Big dreams, small living, off-grid homestead from scratch

[G00SE]

Was able to save 2200 dollars in renting a rock hammer today by moving my house 100ft further from the well . Bedrock where we wanted at 4ft. Flipping the tank allowed the leech fields to remain in permitted location but meant the house would need to be on the opposite side of the leech fields that we originally intended.

Oh well, now the well house and solar can be well clear of the barndo.
These tanks are monsters. For reference it is 6’ tall!

 

[G00SE]

 

[G00SE]

Oh I almost forgot. Discovered our foster herd of goat and sheep had a lamb over the winter. Hadn’t seen him out until this week.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

Oh I almost forgot. Discovered our foster herd of goat and sheep had a lamb over the winter. Hadn’t seen him out until this week.
View attachment 209789

just in time for spring leg of lamb roast....

 

[Johneb]

Maybe. I just don’t prefer cooking on electric cook tops

We have always been gas is the best, but we bought an all electric house. Putting in gas was cost prohibitive. Then we happened on an induction stove/oven. It works as good as gas hands down.

 

[G00SE]

We have always been gas is the best, but we bought an all electric house. Putting in gas was cost prohibitive. Then we happened on an induction stove/oven. It works as good as gas hands down.

@ksmithaz1 also seems to praise his induction cooktop a lot.
As time goes on I lean further and further away from plumbing the house with gas. I may just go full electric and use wood and outdoor equipment for alternative “needs”

In your electric house did you cook on both standard electric and then the induction? If so, it was that different? In what ways. I’m intrigued

 

[42OhmsPA]

did you cook on both standard electric and then the induction? If so, it was that different? In what ways. I’m intrigued

Hooked my electric oven / range back up last weekend (I've been using a small 120V induction cooktop and convection oven) to make use of excess solar / cook bigger things.
Induction heats up much faster, noticeable difference in the time it takes to boil water. The temperature control is more precise than conventional, this is great for simmering, low boil, etc. The rapid cool down of the induction top is awesome. It's also way easier to clean.
I think it's better all around.

I'll continue to use the 120V induction top as my primary burner and have full size induction in my next house.

 

[G00SE]

As long as I can use cast iron (which seems like a no brainer for induction) it might be the route I need to go

 

[MTM98290]

My parents use an induction cooktop and it doesn't seem to burn the seasoning off the the bottom of cast iron nearly as easy as our electric coils seem to. They are much more controllable for sure.

 

[42OhmsPA]

As long as I can use cast iron (which seems like a no brainer for induction) it might be the route I need to go

That's my favorite pan to use with induction, followed by my ninja pans.

 

[Johneb]

@ksmithaz1 also seems to praise his induction cooktop a lot.
As time goes on I lean further and further away from plumbing the house with gas. I may just go full electric and use wood and outdoor equipment for alternative “needs”

In your electric house did you cook on both standard electric and then the induction? If so, it was that different? In what ways. I’m intrigued

We had the old coil electric at first. The induction is leaps and bounds better then it. As others have mentioned, faster heat up, cool down is almost immediate since it is the pan thats heating not the stove top. Much better temp control. We bought an Amana which just gives us level 1-9,H,P so there was a slight learning curve. Didn't take long at all. There are more expensive models out there that might give even better temp control. All in all we really like ours and even bought a noodle board to cover it when not in use to prevent damage to the stove top. Besides the noodle board can be used as extra working space when chopping,pressing,forming vegetables and such for future use. And yes cast iron is great for this stove.

 

[Johneb]

Also, this johneb's wife. We WANTED a gas range, but would have needed exhaust fan to vent to OUTSIDE., and other additional expenses .
SOME of the cookware you own may work, but most of ours had to be replaced. (I felt sad when we let go of our Revereware.)
We thought stainless steel pans would be good, but we found clean-up frustrating for the things we cook most often. We like it and were going to keep it.

 

[Johneb]

We bought Thyme and table at wall mart. Love the non stick and even cooking.

 

[Johneb]

We started by buying a two burner table top induction stove to try before we went whole hog on our slide in model. The two burner is now in our camper.

