What Is It (and what’s in the box):

This Work Sharp basically amounts to a hand held belt sander.  For the Alton Brown fans among us, this device is definitely a Multi-Tasker.  The package comes with several angle guides and some different grits of sanding belts.  The coarsest grit is for sharpening tools like shovels, axes or lawn mower blades.  The medium grit is for fixing up damaged or really dull blades.  The fine grit is for putting on a razor sharp polish.

Also included in the package are some angle guides.  There is a 40 degree guide mainly used for kitchen knives.  There is an outdoor guide that puts on a 50 degree edge.  The outdoor guide also includes a slot for sharpening serrated edges and for scissors/shears.

The kit also comes with an instruction guide and DVD.  I haven’t watched the DVD yet.  (So far the operation has been fairly straight forward)

How To Use It:

In the 10 months or so that I’ve had the Work Sharp I’ve sharpened probably 30-40 knives as well as a shovel, axe and lawn mower blade.  The basic operation for any of these surfaces is this:

1. Pick the desired grit of sanding belt.  The belt is put on the Work Sharp by locking one of the guide pulleys out of the way and sliding on/off the belt, then resetting the pulley.
2. Pick the desired sharpening angle.  Picking the correct angle is probably an entire article itself.  The basics are this:  The narrower the angle, the sharper you can get, but you loose strength (think razor blade.  It’s super sharp, but can’t take much abuse).  The wider the angle the less potential sharpness, but the blade will be more durable (think axe).  The 40 degree guide will be good for kitchen knives.  You want them to be sharper, but you are often pretty careful what you are cutting with them.  The 50 degree angle is better for pocket knives where you will face a variety of cutting tasks, and you want the blade to last as long as possible.  If what you are trying to sharpen has a common angle, then you can just use on of the preset guides.  Or if you have a steady hand you can skip the guide.  If using one of the preset guides then slide it over the belt.
3. Using smooth even pulls, drag the blade through the guide.  You don’t want to go to slowly because you can burn the blade or cause uneven spots.
4. The number of passes over the belt will just depend on the condition of your blade.  The manual gives some good guidelines for how many times you’ll need to run the blade through the sharpener.
5. Wipe the silly grin off your face when you realize how sharp your tool is and how fast it was.

Observations:

After sharpening quite a few blades I’ve noticed a few things.  First of all the edge that is created with the Work Sharp is very durable.  I used to have to sharpen my kitchen knives on a fairly regular basis.  Now I just use my honing steel, and the edges will keep for months and months.  Also the edges that are produced with the Work Sharp are extremely sharp.

When I made my initial purchase I got an extra set of sanding belts.  I’m still on my original set of belts, and they aren’t really even showing any signs of needing to be replaced.  I imagine, depending on your usage, you could go for several years just on the set of belts that are included in the box.  Throw in some backups and you’ll be set for quite a while.

After the break you’ll find a complete unboxing and review of the 7 liter Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker as well as an introduction to thermal cookers and why they matter to preppers.

Unboxing

First things first, here are some pictures documenting the unboxing process.

This is what is shipped to you, a fairly plain cardboard box with the shipping label, etc. attached.

Opening the box reveals a well packaged inner box cushioned by some foam peanuts.

Here is the inner box removed. It has a handle built into the box to facilitate removing the box from the packaging. It also makes a nice storage box for the cooker later on.

Saratoga Jacks has done a nice job in branding the box.

The full logo is on the side of the box.

Once the box is opened, there is an instruction sheet with some bad English translations. We’ve been told that a new set of instructions and a recipe book will be included in any cookers purchased in time for Christmas. The cooker is cradled by an upper and lower piece of Styrofoam to protect it while in the box.

Further protecting the finish on the cooker is a plastic bag.

Finally, the cooker is revealed. What you can’t see in these pictures is a sturdy fold down handle for carrying the cooker.

With the lid open, there is an pot lid and some foldable handles in evidence.

Removing the lid reveals a small pot inside a larger pot.

The small pot has been removed.

The thermal cooker with all the internal pots and lids removed.

What is a Thermal Cooker?

So, if you are like me you are wondering what a thermal cooker is and how does this fit into being a prepper? A thermal cooker is essentially a crock pot that does not use any electricty or fuel source to cook food. Given that cryptic explanation you might be asking yourself how this works. To illustrate this, let me explain how we recently cooked a nice dinner in our cooker. You might also want to review a post Jayce did several years ago on cooking oatmeal and cereals in a Thermos.

We started off by putting some rice in the small pot with some water. Next we put some chicken, chopped vegetables, potatoes and some stock and spices into the larger pot. Both pots were put on our gas stove and brought to a hard boil. After boiling for about 4 solid minutes we pulled both pots off the stove and placed them in the thermal cooker, sealing the lid.

