Home on the Range - Now In Color!

Just a quick follow up to that last post--shiny color pictures of some of the projects going on out there.

Old sickle, new edge. 

Mowing the lawn...pioneer style. Except for the hair, I guess.

Our water purification operation. The bucket in the front catches the spring water coming from a buried pipe, and the orange buckets in the back are the biosand filter, found here in its native habitat. In this picture I'm filling the solar water heater with filtered water. Sure beats showering in dirty lake water!  

Bucket getting the spring water. 

Hi-tech water heater. Works surprisingly well based on the low expectations set by its appearance. 

Solar shower. 

Yep, that's a rubbermaid cooler with a valve installed on it. That hose leads down to the shower head. If I fill the cooler the night before with ~115 deg F water, it will be around ~90 deg F in the morning. We usually shower at night anyway though because getting into bed after sweating for 15 hours isn't very pleasant. 

Home on the Range

Hi there, Internet! It's been a while. While we haven't been totally away from the Internet lately, every time we have been around it, its been because we actually had some sort of important business to do. When you only get internet a couple of hours a week, you find that you end up paying bills and deleting emails the whole time rather than writing blog posts. But hark! we have made time to do some writing. Unfortunately, we don't have the cables to upload our pictures as of yet, but hopefully we will be able to coordinate that at some point soon too.

Living at the cabin has been an trip. While we do have an air conditioner (set at a cool 80 deg F anyways), which makes sleeping tolerable out there, we spend the majority of our time outside anyway. Cooking, eating, using the outhouse...even in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm, purifying our water, showering, and just generally relaxing is all done outside. And we've been broiling in the heat some of our days out there. It's so different from our recent stint in the desert because of the humidity. Even some days sitting still in the shade with a breeze, I'm still overheating. But we've got a lake there, so it's pretty easy to cool off. At least its easy to stay hydrated compared to the desert.

I spent about a week setting up all of my projects, and everything is running smoothly. Solar hot water heater is heating, the shower is showering, and the sand is filtering. On a good sunny day, the water heater gets the water up to about 110-115 deg F, so it's not super efficient, but good enough for a hot shower before bed. It also stays hot enough over night to have a greater-than-luke-warm-but-not-quite-hot shower in the morning. And with the low flow showerhead drilled out to work with my low pressure system, we get a decent flow for about 6 minutes of shower.

My sand filter is up and running as well. It filters the water so that it looks crystal clear and clean, but we're not drinking directly out of it yet. The filter reaches it's peak efficiency in purification only after 30-45 days of continuous use, and we're only about 3 weeks into the cycle. So we're using the water in cooking where it's going to be boiled and for dishes, but we are yet to drink it straight. Combined with solar disinfection though, we're solid on the drinking water and haven't even gotten sick yet! Honestly, the spring water would more than likely not make us sick to drink it straight, but I'd rather be extra safe than sit in the outhouse all day.

So now that we've spent all this time doing projects, cleaning, raking, weeding, and cutting the lawn (with a sickle, yes a sickle), we've finally got some time to just relax out there, without any TV, Internet, or phone calls to disturb us.

My DIY Biosand Filter

I've been thinking for a long time about how we will get drinking water out at the lake. Its a question thats got obvious applications beyond our little sabbatical. I've done a little work with Engineer's Without Borders (although not as much as I would like), and civil engineering work in developing countries primarily covers delivering clean drinking water and improving sanitation systems. Unsanitized drinking water is one of the top causes of death in children around the world. So this has been a learning experience in more than one way for me. After researching lots of different methods, I decided to build myself a biosand filter.

The foundation that has done the work to develop and promote the biosand filter has extensive plans on construction and studies on efficacy of the filter [PDF]. Their design is a bit over the top for our use though, using concrete and sheet metal to construct the thing. So my challenge was to build my own biosand filter for as cheap as possible, to make so that I could easily move it around, and design it in a way that I can repurpose the parts when we're done using it (cradle to cradle design, baby!). The design closely matches all of the recommended dimensions from the biosand design manual. Here's what I came up with for $40:

3 x 5 gal. HDPE Bucket (doesn't matter which--all HDPE (#2 plastic) is food safe)
3 x Bucket Lid
1 x 3/8" Brass Close Nipple
2 x 3/8"x3/8" Brass Hose Barbs
2 x 5/8" Neoprene Washers
4 x 5/8" Galvanized Cut Washers
5' x 3/8" ID Vinyl Tubing
6' Silicone Weatherstripping
16 x Zip Ties

Construction is rather simple, and just consists of three main steps:
1. Install a simple outlet on the bottom bucket and attaching tubing,
2. Attach the lids to the bottom of two of the buckets,
3. Drill holes through the bottom of the buckets/attached lids.

After all of this, it is just a matter of obtaining sand and gravel, and washing the silt out of those materials. I haven't done this step yet because I don't want to haul 50 lbs of sand from Kansas City to Kahola. I'll do all that once we get out there. You can find a video of this process here.

