I was going to cut the fridge up and re work it by using a medium sized ice chest which would probably allow me to keep a small abount of stuff cold enough and maybe expand the freezer capicity some to, but I'd forgot it has a metal case and the only way to cut that would mean using a grinder with a metal cutting blade in it. That would cause sparks though and would be against the burn ban so that's out for now.
TRASH
Rumor has it that the county commissioner for this area is going to have several dumpsters placed on county property next to the little airport between Terlingua and Study Butte. They are for the people down here to have a way of disposing of trash since we can't burn it. That's all well and good, but its also about 25 miles away from here. Once more we in this area get the shaft.
More government BS
Use to be here in Texas that when you bought a vehicle all you had to do was take the title to the courthouse and have it transfered after paying the tax. Then it was changed to where you had to show proof of insurance on that vehicle. That wasn't bad because I think everyone should have an insured vehicle.
Now here is the BS! Now to transfer a vehicle you have to have proof of insurance AND show proof of an inspection. This is all well and good except in a case like the pickup I bought which hadn't been registered in years. It means that I'd have to drive the vehicle to the nearest inspection station which could mean driving a vehicle 60 miles to Alpine with expired tags, sticker and registered in someone else's name. Perhaps I could make it without being pulled over and given multiple tickets and maybe not since Alpine has Sheriff's deputies, State troopers and city police and I've yet to go there that I didn't see several of all three.
Now the pickup needs a lot of work so that means it will be a good while (Probably months) before I could get it inspected and also means that I can't have it transferred to my name until that happens. I'd call this latest law BS!
Oh BTW... Hell is down here right now.
ReplyDeleteWhat's that song they used to sing on Hee-Haw, "If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all". If the shoe fits, wear it.
ReplyDeletebeechies inspects
ReplyDeletetffnguy - have you tried boxed pasta meals - just add water and boil for a few minutes. Or two minute noodles - takes just that - 2 mins. Dinner's done.
ReplyDeleteOr how about small tins of fish - sardines / tuna / pilchards / whatever you get in the US.
Have you investigated a charcoal evapouration fridge? Won't chill beers to perfection, but will help keep food from spoiling in the heat. If you soak the material beforehand and then allow water to just drip down the material, it should work. Plus if you have a collection tray below, that should help catch any excess water, for you to re-use on it all over again.
Tinned sausages / spam and cheese - that's not good - for your brain, heart or stomach.
I need to think a bit - I'll let you know what I come up with...
DD, I guess a person is stuck with what they got.
ReplyDeleteNick, Yeah IF you can catch him. Like I said though I can't register the PU in my name until I get it inspected which is total BS! Now what happens if someone buys an old car to make a hotrod or dragster out of with no intent of ever putting it on the road? What about someone wanting to sell an old car AS IS? Seems like it would make it real hard to do. It means the buyer will never be able to transfer it to their name and the seller will get caught holding the bag if the buyer drives it anyway and wrecks. Like I said the new rule is BS. In case anyone don't know what BS is that stands for BULL SHIT!
We've got too many BS laws in this country as is and more being added all the time.
Dani, I do buy sardines from time to time and like them. They to are packed in aluminum which means they can easily be recycled with pop and beer cans. I like tuna, but it comes in steel cans and I don't think until lately there has been a place to recycle steel cans. Its also 25 miles away now. I prefer plastic soda bottle because they don't have to be drank all at once, but aluminum cans can be dropped of several close places to here. Plastic (Some of it) can also be recycled about 25 miles from here.
ReplyDeleteAs far as cooking here lately its usually around 90 to 95 degrees in here even with the swamp cooler running on medium so I don't want to further heat up this place by cooking. Winter is the time to do that and I'll be eating pizza a lot then. ;) Anymore I'm not too concerned with what is good for me to eat and what isn't. I've been eating Spam and canned meat all my life and made it this far so don't see much reason to change now.
tffnguy - methinks you also need a solar oven... chop-chop LOL
ReplyDeleteBTW Dani, I have experimented with different evaporative type fridges (If you could call them that) In this heat there is no way you could store perishables in something like that. At least I'd never try it. Drinks might be 15 degrees cooler than the outdoor temp IF the humidity is way low. At 110 degrees that still makes the drinks 95 degrees.
ReplyDeleteDani, I'm working on one, but I have to get my priorities straight and that will be somewhere on the back burner for now.
ReplyDeletetffnguy - How about trying to sink a clay container into damp ground (use some grey water, not your precious drinking / washing water) and then piling rocks / shale either side of it (to keep the heat off the damp earth). Digging the hole and placing the container in a shady spot and covering it with a few layers of damp cloth... Worth a try? No, it won't keep food from spoiling - I am thinking of providing you with chilled drinks. Partaking of chilled drinks will help cool the bod down LOL
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxslPE7SNMc
ReplyDeletelatest video I made
If there was a way (access door on the swamp cooler) that would be the idea way to keep drinks cool because the return water from the pad is always a lot cooler than the outside air. I'd about have to add an electric pump and a float to it and cut an access door in it and still just have limited space. I want to build an evaporative pre cooler for the swamp cooler and could set it up for that. Just don't have the material to do it with yet. Maybe I need to make that a priority.
