Off the Grid....Tonight.

We have always considered going off the grid and creating our own electricity. The topic always comes up when the power goes out.
If it were an easy choice then we would have done it a long time ago.
I still work on solutions but for now the grid is the most practical source of electricity.


We can go quite a while without electricity. Living rurally you have to expect the lines to go down often.

So far, we have managed without a generator although we have borrowed one during long outages.


If it were just me and Kira living here, we could go off the grid without much problem. Having kids changes that scenario. The washing machine runs almost constantly because of cloth diapers, peed beds, and the usual spills and other child mayhem.


When the power is out we put the heavy loads on hold and focus on lights, cooking, and water. Our heat isn't affected because we use a woodstove. We can cook on the woodstove or the propane barbeque. If we're watching the weather, we usually get some water together before the power goes out. If we're caught off guard, we have a creek and pond to supply us with water. It just means hauling water up to the house. I've always meant to install a handpump in our water line for outages but that is usually forgotten as soon as the power comes back on.








Lights are easy. With LED lights you hardly need any power. A 12 volt battery and an inverter will give you hours of light. I like the Christmas lights for this. They are cheap and bright and versatile. They also brighten up the home with some colour at any time of year.



As far as the Internet goes, our only way to get it is through dial-up or with the cell network. We have a smartphone for our Internet access.
I use the phone with an old laptop to do this blog. Tonight I'm just using the phone.


I really would like to go off the grid someday. It's helpful when the power goes out so that you can see where the electricity is important and where it is just excess or luxury.

Tonight there will be some grilled pork and some coloured lights.

I think we'd be fine if the power never came back on.

Soap Making (I hope!)

I thought that making soap would be fairly simple and straightforward.

There are few ingredients.

It requires little in the way of equipment.

So, my first attempt failed,

 due to over-confidence.

I blame two of my self-sufficiency books.

They made it sound easy.

They were very short chapters.

I wonder if the authors had even tried making soap themselves?

 Rendering the lard was no problem.

There were lots of information gaps when it came to the lye.

Most recipes call for Sodium Hydroxide.

It's bought in a box.

 In order for the soap to be made exclusively on the homestead,

I need to use wood lye.

Potassium Hydroxide.

I was sloppy when it came to the wood lye.

This time I made sure to be more precise.

It was as strong as it could be.

The solution was completely saturated.

 I still don't understand the references to the boiling process.

All of the recipes that I found use moderate temperatures.

I did the soap in the house this time.

I barely needed any heat.

Sticking to the original method,

I used a spoon.

One hour of stirring. 

 Everything was by the book....

....mostly.

In hindsight, I could have made soap the first time.

That is, if this batch works.

It did thicken abruptly after forty-five minutes of stirring.

I won't know for sure until the curing is done.

It'll be several weeks before I'm certain.

Then it's Kira's turn to make soap.

My role as alchemist will be complete.

I read somewhere that you need to be able to take a mold apart

 to get the soap out.

I think I'll be able to get the soap out of the muffin tins.

I wonder how many of you are shaking your heads.

"That'll never come out of there.", you say.

I need to see for myself sometimes.

I'm still holding out for the first batch

I feel as though it will miraculously harden.

It sits behind the woodstove,

waiting.

Maybe for a long time.

It needn't be lonely.

There is a fresh batch to accompany it.

Pizza Night

Tonight was pizza night.
I suppose that lots of people have pizza nights.
But just saying the phrase suggests something communal and special.

Of course, we are out of delivery range so we make our own.
When I say we, I mean our little community here on Salmon Lake road.
Tonight there was Sally, Eric, Paul, My Dad, and us.
The one thing that we all have in common is that we live on Salmon Lake road.....year round.
It's not an exclusive club, but it's usually the same people because we all live here.
It is worth noting that we have more in common than just our address.
They say that birds of a feather flock together.
Despite differences in age, in background, in experience and more, there is a shared passion for certain values.  It certainly makes for good conversation.  There's never enough time to talk about everything.

We all live here, but there isn't the time to socialize with each other regularly.
Everyone has a schedule and a routine.
Everyone has work to do.
Despite that, we make the time, every once in a while, to hang out, drink some beer and eat some pizza.
I don't know how many times we've had pizza night, but it seems that there is a pattern emerging.
Sally and Kira and I make the pizzas.  Eric supplies the beer.  My Dad and Paul take care of whatever else might be missing.
I love the chance to experiment with a new pizza and to drink as much beer as I can during the evening.
(I know that sounds immature, but I dislike repeating pizzas.)

We switch between homes each time.
Tonight was our night to host.  It's easier for us to host because of the kids.
There is less time spent packing and unpacking tired children.
The kids find this kind of event tiring.  They have to expend extra energy vying for the attention.
But, they get to go to bed late, and when they're that tired, they crash pretty hard.

Tonight's pizzas were a mushroom and spinach pizza, a plain tomato sauce pizza, and a sausage, feta, and sun-dried tomato pizza.  Most everything is from scratch.  It's a always a great meal despite being overshadowed by the conversation.

Now that the beer is gone and everyone has gone home, I feel as though the night went too quickly.

I think that we should be doing the pizza night more often.

But then......

..... it wouldn't be so special.