Preparedness Month Project

About two years ago, we upgraded our pantry (some of the photos below are from that post). We added insulation to the walls, installed energy efficient windows, and I rearranged the shelves in what I hoped was a good set-up. But, you know how it is; living with an idea sometimes isn't as good as it seemed. So, I spent some time this month (September is Preparedness Month, after all!) figuring out how to improve the pantry.  

My original set-up: one corner

This corner was the first problem. I thought I could work with L-shaped shelving, but it was more hassle than it was worth. The opposite corner was okay, so I left that side as is.

Original set-up, opposite corner

I cleared off the problem shelves, gave them a dusting, and set them up like library aisles. Then I used another shelving unit to add another shelf on top.

New shelf arrangement

The other side of the room was the same but a foot shorter because the pantry door isn't centered in the room. I have a five foot wall on one side of the door and a four foot wall on the other.

Original set-up on the other side of the room.

Original set-up, the other corner on that side.

If I rearranged the ell to make an aisle between the shelf units, there wouldn't be enough room to use the grain grinder on that side of the island. What to do? After a lot of thinking and measuring, my solution was to move the island cabinet to the four-foot wall instead of the table. That made enough room to turn the shelf, plus I can still get to the grinder. 

New arrangement. (The lean is due to the camera lens!)

However, I liked having the island for the Berkey water filter. And the countertop was handy to set down an armload of jars before shelving them.

Original set-up

So, I found something that takes up less space. 

New arrangement.

The Berkey is still easily accessible and I have a small surface for setting things down. Plus, I can get around the island to get to everything, and the cart shelves are perfect for things I use often, like my fermentation and cheese making accoutrements.

I think this room arrangement makes better use of available floor space. And it helps with another problem too, i.e. a place for empty canning jars. I've tried various ideas for jar storage, but none seem to work very well. With this arrangement, there's room between the wall shelves and the cabinet for boxes of jars. Empty boxes can go on top of the shelf units.

In addition to a set-up that I'll hopefully be happier with, this exercise gave me an opportunity to check dates and seals on canned and vacuum packed dry goods, dust jars, rotate, and reorganize. When I'm busy canning for a string of days, I tend to just pop the new jars into any empty space on the shelves just to get them out of the way. I like it better when everything has its designated space: fruits, veggies, soups, meats, jams and jellies, pickles, etc. 

How about you? Do you have particular challenges with your food storage? How have you tried to solve them? How do you manage empty jars? How do you keep things organized? What's worked? What hasn't? I'm open to ideas!

Preparedness Month Project © Sept. 2022

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Putting the Pantry Back Together

Slowly, I've been able to start putting my pantry back together.

We finished with the walls, trim, and ceiling painting a while ago, but with my days filled with blueberries, figs, applesauce, and cheese making, there hasn't been much time to set up my pantry again.

You can see that I decided not to replace the old linoleum flooring. I just gave it a good scrub and tossed down a couple of throw rugs.

Below is the corner where the old refrigerator used to be. I added another set of shelves. Dan offered to make me some shelves, but - time and money. I already have these and there is so much else to do this time of year. Shelf building didn't seem a priority right now.

In the corner where the freezer used to be (below), I put our old kitchen table. I wanted someplace to keep my gallon-size crocks besides the shelves, and to let my cheeses air dry. There's room underneath for canning jar boxes, and Dan added two simple racks on the wall for hanging things I want to keep handy.

I've been wrestling with empty jars and jar boxes forever. I've tried a number of systems, but none seem to work well. I'm hoping this will help. How do you all organize your empty jars?

Of course, it's not just jars and canned goods that are stored in the pantry, it's herbs, stock-up items, kitchen tools, and cooking utensils I only use occasionally (like the roasting pan for the Thanksgiving turkey), also cheese making and preservation supplies and equipment.

It's slow going because the setup is different and I want to organize as I put things back. Can't guarantee it will stay that way, but at least it will start out that way!

Putting the Pantry Back Together © Aug. 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Pantry Cooling Project: What's Next?

Our objective with the pantry project is to improve food storage conditions. About a year ago, we started giving this a good think because after we quit air conditioning, the pantry became the warmest room in the house. Doing something about that has meant a feasibility study, analysis, researching alternatives, and formulating a plan:

1. ✔ Moving the freezer and auxiliary fridge out of the pantry.
2. ✔ Replacing the old upright auxiliary fridge with a chest fridge.
3. ✔ Putting the freezer and chest fridge on solar energy. 
4. ✔ Replacing old pantry windows with energy-efficient windows.
5. ✔ Add insulation to the pantry walls.
6. ➡ Cooling the air in the pantry without air conditioning.