ReplyDeleteHang in there Nick. Help's on its way. I called the nut house and a couple of guys in white coats will be there shortly. They're going to take you away Ho Ho He He....
ReplyDeleteAdded another picture of the time, temps and humidity @ about 2:30
ReplyDeleteThere isn't a temp registration so that the title is transferred while you get the vehicle in shape to pass the inspection? Something is very wrong with that system. All vehicles aren't road-ready when they are sold/purchased.
ReplyDeleteNick, I am still shaking my head and laughing. You are crazee!
ReplyDeletejicky, I'll be calling the DMV tomorrow to find out. So far I'm hearing this same crap from a lot of different people.
ReplyDeleteI guess the funny farm must have picked up Nick cause he didn't show up at the legion like he was supposed to?
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hackleman56.html HI the above link will help you with your cooling problems as it shows many ways to help cool food as converting your gas fridge to a DC 20min on 1hr off run on solar or wind to rerouting the cooling coils through the water tank to disapate heat..its a great read..good luck and i'm praying for rain Rick..
ReplyDeleteThanks Ricky, I'd thought of some of this before you posted the link and had even thought of using a Fresnel lens during the day and propane at night, but that could get real complicated. (sun tracking and so on) This does give more options. I bookmarked it and will read more as I get the time.
ReplyDeleteWe have a dorm sized fridge, but don't run it very often, we have gotten pretty good at living with minimal to no refrigeration. Here's some of the things I've found that work great with no fridge, you can get a box of single serving mayo from Sam's Club, if you don't think you can use it up within a year (or less) then you could split it with someone, you can also get mustard and ketchup packets by the box there at Sam's Club, again no refrigeration needed.
ReplyDeleteI buy dehydrated refried beans, you can get them at just about any grocery store, they are already cooked, all you have to do is add equal amounts (by volume, not weight) of dehydrated beans to water and cook for a few minutes, voila you have very tasty refried beans without heating up your house. You can cook just the amount you want, no leftovers to refrigerate.
I buy the small bricks of Velveta cheese in the summer (I get the larger ones in the winter), they don't need refrigeration, I have been known to open one, use half, tightly cover the rest of it and store it without refrigeration, if you eat it in a reasonable amount of time (less than a week) then it's still good, the worst that has ever happened is the opened end dried out a bit, I just cut off the dried part and cooked with the rest.
If you like butter, you can get butter (this has to be real butter, it will not work with margarine), heat it gently until the butter solids separate out, pour off the golden liquid, save it in an airtight jar, that's called ghee, you can store it at room temperature and use it just like butter.
Wretha
Wretha, good info there. I didn't know you could get dehydrated refried beans. Sounds like a plan there because a whole can is a lot more than I'd eat for several days. (Not to mention one more steel can to deal with) The part about the butter sounds good to because that is all I eat is real butter. I've already lost about 3 pounds of it because of one or the other fridges running out of propane or failing to keep it cold.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of watts does one of the small dorm type fridges pull?
There are a lot of dehydrated/instant/freeze-dried food available in the backpacking and survival markets. I'll wonder around and update my bookmarks and find you some interesting links for food that doesn't need special storage and is simple to fix. Some of it isn't cheap on the front end, but having food that you can keep for long periods and is easy to fix can end up being cheaper than ice and cooking fuel.
ReplyDeleteAlso, have you thought of making a soda can stove that you can cook on using alcohol, usually Heat in the yellow bottle? That is how backpackers do it. Cheap way to boil water or warm up food.
Shadowmoss, I guess I'll start buying the packets of tuna and stuff like that. I like mashed potatoes to so will probably get some powered and may try the beans to. I'd appreciate any links you come up with and maybe it would help me and others to.
ReplyDeleteGo check today's post on my blog. I figured if I was gonna do that much research and typing, I was gonna make it a blog post. How to eat well (or in your case at least, a lot more healthy) without refrigeration or long cooking times that take a lot of fuel and heat the place up. If you want links to how to make the soda can alcohol stoves that burn HEET or denatured alcohol, let me know and I'll do a post on that, too. This is just scratching the surface of what's out there.
ReplyDeleteI should also mention that once you start thinking about eating along these lines, you start to notice ways to find the stuff locally and less expensively. I'll do a post later about how I make a (somewhat) fancy meal from ingredients I keep on the shelf. A real foodie will not like the list of ingredients, but it puts a good meal on the table for company with stuff I can keep on hand for months at a time. Well, at least when I'm not in Honduras where I don't have a kitchen.
ReplyDeleteShadowmoss, thanks. I added your blogs to the ones I follow. Should be a little easier for me and others to find.
ReplyDeleteGracias. Also, one more comment that I also put on my site about it:
ReplyDeleteThe be prepared site has things like butter powder and powdered eggs and dehydrated meats (real meats, not tofu) and cheeses that could fill in the dairy and cooking issues of no refrigeration. A little would go a long ways, so in the long run it is affordable, but with a larger up-front cost.