(Here's just a quick aside about the use of buckets. I would have loved to find something in a single piece that wouldn't have required joining, but I couldn't find it. 12" pipe was too expensive, a 55 gal plastic barrel was too large in diameter, and no trash cans I found were tall enough. If anyone has any ideas of a plastic alternative, I would love to hear them.)

And here's how you build the thing! (Note: some of the pictures show some out of order steps, like the holes being drilled before I say to, due to my experimenting and messing up some steps. Maybe some day I will take more helpful pictures...)

Step 1: Install the outlet.

Here are the materials, except that you will need 4 fender washers instead of just the 2 shown. The things you see there are the fender washers, neoprene washers, 3/8" pipe nipple, 3/8" hose barbs, and about 5" of 3/8" vinyl tubing. 

Drill or cut a hole in the bucket. Make sure you leave enough room for the washers to fit on the inside of bucket. 

Here's what the outlet looks like assembled. (Note again that you will need 4 metal fender washers instead of 2 to get a good seal)

Here's a view of the outlet on the inside of the bucket. 

And again on the outside. 

Step #2: Connect the Buckets. 

In order to seal the bucket to the lid I used silicone weatherstripping. It was much cheaper than big a rubber o-rings. 

Install the weatherstripping to the bottom of the bucket and attach the lid back to the bottom of the bucket. (Never mind those drilled holes...kind of did it out of order myself...)

Set a lid from one bucket on the bottom of the bucket and drill holes for zip ties. I used zip ties because they were cheap and available. You could use bolts & nuts, or sheet metal screws to connect the lids with the buckets as well (if they're galvanized). 

  

Here are some of them installed. I used 8 total to get a good seal. 

Step #3: Drill a bunch of holes. 

They don't have to be particularly uniform or a specific size. I used a 1/8th inch drill bit and just went at it. 

Here's what it looks like finished. 

Now you just have to assemble the thing and attach the outlet hose. The tube should loop over the bucket handle, and the end of the tube should sit 4" above the bottom of the top bucket. This allows the water to sit above the top of the sand to keep the biofilm that forms from being disturbed. 

The only thing left to do is to add 3" of coarse gravel at the bottom of the bottom bucket, then 3" of fine gravel. Then you fill up the rest of the bottom bucket and the middle bucket all the way full of sand. This will give you the recommended 23" of sand in the column. 

P.S. Looking around for some info while I was writing this post, I found another website that had a similar design for the biosand filter using buckets. It is supposed to only cost $20, but there isn't a lot of details on design. 

Moldy Cheese and Brewing Without Failures

It's been a while since I've updated you all on my DIY food and beverage pursuits. Mostly because I haven't really done much. It's hard to make cheese out of the back of your car in the Everglades. Nonetheless, there is still news!

First, I would like to all inform you of the untimely demise of my colby cheese wheel. Since I wasn't able to coddle it while we were gone for a month to the tropics (i.e., turn the wheel over every couple days to keep airflow over all parts of it), it decided that it wasn't getting enough attention from me and turned to it's second love: mold. However, the best part about hard cheese, is that since it is non-porous (unlike bread), the mold can't actually penetrate the cheese very far. So you can just cut the mold off and eat the rest. I actually managed to salvage about half of the block after some diligent whittling. I then gave it a little brine bath in case any of that mold had an idea to start regrowing. I can report that the cheese actually tastes rather delicious. It has the best texture of any of my cheeses to date as well. 

How long has this been goin' on? 

Ah. Much better. 

In other news, I discovered that I did not, in fact, overcarbonate all of the homebrews I brought out here. Many of you who have come out to visit have no doubt noticed the ridiculous carbonation of my homebrews. Now I just assumed that I had failed to properly calculate my priming sugar, or I hadn't allowed the yeast enough time to fully attenuate, or I had committed some other mistake and that my lack of brewing skills were no doubt at work. Regardless of this, I took a case of my brews with us on our road trip so we could save some money on liquor store purchases. As I discovered, the difference between 9000 feet elevation and 0 feet elevation at the seashore on the carbonation of a beer is pretty monumental. The beers that sometimes nearly exploded and spewed out foam upon opening at 9000'--they poured perfectly at sea level.

Also in brewing news, my Mom (thanks Mom!) sent me some old brewing books in the mail, which she, her sister, and mom had given my Grandpa for Father's Day in 1972. Never fear, this book was written in Britain. (As we all know, homebrewing was still illegal in the US until 1978 (thanks Jimmy!).) I'm hoping that it will live up to it's name, and allow me to brew beer "Without Failures." What I've read of it so far seems pretty advanced for it's day, considering it actually contains recipes with malt and hops--ingredients which were hard to impossible for a non-commercial brewery to get a hold of in 1972. I believe most home "beer" brewers of that day were making the equivalent of prison-brew: lots of sugar, some baker's yeast, and maybe some hops if you could convince some local brewery or farmer to give you some.

