Jackson Bradley

J.P. Waters wrote:In the Siri-Testimony PDF document.....

I recall similar statistics in the book I referenced above. It is a hard copy so I do not have the ability to copy and paste. The link was similar in that the statistics showed a direct link to increased sanitation - reduction of disease, not vaccines. Large population centers were where the issues were for the most part. There were some statistics juxtaposing villages with little to no vaccination but good sanitation verses larger population centers with vaccination and poor sanitation.

I think the most shocking chapter of that book was on baby formula. I had no idea there was such widespread use of it in 1940s-1960s. The statistics and information in that chapter about antibodies for diseases being passed on from generation to generation verses no antibodies in formula and the implications of that were something I had never been exposed to. In a small scale way, through the birth and nursing of our 6 kids, I have seen this first hand. One of the older kids will get sick and it'll get passed around to the other kids and myself. But my wife and the new baby that is being nursed, do not get whatever it is that we have. It is amazing.  

Our culture, being what it is, usually signals to us the things our family should research more before deciding on a course of action. The signal I see is that if most people are doing something, we should probably check into it. I would imagine that most people on the forum have come to realize this about conventional farming/animal husbandry.

Anyway, it is not a simple black and white issue and I wouldn't say everyone should not vaccinate and nurse their babies. I like the dialog and let each person be convinced in their own mind. Hopefully that is the attitude of both sides of the argument.

We have 2 adults and 6 kids. 1 kid is 6 months old so there are 2 adults and 5 kids making deposits in the bucket system. We don't separate urine. We rotate 6 buckets and add them to one of 2 4x4x4 compost heaps. It takes 3-5 days to fill a bucket. It takes over a year to fill the compost heap enough to move to the next one. I do change over every 12 months so I can remember the month and not get confused.

Depositing the 5 or 6 buckets at a time gets us to ~140-150 degrees in the heap year round within a day or two of a 5 or 6 bucket deposit. The coolest the heap gets is ~110-120 degrees. The heaps are BSF havens. I let the heap rest without deposits for a year and shovel it all into the chicken coop/run deep bedding and turn it in. It is beautiful stuff after just a year but I always go to the chicken deep bedding for soil amending so it works for me to just move it into there. I can understand someone being hesitant to use it but once you see the 12 month end product, that may alleviate any issues. Also, if our pile did not get or stay hot, I would wait longer than I do and may not use it for everything I currently use it for.

I add in dead animals and animal parts as needed. I had a couple of deer front quarters (most of them anyway) is the last one I emptied along with other animal carcasses. The bones were nowhere to be found. If you can get your pile hot and keep it hot, I haven't found anything that will not "disappear" after a year.

It takes about 20 mins to empty, clean, put some cover material on the bottom of each bucket and place on a shelf. With the number of people we have, I need have the buckets ready to swap at a moments notice.

My experience has been very pleasant and like most permaculture/homestead things, they require more input/hands on time. I just can't imagine flushing all of that great material into a tank in the ground.

Thanks for the review and rebuttal of the video!

That was a really well done movie about the study. That study and many others are very alarming

Have you read "Dissolving illusions" by Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk? If you are a reader, it is a very informative read. Dr. Humphries was also on a Joe Rogan interview.

We declined vaccinations in our children due to the aborted fetal cell line ingredients. As we come to learn more, we are very glad to have declined.

Informed consent would be great, if studies like this were published and available and didn't subject you to the ire of institutional medicine, friends, family, forum staff, etc.

Great post, thank you.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:What tricks can you share? Or experiences? Or problems? Maybe we can put our heads together and get the best out of these little workhorses.

I like putting the blade in "upside down". Holding the saw the way it is supposed to be held, the teeth are pointing up if the blade is inserted the way I am describing.

I feel I have better control and I am able to get a nice close cut verses having the long portion of the guard and the rubberized handle protruding in the way.

You can go off of the posted manufacturer info and not use a soft start or measure your own AC and figure out what you need from there.

We ended up staying at a few places over the years that had electrical issues. When we first started traveling, we had one of the basic "one time use" surge protectors that plug into the end of your RV cord then into the campground plug. We ended up hardwiring a better quality surge protector in one of the RV compartments. You can replace the surge protection part of this unit rather than replacing the entire thing.

