the store, I'll just continue using the normal filters with.

Yesterday we hooked up the turkey frier (I called and renewed my library books over the phone!) and boiled water and did dishes. One of the things about doing almost anything out here is that it takes longer. Back in Eugene, even after the dishwasher died, preparing to do dishes was a matter of filling one sink with hot water from the tap, then washing them and putting them in the other sink. When you have a clean sink full of soapy dishes, you turn on the tap, and you rinse them and put them in the dish drainer to dry. Out here, it is NOT so quick! You have to set up the table, and your wash buckets, boil the water, wash the dishes, rinse the dishes, dry the dishes and put them away, then put away all your tools for doing dishes. Back in Eugene, when you were done with the water, it just went neatly down the drain and you were finished. Nope, out here even that you have to do SOMETHING with yourself. :D What could take 40 minutes for the same amount of dishes in Eugene, takes about 3 hours out here! Ugh. But it's pretty satisfying. You really feel like you accomplished something.


Going to have to get me two big tubs, and a scrub board so I can do laundry.

But I digress. I was going to tell you about the turkey frier. It's NICE! oh Gosh is it nice. Once we got it set up (stupid me lost the instructions for putting it together so we flew by the seat of our pants) we put aobut 4 gallons of water in it and turned it on. Now, I don't know if you have ever HEARD a turkey deep frier before.. But when you light that sucker, it is akin to a large plane taking off. WHOOSH! and then a loud rumble that is so loud that if you are standing next to it you can't hear anyone talk to you. And it gets HOT. We put it on the ground in front of the cabin, and it melted the frost in a circle about 6 feet across! And the frier stand is only about 1.5 to 2 feet across itself. The best part though. It used so little propane that it didn't even make a dent in a 20 lb tank, it was sill just as heavy. It took 10 minutes, yes, just 10 minutes to boil 4 gallons of water. I am sooo in bliss. Once I get a tub big enough, that means in 20 minutes I'll have enough for a BATH.. OH! The joyful thoughts of that. And even though we flew by the seat of our pants to assemble the frier, we didn't blow ourselves up.

Not sure what today entails, except we have to fill gas cans for gas tonight. Then tomorrow it's back into town to fill everything, and pick up some more groceries and all that.