Steps #1-5 of our plan checklist are completed (they're linked to take you to their respective blog posts). Already, they have made a difference! The pantry is no longer the warmest room in the house, but even stays a couple of degrees cooler than the kitchen, with the bonus that it isn't as humid!

Now, we're contemplating #6. As a baseline, I've been keeping track of temperature highs and lows in three places: our shaded outside back porch, the kitchen, and the pantry.

Baseline of daily highs and lows. O = outside, K = kitchen, P = pantry
Morning low on the left, afternoon high on the right. All in Fahrenheit.

The pattern is that the outdoor high is about 8 degrees or so higher than the kitchen, and the kitchen  is about 2 degrees higher than the pantry. So there is typically a ten degree difference between outdoors and the pantry. The question is, can we do better? Can we bring the pantry air temp down a little more? I listed quite a few ideas in this post, with some being more realistic for us than others. Dan has been researching and collecting more ideas, and he's ready to experiment with some of them. If something works, I'll let you know!

Pantry Cooling Project: What's Next? © August 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

More Progress on the Pantry

In my last pantry blog post we were just starting to put up the paneling. Now the paneling is up and so is the trim.

A comment on the paneling. I showed it to you last time. It was the least expensive we could find and I have to say it's cheaply made. Very flimsy and needs a stiff backing to support it. It could not be installed with only wall studs for support. And if a nail needs to be pulled out, it tears the front surface like cardboard. We got it at Lowes. Not recommended.

Also a comment about the paint. For as long as we've been here, I've gone with Valspar brand (another Lowe's product). The quality has become increasingly poor, and even their good quality takes three or four coats to get good coverage. It remains tacky for weeks after being applied. They say it's washable but it really isn't. This time I bought paint at Walmart. It's their Color Place brand and I got the middle grade. Much less expensive and two coats with no primer have done a very good job of covering the trim. Barely any odor and dries quickly.

Two coats. You can see why we're pleased with this paint.

So the walls and trimwork are done.

You can see before photos of the pantry in this old blog post.

All in all, I like that the room is lighter and brighter than it used to be, even though the pantry shelving will cover most of it. Still to do is to put back the curtain rods and some thermal curtains. I also plan to give the ceiling a fresh coat of paint to cover the stain from when the old pantry roof leaked (photos of that here).

Of course, now the old linoleum looks specially worn and tacky, but replacing that is not on the to-do list at this time. Still, I'm tempted to do something with it before we put the shelves back. Does anyone have experience with painting floors?

The next blog post on the pantry will be much more interesting, I promise. Dan has begun experimenting with ways to cool the room without AC. Neither of us has any clue as to how successful it will be, but we're curious to find out.

More Progress on the Pantry © July 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Pantry Project Progress

Lots of rainy days over the past several weeks has meant lots of indoor project days. After Dan replaced that first pantry window, it was time to take down the rest of the old paneling. That meant clearing out the pantry first. Fortunately, it's empty jar season, where we've used up much of last year's harvest preservation and before I start canning again. That made the job easier and faster. It was also a good time to dust the jars and check seals.

The insulation under the paneling was as you see it above, with the vapor barrier torn. Dan thinks it was probably used.

There was an empty gap around the window (expected), but we also found uninsulated gaps in other places, such as between the wall and cripple studs above the window. A number of the batts were cut short.

This is a shot of the uninsulated room corner. What you see between the stud and the corner is the exterior house siding. All of that plus the single-glazed windows explain why the room never felt well insluated.

We left the old insulation batts in place. One-inch foam board went up right over the studs. Next, the second window was replaced.

From the inside.

Dan uses canned foam around the window to fill the gaps and then covers it with window flashing tape.

The next step was deciding how to cover the foam board. Neither of us wanted to spend a lot on this project, so we explored all our options and ended up with the least expensive wall panels we could find.

It's thin, which is okay for us because it's going on top of the foam board which is a stiff surface. It's light in color, which I like, especially for a room which will be kept as dark as possible.

Progress? Slow. Our weather bounces back and forth between rain and sun, so we work outside when we can, and inside when we can't.

Next time, I'll give you an update on our solar-powered freezer and refrigerator.

Pantry Project Progress © June 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

The Pantry: Starting on Phase 2

Last summer, I blogged about my pantry problems and plans. The goal at the time was a "solar pantry," by which I meant putting the auxiliary fridge and freezer located in the pantry on solar power. After much analysis and planning, we moved the fridge and freezer onto the back porch and set them up on solar there (phase 1).

Phase 2 of this project focuses on the energy efficiency of the pantry itself. As part of my analysis last summer, I kept track of the pantry air temperature, and discovered it can get into the lower 90sF (upper 20sC) in the heat of summer. Not ideal for food storage.

