08:54 – No confirmation yet, but some news sites are reporting that the co-pilot who intentionally crashed that German airliner was a convert to islam. That may be just speculation, but it may be fact. I expect we’ll hear more over the coming days. Or maybe not.
Here’s what I did to prep this week:
- I added three 33 ounce (0.94 kilo) #10 cans of Augason Farms powdered whole eggs, each of which is the equivalent of six dozen medium eggs. Their best-by date is March of 2025, but in reality they’ll remain good far longer. You can order these directly from the Augason Farms website at $28.29 per can or from Sam’s Club at $66.98 per three pack ($22.33 per can), but Walmart has a much better price, at $17.00 per can with free shipping. That’s more expensive than fresh eggs, but pretty reasonable for dried powdered eggs in a #10 can. Not that I’m planning to have scrambled eggs or omelets in an emergency, although these work fine for that. These are for things like making up pancake batter, which requires one or two eggs per batch.
- I added a 12-ounce jar of unsulfured molasses, which is sufficient to convert about 22 pounds (10 kilos) of granulated white sugar to brown sugar, at one tablespoon per cup. The advantage of rolling your own is that the shelf lives of white sugar and molasses are essentially unlimited, while brown sugar doesn’t store well.
- I added about 80 liters (20 gallons) of stored tap water, which is about a 20 person-day emergency supply.
- I finished reading King’s Under the Dome. It’s a decent novel, but not really prepping fiction.
- I bought Bill Quick’s Lightning Fall, which is a prepping novel, and made it through about half the book last night. Quick has something like 20 traditionally-published SF titles to his credit and is a competent writer, but this one could have used a copy editor. Otherwise the book is fine. Quick is obviously a prepper himself.
- I put in another couple days’ work on my non-fiction prepping book. In one sense, that shouldn’t count as prepping, but I do count it because it makes me think things through.
So, what precisely did you do this week? Tell me about it in the comments.
Did about 1,000 lines of web code (scripts and HTML) with the necessary testing; continued to further isolate the scripts from SQL injection attacks (scripts are already isolated, just adding another layer of isolation); photographed a high school senior session, photographed a play at the local church, photographed a baseball game, photographed a softball game all with required after processing; replaced two monitors at work because one let it’s magic smoke out; argued with Bob over flashlights; mowed the yard; cleaned out and mulched a couple of flower beds; usual stuff on Sunday producing the live broadcast; slept.
I haven’t done any prepping per se this week. My excuse is that I am waiting for RBT’s book!
My first priority in that direction, besides getting the book, is amassing a supply of potable water. We already buy several 6-packs of 2L botles of still water each week, so I will start by re-filling the empties with tapwater and perhaps a single drop of household bleach (although our municipal tapwater is already chlorinated enough that it smells and tastes objectionable, so maybe the additional bleach is not really necessary), and by doubling the weekly purchase of new full bottles. During recent house renovation work, we installed a 3000L underground rainwater cistern. That water’s not potable as-is, but it’s still reasonably clean, and certainly good enough for ablutions and laundry use. I keep a couple of hundred bleach concentrate tablets in stock as part of our laundry supplies, and I add one of those to the cistern whenever I remember to. I don’t know how much good that does, but it can’t hurt.
I taught three people to shoot this week, and I placed auction bids on a number of old, but perfectly servicable .22lr long arms which, in the event of TEOWAWKI, could mysteriously find their way into the hands of suitable members of my entourage.
Good for you; not so good for Ray.
Please don’t wait on the book. Storing water, canned foods, and so on is something you can and should be doing right now. A good start is to drive to your nearest LDS home storage center and pick up a large supply of shelf-stable dry staples in #10 cans. Here’s what we did on our last trip.
http://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2014/06/14/saturday-14-june-2014/
Note that what I bought doesn’t include beans because Barbara refuses to deal with dry pinto beans. Instead, we store other protein sources, including canned meats, Bush’s Best Baked Beans, etc. Also note that this list doesn’t include fats/oils. For that, we store olive oil in 3 liter bottles, corn oil in 2.5 gallon bottles, and Crisco shortening (regular and butter flavor) in 3 pound cans.