Six hours later we opened up the cooker and had a nice, piping hot meal from straight from the cooker. The cooker is a highly insulated container which due to its insulation efficiency loses very little heat over time. When you place a partially cooked but hot meal into the cooker then seal it, the heat is contained in the cooker and the contents continue to cook due using the thermal mass of the meal itself.

Prepper Usage

From a prepper perspective this allows for a very efficient use of fuel. Rather than simmer something on the stove for hours you can instead minimize the amount of fuel consumed by putting the pots into the thermal cooker after a few minutes of heating. Your camping stove for example would be on for 5 minutes rather than for 40 minutes. We’ve also found that this is a great way to prepare food in advance to take along with us.

If we know we will be traveling for several hours we can prepare a meal in the thermal cooker and bring it along with us. After several hours, when it is time to eat, the meal has fully cooked without the need for continuous fuel use. This also removes the worry of leaving a crock pot on during the day while you are away. I don’t like to do this as it presents a possible fire hazard. A thermal cooker eliminates this concern for my family.

I don’t have direct experience with some other competing thermal cookers, but I do know that this product is made well from quality components. There are currently two sizes available, a 5.5 liter and a 7 liter model. In order to reduce heat loss to the air, you want to be sure to use the correct sized model for your needs. A partially filled cooker will not maintain heat with the same efficiency as a full cooker due to heat loss into the air gap above a partially full cooker.

The Thermal Cooker also makes for a nice cooler. In the same way that the cooker’s insulation seals in the heat, it can be used as a cooler to keep things cold for reasonably long periods of time. This provides a secondary usage for this tool and helps us to limit uni-tasker devices in our preps.

Critiques

The 5.5 liter model will cook a meal for 3-5 people while a 7 liter will hold a meal for 6-10 people. You’ll want to use the model that fits the size of the meal you are cooking. Sometimes it isn’t convenient to cook a larger meal just to fill a cooker, and I don’t want to have to buy two cookers to handle both small and large meals. To that end I hope that Saratoga Jacks comes up with an add on to the 7 liter model perhaps consisting of an insulated sleeve and a small pot that would allow you to efficiently cook a smaller meal in the larger cooker without needing to purchase a complete cooker.

Word of Caution

One additional note that perhaps doesn’t need to be said. The thermal cooker is NOT meant to be heated directly. You heat the inner pots OUTSIDE the cooker, then place the hot pots into the cooker. The cooker has plastic components which will melt should you attempt to put the cooker over a flame or other heat source. Heat the pots, not the cooker! :)

Conclusion

Overall my wife and I have both enjoyed using this new tool. It has the potential to save us money on gas and electric bills and can reduce fuel consumption in an emergency. If you are interested in this, give them a call. If there is enough interest we may try running a group buy as well to save our readers some cash on these cookers.. Please post a comment below and we can answer any questions you might have about this review.

Wrap-It-Ice by Shield-Safety

Today I decided to write a little review on a product that I really wish I didn’t have to do. The reason for this is not for a lack of quality in the product, but the fact that I actually needed to use it. Yes, this is a first-aid bandage that I’ve had sitting in my cabinet waiting until needed, and now it is.

Several months ago I met with Mike at Shield-Safety, and went through their sales pitch about some first-aid products they had.  While a lot of what they did was not new, they had several things that did pique my interest and stand out as something I wanted to buy. Now I’m not normally a person to give into a home sales pitch, but the Shield-Safety people approached us a little bit differently, they taught first-aid basics, and how to actually use the different items that you should have available in a home first-aid station. One of the products they had that got my attention was a sealed wrap for sprains.

I’ve always had a nice supply of compression wrap bandages to deal with my always twisting ankles. So why would I need something different? Well one of the main things you always need after a sprain is to keep the wounded area cold. The common way to do this is to surround with ice, however ice is too cold and to keep from causing more damage you follow the pattern of icing for fifteen minutes, then keeping it off for fifteen.  The Wrap-It-Ice product helps with this by taking your gauze wrap, and keeps it soaked in Ethanol, Arnica, and Menthol.

Ethanol

Ethanol is included for two reasons that I can easily see. First the wood-grain alcohol has a good, known evaporation rate. This evaporation acts like sweating to actually cool the compressed area down.  Secondly, while I wouldn’t want this on an open wound obviously, it does act as an antiseptic helping keep things clean.

Arnica

This was a new one for me. Apparently Arnica refers to several plants related to the sunflower that collectively contain traces of thymol. And since I’m sure that leaves you with questions the same way it left me let me summarize some things I found online. Thymol is used in liniments and ointments because it is clinically proven to help with surface capillary damage (bruises), both in pain and in restoration. Also it seems to be used as a fungicide, and antiseptic. Not bad for extra features.

Menthol

This is another great “multitasker” in sprain or bruise treatment. Menthol provides:

• A local/topical analgesic – gets rid of some of the pain
• Is a smooth muscle relaxant – lowers the tension and pain
• Is antipruritic – reduces itching
• Increases the cooling “sensation” – Feels better
• Essential – Usually made up from essential oils, and provides a smell that has a psychologically calming effect.

