An expansion of an earlier post on hot water

In an earlier post back in June I touched briefly on  our hot water at the farm.
When we purchased the property the only hot water we had was  an existing  collection of messy tanks and pipes up on the roof that was gravity fed from a tank on the hill behind the house and then passed through  pipes into the kitchen and into the firebox of our wood cook stove and was heated that way. Not so great  or efficient in our long hot Aussie summers.

When we  first tried to get it all working, we lit the fire, and Brian and his uncle got up on the roof(This was after a couple of beers during happy hour,late in the afternoon0 to find out why the water wasn't coming through to the house.
Our Aunt Barb and I were in the kitchen after  hours of cleaning, as we had found the house in a filthy state, when all of a sudden there was a great  explosion, and soot and ash went everywhere. Apparently a valve or something up on top had been  put in back to front and the pressure had built up as the fire heated up  until it released with a bang.
We then heard the men laughing and went outside to see what was happening, only to find them soaking wet up on the roof where a pipe had blown off.
After a massive clean up we were able to all sit down and laugh about it and could see the funny side of it.

The above pics show my poor old stove in pieces being cleaned out and  our wonderful Aunt and Uncle who have helped us so much  along the way.
We decided that this type of system wasn't ideal and we had  been hearing about evacuated tube hot water services, so decided to take the plunge and purchase one.
We had to get one specifically designed to be used on  a gravity feed water service, so we ordered it, and transported it up to the farm and there it sat for a few months until we were able to call in a few volunteers to lend a hand.

I added these photos to give  a perspective on how big this system is. The tank holds 300 litres( about 70 gallons) and is sitting on a queen sized bed. There are 10 glass tubes that heat the water from the sun.

Brian dismantled the old system and removed it off the roof and then they began assembling the framework for the new system to sit on.

each tube had to be filled with water, with a special silicone seal on it and then had to be carefully positioned into the system.

It took several hours to  complete this, but with our extra help all ran smoothly.
We decided to keep  the circuit of pipes that ran into our wood stove as an extra back up in case we got a few too many cloudy days in a row. We rarely have had to  light the fire to heat the water, quite  the opposite in fact, we have had to cover the  tubes over summer with shade cloth to  stop the water overheating and evaporating, and also to protect the glass from hail storms if we are away.( the glass is hail resistant but not guaranteed    to  be hail proof.
We have found this system to be wonderful ,it has been up now for about 6 years and we have never had a problem with it. Our next door neighbours have just recently also purchased  one similar to ours as they have seen how successful it is.

Nothing beats the luxury of hot water, and life is just so much more comfortable with it.
Above is how the place stands, solar on the roof of the shed and the evaporated tube solar hot water on the roof of the house, they arn't elegant but they are efficient.
So enough of my ramblings,
Until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane .

The progression of Power.

Ten years have passed  since we decided that we would buy our off grid property.
We had no idea what that would really entail. We knew what was already set up there would not  be appropriate for what we  would need power wise in the future,and that we would have to in reality start from scratch.

The only solar panels  on the house were 6 x30 watt old 1970's  solarex  brand. This was combined with 2 x car 12 volt batteries without an inverter or any other safety equipment. On taking possession of the house  Our Uncle ,who was a retired electrician came with us and quickly modified the setup to get us through the first year  so that we could assess what we would need.
We then purchased after time 8 X 200 watt solar panels ,an  inverter and a controller and 12 X 2 volt ,1000 amp hour batteries to give us a reasonably good 12 volt system.These were all chinese produced bought on ebay..

We kept the original 6 small panels and  set up the  older  batteries as a separate small grid to run our back-up12 volt  lighting system that is installed  throughout the house.

As time when on, and we needed to upgrade even more we decided with advice from our local solar place that we would change our system over to  24 volt instead of 12 volt.
 One day,we had arrived up at the farm  to  find our fridge and freezer  shut down and all the contents spoiled  as our wonderful chinese inverter had died. ,Oh what a smell and mess, took ages to be rid of it,e buried the meat in a big  hole and had to spend weeks de-smelling the appliances.

