fratermus

In the bread machine post I promised more foolish experiments. Here ya go, I run a toaster oven offgrid with solar so you don't have to!

Bonus content: I derated the oven's wattage using a harbor freight triac.

• the big idea
• testing and potentiometer adjustment

My first time doing a pop rivet and it worked perfectly. Woot!

Each winter brings a flurry (ha!) of first-timers wondering how to keep warm. Not giving advice in the above post, but explaining how I do it.

{Edit: it was based on my usual dried beans recipe}

This was enough for dinner that night and lunch the next day. So divide these costs in half to get the per-meal cost:

• 170Wh of energy
• $1.11, if my math is right:
  • ~$0.24 for onion, $0.49/lb at the local mercado.
  • 180g of small red beans. These were free because someone had them but couldn't/wouldn't cook them in their rig...
  • ~$0.01 5g of salt
  • ~$0.03 dried chili pepper from a bulk bag, again from the mercado
  • $0.83 1/2lb of louisiana smoked sausages (hot) from the manager's discount bin

Pressed the Beans button on the 3qt Instant Pot and forgot about it until it was done. Served with cold beer....

I am fully aware most folks won’t have the interest, space, or power to run a bread machine. But for me it’s cheap fun.

Did I burn down the van? Did I kill my my batteries? Did it make actual bread?

Another silly experiment in a week or so.

The article talk about camping but also describes full-timers. There is also a kind of Green Book angle that might be useful.

I maintain a list of all the vehicle-dwelling laws I can find primary or secondary sources for. Just added Belleville. Yay.

Many of the articles specifically mention that stricter laws on this kind of thing are a direct result of the SCOTUS Grants Pass decision.

Including some data on charging the LiFePO4 bank underway.

Trigger warning: reddit link follows :-) I've been trying to give away a 50Ah Chins LFP to a cardweller, but no luck so far. The batt is now with me in Alamogordo, NM. After this it will be in El Paso for the winter.

Kaylee may be best known for her ability to live very frugally in a van and experiments cooking with what is available. She documents it all for the benefit of others.

In this post she describes using one of Zatarain's cajun-style mixes as the base for a crockpot meal.

I usually keep a box of their Jambalaya mix in the pantry, waiting for the chance to pick up some smoked sausage on sale/closeout. The local grocery store had a sale on Andouille so I got 1lb of it for $3. Will cook it up today or tomorrow.

My kitchen situation is a bit different, because during the build I had sufficient salary and time to build a robust power system. This allows running a fridge and the smallest Instant Pot. In practice this means I typically cook in full batches and store the leftovers in the fridge for another meal.

I adapt the Zat for Instant Pot by reducing water from 2.5c to 1.25c and cook at pressure for 13 minutes instead of simmering for 25. If I'm at elevation (like 8k-10k') I will bump the time to 14-15 minutes. Natural release in all cases, mainly because it reduces foamy messes that requires lots of water to clean up.

Related RVwiki article: cooking with excess power

the Business Plan proposes to increase current fees from $180 to $600 per long-term permit, and from $40 to $200 per short-term permit. It would also modify the short-term permit length from 14 days to 30 days

There is a comment period for the public.

I subscribe to the RSS feeds of all the NF/BLM districts I boondock in while snowbirding. So I knew that a small section of NF land outside Santa Fe, NM where I was headed next was closed for a year.

I picked a spot at least a mile outside the "designated area" that was closed.

A friendly ranger pulled up this morning and asked how long I'd been here (4 days). He started to gently/professionally inform me the area was closed. I pointed out this spot was outside the designated area. He was skeptical and rechecked the map on his phone.

I think he was embarrassed (and thinking of others he might have punted) because he wanted to show me how hard the map was to read on his phone. He also said I was the first person he talked to that had actually read the closure notice. We commiserated a while about the misuse that caused the closure.

He was a good guy and I assume he will go back and clarify the situation for anyone else he misinformed.

#takeaways

• reading the district's announcements can be both directly and indirectly useful
• bringing up the NF's official language ("designated area", "dispersed camping") seems help establish rapport

Details are on reddit. Hopefully going back there won't give anyone PTSD. :-)