FALL PRESERVING TECHNIQUES

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Steel burrs consist of opposing steel face-plates with curved, knife-edged ridges cast into them. Though a bit crude looking, they work well at producing relatively coarse grinds of any seed or grain and they can be cleaned off with a stiff brush. Steel burr replacements cost less than $10 a set.

The crudest and least expensive steel-burr grinders (in the $30 range) are the cast-iron models from Universal (now cast in China) and Corona, which are still cast and tin-plated in Colombia. We use a Corona mill because we've had one for over 30 years - from back when it was the only hand-powered grain mill we could get. By now it has become a member of the family. Thoroughly dry corn can be ground to a tortilla-fine cornflour meal in two quick trips through a Corona. A single slow-pass with burrs a little further apart turns out a coarse cornbread meal.

You can find a wide choice in hand and powered grain mills (and a great deal more) in the big $4.00 catalog from Lehmans (see " Sources ").

DearMOTHER,

We just bought a 17-acre ranch. The well is a very deep - 330 feet. l am trying to get off the grid but have not found an alternative way of pumping water from that depth.

Dana
Lomeda, TX

You have quite a number of options, ranging from $50 to $5,000 in cost. If you live in a windy place, you can erect a full-size windmill and an in-well push-cylinder pump. Running on free wind power, these can draw water from a depth of 600 feet, but they are expensive to install and intimidating to maintain. The catalog is available from Kansas Wind Power (see "Sources").

A modern 60- to 400-watt wind generator or small solar array can charge a battery to power a DC push-pump down in the well and costs less than $500. The solar setups are available off the shelf from Real Goods and other alternative energy suppliers.

New to the market is a manual deep-well pump, exclusively from Internet emergency-goods supplier www.watertanks.com ; tel: (888) 7426275.

Also new are small-capacity submersible diaphragm pumps powered by dedicated solar panels. They can pump a gallon and a half per minute from 350 feet using just under 200 watts of power. Available from Real Goods.

Finally, in a pinch, you can pull up your existing submersible jet pump, power line and delivery tubing to clear the 6"- or 8"-wide well casing, and lower a 5"-diameter, cylindrical, galvanized tin drilled-well bucket on a 400' rope and pull it up hand over hand with a winch or on a hand-crank reel. It's a lot of hauling, but the cost is less than $50. Plus, the old-time hand-stencilled tinware looks cool on the barn wall when not in use. Available, along with a full line of farm water-supply equipment, from the homesteaders catalogs (see " Sources ").

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