Next Best West

My Birthday Present: 3 Bin Compost System!

2011-10-31T16:48:00.001-04:00

My birthday went by recently and I got a little bit of money so I decided to create myself a 3-bin compost system, "borrowed" from Jack Spirko at The Survival Podcast.

I already have a nice compost bin that my wife bought me a while back but the problem is with just one bin our compost is never fully complete because we're always adding new stuff too it. I've got some really nice looking compost but mixed in are chunks of stuff that haven't broken down yet.

So with a 3 bin system, the idea is to begin in bin #1 and a month or so later dump it in #2. New stuff goes in bin #1. Later dump #2 in bin #3 and so on. This way you're turning over your compost and not mixing new with already composted stuff. We've already got "bin 3" so I only had to make two of these.

Also, the thing I really liked about Jack's system was that it used a tube through the pile to circulate air through it. The idea is that the compost will warm inside the bin as it breaks down which then warms the air. Warm air rises so it will go out the top of the tube and new cool air is sucked up through the bottom of the tube. I picked a black garbage can as my bin because the colour will also help keep the insides warm.

This 3-bin system is pretty easy to make and I did two under an hour; here are the steps:

1) Materials: dark coloured garbage plastic garbage cans, PVC pipes, right angle PVC connectors

2) I used a rotary tool (Dremel) to cut a hole the size of the PVC pipe in the bottom front


3) Cut a hole through the top of the lid. Space pipes and mark off where to cut. They should stick out a couple of inches.


4) Cut your pipes to length, attach together (I used an epoxy on mine)

5) Drill holes in pipe about an inch apart and on all 4 "sides". Don't put holes on bottle bend to allow for "suction". Now just fit it all together and you're done.

Last Harvest of the Year

2011-10-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

Here's the last harvest of the year that I picked this morning. I'll be cleaning up my garden for the winter over the next week or so.

So kinda from left to right I've got red onions, carrots, ground cherries, a small cucumber, a jalapeno pepper, cherry tomatoes, broccoli and pole beans.

I was really surprised to find a jalapeno and by how much the garden is still producing this late into October. In fact this really won't be my last harvest since there's probably a dozen cherry tomatoes that will be ripe soon, a few dozen ground cherries and a few more tomatoes that are almost ripe.

I'm really pleased with the ground cherries. My youngest daughter loves them and often before we'd go on a car ride I'd grab a dozen or so of them to eat on the way. I might add another plant for a little bit more next year.

Cucumbers did pretty well and both my daughters love them so I think I'll double the amount next year.

Tomatoes did ok and I think I'll add a plant or two next year.

My red and green peppers did not do well at all for some reason. I planted some on all 3 sides of the garden and they did poorly on all locations. I only got 3 peppers all year; maybe it was just a bad year for those? I'll try again next year but if I get similar results I'll give up on those to make room for things that do better.

For some reason though the jalapeno peppers did pretty well and I collected about a dozen or so of those despite expecting to get poor results.

My carrots did not do well at all. I think I'll have to put more effort into them next year with better spacing and thinning. Though they were located in my west side garden which gets the least sun because of the hedges between us and the neighbour. I think next year I'll try to grow things that I can trellis upwards so they can get more sun: tomatoes, cucumbers, beans. This will also create more space to grow things.

I'm planning on putting a keyhole gardenbed in my front yard for next year. Our front yard really isn't used for anything so might as well make it productive. Secondly, that would be less lawn that needs mowing. Maybe the carrots would do better there?

First Batch of Ground Cherries

2011-08-22T21:06:00.000-04:00

Here's my first batch of ground cherries. I'm pretty impressed by how well my little bushes have grown and I think I'll plant more next year.

The berries are about the size of a marble and taste a bit like pineapple. My wife and youngest daughter loved them!

Green Lawn: Now Mother-In-Law Approved!

2011-07-25T20:07:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to mowing my lawn today. I normally hold off mowing when there hasn't been much rain lately and this summer has been horrible for that so far. We've had such little rain that it's been almost 3 weeks since I last mowed.

As I was mowing my mother-in-law stopped by and complimented me on how good my lawn looks. I almost fell over since most people seem to think my "green lawn care" strategy just means lots of weeds and grass that always looks too long.

So here's what my lawn looked like tonight. As before, our property ends where the hedges start (the second, taller bush).

Here's what my neighbour's lawn across the road looks like:

It appears that both my neighbours are the type that believe in mowing their lawn once a week whether it needs it or not, no matter what, even if it hasn't rained in over a month.

Garden Update

2011-07-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

I didn't have enough time to plant everything I wanted this spring, but I'm pleased with the results I'm getting so far. My strategy was to try to mix things up a bit to be more permacultury and to so what grows best where in the different levels of sun and shade.

I also wanted to get one of those big boxes of wildflower seeds and sprinkle those in between the veggies to give it more eye appeal and permaculture street-cred but I couldn't find any in stock this year.

