Thread: Getting back to living off the land.....

Originally Posted by turtle

I prefer hare to any other game meat we have available.
Scallops are my most preferred seafood.
Maybe I'm just odd

Had a beautiful hare stew last night and for lunch today. Definitely becoming a favourite.

Well that's the maggot farm up and running again using the grotty offcuts and hooves from the goat. It is a bucket with large holes drilled all around it, suspended on a strip of wood across the top of the bin. Rolled oats (or bran) is put on the bottom of the bin for the maggots to drop into when read to pupate.

By the end of the week their should be some well grown maggots in the rolled oats to feed to the chooks. They have a crazy amount of nutrients and great for the baby chickens. It also reduces your fly numbers because they lay in the bin and their offspring are eaten by the chooks, because very few escape the bin. There is bugger all smell because the huge number of maggots "eat"everything so fast. A roadkill hare lasts about 10 days max, and all that is left are fur and bones.

Some maggot farms just use a suspended bucket in the pen. But any maggots that drop out at night wriggle off to pupate and worsens your fly problem. By suspending the bucket in a bin, with rolled oats at the bottom they drop into the it's and clean themselves out. You only need to scoop it all up to feed to the chooks.

The Dorking chicks having their first feed of cooked wild goat offcuts. That's the chook's protein sorted for the next week or so...

Greetings All,

Some notes on surviving Gabriel.

It has been an interesting week. We were without power for almost a week but have survived the cyclone without loss or significant deprivation. We bought our 8 ha block, about 20 km out of Hastings, in 1992 and built the house in 1999. The house design and location incorporated a number of features to make it liveable and I thought I would share these in case they are of interest.
The house is located on a low knoll at the end of a ridge. This provided nice views without the need for a steep long drive and kept the site reasonably safe from slips. Water supply is from a well pumped to a storage tank further up the ridge which gives 3 to 4 weeks of supply without power. Both a gas fired hob and a wet back on one of the fires supplies hot water and cooking. This kept us reasonably comfortable
The bit that needs improvement was a power supply for the deep freeze and fridge. I took a chilly bin of meat into my son and a friend lent me his generator so we have not lost any of the meat that remained. The easy fix for this would be a petrol generator but this might never be used in our remaining time here so am looking at a small solar and battery system that could run the fridge, freezer and a little lighting.
Communications were a problem. We had no phone or cell phone reception for about 5 days and were physically cut off from town for about 2. I had a wee tumble shortly after the power went out. No lasting damage was done but it could have ended rather differently.
Finally there have been a number of both urban and rural subdivisions done recently that have left me scratching my head. I drove past one this morning with a row of near new houses each has a pile of sodden ruined belongings piled outside. The developers will have made their money and the current owners are left to carry the can.
Regards to you all, Grandpamac.

@grandpamac Funny; I was just thinking this morning about how you'd fared. I'm glad you're ok

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

@grandpamac Funny; I was just thinking this morning about how you'd fared. I'm glad you're ok

Thanks @bumblefoot,
We have been exceptionally lucky. Hastings, where we go to shop, has also come through well but Napier has been smashed. Other than the hill most of Napier is built on low land and flooding has been extensive, including their industrial area and some parts are still without power. An area in Napier, tagged for affordable housing flooded badly. I drove through Flaxmere, a low income suburb of Hastings, the other day which looked untouched by the floods. Development of Flaxmere stalled in the 1980's leaving large areas partly developed. These are now being built on at warp speed and other areas being developed for more housing. The recent floods, together with climate change and sea level rise, may and should shape the future development in Hawkes Bay. This has been a glimpse of the future and I just hope that the people making the decisions have been paying attention.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,

Some notes on surviving Gabriel.

