Bought a new 100w solar panel, couple weeks my buddy will tie it in with our old 100w and we'll have enough juice to run everything we need, for as long as we need.
Preparations Update
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Today I purchased 1 kg of cinnamon powder half of which I will on-sell on the internet to make our portion free and half we will keep for our stocks here and also purchased 20 sets silicone ear plugs with cords which we use for noisy activities such chainsawing, whipper snippering and mowing.
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Gotta love the whipper snippering (hee hee)
@Amish Heart weed whacking also sounds really effective when you are really whacking those weeds with the cord too 
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Ha Ha. It does, doesn't it?
Over the last week we have prepared by -
- Harvesting 1.1 kg of cherry tomatoes and just over 2 kg of broccoli from the gardens we have blanched and frozen in meal sized portions for more food storage.
- Purchased 1 kg of cinnamon powder on eBay saving $28.92 over purchasing it in the local supermarket. We will sell half of this on the internet so our portion will be free.
- Bought 20 silicone noise deadening ear plugs with cords on eBay saving $ $143.14 over purchasing them in our local hardware store.
- Separated 239 g of rosemary picked and dried from the gardens and listed them in my eBay store, we have now sold 1/4 of it already.
- Purchased 6 x $240 e-vouchers for $200 each of eBay for our local supermarket saving us $240 on the usual price of groceries. We will couple this with any 50% off weekly specials as we use them to save even more.
- DH banked his tax refund cheque into our home deposit savings account.
- Harvesting 1.1 kg of cherry tomatoes and just over 2 kg of broccoli from the gardens we have blanched and frozen in meal sized portions for more food storage.
- Purchased 1 kg of cinnamon powder on eBay saving $28.92 over purchasing it in the local supermarket. We will sell half of this on the internet so our portion will be free.
- Bought 20 silicone noise deadening ear plugs with cords on eBay saving $ $143.14 over purchasing them in our local hardware store.
- Separated 239 g of rosemary picked and dried from the gardens and listed them in my eBay store, we have now sold 1/4 of it already.
- Purchased 6 x $240 e-vouchers for $200 each of eBay for our local supermarket saving us $240 on the usual price of groceries. We will couple this with any 50% off weekly specials as we use them to save even more.
- DH banked his tax refund cheque into our home deposit savings account.
Today we did our 3 monthly grocery shop online and purchased $519 worth of groceries for $400 which I am immensely happy about. We got $80 discount by using 2 of our $240 e-vouchers for $200, another $10 in supermarket rewards discount, and saved another $29 by buying weekly specials.
I topped up on some items above our usual storage level being -
- 6 x 250 g of cracker biscuits.
- 8 x packets of twisties for snacks.
- 6 vanilla beans to make another 600 ml of vanilla extract with.
- 1 packet of coffee filters to strain the extract with.
- 18 x 250 g of chocolate chips for cooking and some for eating.
- 2 x 375 g of dried chick peas.
- and lastly 12 x 100 g tins of smoked oysters in oil.
We also went through our firewood, did a stocktake and stacked it small kindling to large overnight logs and worked out we need another 2 trailer loads of large logs and 2 trailer loads of medium logs to last us the rest of this winter and the rest of next years winter.
I topped up on some items above our usual storage level being -
- 6 x 250 g of cracker biscuits.
- 8 x packets of twisties for snacks.
- 6 vanilla beans to make another 600 ml of vanilla extract with.
- 1 packet of coffee filters to strain the extract with.
- 18 x 250 g of chocolate chips for cooking and some for eating.
- 2 x 375 g of dried chick peas.
- and lastly 12 x 100 g tins of smoked oysters in oil.
We also went through our firewood, did a stocktake and stacked it small kindling to large overnight logs and worked out we need another 2 trailer loads of large logs and 2 trailer loads of medium logs to last us the rest of this winter and the rest of next years winter.
I giggle every time I see it. Actually heard an elderly man call the cashier at TS a wipper snapper this morning. I think they think I'm nuts, I laughed myself into a coughing fit. Laughing is a good stress reliever, I could use more laughing....
