Follow Our Progress
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May 5th
2004 (The Frog & The Solar Oven)
I've been doing a lot of research into alternative energy and various
ways of saving energy without having to give up convenience. It's
relatively easy to just cut back on our use or do without, but takes a
little more thought to save energy, solve problems and not make life
more difficult...
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One of our big problems right now is staying
cool. The outside temperature here in Arizona has hit near
100 degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoon. The evaporative
cooler has done a pretty good job of keeping the temperature
inside the bus 15 or more degrees cooler. Unfortunately,
it can't keep the bus cool with any additional heat sources like
the stove top or oven.
On hot days we have resorted to either re-heating leftovers
in the microwave or cooking on a gas grill outside to keep interior
heat to a minimum. Unfortunately, the microwave takes a
huge amount of power from the batteries and the gas grill burns
through propane really fast. It seemed to me that there
had to be a better alternative... |
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The answer was closer than we thought...
While helping our friend Robbyn unload her moving van I
noticed that she had a solar oven. I hadn't really thought
much about it at the time, but faced with above average
temperatures for this time of year, it was an obvious potential
answer.
We made some lasagna pans and decided to test drive the solar
oven to see if it could do an adequate job of cooking a large
batch of food.
Within about 15 minutes the solar oven reached 250 degrees
and after about an hour you could see the lasagna boiling at a
temperature of 280. |
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I only had to adjust the solar oven a couple of
times to keep it in line with the sun. Since I had to
check on the lasagna every so often anyway, it was not any more
work than working with the oven in the bus.
The lasagna turned out perfectly. In fact, usually I
have to cover it with foil for the first 45 minutes or so to
keep from burning the cheese and drying out the top
noodles. The solar oven cooked them to perfection in just
over an hour and a half and left the lasagna moist.
We're going to have to try cooking lots of different foods
before investing or building one of our own, but so far it looks
like a great alternative. |
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Our little adventurer Emily managed to catch
herself a pretty good sized frog. She built it a home and
spent most of the day trying to catch bugs to feed to the frog.
We let her keep it until Erika came home from school so she
could see it, but explained to Emily that the frog was happiest
being free and that it would most likely not live long if she
tried to keep it as a pet... |
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The frog was very cute. It had quite a
personality and was pretty tolerant of Emily. It sat in
her hands and didn't show any signs of distress as she talked to
it and went about trying to give it a bath in a dish of water
and feed it the various insects that she collected...
It was hard for her to do, but after Erika came home from
school and spent a few minutes inspecting the frog, she took it
back to the exact same place that she found it and set it free.
I am very proud of her. |
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