Anyone Out There With Stirling Engine Advice?

This is the experimental ST05G 500 Watt Stirling Engine plan, one of the plans available thanks to Creative Commons in Europe at this site.

This is a modern version of a Stirling engine, and in Jack's research he's found this one to be simpler than a combine motor, safer, and able to be run on multiple types of fuel. There are versions in Europe that are even run by heat produced by pellet fuels made from waste, wood chips, and other cellulose type materials, even grass. They can also be run on hydrogen generated from photoelectric panels.

WhisperGen Stirling CHP (combination heat and power) units are already time-proven and popular for home and marine use in Australia and New Zealand. They have now expanded to the European continent via production in Spain.  WhisperGen units have on and off-grid applications.  Here's a peek at their video...


Researching stirling engines is one of the ongoing side projects Jack continues researching for the longer-term to figure out some viable options for generating electricity for our future home (wherever/whenever...down the road...) so we can be less dependent on the grid, and maybe even completely off-grid.

If you know anyone out here doing similar experimentation or had some successes with Stirling engines, we'd sure love to know how to contact them. Just passing on our ongoing questions for our ongoing quest...and wanting to learn from those who've already been forging ahead in this area already!

Shana Tovah!

May those who put their hope in Him be written and sealed for a good year!

Mandatory GM Foods Labeling Petition

Here's one way to quickly and easily add our voices to petition our current government to require mandatory labeling of all genetically-modified foods...which is the barest of minimum standards and should actually be our right to know, as consumers.

Here's the link to the petition, from Jeffrey M. Smith's (author Seeds of Deception) Institute for Responsible Technology. 

It only takes seconds to send.  It's a start, and we have to start somewhere.

Losing the Right to Grow Our Own Food? Stop HR2749 and S510 Food "Safety" Bill

If we give the government control over our food rights, we are in a state of national collapse. That's not overstating the case. We really must make sure this legislation does not pass.



Here is a great article with the specifics of these proposed legislations that are now on the table and must NOT be allowed to pass.

We cannot give up our individual rights to grow our own food or allow a government institution to regulate citizen rights to freely decide what and how to perpetuate the basic human right to preserve our food supply. Something as basic as saving seeds, selling to others, privacy, promoting local growers and small farms. These are fundamental to a life that will never look the same if we allow this legislation to pass.

We do not NEED YOUR PROTECTION, government regulators..."protection" is just another word for "government control"...and that is something our nation was founded to OPPOSE.

Freedom. We still have to fight for it right from our own backyards.

Moringa Series: First Recipe

The Edible Moringa Plot (clicking on pic will enlarge)

I bopped around the internet looking for recipes utilizing moringa leaves and had the most success after googling with the term Molunggay rather than Moringa.  Molunggay is the term used in the Philippines.  I saw several variations on a basic soup, so this is what I tried last night for our first trial run:

Chicken and Corn Soup with Molunggay (Moringa) Leaves

Boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used three)
Corn cut from cob, or frozen kernel corn
Sea salt, black pepper to taste
De-stemmed fresh or frozen Moringa leaves

Chicken breasts, corn and seasoning go into medium pot with enough water to cover about an inch or two.  Bring to boil and then simmer a while, covered, till chicken is cooked through.  Skim off any "scum" from liquid surface, and reduce heat to low.  Add water any time it gets too low, keeping level just above the other ingredients.  Remove chicken breasts and  refrigerate until almost ready to serve.  About ten or fifteen minutes before serving, bring soup back to a low boil and add moringa leaves.  Allow to cook ten or fifteen minutes, till color is still bright but leaves are completely tender.  We added about the same quantity of leaves as there was corn in the pot, but proportions are whatever your preference is.  Add water as needed to keep soup from getting too thick.  Serve hot As Is, or take refrigerated chicken breast portion and slice thinly against the grain and serve in soup bowl with soup poured over in individual portions.  (we use the other leftover chicken for slicing for sandwich meat).

This recipe is very basic.  Improvise as desired.  I had to restrain myself from adding other favorite herbs, peppers, hot sauce, onions, etc, and will play with them another time.  But it was delicious simply with those few ingredients!

The interesting thing was that this is not typically a soup that Jack would consider very hearty.  But I used a lot of moringa in it so we could really get a taste of the flavor.  He loved it and could only eat one bowlful...and wanted nothing else afterwards, which is unusual.  It is very satisfying and filling!  We're pretty happy it's as simple to pick as getting leaves off a tree...

