Coffee: Making it and keeping it hot off grid

I really can't remember a time when I haven't had coffee every single day. I began drinking coffee when I was about 11 years old. Of course, back then, Mama would make sure it was more milk and sugar than actual coffee, but it made me feel like one of the grown-ups to have some when they did.

Over the years, my affection for coffee hasn't diminished one bit. I do drink it every day and enjoy every cup.

For a long time, I made it in a drip coffee maker. Of course, after awhile, those things mess up. Either they won't brew the coffee or the warmer plate won't keep the coffee hot. So, I switched to an electric percolator. I have to say, the flavor of percolated coffee is far superior, in my opinion, to drip coffee. The last percolator I had got to where it would start brewing the coffee all over again after about 20 minutes, as if it thought it was a new batch.

That's when I decided to go "old school" and get a stove top percolator. I was in control of how long it perked and when to turn it off. Keeping it hot meant either warming a cup in the microwave or keeping the electric stove burner on it's lowest setting. I did make it on one of my butane stoves, too, but the problem of keeping it hot was still there.

Last summer, my sister gave me an electric percolator so I started using that. So far, it's worked beautifully and it looks like it's going to continue to do so. The problem now is that we are soon going off grid, and that percolator uses a whopping 1000 watts of electricity for brewing.

So now, I'm reverting back to the stove top percolator, with one difference. I'll be keeping freshly brewed coffee in my Thermos brand pump pot so I don't have to waste time or butane (using butane stoves) reheating it for the next cup.

Here's the video I did, outlining my plans. After I made the video, I made a pot of off grid coffee and put it in the pump pot I talked about in the video!

Looking for land

We did go to meet up with a guy that has small parcels of land for sale. I'm thinking they are about the same distance from town as we are now, and supposedly good for going off-grid. He said some even have springs on them. That would be great for an off-grid water source.

So, we went to meet up with him and got there pretty early. Early enough to go by the McDonald's next door and get lunch, and had time to eat it. Since we were early, we knew we'd have to wait. Our appointment with him was at 3:30 pm and we were done eating around 3 pm. So we waited.

It got to be 3:30 and he called, apologizing and saying he'd gotten tied up with another appoinment, and that he'd be 10 or 15 minutes late. Ok. We'd wait.

Then it got to be after 4 pm and no further word from him, so we texted him and headed back to our town. When we got nearly halfway home, he called saying he was at the meet up spot and did we want to come back? Well, no. We had a few other things to do then we needed to come home and feed before dark. He was pretty insistent, but so was I. I told him I'd get back with him later in the week when maybe it would be more convenient for him. I was nice, but firm.

I figure if someone makes an appointment for a meeting, they should either cancel it if they really can't make it, not schedule too many things for the same day, or just wait to make an appointment on a day less busy. I'll talk to him in a few days.

Tomorrow, though, we plan to visit another real estate office, closer to home, to inquire about tracts of land from him. He also does in-house financing which is what I need. I don't have bad credit. I don't have ANY credit, good or bad!

I'm thinking this other guy has maps of various tracts and parcels of land that we can follow and go take a look at them as we want, without him hanging on our every word as we discuss things. It would be nice to have some services - a septic tank and a well. I still plan to be off-grid which means needing a way to pull water out of a well, having enough solar to run a few small things, and keeping the generator in good running order for times when we need to plug in a larger load, like the little washing machine or a very small AC on the worst of days.

We also looked at some yard barns and cabins we can turn into a house. Might get one larger one and one smaller one, which will equal less payment than the rent I've been paying the last few years. In fact, it should be low enough that, by going off-grid and combining no longer having an electric bill plus former rent, I can actually afford payments on both the land and the cabins. And, I should also be able to beef up the solar array and batteries as time goes by.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of land we are looking for, I'll leave you with this picture taken at my current location.

Big changes coming soon!

We got some news the other day. I don't know whether I consider it good news or bad news. I'm still reeling.

We have to move.

After 7 or 8 years of living here, settling in, establishing raised beds, fences, paddocks, chicken runs...now we have to start over again someplace else. We plan to take down all the fencing we can, dismantle the raised beds, pull up fence posts, empty the 275 gallon water totes (one has minnows and a 600 lb rock grow bed), gather all hoses and pipes, dig up and repot whatever herbs, berries, grapes, and asparagus we can, Then, we will get the inside of the house purged as much as possible.

Purging is probably long overdue, to be honest. It's been on my mind for awhile, but I didn't figure on being forced into it. Clothes, dishes, pots, pans...all kinds of things will need to go. Some will be donated. Some will simply be trashed. (Unless somebody out there really wants my old, stained, garden T-shirts!) I'll be getting lots of those tubs and totes to start packing things in that we will be moving with us.

We purged the freezers already, tossing some things and deciding to can up whatever I'm able to can up. Yes, it means heavy jars to take with us...

BUT

It looks like we'll be going off grid so I need as few things as possible left refrigerated or frozen.

