I am SS embarrassed!

[Daffodils At The Sea]

Oh, everything is on a powerstrip, so the house asks for nothing when they are all off. But the 700 watt microwave uses less in 5 minutes than the 1100 watt cooktop, which takes much longer than 5 minutes to do the same thing. But I don't cook much in the microwave, maybe a baked potato in 5 minutes, heat water for tea, melt cheese, heat up burritos and sandwiches. Anything that takes more time happens on the BBQ.

I do have a new cool remote light turner-on-er that I can keep in the car, and turn a light on inside the house from outside that also lights up the pathway to the door. Don't even have to get out of bed to turn a major light on if there are any strange noises. It's nice, but haven't had it in Dec/Jan when extras are precious.

 

[fair weather chicken]

my vote is well pump. we were hit by a storm that knocked out the electric for 2 days. hard to water animals and everything else.

 

[~gd]

I know the cast iron trick!!!! I used it all the time to thaw stuff! I have a cast iron griddle that came on my stove and I often just place stuff on there to thaw does it quicker and better than a microwave(at least I think so )
and on the matter of being Self Sufficient-I know for sure that I could do it and have before but as long as I do have my bells/whistles and gadgets I am so gonna use them! Not gonna feel bad about it either! lol
I have a feeling that after TSHTF many people are gonna find that they can survive just about anything.

I use HEAVY weight aluminium food service sheet pans The 'half sheet' size works best in my small kichen. The aluminium conduct heat much better than cast iron [I have done trials against my cast iron griddle plate, about 20% faster thawing} I also use them for freezing small items Diced onions peppers etc. I prechill a sheet while I am chopping, dump on sheet and spread quickly befor returning to freezer. The sheet sucks the warm out so fast that ice crystals don't form. usually I can just dump the frozem food into a freezer bag and use the sheet for the next small batch. In fact I am making this post while waiting for the freezer to get back to normal. Doing those GA sweet onions {that I love] but they don't keep. Give it a try. ~gd

 

[ORChick]

~gd - Thanks for that information. I wasn't aware that aluminum is so much better in this regard

 

[Emerald]

Thanks for the aluminum trick too but I got rid of all aluminum cook ware as I don't want to ingest any more aluminum than I have to. but the bottom of my big expensive stainless steel cook ware has a thick stainless clad aluminum heat plate thingy(big words not my forte tonight.. bonked my head on the house last night-no concussion but man I saw stars ) for better more consistent heating--I could always put my big fry pan on the counter upside down and thaw on that too.

I have a bunch of cookie sheets and pizza pans and I freeze all kinds of stuff in single layers and then vac pack them-just did a bunch of sweet bell peppers in all colors that way. Love good sweet onions but they never last long enuf to try saving some for later. whole family loves them and we scarf the all up as quickly as they come in..

 

[Icu4dzs]

I never knew the cast-iron trick but I do the same thing with the substance called Armetale. I have found that this works even faster than aluminum. Apparently it is a fusion of 13 different metals and it transfers heat better and faster than any metal I've ever seen in my life. I was fortunate enough to visit the factory where it's made. I bought a bunch of seconds rather than firsts and I was able to get some really nice cups and plates that work well well for this. One of the things I do with it is I can boil water and make tea and put it into The Armetale and it is ready to drink as soon as I have put it in there.

The difference is that I have to pour it back into a cup because the Armetale gets hot very quickly by sucking the heat out of the liquid. If I want to defrost anything I just put it on a plate made of Armetale and it will be defrosted in no time at all. Particularly good is the fact that I can put a steak or a piece of meat on there and it will defrost it fast enough to be usable rather quickly. It also works well the other way. I sometimes put an Armetale mug into the freezer and then if I pour a warm beer into it it cools the beer very quickly.

I have an Armetale butter dish which works extremely well for softening butter. I take the Armetale butter dish and put it in hot water and then put the butter on the glass plate inside of it and within a short time it is perfectly usable.

All that having been said, I agree with the one thing. I would really hate to be without is the well pump. One of the things I have noticed about living in this area of the country are the houses that have been abandoned. What I notice about those houses that have been abandoned is the fact that they left because the well dried up. So what I have learned is that you can live with out just about most everything but you can't live without freshwater.

For the past several days & on several occasions I have been living in my fifth wheel. While it does have some very nice conveniences in it, I am noticing what I am having to learn by doing it. The amount of water that I use for almost anything has dropped to the bare minimum. The shower can last anywhere from 30 seconds to a whole minute broken into two or three short cycles. It is amazing what you can do when you have to adapt changes.

The things I have been experimenting with other than the rocket stove which produces tremendous amounts of heat, is something called an induction hotplate. It boils water amazingly fast. It has some unusual characteristics, but I am finding out that it is very compatible with the power system. The only trick with it so far was having the right kind of cookware. It all has to be of a ferrous metal nature.

Of course, what I cherish most is the ability to use electricity. I've also come to the conclusion that even if the grid shuts down and never starts back up again, I will be able to make electricity with all the different techniques that I have studied in order to be able to generate it. My next study will be a steam generator. I think that using steam to create torque to turn the generator is probably going to be one of the things that we will be able to do even if the grid shuts down. Admittedly, there are some risks using steam generation but the truth of the matter is if it is operated safely it is a very good efficient system.
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[so lucky]

I have wondered about those induction hot plates. They are advertised on TV. Sounds too good to be true that they will heat the pan of water, but not burn your fingers. The one I saw advertised said you can use your regular pots and pans. I really don't understand how those things work. (No need to try to explain right now--my brain is shut off for the evening, lol)

 

[cknmom]

I used to have black metal thawing plate that my Mom gave me. I loved it because I seemed to always forget to take meat out of the freezer. I haven't had it for years and have missed it. I now thaw meat in the microwave - although I do remember to take meat out most of the time. I have mainly cast iron for my cookware I din't ever think about using it for thawing! Thanks

Monica