Saturday, February 25, 2017

Electric Heater Test


Testing the portable electric heater in the RV.



Set the heater on the dinette behind the drivers seat facing toward the back of the RV, kitchen then R&R and last the bedroom.
  • 9am 40 degrees outside 38 inside, Turn on heater low 3/4 setting
  • 10am 43 degrees outside 57 inside, turn up heater to high and 1/2 setting could feel the heat increase coming out of it.  
  • 11am44 degrees outside 58 inside.  I covered the driver compartment with a sheet for some minor isolation.  11:30 just took out a second heater and the inside temp is up to 61 degrees.  Please note the temp LED is in the kitchen.  So even the thin sheet helped increase the inside temp.  Also all blinds are closed.
  • Noon it is 46 degrees outside and 67 in the RV:)  We will go one more hour. 
  • 1pm it is 47 degrees outside and 72 inside.  I will leave it on a little longer to see how it holds the heat and warms up the furniture.  
  • 2:30pm 47 outside and 76 degrees inside and the furniture no-longer felt cold.   So we ended the test with smiles.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Small smoker for the RV

We bought a small two rack Master Built smoker that has legs and carry handles that fold down.  This allows use to store it in part of one of our basement apartments.  Here I am doing a test at the house doing a rack of ribs.

 Below are the ribs being smoked, in a few hours we will be enjoying a great meal:)
Here follows a pork butt we just made as well.  This little smoker will be just fine.  Now when we move which kid gets the big smoker?

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Emergency Water

The government recommends every home have at least three days of food and water and a to go bag for each person.  My mom taught me to keep a few weeks worth of food especially can goods with their own water.

 Above shows a corner of our basement with 5 gallons and a half, I am refilling the 6th gallon in this shot.  Plus, the water heater has 40 gallons of water as well plus what is in the pipes.
 In this above photo the back wall in this upstairs storage area is lined with full gallon water jugs.  We also keep potatoes and filters to our Zero Water and Britta Water pitchers.
 Above is an old camp solar shower we can fill and have enough water for us to have at least one quick shower each while the power is out.
When the weather turns bad or other issues threaten we also fill our other water pitchers as well.  Here power failures often occur during a thaw as well as the initial storms.

We also have a portable propane heater and several propane bottles as well as our Motor Home which is always ready to go minus the water.  A food tote is always ready to be put in the RV for a weekend getaway as well.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Back Up Propane Heater & Shower




Mr Buddy Heater is a good back-up for our motor home our son also has one on his pickup camper.  It provides us all with great dry heat with the RV vents open to keep fresh air.

We keep a solar shower for back up.  In the winter when the RV is winterized we can do a solar shower if needed.  With five gallons of water we could have two quick showers.