Sandy Stacey

I second the glass jars and vacuum seals. Let me warn everyone all vacuum sealers are not the same. Someone has a link to Amazon for a portable vacuum sealer and it's the exact one I bought. I thought it worked great until one day I went into the pantry and saw one of the jars of freeze dried broccoli was a different color than the other jars. The seal had broken and the food had to be discarded. When I went back through all the cases of food I found multiple jars had lost their seals. So I no longer trust those little independent vacuum sealers. The food saver type with tubing works much better. Freeze dried fruits and vegetables just put into plastic five gallon type buckets pick up the taste of the plastic. Plus the humidity slowly seeps into the buckets over time. That's with gamma seal lids used too. So glass is my go to. If you happen to have a Harvest Right freeze drier you can use the machine to vacuum seal any jar and those jars don't lose their seal.

Back in 2010 I did an experiment. I bought a 25 lb bag of brown sugar at Costco. Online "experts" said the sugar would get hard in the jars. I vacuum sealed the brown sugar into canning jars. I have used it when baking ever since. Well in November 2025 I pulled my next to last jar of that brown sugar. It's still as soft and fresh as the day it went into the jar. I also did an experiment in January 2024. I sealed walnuts in quart jars vacuum sealed. I left a bag on the shelf. The walnuts in the bag went rancid in less than a year. I opened the jar at Christmas 2025 and the walnuts were delicious. They did not turn rancid. No matter what type of food it stores better in vacuum sealed glass.

For sugar, dried corn, and dried peas I bought 32 gallon galvanized trash cans with lids that stay in place if tipped over. I wanted something that mice and pests couldn't get to down in a basement. When we move to the homestead I need to insure that grain, legumes, and sugar could be stored safely in something that couldn't be chewed through easily. The trash cans are great with food grade liners inside. The liners aren't cheap but came in such quantity that I now have a lifetime supply.

I haven't found the perfect setup and the aesthetics of the current models make me hesitate. I lost the information for the man who has built a system that can be purchased and completed at home. It had the option for an oven. He uses brick for the heating systems. There was a video where he came to a customer's home and helped build it but I lost that link. I think if it was done with brick like some of the Russian/Eastern European videos we see I'd be more willing. Our homestead land has some smaller trees but is not a big forested area so a rocket type stove is ideal but the actual look isn't palatable.

There's a YT channel that has Medieval techniques that I've been watching for ideas. They have some really great models that have been lost through time.

BTW I did buy the rocket series DVDs that Paul Wheaton put out to see if anything new was coming down the pike.

Yes I wash my rice because it results in fluffier rice and less toxins. I also know that it reduces some minerals but I still prefer to wash. I also learned recently about rice water addition to the soil so now I save the rice water to add to my plants.

I bought plans on Etsy for a "Stand alone Canning Pantry Cabinet" that can be made from pallets. I was thinking along the lines of something I could put in a pantry to hold canning jars of different foods so I wouldn't have to run up and down the stairs every time I wanted to cook. You can use regular lumber or they have a second plan set using pallets. I thought that was a great idea that would cost nothing more than my time.

Anne Miller wrote:We decided to go with Starlink in March.

I went back to my statement and I only paid $238.00, are there different levels of equipment?

I have unlimited date for my monthly fee.

Dear hubby and son in law did the installation though we did not have to drill through the wall because we had Hughesnet and used the hole they made.

What does your county consider a driveway?  Will a dirt road to the property work?  That is all we have here.

What is a Starlink waitlist?

We were on the Starlink wait list for over a year. It wasn't available yet in our area. It looks like we placed a $99 deposit for the waitlist.

Starlink Standard Actuated Kita74541f8-e848-407e-bdee-23f3d9ba4309  $549.00
Shop order
Deposit  -$99.00
Payment Summary
Items Subtotal  $450.00
Tax  $51.51
Shipping $50.00
Order Total  $551.51
Our order date was 04/27/2022  So maybe they've lowered the price since our order. I did see on Starlink's site that price is up to $120 now in my area.  The other good news is I did a generic check for the homestead area and Starlink is already available. I'm guessing because of the Native reservations in the area?

