Mini Fridge for Off Grid

We have a little cabin off grid and for the most part we don’t really need to use a fridge, but we have installed a small solar system for things like this.

I’ve been thinking it might be nice to have a fridge in the summer, especially since we will be spending more time there; so I started doing some research and found some that should work nicely.

The Mini Fridge

Ice Cube one of many mini fridges

This mini fridge is 15 litres and runs on 45 Watts so will be able to run on a 200 watt inverter with no problems.

Some great advantages to this one are:

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A solar panel for the Small Cabin

Off Grid Solar System

This has been great!  We put up a 200 watt solar panel and attached that to a 200 watt inverter with two plug ins.  Now we have power!

Solar panel kits have come down in price and many great ones can now be purchased on Amazon.  Here is an example of one from Amazon

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Best Rat Traps on the Market

This year has been a really bad year for mice and rats, we have mice where they have never been before and it appears most of the neighborhood is experiencing the same problem.

Why do we have such an increase in rodent activity? I suspect it has something to do with the weather, we have had an unusually cool summer with much more rain than usual. Here is an article I found that talks about how weather can affect rodents. Home owners over run by mice

The best Traps

I don’t like to use poison as we are out in the country and who know what is going to eat that poisoned rat or mouse, so we are careful with how we get rid of these critters.

This year I found these new traps and I just love them! They are way better than the old Victors (that’s the old wooden ones grandma used) The Catchmaster traps I think are the best, they are so easy to set and to take the mouse or rat out of. They come in three sizes. I have them all!

Catchmaster 2-Pack Snapper Easy Set Mouse Trap
In the past we have tried all kinds of makes and models of mouse and rat traps, some works OK and others not at all. These are by far the best, and very easy to set and very easy to remove the mice as well. The trap is built well, not flimsy at all.

Price: $19.90 (two pack) Mouse Trap

Price : $24.97 Rat Trap

What to use for Bait?

Rodents eat mostly nuts and seeds – I think the majority of people use peanut butter to bait the traps.

I have used peanut butter before, but I found if I put two or three pumpkin seeds in the well of these new traps works very well.

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Dandelion Wine

Last May the Dandelions were out and with so man we figured we would try our hand at making Dandelion Wine. This was a first, but I had come across an old recipe in my Grandmothers book, so thought I’d give it a try.



Dandelions are the first flowers to be seen in the spring, we often add the tender young greens to our salads because of the healthy benefits this plant has. Making wine with the dandelion flower gave us a wonderful tonic, we would occasionally have a glass for its medicinal benefits.

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