In a day or so we'll be talking to a local real estate company that offers in-house financing of land. We are hoping it at least has septic on it, and we can deal with off-grid water supplies for now. We'll also be talking to a rent-to-own yard barn place that offers pretty nice deals that will pay off in 3 or 4 years. Combining the money I currently pay for rent plus the money I currently pay for electricity, I should be able to cover the payment for both land and cabin.

I currently have a small solar array, a couple of batteries, and 2 inverters. I will need more solar panels and more batteries, but these will come in time. I'll also update information about all this in a future post.

So, soon we will be saying a tearful "goodbye" to our little house in the country and moving to an even smaller house, the location of which we do not know yet. I'll video and photograph things along the way and share it here and on YouTube.

Goodbye little house.

The Homestead Cheapskate - Part 1 The Electric Bill

Probably nobody is more of a cheapskate, skinflint than me. Not in areas where quality far outweighs a cheap price. But in areas where "making do or do without" really counts.

For this installment of The Homestead Cheapskate, I'll address saving on the electric bill. I'm sure many of my tips will be just a rehash of things you've already read or learned in the past. I'm hoping some of them, though, will be a little newer to you. My goal is to so reduce my electric bill and electricity usage that a moderate solar array will actually supply all my power needs. It's a work in progress. At the end of this post, I'll show you our solar setup so far and my goals for extending its use.

1. Unplug those chargers! The "phantom" load on phone chargers, and other chargers, is pretty small. But it still exists. Every hour of every day, even when not in use, those little chargers are pulling power. The more you have, the more power they pull. Unplug them when you're not actually using them. Better yet, seek out a way to charge your devices without having anything plugged into a socket. I use my laptop and a USB cord to charge my cell phone and other devices that need it. I also have a "vape" MVP (I think that's what it's called) that holds a charge for a long time and can plug into my phone to charge it up. It's the mini-USB end and it works for other devices as well. Once the MVP is fully charged, I can use it for my phone 2 or 3 times without needing grid electricity.
2. Monitor your hot water usage! I do laundry in cold water unless something is really needing warm water, like extra dirty towels. Most of the time, though, cold water will work just fine. I also don't own a dishwasher, though they are pretty energy efficient, so I wash dishes by hand. I make sure my dishes are well scraped of any garbage. I fill up my dishpan with hot, sudsy water (it holds less than the actual sink), then I half fill the other sink with plain hot water with about 1/2 cup of white vinegar in it for rinse water. Even plastic items come out squeaky clean from the rinse. I've only used about 1 1/2 to 2 gallons of hot water for rinsing and about the same for washing. Rinsing under hot running water can use many times more than that!
3. Switch the kind of light bulbs you use! Right now, I'm using CFL bulbs but the next bulb purchase I make will be LED. I get the brightness I want and only use a tiny fraction of the power. They also don't generate heat, which is a real blessing in the summer time since it reduces the need for so much running of the AC, which is a window unit.
4. Monitor your electric stove usage! I do have an electric stove, and really wish I could have propane here. I can't, so I do the best I can with what I have. In this case, I actually turn the breaker off to the stove unless I really, really need to use it. After all, it's a 240 watt appliance. If I'm doing oven dishes, I do several of them at one time. Maybe a casserole, potatoes, and bread all together so that I'm only running the oven once for the whole meal. Even side dishes, like green beans, will go in the oven with the rest of the food in oven safe dishes or small skillets. I also make good use of my crock pot or my roasters. I have a large turkey roaster that can do double duty as a table top oven. In the summer, you'll often find it out on the table on the back deck where I'm baking bread in it. Yes! You can bake bread in a roaster and it does get brown! It bakes in exactly the same amount of time, doesn't use as much electricity to bake, and doesn't counteract the AC since it's baking outside!
   
5. Turn off or unplug anything you're not using! I know, this should go without saying. But how many times have I left the bread machine plugged in, the coffee maker plugged in, or a light on in an unoccupied room. Yes, I'm guilty of all that. I bet you are, too. But part of reducing electric consumption is becoming more aware of what's going on in your home. The best method of making sure nothing is sucking those phantom loads is to have things plugged into an outlet strip. Just flip the switch on it, and you will have turned off everything that's plugged into it. Use these for your TV, stereo, DVD player, printer, computer...I'm sure you can look around and see lots of items that would be just fine if you switch off their power!
   
6. Find and use non-electric appliances and kitchen tools! A short run-down of things I use in my home are a manual egg beater, hand crank grain mill, hand crank Victorio food mill, hand crank meat/veggie grinder, wire whisks, mandoline...I'm sure there are more I've forgotten until I am actually cooking. You get the picture, though. I can use my manual egg beater and whip up fluffy whipped topping for cobbler in the same amount of time (maybe less!) than it would take to get out an electric mixer, plug it in, put in the beaters, and do the project. I still have to wash the beaters and I have to wash the manual beater, so that time is the same. The major difference is that I can get the manual beater out, use it, and be done, and not use electricity for it! Same for all the other things I mentioned. They are easy to set up, easy to use, and easy to clean in minutes.

And, here's my solar setup. It's pretty small -- only 205 watts -- and 2 batteries. But, it is very useful when the power goes out. I can plug my modem into the inverter (10 watts) and my laptop (65 watts) and still remain connected to the outside world.