Anyway, one huge benefit I was not even looking for was the bluetooth connectivity/monitoring. You can watch the amp draw on all of your RV systems as they cycle on and run, through the surge protector. This became very beneficial for our particular situation.

If you are planning on investing in a surge protector anyway, you can watch the amp draw on your AC in real time if you get one with the bluetooth monitoring function. There are a lot available at different price points. This would help inform your solar size decisions. But again, you could just use the published info on the unit data tag or look it up.

This is the one we have - https://www.powerwatchdog.com/shop/p/neutral-set-y43ls-4tffr-mcywg-jc38p-z5drg-dh26l-y7yan

Jackie Lei wrote:
My main goal is to power my parking AC overnight. I’d like to keep the AC running through the whole night if possible. I also prefer using an electric cooker instead of propane for some of my meals, so my loads can be pretty high at times. Right now I’m trying to decide between two 300Ah batteries in parallel or one 600Ah battery. The 600Ah model I’m looking at is rated at 250A continuous discharge, while the 300Ah version is 200A each , so two in parallel would give me up to about 400A discharge capacity.

What I’m not sure about is real-world usage , whether 250A continuous discharge from a single 600Ah battery is enough for AC startup surge plus cooking loads, or if going with 2×300Ah in parallel is the safer choice. If 250A is sufficient, I’d prefer the single 600Ah unit to keep wiring simpler and cleaner.

Would love to hear your thoughts based on your off-grid experience. 👍

There would be a lot of factors in that equation. How often the AC cycles per hours based on ambient temps, what your startup and run amp draw on your AC would be the main ones. We have a soft start on our AC to power it with a 2000 watt generator. We rarely did so but the soft start does help reduce the startup amps a lot.

AC was never a goal of ours to run on solar so I never monitored how many amps it draws and how often it cycles.

I do not have an experience to share in the solar/AC area so hopefully someone else does.

Hi Jackie.

We full timed for around 4 years and still live in the RV on our property we purchased after the traveling.

LiFePO4 is the type of battery, Lithium Iron Phosphate. There are many sellers, including the one you linked.

We have 1200 watts of solar run series/parallel, MPPT 150 volt 70 amp controller, smart monitor, Qty3-100AH LiFePO4 batteries ran in parallel.

Before this setup, we had a lot of experience with lead acid batteries. We went with LiFePO4 due to the higher lifetime charge cycles and the ability to discharge past 50%.  

We never intended to run a high draw appliance like AC or water heater. We did boondock often and the setup worked for everything we needed. Fans, lights, coffee maker, electric skillet, charging devices, water pump, refrigerator, etc. 300AH was about perfect for the panel wattage and our needs. We never had to charge the batteries with a generator.

What do you currently have as far as batteries and solar and/or what are you hoping to run in the RV with the 600AH?

thomas rubino wrote:I have definitely switched from a belt to suspenders.
At 67, my hips are still 32-33, but my belly seems to be  larger, like a 35. Imagine that, how did that happen?
Rather than subject folks to the dreaded plumber's crack, and to keep from constantly pulling my pants up or trying to wear a belt so tight they are uncomfortable.
I now have several sets of suspenders, and  I absolutely love them!

https://hikersco.com/products/upfitter-belt-loop-suspenders-black?variant=43988851228918&country=US¤cy=USD&wickedsource=google&wcid=21938991799&wv=4&gad_campaignid=21938991799

Thanks for the link, Thomas. I am a belt + suspenders under shirt wearer. I typically put the suspenders on when doing any manually labor which is most days. I wear a belt every day.

I do not wear suspenders all the time because of the way they attach to my belt and constant adjusting. I ordered the suspenders in from the link and am on day 2 of wearing them all day long under my shirt. No adjusting and easy to get on and off! They are fantastic so far!!!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Anyone know when each brand tends to run their sales? I'm leaning towards makita myself.

Typically Home Depot has the best prices on Makita during major holidays. When it goes on sale at Home Depot, other retailers typically match that price so you can order from somewhere else if you want to. Home Depot has a 10% military/veteran discount that still applies to sale items most of the time and free shipping on most items.

