The last bid I saw on the Tundra the day of the auction was $4,100.00 which was way out of my price range though abought 2 grand under the Kelly Blue Book price. It’s a Toyota it will cost some money. I have set my budget and I’ll keep watching the auction and educate myself on older pickups to know a good deal or when to walk away.
I got a couple of small outdoor/portable swamp cooler for $90.00 with my 10% vet discount from Home Depot. Most of the battery powered mister fans cost $125.00 so you might as well get a small swamp cooler for a lower price. The chickens seemed to like the swamp cooling but were also a little wary of it. But the birds should get used to it. In SW Idaho 4th of July week is forecasted to be relatively cool. The heat comes on the 6th of July with 100+ degrees F. during the day and high 60’s-70 degrees at night. That is tough for me as I can’t run my swamp cooler overnight due to tank size. I have a couple of electric outlet timers I used for Xmas light that I could use to run the swamp coolers for about 5 hours and then shut off so I don’t burn up the water pump. Last resort, I have a portable air conditioner I can run in my bedroom overnight if I can’t cool the house enough via the swamp coolers.
I put up the 90% sun blocking cloth over the large SW facing window. I forgot how much difference that sun shade cloth can make on keeping the house cool. I got the 10ft. x 10ft. wheat colored cloth from gardenport.com for about $35.00 last year. The cloth lets through quite bit of light and air while blocking most of the sun rays. I would recommend this sun shade cloth for blocking your windows to keep your house cooler. This shade cloth would probably help keep your Air conditioner or heat pump be more efficient by keeping the Sun from beating down on that unit if it is not already shaded.
I used the clothes line for a load of bedding and almost all of the bedding dried in less than an hour. I had a light quilt/bedspread that took 2-3 hours and needed to be flipped to dry but overall not bad for time. I have an electric dryer and it is one of the biggest energy hogs in my house. Plus that dryer will add heat to your house in summer no matter how well it is vented. I use a retractable clothes line ($25.00) at Home Depot and I bought clothes pins at the Dollar store. Buy twice as many clothes pin than you think you will need! Trust me on that one. For an average load of washing you will need at least 30-40 feet of clothes line to hang it. Now the fabrics may feel a little stiff coming off the line. If that bothers you just Tumble dry them 10 minutes in the dryer with no heat. Your sheets and clothing will have a fresh smell that no dryer sheet can replicate. All of this is based on a low humidity environment.
There are a lot of ways to save energy costs in the summer. You have to think out side of the box of what is considered “Normal” today. Learn how people stayed cooler in the past.
My Adventures in selfreliance 