trying to homestead and loving it

[michiganmom]

I started out working in a factory and now i am a stay at home and do every thing i can to save money and energy kind of mom. The more i learn the more excited i get and have to learn more. In the winter i use my time making quilts, soap, planning my garden ect. When the spring comes i sell my baked goods at the farmers market and use the money on canning supplies and food to put up that i can not grow well my self.
I also just bought a wood cook stove i plan on using every day as soon as it is hooked up. I feel so proud when i have a counter full of whatever i am canning that day for our winters food. The only thing is we are on the grid and if we lose power we have no water or fridge.I am trying to talk my husband in converting our fridge to gas and putting one of those hand pumps in that can hook upto what we already have. Any advice on this would be greatfull.

[otterbob]

Homesteading is addictive !
When to learn to do something you think “that was not so hard” whats next !

Consider that if you convert to a gas fridge {propane} the new ones are much safer then the old ones !
The reason the old ones were recalled was because if the pilot light went out do to wind, pressure change or many other reasons less gas then the pilot kept releasing gas into the air, that meant a large explosion or everyone sleeping did not wake up. That is why most were kept on the porch OUTSIDE the home.

As for the water pump, I am presuming you mean the cast iron pitcher pump like harbor sells for $29.95 or $19.95 on sale .
These little pumps work great ! But do not “pressurize” anything, you can pump a pitcher or pot full of water in a few strokes .
There are three ways to use this little pump.
First would be to install it on a VERY VERY shallow well or spring which most people do not have.
Second is to install it on a cistern.
Third is the option that I use on my mothers “retreat”, she uses it daily and loves it.
It is the same as a cistern installation but much smaller. Just add a standard 2 ft. plywood disk from Lowes or Home depot to a 55 gallon barrel { plastic for food and drinking water }. You will need to use a foot valve so that it stays primed .
Below is a link to this setup at mom's retreat that is posted on my forum, feel free to use or copy the info just please do not post it on another forum or the web.

http://www.help-build-a-community.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=87

Otter Bob

[michiganmom]

Thanks for the info, very helpful and i will check that out.
My well is deep eighty feet or so and it is a underground pump 5 inch with an eletric hydrant.

[MooseToo]

otter bob - i went to your website and saw the pump on the barrel - looks like a workable setup but i don't understand the logic -
if you're filling the barrel with a garden hose, why not just mount the barrel high enough so that gravity and a hose bib would do the job ? unless, of course, the purpose of the pump is exercise -

[MooseToo]

Thanks for the info, very helpful and i will check that out.
My well is deep eighty feet or so and it is a underground pump 5 inch with an eletric hydrant.

it is possible to hand pump from that depth - kinda labor intensive and requires a relatively expensive pump -

if you're just looking for a method to provide some water during power outages instead of a permanent setup, something like otterbob suggests might work - you'd just be keeping your storage tank filled using your well pump and drawing from it until power is restored -

[leera]

WELCOME!

Michiganmom what part of the state are you in?

I love learning new things,it seems you never run out of things to learn.

My hubby and me are not on our own land yet,but we're working on it.

In the mean time,I have been learning everything I can.
I've learned to can and preserve,cook from scratch,grow some food,stocking a proper pantry,food rotation,etc,etc......

I too make quilts as time allows.

We've been cutting down our energy needs,and I think we have it to the point now,that we'll only really need a small solar or wind set up when we get to that point on our land.

The less things you have that need freezing or refridgeration,the less you have to worry about when the power goes out.That's the beauty of canning and preserving your food,once done,they require no energy to store.

Again,welcome to the forum!

[otterbob]

otter bob - i went to your website and saw the pump on the barrel - looks like a workable setup but i don't understand the logic -
if you're filling the barrel with a garden hose, why not just mount the barrel high enough so that gravity and a hose bib would do the job ? *unless, of course, the purpose of the pump is exercise -

The garden hose in this situation is just a "hose" to transfer water from the truck or one of the cisterns , I can gravity fill the barrel from my above ground cistern.
From the truck or from the in-ground cistern I need to "pump" the water "UP" to the barrel. My harbor freight 12 volt marine transfer pump works well for this application.

"Land use code" would make it illegal to "hook up" "running" water without permits in mom's retreat, this is viewed by the health department as a LARGE JUG of Water.
To get a permit would mean her retreat would have to go ! and a small "home" would have to be built.