Stop that! Your making me learn the metric system so I can compare our harvest to yours!!!
Yep we love our whipper snippering here and yes I think we should all be bilingual in measurements and weights. I was brought up in the confused generation where I learned imperial measurements initially and then they swapped us over to metric half way through primary school. I can still almost totally accurately convert measurements and weights in my head @Terri9630 .
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Brought my first deep cycle battery on ebay this morning.
I got free delivery from Sydney, a discount and used another discount code and
the battery that was $259 ended up costing me $221!
So happy.
I also added more stocks to the store room.
Flour.
Oil.
Crushed garlic.
Black turtle beans.
Pasta.
Mustard.
Crackers.
Vinegar.
Pretty happy with this haul.
I got free delivery from Sydney, a discount and used another discount code and
the battery that was $259 ended up costing me $221!
So happy.
I also added more stocks to the store room.
Flour.
Oil.
Crushed garlic.
Black turtle beans.
Pasta.
Mustard.
Crackers.
Vinegar.
Pretty happy with this haul.
Great discount on the deep cycle battery @Tank-Girl I am really happy for you as all of those discounts really help in the budget .
I noticed too that Woolworths had great specials on Clix cracker biscuits and with our 16.66% discount with the vouchers we got it made them far cheaper than buying the ones we like too from Aldi. It is amazing just stocking up in small quantities as our budgets afford how fast you can increase your pantry stocks.
.I noticed too that Woolworths had great specials on Clix cracker biscuits and with our 16.66% discount with the vouchers we got it made them far cheaper than buying the ones we like too from Aldi. It is amazing just stocking up in small quantities as our budgets afford how fast you can increase your pantry stocks.
Picking up our grocery order we put in with the added stocking items listed above today and forgot to say we also stocked up on 2 x 400 ml bottles of cocoa moisturiser too.
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WM discounted sewing buttons to 25 cents a set. Bought several to put in my sewing box for coming winter projects.
IGA sold 40 oz name brand detergent for 2.99 each so bought a cart load with 50 cent off coupons.
Stop at the DT to pick up 6 bags of gluten-free pita chips.
Picked up a 'Juicy Culture' umbrella at the Mall to put in my car for 2.99.
IGA sold 40 oz name brand detergent for 2.99 each so bought a cart load with 50 cent off coupons.
Stop at the DT to pick up 6 bags of gluten-free pita chips.
Picked up a 'Juicy Culture' umbrella at the Mall to put in my car for 2.99.
While picking up our $519 grocery order we noticed that the store had strawberries for $1 per punnet of 250 g so we purchased 10 and then coupled that with a further 5% off using our roadside assist club bringing them down to $9.50 for 2.5 kg. This is an unheard of low price for us here and we will make some into jam and the rest chop up for the freezer for desserts.
Your post brought back a a memory. One of Grandpa's shirts was beyond repair so I watched Grandma cut off the buttons. Then she used a short piece of thread to tie the buttons together before she put them in her button box to be used later if needed. I also remember when my shirt was missing a button, she told me to go get her button box. She dug around in the box until she found a single button that closely match those on my shirt. A bit of thread and a bit of her time and my shirt was good as new.
I was in elementary when they decided we needed to know the metric system then half way through the school year they said "forgettaboutit". And I did. Forgot it all.
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Great discount on the deep cycle battery @Tank-Girl I am really happy for you as all of those discounts really help in the budget
I noticed too that Woolworths had great specials on Clix cracker biscuits and with our 16.66% discount with the vouchers we got it made them far cheaper than buying the ones we like too from Aldi. It is amazing just stocking up in small quantities as our budgets afford how fast you can increase your pantry stocks.
My battery turns up Thursday next week!
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How exciting @Tank-Girl you will have to let us know how you put the system together and how it works when you get it operational .
Yesterday we also went and purchased another 2.5 kg of strawberries for $9.50 and processed the first 2.5kg into 5 bags. 4 x 500 g bags went to the freezer for strawberry jam and 1 we kept aside for desserts and last night we had strawberries and cream for dessert with the last half of our homemade pizza. Tonight we will have the other half of the strawberries with homemade pancakes for dinner with strawberries, cream and or butter.
