really old style living?

ginnyknit

I would love to be off the grid for many reasons, could live without tv but not the internet as it keeps my brain occupied for hours and yes I would miss you guys.

Bought a solar light for the shed but its not very powerful, though the solar phone charger works very well. I would love an old fshioned range to cook on and I think they are easier to clean than modern stoves.

I really thin the solution to a lot of my problems is sharing the house with DD and co - its very expensive with 4 adults although I have trained them well. When we were here on our own after I finished work the bills were falling dramatically.

Dh has just been to watch his old team play cricket and got well fed and also came home clutching a tub of the sweetest blackberries I have ever tasted, shame it was too far away to go back as I think theres an unwritten law that you cannot forage by car:rotfl:

ThriftyFelicity

A netbook or laptop can be run from a battery charged by a solar panel.

You can also build a DIY pedal-powered generator that can be used to charge batteries to run things that aren't too juicy on leccy.

mardatha

I'd like to know more on running a laptop this way, anywhere I can go to find out TF ?

annie123

I don't think solar chargers are useful for someone like me yet, they have improved a lot over the years but have a long way to go to replace electricity.
They need full sun to run a trickle charge to extend battery time on a laptop or a very very large one to charge up a battery so you can plug laptop into that.
My brother's a journalist and has several types and as he says useful in the UK for 1 week of the year.

Peddle power is amazing, I've had a go at that, if we all had to do that everyday, folks would soon be getting rid of their massive plasma TVs.

I spent a week in rural Thailand without electricity and everyone got by, but wouldn't want to live like all the time.
I also remember the power cuts in the 70's only too well and don't fancy it going through that again.

zarazara

pedal powered internet :-) keep fit whilst surfing LOL

annie123

zarazara wrote: »

pedal powered internet :-) keep fit whilst surfing LOL

Instead of eating the kitkat that I'm doing at the moment:o

mardatha

:EasterBun:EasterBun:EasterBunRIGHT. SULKING!!

annie123

I can email you a virtual one if that helps

seasalt_2

We get lots of winter powercuts too and am very, very glad we have got a solid fuel rayburn - means we are warm and can cook - and its true, the oven more or less cleans itself, downside is that the kitchen gets a fine veil of black over everything in the winter - mainly because no-one (OH) remembers to open the damper before they open the firebox door. Nowhere near being off grid though. I rather like candlelight, couldn't care less about TV, but only have an electric sewing machine (have never really forgiven my grandmother for getting rid of her lovely old singer treadle without asking me lol) and would not really want to go back to doing ALL the laundry in the bath, attempting to read or sew by candlelight, or being without internet access - although I think you can get solar panels (photovoltaic?) that will charge laptops now? I do know someone who lives in a caravan with no mains electricity though. She has solar/wind up radio and phone charger, candles and some solar lighting but also now a small wind turbine which has made a big difference, and calorgas for cooking. Pretty cold last winter though. I would be looking at some kind of small stove.

Oh and D&DD, I googled storing pattypans and everywhere I looked says pick them small and don't attempt to store them for more than a few days (in the fridge). All the same, I have before now kept a few that had got a bit big on the windowledge for a few weeks just because they were pretty and then we ate them! I do the same thing each year with courgettes I've missed - picked two huge ones today - I just treat them like marrows, stuff them, bake them, make soup etc or grate them for baking or for making patties and fritters. You may find you have to scoop the seeds out of the middle though.

Gailey how do you manage it all with two small children? Felt tired just reading your post. I picked tons of vegetables this morning - have not bought any veg for weeks now - froze mangetout peas (ordinary peas I just stick on the table and everyone eats them like sweets), french and runner beans, surplus cherry toms, made a big broccoli bake for tea tonight, made up two assorted carrier bags to give to friends and have still got a pile of broccoli sitting on the kitchen table waiting for me to do something with it and a smaller heap of broad beans to shell too and i know I will have to do it tonight but am knackered! Have never done so well with broccoli (calabrese) before. Put in a dozen plants in February, half in the tunnel and half outside under mesh - the ones outside I am just now cutting the main heads but the ones in the tunnel we are eating the side shoots of the side shoots - they just keep on going!

Hope you lot darn sarf survive the weather. We had gales and rain on Friday and my peas and beans are looking a bit battered to say the least. Have got more hedge now though so not as bad as it might have been.

ETA. Sorry, missed last few posts - CAT (Centre for Alternative Technology) have small photovoltaic panels in their catalogue I think.

annie123

sitting here watching the rain storm move in http://www.raintoday.co.uk/
picked what I can in the garden, secured pots and part buried some.
Its my 10ft sun flower I'm worried about, its been tied to a bamboo tripod around it so it can still move with the wind but hopefully not bend so much it breaks.
I've never grown one that tall before.