Getting Wrapped

After a rather hard week at work, my wife and I decided to join several other couples last week at a volleyball night at our church. The fun evening ended (I should have expected it) when I landed wrong, and quite severely rolled my ankle. Having plenty of experience in the matter, I quickly got my shoe off, some ice on, and elevated my foot to quickly stabilize myself.  After a few minutes, and allowing myself to get over the “CRAP THIS HURTS”, we went home so I could give it a little better treatment. My wife went to grab a bandage, and came back with one of the Wrap-It-Ice packages, deciding that now was as good of a time as any to see if it really lived up to its claims.  We opened the pouch and dressed the ankle as normal, the only difference in that the bandage was quite wet.

For the first minute or so, I really didn’t feel much (outside of the “CRAP THIS HURTS”), but shortly after I began to feel what I’d hoped for.  A nice cool sensation was starting to penetrate into my skin, and the aforementioned pain started getting pushed away.  While I wouldn’t expect this to get rid of all pain, it very quickly made a notable difference, and after my ibuprofen kicked in, I was feeling quite well about things as long as I didn’t step on the darn foot.

Conclusion

The bandages claim that they will provide “An hour of instant cooling and compression”.  Well about a minute to cut through a very painful sprain is about as instant as I think you can get, and that really did impress me.  As for an hour, it seemed to go a bit longer. And yes, it was quite cool, but not frigid like ice so I didn’t have to rotate.  It kept my ankle and a very steady temperature the whole time. I really do think it helped prevent the heavy bruising that I was expecting, and minimized my swelling (along with the proper procedures of elevating, and taking ibuprofen of course).

Now, could you make this yourself? I’m sure you could add alcohol and some essential oils to your bandage and get at least some of the benefits of this product. Even better if you can find a source and the proper dosage of that Arnica. I’d go so far as to say that would be a very good thing to learn and have on hand no matter what. BUT, this was actually a quite impressive product, at a pretty sane price for a medical item.  They come in a nice sealed container so you don’t have to take the time to mix it together, and they’re made for a local company that seems to be trying pretty hard to not just sell first-aid equipment, but really wants to teach you how to use it.

For me, yeah, I want to learn how to do it myself. But I know I’ll be buying a replacement for my medicine cabinet as well. It’s a well-made product that really delivered as promised. And while I would have rather not had the opportunity to review it, I’m really glad it came out well in this real-world test. Go check it out for yourself: Wrap-It-Ice.

Ova-Easy Hearty Whole Eggs.  My first thought was just another freeze-dried, or worse, powdered egg.  But I had to read.  Turns out this is a newer process to long-term egg storage. Crystalized whole eggs, no preservatives.

Process

According to the Nutriom web site (the Ova-Easy manufacturer), crystalized eggs are dried in a very low heat evaporative manner so that the eggs arent’ cooked in the drying process.  This leaves a fine, sandy crystal instead of the powder you usually see with a dehydrated egg.

Using Ova-Easy Eggs

This is the part that can often be scary.  Up on a mountain with several very hungry guys, who are awaiting your breakfast.  Sometimes experiments like this dont’ turn out well, and you’d better have some backup oatmeal ready to go quick. However, this time I was lucky with my gamble.

I started out by opening the small package show above.  The package claimed it held one dozen eggs in crystallized form.  Based on the size I was a little leery, even knowing how much of an egg is water, it seemed awfully small.  I poured in the yellow sand and added the water required and watched for a second.  It really did look just like water on sand, and I had a quick fear that this was not going to mix!  The two just sat separate from each other, not even attempting a familiar clumping that you might see with most powdered mixes.  But then I began to actually stir, and it was amazing how quickly it turned into a quicksand, and then into straight up mixed eggs, just like you would see if you had cracked several for yourself.

Results

As the eggs were cooking, I tossed in the basics: Green onion, black pepper, salt, cheese, etc.  The resulting scramble mix was served on tortillas as seen.  And the hunger riots among my friends stopped. This was real egg, real good, on a backpacking trip.  As for the amount, it really was about a dozen “Large” eggs.

OvaEasy vs Powdered

No contest. The only thing powdered eggs have going for them here is that you can actually make them at home. But the taste is totally different. OvaEasy actually tastes like eggs, whereas the powdered always have a funny flavor.  Check out the OvaEasy page for some other great information regarding different molecule buildup in powdered eggs as well!

OvaEasy vs Freeze-dried

Apples to Oranges here. Freeze-dried eggs are simple, and tasty. But they are also more expensive, and you are buying a meal as-is. These are just eggs, that you can use for cooking anything. So if you’re like me and at times enjoy cooking something a bit more fancy on the trail, freeze-dried won’t work for you.  This is just a raw ingredient in packable form, instead of a processed meal.