The plan for phase 2 is to replace the old single-glazed windows with energy efficient windows, increase insulation in the walls, and experiment with passive cooling methods. It's going to be another pay-as-we-go project, so it won't happen overnight. But we've made a start.

Dan started with this wall.

My 4-foot chest freezer used to live along this wall.

Our first idea was to take down the paneling and put this stuff ↓ between the studs.

The 4-foot by 8-foot foam board sheets come in several thicknesses, with this 2-inch having the highest R-value. At roughly $30 a sheet it's pricey, but Home Depot carries it so we could buy a few sheets at a time and gradually work our way around the room. Unfortunately, Dan found it extremely frustrating to work with.

The ad video makes it look super easy to install. The sheets are pre-scored at 16-inch intervals, so just cut and pop in. Except, our studs are 16 inches on center, meaning that 16 inches is the measurement from the middle of one stud to the next. Our wall space between the studs is more like 14⅝ inches. On top of that, it was difficult to cut the foam cleanly, and Dan completely lost enthusiasm for the project after finally finishing that one wall.

So the project sat for awhile, until one recent rainy day, when we headed over to our discount builders supply warehouse to look for replacement windows.

One of two original pantry windows.

We found two brand new, still in the wrapping, energy star rated windows, the exact same size as the old windows, for $80 each. Perfect!

The first step was to remove the window trim and wall paneling.

Old window.

We had the old window removed and the new one installed in less than an hour! That's a first for this old house, where replacing windows usually takes several days from start to finish. Having the same size replacement helps!

New window. The first thing we noticed
was how quiet the room had become!

We have the other window to replace, but also, we have to decide what to do about the walls. Adding the 2-inch foam board is out for several reasons, the first because it was so difficult to work with. Even if we did want it, Home Depot is now out of stock, which no projected restocking date. Another deterrent is that the current batting insulation is stapled to the outer wall, which would make it a mess to remove.

So the plan under consideration right now is to apply 1-inch foam board directly on top of the studs. We'd lose a couple of inches of floor space, but it would still work. The batting is R-11 and the 1-inch sheets are R-5, which would give us and R-16 insulation value for the outer walls. Then we'd have to replace the old paneling, because it pretty much splintered when Dan pulled it off. (Ha! Not heart-broken over that!)

While we're mulling that over, Dan is replacing the window trim on the outside.

Old window out, new window in.
We had a beautiful day to do this!

Besides the walls, we still have to figure out a ventilation system and explore passive cooling ideas. More on that one of these days.

The Pantry: Starting on Phase 2 © May 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Solar Power Day

Back porch: freezer, inverter, solar panels in background.

After all the excitement, anticipation, and build-up, solar power day was exceedingly uneventful. Switching our deep freezer from the grid to our solar electric system was just a matter of closing a circuit breaker, moving the plug from one socket to another, and turning on the inverter.

The back of the inverter with freezer plugged in.

We checked the freezer light—all systems go. Now we monitor.

Charge controller read-out screen.

There are two things we're keeping an eye on. One is how many amp-hours our freezer will use during a 24-hour cycle. We have 705 amp-hours stored in our battery bank, so we need to know how long the bank alone can keep the freezer running during a string of sunless days. The charge controller keeps track of this, so I must become familiar with the 100-page section in the manual dealing with reading the summary screens.

Charge controller manual

The other thing to monitor is the battery State of Charge (SoC). This is the percentage of energy still available in the battery bank. SOC varies by battery, so the exact numbers must be obtained from the manufacturer. Obviously, the goal is to not drain the batteries too low. This is of the utmost importance, because it relates directly to the life and longevity of the batteries.

My very first deep cycle battery was sealed, so I learned to check SoC by monitoring battery voltage. Turns out, it's more complex than that! To be accurate, the specific gravity of the batteries needs monitoring. This should be checked with regular maintenance anyway, but the voltage is an indicator, so we'll keep an eye on that. Most folks seem to use 50% as their bottom line, but others don't let their batteries drain that low to increase battery longevity.

What's surprising is that the 50% doesn't refer to voltage; it refers to battery chemistry. So for a 12-volt battery, 50% SoC isn't 6 volts, it's 12.10. That's why measuring the specific gravity is more accurate. But voltage is an indicator, so it's a quick and helpful way to keep an eye on things. Readings are always taken when the batteries are at rest, i.e. neither charging nor discharging.

Everyone who has gone to solar says the learning curve is such that everybody kills their first battery bank. We've done our best due diligence, so I sincerely hope that's not the case for us. But I know better than to assume anything!

I'm monitoring a few other things too. One is back porch room temp. For that I have a fridge and freezer thermometer that records highs and lows.

I like that these can be switched from °F to °C.

