Thursday, January 10, 2013

Guess, Just Guess

The rains set in Tuesday afternoon and that meant no work for me Wednesday. Even though I needed the hours, it did give me a chance to get some little things done in the shop.



First off I got the return air box done for the little DC fan I found in the back of that guys truck I talked about last time. This will sit under the bench and a flex hose will go through the wall and into the bottom of the Solar Beer Can Heater to increase its efficiency and heat the shop quicker. Now to hook it all up.




Like I said, the rain came in and I had to drain the first flush on the rain water harvesting system. I almost forgot about it because it has been so long since it really rained back to back.
I took a quick video of the process, but decided not to put it on here because I sounded like a dork so I found this frame in the video and snapped a photo of the gunk coming out of the pipe. Technology is amazing.
The photo is right when the cap came off and you can see how nasty the water is. If I didn't have a first flush on my rain water system then all that stuff from the roof would end up in my tanks making it where I would have to take them down once a year and clean it all out. If it was a small system it wouldn't be that bad, but draining and wasting almost 4000 gallons of water and then crawling inside two twelve foot tanks with only an eighteen inch man way would be tough.
Anyway, now you can see how important a first flush is on your Rain Water Harvesting system.

Guess what me and the wife did Tuesday Night. Oh come on, guess......
Nope,
Nope,
I would have liked too, but nope,

We went to a prepper party. Yea no kidding!
Some folks here in town held a quarterly preppers meeting and me and the wife got invited. How exciting is that?
I told myself on the way there to just sit, listen, smile and don't say much. The reason why was because I didn't want to come off as a know-it-all because after all, I don't know it all.

They had two different speakers. The first speaker hit on food storage and bug out bags and the other speaker was on EMP attacks, gun control and how all that ties into Fema camps. Great knowledgeable speakers and it was a wonderful time. I even picked up a couple of useful tips along the way.
See there, you can teach an old dog new tricks.       

After a hour and a half I just could not stand it anymore and had to start asking questions. They were harping on the one year food storage pretty hard at the end and I had to ask, "What will you do after that?"
With blank looks from the crowd the wife and I went on the explain how you have to have a way to restock your shelves when your one year runs out. Of course that led into how to use alternative energy to cook with, which led to water storage from the rain and so on. Before I realized it, me and wife had the rooms attention and questions were getting fired at us right and left about growing your own food, water filtration and so on. 
So now we are scheduled to be the speakers at the next meeting. Look what we went off and done. I really was going to stay quiet.

Got to meet some really nice folks and I look forward to the next one.

Other than that, that's all I got for now.   

15 comments:

  1. Congrats on your speaker position and how awesome to meet new like minded people!!! I love your shop heater, I'm going to talk the hubs into building one. My dad has all the beer cans we would need and the hubs does commercial heat/air so I think he could figure it out ☺

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    1. Kelly, be looking in your mail box for the package. It was shipped yesterday.
      The heater is not hard to make, you just have to figure out how big to build it. Too small and it does you no good, too big and well, I don't guess you could get too big.
      Good luck with it and thanks for the comment.

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    2. WOW!!! You kill me with your kindness!!!!! This is the coolest present EVER!!!! I absolutely love love love it!!!!! Thank you soooo much!

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    3. Glad you liked it Kelly, I hope it got to you in one piece.

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    4. It's perfect!!!! Thank you again, I absolutely adore it!!!!

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  2. Thats great!!! We are trying to put meetings together around here too. We have had one so far. Ever think about travel? Lol

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    1. Sure I would SFG, if it was all expense paid, Just kidding.
      Good luck with it and thanks for the comment.

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  3. Great to hear you are going to share your knowledge with others.
    We still need to get our rain barrel system; with so much other stuff to do yet, too!
    Have a good day!

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    1. Thanks for the comment LindaG
      Water storage should be at the top of the list. Other than air, it is the most important thing there is.
      Good luck with it.

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  4. What a great opportunity! It's great that there's a good group, it works toward communities that are prepared. Love that heater, I'm thinking of building one for the kid and milk barn. Still researching...

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    1. Queen, thanks for the comment.
      I think this group has potential.
      As far as the heater, remember it only works when the sun is out.

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  5. You've stepped in it now - lol. I think it's great. Congratulations!

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  6. My wife and I always talk about what are all those people who are stock piling going to do when their stock runs out. And how about all those people who think they can live on MREs? The govenment tells us to have 3 days of stock then wait on them to rescue you. Yeah, right. I'll do just that. (Dripping with sarcasm)

    The other thing people need to think about is that if they do have to live off their stock pile they will have to cook differently. We cook with so much waste and don't take advantage of much. My wife can take a pound of beef and make it stretch for five days and you never feel cheated.

    Congrats on the speaking. Good teachers remain good students. Thank you for passing stuff you learn along to us. - Genevieve

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    1. Thanks for the great comment G.
      I know in a crunch you can stretch a years worth of food a few months longer. As your stomach shrinks your portions shrink so one year could last up to a year and a half if you really pushed it. Saying all that, if there is no way you can replenish the supply then you are just prolonging the end result anyway.

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