OvaEasy vs Real

Now I’ve done plenty of camps where I’ve taken real eggs. Often I’ll just pre-crack the eggs into a small dish that I can seal, and often freeze them.  But for backpacking OvaEasy makes this much nicer, especially on a long trip.  They also have a well tested shelf life, tested at a true 7 years. Although companies may advertise a long shelf for a variety of reasons they generally never last as long as the label claims.

Should you be cooking something that needs just the whites, there is a separate “Just Whites” product.  The product being reviewed is an already mixed full egg in this package so you will need to purchase two products if you want to use both egg whites and whole eggs. Real eggs of course allow you to do this without having to buy different products.

Of course you’ll pay a premium to buy eggs processed and packaged in this manner, so of course plain old eggs will be cheaper but for quick and easy not to mention safe packability, OvaEasy is going to win most of the time.  Given these benefits, the price isn’t that bad.

Conclusion

OvaEasy is now one of my go-to products for camping. They taste ‘right’, they are lightweight and they store well.  In the case of long term food storage, it is obviously better to have some chickens around giving you fresh eggs. However, most people don’t have that, and with the powerful nutritional value of eggs, you should definitely look at adding these to your storage.

OvaEasy Powdered Whole Egg (4.5 oz Bag)

OvaEasy Powdered Whole Eggs – Case (12 x 4.5 oz Bags)

What made this choice even better was the timing. I just happened to be heading up that weekend with the guys for a little man-camp time.  What a better way to test things out.

One of my favorite things about this sample was that they sent the individual portion boil-bags, perfect for backpacking.  When you are storing for your long-term food supply, you’ll likely be looking at larger amounts of food, probably #10 cans.  For hiking though, these are perfect.

On a long hike, freeze-dried food really shines.  As a kid I remember hearing about it and wishing I could have some for camping, but back then it had an even higher cost margin over basic foods than today.  Thankfully with the growth of competition from companies like Daily Bread, prices have come down overall.  Freeze drying brings food down to the lightest weight possible.  And unlike normal dehydration you can have a wider selection of cooked entrees.

Cooking the meal of course can’t be simpler.  Using my small stove pictured I boiled a small amount of water (2 cups), poured in the bag, and let sit for a few minutes.  Anybody who hasn’t actually tried a freeze-dried meal is really missing out on the joys of this process.  This bag of powder quickly reforms into real food. Actual noodles, sauce, and meat that reshape, and hold real color.

This is an important part, especially if you are feeding a family.  My kids can be the kings of picky, and yet unlike your average camp cooking you don’t fear dishing this out in daylight.  The food actually looks good, smells good, and has the correct texture.  Anybody who’s had partially rehydrated food knows why thats a big claim to make.

Specifically, this stroganoff is a winner.  I ate the two serving portion myself, of course. High altitude, extra calorie needs, please remember those when planning how much food you need! It tasted great, seasoned, lacking only a bit of pepper (which I like more of than most people).

Lightweight, less work, less water needs, less fuel needs, and real comfort food. All of these combine to make a winning product well worth bringing in as part of your long term food storage.

As for getting the food, Daily Bread’s concept is to take the work out of planning your meals by selling pre-designed meal plans. You can “subscribe” to get monthly deliveries of your food in a pay as you go plan. These deliveries give you #10 cans of foods such as this that you can then use as needed to feed your family, whatever the size.

This book also stood out to me, because I often wonder *how* my family managed to get enough food to live.  My mom’s side of the family was that oft-discussed “hearty pioneer stock”.  However I have noticed that while many farmed to live, I have a long history of blacksmiths and military.  There is no hiding that this must be because I inherited a really lousy black-thumb, they took up other trades because of this family curse. I’m one of those people who has to work really hard to make part of his garden succeed.  I enjoy blaming my heritage on this, as it cannot be some failing of my own, right?  So I felt driven to read this book, and find out how they managed to live, despite my inability to grow enough of the right foods in the wasteland of Utah.

Quick Summary:

Audience: Frustrated gardeners, those looking for more season to grow, people who feel they need to change their gardening to be more useful.

Target Location: The author speaks heavily about his experiences in the mountain west/high desert regions (specifically Utah valley). Skills discussed will make farming there much easier, and everywhere else is just easy :)

Mormons Only? No, not even close. This is mentioned specifically because of the historical hardships they encountered when arriving in Utah, and attempting to farm in what was considered a barren land. The author relies on some old family journals for historical information to help understand why certain farming techniques work, and why we shouldnt’ have forgotten them.

The Full Review:

Forgotten Skills is an encouraging read, introducing people of the mountain west to the fact that they can grow food year-round, even in our crazy climate.  The author relies heavily on pioneer journals (mostly from his family) in order to reference specific practices for growing and preserving food that are completely foreign to most people today.  Granted, experienced readers of this blog might be familiar with many specific concepts, such as: non-hybrid seeds, canning, etc; the author goes into extra depth about how these practices were used to simply stay alive in not so distant years.  Beyond some more recently popular topics, there is great encouragement into practices that can be used by people with even small yards to produce and store food year-round by simply changing certain practices in your gardening.

