laundry soap, plus

LAUNDRY SOAP, PLUS

Having a regular following ( not flash in the pan, fair weather readers ) of new minions ( new dudes-”loyal minions” has been your moniker for almost two decades. No offense is intended, so friggin relax already, Francis ), I thought I'd rehash a few old off grid subjects. There seemed to be an interest. That, and I don't think even with my gift of blarney I'd be able to fill an entire article with just homemade laundry soap. So, I'll add solar toilets and rudimentary PV power, with hot water bonus. All on the extreme frugal side, naturally.

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A few days ago I got one of my “holy friggin Schnitzel, the apocalypse is almost here and I need to do a project or two to delude myself I'm ready” moments. I took my new front sight Lee-Enfield tool ( they make new ones-HERE ) and the laser bore sites I just got on sale at Sportsman's and made sure my two good rifles were ready ( I knew the one needed just a smidge adjustment and luckily came across the tool to order. Over twenty years a Smelly owner and embarrassingly I hadn't thought of this tool. The other sight was right on ).

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My other two rifles are more parts back-ups. The one was sporterized ( which, again, I didn't realize until recently is NOT a good idea on certain military rifles such as the Springfield and the Enfield where the barrel is supposed to be under tension. The one thing I'll miss most about ScrewYouTube is the Forgotten Weapons channel. He has taught me more about guns than forty years of reading. Luckily, I can Patreon him and watch vids HERE ) and the other is beat to crap and I'm not sure I can fix the loose front sight.

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But that wasn't enough. It was time to finally stop stocking the ingredients to make homemade laundry soap, and actually make some. I would have normally kept putting it off, as Dollar Tree and Family Dollar have half gallon jugs of laundry soap for a buck. Homemade costs about one quarter the cost. Since one jug lasts me four months, I'm saving less than two bits a month. Why worry, right? Well, the only thing lighting a fire under my ass was I was almost out of Shout. Family Dollar no longer carried the generic for a buck.

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So I had to start making THAT. But there was no way in hell I was going to pay the retail for dish soap the recipe called for ( recipe HERE ). I had been pretty peeved about the cost of dish soap anyway, which to my mind was unreasonable for what you got. So, the laundry soap was also going to be dish soap. At first I worried, no chemist I, but then I noticed most homemade powder soap for machine dishwashers mimicked the homemade laundry soap ( before water was added ). If it disinfected the dishes in the machine, it should be fine in the sink.

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The laundry soap was much easier than I thought ( I knew it would be easy, I just thought the Pain In The Ass factor would be higher ). You need one cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, one cup powder Borax, and a grated bar of Zote ( all available at Wal-Mart in the laundry isle ). Melt the soap in some water, add the soap and powders into a five gallon bucket and fill with hot water ( in the tub/shower is best ). Leave to set up for 24 hours. The one thing I noticed was the soap wasn't dissolving well in the boiling water by stirring.

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A whisk works MUCH better. Also, I added the powders to the boiling water once the soap dissolved. Why wait to add it to the bucket? I think all that helped it set up less clumpy ( you'll have an end product that is almost like cream of wheat or tapioca ). I didn't have a full five gallons-more like four to four and a half, so I could stir at the beginning and the next day when done. I had been saving trash dived laundry soap bottles and dish soap bottles for two years, so I had plenty of dispensers.

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I got 500 ounces of soap out of the deal, for about $2. More important than the five containers of laundry soap, I had three huge containers of dish soap. At twenty five cents each, versus the stores $2 ( I buy brand name dish soap, and it STILL isn't all that great ). And here's the thing. Lately I had noticed that the Palmolive dish soap wasn't very sudsy, AND it seemed to leave more of a ring in the sink than I'd ever noticed before. Which is exactly what the homemade dish soap did.

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Almost as if Palmolive was using much cheaper ingredients similar to what I just used! I don't think a nice smell and a weird color is worth an extra $1.75, Sam I am. Well, and suds. No suds with the homemade. And Palmolive was the least worst of the brand names ( there might be better, but I'm not spending even more ). Sigh. Does it ever end, the breakdown of the Industrial Economy? Don't answer, that was rhetorical.

