Green-Trust.Org

We received the CD from George at Utterpower.com. This is an excellent reference for those who are looking to build a cogen (Heat & Electric) power source for the off-grid home. The lister type engines are designed for continuous duty for many years, and use a lot less fuel (used fryer oil, diesel, kerosene, used motor oil, etc.) than our Detroit.

In many parts of the world, water tables are dropping, and clean sources of drinking water are getting hard to find. The price of bottled water is increasing, and leaves you less self sufficient. One source of water in many climates is rain water harvesting. Catching the rain from roof runoff, and purifying it can be less energy intensive than pumping from hundreds of feet deep in the earth, and cleaner than surface water.

A good source of info on this subject can be found at http://www.rainwaterharvesting.net/

The folks at Ball, the makers of canning jars and other products, made available a ton of good info on putting away food for non-growing season. Although they left that business in ‘93, it is maintained at http://www.homecanning.com

We still have our Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, and it’s a valuable reference.

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Posted by Steve Spence to Self Reliance in Troubled Times at 7/29/2006 07:53:00 PM

The folks at Ball, the makers of canning jars and other products, made available a ton of good info on putting away food for non-growing season. Although they left that business in ‘93, it is maintained at http://www.homecanning.com

We still have our Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, and it’s a valuable reference.

One of the primary ways to becoming more self reliant, is to grow your own food, both meat and vegetables, in a sustainable healthy manner. One of the best web resources is the Small Farms Library at Journeytoforever.org

There is a whole set of prinicples that embodies the concept of nutrient cycles, and not creating waste. This concept is called Permaculture, for Permanent Agriculture. There are a number of good resources, and I encourage submissions to be linked here, but a good starter site is the Permaculture Association in the UK.

As you may surmise, we believe that severe hardship is ahead of us, and is already here in many parts of the world. We don’t believe life is going to improve, we work hard to learn to be more self sufficient, and share with others what we have learned. Regardless of whether you believe the Biblical account of the end times or not, wars and rumors of wars, severe weather patterns, water and power shortages, and disease are common occurances worldwide. So please visit with us a bit, and follow along as we post self reliant tips, and articles about world events that we believe have a bearing on what we must do to survive.

PHILLIPS: So, Joel, are we living in the last days? I mean, let’s talk about the specific signs to watch. You’ve written about them. What does the Bible say, and are we there?

JOEL ROSENBERG: People are very interested, I agree. Tim and Jerry’s books deal with the Rapture, the disappearance of the Church and the events going forward through the Book of Revelation. My series — The Ezekiel Option, The Copper Scroll — deal with events that could lead up the Rapture and the return of Christ. Yes, people are interested because the rebirth of Israel, the fact that Jews are living in the Holy Land today, that is a Bible prophecy. When Iran, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Russia begin to form an alliance against Israel those are the prophecies from Ezekiel 38 and 39, and that’s what I’m basing my novels on. I’ve been invited to the White House, Capitol Hill, by Members of Congress, Israelis, Arab leaders — all want to understand the Middle East through the lens of Biblical prophecies. I’m writing these novels that keep seeming to come true, but we’re seeing Bible prophecy bit by bit unfold in the Middle East right now.

http://joelrosenberg.blogspot.com/

After we lowered the charge rate on the Prosine to 100 amps from 120, to keep from tripping the 20 amp breaker on the generator, we found that when the pump kicks in while charging at a high rate, the whole house blacks out for about 5 seconds. The pump is pulling about 95 amps at 12vdc, and the charger is supposed to cut back on charge rate automatically, but the starting current of the pump is putting it well over the 100 amps maximum I have set. What I need to do is get the 240vac generator circuit to the charger, and use a balancing transformer to convert to 120 vac at 30amps, or setup a cistern with my 12vdc pump, and use the jet pump on generator to fill the cistern when rainfall has not been sufficient.

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Posted by Steve Spence to Green-Trust Off Grid at 7/26/2006 07:04:00 AM

After we lowered the charge rate on the Prosine to 100 amps from 120, to keep from tripping the 20 amp breaker on the generator, we found that when the pump kicks in while charging at a high rate, the whole house blacks out for about 5 seconds. The pump is pulling about 95 amps at 12vdc, and the charger is supposed to cut back on charge rate automatically, but the starting current of the pump is putting it well over the 100 amps maximum I have set. What I need to do is get the 240vac generator circuit to the charger, and use a balancing transformer to convert to 120 vac at 30amps, or setup a cistern with my 12vdc pump, and use the jet pump on generator to fill the cistern when rainfall has not been sufficient.

The weekend at Jim Juczak’s Woodhenge went well. We helped a couple learn about solar energy by building solar powered LED lighting systems. These units were made up from two 5ah 6vdc lead acid batteries, a 1.5 watt pv panel, and 4 of our 120k mcd super white LED’s. We also upgraded a 12vdc AIR 403 wind turbine to 24vdc, and made up custom battery cables. Topped it off with lots of good organic food, and in depth discussion about off-grid living experiences. We also helped Jim get his Woodhenge.Org set up, and he will be posting info there soon. Jim aquired some of our old gear, like a Cruzpro AH meter, and old AC Delco 2500 msw inverter, and will be picking up a Consul propane fridge and an AIR 303 from us soon.