This book in not designed however as a be-all reference. At only 145 pages, with many great photos, you wont’ find a book that teaches every single thing you need to be independent.  However it introduces a good number of important practices, provides basic reasoning as to why it was an important skill, and provides some modern usage examples. It makes sure you know enough about what the skill is, and gives you what you need to find more information if you want. Example: After a great discussion about seed hybridization practices, and their effects, he also spends time explaining how seed banks work and how you can participate in one to get useful seeds in your garden.

Major Topics:

Here is a list of some of the major topics covered that should get the interest of our readers:

• Seeds
• Extending the harvest
• Perennial food plants
• Trees
• Cellaring
• Long Keeping Foods
• Early Veggies
• Pioneer Yeast
• Modern Ideas the Pioneers Would Have Appreciated
• Eggs
• Chickens
• Forgotten Recipes

My Sherpa gear

Recently, Mike published an article introducing a local company named Goal0 (article link). They develop solar products to fit a wider variety of needs than your average solar pack, and so we were very intrigued as to their application to a prepper mindset.

Elite/Sherpa Products

In reviewing the different models, I decided to purchase some of the Sherpa series of products to try out.  One of the ideal solutions when buying gear is to get one of the pre-defined kits, in my case I specifically picked up the Sherpa 120 kit.  This kit is made up of the following items, which in the bundle came at a good discount:

• Sherpa 120 Power Pack
• Nomad 27M Solar Panel
• Sherpa Universal Inverter

This set differentiates itself from the Escape and Extreme kits by targeting a much more mobile user.  The power pack is a Li-Ion battery kit like a laptop, so compared to other devices it is extremely lightweight.  The pack’s themselves are very ruggedly built, obviously for mobility.  The cases are also designed in such a way that they can be stacked together, and fit much like a lego tower, which you can then strap together to fully secure.  Now why would you want to stack these? Because they are designed to daisy chain together to provide more power if you need it. With normal solar kits and batteries, chaining batteries for usage can always be a pain, trying to remember how to wire it for parallel, or serial usage which will determine how much voltage your batteries are putting out. Do it wrong and you can fry your equipment. With the Goal0 packs, this isn’t’ a problem, you just have one wire that comes out the back, and plugs into the next device. This was a nice feature for me, as I could only afford one power pack for now, but I know I’d like to expand things later on.

Usage

Elite pack powering a Light-a-Life

For me, I already owned a Sunforce Solar Kit that I could use to give a charge to a car battery, then power other devices from there.  For this product I wanted something a little bit different.  I was really looking for something that I could easily move around with me. If I wanted to, I needed to be able to add this to a backpack to power my laptop and camera, or other mobile devices.  Obviously that’s not something I want to be doing with a car battery. The alternative option available is the Escape 150 product, which is “portable” in that it has a handle, and provides a bit more power. However the escape series uses a lead-acid battery, and is quite heavy. Not the ideal for my usage.

In the promotional videos for the Sherpa series (embedded below) you can see the design of the Sherpa products lends itself well to a bug-out, or mobile situation.  Note they are carrying these batteries in a situation where space and weight are major concerns, using them to recharge multiple types of electronics in the night.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If I’m simply camping to camp, I’m not going to bring this along, it still does have a bit of weight, and bulk that I don’t’ need. But If I was in a situation that I needed to power multiple devices, say during a CERT exercise, or with a search and rescue group, then this is an ideal setup. In a non-emergency type of situation, they are excellent for photography (as shown), as well as powering of recharging laptops and for powering their available Light-a-Life LED lights. After trying those out I’m sold, they are amazing; bright and very efficient.

Charging

I really like that the power pack allows you to easily charge from your AC wall connection, quite rapidly at that, before heading out.  It allows you to have a no-fuss charge when going somewhere, and not wanting to deal with the solar kit. Once out though, the 27-watt Nomad panel is great. It folds down into a bundle only slightly larger than the size of the battery pack itself. Unfolded you can actually wear it over your backpack to charge while hiking. With a peak of 27-watts you could theoretically charge one Sherpa-120 in a few hours, but Goal0 is honest in their advertising, and tell you to expect 8 hours due to always changing conditions. They’ve paired the panels with packs in a manner as to always completely charge the battery in an average day, under sub-ideal conditions. That’s great forethought when comparing to other solar kits which tend to advertise based on ideal situations, which never really happen.

Powering Devices

What good is a battery if you can’t use it? The Sherpa series makes this extremely easy to do.  First of all, most small devices nowadays have the ability, and often the preference of charging via USB cable. The packs include a USB because of this, and so I can take my iPhone and plug it straight into the pack and turn it on, no problems. Goal0 devices such as the Light-a-Life can plug straight into the battery and run via DC power causing much less loss to AC conversion. To make this simple, the Goal0 products all use a round plug interface, so you dont’ have to worry about any wiring. If you have a vehicle DC adaptor (Cigarette lighter type), the battery’s include a cable taking their standard interface to a 12v receiver, so any devices can run this way.

