Thursday, November 26, 2009

Living Without a Fridge-Life is Good

Well it has been a month since I moved out to my little shack. So far everything has been going great. We had snow and some cooler weather. The coldest night was about -17C or 0 Farenheit so far, but it has been hanging more in about the 0 to -10 celcius range mostly. That is nice. One of the things that I was kinda concerned about when I first started living out here was living without the fridge. So far, my life has'nt really changed much in that sense. Those two green boxes are my fridge. They seem to stay at about 10 C or 50 Farenheit sitting there on the floor under that bunk. I know a fridge is usually alot colder than that, but this is really working good for what I keep there. I leave a 2 liter pop bottle outside on the step that is usually about half full of water, that I can grab from inside the shack. When I mix some orange juice or powder milk(which I am pretty used to now, Yummy), it is nice and cold. If it happens to be frozen, I just add some water to it, and it is ice cold. The red cooler out in the shed is my deep freeze that I keep stocked with a few days worth of different meats. If I have some left over chile or something that I want to freeze, I just set it on top of the cooler over night, then put it inside in the morning, that way it dos'nt disturbe any of the other already frozen goodies inside. I have plastic bottles filled with water(ice) inside, so if the temperatures rise above freezing for a few days, things seem to keep frozen for quite awhile. There are some advantages to living in northern Alberta I guess. When I get into my new house, I do plan on having some kind of refridgerator, I just hav'nt quite decided yet if it will be on propane or 12 volt DC power. I am kinda leaning toward 12 volt though, I can always help it out in the winter with home grown outside ice. I have been kinda busy at work a little bit off and on this month. Although I hav'nt been there for a few days now. A couple days ago I got ambitious again and cleaned a bunch of snow out of the basement area again. The last time I did this I no sooner got it all cleaned up and ready for action then work phoned and I went to work for a few days, and by the time I got done the darned thing was full of fresh snow again. I hope that don't happen this time. So far so good, but I do have some courses pertaining to work that I have to attend all weekend long.
I finally worked on the floor some more. A wood basement floor seems to take a long time to build. If I poured a concrete one, my whole basement might have been built by now, but maybe not. I blame work. lol. I lost alot of good building weather while I was hauling the bales, and it seemed that once the bales were hauled it started to rain and never did quit. I knew that was going to happen, but I gotta make a living too I guess.
The sub floor is'nt permanantly nailed down yet, I still need to be able to get in there for awhile yet.


Just a bit of an update on things. Life is good, and the little old shack is still cozy. I hav'nt started beating my head against the walls yet, so thats gotta be a good thing. The days are getting shorter and I have been running the generator for about an hour in the evening, just to make sure the batteries don't run down too low. I probably don't need to, but it is good to keep them full. Never know what the temperature will be in the morning and weak batteries are more apt to freezing. If I did'nt have a generator, I could survive easily with the solar panels alone, if I were to conserve energy a little, but I have been a bit of an energy pig lately. My inverter charger is equipped with a battery temperature sensor and the solar charge controller is not yet, but one is in the mail. That will help out quite alot, I suspect. The solar panels do usually have my batteries charged right up at the end of the day, but the inverter seems to just dump a little extra voltage at it, because of the temperature correction.

Anyway, this is the life, and I'm lovin it. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. Canada's was in October. Catch ya later.

16 comments:

  1. Hermit,
    Sounds like you're doing A-ok!! You've got your stuff figured out and Im glad this arrangement is working for you. As far as refrigeration, you've got it figured out for the mean time with the snow and sub zero temperatures. We dont even get snow. You reminded me to fire up my generator. Your post has encouraged me to go to my place and get some things done. Ive got some time off right now and will be heading out to my lil place sometime early afternoon. I dont think I will be staying as I do not have a heat source yet. Glad all is going well for you. ~jen

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your updates and glad to hear you are doing ok.:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You got it going man! I can tell you from experience that a 12 volt 'fridge will work just fine. Draws very little juice as well. I had an "under counter" Norcold on my boat, and it would run for days on two automotive starting batteries, so a solar charger should keep up pretty well. My boat went a week without shore power once. I did run the engines for about 15 minutes every other day to keep the batteries topped off, but they never got low. I have a propane (actually 3 way) 'fridge in the motorhome, and it works just fine on propane. Even though it uses very little, it still uses it. Solar charged 12 volt means no trips to the propane station. Just my two cents....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good for you!!I had to spend this week in the "City". Can't wait to get back to the woods this Sunday. The peace and solitude is awsume!

    See Ya

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks like you are doing all the good, my frind! Good for you...!

    At least you found a good use for all that snow, right?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Jen, we're doing double A-Ok here. (Me and the dumb dog). So far not a single regret on anything. I was meant to be a country boy. I'm pretty sure someday you will be doing something pretty similar yourself, but no need to be in a big panick about it. The time should always be right. After talking about doing something like this for well over twenty years, I finally took the plunge.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks a whole bunch Edain. I like to know that I am doing something that is interesting to others. I'm glad you enjoy my posts and I hope to keep you coming back for more.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mayberry thanks for the valuable information. In my experience 12 volt RV fridges are a little tough on power, but then that same fridge seems to be kinda hard on propane also, I guess they are pretty thin walled some of them, but I have been doing some research on some modern day fridges and sounds like 12 volt is a real possibility. Thanks Mayberry.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Tony. You must be going kinda snary spending that kinda time in the city. I hear ya though, getting back out to the country is great. I just spent 5 days out here without leaving the place, and if it wer'nt for work related courses it would have been alot longer. Gotta love the country life.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Jim. The snow definately has alot of good things about it. But it can be a bit of a pain in the ass too at times. I'm kinda thinking that it will hold off until I get me some basement walls built, then it might dump big time for a few days. I know, negative thinking, but I'm probably right. lol.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sounds like you're doing great! Glad to hear it. You are definately an inspiration to me as I am currently living in an apartment but am working towards homesteading in the country. Thank you for the inspiration and great reading you provide.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Looks like you are doing great Mark! :)
    I need to get busy with that canned chili recipe for you. Maybe with Thanksgiving over I can get to it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you Darby, and you are welcome. I'm always happy to see that someone finds my blog to be interesting to them. Good luck to your future homesteading plans, if you want it bad enough, I'm sure you will eventually make it happen.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hey Jeanie, things are going pretty good way up here. I'm waiting.... lol. But really, no panic on the canned chile recipe Jeanie. Sometime when ya feel like having some chile yourself would work fine for me. I hav'nt spent much time on here lately, but I hope the deer hunting has been going good for you. I guess I better go and check you out.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Good afternoon...just playing catch up with your blog. First, congrats on taking the plunge, and second to let you know that I am a wee bit envious at the same time. Till I am able or my present circumstances changes...I guess I can't jump off my own cliff and into a life I dream about. So if you don't mind, can I ride your "wake" and learn and live your dream till my comes true???

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks Diane. You are more than welcome to ride my wake, but hold on tight, there could be some trouble lying ahead. I'm pretty sure there is going to be some real wintery weather coming soon. I'm glad you would want to follow along though.

    ReplyDelete