Was up in Rockland last week helping a buddy fix his dock and this old lobsterman stops by to chat. He told me he runs his whole shack on two panels he got from harbor freight for like $200. Said he doesn't bother with fancy inverters or batteries, just runs DC lights and a small fridge straight off the panel during the day. I've always thought going solar meant dropping five grand and getting permits, but he made me realize there's a whole middle ground. Why do we always think we need the full system instead of just meeting the basic need? Anyone else scaled back on what they thought they needed?
I spent two winters just letting the heat rise straight up until a buddy in Vermont told me to try one of those magnetic stove fans. Grabbed one for 35 bucks on Amazon and it pushed warm air across my whole first floor instead of just cooking the ceiling. Anyone else find a cheap gadget that made a big difference in their setup?
I dug a 6x8 pit behind my shed in Worcester and lined it with cinder blocks to store my squash and potatoes without power. My neighbor Karen keeps asking why I don't just use a fridge, but she doesn't get that my electric bill dropped $40 a month since I stopped relying on the basement fridge for storage. Has anyone else dealt with people thinking your off grid ideas are weird?
Bought this fancy cedar rain barrel from a place in Portland, thought it would look nice by the shed, but it cracked right down the middle after our first hard freeze. Anyone else have luck with a specific brand that actually survives a Maine winter?
Picked up an old Vermont Castings stove off Facebook Marketplace in September. Had to put another $100 into new gaskets and a chimney liner. But I heated my whole place in central Mass with mostly free scrap wood from a neighbor's tree job. My oil bill from November to February was only $180 compared to like $800 last year. Anybody else had good luck with marketplace finds for heating gear?
I was in the checkout line in Worcester last Saturday and this guy behind me starts lecturing his friend about how everyone should just buy local produce to save money. He was holding a $7 bag of fancy mixed greens from some farm stand. Meanwhile I had three massive butternut squashes in my cart for $4 total from the regular produce section. Look, I get the idea behind supporting local farms, but when you're working two jobs like me you don't have time to drive to three different places to save 50 cents on a carrot. My takeaway was that this guy had never actually had to stretch a $50 grocery budget for two weeks. Has anyone else run into these self-appointed experts who act like simple living means you have to do everything the hard way?
I was up in the White Mountains last November when a nor'easter knocked out our power for 4 days, and my neighbor's fancy $1,200 Honda kept dying on him while my beat-up $300 Harbor Freight special ran nonstop after I fixed a clogged carburetor with a paperclip. Has anyone else found that paying less and learning to fix stuff beats paying more and hoping it works?
Switched from oil to a wood stove last November thinking we'd save big... but after burning through $400 in seasoned oak and still running the oil backup on those single-digit nights, I'm wondering if the romantic idea of a wood stove is better than the reality. Anyone else find their supposed 'savings' actually cost more in time and money than they expected?
Last March I cut down a big maple near my place in Worcester, split it all, and stacked it in my backyard. After three rainy months it was still reading 35% moisture on my meter. I tried covering the top with a tarp but left the sides open, and it dried way faster than my neighbor's stack that gets full sun. Anyone have luck with other methods for seasoning wood in this climate?
I live in southern NH where the soil is basically rocks and clay. Last spring I drilled holes in a bucket, filled it with straw and compost, and threw in some seed potatoes. By August I dumped it out and got 8 pounds of spuds off one bucket. Never had that kind of yield from my actual garden plot. Anyone else use containers for stuff that normally goes in the ground?
I was driving through the Northeast Kingdom last week and saw this little stand with a lockbox for cash. Their eggs were $4 a dozen but you could leave less if you needed to. Has anyone else seen something like that around here?
Guy was maybe 80, hauling scrap metal in a rusted F-150. He saw me tossing a broken snowblower and asked if I tried fixing the carb first. I said no, figured it was dead. He pulled a wrench from his pocket, spent 10 minutes cleaning the jet, and it fired right up. Said "most stuff dies because we quit on it." Now I check everything twice before I scrap it. Anybody else got a random lesson from a stranger like that?