You can run any inverter in this manner, if you already have one. However the Sherpa kit comes with their Sherpa UI device. It is a standard inverter handling up to 100w in usage. But what makes this device shine is how it is designed to work with the rest of the Elite tools. You can attach it to your batteries using their built-in chaining cable, just attach it like another battery at the end of the chain (if you have more than one). The UI is also designed with a universal plug interface, so it can accept all forms of international cables, in case you travel a lot or have international devices. It also connects and can be strapped together with the batteries for a secure bundle.

Summary

The Elite/Sherpa series from Goal0 was by far the best product in its class that I could find. No other company had a product that provided as much power, in a rugged form, that was so mobile. Everything else was way underpowered, or just a car-battery kit, that required lots of extra work. Goal0 has taken care of all the hard work to create a very elegant solution for the backpacker. This is not, however, the single solution for everybody.  If you want an emergency power source that you can just always leave plugged in, ready to go or if you want something that only has to be portable enough to toss in the car for some car camping then you’ll probably be better served by the less expensive Escape series.  If you are trying to run quite a few laptops, or maybe mobile flash equipment for photography, then these won’t have enough juice for your higher end needs. Look at the Extreme line possibly.  But if you want enough power for several smaller devices, or a medium device such as a more power hungry laptop this is your gear.

Buying

While obviously you can go online to places like Amazon to buy the Goal0 gear, we love to support local stores. GetPreparedStuff, Emergency Essentials, and The Ready Store all keep some products in stock. As an added bonus, the owner of Get Prepared Stuff approached us and said he was more than willing to work out local pick up discounts, cash discounts, and especially group buys for notable discounts (varies per product). If you are interested in getting a better deal, contact him directly by email groupbuy ‘@’ getpreparedstuff.com.

Goal 0 has been showcasing some of their portable solar products at Northern Utah Costco locations which is how we initially found out about their company. After talking with them about their products, company goals and outlook we quickly determined that this company produces products that fill a distinct gap in most of our current prepping equipment. Goal 0 currently has three distinct product lines of solar collecting and storage products, plus a catalog of accessories that will work with whichever product line you choose.

We’ve covered solar power a bit in the past. See Connor’s excellent article here. Generally though, we’ve found that determining what you need and what components are required to support your needs can be difficult. Most emergency power solutions provide their power capacity in Amp Hours while most devices we want to power use Watts. Determining how many Amps a device uses can be tricky as you need to determine both Peak Amps and the number of Amps to just keep running. A device like a Kill A Watt can help, but again this can still require some research and math.

Goal 0 solves this by using watt hour ratings on their devices. This makes your calculations as simple as saying a 60 Watt like bulb can be powered by a 180 Watt Hour device for 3 hours. No other complicated calculations are needed. Another benefit to this is that their power ratings are real world power ratings rather than “Peak” or “Theoretical” ratings. Often times manufacturers will display a peak rating as the power output for a unit. In practice however, the sustained output is much lower so with peak ratings you can sometimes end up buying something unsuited to your actual needs. This is particularly useful on their solar panels as their listed watt outputs and charge times are based on real world experience. Many other solar panels are rated at theoretical output or output before the final glass is attached. Neither provide an indication of what you might expect in everyday usage.

One consideration with Goal 0’s products that needs to be mentioned is that they are not generally meant to be whole home or large appliance power backups. Rather, they are meant to do things like provide emergency lighting, power laptops, cell phones, portable DVD players and other smaller but often essential electronic devices. Their current product offerings wont keep your freezer running, but they will allow you to see in the dark and use those electronic devices we have all become addicted to.

One of the key benefits to the Goal 0 products is that they are entirely Plug and Play. Everything “just works” since the components are designed with the system in mind. With other products I’ve found that determining what product to purchase to complete the system or how to attach it to the system has taken some research. Goal 0 has solved this issue. Each of their product lines provides power in the following formats: USB, 12 volt and 110/220 volt AC via inverter for powering plug in devices.

While all Goal 0 products are generally interchangeable with other Goal 0 products, there are some exceptions. Here is a quick summary of the three basic product lines that Goal 0 offers.

Elite

These are all in one light weight backpackable power sources that use lithium ion batteries for power. Per the Goal 0 web site, these are some of the uses: Day Use, Backpacking, Camping, Outdoor Outings, Hunting & Fishing, Photography, Expeditions, Extreme Activities

The power packs come in 50 watt hour and 120 watt hour portable power packs. Foldable flexible solar panels in 7 watt, 13.5 and 27 watts and a new product is a 4 AA or AAA battery pack that can be charged from a solar panel or one of the Sherpa power packs. Plus, the charger can be used to power a 12 volt or USB device using the AA or AAA batteries in it. AC power can be provided by a Elite specific add on inverter.

