Mart Hale

Two tips I got from this video..

1)   boil rings + vinegar before use.

2)   Tighten down again AFTER you pull them from the hot water bath /  pressure cooker.

I found this video..    Someone has already tried this except with worn out jar lids...

This looks most promising.

Thank you for the info on the tattler lids...

I have been researching the problem with rust as well, an alternative to the stainless steal is aluminum bands...    They work great from what I read and are cheaper.

I had an idea about the problems with the rubber rings,  I was wondering if one was to cut rings out of silicone it they would work better than the rubber rings?     Seems that they should hold up better,   I have seen silicone sheets used to make vacuum seals..     It would be interesting to test a ring with standard vacuum sealing with the food saver......

Carla Burke wrote:

Mart Hale wrote:... thus putting up some fake cameras could slow people down, but you have to not blab to the world those are fake cameras.....

I forgot to mention the trail cams we have all over the place - not fake, because we hunt.

One tactic I saw used to hide cameras was to take an orange  tennis ball and put it up into a tree on the other side of where your cameras are.      People who pass thru put all their attention on  trying to figure out what that orange thing is up in the tree and pay no attention to the camera that is filming them.

There are many ways to divert attention.

John F Dean wrote:I will admit that I generally do not sell products.  That said, I make a point of having access to my property as Uninviting as I reasonably can. I start with the benefit that the easiest route involves a drive through a cemetery. Then there is my relatively long and curving driveway that is arched with various trees and bushes making it a pretty dark drive.  I have been told by invited guests that they experienced fear in approaching my house.  Once arriving, they were amazed too find a pretty boring 1970s ranch.  

The benefit, of course, is that I do not have too many uninvited guests.  … and that is my objective.   I am curious.  How many others seek to discourage  uninvited guests, and how do you do it?

Some put skulls  out.      Some put out gun targets full o holes around the bullseye.      Some signs are effective.

As sign that says, "beware of pet skunk"     could be most effective  especially if you got a  a jar of "essense: of skunk"  and put out a could dabs on your front porch...

Introverts unite ;-)  lol

But  I also encourage tall foliage to grow up all around my property,   out of sight, out of mind, or from a theif's perspective it might be a great place to steal from because no one see's it,    thus putting up some fake cameras could slow people down, but you have to not blab to the world those are fake cameras.....

Tereza Okava wrote:I am glad this thread is getting bumped.

I've tracked our gas use since we got the induction burner (just one). Like many people here, I cook everything, mostly from scratch.
We went from using one 13kg bottle of gas every other month to TWO PER YEAR (and as someone else mentioned above, gas here is a pain in the butt, have to go get it refilled or have it delivered, it's not piped where i live).
Our electricity bill has not budged.

If you make things that involve boiling or heating liquids (jam, cheese, yogurt, beer, chutney, etc) or set periods of time at certain temps (candy) this thing is amazing. I also have a huge stainless lobster pot type thing that I use for beermaking, it is now my go-to for canning (which I had basically stopped doing, since gas was getting pricey and I just couldn't bear to spend that much).
Also deep frying: I can set the oil temp, and it will keep it there. Absolutely amazing.

I have the cheapest ("practically disposable") one I could find, since I bought it just to test out, and I've found that some fooling around is merited. I also thought it was crap for very slow/low simmer til I messed around with the options: instead of using power levels, set for temperature. Same with deep frying, I needed a certain temp for making tortilla chips, with the power level setting we couldn't hit it, but with the temp setting we did.

I have started messing around with the settings myself...     I normally set mine to 400 watts of power for grilling bread,   then I set the time for 4 minutes  per side of bread and for my setup that works perfect each time for browning the bread.      

Being able to set the timer for each side of the bread has enabled me to walk away from  stove because it automagically shuts off when it cooks what I want cooked.      

Next I think I will experiment with cooking by temperature,        I am now wondering if this could be used to make yogurt   or perhaps cheese that needs a temp of like 115 deg to cook...       I know some of the people with 3d printers use their bed warmers to oook with

Growing up we lived in a basement that was 1/2 way out of the ground.

The biggest thing I would suggest is MAKE SURE that you have good drainage...      we put in drainage pipe and it clogged,  each spring when the snow melted we would wake with 1/2 inch of ice cold water on the floor......

That said the basement was awesome to goto when you wanted to be cool in the summer, there are real advantages of being partly underground.

Thanks for sharing your journey.

"Butterstick" cassava cutting

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126088297397?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160811114145%26meid%3D68064ca03e904061ab57df6643dd21a8%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D126088297397%26itm%3D126088297397%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2351460&_trksid=p2351460.c100667.m2042

Here you go,  expensive, but there it is...

Well I now have my battery for my temp logger. This morning I dug the barrel out of the ground, dug down another 8 inches. The bottom of the barrel was dry, I remove the trash bag and replaced with shrink wrap they use for pallets on top. Data logger should be running, I did a test run with it before and it worked. I sealed it all up and put a foot of dirt on top. I am curious to see in a couple months how this affects the results. I am glad to have it now at the depth I want, thought it did take some effort to get there. Fishing things out now will be more problematic but, we are getting there.

Rebecca Norman wrote:Condensation can come from within. It's because warm air can hold more moisture. When it cools it can no longer hold as much moisture so the excess water vapor condenses into liquid water.

Yes   it creates a mini water cycle....

I did consider using a dehumidifier with a tent over the barrel to lower that humidity, not sure if it is worth that effort,    I will give it time and watch.