11. Home-Built Items

Miles made this portable solar oven, which gets hot enough to cook food and even melt wax for candle making.

By Miles Stair

A half century ago, many farmsteads had specific tools for specific purposes. It was called efficiency. Most of those tools have disappeared, in many cases along with the reason for them. Now, we must often build our own specialized equipment. Fortunately, it is neither hard nor expensive, and the end result is vastly increased utility and efficiency.

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In hard times, canning fruit juices will be necessary. Commercial products might not be available nor their purity reliably. Home canned fruit juice retains the vitamins and minerals, and thus health is more easily maintained. How soon has modern society forgotten the cause of rickets and scurvy!

To can large quantities of juice, one needs to have a safe, fast, food chopper, a filter bucket (on left, second photo below), a sediment bucket (on right, second photo below), and ideally a bottom draw bottling tank (tall tank in center) and a proper valve (right photo below),  may be heated over a kerosene stove. With this equipment, dozens of quarts of fruit juices may be easily and safely canned in a day.

 

Large quantities of applesauce and berry juice can be processed with the use of a Squeezo strainer and the proper filter cone.  Apples need only be chopped into quarters with a home made chopper (left, above), boiled for 15 minutes, cooled, then run through the Squeezo strainer - the peels come out the end, separated from the sauce. The applesauce can then be kept hot in the bottling tank over a kerosene stove (3rd and 4th photos above), and poured directly from the bottling tank directly into pre-heated canning jars.

Processing and canning large quantities of foods puts a strain on any modern kitchen - they were not designed for such purposes. It is much more convenient to do the work where the area can be hosed down and spills or messes don't damage delicate modern floors or counters. It may all be done outside on a patio or in a garage, using kerosene cookers as the heat source. Kerosene stoves are extremely reliable and inexpensive to use, plus they provide a marvelous freedom from the electric or natural gas grid systems. But the kerosene cookers are not strong enough to support heavy canners. The best idea is to build a sturdy, steel cooking stand which fits over the kerosene stove and supports all the weight itself.

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To protect our electronic equipment, Faraday cages stop electromagnetic pulse (EMP) resulting from nuclear explosions or Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's), also known as solar flares. It is very easy to make Faraday cages from aluminum foil or sheets of Mylar, store the equipment in them, and know that when we need that equipment it will actually work.

Charging or operating small appliances from a 12 volt RV battery is possible using a home built pig tail with battery post clamps as an external cigarette lighter socket (bottom of photo). Then a small battery adaptor (top of photo), such as a Recotron AD 61, can be plugged into the lighter socket and the proper voltage selected to run or recharge many small appliances.

To keep ourselves in life saving fresh water, we can build water collection, storage and delivery systems for our homes, as detailed in my booklet "Rainwater Collection." But what of our domestic livestock and pets? They too need a reliable, independent source of water, and it is relatively easy to build a gravity flow chicken or stock watering system for them.

Solar ovens or melters are extremely efficient and easy to use for about 7 months a year - spring through autumn. My solar oven is used mostly to melt wax for making candles, but by removing the wax melting tray it can also cook food just like a slow cooker and even bake bread. It reaches 220 F. within 2 hours of placement toward the sun, and if turned and oriented toward the sun again, will ultimately reach about 300 F - enough to bake bread. Solar ovens are totally passive, last for many years, and can be used without attracting attention from passers by. Anyone with carpentry skills can make a portable solar oven, and even if used for nothing other than making candles, they are extremely worthwhile.

New Article - May 16, 2016

Making a Solar + Battery + Box

 

Home Built Items & Essential Skills

•         The Post-Apocalyptic Blacksmith, by Dale Raby, is now an eBook and highly recommended!       Only $1.99 for the download.                          

•         Building a cart for a generator, kerosene heater, etc.

•         Build a mini-Conestoga Bug-Out Trailer

•         Building A Solar Oven

•         Carpentry

•         Cleaning Old Engine Oil

•         EMP - Practical Protection         

•         Making Faraday cages

•         Making a cooking stand for kerosene stoves

•         Making a 12 volt battery adapter

•         Making Maple Syrup At Home              

•         Preservation Oils, Lubricants, Grinding & Sharpening Stones, Files

•         Playing with Temperatures - making your own tools.           

•         Water - gravity flow system for chickens and livestock

•         Sharpening Large Cross Cut Saws

•                  Sawbuck photos #1, #2, and #3

•         Shelter - even if it means building a log cabin.   

•         Making a Solar + Battery + Box    

•         Survival Reloading (work in progress)                

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