Hooray!! The day has finally come for our earth to be celebrated by people around the world! Phew!! I was getting a little worried there… The other 364 days pass by and our little blue planet spins at 1,042 mph without much fanfare from the bi-pedal creatures with opposable thumbs. Besides those of us who hug trees on the daily and go to church under the stars as part of a normal routine, billions of people hike concrete jungles and harvest food from plastic boxes, only stopping to consider their place on this planet during one contrived semi-sacred occasion. The reality is that on any given day here upon this shiny orb, there are still 1.5 billion people in the developing world living without electricity, 1 in 10 people worldwide who have no clean water whatsoever, and 2.3 billion people in the world have no access to a toilet! These fragile souls live much closer to the natural elements and are left taking stock of all that planet Earth affords them upon every waking moment.
Making the move from suburban Florida to rural New Mexico was meant to satisfy several wants and needs. One of the main objectives for starting a homestead from scratch was to live without the financial burden of paying a mortgage or facing the temptation to keep up with the Jones’ and live a life of pure convenience.
As we were wandering around the hardware store last summer we came across this AcuRite Weather Center (model 00615). We weren’t in the market for a weather station but it was on sale and as we walked the store getting the things we came for we convinced ourselves that we just couldn’t live off-grid without this particular weather station right now… Long story short we were the proud new owners of this piece of technology.
This is a 3 in 1 model, it measures; temperature/humidity (inside and out), wind speed and barometric pressure. The kit comes with a display unit and the 3 in 1 sensor that is mounted outside in a location of your choice. The display unit houses loads of good information as seen below and even has trending arrows for outside temp/humidity and pressure as well as a bottom scroller that you can adjust to flash the info that is most important to you.
Display Unit
The 3 in 1 sensor was very easy to install, and certainly seems like it would be easy to install in numerous locations. It is really the work horse as it wirelessly transmits all the data to the display unit inside. The instruction manual says to keep the display unit and sensor within 330 feet of each other and I think we are certainly at that limit and operating fine.
3 in 1 Sensor
While this a great product overall and we are certainly happy we did make the decision to buy it. We have identified a few opportunities for improvement…
1. It has a “future forecast” feature in which it “predicts” near term weather using the trending temperatures and barometric pressure. We are doing better licking our finger and sticking it out the door to create our forecasts than this weather center does.
2. We think it needs a backlight on the Display Unit. It would probably be better if we didn’t know it was 45mph winds at 1:00 in the morning but dangit we still feel we should be able to if we want to.
3. You lose your historical data when you change the batteries in the Display Unit. Simple solution is to just write it down if you are interested in saving it, wish I would have thought about that before I changed the batteries. 🙂
It’s important to understand that we weren’t shopping for a weather station so we just got one on the spur of the moment… If we had been shopping for one, it’s pretty likely that we could have found one that would have solved problems 2 and 3 at least…These are very minor flaws for us, we definitely feel like we made the right decision on this purchase. While we may upgrade to a more robust weather station in the future we think this was a great start and was Worth the Cash!
Our first winter season at Sahalee is now officially under our belts!! We learned just recently that we had a few family members bet that we wouldn’t make it (we’ll save the names for a more opportune time). Pretty sure there were even more skeptics out there, but we’re happy to report that we found ourselves on the right side of the wood pile for the winter of 16/17! Not to say that it was all pretty (and the mild weather may have gone easy on us), but we learned a lot and definitely feel a sense of accomplishment.
We got very lucky and were gifted two attachments for our power tool batteries that turn them into multi-port USB Chargers. We will do a review-of our Makita tools in the near future, but for now I just want to tell you about our experience with this neat little attachment.
There’s not really much to say, the attachment slides right onto the battery. It has two USB ports so you can charge multiple devices at the same time. My favorite feature is the dust/dirt cover that seals the USB ports when not in use. I truly don’t understand why more items of this nature (cell phones, chargers etc..) don’t have this feature as fighting the Sahalee Mud Monster is a constant struggle!!
We have several other USB Chargers, that we will review down the road but this one is our go to source for our evening lighting and charging devices. Not only are we huge fans of something so simple as a dust cover but the cordless power tool batteries just charge so quick. This saves us from draining our solar power source or from running the generator, which we hate to do.
