7:15 a.m. I've been up since before 6:00 and realize that I have arrived at my true off-the-grid experience. My various batteries, which have given me a cushion so far, are very low, if not dead.
My laptop needs charging but, when I plugged it into the inverter, an alarm went off. I hastily unplugged it and turned off the inverter as it drains power.
My 12-volt fridge is running only sporadically. My cell phone is at 40% battery. I realized I left five programs running in the background of my phone, which drains the battery faster. Darn! I shut them off, went to 'settings' and turned off the wireless feature. I make a mental note to research cell phone battery use.
My lovely little solar radio lost its charge two days ago. I have been using the hand-crank which gives me a few minutes of radio before I need to wind it again. The manual said that one minute of winding gives about seven minutes of radio. A full charge is 100 minutes of winding or 11-15 hours of strong sunlight. I'll leave it in the sun when I go to work today.
At 7:15 I put my oatmeal with raisins in the solar cooker - just as soon as the sun hit the ground. I have to be at work at 9:00 so I hope it will be cooked in time. I notice that the sun is not as intense in the early morning so breakfast cooks slower.
On July 2, the day after I waxed lyrical in this blog about my delicious French toast covered with raspberries, I made French toast again. But this time I had to be at work by 9:00. I put the egg-soaked bread in the solar cooker at 7:30 but it was only 2/3 cooked when I pulled it out of the cooker at 8:40. I smothered it in rhubarb stew (solar cooked in my first solar experiment) and it wasn't bad. I made it to work on time anyway.
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| My grandmother, Agatha Barraud, in 1929. |
Unable to charge my laptop and wanting to work on the blog, I pulled out my grandmother's 1920s Remington typewriter which I haven't used since I left Botswana. I typed many letters on this typewriter in my hut by candlelight after Grannie gave it to me - delivered by my parents during a visit. I love the clack, clack, clack of the keys. Somehow those keys seem to bring more clarity to my writing.
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| This is me in my first house in Kang, Botswana in 1991. I bought a manual typewriter in Gaborone, the capital until my parents arrived for a visit with Grannie's typewriter. I don't know if you can see that I have a chicken sitting on my left arm. Cosmo, The Wonder Chick, liked to sit on my hands as I typed. I would put him on my shoulder and he invariably would end up perching on my head as I typed. I guess it was a good compromise. |
July 9 updates
The oatmeal never did cook on time and I'm really starting to pay attention to the time of day that I cook.
The solar radio works very well if I just make sure it's out in the sun most of the day when I'm not using it.
My hot water strategy for dishes and showers - hanging a black solar-heated shower bag in the sun - is working splendidly. Most days I can enjoy a hot shower by carrying the heated bag to a hook in my shower. On cloudy days I'll simply have a bucket bath, which is refreshing in this heat.
Today's challenge: laundry. Stay tuned.
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