Saving on Coffee and Tea by going back to the basics!

Saving on Coffee and Tea by going back to the basics!

Today Kathy and I use 2 K cup makers one for coffee and one for her tea.  When we first got married in the 80's she often used tea bags or loose tea and I had just switch from a stove top percolator to a drip coffee maker.  Over the decades we switched to K-Cups.  Since coffee oil remains after a K-Cup is made it goes into the next cup "often" tea (I am often up first) which hurts the tea flavor, so we ended up buying two makers.  Now that we are down sizing to go full time RVing in another year I am coming back full circle (Kathy is considering it:)).

I would like to return to the basics, one stove top tea pot, tea bags and a simple coffee brewer like the one I an showing here. Got it and a pack of filters for it for under $5.00.  Of course you can use paper towels as filters in a pinch as well:) .  Plus a can of coffee which I can by for under $5.00.

Using this set up with a tea pot reduces the storage space we now use (2 K Cup units) by 75%, in an RV every bit helps.

Working on a Distiller for sea water

Working on a Sea Water a Distiller

 Cost three bucks at the Dollar store for the three bowls the red one is just over 11 inches.  Dirty water set in the bottom of the red bowl then the clear dome on top.

 After a few hours in the sun it is starting to distilling.

After four hours I got a quarter cup of clean distilled water.  I think I lost a maybe a quarter cup of the water back in the dirty water basin because of the flat top.

Here I stacked the three in each other for storage.  I figure the best results from this would be about a cup a day.   So back to the drawing board:)

I do know I can dig a hole on the beach.  Put a cup in the center and place a plastic clear sheet over the hole. Add a small weight in the middle over the cup or container and get freshwater this way as well.  I just want to try other ways:)

Making a Cookie Cutter

Making a cookie cutter and using my solar stove to cook some more red beans and rice to go with our crab and shrimp.

 I find it easy to make a cookie cutter and to add mushrooms to my morning eggs and cheese.

 Cut both ends off the can and remove the wrapper and you now have a great cutter:)

Our new screen door grille

I found a heavy screen door grille at Walmart on line.  They had a decorative one for fifty and a full heavy wire mesh for thirty.  The second one offered near full lower screen protection.  It presents a good visual barrier that has some strength, short of a closed solid door it is a good safety measure I feel.

This first photo shows it over the screen.  I put one short screw in each corner hole.  The grille came with four mount extenders for larger doors so I took these off and used these holes.  Remember it is a safety/protective device not a kick plate!

 Below is a photo of the finished work looking at our RV.

Cooking a Pork Loin with the Sun

Now cooking a 1.5 pound pork loin with my Sunflair Solar Bag mini.  Temp today should only hit the mid-90's and partly cloudy.  I put the loin with some veggies in a Reynolds Oven Bag and laid it on the flat metal cooking platform.

Here is the pork loin seasoned and ready to go in the bag.

Here it is in the oven at 9am at the minimum recommended starting temp 150 degrees and going up.  I plan to move the bag every hour to keep it lined up with the sun. 

Note! Since I live north to the 40th parallel which is just north of Denver, Colorado.  I can only count on full use of the oven spring, summer and fall.  As the sunflair folks remind us  the winter season north of the 40th does not provide a long enough solar day for some cooking.  This is a good point to remember.  During winter I will limit my solar oven use (when north of the 40th) to items I find I can still cook in less then 4 hours when temps are above 40 degrees.  I will be testing this over this winter and let you know how it goes.  The good thing is I will also be spending part of the winter south of the 40th.

Had to run to some stores so did not get back till 5pm all was done:)  So 8 hours at temps between 150 and 200 degrees (slow cooker as advertised) and taste great:)

Cut in three parts eat one and put the rest in the frig:)  Air temp only got to 88 degrees and more clouds  rolled in.  So another good cook with sun power:)

Update!

Just did a 16oz Cornish Game Hen on an overcast day tasted great and was done in less then six hours.  Still like this little oven:)

RV update

Been having high oil pressure indications my last two outings.  So I took it in for a pressure test.  The tests showed no pressure issue so they put in a new sensor relay that goes to my gauge.  From what I have read and been told this is often the problem it the pressure test is good.  I will let you know if there are any further issues with this.

We have our tow car and dolly ready for full time rving probably starting next summer.  We resealed the roof and windows and added a battery watering system and now are looking at our tires.  Our tires were replaced just under 4 years ago and only have about 16000 miles on them.  So we are leaning toward replacing all seven by next summer, also looking into adding a sleep comfort bed (short Queen).

Walter Filters

We have some Berkey Filters and Sawyer water filters and love them both today we will focus on The Go Berkey.  Here you see the box and the primer removed.

Below I have removed the filter kit along with the portable sport bottle with its own smaller Berkey black filter that is good for a few hundred gallons of stream water.

Here I pulled out the main filter container which is in the travel mode and holds one quart  and the blue bottle with its own mini filter holds 16oz.

Here is the filter with a 18 oz camping cup over the top to protect the filter tip when installed and in the transport mode.