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Published on the Doomstead Diner on July 5, 2015

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I'll be turning this into a series of blogs fairly soon, but I want to keep a log here of how we are prepping up for the Last Great Adventure TM for RE. This one will likely go up as it stands for next Sunday Brunch Article on the Diner Blog.

Roamer returned from his Fast/Walkabout to meditate on the loss of his friend to Stage IV Cancer last Friday yesterday. We spent the better part of the day Brainstorming ideas for developing a Doomer Bizness while troubleshooting the battery issue on the Explorer. Finally called it a night after I got today's articles up on the Blog arond 1:30AM.



When he got up around 9, we decided to take a Test Run of the Bugout Machine on a shorter more local fishing expedition, before the long trip down to Kenai for dipnetting season. This however required getting the BM ready for the trip, getting supplies and equipment we decided would be helpful to have for the fish storage while on the road, plus other errands I had to do before taking off on the trip.

First was a stop off at the Storage Units where I have the BM parked to add the new Permanent Registration Sticker to the plates. Alaska in certain areas is offering this for vehicles older than 2002 for just $25 extra. Total bargain! Roamer went to the back to put the sticker on the plate, I went to the passenger door to open it up and put the registration in the glove compartment. I open the door, and BAM, I am surrounded by about 50 Wasps! In the last 2 weeks or so they built a nest right in the upper corner above the door, underneath the overhang of the Cabin. When I opened the door it bumped the nest and they all came zooming out! I jumped back quick, and for me jumping or doing anything quick is pretty hard, so this is relatively speaking of course. LOL . I didn't get stung.

After watching them swarm around angry for a minute I yelled to Roamer to come have a look. He went over to his car to get a pole to bust up the nest, and I inched back in to kick the door shut with my better leg, the left one. A few wasps got smashed between the door and the frame, and it appeared to me looking through the windshield that only two got trapped inside. They should go Extinct in a couple of days from no food, or once we open up the doors if they are still alive will find their way back outside after a bit.

Between the Dead Crickets and the Living Wasps, I am having a lot of Insect Adventures lately! That has to be a Sign of Something.

Next up was the Battery on the Explorer, I determined it was bad after repeated attempts to charge it, but then it would be dead again the next day. I thought there was a short somewhere in the electrical system of the SUV. Finally after charging for the 3rd time, I unhooked the battery and left it overnight again. Once again dead. The Battery itself had gone bad. It's a quality battery, an Interstate I paid Top Dollar for at the Auto Shop I used to use. Not very old, I recalled maybe 2 years, with light usage.

We brought it back to the shop, the parts guy looked up my purchase on the computer, March of 2013. 27 months. Looks up the Warrantee, 30 months Full Replacement! Tests battery, sure enough a cell had gone south. That is a first for me Everything usually goes bad for me 3 months AFTER the warrantee runs out, not 3 months before. So I get a free new battery.

From there it is off to GCI, my ISP. I put the account on Auto Pay a couple of months back, but then since I Lost my Wallet I had to get the cards replaced. So I needed to get the new card attached to the account, and their online interface is dogshit. It just doesn't work right, and it is poorly organized. It wasn't too bad, only about a 10 minute wait this time, I have waited as much as 1/2 an hour there sometimes. Had to get this done though before leaving town because two months in arrears, they will cut you off usually. For me, that disaster is almost as bad (maybe WORSE!) than losing my Wallet! What if there is another Diner Disaster while I am disconnected from Broadband? ACCKKK!

From there it was off to Fred Meyer for Equipment Purchases.

One of the big issues we have discussed is how we will keep a year's worth of fish good during the Excellent Adventure? My limit is 25 salmon and 10 Flounder from dipnetting, and Roamer can fish his Daily Limit with rod & reel. At Average 10-15 lbs per salmon, the dipnet salmon alone come in at probably 300 lbs! Even with heads and tails cut off and fileted, this is way more than will fit in the BM machine fridge, which will need room for BEER anyhow!

We discussed possibly smoking them every night, but even that isn't really plausible because it would take too much time. Besides, they still should be kept chilled even after smoking.

One possibility was trying to squeeze a Chest Freezer through the door to the BM Cabin. We looked at one, an Emerson that just might fit, and we might try this, but we came up with a much more plausible plan, which is much more energy conservative also and we can probably do with our Solar PV panels.