You can also sign up with Price dot com, enter the item you want and set the notification amount 1 dollar lower than the current non sale price. You'll get a notification when the item price drops. It also tracks price history on items. There are other sites that do the same thing nowadays.

One key thing to keep in mind with most battery tools is that the cheapest way to get batteries is with a tool purchase rather than buying the batteries on their own. We bought a small single battery trimmer for the kids to use around the property. We could have bought the "tool only" or the tool + QTY4-5AH batteries + dual battery charger. The price for the batteries and charger was much less than I have ever seen the batteries on sale for by themselves. This is a good way to get several batteries and chargers for a really good price along with the tool you want.

The higher the AH of the battery, the heavier and taller the battery gets. I like the 5AH personally and I have stuck to the 18volt category. Some tools have an option for 18 volt x 2. We have a 16" dual battery electric chainsaw by Makita. I use it when I get my gas chainsaw stuck in a log, to notch posts, little jobs and to teach the kids to safely use a chainsaw. Now they have a 40 volt line but that is mostly for larger tools and I have no experience with it and probably will stick to the 18 volt line.

I have been in the trades for a couple of decades. My very first trade job was working as a helper with a guy who did major renovations along the NC coast. It was his business and all he had ever done. He was about 20 years older than me. By the point I started working with him, he had very strong preferences on tool brands.

It interested me because there was not a one brand loyalty going on across the board with him. There certainly was in categories like cordless tools because of the batteries not being interchangeable.

I have found, over my time, that most of what he had preferences on was indeed the best you could have for lifetime cost. Something important to understand is the lifetime cost of a tool or category of tools. A lower upfront cost could equal a higher lifetime cost in cases of replacing the batteries or the tool itself.

There are some tools that are just better corded like chop saws, skill saws, hammer drills, etc. Unless you are hammer drilling a few holes or only cutting a few boards. I have a battery powered skill saw and battery hammer drill and in the cases I mentioned, I do use them. If I get my chop saw out and set up, I need the power and reliability of the corded type because it'll be used over many hours that day. If I have a lot or things to use the grinder on or a lot of holes to hammer drill, I get the corded models.

I got into the habit early of buying my own tools and not using company provided tools with the understanding that the company would replace the batteries and/or tools when I wore them out. This allowed me to be working the same jobs with guys using other brands. I have seen almost all of the brands used and have been able to compare how often the tools and batteries failed.

The lifetime cost is important for use around the home and professionally. In many cases, like DeWalt, the guys were replacing/charging almost 2x as much as I was so it gave me some valuable perspective to validate the preferences of my first trade boss I mentioned above.

Also, almost all products all go on significant sales at different times of the year.

Here are the ones I validated, over time, that were used by my first trade boss. Some of them have been in service for me for a long time and the newer models may have reduced quality.

Relevant to this thread:

-Makita, hands down, for cordless.
-Milwaukee cordless cable stapler. For stapling Romex, other wire for rough in. I would buy the Makita if they made one. Not very useful on the homeowner scale due to price.

Not relevant to this thread that I can think of:

-DeWalt 12" chop saw
-Ryobi chop saw stand
-DeWalt 8" jobsite table saw, Rigid contractors 10" table saw for lots of field use (cast iron top so it gets broken out if it will be used a lot), Delta 10" table saw for a stationary shop saw
-Makita corded 7-1/4" skill saw
-Milwaukee corded 10-1/4" skill saw for notches and posts
-Milwaukee corded sawzall
-Hitachi coded angle grinder
-Porter cable routers
-DeWalt corded sheetrock screw gun
-Bosch hammer drill
-Bosch lasers
-Rockwell multitool
-Rockwell material support stands
-Paslode nail guns
-Echo for any gas tools including chain saw, pole saw, trimmer, concrete saw, etc.
-Johnson non magnetic aluminum levels
-Estwing hammer 24oz for framing and 16 oz for trim
-Stanley 20oz hammer with graphite handle for all around use and carried in tool belt
-Knipex hand tools
-Stanley fat max 35' and 25' tape measure
-Swanson METAL speed square, framing square
-A bunch I am not currently thinking of or I did not notice one performing better across brands

This may look like a random list of products/brands I just happen to have but it is not.