Escape

The Escape products are centered around an cylindrical power pack that provides 150 watt hours of power using a more traditional non LiOn battery. Hence, it is much heavier than the Elite kits. It features built in 12 volt, USB and AC outputs which provides for a one stop power source. For emergency purposes, this unit is typically meant to remain plugged into the wall where the charge controller keeps the battery at top performance. Should a power outage occur power is instantly available via the energy stored in the unit’s batter.
Per the Goal 0 web site, these are some of the uses: Day Use, Emergency Preparedness, Beach, Family Camping, Outdoor Outings

This range offers two different solar panel options, a 15 watt hard panel and a 30 watt foldable briefcase panel with built in stand.

Extreme

The Extreme range is built around large (and heavy) 350 watt hour battery packs that include Anderson Power Pole connectors which make them particularly handy for HAM radio power and for other devices that use these connections. The inverter for this system provides the USB, 12 volt and AC power outputs in this range. Per the Goal 0 web site, these are some of the uses: Emergency Preparedness, Cabin, RV, Photography, Expeditions, Hunting & Fishing, Base Camp, Field Hospital

The recommended solar panels for this series is a 30 watt solar panel.

**Note however that any Goal 0 solar panel can be used with any Goal 0 power pack. These seem to be only recommended panels based on the expected use for the unit. There is no reason you couldn’t use a foldable panel from the Elite range with a power pack from the Escape or Extreme range.

Accessories

The two main accessories I want to mention are the 12 volt Light-a-Life lights and the Estrella lights. Both are highly efficient 3 watt lights that put out an impressive amount of light and simply plug into the 12 volt output on any of the power units. Each light is also daisy chainable, meaning you can plug one light into the power source and then subsequent lights into the preceding light. Each light also features an independent power switch. This means you can turn off one light while the other lights remain on. This is a very nice feature as many other products are either all or nothing, or turning off one light means that all the other lights “downstream” from the power will also turn off. With this solution you have light where and when you need it.

The Light-a-Life lights are made to more or less replace a 45 watt light bulb. Each unit has a large number of white LED bulbs surrounded by a protective white plastic shroud that also serves to diffuse and distribute the light. An innovative sliding clip is attached to the power cord which allows you to hang each light and position it where you need it.

The Estrella light is also 3 watts, but uses a CREE LED bulb to produce a very powerful beam of light like a small spotlight. While the Light-a-Life lights are great for providing general lighting, around a camp for example, the Estrella would be perfect for areas where you need more direct light such as over a table or work area. These lights feature a flexible power cord that is meant to be used to help position the light and keep it in that position to put the light exactly where you want it. In practice however, I found that the light was heavier than the cord could support so it tended to droop.

We’ll use subsequent posts to allow our authors to describe what Goal 0 systems they purchased, why and what they think of them so far. As most of us purchased our systems before the New Year, we’ve had some time to use and get acquainted with both the good and the bad in each system.

There are a lot of gardening books out there that are written by people who clearly know how to garden. Unfortunately, communication is not their strong point, and what should be a fountain of knowledge instead becomes a wasteland of over-edited, sometimes terse sometimes diluted text dreaming to be content. This is not one of those books. The authors know how to clearly present their material in an manner that is concise, accurate (as near as I can tell), and helpful.

Most of the first half of the book is a collection of flow charts, designed to help you quickly discover what is actually going on with your plant. Some of it is a little like a choose-your-own-adventure book. For instance, the beginning flowchart for fruit symptoms looks like this:

The whole fruit is discolored. Go to page 97,
The fruit has spots of any size. Go to page 99.
The fruit has holes, or is missing, partly eaten, or cracked. Go to page 110.
The fruit is distorted, stunted, or shriveled. Go to page 115.
The fruit is mushy, wormy, moldy or rotten. Go to page 121.

In most cases, the symptom will be accompanied by a color illustration, giving you visual cues as to what to look for. The exceptions to this are generally when a particular symptom is too broad to be accurately shown. In this case, following the problem one or two steps in will lead you to a more detailed symptom, accompanied by a drawing. As a software engineer, this is the sort of troubleshooting that I’ve become accustomed to at work, and it’s refreshing to finally find a gardening book which so articulately follows the logical line of thought that I like to work in.

After following a few steps of analysis, you will be presented with a diagnosis. For instance:

Does the fruit have white, pale green, and dark green patches? If yes, mosaic virus. For solution, see page 309; for photo, see page 380.

Part 2 of the book, “How Do I Fix It?”, is devoted to preventative measures and natural remedies. The authors of the book seem to believe that chemicals are a last resort; use them when necessary, but not until then. It is better to properly maintain your plants and keep them from causing disease, than to have to try and treat them when something goes wrong. This is especially important in cases where a particular problem has no visual symptoms until it is almost, or altogether too late.