 

[G00SE]

County came out today, final stamp of approval!
All done, just getting the trenches covered back up.
In total, 163’ of trench dug, 3ft wide x 3ft deep (3 leech lines) with a 6ft tall 1250 gallon tank.

 

[ksmithaz1]

As long as I can use cast iron (which seems like a no brainer for induction) it might be the route I need to go

You will pry my cast iron cookware out of my cold dead hands. Induction loves cast iron. Get some hi-temp silicon mats, and put them under the skillet while cooking. Keeps you from scratching the surface. It has to be the hi-temp stuff. I just cut a big square of mat and punched some holes with a leather punch to mark the "burner" area, and covered the whole thing. A little ugly. It (the mat) will get wrecked if you over-do it on the heat / over time. The silicon squares you can buy are really expensive, which is weird. The steel disks that allow you to use a non-induction pot are worthless just buy induction pots. I got an induction saute pan at a Goodwill, that I donated all my non-induction stuff to .

You can set a stick of butter still in the wrapper on the surface of your induction cooktop a few inches away from a cast iron skillet with a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches crisping up, while you butter the other side, wrap it up and put it back in the fridge once your done, and it won't turn into a puddle. If you put it on 'P'reheat with a pasta sized pot full of water, you *may* have time to go pee before it starts boiling over. It will stop boiling instantly if you turn the burner off.

Natural gas takes forever to boil water, propane is somewhat hotter. When you adjust a gas jet you do not adjust the temperature, you adjust the heat volume. Electric cooktops adjust temperature and volume. Thus to "simmer" on a gas stove requires some kind of diffusion. Cast iron is good because it dissipates the heat more evenly. Some of the higher end gas stoves have funky burners to work around the temperature issues. I think its easier to cook on electric, and induction removes the annoyance of hot burners/glass, as well as the prolonged heat up time, while keeping the ease of cleaning, and maintenance of an electric. You can wipe down an induction cooktop with a damp cloth, within a minute of removing the pot. You can mop up a spillover without turning anything off.

I'm a fan.

 

[Johneb]

You will pry my cast iron cookware out of my cold dead hands. Induction loves cast iron. Get some hi-temp silicon mats, and put them under the skillet while cooking. Keeps you from scratching the surface. It has to be the hi-temp stuff. I just cut a big square of mat and punched some holes with a leather punch to mark the "burner" area, and covered the whole thing. A little ugly. It (the mat) will get wrecked if you over-do it on the heat / over time. The silicon squares you can buy are really expensive, which is weird. The steel disks that allow you to use a non-induction pot are worthless just buy induction pots. I got an induction saute pan at a Goodwill, that I donated all my non-induction stuff to .

You can set a stick of butter still in the wrapper on the surface of your induction cooktop a few inches away from a cast iron skillet with a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches crisping up, while you butter the other side, wrap it up and put it back in the fridge once your done, and it won't turn into a puddle. If you put it on 'P'reheat with a pasta sized pot full of water, you *may* have time to go pee before it starts boiling over. It will stop boiling instantly if you turn the burner off.

Natural gas takes forever to boil water, propane is somewhat hotter. When you adjust a gas jet you do not adjust the temperature, you adjust the heat volume. Electric cooktops adjust temperature and volume. Thus to "simmer" on a gas stove requires some kind of diffusion. Cast iron is good because it dissipates the heat more evenly. Some of the higher end gas stoves have funky burners to work around the temperature issues. I think its easier to cook on electric, and induction removes the annoyance of hot burners/glass, as well as the prolonged heat up time, while keeping the ease of cleaning, and maintenance of an electric. You can wipe down an induction cooktop with a damp cloth, within a minute of removing the pot. You can mop up a spillover without turning anything off.

I'm a fan.

Can give us a picture of these mats?

 

[Johneb]

Goose, as you can tell there are a few of us who are fans of induction cooking. The best part is they use way less energy too.

 

[Danke]

You will pry my cast iron cookware out of my cold dead hands. Induction loves cast iron. Get some hi-temp silicon mats, and put them under the skillet while cooking. Keeps you from scratching the surface. It has to be the hi-temp stuff.

Something like this?

Amazon.com

 

[ksmithaz1]

Can give us a picture of these mats?

Amazon.com