It came in a two-pack, so I have one on the porch and one in the pantry. I can monitor these rooms to get an idea of the temperature range during a particular season. They'll help us evaluate experiments to keep the rooms cooler.

I also bought two probe thermometers for monitoring the internal temps of freezer and upcoming chest fridge.

These come in Fahrenheit or Celsius only.

With a probe, I don't have to open the freezer or fridge door to check its temp. I've learned that my freezer turns on when the internal temp gets above 4.5°F (-15.3°C). It turns off when it reaches -11°F (-23.9°C). I'm sure that's fascinating information! LOL

Of course, we're curious how much we'll save on our electric bill. We still have a few more days left in the January billing cycle, so we really won't know the answer to the question until early March, when we get February's full bill. I'm expecting it will drop somewhat with the freezer now on solar, and even more once we get rid of my pantry fridge, an old energy guzzler. We plan to replace it with a chest fridge soon (watch this blog for more on that!)

When we started homesteading ten years ago, we wanted alternative energy, but for many years that seemed impossible. Step-by-step here we are. It's not what we originally envisioned, but it's good. Like all technology it isn't perfect, but it meets a true need, and that's what's important.

The next step is the chest refrigerator, and then we'll turn to phase 2 of our three-part plan to increase food storage efficiency: improving the pantry.

See also "Chest Freezer to Fridge Conversion."

Solar Power Day © January 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Solar Project Part 5: Back Porch Preparations

[I changed the title of this series from "solar pantry" to "solar project," because we changed our original plan. Part 1 of the series starts here.]

So the plan is to move the freezer from the pantry to the back porch and put it on solar. That meant we had to do some rearranging on the porch to get ready. Like most other big projects, that meant a number steps - both planned and unplanned.

About eight years ago, when we were remodeling the kitchen, we took a detour to create a temporary remodeler's kitchen on the back porch.

November 2011 photo of my "temporary" kitchen.
Since then it's been my canning and summer kitchen. 

It served us well, because it took us another year before the kitchen was finished (before and after shots here). Once the kitchen was done I left the electric stove on the porch for canning and whatever summer-time cooking we don't do with my solar oven or Dan's grill.

About three years ago we moved the cabinet in the above photo into the new milking room of the old goat barn. In its place we put shelves.

Very handy for canning pots, coolers, laundry supplies,
my dehydrator, campfire cast iron, and recycling bins.

Now we're planning to move the freezer to this spot, so the shelves needed to be moved. That set off a cleaning binge, and while we were at it, it seemed like a good time to finish the trim around the doors and paint the walls. Years ago I put a coat of primer on the walls, but at the time we were more eager to get on with finishing the kitchen rather than the back porch. So this is how it's looked for the past eight years.

Funny how you can live with something for
so long that you don't even notice it anymore.

Dan put up some trim and gave it a coat of paint.

It feels good to finish something 
that's been unfinished for so long!

I wanted to keep at least one shelf unit on the back porch for my canners, large pots, and recycling bins, so I put it next to the stove.

New home for my my canners, canning
& cheesemaking pots, and recycling bins.

We never use the door behind it, so this seemed like a handy place. Well, it was the only place! I used to have a small table there and I'll miss that, but this solution won out for practicality.

Improving ventilation to the back porch was the next task. I used an old metal box fan in the window for years and that worked well. Then the old fan died and the new plastic one just doesn't have the strength to vent the well, especially when I'm canning. Our solar attic vent fan has worked so well that Dan installed a similar one on the back porch.

Another wall we didn't finish when we did that
side of the house. Made it easier to install the fan!

While he was working on that I started to clean out the freezer in preparation for moving it. Quite a few of the items I mentioned in Solar Pantry Part 2: Analysis could be vacuum packed instead of frozen.

I find healthy ingredient crackers and cookies at a local discount
grocery. At 50-75₵ per box they make good stock-up prepper items.

I couldn't believe how many boxes I had stashed in the freezer!
They stay fresh and moth-free when vacuum packed. How-to here.

I also use my freezer for small harvest amounts, like tomatoes, figs, and berries. I rarely get enough at any one picking for a canner load, so I pop them into the freezer and can them when the weather turns cooler. I do the same with bones for bone broth. This year I'm getting everything processed early to clear out the freezer.

Crock pot of pizza sauce cooking down.

Once Dan is done with the fan, he'll finish that wall and then we'll move the freezer. Of course, progress seems slow going right now, but that's what happens when a seemingly simple project ends up with a lot of small steps! But all the steps are good ones, and it will be nice to finally finish the back porch. It's been a good September project.

Next in this series → Back Porch Progress

Solar Project Part 5: Back Porch Preparations © Sept 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com