Here are a couple of questions/answers and a few websites you might find handy while you wait for the next issue of Countryside (which will be on the press Wednesday):

Question:

I am hoping to cut my electricity use even more than I have already.  I intend to use an oil lamp or lamps and use it/them most every night.

While doing some research this evening I read where a 60 candle power oil lamp is the equivalent to a 50 watt bulb.  Is this true?

Ideally I would have one lamp to light up my 750 square foot living room along with another lamp on my desk for writing and reading.

Are there lamps out there that can accommodate my wants or am I expecting too much from an oil lamp?

In advance, thank you for any information you can provide. — Tim, New Mexico

Answer:

According to my Pocket Reference by Thomas J. Glover, one candlepower = 12.566 lumen, and one lumen = 0.0015 watts, so:

0.0015 x 12.566 = 0.0188 watts per candlepower, which means that 53 candlepower = one watt

(Nowadays, candlepower is little used. It has been replaced by the candle, or candela, which is equal to one lumen.)

The trouble you run into with this kind of conversion is that lumen (or candlepower) is a measure of light intensity and watt is a measure of power. And since you will never convert electricity to light with anything approaching 100% efficiency, it gets misleading. To give you a yardstick to gauge by, the label on a pack of compact fluorescent bulbs says that a 13-watt CF bulb (which puts out the light of a 60-watt incandescent bulb) outputs 900 lumen, which would be around 71 candlepower.

I remember before we put solar electricity in our guest cabin we use both oil and gasoline lanterns, the former being much brighter for reading but noisy.

We also have an Aladdin mantle lamp. It is quite bright but we rarely use it anymore, since with solar power you never have blackouts!

Hope this helps more than it confuses. – Rex Ewing

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Fuzzy stuff in the fridge

Ever wonder if that food in the bottom of the freezer is any good? Here’s a site that will help with shelf life information: www.stilltasty.com. Who knew distilled white vinegar would be good for up to four years?! But then, it doesn’t last that long around here when it’s pickle-making season. On the other hand, we better up the chili-making—my dried jalapenos are about at their end. (Not to worry, there’s a bunch in the freezer, too.)

Dennis and Donald Ida (89) admire the size and quality of the apples at Class Apple in Eau Claire.

We went apple-picking at Class Apple south of Eau Claire, WI, with my in-laws on a few days ago. Mother-in-law Elizabeth was searching for McIntosh apples for preserving and pies. Unfortunately arthritis makes it hard for her to get around these days, so she waited in the car to inspect our haul.

We ended up arriving there 1-1/2 hours before the official opening hour, but thankfully co-owner Dale Young opened the gate for us. Dale said they’ve been blessed with some great soil on their hillside orchard, thereby reducing the need for fertilizer and spraying. He noted some of the trees are twice as large as a neighboring tree–all due to a fertile spot. They use IPM techniques and traps to monitor the pest population, and  spray only when needed.

Some of the other varieties of apples grown in the Class Apple orchard are Connell Red, Cortland, Honey Gold and Empire. Visit them at: http://www.classapple.com/Class_Apple/Welcome.html

We had a pleasant surprise. We found out Socks had two kittens in the workshop storage space. (Sadly last night Dennis found a dead one we didn’t know existed, lying behind the boards.) Ok, the ripped-up insulation wasn’t a great find, but you have to give her credit for finding them a warm home in the dark and damp space this late in the year.

We thought she looked pregnant after we moved this summer, but “suddenly” she was her normal thin self and spent a lot of time hanging around us, so we never suspected. She’s about 10 years old now and we thought she miscarried. (She looked that way this past spring, too, with no offspring to show for it.) These little guys are getting plenty of human attention and are already peeking out to meet us when we go to the shed.

Socks is an excellent mouser, so hopefully she’ll pass on her skills to these two! Melissa named them Daisy (female, left) and Gatsby (male, right).

DGJ T-SHIRTS

The new Dairy Goat Journal T-shirts have arrived to join those for Countryside, Backyard Poultry, and sheep!

The name of the magazine is on the back and on the front it says, “Have you hugged your KIDS today?”

All of our T-shirts make great gifts for homesteaders and those who love goats, poultry, and sheep!