Otter Bob

[MooseToo]

The garden hose in this situation is just a "hose" to transfer water from the truck or one of the cisterns , I can gravity fill the barrel from my above ground cistern.
From the truck or from the in-ground cistern I need to "pump" the water "UP" to the barrel. My harbor freight 12 volt marine transfer pump works well for this application.

"Land use code" would make it illegal to "hook up" "running" water without permits in mom's retreat, this is viewed by the health department as a LARGE JUG of Water.
To get a permit would mean her retreat would have to go ! and a small "home" would have to be built.

Otter Bob

i cannot imagine the frustration level when stupid regulation prohibits logical and practical living -

[flatwater]

I found it better to just do it and keep the gate closed.

[michiganmom]

Thank You Leera
I am from upper mich. about an hour from traverse city. I am out in the woods on ten acres. I have been here for about fifteen years.

[michiganmom]

The land here is hard to work with, pretty much all blow sand. It has taken a long time for us to build up the ground. We never had to worry about horse colic at first LOL. We have alot of wild animals that come in too, they can be a big problem, i lost four chicks and three laying hens this year to the coons and skunks and one bird feeder to a mama bear.
Now when the neibhors hear a gun going off late night/wee hours of the morning they know its me LOL.
The deer come in all the time too. Every now and then when it gets real dry they sneak in hop the fence and drain the horse tank.
We do love it here though.

[Catalpa]

Welcome!

I'm in central Michigan, myself, where the land is flat and the deer are fat.

I've been up in your neck of the woods, it's very pretty country, but I think it would be difficult to farm. Congratulations on being a stay-at-home! That is my dream; if I never do get married to a man who is a good provider, I hope at least to learn a work-from-home business, so I'm not faced with the costs of commuting to a job.

From the sounds of it, you could lay in a good supply of venison.

I know what you mean, how good it feels to have food put by that you grew yourself, it's a wonderful feeling. I'm off work this week, just kicking back, and it's been fun to open the frozen peaches and use them for pancake topping during a leisurely breakfast; last night I opened my first jar of home-made salsa, it was great!

Your aquifer is probably too deep to sink a second, drive point well to hook up to a hand pump, and the small emergency hand pumps that are designed to fit into your existing well may not work well. Do you have a basement, or a heated shed close to the house? You may want to consider a holding tank for extra water storage. They sell the large, food grade water tanks at TSC; you could put it on an angled platform (so you could drain it thoroughly for cleaning) and hook it into your existing system. When the power is on, you can fill the tank, and if the power goes out, you still have water.

Though I still think the best way to handle intermittant outages is to have a generator; that way you can run the well pump, furnace, and fridge as needed. At least until you can go off-grid, eh?

Good luck to you, and happy homesteading!

[michiganmom]

Catalpa
You are right about fat deer and poor farming. You would not believe the people around here that just want to hunt but do not like the meat. We had three deer given to us just this year alone because these guys just wanted the head/horns.
It is not only hard to grow things here if you can get something to grow the wild animals eat every thing up. The deer even like to eat green beans, tomatoe plants not to mention my beets.

[leera]

I'm down near Lansing,about 15 miles south east....

I wish I had your kind of luck,haven't had venison in the house in 4-5 years now.....

The last time I was up around that part of the state we stayed at a camp ground in Antrim county,and I spent the entire night listening to a large black bear dumping every garbage can in the camp ground....

Our camp site was his path in and out of the place too,he came through and made a mess of our site,then just as I was starting to fall asleep again,he came back,very tense few moments when he was rubbing up against the tent wall,I thought for sure he was gonna tear into it.......but he didn't and finally wandered off.

I think farming up there would be a challenge,what have you done to build the soil up from sand?

[michiganmom]

Leere
What we have done is spread manure every where.My son loves to take his riding lawn mower with a spreader and spread it all over. When we first moved here the front of the land was mostly open and full of ferns.It takes a good three years to kill off ferns by continous mowing. We have been here for fifteen years and are still spreading it.
Rubarb, green beans and potatoes grow well here if you can keep the critters out of it. Ground moles are a problem too. The moles killed off all our squash plants this year right before the were ready to produce.
It takes alot of work here to have a garden but if you can manage it its worth it for sure.