I need to find out what they do consider a driveway. I have no idea. This is the screwiest county I've ever seen. We have annual taxes due by Oct 1st and we still can't get them to give us an amount.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Sandy, one thing you might consider is building in stages.  First a great room with kitchen alcove, small bathroom.  Start with what ever you consider essential, in a single space, with planned add ons…  Planning the whole thing at once can be overwhelming, and doesn’t necessarily get you the building you want to live in.

That's actually a good idea. I want a summer kitchen for canning and food preservation. I'm also going to downsize our house again and I would prefer to keep that mess out of the home since it will be small. I was thinking about one of the larger shed kits. Something we can throw up in a few weeks and then use as temporary living quarters while we build the kit house. We can not have more than one home on our homestead property. So I have to be careful what I build. I really like two companies https://www.ezlogstructures.com/ and amishbuilthomes.com  Both offer kits and the Amish even have modular walls in their kits. Like jigsaw puzzles for adults. The no cutting requirement was what sold me on the idea.

We finally came up on the Starlink list. The upfront equipment cost was $551 and fees run about $100/month. When I just signed into my account I saw a new offer for $59/month in select areas. We sent it back because we realized we would be moving to the homestead and I didn't want hubby drilling a hole through my exterior wall. There are no installers so be prepared (which shouldn't be a problem with this crowd). I do plan to use Starlink at the homestead but currently we are having an issue with the county. We can't get a 911 address until we put in a driveway. Map locations aren't accurate so until I can visit I don't even have accurate coordinates for the Starlink waitlist yet.

We own the land outright (ten acres). If the housing market doesn't tank we will be selling our home we own outright to plow the money into the new homestead. I'm currently looking at kit homes and modular homes. Being so rural there are no options for stick built. Which after our current home's build I'm not looking forward to owning another stick built home. We will be totally off grid and I could use some experienced advice.

I'm in the process of researching to build our homestead. There are some great sources on Youtube about trying to fireproof your rural home. One of the most helpful overlooked advice is to ensure you don't have vents in your eaves. Those vents are one of the primary causes of rural house fires in fire prone areas. They suck up a spark on the wind into the attic and there goes the house. The actual fire may be miles down the road. That was what stood out to me as the most blatant example. The commonsense things of nothing flammable within 50 ft of the house etc.

Here's the set I use. These have to be at least ten years old. It uses ceramic burrs and the grind is adjustable. I bought glass with metal lids first. I broke those consistently. I didn't think I would like the all wood shakers but they've held up to constant abuse.

https://www.amazon.com/XWXO-Wood-Salt-Pepper-Mill/dp/B07C9TVC17/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2N1O5P0761H83&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.pClybhjCzwfcgVe9UM8XbhKzDvG9Iz3ZWN87uDEQcM-E0dwiRCc4ash7ZlXKKBUe_i4KBE-asrn9vU7gC2_Qg3FDcqFU85BnhPZ5cHJHJpCKZVYgKMgk3gNArApJn-K7NS1WflfEpDQlg8ImQBNeebLkRjVpOqfM_1pBw9p-9OwxcivKeEo1PJaxyvmDkQ0H7vOt-cNjOkCBAdUzkMMVWtP05oY3OLj53FEdT9KrAVXYGm-t31G5zHiKg_f_5T-GHintkmDYUd1B5mIDaMjeGSBU3kICp5XHwt9YYfm9v9k.ac6xiluitF9tNydHg-aNkCGDH9cCDtb95uOg9-w4mRk&dib_tag=se&keywords=wood%2Bsalt%2Band%2Bpepper%2Bgrinder%2Bset&qid=1758486976&sprefix=wood%2Bsalt%2Band%2B%2Caps%2C199&sr=8-6&th=1