still no power. yet one more excuse as to why the powere company can;t hook us up. i'm fed up. completely. told the guy yesterday tjey can kiss our asses and we were gonna stay off grid and use alternatives. he smirked... i wanted to punch him in the throat and tell him to get their lines, poles, and transformer off my property... but i refrained. my girlfriend however got pretty irrate. don't mess with a pregnant woman with no a/c when it's 101. lmao. seriously. i found out i have a hook up with a guy that sells remanned batteries, trying to get in touch with him to see if he sells deep cycle marine batteries and found two inverters at a local salvage place yesterday. about $90 for both. looking at trying to get them this weekend IF i can get the batteries. between the two it's about 2,000 watts which, i believe, should be enough to get us kicked off pretty well.
Or Trap the rats and make them into mean guard rats who bite first and ask questions later 
i've thought about that, especially after i watched him doing wall runs the other night. i've got a friggin ninja rat. it's like he escaped from nimh or something.
a few things i've neglected to mention over the past weeks or things i'd like to bring up...
wehn using oil lamps be careful about using them without the globe. aside from the obvious burn and fire hazards they smoke more without the globes which leads to more carbon monoxide in the air and could lead to suffocation. they also put more heat out into the air, the globes help direct the heat up. without them the airr gets hotter which leads to, obviously, a hotter room. the globes also help refract the light which means without them you need a larger flame to cast the same amout of light which in turn leads to more fuel usage. also, when using oil lamps, try placing them in front of mirrors. it reflects the light from the backside into a larger area which means you can see better on a smaller flame.
when batoning firewood. i've learned it's better to keep your 'chete or knife at about a 45 degree angle with the handle being the low end. i've seen many people try to keep it level but, for me it seems like more work. also, try to hit the blade as close to the wood as possible. it makes for a more solid hit which means less work. i've also found a good, well made, thin machete seems to work best as the blade can bend a little if you hit knots. try not to hit it too hard. personally, once the blade is started i simply flick my wrist. i'm not trying to knock it out of the park.
our fire pit is four cinder blocks with a sturdy, heavy gauge grate. i've got the cinder blocks positioned close together. just wide enough for the pot, i.e. the pot barely touches the edges of the cinder blocke on four sides. this helps to reduce the amount of wasted heat and works kind of like a rocket mass.
on the property there was an old double headed axe head which i bought a handle for. i've been using it to chop the larger firewood into smaller "batonable" pieces i've also decided against trying to fix the old weedeater that was on the property. it would cost me about $50 AND there's no promise it'll work right so, i bought a sling blade and have been using that to cut the grass, weeds, and shrub. guess i've been on the "prepper workout for the last couple of weeks. lol.
when dealing with no power in the summer, try sleeping closer to the floor (cold air falls). after years of being homeless and having no power i've learned it's a pretty simple fix. doesn't help too much but can mean the difference between being a little uncomfortable and being miserable.
got the chicken yard finished. nothing special, just about 20x20, made from the 10 ft. pallets i got. i used the bottom pieces from an old bunk bed, also left on the property, for the gates and wrapped it in visquene, also left on the property. some people have said "that's not gonna keep anything out." to which i reply "this is mississippi. we have racoons, oppossums, snakes, chicken hawks, bears, bobcats, regular cats, coyotes, dogs, wolves, panthers, sasquatch, zombies and a weird monkey looking thing. if something wants my chickens... it's gonna get them." i have a friend who spent several hundred dollars on a coop, new wood, new wire, enclosed, nice looking coop... lost all but 2 chickens... i'd rather lose my chickens and NOT be out $300 than lose them and be out $300.