It has been an interesting week. We were without power for almost a week but have survived the cyclone without loss or significant deprivation. We bought our 8 ha block, about 20 km out of Hastings, in 1992 and built the house in 1999. The house design and location incorporated a number of features to make it liveable and I thought I would share these in case they are of interest.
The house is located on a low knoll at the end of a ridge. This provided nice views without the need for a steep long drive and kept the site reasonably safe from slips. Water supply is from a well pumped to a storage tank further up the ridge which gives 3 to 4 weeks of supply without power. Both a gas fired hob and a wet back on one of the fires supplies hot water and cooking. This kept us reasonably comfortable
The bit that needs improvement was a power supply for the deep freeze and fridge. I took a chilly bin of meat into my son and a friend lent me his generator so we have not lost any of the meat that remained. The easy fix for this would be a petrol generator but this might never be used in our remaining time here so am looking at a small solar and battery system that could run the fridge, freezer and a little lighting.
Communications were a problem. We had no phone or cell phone reception for about 5 days and were physically cut off from town for about 2. I had a wee tumble shortly after the power went out. No lasting damage was done but it could have ended rather differently.
Finally there have been a number of both urban and rural subdivisions done recently that have left me scratching my head. I drove past one this morning with a row of near new houses each has a pile of sodden ruined belongings piled outside. The developers will have made their money and the current owners are left to carry the can.
Regards to you all, Grandpamac.

Thank you for your post.

My lot up the Hokianga survived with no major damage apart from a bit of freezer food.

Like you, houses on hillsides in spots that look like, they're where they should be.

In other words not on a cliff or bluff or gully edge. Also not on a flood plain or down stream from any potential flood.

I feel for the farmers and the agricultural types that have had their flat bits covered in mud, but as one of them said, cupola years this is great growing land. Still repairs to the fences and plant and buildings etc... not so great.

" row of near new houses each has a pile of sodden ruined belongings piled outside" and everything is made for cardboard these days. I'm not sure all the hardyplank and plastering that goes on in new houses is designed to be flooded...

There are lots of places in NZ where developers, hand in hand with councils, have looked to make a quick buck building on land that is just asking for trouble. I live in Whitby, Porirua, and there are several areas that make me scratch my head, for example look at this location: -41.119094455359864, 174.89690532209352 , look at that creek, and look at the house behind it, now look at the hills around it. If the rain that hit north came even vaguely close that place would become a lake.

Originally Posted by vulcannz

There are lots of places in NZ where developers, hand in hand with councils, have looked to make a quick buck building on land that is just asking for trouble. I live in Whitby, Porirua, and there are several areas that make me scratch my head, for example look at this location: -41.119094455359864, 174.89690532209352 , look at that creek, and look at the house behind it, now look at the hills around it. If the rain that hit north came even vaguely close that place would become a lake.

Greetings @vulcannz and all,
The Councils are not always complicit in bad subdivision decisions, sometimes their hand is forced by the Environmental Court. It has also struck me that although Napier was hammered Hastings, about 20 km away, got off lightly. There is planning under way for a new affordable housing area in Napier on low lying land which I would hope the recent floods have scuppered. We will see in time.
Regards Grandpamac.

you fellas remember the song from bible in schools...foolishman builds his house upon the sands and the rains come down n the floods come up etc etc???
some things just dont change.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,

Some notes on surviving Gabriel.

It has been an interesting week. We were without power for almost a week but have survived the cyclone without loss or significant deprivation. We bought our 8 ha block, about 20 km out of Hastings, in 1992 and built the house in 1999. The house design and location incorporated a number of features to make it liveable and I thought I would share these in case they are of interest.
The house is located on a low knoll at the end of a ridge. This provided nice views without the need for a steep long drive and kept the site reasonably safe from slips. Water supply is from a well pumped to a storage tank further up the ridge which gives 3 to 4 weeks of supply without power. Both a gas fired hob and a wet back on one of the fires supplies hot water and cooking. This kept us reasonably comfortable
The bit that needs improvement was a power supply for the deep freeze and fridge. I took a chilly bin of meat into my son and a friend lent me his generator so we have not lost any of the meat that remained. The easy fix for this would be a petrol generator but this might never be used in our remaining time here so am looking at a small solar and battery system that could run the fridge, freezer and a little lighting.
Communications were a problem. We had no phone or cell phone reception for about 5 days and were physically cut off from town for about 2. I had a wee tumble shortly after the power went out. No lasting damage was done but it could have ended rather differently.
Finally there have been a number of both urban and rural subdivisions done recently that have left me scratching my head. I drove past one this morning with a row of near new houses each has a pile of sodden ruined belongings piled outside. The developers will have made their money and the current owners are left to carry the can.
Regards to you all, Grandpamac.