We invested in a good quality 2400 watt xtender brand inverter, and changed things over.
Best move we ever made, everything has been running like a dream ever since.
We have since purchased 6 more of the big blue batteries, but need still another 6  so that we will have two 24 volt battery banks.

The photo above shows my husband and his beautiful Uncle Ernie ,who was such a wonderful help to us, and teaching my husband  how to  work with the solar power.
Sadly  Uncle Ernie passed away last year after a very long battle with prostate cancer. He is greatly missed. RIP Ernie.
While we were on a roll with the solar stuff, we decided to add a solar panel to the roof ,controller inside and batteries under the seat of our caravan so that we can travel and be independent  of caravan parks and electricity.This works brilliantly.

I am sure  there will be many more modifications to the house solar system  as time goes by.
We intend to add a cool room later on,which will probably require  a seperate inverter and battery bank of it's own, so that it is isolated from the house grid .
We find that living off the grid is wonderful, our battery bank allows us to run, fridge ,freezer,tv, dvd,computer,lights,microwave,washing machine  ect.
If we want to run heavier power draw items like irons, toaster, hairdryers,vacumn cleaners and other things like that, we start up our back up generator for these.
Living off grid is wonderful, it is great knowing  that we are producing all our own power are are not reliant on the electricity  grid for anything.
So if you are sitting on the fence trying to decide wether  to try off grid living  or not ,then all I can say is do it !! you will never be sorry.
So folks, until we meet again,
Cheers to everyone,
Jane.

P.S. Just wanted to add an update to this. Since writing this  blog entry we have  added again to our battery bank. We Travelled to Sydney last week and purchased 7 more batteries to add to our grid.(6 plus a spare)

Brian spent the best part of the day rearranging all the batteries and re-connecting  them up to run this as a 1000 amphours.  A huge job as each of these big blue batteries weighs about 75 kilograms.
Every little step we take now will make a huge difference to our lifestyle down the line.
Must move on.
Cheers to everyone once again,
Jane.

Chick,Chick,Chick peas

We have gone through a fair few tins of chick peas and four bean mix over the years, so when I recently saw a quick method of canning  chick peas and beans recently I was keen to give it a go.
I owe credit for the info to a fellow called Ben Scholes on one of my canning sites I belong to, and the recipe was just called "Ben's Beans ".
I started with just one jar, slipped into a canner load of raw packed lamb chunks.as they are processed for the same time.
When I opened the jar we were very impressed as the  ratio of beans to liquid was perfect and the texture of the peas was just right.
So I decided that I would do a whole canner load of chick peas.I used  packets of dried chick peas that I purchased at a  middle eastern shop down in our local shopping centre that sells lot's of interesting bits and pieces.

I started by rinsing off the chick peas in a strainer under running water and then placed 1/2 cup of the dried chick peas into each pint(or 1 cupful per quart).

Next I filled the the pre-washed  jars with plain water  leaving about 1 inch headspace.

I then  wiped all the jar  rims with paper towel dipped in white vinegar, and applied the lids that had been previously simmered in water for a few minutes to soften the seals.  I then added the rings and screwed just  until finger tight.

I also added 1 jar of 4 bean mix as well so i could see how they would process too.

I then placed them all in my pressure canner and processed them at 10lbs pressure for 75 minutes for pints(or 90 minutes for quarts)

After the processing time was complete I turned off the stove and let the canner  drop back down in pressure and after it returned to zero I removed the weight,and when all steam had completely ceased I removed the canner lid .
I then removed all the jars and placed on a towel on the table to cool for 24 hours.

The next day I removed all the rings, checked my seals were intact and washed the jars and stored my rings for future use.I then stored the chick peas away for future use.
I had also on a previous load of  lamb stock processed some lima beans in the same way, but forgot that stock is processed at a shorter time than beans, so the beans really hadn't been done correctly so I refrigerated those and used them straight away.
I made "pantry stew" the next day, with jars of,lamb chunks,tomatoes,carrots,corn,stock,and the lima beans, It was really delicious.

We had unexpected quests turn up that weekend also  and I was quickly able to make up a 4 bean salad with the jars of beans, a  pint of canned corn, and a few other bits, and it was  great too.

Tonight I am cooking a small piece of pork and instead of the usual baked vegetables, my husband requested  that we have a chick pea salad and coleslaw, suits me just fine.

These beans will be so handy to us for quick salads and ways to stretch a soup or stew if extras turn up, I am certain that I will can many more jars of them in the future. Every time I can meat and I haven't a full load I will just slip a few of these in.
I must away now as it is close to our dinner time and I have that roast to check,
Until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane.

Water....always an issue

I know I have touched briefly on the subject of water before, but thought I would share a little more.
When we first bought the property back in 2003(Wow that time has flown) the only water we had was supplied by a couple of  metal tanks that collected the water off the house and  various out buildings. This just wasn"t enough to supply the needs of the house, garden and livestock, so we had to do something fairly quickly.
There had been an existing dam which at some time in the past had held water, it  now leaked badly and had become overgrown with pine trees and grass.

We talked to a few  people  who suggested it may be worth having the dam dug out  so we hired a  fellow to come and do that.

Unfortunately this didn't work as it then leaked like a sieve and was totally useless.
We made the decision to then use it as a rubbish tip as we demolished  and cleaned up the property we pushed and pulled all the  "stuff" into that big hole.

When  we had  filled it with all the rubbish, we then had our man come back with the bulldozer and fill it all in. It totally changed the look of that area . We suddenly had a much nice view to the west and a usable small paddock for our sheep(still no water but at least  grass.)

The previous owners  had also installed  an old above ground swimming pool to collect excess water and it probably was  also used for leisure during the hot  dry summer months as well by their children..As well as this storage, we had a smaller metal tank at the side of the house which collected  water off the house.We arrived up at the farm one day to find it had burst(it was old and rusty) and  we had lost 10,000 litres of water.

We removed  both lots of old rusty metal (and added it to the previous temporary rubbish hole) .

This left us a nice level platform to place a new  plastic  water tank (these are  special food grade for household water storage.) We ordered it through the local rural supplier and he delivered it out to our farm.

This tank holds 22,000 litres of water, which is collected off the roof of our house only and we then transfer it by  petrol pump up to  another storage tank behind the house .

Slowly as we have saved our money, we have  replaced  more of the antiquated water storage that was on the property. We then decided to sink our bore hole, which had to drill down 300ft to strike water , added all new  underground piping from the bore  to right up high behind  the house, where we got our bulldozer man back to push out a level pad for us to put another tank or two in time..

Brian added some nice compactable red dirt which we "borrowed " from an old quarry  down the road., He then laid these three thick sheets of  black rubber material to cusion the bottom of the tank from any small sharp stones that may be there.

Our same friendly rural supplier then  came with another tank, larger this time 27,000 litres.

Brian then did the connections to the old existing tank,virtually doubling our storage.(as the old one expires we will then twin the newer one as we can afford to ).

This photo shows the tanks. The  far left tank is our existing older metal rain water storage, the middle the newer plastic one (both these hold now the rainwater collected off  the  house and out buildings, and is then gravity fed back in the house. The green tank is what we pump the bore water up into and also then gravity feed back onto gardens. The system seems to work well but is  labour intensive with Brian having to lug pumps around a lot of the time. When we save a bit more money  we intend to set up a solar bore and a few electric pumps to ease the work load and have  the water supply a little more dependable and easier to work with .
There has been a lot of work and expense, but everything we do now is one less thing to do further  down the track.
Water will always be a priority, and without it we or anything else will cease to exist, so we value it greatly.
So until we meet again,
Cheers  to everyone,
Jane .