So first up is a pic of what's supposed to be my porch herb garden. I've got some rosemary in the foreground that's hanging on for life (I started it indoors) but nothing else is really doing well. Dill and some lettuce are slowly coming along and some chives are popping up but that's about it. I think there must be too much shade contrary to my original opinion. Also what doesn't help is that these are probably the ones that I water the least since the hose is so far away on the other side.... Ya. Basically when ever I talk about permaculture or green lawn care I'm actually talking about lazy gardening. I'd like to install a drip system attached to the gutters but until then I think my porch will be an herb graveyard.

Next up is my side entrance garden which has had really surprising results. The tomatoes are doing the best here and the onions are doing well too. I think it's the early morning sun it gets. Based on the results of those I thought the pole beans would go like mad, but they haven't taken off at all. In fact the pole beans are going wild in the back yard planters where I thought they'd do horribly. The broccoli is really getting bushy but no heads yet and the pepper is doing fine with one pepper on it so far.

To the left is my front yard garden, and the shadow of myself and the apple tree. Once you get a front yard garden you've crossed a line. The results here were surprising too. I thought this would have the best results since it gets the most sun but the tomatoes seem to have done the worst here so far. Onions are ok and the peppers are coming along but not as well as the front entrance. This is the only place I planted jalapenos though since I thought it was the only place with enough sun for them which seems to have worked out well. I've got at least 8 jalapeno peppers which are around 2 inches long each. Along the wall I planted sunflowers, which did well last year to at least give some decoration.

Last up is the side garden that I put in last spring and things aren't doing too well here. The hedges across from them have grown really quickly and I don't think there's enough sun here now. The hose across the wall if you're wondering is the overflow for my rain barrel to drain into a second. I'll have to find some stuff that grows well in shady areas, though the cucumbers seem to be doing ok here.

One other neat little thing that seems to be doing well here is a ground cherry plant. These things have a nice visual aspect with their "paper lanterns" but inside them are orange coloured berries that I find taste a bit like pineapple. This particular one is located in an area that gets more sun than the rest of this section so that may be helping, but if it continues to do well, I may plant more on this side and see how they do. I'd also like to plant some raspberry bushes on each side of the basement windows so the thorns will discourage people and animals to go near.

So far, this season is hit and miss, but I'm learning a lot which will help me in seasons to come. I could be doing this by the "textbook" but I'm having fun experimenting.

Front Lawn Update

2011-07-04T21:38:00.002-04:00

So this year I'm really trying to go natural with my lawn care. No watering, mowing high, no weed n' feed etc..

So far the results are pretty good. We haven't had much rain in the last month or so and as you can tell by this picture, there's a noticeable difference between my neighbour's and my lawn which ends at the hedges. Basically right around where the brown stuff starts.

In that picture you can also see a bit of the apple tree that I've planted. I picked a cortland apple tree because it supposedly has high and early yeilds and does it ever!

After a week we had at least a dozen apple-buds already. I wasn't expecting any apples on this thing for at least a couple of years! Unfortunately only 3 of those buds have survived this long and are now golfball-sized apples. At least 3 apples are better than none and it's a great way for my daughter to learn about where her food comes from. From her room she can see the tree and I asked her to watch out for people stealing our apples!

Since planting, I extended my rain-barrel/soaker hose system to the tree so it will always have water and added mulch. I'd like to get a bunch of rocks at the base of the tree to act as a heat trap to increase the warmth of the soil and extend the growing season a bit.

Mason Jars: Great Invention or Greatest Invention?

2011-06-05T12:45:00.001-04:00

0.
I'm seriously falling in love with mason jars. They're just so useful!

It seems like every week I think of new ways to use them. I'd even use them to drink out of but my wife would kill me.

One thing that's been bothering me for a while are the amount of ziploc-type bags we go through. I mean, it seems kinda wasteful doesn't it? I know some people who wash these bags and re-use them but my wife again isn't too keen on that either.

Plus the thought of plastics degrading overtime in contact with food...I know, I'm probably just paranoid.

So a few weeks back I'm at the grocery store and I decided to buy some of those mini-hamburger patties (sometimes called "sliders") that my girls love. I did them on the BBQ and after we ate there were a bunch of them leftover.

Since all our containers weren't cleaned yet I was about to use a ziploc bag when I thought, "I bet those mini-burgers will fit well in mason jars...". And they did!

Then I decided that since they were in the jars, I might as well vacuum seal those suckers, freeze them, and then they'll last a long time (the vacuum sealer instructions says up to a year if you trust that).

So that's what I did. I also froze the little buns too so now I can pull out a few burgers for them for a quick meal for my girls.

I also rehydrate a little bit of dehydrated onions for them which they love. The dehydrated onions turn out like those little onion pieces that McDonalds puts on their burgers; the dehydration increases the sweetness.

This got me thinking of what else I could put in mason jars and freeze but so far the only other thing I've done is ground beef.

I try to buy the bulk packs of ground beef and split it up into smaller portions in ziploc bags. Sometimes I'll cook it up before freezing it for quick meals later but thawing the beef in the microwave while in the ziploc was always kinda gross.

So what I'm doing now is cooking the beef when I get home (throw in some dehydrated onions for flavour) and portion it out into mason jars that are then vacuum sealed.

This makes it super-easy to make pate chinois (French-Canadian style sheppard's pie).