To set up an off grid system capable of running a fridge and a freezer is not cheap: A petrol generator may not be cheaper, but will definitely be simpler to set up.

I don't know how big your fridge/freezers are, but step one would be to see how much power they consume:

Get something similar to one of these. AliExpress will be much cheaper.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketpl...8?bof=BiWhSe3w


This will allow you to get a good handle on just how much power you are going to have to replace.

For a rough calculation's sake lets assume the two appliances will use 2KW a day.

And lets say that you have one KW of solar panels (3 or 4).

Lets say the fridge and freezer will run on free power from the solar panels during the day, and you have to store the other half of the power for the dark hours.

For simplicity's sake lets say thats 1KW during the day and 1KW during the night.

This is only for emergencies, so you can be harder on your batteries than a permanent off grid system would tend to be. So you are going to drain your lead acid gell battery to 50% every night. There's a bit of additional charging and losses I haven't covered, but you will get the picture.

So the battery will have to store twice the 1KW the fridge and freezer will draw. And a little bit more for losses

So you are looking (say a 12 volt system) at a 200 amp gel or agm battery

Then an inverter (say 2000watts minimum, a quality one will suck up the start up current, less so a cheap chinese one.

Then a charge controller (to look after the charging of the battery)

So minimum of:
$1000 for solar panels
$1600 for an inverter
$750 for that battery
$250 for a charge controller
Sub totol of $3600
Then some wires, joiners, fuses etc

Say 4K all up.

Then the skills to wire it all together.

Or a 3Kva Honda inverter generator at 5K...

Large inverter may not be required. If they're modern'ish fridge or freezer they may be the digital inverter type compressor (i.e. variable speed) and the start up current is minimal. Only small inverter required. Less losses using a small inverter.

We have been running a 319 litre Samsung fridge freezer off grid at our high country bach for 6 years on a 300W inverter. Typical load is 50-70W. 3 x 250W PV and 12V 250Ah (@C10) lead carbon battery. No issues. Chose lead carbon battery as far more robust than sealed gel or AGM so can handle the ocassional snow dumps where they might get discharged lower

Originally Posted by XR500

To set up an off grid system capable of running a fridge and a freezer is not cheap: A petrol generator may not be cheaper, but will definitely be simpler to set up.

I don't know how big your fridge/freezers are, but step one would be to see how much power they consume:

Get something similar to one of these. AliExpress will be much cheaper.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketpl...8?bof=BiWhSe3w


This will allow you to get a good handle on just how much power you are going to have to replace.

For a rough calculation's sake lets assume the two appliances will use 2KW a day.

And lets say that you have one KW of solar panels (3 or 4).

Lets say the fridge and freezer will run on free power from the solar panels during the day, and you have to store the other half of the power for the dark hours.

For simplicity's sake lets say thats 1KW during the day and 1KW during the night.

This is only for emergencies, so you can be harder on your batteries than a permanent off grid system would tend to be. So you are going to drain your lead acid gell battery to 50% every night. There's a bit of additional charging and losses I haven't covered, but you will get the picture.

So the battery will have to store twice the 1KW the fridge and freezer will draw. And a little bit more for losses

So you are looking (say a 12 volt system) at a 200 amp gel or agm battery

Then an inverter (say 2000watts minimum, a quality one will suck up the start up current, less so a cheap chinese one.

Then a charge controller (to look after the charging of the battery)

So minimum of:
$1000 for solar panels
$1600 for an inverter
$750 for that battery
$250 for a charge controller
Sub totol of $3600
Then some wires, joiners, fuses etc

Say 4K all up.

Then the skills to wire it all together.

Or a 3Kva Honda inverter generator at 5K...

Thanks @XR500,
These are very good notes to help me with a decision. In our 70's and with declining mobility our time here is likely to be limited so a non asset solution needs to be considered as well.
Thanks again and regards Grandpamac.

Honda generators hold their value really well, and can be sold. A built in solar system, not so much.

Slow cooked wild goat shanks in a tomato gravy tonight... From the goat I sht on my 60th birthday. Flavoured with onions, bay leaves, garlic, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper