Saturday, November 5, 2011

Baby Steps…

A few days ago I mentioned repurposing one of the storage shelves on our enclosed porch.  I finally had some time to get to that today.  I didn’t take a junk-filled before photo, but here’s an after of sorts.


I was pleasantly surprised that the blue kerosene cans actually do fit on that bottom shelf.  Almost like it was made for them as a matter of fact!  Next to them are some fluids for the car.  I’m not sure the shelf is wide enough for a gas can. 

On the next shelf up are some more fuels for various things.  From left to right is some lamp oil.  I was sure I had some on hand before this latest blackout.  But not having a good storage place for it I didn’t realize we only had what was in the globes of a couple of my antique lamps.  So we had some – but nowhere near enough.  These two jugs are from our recent run to the County Store.  Next to that is a jug of Tiki Torch fuel with citronella.  Not the best fuel to use in an indoor oil lamp, but it will work in a pinch.  Fortunately the outage didn’t last so long that we would have needed to resort to that.  Then there’s a can of white gas for the little stove that’s hiding in the red velvet bag on the next shelf up.  The lighter fluid in front of the Tiki fuel is for my classic Zippo.  I have decided that it really isn’t the best lighter for my oil lamps, but I made do with it this time around.  That blue watering can is used to refill the oil lamps – when I have fuel to refill them with…  Next to that are two shaker cans of ice melt.

Hanging on the hook on the front of the shelf is my somewhat less than ideal fuel siphon.  I had to add additional length to the draw tube to actually reach the kerosene in the tank out back of the house.  I bought a new one that’s battery powered at the County Store.  I haven’t tried that yet, so I can’t offer a review.

The next shelf up has some candles, the white gas stove and a small tote of lamp parts, wicks and such.  The corrugated boxes are full of various glass stuff that will eventually be moved elsewhere.

There are two more shelves in this unit.  The next up from what’s shown has two or three boxes of various household hardware items.  Light fixtures, locksets, stuff like that.  The top of the unit has flattened corrugated boxes waiting their turn to carry stuff over to storage.  The plastic tarp is there to protect it all from where the awning that is the roof of this enclosed porch leaks a little right where it joins to the house.  A bit of a nuisance really, but not much I can do about it the way it was made.

So there you have it.  A bit more organized and in a secure and handy location but outside of our living area.  I will eventually replace the open shelf with an enclosed fire resistant cabinet once the funding becomes available…

My plans for tomorrow are to return Me2 (the 10.5K BTU heater) and to purchase a solar panel rig from Harbor Freight.  Buy the way, they are on sale this month for $179.95 and as of nine this morning they had twenty five of them in stock at the store I frequent.

One disappointment today:  When I brought the stuff that had been cluttering up this shelf over to storage I couldn’t find the inverter that I had for my camper.  I have no idea now where it might be and the battery back up system is useless without one.  I don’t think it was big enough to use in this kind of system anyway.

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