All I do is microwave the ground beef in the mason jar, boil some dehydrated corn, and make some mashed potatoes, which is the hardest part. I could use dehydrated potato flakes but it's not as good. Maybe someday I'll have discovered the secret to making your own dehydrated mashed potatoes.

We've also started going to a Bulk Barn that opened up in my home town and instead of leaving everything lying around in the plastic baggies the store supplies, I've been putting the stuff in mason jars and vacuum sealing them if we're not going to use them right away.

With all these uses I'm finding for mason jars I think I'm going to buy one of the dedicated mason jar vacuum sealer attachments. The canister work-around is great but the largest mason jars, which I didn't think I'd use often, wont fit inside.

I think I'm also going to pick up some of those plastic lids for the jars instead of just using the metal ring and lid. Once the vacuum seal is broke, what's the point of fooling around with the ring and lid right? Might as well keep them in good condition to be re-used. I need to conserve my supplies 'cause once you get started with mason jars you can't stop! At least that seems to be the my case.

Phantom-Load Buster

2011-04-24T16:35:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I bought one of those energy-saving power-bars but I only got around to installing it yesterday. I really should have done this a long time ago though because I love it!

You might remember that I had previously set up my "entertainment system" to a switch on our wall meant to turn on/off lamps. The idea was that I'd flip the switch when we went to bed or when we left the house. It worked fine except for two problems:

1) 90% of the time I'd forget to hit the switch

2) My wife hated it because she'd sit down on the couch and press the remote's on-button for a few minutes before realizing the power was off, necessitating her getting up and turning on the wall switch.

I'd seen a similar item at our local Canadian Tire made by Noma, but it was going for around $80! Way too expensive in my opinion. Frankly I doubt that a gadget like that could ever save you the $80 it costs to buy it. It just didn't make sense to me that a relatively simple item like that should cost so much.

So I'd looked around for similar gadget and found one on Amazon.com. Unfortunately Amazon.ca doesn't carry them so I had to pay a couple bucks to get it across the border.

I think it was worth it though. These things basically work by having a "master" outlet with a sensor to tell if that outlet is being used or not. If it isn't, the power bar cuts the power to the other outlets (except for two that are "always on"). It's really easy to set-up, basically just a power-bar, and it works like a charm. I plugged my digital video recorder into the master outlet and now a few seconds after I turn that off , my TV and video game systems/Blu-Ray player also turn off.

Plus I love it because it's one less thing I have to remember!

Nobody Dead So Far

2011-03-13T12:39:00.000-04:00

A Bulk Barn opened up in my home town and I've been having lots of fun messing around with new ingredients and recipes for our dehydrated food.

The other night I made scalloped potatoes using sliced potatoes that I dehydrated back in September and everybody is still breathing.

I just rehydrated them in boiling water for a few minutes, mixed in some powdered cheese from Bulk Barn, a little bit of dehydrated onions, little milk and some margarine. After being in the oven for 20 minutes they came out better than the big-name boxed brand!

I'm gonna start making these a lot more often and next time I think I'll mix in some broccoli and/or bacon bits!

I've also experimented with dehydrating frozen hash-browns and corn. I've read that dehydrating frozen veggies is easy because they're already chopped up and blanched. I've also read that the hash-browns rehdyrate well and taste great.

From left to right: corn, cheese powder, hashbrowns, sliced potatoes

I'd like to report that what I've read is correct.

I'm especially impressed by the hash-browns. You have to be careful not to rehydrate them too much because they can get mushy but they do rehydrate well and taste exactly like the non-dehydrated ones. I fried them up in a pan with some dehydrated onions and they were really good.

This experiment has made me wonder if I could dehydrate french fries? I suspect the hashbrowns are actually the french fry bits that fell on the factory floor so I suspect it'll work.

The corn turned out well too but I found it difficult to rehydrate properly. At first I just pour boiling water in a bowl with them but I was unable to get them to fully rehydrate so they were a little chewier than normal. On the other hand, they tasted great! I think the dehydration concentrated their sugars. I figured that to properly rehydrate them you'll need to boil them in water for a few minutes.

With that in mind, last week when I made a slow-cooker stew and threw the corn in they rehydrated perfectly. This seems to confirm that boiling them will work.

So after all this I think I'll try other frozen veggies and maybe some frozen berries. Only thing that's holding me back is waiting for them to go on sale!

I've Never Enjoyed Badger Hair So Much

2011-02-09T18:24:00.000-05:00

Just before Christmas, after about 4 years of use, my can of shaving cream was about dry.

Around the same time I'd read on Cam Mather's blog how he shaves only with olive oil. I'm not brave enough to try that yet out when my wife asked me what I'd like for Christmas I asked for a shaving kit.

My wife gave it a good try but it seems like nobody sells shaving kits anymore. Fortunately they still sell the brushes and soap individually and I got my Grandfather's old shaving mug from my Grandmother. You could probably use any old mug though.

Then I had to find the aftershave. They don't make High Karate anymore so I was tempted to go for Aquavelva but since I had my Grandpa's old mug I decided to use his aftershave too: Old Spice. If it's good enough for hobos it's good enough for me.

