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 It has been replaced by the candle, or candela, which is equal to one lumen.)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.)

If you haven’t seen our t-shirt collection, check them out! We also are ordering some cute new Dairy Goat Journal t-shirts! They’ll make great gifts for your 4-Hers—or anyone who loves their four-legged kids! They should be available in the next few weeks. Here are links to the T-shirt pages:

• Countryside
• Backyard Poultry
• sheep!

Are you tired of zucchini yet? We planted just a few plants, knowing how prolific they are, and we still have plenty for our needs. (I swear we’ve put it in practically every dish we’ve eaten lately!)

It’s finally harvest season for us and it seems like everything is always ready at the same time. It’s been somewhat of a surprise at how fast our “southern” (zone 4/5) garden has produced compared to our “northern” zone 3/4 spot.

Our sweet corn isn’t quiiite ready yet—another good week or two of hot weather would help, but I doubt that’ll happen since temperatures are on their way down around here.

If you called the office on Friday, you’ll know we didn’t answer. It was a vacation day for Countryside staff.

Giddy with excitement, 20 of us hit the water to canoe in 93-degree weather 7 miles on the St. Croix River, from Taylors Falls, Minnesota to the Osceola shuttle pick-up site. It was a beautiful sunny day and with the “breeze” we didn’t feel the heat—the only problem we had was that breeze! If we stopped paddling for more than a few seconds, we were pushed back up the river we just struggled to get down! (One tourist recommendation said you could make the trip riding the current alone—not that day!) There were even a few white caps, which means it’s really windy on a Wisconsin/Minnesota border river.

It took some upper body strength and a lot of team effort to try to prevent canoes from going in circles or zig-zagging across the river (which happened even to the best paddlers). The water wasn’t much more than 2 feet deep most of the way and a few other groups along the route decided it was easier just to get out and push!

It took about 3-3/4 hours for the last canoe to pull up to the landing. We were told it would take 3-4 hours, so I guess we made pretty good time considering the wind.
The scenery was beautiful though. Bald eagles were soaring overhead, as much of this portion of the river makes good nesting habitat, lined with rugged bluffs. In fact, some adventurous (crazy?!) guys were honing their rock-climbing skills along one of the higher cliffs.

We certainly worked up a healthy appetite, which was satiated by a fine meal on the Taylors Falls Princess, an 80-foot paddle-wheel boat. Amazingly, this vessel can hold 250 people and floats in only 17 inches of water! The captain seemed rather amused when we got grounded in a shallow section and he had to ask everyone on the upper deck to move forward to lighten the load until we got into deeper water. Naturally, we hit bottom after dinner.

To read more about The Taylors Falls Scenic Boat History, visit: www.wildmountain.com/boat/boat_history.html.

Laura and her husband, Alan, head out.

Husband Dennis paddles while our daughters (right) struggle against the wind.

These crazy dudes were brushing up on their rock-climbing skills. (You’ll never catch me hanging from a cliff by a rope!)

(L-R): Kate, Elaine, Kelly, and Ellen (with the tan) enjoy the shade at the landing.

After 3-1/2 hours in a canoe, nobody wants to sit down!

Waiting for dinner: Dave, Gary, Brian (Sam’s husband), Sam, Joyce (Gary’s wife) and Ann (far right) rehash the day’s events.

The Taylors Falls Queen is a replica of our Princess dinner cruise boat.

At the end of the day it was relaxing to let someone else paddle. Left to right: Laura, Kelly, Jodi, Alan, and Kate enjoy the beautiful scenery.