Available now from Chinese Manufacturers are small, portable Icemakers. The one on the shelf at Fred Meyer is the Emerson IM92W.





This little unit only draws 92W, and according to spec will produce up to 26 lbs of ice, 9 cubes every 10 minutes. $109 ON SALE at Freddie's. We will bring one 60W Solar Panel and 3 5W panels, plus of course the Deep Cycle battery on the BM, plus backup generators. This will make more than enough ice run a few hours each day to keep our Coolers topped off with Ice, and I doubt we will even need to use the generators. Roamer has a 400W Inverter to use, and I have a 500W, so either should power this unit easily.

This seems to me to be the best, smallest, and most energy conservative Emergency Refrigeration plan you can do. Uses far less power than even the smallest refrigerator. More efficient than Thermoelectric, and virtually infinite storage capacity with more coolers.



On addition to the icemaker and coolers, prior to dropping the Fillets on Ice, we will Vacuum Seal them with my Vaccuum sealer, basically immediately after fileting. This will keep the filets more fresh, and they won't be swimming in the melting ice also, which even cold will get stinky after a couple of days.

So, proceedure here is:

1- Catch fish

2- Remove Head and Tail

3- Gut, Clean and Filet

4- Vaccuum Seal

5- Lay down a layer of bags on the bottom of cooler

6- Lay down a layer of ice over vacuum sealed filets

7- Rinse and repeat until cooler is full

8- Periodically replenish ice at the top of the cooler, drain water from bottom

9- Return home, transfer vaccuum sealed filets to chest freezer

10- Begin Smoking a few each day, drying some keeping some fresh frozen



Unfortunately as far as going out in the Test Run for the BM today is concerned, this took almost until 1PM, including the time to install the new battery after getting back to the digs. By the time we could get the BM ready for even a short test expedition, the day would be shot. Also, we were unsure where to go where both the BM would fit reasonably close to good fishing and it would be possible for me to maneuver the Ewz between the fishing spot and the BM, to bring back the fish to the prep center at the Base Camp of the BM in batches as they are caught, 2-3 trips per day R/T. With my two Battsets and recharging either Solar or off the generators, range between the Base Camp and the Fishing Hole probably about 3-4 miles each way playing it safe.

So instead of both of us heading out incompletely planned, Roamer has headed out on a Recon Mission to explore various locations in his SUV, both for their physical geography as well as availability of good fishing. While he is on Recon, I will bring the BM over to the digs and begin the process of organizing the preps and tools to be carried in or on top of the BM in the rack and carrier space up there. He'll do Recon through Sat, return Sun.

Besides my Ewz, we will also be bringing along a Mountain Bike and Trailer for Roamer to use to cover distances at a similar speed to the Ewz.

Then Mon we will do final checklist on the BM, make sure all tools and equipment are correctly stored and secured. After that, we will make a short 2-3 day Test Run to one of the spots within around 50 miles that he has reconnoitered to make sure all the systems are working. Assuming everything checks out, we will then head down to the Kenai Peninsula for the beginning of Dip Netting season for AK residents on July 10.

Our plan is to refine all our systems at this level first, which depends on many things currently available. However, our discussions have elucidated many ways to make many of these systems which appear to be dependent on fossil fuel input actually last well beyond the availability of said fuels.

It is a Great Adventure. Hopefully not truly my LAST Adventure, but if it is, it will be a wonderful one to finish off my time walking the earth.

Fish Refrigeration & Preservation Planning

As some of you know, Roamer and I are prepping up for a major Fishing Expedition, designed to Hunt/Gather all of our Animal Protein needs for the year over the next month utilizing our Fishing Licenses. I have an In-State License which allows me to Dip Net during the Dip Netting season which begins July 10 as well as Rod & Reel Fishing. Roamer has an Out of State guest license which allows Rod and Reel Fishing.

By itself, the Dip Netting license allows me to take up to 25 Salmon and 10 Flounder for the year. At anywhere from 10-15 lbs/salmon, this by itself is around 300 lbs of Animal Protein. After heads & tails are cut off, fish gutted, cleaned and fileted, probably about 200 lbs. Add Roamer's Rod & Reel catch, probably double this.