Using a shaving mug and soap instead of canned shaving cream took a little getting used to. The lather doesn't last as long and is more watery so it drips a bit. Because of this I divided my face into sections and do one at a time. Neck, left cheek, right cheek, chin then upper lip.

To make the lather you don't need much water. I just run hot water over the brush for a couple seconds and then stir away. One of the nice things about shaving this way is that the lather feels warm on your skin. Plus I find it gives me a much closer shave. Maybe the hairs in the brush lift up my stubble somehow?

Although this doesn't have much to do with prepping or energy efficiency I think shaving with a mug and soap is better for the environment in the long run. Those aerosol shaving cream cans can't be recycled but the good old shaving soap comes in a small recyclable (or compostable) paper box and is probably healthier than whatever chemical makes the canned lather last for hours. Plus my soap is made in Montreal and I suspect a the canned cream comes from China (or if it doesn't it probably soon will).

This Topic Sucks

2011-02-06T19:41:00.001-05:00

I finally got around to using the Foodsaver vacuum seal system that I got for Christmas and I love it!

I've been trying to dehydrated a lot of food and so far I've been storing it in mason jars with oxygen absorber packs. These O2 absorbers do the trick but they lose their efficiency the longer they have contact with air. This makes it tricky to store them. If you don't seal them up airtight, when you go to use them again they won't work anymore.

A vacuum sealer though can take the place of these O2 absorbers and you'll never have to worry about them going stale or running out. The O2 packs aren't expensive to buy, I paid about 30 bucks for 100, but its nice to never have to buy them again.

I'm sure most people are familiar with these type of vacuum sealers. Typically they seal food in plastic bags by sucking the air out and melting the end of the bags so air can't get back in. The company claims frozen vacuum sealed steak will last up to two years without freezer burn!

The model I have comes with an accessory hose which is where things really get fancy. There's all kinds of accessories; wine bottle toppers, meat marinaders, leftover containers, even a mason jar sealer.

What I have however are the vacuum canisters that come in 3 sizes.

The canisters are meant to actually hold food but somebody on The Survival Podcast forum had recommended these over the mason jar attachment because you can vacuum seal almost any jar inside them.

Basically you just loosely place the lid on the mason jar, put it in the canister, hook it up to the tube and turn the machine on.

The machine is rather loud but as air in the canister decreases it gets quieter for about 10 second, when it shuts off. This means the air is gone.

The vacuum in the canister removes the air from the mason jar and seals the lid tight. You can double check the seals by pressing the lids to see if they "pop". No pop means no air.

I've also read people claiming that this method will seal foods like pickles and jam in the original factory jar but I haven't tried this yet.

I really like it so far and recommend a Foodsaver to anybody who's looking to store food. The only problem I have now is that I've run out of mason jars!

Quiet But Still Busy

2011-01-05T11:44:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while here since it's been a pretty hectic few months for me and my family. My wife went back to work after her maternity leave, I injured at work, left one position and started another, birthdays, Christmas etc..

Despite all that I've still been doing a few prepping things but nothing that really deserved a post of it's own in my mind.

Most importantly I installed a new entrance door in my basement. We have a little stairway that leads to the basement and the door looked like it was an old barn door. It was made out of planks and had an old latch for a door knob. This latch was literally a hole in the door that lifted a metal bar on the other side. Needless to say it was pretty drafty so I usually just covered it over with a vapour barrier and sealed it off in the winter.

I had been wanting to replace it for a while but since new exterior doors can be expensive I put it off and did other things that were less expensive or could be purchased a little bit at a time like insulation.

My wife and I reorganized our finances a few months back which gave us a bit more flexibility so I decided that with winter on it's way it was time to replace Old Windy.

I decided to go see a local manufacturer of windows and doors, Leo Groulx who's now in his 80s and recently had his 60th anniversary in business. He's semi-retired now and his shop mostly consists of he and his son. He said he sometimes calls in his old employees to help out but they were all retired!

I decided to get a door with a sliding window despite the lower insulation quality. My basement is old and the windows are small so it gets pretty dark. This way we get a little bit more light down there and I can open it in the summer to let in some fresh air.

It took Leo and his son about a month to build my door and he charged me $385. When I picked it up it was so "fresh off the line" that the caulking was still soft! Christmas was coming and I appreciated the personal service so I handed him $400 and asked him to keep the change.

I had helped instal doors before but this was my first time doing it alone. It was a lot easier than I expected but it was difficult getting the frame square on such an old uneven basement. I did the best I could but the door still sticks a bit. Oh well, it's much better than the old door and one of my motto's is "Perfect is the enemy of Good". One trick I read about that really helped is to nail a short piece of 2x4 on one end into the frame above where you're installing the door. When the board hangs down it will keep the door from falling out of the frame while you level and square it off.

Hopefully this will help us save a bit on our natural gas bill which is running about $160 a month now (way too much in my opinion).

As for all the other stuff I've done...after writing a few paragraphs about a door,I just realized that maybe I can write a post for each of the other things I've done recently so that's what I'll do!

