we've been snowed in for almost 3 weeks now. got out 1 day between snows and freezes. the weather is suppose to break on sunday and next week should be warm and Very wet. Almost all of the Greenhouse components have arrived, there was 1 day warm enough to paint the PVC poles. PVC can not come in direct contact with the UV/radiant/thermal coated greenhouse plastic or the plastic will deteriorate faster, voids warranty if you have one. we got a deal instead of a warranty. greenhouse plastic of the size we are using would have cost 200 bucks To Ship on top of the 3 to 400 price tag. The folks at Gritt's Greenhouse happened to have an ancient roll that no longer fit their Ginormous greenhouses it was a considerable savings. thanks Gritt's Greenhouse for hooking us up with the plastic for our greenhouse and a bunch of used coconut hull hydroponic grow bags (to be used for seed starting soil amendment/potting soil) the solar food dehydrator is finally complete, waiting for assembly. after analyzing the cost & time of building a cabinet style dehydrator box we were pleased to find this double shower tent that should serve the purpose by hanging our collapsible dehydrating racks from the roof and injecting the solar can heater air at the bottom of the tent. we're mid process on bottling 2 batches of blackberry wine and a gallon of elderberry. h's producing a low budget infomercial for a friends product. it was suppose to be finished by now be we got snowed in.
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Wanted to ask and get the question out there about solar cooking.... what experiences if any have you all had?
we cooked some soup on a hot bus engine the other day.. ;~) I've looked into solar cookers but have not tried any. this one seems really popular for a mass produced model http://www.sunoven.com or you could make your own http://solarcooking.org/plans/ The Fresnel lens ones scare me because they focus extreme heat on a tight spot .. seems like you easily burn yourself badly. the vacuum tube style seems like they don't cook enough food to bother with. let us know if you try it and how it works out.
It gets incredibly hot out on our deck in the summer as it faces west. So from mid-day on it's in the sun. Thanks for the links, I'll check into them, and if I start trying to cook solar and have any success I'll let you know.
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