Bought a cheap propane stove from Walmart for fishing trips. Lightweight sure. But that thing couldn't boil water in a breeze. Switched back to my old Coleman white gas stove for a trip up near Lake Winnipesaukee last month. Boiled my coffee in 4 minutes flat. Propane canisters are also $6 a pop now. White gas is cheaper per gallon. Anyone else ditch the fancy new stuff for the old gear?
Figured I could swap out the old submersible pump in my well near Keene, NH over a Saturday. No way, that thing was buried under 80 feet of rusted pipe and mud. Had to borrow a pulley rig from a guy on Route 9 and practically lost a knuckle getting the coupling off. Anyone else ever tackle a well pump solo and totally misjudge the time?
Living off-grid-ish and still got slammed, mostly from a busted well pump heater I forgot to unplug. Anyone else get caught off guard by a random appliance spiking their bill this winter?
My buddy Mike from Worcester kept telling me to get a catalytic wood stove instead of a cheap box stove. I thought he was just trying to sell me on something fancy. After 3 winters of burning through 5 cords a season in my old Jotul, I finally swapped to a Blaze King last fall and cut my wood usage by almost half. Has anyone else made a similar switch and noticed a big difference?
I wired up a 200-watt Renogy kit at my place near Plymouth back in March. Worked fine for 3 days, then a heavy rain shorted out the charge controller because the weatherproof seal on the junction box was just a sticker, not a gasket. Had to drive 45 minutes to the nearest solar supply shop for a replacement. Anyone else run into this with the cheaper off-grid gear?
I always bought the $250 pre-split kiln-dried stuff from the guy off Route 9. Overheard a neighbor say he pays a logger $80 for a green cord of oak and just lets it season a year in his shed. Has anyone else tried buying green and waiting?
Had a section of my double wall pipe come apart right in the middle of that ice storm we got back in January. The whole thing just slid down and left a gap near the ceiling, smoke started filling the living room before I even knew what happened. I was up on the roof at 3am in freezing rain trying to shove it back together with zip ties and a prayer. Called a chimney guy the next morning and he said the screws had vibrated loose over time, something I NEVER would have thought to check. Now I go up every fall with a screwdriver and tighten EVERY connection point, takes maybe 20 minutes. Anyone else had a wood stove part fail in the middle of a storm? What did you do?
So last May I had a cord of split wood get soaked because my tarp blew off during a storm in southern NH. I was ready to just buy kiln dried but then I remembered an old post about stacking wood in a single row facing south. Figured why not try it with just a cheap pallet and some scrap metal roofing I found on Craigslist. After 3 months of that setup my moisture meter was reading 18% vs the 30%+ I had before. Has anyone else used just sun and wind to dry wood faster without a shed?
I was going through about 3 cords of wood each winter in my cabin up near Conway. A neighbor suggested I get a stove top thermometer for $30 on Amazon. Turns out I was running my stove way too hot most of the time, wasting heat up the chimney. Now I keep it in the 400-500 degree range and my wood usage dropped to just over 2 cords last season. Anyone else tried one of these and seen a big difference in fuel use?
I used to blow every single leaf off my property in Burlington, thinking it was the only way to keep the yard tidy. Phil, who's been living off the grid up in the hills for 15 years, told me I was wasting gas and killing the soil life. He showed me how his garden mulched leaves into free compost over winter, and the worms did the work for him. This year I just mowed over the leaves and let them lay on the beds, and my spring garden came in better than ever. Anyone else made the switch from blowing to mulching their leaves?
Honestly I was dead set against using those cheap plastic lids from the dollar store, thought they'd never seal right. But after 3 days of ruining jars and losing 20 pounds of Roma tomatoes from my garden in Brockton, I tried them out of desperation. Turns out they work just fine if you boil them for 5 minutes first, same as the metal ones. Saved me like 40 bucks on lids for the season. Has anyone else had good luck with the off brand canning supplies?