Tryin' Out the Moringa/Molunggay Leaves As a Cooked Green

We've had the frozen leaves (our own) in smoothies, but we don't get the benefit of a taste test that way, since the green flavor is masked by the sweet ingredients.

SO...tonight I'm trying our first ever Moringa dish for supper, a Filipino style soup, and I'll saute some in a little oil and garlic, too, to get a feel for our preference one way of the other as far as the taste.

More on that...there are storms moving through intermittently and it keeps giving us power surges...don't want to deep six my computer, so shall be back...after the taste test, woo!
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Update...quickly (Jack gets to be at home tonight, so I'm opting to be with him rather than the computer) :)

The cooked moringa...is...DELICIOUS !!!

It tastes like no other green I've eaten, and is at THE top of my taste preferences of any greens.  I know that might sound like heresy especially from a girl raised in the South, but this is in another whole category...better than turnip greens, collards, kale, cabbage...even by a slight margin chard.  My husband, who is the original meat-and-starch man...LOVED it...and will require no persuasion to eat them regularly.

I am SO HAPPY we tried these cooked!!!  We felt so full after a single bowl of soup with the greens the prevalent featured ingredient that we couldn't eat anything else.

In future posts, I'll go into detail about the benefits of Moringa, which are legion, and the ease with which it can be grown even if you don't have a garden or TIME to garden...in any growing zone at all except maybe the Arctic...in the South it's a perennial and further north it's an annual.

You have no idea how excited we are about this...the leaves we just ate have the same amino acids found in MEAT protein and the highest nutrient counts in every other category of about any food we've ever seen.

OK, I'm shutting up, but only long enough to spend time with Jack.

I'll be back, and will be posting more about this!


Here's a teaser video from YouTube...

Lovin' My Man

Happy Anniverary to my favorite person in the whole world, my husband, best friend, hero, co-conspirator, champion, sweetheart and lover.  I love you, Jack.

My world is amazing because you're in it, and I thank God for you every single day.

You never leave me guessing whether you're crazy about me or not...you are.  And I never leave you guessing.

Life is better because it's shared with you, and because God brought us together, I have family.

Thank you.  To God and to you.

Six years, gone in a snap, just like that, and another year ahead of us...I am blessed!

Thank you for the hard work you have put into our relationship, the way you protect our family and give solid advice to our daughter and have helped her as she embarks on her own adulthood for the first time.  Thank you for keeping Respect one of the most important rules for how our household is run.

Thank you for telling me you want me to be myself, and actually WANTING me to be that.  Thank you for inviting my opinions, even if we don't always agree, and caring what they are.  Thank you for being every inch a mighty man, but not relying on ego to be your motivating factor. 

Thank you for making sure I have a spare key, there's gas in the car, I've locked the house if you're gone, that things around here are in good repair.  That we have the clothes we need, doctor visits, medicine, even if we have to get creative about how to pay for them.

Thank you for working reliably, not being late to work, being the guy who does his job right even if others don't.  Thank you for the times you've filled in for others even if they don't especially want to reciprocate.  Thank you for being the kind of man who doesn't degrade others, even if you've been wronged or misunderstood in some way.  Thank you for being the man who really would punch another person in the nose if they so much as laid a hand on someone you love.

Thank you for always, always, without exception, sitting on the same side of a restaurant booth beside me...even when we're the only ones at the table.

Thank you for helping facilitate our goals in getting healthy, and eating a green smoothie nearly every single day for the last few months straight.  Thank you for caring that I get healthy, too.

Thank you for doing the bills.

Thank you for not spending money we don't have.

Thank you for knowing when it's the perfect timing to take a break and to go to a movie, or an ice cream sundae, or a walk on the beach, so that the everyday doesn't become without the joy of our stopping and sharing..and sometimes getting away from the house even if for a few hours.

I would say you're the man of my dreams, but really, you're  more the man of my prayers.  I could never have dreamed you up the way you really are.  But God brought you and you're better than I could have hoped.

I love your eyes and I love that we lasted through some things that would have crushed other couples.  I love your laugh.  I love our holding hands.  I love that you love to get outside and work hard and actually like to sweat and get a little sore.  Did I mention I love your beautiful eyes?

I love that I can't fit all the things I love about you into a blog post.

I just made you a nice dinner, some baked goods to freeze for later treats (and some to sell), and the house is quiet and mostly clean.  You're sleeping because you worked last night.  I'll slip in next to you before too long.  I'm happier than if we had some glamorous event planned tonight to mark our wedding date and could go paint the town red.  I have everything I want...you.   Color me happy  :)


Happy Anniversary, my Jack