I fought with the wifi printer connection on my old MacBook Pro.
Increasing the Century Link network speed from 20 Mbps to 40 Mbps required router readjustments that seemed to leave the Windows computers on my home network ok – but cut off the Apple. Today, it works.
Continued transferring dates of fossil human variants onto a TimeLine 3D.
Despite an old degree in Anthro and some light interest in Archaeology I’d not appreciated how glacial ages and interglacials are just minor blips on the broad sweep of vast time. Fossil evidence is REALLY just snapshots.
Dunno where the nonsense about Islam is coming from, or why some people are so determined to find a connection. I think people forget that Islam and terrorism are actually the smallest cause of casualties and disasters outside of their own countries. There is no indication anywhere that the pilot had anything to do with Islam. I have been following this by reading German newspapers – I do believe they are likely to have the most accurate information on him.
All indications are that he was a normal 27 year old German guy, who had in the past had problems with depression. It now appears that he was once again in treatment, but may have hidden this from his employer. On the day of the crash, his psychiatrist had apparently put him on sick leave, but he ripped up the notification and went to work anyway. The authorities found the notification in the trash can, when they searched his house yesterday.
This week I put together shelves in my basement. It’s great to see all my buying and bagging and heat sealing go from a jumble to a nice organized setup. Now it is easy to find something and to rotate the stock. I had thought that all that I had accumulated so far (~1 person year of food) would completely fill the shelves but it barely took up half. Plenty of room to add more.
I also put up two 55 gal food grade blue poly barrels of water. I have 2 more coming next week. I am lucky, I get these barrels at no cost at work. They are left over packaging and would otherwise be tossed. Some others in my lab have turned them into rain barrels and composters.
not so good for Ray
So, what precisely did you do this week?
Oh, you meant prepping.
I worked on web dev and IT security courses; messed around with a RaspberryPI but got the wrong VGA-HDMI adapter at Radio Shack yesterday; watched “American Sniper; powered up the Baofeng; stacked firewood; toyed with firearms accessories; went to one-on-one and combat group meetings at the VA; researched AR versus AK; chatted briefly with the Guard SFC postmistress about the Bergdahl case; spoke with Mrs. OFD down in Harrisburg, PA, who has been in the middle of shit-tons of nonstop Guard, Reserve and active-duty goings-on at Fort Indiantown Gap, with “giant” helicopters zooming around overhead. Can MrAtoz verify his whereabouts this past week? Brought the dawg down to MIL’s place yesterday ’cause she misses him and is kind of alone in there and rarely goes out now, apparently. Turns 87 next month and wife turns 60.
Funds are short this week so I haven’t actually bought any prep stuff but I have taken a look at the selections of canned goods in the several supermarkets in our area with special attention to the kinds of stuff the two of us will eat. Also still looking into alternative pump devices for the well and solutions for our front and back door security.
32 and overcast with light snow showers today; temps in the teens again tonight and tomorrow night and low forties next week.
To state what should be obvious, prepping isn’t just about buying stuff. It’s also about learning stuff, particularly new useful skills. It’s also about thinking about stuff.
“What would I do if…”
“How can I …”
“Is there a better way…”
And it’s about developing your network of family, friends, and neighbors, because they’re the only ones you’ll be able to count on if things get really bad.
“A good start is to drive to your nearest LDS home storage center and pick up a large supply of shelf-stable dry staples in #10 cans.”
I’ll have to build that flying car first – I live in Europe. What size is a #10 can?
Flippancy aside, I do have a problem with selecting canned food for storage. The issue is that we practically never eat canned foods in my household – most ingredients (other than long-storage condiments) are usually either fresh/chilled or, much less often, frozen (principally venison and other game). I therefore am having a hard time deciding what kind of canned and dry goods I should be storing as preparedness supplies, since they are (a) unlikely to ever find their way into our non-emergency diet and (b) they’re difficult to rotate through consumption and replacement.
