First deal of the New Year...

Sometimes, I'm "forced" to abandon any budgeting guidelines and succumb to an exception, case in point:

Canadian Tire has been selling a pretty mediocre or substandard propane hot water heater for a few years now. It' the infamous now seemingly defunct "Trailwood" brand, as is my previously mentioned stove/oven.

First of all, here's the trigger for the impulse purchase...

Secondly, I already have a similar unit so I'm pretty familiar with its shortcomings. It requires 2 D Batteries to fire the piezo-electric ignitor, and the burner is temperamental. Nevertheless, I felt it was worth $40, so add another item to my arsenal.

An illustration of the unit from Canadian Tire's Web Site.

I stole this photo from their review site, where a customer has attached a water jug to the unit. This is probably a better idea than the stupid plastic bag that it comes with.

While these things are not perfect, the price resulted in me getting one, and I'm sure I'll put it to some sort of use. My other similar unit is on loan to a friend, so redundancy is in order  :)

Remember the old prepper adage: two is one, and one is none...

Belated Merry Christmas 2013

...just taking a few minutes to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and of course, a Happy New Year. Our household has been busier than a pair of booster cables at the close of a redneck funeral, so to speak. It would take too long to elaborate, so just trust me. Ironically, I ended up with two interesting gifts that in a way, I thought I'd never own. As an "experienced" 35mm photo-nut, I always said I'd never bother with a DSLR camera. Simply put, there's no reason this day in age to have a bulky reflex mirror behemoth hanging from your neck. However, I could not help but notice the crisp  and stunning photos that such things render. Canon, one of my most disliked brands has been dumping their older T3 with a non-stabilized lens for the bargain price of $299. By using her "Optimum" points, Debbie was able to shave almost $175 from that, ringing it in at around $125 plus tax...ok SOLD !! So far so good, and yes I'm impressed...

A few sample photos...

Next up, some more irony; Even though I've been using the tried and true Yeast+Sugar method of carbonation for homemade Root Beer, my sons gifted me with a SodaStream Jet. It's a CO2 carbonation Gizmo that I'm kind of taking a liking to...

It comes with enough CO2 to Fizz up about 60 litres of soda. The flavoring is a little expensive, as is the CO2 refill, but there are alternatives. All in all, it's a bit of a fun distraction...so far, I've only made a litre of Root Beer, and while it lacks the yeasty goodness of my normal homemade, it's otherwise quite satisfying. I'll certainly take the time to explore making my own flavouring, and alternate CO2 sources. This should take me well into the New Year  :)

Always playing Catch-up (Malawi 2013)

It happened again; another calendar month with no post from me. It's not that I couldn't find the time, I just didn't "take" the time. November seemed busier than usual. Back on October 24th, Debbie and I joined a team of 8 and participated in a short-term missions trip to Malawi. The 2-week trip was busy and a little tiring, but I think rolling up your sleeves and helping is always the right thing to do. In my experience, you need not labor or brood over this stuff...let me reiterate: if it involves helping someone, it's ALWAYS the right thing to do. In other words, you need not pray and ask Jesus what he meant by "go ye into all the world"...duh !

A significant part of our trip was undeniably the children we met. Of the 15 million people in Malawi, almost half are children. By most of our measures, they don't seem to have very much, and it was heart-wrenching to hear them in the villages singing "my cup is full and running over". I felt a stark rebuke in my soul as I pondered how unappreciative and cynical I can be, while they sing from the depths of a thankful heart...

I was also a little moved, envious even, of the simplicity of the village life. The daily routines of providing for one's family, cooking the evening meal etc had a calmness about it that was strangely attractive...

The two weeks went by quickly. I think I'd rather a longer stay. With our tasks complete, we headed for home...

Homeward Bound

I think it's mostly our age, but we were a little "wiped" by the time we arrived home on November 7th. Debbie was much worse shape than me, with a nasty cough that refused to "get lost". Accordingly, the next couple of weeks were an exercise in recovery. However, things are looking up (just in time to get ready for the Christmas season). The last 3 weeks of November simply vaporized, and here we are. Overall, I'm very thankful. Sometimes you need to be removed from your comfort zone and afforded a little shock therapy in order to be able to refocus, re-zero, and re-calibrate. We met so many people who just "get it". They happily put others first, and it seems to be their "normal" just to give instead of receive. I think I read about that somewhere once...what book was it? oh yeah...The BIBLE !  :)
God help me to give away my life so that I might find it...something to ponder as Christmas approaches...

More winter preps

Had to finalize my wood storage before departing for Malawi because time is running out. This year, I constructed a new wood rack along the side of my garage. It's 24 feet long and can almost store 2 cords.
I now have enough for the winter that will soon be here.

Winter Preps 2013

I installed a wood stove/chimney back in 1998, and have been pretty much addicted to heating with wood ever since. It's a little curious because I never really grew up with it, except for a brief lapse in the mid 70's where my Father installed one of those Valley Comfort "12 hour burners" in response to the fuel crisis. It was much too large for our tiny home and it only survived a winter or two. I don't really save much money given the fact that I buy all my wood in city-slicker fashion (cut and split), but the comfort and peace of mind are invaluable. I took delivery of my last load yesterday, and recorded the "dumping...

There's probably enough for six weeks or so in that load. It's not quite dry, but I won't be using that particular wood until at least February. It's kind of comforting to know that if a winter storm knocks out the power, it won't really be much of an issue...drop by if you're in the mood for stackin'  :)

Thanksgiving and Stoving

This year, Thanksgiving afforded me an opportunity/excuse to try out an unused stove. Sometime last year I purchased a 2 burner campstove/oven combo unit. It sat idle until now. We had a bunch of people coming over for a Thanksgiving meal, about 15 or so. Saturday night I began to wonder if that lone turkey was going to be enough. We kind of have an unwritten rule in our home that nobody leaves hungry. Anyway, just to be certain, I ran out to pick up some backup protein. Alas, the stores didn't have much left late Saturday night. I resorted to grabbing two of those prefab Butterball stuffed frozen Turkey Breasts, concluding that the 6 pounds of extra white meat would set our minds at ease. Not my first choice but it would have to do...

They called for 4 and a half hours at 325F, so I thought this would be a good test, and it was nice and sunny out.

Since I had never used this oven, I knew I was taking some risk, but who cares right ? Adding to the recklessness, I decided to use a 1 lb disposable propane cylinder, the ones I despise.

The results while not perfect, were actually pretty good. It turned out that only one of the two were necessary, but leftover turkey is never a bad idea, salmonella notwithstanding :)

On the technical side, the oven is well insulated and very miserly on fuel. 4.5 hours and it consumed about 11oz of propane, or almost 3/4 of a one pound tank; that's not too bad.

All in all, it was a Happy Thanksgiving...

Overnight Trip

...finally managed to get away for a little paddle and a night in a tent. Everything went perfectly. Nice weather, lots of sun, little wind, and good friends.

...got to spend the night in my Alps Mountaineering Zephyr 2, even though I was not the first (James broke it in on me previously). It was only one night but hey, it's one more than last year. I must be more aggressive in seizing the day...ha right...