What was your prep of the day?

[Michael_Js]

This evening I decided to try making some lemon-lime soda pop syrup. It is mostly the same as the formula for the orange soda. I just substituted 1 lemon and 1 lime for the 2 oranges in the orange soda. I also added about 50% more of the citric acid.

Attachment 30144

It's pretty dang good! I was going for a flavor similar to 7-Up. But this does not really taste like 7-Up. It is more like a high quality lemonade, but carbonated. I think it will be a favorite on the afternoons when I am hot from working in the sun. It does really quench the thirst.

It also requires less syrup per glass than the orange. When I mixed it with the carbonated water at the same ratio as the orange, the flavor was too strong. I backed off the syrup about 50% and it was about perfect.

I still have enough lemons, limes and oranges for one more batch of each, then I am going to try ginger ale. If I can get those mostly okay, only then will I try the 1885 Coke recipe. (That one is going to be complicated - and expensive as it has many different "oils" that I am going to have to order online.)

Do you also have the coke for the Coke recipe?

Sounds delicious!!

[Piratesailor]

Well..this could be under “solar” but for me it’s a prep. I’ve been looking at these fancy solar generators lately and choking on the costs (although they have come down a bit). I realized that I have 2 200a 4D batteries sitting in my garage. They were slated for the boat but I sold the boat. So my thinking is I have the base component for a “solar generator”, just not very portable at 150lb each.

My plan is simple. We have a large propane tank and a genset that will run most of the house/property. I don’t want to run it at night when sleeping but still want power to some appliances like the freezers and fridge and lights etc. I don’t want the genset running at night for many reasons most of which you’d get and understand.

So using scrap lumber from an old fence I put together a shelf for the batteries. I already had a solar panel from the boat too but ordered two more 200w panels and cabling. I also ordered a 40amp MPPT controller, battery monitor and a 2000/4000w pure sine inverter. The batteries are AGM and I’ll replace with Lifepo4 when they wear out.

Everting is arriving tomorrow and I’ll set it up by the end of next week. If it all goes well, and I suspect it will, I’ll have our night time solution and should the SHTF big time and I run out of propane, I’ll have a solution that provides some power.

And thanks to MG for the advice and guidance!

[MountainGirl]

^^ You're welcome, glad to help.

After this last round of storms, we've decided to add backup to our backups LOL
Solar generator, tied into the house; recharged via gen or panels, depending on the situation.
Fingers crossed we still have time to get the components here. If not? Oh well.
I'm well versed in the bare-bones ways, and we got water, wood, food, ammo.
Anything more is just comfort; very nice to have but... there ya go.

[Prepared One]

Yep, like MG said, with all the storms we decided to add a larger solar generator to the mix. We have two Gens that will run the whole house but with these storms it's hard to know exactly how long we would be out of power each time. Our longest has been 7 hours so far. No biggie but I wasn't willing to pull the gen out and hook up to the outside bypass switch. Not a hard thing but by the time I pull the cord out, got the propane hooked up, and the gen going, don't you know the lights would come back on. So, I wanted something easier and quieter for those situations, plus it adds to the long term situation as well.

Everything will be located in our mud room right next to the electric panel, except the solar panels of course. Those we store in one of the outbuildings till needed. We can recharge the unit via wall outlet when the power comes back on so for short term outages it's perfect. If we have to go longer we hook up the solar panels. It has pass through capability as well so we can operate while it's charging.

We have settled on the Oupes solar Gen with added battery capacity. (Meg 2, 3, or 5, working the numbers now.) It's the best bang for the buck and has good reviews, plus we already have a smaller Oupes unit and it has worked like a champ.

We have had storms rolling through since Tues. and one is rolling through now, supposed to like this all day. Haven't lost power yet but there are outages all around us. As soon as we get the numbers down we are going to move on this quickly. I feel a hurricane in my bones this summer.

[BucketBack]

Just got my ferrellgas contract in the email

[Piratesailor]

Just topped off my propane tank this morning.

[Piratesailor]

Yep, like MG said, with all the storms we decided to add a larger solar generator to the mix. We have two Gens that will run the whole house but with these storms it's hard to know exactly how long we would be out of power each time. Our longest has been 7 hours so far. No biggie but I wasn't willing to pull the gen out and hook up to the outside bypass switch. Not a hard thing but by the time I pull the cord out, got the propane hooked up, and the gen going, don't you know the lights would come back on. So, I wanted something easier and quieter for those situations, plus it adds to the long term situation as well.

Everything will be located in our mud room right next to the electric panel, except the solar panels of course. Those we store in one of the outbuildings till needed. We can recharge the unit via wall outlet when the power comes back on so for short term outages it's perfect. If we have to go longer we hook up the solar panels. It has pass through capability as well so we can operate while it's charging.

We have settled on the Oupes solar Gen with added battery capacity. (Meg 2, 3, or 5, working the numbers now.) It's the best bang for the buck and has good reviews, plus we already have a smaller Oupes unit and it has worked like a champ.

We have had storms rolling through since Tues. and one is rolling through now, supposed to like this all day. Haven't lost power yet but there are outages all around us. As soon as we get the numbers down we are going to move on this quickly. I feel a hurricane in my bones this summer.

I’ve been telling my siblings about the Oupes systems and suggesting they get moving on something similar.

That storm this morning dumped 3.5” of rain at our place. We’re lucky in that we haven’t lost power with any of the storms that have rolled through over the past 2 months.

[Jester-ND]

$1100+ at walmart........ again, some likely qualifies as preps...

[Box of frogs]

$1100+ at walmart........ again, some likely qualifies as preps...

Damn Jester. You gittin’ boy.

[Prepared One]

I’ve been telling my siblings about the Oupes systems and suggesting they get moving on something similar.

That storm this morning dumped 3.5” of rain at our place. We’re lucky in that we haven’t lost power with any of the storms that have rolled through over the past 2 months.

We have had 38" YTD so far. Our normal is 18". It's just been one storm after another here and I am guessing the Houston area to be about the same.