The Ultimate Extreme Clothes Dryer Vent!

2010-11-14T18:16:00.000-05:00

The other day my wife noticed that the floor around our clothes dryer was really cold. We had always noticed that the air in our dryer was always a bit cooler but this was really colder than usual and winter isn't even here yet!

I'd been considering changing our dryer vent to a better quality model that would prevent cold air from entering for a while now but kept putting it off. With the cold entering like that I couldn't put off any longer so I made a trip to my local Home Hardware store.

I'd seen energy efficient vents before at Home Hardware and had a particular model in mind. Strangely I couldn't find any energy efficient models at either Canadian Tire or Walmart.

There were only two models at the store but I picked a model by Broan. The other vent was not only more expensive but came across as a gimmicky "as seen on TV" product. Broan is a well known brand and it looked more like a regular vent only larger.

Basically instead of vent flaps that open and close it has a styrofoam ball that rolls forward and up when hot air is exiting. It rolls back and seals the vent when the dryer stops. The vent cover is also well insulated with the walls made of 2 inch thick foam.
By replacing the vent I was also able to see what was inside my exterior walls: straw. My house was built in the 1930 and straw was a common insulator back then but unfortunately it doesn't insulate very well. If we weren't planning on moving in less than 5 years I'd remove the interior drywall and put in spray insulation with a high R-Value but it probably isn't worth the effort.

Hopefully this will help a bit with heating and with a new basement door also coming soon, whoever buys this house is gonna be getting a pretty energy efficient home!

Raking Leaves is for Suckers!

2010-11-10T17:27:00.002-05:00

I hate raking leaves. In fact, I usually don't rake them at all or do the minimum necessary to make the yard look half-decent.

We have two large maples which dump a lot of leaves on our small 20 x 30 back yard so I felt very smart when it occurred to me that I could just use the lawnmower to turn the leaves into mulch. No more raking ever again! I felt very smart to have figured that out all by myself but that didn't last because I quickly realized that a lot of people do this.

The weather was nice today so my wife and I decided to get the yard ready for winter and I broke out the lawnmower for my anti-raking experiment. I set the blades a little higher than normal because I didn't want to harm the grass. Result: I'm pretty impressed!

As you can see in the pictures the mower really did a good job of breaking down the leaves. Where you'd see nothing but leaves at first you'd see mostly green after the mower went over them.

It also occurred to me that when making compost the guides always say to include a good mix of greens (nitrogen) and browns (carbon). It just happens that a good source of greens and browns are grass clippings and dry leaves respectively. By mulching these leaves they'll have the winter and spring to break down and turn into natural compost. I guess there's a reason mother nature doesn't rake the leaves eh?

Food Dehydrating Fun!

2010-10-30T11:37:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I received my Excalibur dehydrator in the mail. I bought a refurbished model with a 10 year warranty for $160 at the companies website (they're regularly over $200) but shipping was another $56 and duty was $27. I'd recommend looking into the Canadian supplier, Basic Life Essentials, to lower shipping and avoid duty taxes. You can also order them from Amazon.

There are less expensive dehydrator brands out there but if you want to seriously get into dehydrating as a way of preserving and storing food I'd go for an Excalibur. I used to have one of the smaller less expensive models. They're good for trying out dehydrating and making a few snacks but f you want to dehydrate a bushel of apples that you pick up on sale at a farmers market or do a whole 10 pound bag of potatoes you'll need the Excalibur. The other models aren't large enough and it would literally take a week to dry all those apples or potatoes. For this reason I'd also recommend getting the 9 tray Excalibur instead I'd the 4 tray model if you can afford it.

I've been trying out tons of different foods in the dehydrator and so far I'm pretty impressed. You can eat the foods dry themselves or rehydrate them to use in meals. When you dehydrate the food the texture is never the same as fresh but that's okay if your using them in stews, soups etc.. To rehydrated them I boil the dried food for a few minutes. You can also steam your veggies to rehydrate them.

(Above: dried tomato, red /green peppers, celery, mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes and my assistant)

The dried peppers in my homemade salsa are pretty good. The potatoes are excellent pan fried or in a stew but they're too thick and slimy mashed. Rehydrated apples in an apple crisp are also really good. Tomatoes come out soft but are good for soups. As for broccoli, the stems get too tough so just dehydrate the tops. I haven't done onions or garlic yet because supposedly they really stink up the house and it's too cold to open the windows to ventilate.

My general idea is to buy veggies on sale and dehydrate them so they'll last a long time. I got a bunch of mason jars for my birthday and bought oxygen absorbers from that Canadian supplier I mentioned above. If I put the dried food in the jars with the O2 absorber it should last at least a year though various sources claim they'll last up to 5 even 30 years! Personally 5 years seems the limit to me and after 2 years I'd be wary.

The website Dehydrate 2 Store is a great resource with tons of recipies, tips and how-too videos. The book "The Dehydrator Bible" also has a lot of great tips and recipes which is where I found my recipe for apple crisp.

I'm learning that there are a lot of different methods and recommendations out there so if you want to get into dehydrating try different things and have fun experimenting!