What’s that? You own Dewalt or Milwaukee tools or another brand that is not Makita? Don’t fret, Makita is not alone in having this handy attachment just follow this link and search your brand to get one for yourself!!
So, even though it wasn’t our cash– We absolutely believe this attachment is Worth the Cash!
So it’s been about eight months. Carey and I are starting to settle into our day to day routine and Radar loves doing her hourly perimeter checks. After this time we are truly starting to get a good feel for how all the items we spent our hard earned dollars on would fare once they got continued heavy use to include making it through most of the winter. Now it’s time to let the world know, did we make wise purchases on the gear that we would come to depend on or have we whiffed completely. Maybe a little of both. Let’s find out, are these items “Worth the Cash or To the Trash”!!
Our first contestant on “Worth the Cash or To the Trash” is my pair of Danner Boots. I chose to go with the Danner East Ridge 8 inch boot for a few different reasons.
First and foremost, Danner boots are made in the USA. We are absolutely one of “those” households that will not only pay a bit more but also go out of their way to buy USA made goods as much as possible. As a side note, Danner’s pricing is in line with other quality boot manufacturers.
This is what they look like now
My other main reason for choosing these boots is that they have Vibram Soles. I won’t say much about Vibram soles as I don’t want to make this too long but click this link http://www.muckboots.com/blog/so-whats-so-awesome-about-vibram-soles/ and you will get the answer to the question “What’s so special about Vibram Soles?’.
OK, so now onto my experience with these boots. Other than my Slippers, more on those a different time, the Danners are my only footwear. These are my hiking boots, my driving boots, my grocery getting boots, my snow shoveling boots etc….I do everything in these boots and have done so for 8 months now.
Summer and Winter are two entirely different experiences when it comes to ground conditions at Sahalee. During the Summer it goes from dry hard packed terrain with little cacti strewn about like confetti at a New England Patriots Ticker Tape Parade. On these days I would return back to the yurt, start taking my boots off and stick myself with cactus. Prickly Pear all over the boots, but none of it made it through the leather lower portion or the padded ankle portion. A boot that can walk right through Prickly Pear is a great thing to have. The other true benefit that I found during the Summer Season was the ability for my feet to stay cool inside the Danners. I think we can all agree that a day of sweaty feet in work boots is not very pleasant. So we know the Danners are great in Summer–good sturdy boots, keep your feet cool, great Vibram soles produce great traction and they are just comfortable to walk in but what about Winter?
While Winter doesn’t produce the prickly pear cactus like Summer does, it does present some unique challenges that need to be considered when buying a pair of boots. The first challenge, and my only complaint, is just the snow and cold. While they are insulated and waterproof, it’s just not the same as putting a good pair of moon boots or Sorrells on when it’s down in the single digits. Multiple layers of socks are always nice, but then the boot just doesn’t fit right. Another real life challenge for these boots was the acquisition of 5 cords of firewood prior to and during Winter. While I never got the opportunity to see how they would handle a chainsaw, they did handle the work very well. These boots do not have a steel toe, and that is all right by me. They have a very tough leather toe that has had many meetings with multiple saw rounds and many a split log, other than a sore toe once they withstood the beating.
In our game of “Worth the Cash or To the Trash” Carey and I can both safely say that the Danner East Ridge boot is “WORTH THE CASH”!!!!!!
Interested in checking out these boots for yourself? Click on one of the Danner Hyperlinks to go to Amazon see for yourself!
So it’s been about eight months. Carey and I are starting to settle into our day to day routine and Radar loves doing her hourly perimeter checks. After this time we are truly starting to get a good feel for how all the items we spent our hard earned dollars on would fare once they got continued heavy use to include making it through most of the winter. Now it’s time to let the world know, did we make wise purchases on the gear that we would come to depend on or have we whiffed completely. Maybe a little of both. Let’s find out, are these items “Worth the Cash or To the Trash”!!
Our first contestant on “Worth the Cash or To the Trash” is my pair of Danner Boots. I chose to go with the Danner East Ridge 8 inch boot for a few different reasons.
If anyone is pondering their fitness goals for the new year, I can honestly say that nothing works as well as moving off-grid. Before we had a chance to hit the scales during our visit with the Colorado fam for Thanksgiving, we could only guess at how much weight we had lost since moving to the mountains in June.