.Yesterday we also went and purchased another 2.5 kg of strawberries for $9.50 and processed the first 2.5kg into 5 bags. 4 x 500 g bags went to the freezer for strawberry jam and 1 we kept aside for desserts and last night we had strawberries and cream for dessert with the last half of our homemade pizza. Tonight we will have the other half of the strawberries with homemade pancakes for dinner with strawberries, cream and or butter.
The tile for the heat shield finally arrived. We'll get that installed, then the chimney in and our wood stove will be set for the winter. I'm doing some research on coal locally as I'm not too interested in splitting wood.
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We had a power outage last night because apparently a sub-station blew up.
It highlighted a holes in my preps and thinking and I'm grateful for the learning moment.
I hadn't charged up all my solar lanterns thinking I would do it the next day.
I had no stored fuel for the generator.
The battery for my large Dolphin torch is on it's way out and I don't
have a replacement in my stores.
As I said, I'm grateful for these teaching moments.
It highlighted a holes in my preps and thinking and I'm grateful for the learning moment.
I hadn't charged up all my solar lanterns thinking I would do it the next day.
I had no stored fuel for the generator.
The battery for my large Dolphin torch is on it's way out and I don't
have a replacement in my stores.
As I said, I'm grateful for these teaching moments.
"Experience is the best teacher." Had a few wake-up calls myself this year. Like you, I'm grateful for the teaching moments... so long as they're short-lived.
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It's Tuesday and the battery is now here!
How is it that I can get a 40 kg battery delivered from Sydney FOR FREE and have it arrive 5 days (3 working days and 2 days over the weekend)
But an envelope of seeds takes just under 2 weeks to arrive from the same area?
Anyway...very happy with the product, the service, delivery turn around and the price.
I'll be buying another 3 in the next few months.
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With the AUS currency currently in a free fall I need to purchase the few last do-dads I need for my solar power build while they are still within
financial reach.
In line fuses, more leads and wire strippers and elect. tape. The other 3 batteries will have the be brought, no doubt at a higher price than
my first one.
I need to find a serviceable second hand ladies bicycle and spare inner tubes, tyre pump and chains to fit it.
I don't have enough food stored. Period.
financial reach.
In line fuses, more leads and wire strippers and elect. tape. The other 3 batteries will have the be brought, no doubt at a higher price than
my first one.
I need to find a serviceable second hand ladies bicycle and spare inner tubes, tyre pump and chains to fit it.
I don't have enough food stored. Period.
We thought next year we would harvest rainwater to use for watering our garden because we thought it would be better than well water. So at a yard sale yesterday I was able to buy 2 blue 55 gallon barrels for $10 each which I thought was a bargain. I am still on the lookout for more.
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That is a bargain. I paid $55 each for mine.
Tying in my 2nd solar panel didn’t work out. Old one was damaged and we’re not sure what the wattage is, back panel is blank. We know by the size it’s not 100 Watts, so we still have an accepatable upgrade. Dug potatoes and had a very good haul compared to last couple years even tho we didn’t really work them. Shooting a lot of squirrels with the subsonic .22 I just found. They’re more like chipmunks here, not very big and no closed season. They get into everything so now they get into my puppies belly
We found a white one floating in the arroyo that runs next to our property. Just needed son new bung caps.
Picked up a new charge controller for our old panel which will set it up for our secondary battery. A lot of wood bucked at BOL ready to be split next trip.
2nd solar panel tied in with new charge controller at BOL. new outdoor shelf added to deck and it doubles as a shooting bench and a table to eat on. Much more wood bucked up and split. Replaced old tv with a newer bigger one, a nice improvement for our old eyes. Here at home our hen just had another brood of chicks. I've got them set up in our best coop. I really need to pour the coals to them to get them ready for the cold coming. Hope they have time.
The good guys aren't coming
The good guys aren't coming