Our Water Bill VS Our New Washing Machine

2010-10-08T09:48:00.002-04:00

Exciting times! Our food dehydrator AND the latest water bill arrived yesterday!

After I've tested out the dehydrator more I'll blog about it but for now a quick post about the effect our new high efficiency washing machine has had on our water bill.

Our previous water bill showed that we used 46 cubic meters of water during the first 4 month billing period of January to April.

This latest bill showed that we only used 29 cubic meters!

I suck at math so correct me if I'm wrong but:
46 cm - 29 cm = 17 cm
17 cm / 47 = 36%

So that means we've used 36% less water!

If you've been reading this blog you may remember that our first water bill showed 79 cubic meters used! I estimated though that our average was around 58 c.m. since our newborn baby probably bumped up our usage in the first billing period.

So this means that since earlier this year, we've dropped our water use from 58 c.m. to 29! That's a 50% reduction! Hopefully this trend will hold.

As I said before, I'm very impressed with our new LG high efficiency washer and dryer and would recommend them to anybody.

With the money we're saving from using less water and electricity while doing our laundry these machines are going to pay for themselves in a year or two!

The Advantages to Storing Food

2010-09-11T08:53:00.000-04:00

"Are you expecting some a disaster or something?", my wife said after I set up our new can organizer.

Tth Cansolidator is a can organizer that I bought through Shelf Reliance, which are actually meant to go in cupboards or pantry shelves. The plastic is pretty sturdy and it's easy to put together but if I had the money and space, I'd probably have gotten one of the larger metal framed shelving units.

The basic idea with these is that you put new cans in the top slot and when you want one you pull it from the bottom slot. When you pull out a can, the others roll forward. This way you're always pulling out the oldest can and you automatically rotate your supply.

I've seen designs online to build your own out of cardboard and some really interesting do-it yourself systems between wall studs or using old dressers.

I really wanted to try making my own out of cardboard but I broke down and bought the Cansolidator since I never had the time.

When you begin storing food a lot of people have reactions similar to my wife (who I think was only half-joking). For some reason you get labeled as a paranoid hoarder.

Back in the ice-storm of 98 I remember driving out with my parents to the only grocery store in town that was open. The power was out everywhere and the only way we could see was with our car headlights.

The grocery store was on the other side of town and the roads were pure ice. I recall almost ditching the car a few times and when we finally got there, the store was almost totally empty. I don't remember everything that we bought but the only meat we could find was a stick of dried pepperoni and since all the bread was gone we bought pitas to make sandwhiches.

Luckily the power was only out in our town for a few days and we had enough food to last that long.

So ya, having a few weeks worth of non-perishable food would come in handy if there's an emergency like that but this isn't the only reason.

First off, the food is something I'm gonna buy anyway so the money isn't wasted. This is why it's important to follow the saying of "eat what you store, store what you eat". Think about what you often buy and eat; there's usually quite a few things that you use a few times per month. To be more accurate, you could even make a log of what you buy and eat.

Secondly, it's also just handy to have the food on hand. If guests come over you don't have to do a grocery run and if the stores are closed you're not stuck.

For me however, the main attraction is reducing our overall cost of food. By stocking food you're never in a situation where you "have" to buy a certain item. Thanks to this I can watch the prices of items I stock and only buy when the price is low. For example, one item I always keep stocked is Kraft Diner. I've seen the price for KD be anywhere from 50 cents to $1.40. My rule is that I buy when it's less than 80 cents so if KD is over a buck one week, I know I can hold off on buying until the price drops because there's a dozen boxes at home.

It may seem like a big expensive job, but if you just buy one or two extra things each time you do groceries you won't notice it. I figure I only spend an extra $5 or so each time but it's surprising how fast you can stock up. In no time you can be a paranoid hoarder too!

You Know You're Getting Old When...

2010-09-01T20:33:00.000-04:00

A few weeks back we received our new high-efficiency front loading LG washer and dryer set and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed by them.

The set was only around $1000 (on sale) but I felt like I'd gone from a Chevette to a Cadillac when compared to our old set. A cute little luxury feature is that they play a little song when a load is done. I told my wife I've always dreamed of having a somebody who loved housework so much that it sang to her.

The washer is very efficient at conserving water. In fact, at first we weren't sure if we hooked it up properly because we couldn't see any water through the glass door. It turns out that the machine weighs how much clothes are in it and only uses enough water to soak the clothes. I'm very curious to see how this affects our next water bill because I estimate we've gone from using approx. 20 litres a load to maybe only 4 or 5.

Although these style of washer do take longer to clean a load (about an hour), we can do much larger loads so the time spent works out to about the same.

Another thing that's great about the washer is that it spin-dries the clothes so well that they come out of the washer just damp and almost dry. Sometimes I have to think twice if a load has even gone through the washer since so much water is removed.

As for the dryer, I'm a little disappointed that it was rated as only average when it comes to energy use, however we're noticing that most loads get dried in under 25 minutes. Not only does the washer do such a great time spin-drying, but the dryer also has a sensor that can tell when the clothes are dry and it will shut itself off. Very often the timer will show 30 minutes or so left but then a couple minutes later it shuts off because the clothes are dry!