However, I don't know that I will necessarily be reproducing any of the recipes. Unless some of the ingredients specified have drastically changed in nature (which is actually pretty likely), then I have a feeling many of these brews might taste downright terrible. But hey, for 1972, they were probably about the best thing going. It just makes me more thankful than ever for Charlie Papazian.

I wonder if WITHOUT FAILURES is a guaranteed or money back kind of a statement. 

Holy Black Patent, Batman! The most black patent malt I have ever put in a recipe was probably about 6 oz. for a 5 gallon batch. Pretty sure 2 lb. would just destroy your mouth with it's bitterness. Super Stout, it is. 

Say Cheese!

I knew that I wouldn't be able to brew beer on our sabbatical due to various logistical issues (mostly just bringing all of my brewing equipment out here). I have like 6 cases of homebrew in the basement right now, so fear not, I am not without my homebrews. But, having beer aside, I knew that I needed some fermentation in my life. I imagine most people who start to make beer, wine, cheese, cured meats, or any other kind of fermentation get infected themselves and can't go long without having something growing in their basement. I knew that I had to do something, and what better than cheese! Nearly as delicious as beer, and pretty good together with it too.

Edam in the front, caerphilly on the right and
Monterrey Jack in the back. 

So, the cheese factory has begun to churn out products in the Aber's laboratory kitchen. Soon, you will all be calling me the Cheese-Whiz, since I'll be like a wizard making cheese. Wait a second...never mind that. In any case, I've got a block of caerphilly, edam, and monterrey jack curing away in my cheese cave right now. The edam and monterrey jack should be done in about a month, and the caerphilly in a week or two from now. We're also mostly through my first batch of cottage cheese, which I might just make another of if we're not too sick of it by the time we finish (you find that a pound of cottage cheese goes a long way...).

Cutting the curds is Serious Business.

I'm pretty surprised by how easy it really is to make cheese. I'm always trying to get people to start brewing beer, but it really can be somewhat of a dauting undertaking. Cheese on the other hand, will probably cost you like $20 in equipment and supplies to make your first curds, and the recipes are straightforward enough that you don't really have to read up much on it at first to start. Most of the stuff I've used here, we already had in the kitchen, or I constructed out of junk. Literally, the stainless steel bottom of my cheese press came out of the trash. (Don't worry though, I did scour the thing like no other and put a new brushed finish on it using sandpaper, steel wool, and rippling biceps.) My cheese mold is a $1 plastic pitcher, that I cut apart and drilled holes in, and the rest of the cheese press came off of various parts of broken furniture among other things that we had in our basement.

This is what I love about cheese--it seems so complex and like something that could only be made in a sterile factory, but in reality its something that's been made in the home for the last 9000 odd years up until like 1950. I suppose this describes most food come to think of it... Also, the best part about making cheese is that  you generally get a pound of cheese out of a gallon of whole milk. So, based on the confusingly low price of $2.75/gal here in Colorado, we're going to be eating cheese for $2.75/lb. I can't imagine finding any cheese at the grocery store for less than about $4/lb. And you get the supreme satisfaction of eating some home made cheese.

And now, if you will excuse me, I have to go make some colby.

Poor little edam, being crushed by 60 lbs. of weights.

My water bath setup. Helps to heat the milk without scorching it and to hold a
constant temperature over long periods. Its just an electric roaster oven I randomly
found out here. 

Monterrey jack coming out of the press. That is one sweet cheese mold, isn't it? 

General Tso's Venison

I still need to work on the cook time for the venison but this turned out pretty tasty and cooked up really quickly.  We're going to try and eat a lot of venison during the sabbatical so I'm experimenting with a variety of new recipes.

Ingredients:
1 pound venison tenderloin
2 tbsp oil (I used canola)
2/3 cup General Tso's Wok Sauce (From Aldi)
1 yellow squash
1 package of Asian style frozen veggies (snap peas, red pepper, onion)
A dash of red pepper flakes
2 tbsp sesame seeds

Directions:
Chop the venison into 1/2 inch cubes and cook it in oil for about 3 minutes.  Strain off the oil and remove meat from the heat.  In a separate pan steam the frozen veggies and squash until tender.  Lastly, stir the meat, a dash of red pepper flakes, wok sauce, and sesame seeds into the veggies and bring to a simmer.  Be careful not to overcook the venison as it can get rubbery and chewy. 

Soapy Success

I am happy to report that both the laundry and dishwasher detergents have been performing well.  I've washed at least four loads of dishes and all have come out clean, no strange scents, and no signs of residue or cloudiness.  The laundry detergent appears to be cleaning as well as the store bought stuff with no side effects as of yet.  You can check out the recipes here:

DIY Dishwasher Soap

DIY Powdered Laundry Soap