We're lucky enough to be eating from the garden a little! Well, little isn't what I'd call this beetroot (and the biggest is still in the ground!)...
The beans are quite flavourful and have a nice texture - as long as we keep picking them small! The large ones are not really edible. :p
Something we've been aiming towards for some time now, has been getting rid of our old inefficient fridge and replacing it with a chest-fridge instead. The power savings are suppose to be well worth a little inconvenience. Now, generally we can't just go out and buy chest-fridges from the local shop, so we had to convert a chest freezer.
The unit that controls the temperature is a Fridgemate, and we followed the assembly instructions given in Rob's blog. The unit is in the background, and the hobby box is in the fore.
While I cut the hobby box to fit the unit..
..Marty stripped the wires of an extension cord.
A fair amount of fiddling around later (it was all-consuming and we forgot to take pictures of the process!!), we ended up with this box sitting on the new fridge!! We attached it with velcro so it doesn't fall off when we open the lid.
That's the "pretty" shot, and this is how it looks like now we've been at it!
It looks like our old fridge, but squat! As well as the significant power savings, it also makes the kitchen seem bigger (which is always welcome!) and we're both very happy with it. I'm keeping tabs on the power usage, and I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes.
Other news in Stawell: Last night we attended a meeting by the Stawell Climate Action Group. They would like to get as many people within a 50km radius of Stawell to sign up for solar power before June 30th. (After June 30th the Australian Government rebate will change from offering upto $8,000 for installation for people earning under $100,000 a year, to a lesser rebate offered to everyone regardless of income - we would like to take advantage of the current scheme).
We expressed our interest along with quite a few others in town. We just hope that enough people sign up to make it happen! So, if anyone living around this area would like to be involved, send us an email and we'll give you the contact details to find out more information.
Until next time!
I hope you get enough people to sign up. Here we have a big free energy source in the sky as well as wind power and water power that is not being used enough. Good luck. Oh and good job on the fridge.
ReplyDeleteveggies look good but what do you do with beet root? I like the after shot of the fridge better. It looks more homey. And I hope you get the solar energy. I think people would be dumb not to sigh up for it. Wish we had something like that available here.
ReplyDeleteWe only use the beetroot in 2 different ways - one is just steamed along with the other vegetables we're having that night, and the other is in a "No Tomato Sauce" we make. It's a replacement for tomato sauce or tomato paste without the tomato (since we're not allowed cooked tomatoes on our diet). It tastes great, almost like the "real" thing!! I'll have to post the recipe. :)
ReplyDeletecould you post that "no tomato sauce" recipe? sounds good!
ReplyDelete