In a few years time, after we build our next house, I'd like to look into getting a similar style propane or natural gas dryer. This would really reduce our energy use. Sure we could use a clothesline to dry our clothes, we used to and probably will again some day, but with two little kids it's much easier to just use the dryer.

On the "luxury" side of things I'm impressed by how huge the interior of the dryer is and it's kinda neat to have a light inside it.

So far the only minor downside to these is that I find we have to remember to leave the washer door open to allow it to dry out. The front loading door is water/air tight and I've noticed that if we forget to leave the door open it is still damp inside days later. I'm afraid that this could lead to a musty smell and maybe mold which probably explains why the washer has a "self-cleaning" feature.

We're pretty happy with our new washer and dryer set but also a little depressed. When you reach the stage that the most exciting thing in your life is your new washer and dryer you know you're getting old!

Control Your Home Thermostat On the Internet!

2010-07-24T10:46:00.000-04:00

Today a fellow from our natural gas company came by to install a new thermostat as part of the Peaksaver program that we signed up for.

If you haven't heard of Peaksaver, basically what it does is allow the Ontario government electricity provider to turn off your central air conditioner for 30 minutes during periods of high demand. This is supposed to help reduce demand and prevent blackouts (though considering the Toronto blackout that happened during the Queen's visit it doesn't seem to be working).

I had heard of Peaksaver years ago and was originally dead set against having the government controlling my air conditioner; however a few months ago more details and new incentives flipped me to the other side:

1) A Free Programable Thermostat

I haven't had good experiences with programable thermostats; they never seem to work properly! We tried programming our current one but for some reason it never worked. In winter we had set it to go down to 20 degrees while we were at work and to go back up an hour before we got home. A number of times when we got home however the thermostat was at 16!

Hopefully the one they installed will work properly. At the very least it can't work worse than what we already have.

2) The Ability to Set Thermostat Over the Internet

This is really what sold me on signing up for this program. I'd like to be able to monitor the temperature in our home while at work or on the road with my iPhone. I can't stand hot humid days so it would be great to be able to come home to a cool home if we had forgot to turn on the AC before leaving.

3) Turning Off the A/C Won't Affect Us

According to the Peaksaver website, they only shut off the air conditioner for 30 minutes during which time your furnace fan will still run and blow cool air.

Secondly they only turn off the A/C during peak hours which are weekdays between 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM. We don't get home from work until about 4:30 so we probably wouldn't notice it.

They also don't turn off the A/C during weekends and holidays either.

Lastly, we usually only use our A/C for a week or two the whole summer. We've got two big maples that shade our house and we open the windows at night and close them during the day to trap in the cool air.

There are other minor incentives like a $25 credit on your utility bill and helping the environment but to be honest, these didn't really interest me.

I'll update later on how things are going and post any problems we have. In the end the thing that really finalized my decision to try Peaksaver was the sentence, "You can opt out at any time".

Happy Day!: The Water Bill Arrived!

2010-07-14T20:20:00.000-04:00

After being shocked a few months ago with a water bill of over $240 I decided to do a few things to cut down on our water use.

We converted our main toilet to a dual-flush and installed a water saving device on the second (haven't switched it over to a dual yet). We also installed a new low-flow shower head and have generally tried to be more conscious of how much water we've used.

Since then I've been looking forward to our next water bill to see how much we cut down on our water usage and it arrived yesterday.

Drumroll!..............

It went from 79 cubic meters to 46!

That's a big reduction. Almost too big a reduction for just the few changes we made so this got me to thinking about what could be different between the two bills.

After a few minutes it hit me...we had a new baby back in the fall during the period of the first bill.

The extra loads of laundry that had to be done separately with a gentle baby soap could be why the last water bill was so high. The water for baby formula and baths probably didn't help either

With this in mind I checked our last water bill from before the baby was born: 58 cubic meters.

I think this amount of 58 was probably our average, but with the baby laundry no longer washed separately and the conservation steps we took, it dropped to 46.

So really our drop is probably more like 58 cubic meters to 46. Still pretty good I think.

What will be very interesting is to see how much lower our bill will go with the new high efficiency washer and dryer set we got last week (which I'll post about later when I have a chance).

Strawberry Picking

2010-06-27T11:43:00.002-04:00

Our family went strawberry picking this morning, it's a fun thing to do once in a while and I think it's a good way to help our 3-year old daughter realize where food comes from.

While my wife picked berries with our oldest I went for a walk around the farm with our youngest in the stroller.

The farm was huge and it seemed like they were doing succession planting which made sense. The acre furthest to the east was were the most mature plants were and as you moved west the plants went from just sprouting to bare earth.

A few things I noticed made me wish there was somebody around who worked there to chat with though.

I was surprised to see that there were weeds throughout the fields. Purple Loose-stryfe was everywhere which was odd because it seems to me like there isn't much of it along the roads this year. In fact I think this is the first time I saw it this season.

Straw was spread out between the rows which makes good mulch and breaks down into the soil. It also makes it easier for people to walk on.