The book seems to be compatible with most gardening styles. Whether you grow your plant in classic rows or have opted for container or Square Foot Gardening, the steps in this book seem to make sense, and are largely easy to accomplish. I was interested to discover that even companion gardening is covered, if not by name. This concept refers to putting plants together which support and protect each other, such as planting marigolds next to certain vegetables to drive away pests which love those vegetables but hate marigolds. It discusses using beneficial insects to your advantage, to drive away other, more bothersome pests.

The book is filled with illustrations, photos, diagrams, charts and altogether useful and insightful knowledge. I’ve barely put this book down since I bought it, and look forward to using it to maintain my plants this year.

For a preview of this book, click here.

To purchase this book, Click Here.

The interesting thing about these shelters, and the reason I opted to get one of these as opposed to some other form of tent/shelter, is that the structure is a geodesic frame which helps greatly with load bearing, wind resistance, with lightweight, high-strength, tempered, aircraft aluminum alloy rods. The dome shape distributes any weight or force across a broader area, thus minimizing any impact it receives. Each of the individual hubs/joints hold over 300 lbs. because of this design. The frame is designed to withstand almost 150mph winds when staked to the ground.

Putting the shelter together has been on my to-do list since last year, but not until today have I made the time to do it. With the help of a friend of mine, I spent the morning putting the tent together—partially, anyways. We assembled the frame and covered it; due to time constraints, we weren’t able to proceed with setting up the floor. Additionally, once the shelter is assembled you determine where you want your door and window to be, and you then cut out material, apply adhesive zippers, etc. I preferred to wait until if/when I actually have to use the shelter before making any permanent alterations to the materials.

As seen on their products page, there are several options for purchase. (Note: since I completed the website, they have made certain alterations that I disagree with, namely, that hideous repeating background image… but I digress…) I received the Galapagos Package 4, their high-end offering. Here are the materials (not including the stove) that come in that package:

The bars (220 lbs. total for this size shelter) are color-coded to denote the three different sizes required to achieve the correct form factor. The large boxes contain the material for the cover and floor, as seen here:

Getting started was the hardest part. As the geodesic shape forms, the bars begin to (intentionally) bend inwards, making it easier to join the five or six (depending on the joint) bars using the provided bolts, washers, and nuts. To construct the shelter you begin at the top and work your way outward. Here’s the first step:

Using the provided instructions (which could be improved…), more bars are added according to their color-coded pattern. The first few levels were difficult until we figured out that often the best way to get all the bars to join, and leave enough room on the bolt to secure the washer and nut as well, was to leave one off, tighten everything really well, then remove the washer and nut, add the other bar, and then re-tighten everything. As the nut is secured, the bars each bend slightly; extra force is needed to bend the bars to a sufficient angle. As this progresses, the top of the shelter begins to raise as seen here:

And here:

And here:

And here:

Here is the shelter before finishing the last level. This level was fairly difficult because pulling the bars in to join together at the right place meant maneuvering a much heavier, larger object.

Here is the shelter frame fully assembled. At this point we had spent over 3.5 hours. (This is clearly not a quick setup for weekend use; these shelters are meant for long-term living.)

While I (thankfully) don’t come anywhere close to the 300+ lb. limit for what weight a single joint can handle, here I am doing a pull-up on one of them. This shelter’s design is great for hanging a hammock between two joints, or a shelving system, or any number of other things which could be raised up until the air to maximize living and storage space on the floor.

The cover provided for this size shelter is a 34 square foot piece of water-tight, UV, puncture, and tear-resistant material, which is a “multi-laminate polymer with rip stop nylon grid fibers”. It will hold out water to 90 lbs. per square inch, and there are no seams through which water can leak. As such, no water-proofing treatments are required, unlike tent canvas or other commonly-used cover material.

Getting the cover over the frame was very easy with two people tugging back and forth.

Since the cover is a square, having it conform to the shape of the dome requires making several pleats, folding sections over each other and tucking them underneath the dome, as seen here:

Here’s the inside of the dome, with the cover over it. It got very warm inside the dome, very quickly. I also obtained insulation material (which we did not try applying), and once the door and window are created, the cross-wind will help create a draft to keep the inside cool.

Here’s another shot of inside the dome:

The takedown was extremely quick. What took us almost four hours to set up (frame and cover) took us roughly 20 minutes to disassemble.

The setup took a bit longer than expected, but I believe that next time we go through it, it will be quicker—not only because we now know how to best assemble it, but also because the bars are each bent to conform to the geodesic shape, and will therefore be quicker and easier to join together.

Had I not done the barter to obtain this shelter, I’m not sure if I would have spent the money on one. The price range is a bit high, but I do like the design, space (450+ square feet), portability, and the ability to hang things such as hammocks. Regardless, today’s work to assemble the frame helped me prepare for if/when I ever need to actually use this shelter in a preparedness or other scenario.