The biggest problem we face while out on the Expedition is preserving the fish. We will be travelling in the Bugout Machine which does have a refrigerator which is dual powered, electric or propane, but it is not very big. Besides, it will have other food and BEER in it, so not good for freshly caught and gutted fish, at least not many of them. So we needed another means to keep them good for the 4-6 days of the Adventure.

In order to do this, we need to keep them On Ice through this time period, until we can get them back to the digs to throw in the chest freezer, or smoke, dry etc. Trying to smoke and dry them while also making maximum use of the fishing time would be impossible. How to do this without constantly driving miles to go buy bags of ice at exorbitant prices?



Resolution to this problem? Today I bought a portable Ice Maker, an Emerson IM92W Countertop unit. I have just finished unboxing this device and am now testing it.

By the specs, the unit is supposed to be capable of around 26 lbs of ice per day, producing 9 Bullet shaped ice cubes every 10 minutes. After the first 3 cycles, it appears to take more like 15 minutes, but no big deal there. 26 lbs is WAY more ice than is necessary with good Coolers that are well insulated, 10 lbs per day should be plenty.

Besides the Icemaker and Coolers, we will also be bringing along a Vacuum Sealer to seal out any bacteria that might accumulate in the water as the ice melts. The processed fish filets and steaks will be vacuum sealed before dropping them in the cooler with the freshly produced Ice from the Emerson.

Where will we get the Electricity for running the Ice Machine and the Vaccuum sealer?

Well, the Bugout Machine does have a 3000W generator and I also have my 2000W Yamaha Portable generator. Both produce far more power than this unit needs to operate though, it is rated at 92W but at peak draws about 120W, still not huge power draw. So we are going to attempt to run the system SOLAR.

We will bring with us a few Solar Panels, a 60W set, and 3 5W Sets. Also we will use the Deep Cycle battery on the RV for electric storage, as well as another smaller Lawn Tractor battery I have for running it "on location" if necessary. We have a couple of Power Inverters to use, Roamer has a 400W unit and I have a 500W unit to hook up to the batteries.

Given the very long daylight we have in the summer here, we should be producing far more electricity than necessary to run the ice machine maybe 8 hours a day to produce all the ice we need to preserve the fish during the Adventure.

My next test after I finish running a few more cycles plugged in to the grid outlet will be to hook the Lawn Tractor battery to the Inverter, and run the Ice Machine off of that, and see how many cycles it can go through before draining the battery so much it won't produce enough voltage to run the ice machine. I'm going to make a WAG of 3 cycles for a battery of this size. The big Deep Cycle battery on the RV can probably do at least 10 without a recharge or input from the solar panels.

After about 1 hour while writing this post, here is how much Ice has so far been produced by the Emerson:





It's probably about 1/4 of the typical bag of ice you buy at the grocery store. So in around 4 hours, you get a full such bag of ice. Under typical conditions in the summer here with a good cooler, one bag of ice will keep all your food and beer cold for a full day, perhaps a little more depending on the ambient temperature and how often you open the cooler, which in this case won't be very often.

Efficiency wise, this beats thermoelectric coolers hands down, and it is very scalable. 1 unit like this can service I estimate 2-3 medium size coolers each day. Need more storage? Buy a second unit and more coolers. The coolers you can get on the cheap at yard sales. The Emerson itself came in ON SALE at Fred Meyer for $109, but you can find similar units as cheap as $80 each on the Net if you don't need it TODAY. So for a few hundred dollars you can put together a very resilient system with redundant units.

The biggest question mark is its dependability run constantly making ice over many days. It is of course a Chinese Manufactured product, so you never know there. So far however, this unit is performing flawlessly right out of the box. If it performs well when I run it off the battery and inverter, I will head back to Fred Meyer tomorrow to buy a second backup unit.

Obviously, this is not a long term solution, but it is a good bridging solution for periods of brownouts and blackouts, to keep refrigerated foods you have in your normal refrigerator and freezer good until power is restored to the grid, or you can get some fuel for your emergency generator to run those appliances.

As of right now, I highly recommend the Emerson IM92W as a MUST HAVE Prep.

RE