The earth itself was pretty chunky from the clay-heavy soil we have around here. The straw will add some organic material to the clay but I was surprised by how heavy the clay was. This farm has been around for decades and I thought the soil condition would have been better. Maybe strawberries like clay soil? They seemed to be doing okay in it.

Speaking of the strawberries themselves I was impressed by how many there were. The plants were pretty productive; even the very small and young plants had berries.

Our little plant at home has only produced a dozen or so berries so far and most of them were eaten by the robins. I wonder what the farm does to keep the birds away?

I have lots of questions after this trip; I'm going to have to read up on growing strawberries!

YES!: Next Best West Banned in China!

2010-06-20T14:52:00.001-04:00

I'm kinda proud that this humble blog is banned in China.

You can use this website to check if a website is banned:

http://www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html

Pioneer Solar: PV System For Free?

2010-06-17T20:54:00.002-04:00

I received a flyer from Pioneer Solar in the mail the other day which claims to help people get a solar system installed on their house, farm, or business for free. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, like most things there's good and bad points about it and what might be a good deal for one person might not for another.

Here's how it works:

The Ontario government recently started a program where homes and businesses / farms that install solar or wind power will be paid a guaranteed rate per kilowatt for a 20 year contract.

What Pioneer Solar does is install the PV system for "free" but for the first 10 years, the money you're paid by the government for the electricity goes to Pioneer Solar. You get to keep the revenue from the 10 years left in your contract with the government though.

The example in the flyer states:

Solar System Earnings / Month = $840
Solar Finance Payment               = $780
---------------------------------------------------
Initial Monthly Earnings            = $60
Eventual Monthly Earnings       = $800 (after 10 years)

They're promoting it as an investment that's better than stocks. One way of looking at this is that you'll eventually be earning a monthly income with no initial investment.

However, using the figures from the flyer this means that you'll have paid over $93 000 for the PV system.

From all the research I've done I estimate that a PV system large enough to power a modern but energy efficient home, would cost between $25 000 and $35 000 to professionally install. If you do it yourself it's could be half of that and you don't need Pioneer Solar to apply for a 20 year government energy contract.

Another downside is that all this energy produced goes to the grid and doesn't isn't actually used for your home. I assume however that once you own the solar system after 10 years, you can turn it into a hybrid system to power your house. It's possible however that the 20 year government contract may disallow this (I've written Pioneer Solar and email to clarify this).

Despite those downsides, you're still getting a PV system for "free" and making an income for at least 10 years from selling the energy.

For those who are looking to go off-grid and be a self-sustainable as possible, the prospect of waiting 10 to 20 years to use the electricity might not be worth it. Though the income it would provide would go a lot towards becoming independent.

If you're looking to help the environment and make some money however it might be a great idea.

I know if I owned a property right now suitable for such a PV system, I'd be giving them a call.

Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies: Book Review

2010-06-13T07:37:00.001-04:00

I love the Dummies series of books. They're quick reads packed with info that's presented in a clear and organized way.

Plus I love the fact that most of them are available in Kindle versions for much less than the paper version.

With the popularity of the Dummies books though, there are often many versions on various topics which makes it hard to decide where to start. For example, when I wanted to read up on energy efficiency and self-sufficiency for the home I literally couldn't decide where to start. There was Solar Power for Dummies, Wind Energy for Dummies etc. There are even editions that put 3 or 4 books into one. With all these choices I decided to go with a generalized book that touched on a number of topics so I picked "Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies".

Unfortunately it wasn't the book for me. Not that it was a bad book, it just didn't focus on the topics I was interested in. I was looking for info on how to build an energy efficient home, whereas this book focused on environmentally friendly building materials. For example, aluminum siding may be recyclable and greener, however it doesn't offer any energy efficiency benefits.

I also found that the book was repetitive. In the first few chapters it explained global warming and the importance of lowering CO2 but in what seemed like every chapter there was another paragraph on global warming (tip: if you write a book with "Green" in the title, your readers have probably already heard of global warming).

As another example, the author kept focusing on VOC fumes (Volatile Organic Compounds) which may be an important topic, but you don't have to remind me every second page.

For my taste the book also dealt too much with non-mainstream building materials like straw bale and adobe. Straw bale homes may be cool but the added difficulty and costs of building one (finding contractors familiar with it, complying with building codes etc.) makes it unlikely that many people would build them.

I would have rathered more info on more mainstream energy efficient options like engineered boards or Insulated Concrete Forms, which in my opinion were barely covered.

Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies: a good book to learn the proper distance to keep your clock radio away from your head to avoid elecro-magnetic waves, but not much practical info on building an energy efficient home.

Still think Organic Lawn Care Doesn't Work?

2010-06-08T18:05:00.001-04:00

Wonder if they still think I'm nuts for planting clover, not mowing my lawn as short as possible and not using "weed and feed"?

Sure mine still has some brown too it but it's a lot less than the other yards. Now that we've had a couple days of rain my yard is completely green while the others are still dead.

Water from the rain barrel helped too. Another thing my wife thought I was nuts for getting at first.

FYI: That one patch of totally green that goes all the way to the street is actually where my lawn ends. You can literally see where my property ends by the dead grass.