When the time arrives

JONESIE -
Yes, I too have some solar lanterns, crank lights, lamp oil, ... and so on.
I also have a lot of candles- I get them at the after Christmas sales. You can get them cheap then.

PS- hand sanitizer is great for starting fires. And olive/cooking oil can double in some oil lamps and cooking.

also don't forget the fire starter that will never ware out. get a few of the good quality glass magnifiers or hand Len's. save the others for a rainy day. where have we heard that before? also can be used after your glasses don't cut it any more for us old geezers. besides 4-0 steel wool for tinder, something for free, start saving your dryer lint. you guy's left out the bow drill method, mountain man style.

I've rigged up all my dual fuel and propane lanterns with a nifty little lighter that permanently fixes to the base of the lantern. I found them at Walmart for less than $3 each. No need to pop the top and remove the globe - you just push it in until it's close to the mantle and twist the end. A flint showers the mantle with sparks and you're away. The flints are replaceable and cheap. For the stoves I have lots of packs of disposable lighters. I bought some more fuel oil today, but the oil lamps are secondary lighting - the gasoline ones are so bright and run so economically I'd be comfortable with relying on them a little more for lighting. So as not to put all my eggs in one basket I have a few deep cycle batteries that I'm looking into charging with a wind powered generator and/or solar panels. I had a boat out in an achorage near here and lots of boaters use both to keep their batteries topped up. There are plans online for homemade wind generators using automotive alternators, and I can weld and fabricate so making a couple of those wouldn't be a problem. I have 12v flourescents I'd probably use with the batteries because of the lower draw. I already have one small solar panel, but Harbor Freight Tools have larger ones pretty cheap that would probably do the job too.
Jonesie - I've seen solar powered lanterns in Walmart, but I always wondered if they were worth getting. What brand is yours? I'll definitely look into that.
   I'll definitely pick up some more packs of the small 50 hour oil lamps from Smart and Final. Another three packs (at a cost of just over $20) would theoretically give me 1500 hours of light. I shouldn't imagine they'd be that bright, but most definitely better than nothing.
   The reasoning behind the small packs of yeast was longevity. The larger (and cheaper) quantities I've seen require storage in a cool place once opened, which I can't guarantee I'll have if a pandemic were to hit in the summer. Temperatures here reached 112 degrees a month or so ago. The small packs have at least a two year shelf life and opening each one doesn't compromise the rest as would be the case as soon as I broke the seal on a larger amount. I know it's way more expensive, but on this one I figured the extra cost was worth it.
   Going back to the fuel issue, the research I'm doing on haybox cooking suggests a potential saving on cooking fuel of up to 80%, as well as saving water that would be lost to evaporation. Between that and solar cooking I could devote more of my stored fuel to lighting.
   Thanks for the feedback so far. This forum rocks, don't you think?


   
   
    
    

Been scouring the internet for the ideas Jacksdad and I mulled over previously about insulated cookers and settled on a slightly different set up.

That might work, Jonesie. Given the size of the box I was thinking of using, and the size of an average water heater, I bet it would be big enough to build up several layers around whatever cooking pot you were using.
Boondocker - I see what you mean. With heat loss cut to an absolute minimum and radiant heat being reflected back in, a heating coil in a heavily insulated box could potentially raise temperatures to a dangerous level. I'd like to see what you come up with - it sounds ingenious.
I'm going camping in the next few weeks and if (big if) I get time I'd like to build a rudementary hay box and test it out. I have a cooler that's not the best and I was planning on investing in a 5-day wheeled one. The other one will be surplus to requirements so I may look into using that. While it's not the best cooler, it'll be more efficient than the wooden box I was thinking of making. The plastic shell should be fine as the insulation will protect it from the heat of the food.