tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 11, 2016 15:17:10 GMT 10
Resurrecting an old thread - Has anyone looked at these shipping container homes? www.containerbuildgroup.com.au/4-5-bedroom/They look spacious and it seems they can be made quickly and cheaply compared with having a house built more conventionally.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 11, 2016 14:45:28 GMT 10
Does anyone one have a good, fairly quick, solar battery charger? I have ones for direct to phone and similar but not for batteries. I am looking at the Goal Zero guide 10 kit. It says that it will charge batteries using solar in only a few hours - quicker than using USB and mains power. But it isn't cheap. Anyone got one? Is there a better option?
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 11, 2016 9:05:51 GMT 10
I grabbed a few myself, got them the other day, they're compact and decent. The Aldi CB's are 0.5W, looked at them today. Can you tell me what 0.5w means in practice? Is this short range, or does it have implications for recharging?
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 10, 2016 19:14:26 GMT 10
Got one pair of the Aldi radios and gave just now put in the batteries and put them on the stand for charging. (I have another couple of cheap radios in storage but I won't know if they still work for another couple of months so thought I'd just get one pair of these to see what they're like).
One interesting thing so far from reading the instruction book is that you can use rechargeable aaa's instead of the batteries that come with it, so they could be run on solar.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 7, 2016 9:26:02 GMT 10
It's interesting to look at the descriptions for the hand mills on www.skippygrainmills.com.au/hand.htm as each mill lists the expected output. Eg A handmill for flour that is about $240 will give about 30-50g flour per minute (depending on the model). So as I use about 600 g flour per loaf that is 20 min of turning! I think I'll stick with my plan of getting a solar generator for my electric mill.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 7, 2016 7:01:41 GMT 10
The blender picture looks like a vitamix, so that's not just "any" blender. A vitamix can blend a wooden spatula that you've accidentally left in it so that if you were to drink the smoothie you were making you wouldn't even know it was there. A cheap blender will not give as good a result.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 6, 2016 10:49:08 GMT 10
I guess that as long as I keep my "stores" in regular rotation they should never have to last longer than 2.5 years, so the question is just academic. I think I'll still get the flaker as I've been after it for many years and also it can do a rough grind into flour if we got desperate - my flour mill is electric (solar generator is on the Christmas list). I'll store groats but also some oats just incase. We eat enough oats that we will be able to rotate through them to keep them fresh.
And to add to all the meal ideas already given - our most common use is porridge with banana etc, then Anzac slice and the like. If needed I could make oat milk but my preference is to make almond/coconut milk. I have gone through stages of having savoury oats as a quick healthy lunch when it is just me that I'm feeding (the kids are horrified at the idea) - cook up the oats with some spinach and corn, then top it with leftover tomato based pasta sauce. And we had another thread a while back about nutritional yeast - this is the one place I've enjoyed that - top the whole lot with a sprinkling of ground walnuts mixed with nutritional yeast (like sprinkling it with Parmesan).
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 5, 2016 21:34:27 GMT 10
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 5, 2016 21:08:30 GMT 10
Thanks for your comments. Very helpful.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 5, 2016 19:46:38 GMT 10
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 5, 2016 14:23:36 GMT 10
Has anyone looked into which is better to store out of whole oats and rolled oats?
I had been assuming that, like many other grains, it would be better to store whole oats, and they do seem better nutritionally, but looking into it just now I am reading that rolled oats are more stable so better for storage.
I was about to get a hand flaker - been planning on getting one for many years and was finally about to do it, but now I'm not sure. One advantage of whole oats is they are more versatile - can roll them, but can also sprout them or cook them like rice. Not much use if they're rancid though.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 4, 2016 20:43:00 GMT 10
No online ad for the Aldi ones yet - only the printed catalogue and I copied the whole description from that word-for-word so have no further info. The are on sale Sat 10 Dec. I did look for online reviews though and it looks like Aldi had some on sale this time in previous years with different brand names, and those seemed to get good reviews.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 4, 2016 19:42:29 GMT 10
The baofeng BF888s have been mentioned a few times, and again just now in the solar radio thread, so I've just looked them up on eBay. All the headings for the listings include both "UHF" and often also "ham radio". I thought these were different things, or perhaps I need to do some rereading. Do you need a licence to use these?
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 4, 2016 18:08:46 GMT 10
Aldi catalogue this week has "Walking talkie 2 pack $29.99 . Up to 5km range . 75 channels . Handheld, 2-way talk radio . 10 call tones . Rechargeable battery packs"
Are these just toys? Are they any use? Any thoughts?
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 4, 2016 17:56:01 GMT 10
Would this need something else to use it to charge a phone? Would it be enough W to do the job?
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Dec 1, 2016 16:25:28 GMT 10
A guy over our back fence spent perhaps a year, in what was prob all his spare time, building something. I can't remember what but it was more like a wall than a house. Then council found out and made him take it all down. I know no details really so can't talk to exactly what he was building, but I'm sure he wasn't happy!
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Nov 24, 2016 21:25:13 GMT 10
I think I would prefer to pack things into the smaller size bags, but if everyone else prefers larger I would get some to try them. Did you get anywhere near meeting minimums? Those are big minimums.
If they ended up being about $1 each I would get about 80 - need to keep it under $100 including shipping. So I'm not a huge help with those numbers.
And I'm not in a huge rush.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Nov 24, 2016 21:18:35 GMT 10
Sorry Joey. It isn't something I can afford at the moment. Good deal though.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Nov 24, 2016 18:34:27 GMT 10
Hi Joey. Did you end up ordering any Mylar bags? Fiona
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Nov 23, 2016 15:58:24 GMT 10
I know you need numbers for a price but are you able to give a rough idea or range of possible prices? I think it is prob out of my range right now.
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