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Okay, that almost made the minimum article word count ( again, to the new minions-yes, I'm anal about word count. Without discipline you don't write a daily blog for fifteen years, and a minimum word count is critical in that ). But being the Prepper Author Hero you've all come to expect, I have to implore you to WAIT! There's even more. It seemed I'm not alone in enjoying discussing Off Grid/Post-Apocalypse Turd Disposal. This is even easier than making homemade laundry soap.

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Sawdust toilets. They make great composting toilets. Remember decades back when you first heard about those? A company in-if I recall correctly-Sweden was selling a giant two story fiberglass composting toilet. Poop above into sawdust or similar medium and it slowly slid down to the lower chamber and was ready as compost by the end of its journey. But obviously they were not cheap. Which lite a fire of innovation under many off-gridder asses. There are many alternatives now. The book “Humanure” is available free online, or in book form, but I must warn you most people long ago surpassed his research ( I bought the book-he deserved support for his work, and it was all I knew of at the time ).

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The best idea I've seen is the solar composting set-up. I mean, an outdoors humanure compost pile-why? It might not smell but it just seems a bit gross. Use your indoors bucket for solid only waste disposal, a floor of sawdust and then sawdust sprinkled over each deposit. When the five gallon bucket is full ( I would advise a trash bag lining. The bag can join the city dump full of baby and adult diapers and dog crap ), dump the turds, TP and sawdust into a outdoors buried large trash can. Cover the top with a pane of glass.

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Boom, solar composting. When full, leave the glass on and don't touch it for a year. Have another separate can you are filling. It should be safe enough for tree fertilizer and such. It MIGHT be safe enough for all but root crops, but I guess that depends on how desperate you are for fertilizer. There is also methane manufacture, which is now just as easy as buying a 300 gallon tote and some PVC pipe. There are plenty of JewTube video's on that one if you are so inclined.

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I'd rather not deal with filling and emptying it, but free cooking gas is nothing to scoff at, either. Moving on to hot water, it amazes me how when long ago I tried to share this, nobody wanted anything to do with this. Their high class bitches wanted hot running water. Out in the boonies. Off grid. Living cheap. Screw them! You want running hot water? Lift the container and pour it out. There is your running water. I think folks might be more receptive now that Crap Be Getting Realz, yo!

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Take an old sturdy box-I prefer a plastic cooler ( Styrofoam if you are in a hurry now and will replace it in a few years ). Bury it at an upward angled southern exposure ( north for you, Dingo ). Line inside ( all outsides are covered with dirt on your little hill ) out with tinfoil, with the inside foil painted flat black. Place covered Mason jars half full of water inside. A sheet of glass covering the whole thing. Hot water in a few hours ( not hot enough for a solar oven. Those need four sides of reflectors ).

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Want a cheap and simple solar power set-up to start? You just need lights to begin with. You can expand later. Your cheapest solar panel, 100 watts ( HERE )( do NOT buy the poly panels, only the mono ones. They are more efficient and about the same price ), is right now $85. A sealed 36 amp battery is $65 ( HERE ). A battery controller is $13 ( HERE ). The light fixture ( HERE ) is $14, and only uses 6 watts for 300 lumens. Total, $177.

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Throw in a bit of wire if needed and a couple of fasteners ( the panels now come with very short wires and weird plug-in fasteners for an extension. If away from water, I'd just cut the panel plugs and twist to some standard wire ). $180 all in. Figure out how many watts you can draw and still stay over half full, and keep track of your use. Recharge before it gets below half full, for best lifespan. Double check my math ( seriously ), but I think you have about 200 watts to use to half full on the above battery. At 6 watts for light, eight hours a day in the winter, you'd get about four days use and it should recharge in four hours of good sun.

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Simplified, but it just gives you an idea. Think of the system as being in a car engine ( with the panel as the engine ) and wiring is simple. Keep track of your usage. Add batts or panels as needed. That is more than enough today-I'm easily 30% over what a normally long article is. Happy off-grid living.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon links, see above in article )

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