Do you have suggestions on what kind of shelf-stable foods can usefully bridge that gap between a regular “fresh food” and an emergency “canned” diet? Maybe I just need to accept that the preparedness stock will rarely enter into the everyday fare?
@JLP
Good for you.
You’re very lucky to have a free source of 55-gallon drums. My goal is to maintain a one person-year supply of stored water at one gallon per person per day. It’s likely that in a real emergency that’d turn into a two-month supply for six people or even a one-month supply for twelve, but after that rainwater harvesting should keep us well supplied. I’m in good shape for treating the harvested water.
Most people are surprised at just how little space a year’s supply of food takes up. If you store #10 cans, you can fit a two person-year supply of food on one of the 2′ by 4′ five-shelf units sold at Home Depot, or even just stacked using 1/8″ Masonite between layers.
My goal is to get to an eight person-year food supply for the two of us, Barbara’s sister and brother-in-law, and four (armed) friends. Food shouldn’t become an issue in our neighborhood for a week or so, and by that time it should be clear whether the emergency will be short-term or not. If it looks to be short-term, we’d share with neighbors. If not, we need at least eight people to have any real chance of defending ourselves.
@Denis
I wouldn’t worry too much about shelf life or rotation. Food manufacturers have spent a lot of money to convince people that canned foods have “best by” dates, but the reality is that nearly all canned foods are essentially eternal. Yes, there may be a gradual loss of nutritional value and consistency/appearance over the long term, but any canned food that was safe to eat the day it was canned will still be safe to eat years (or decades) later.
A #10 can is institutional size in the US. I’m not sure about Europe. A #10 can is a bit over six inches (~ 15.5 cm) in diameter and seven inches (18 cm) tall.
It’s a chilly, drizzly day here and I was just about to make a pot of tea when I had another thought. I’ve given up buying Sprite as a caffeine-free drink for late afternoon through the evenings and replaced it with cans of Country Time lemonade powder, which is basically just sugar and dehydrated lemon juice powder. I actually like it better than Sprite. So I decided to try it hot. I filled the coffee maker with water, put three scoops of lemonade powder in the carafe, and let ‘er rip.
I’m trying it now. Hot, it’s less sweet and more tart than it is cold. I already have lots of tea stored, but I think I actually like hot lemonade better than hot tea.
Thanks! Looks right down my alley so I added “Lightning Fall” to my wish list. I’ve got way too many books in my SBR right now and the wife is making suggestions as to my purchasing habits. Expensive paperback also.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1497360935/
My prepping this week was minimal and centered around CHIRP. I managed to program a FRS/GMRS frequency into a channel on my Pofung H8 using CHIRP. If you haven’t signed up for the CHIRP mailing list you should if you are interested in programming various HT’s. The emails try to center around CHIRP, but useful info is put out all the time. Like a guy who was having a problem getting info into his HT. Someone recommended removing the antenna for some reason. Another immediately pointed out that at times radios can transmit for short amounts while programming. Without an antenna, the power could destroy the radio. I didn’t know that or why CHIRP would allow a HT to transmit while programming.
Here is a link to more important frequencies you can use in an emergency. You can print it out. There is also a csv file for CHIRP you can download. I’m going to try to wicker it for my Pofung and see if I can create a template and load the whole sucker at once if need be.
I continue on my health crusade. I’m going to be 60 in June and am on no drugs (currently). My weight is down to “fighting” level a at 180 (want to lose 10 more pounds) and I’m doing P90X3 every day. I must be lucky since all my joints seem fine. Maybe all the running I did in the Army helped. Physical this summer and the dreaded colonoscopy.
I’ve been eying those bulk water storage barrels. They could sit in my garage regardless of the heat. I have a 6000 pound pallet jack for moving around my wife’s books and I’ve got various plastic pallets that the barrels could fit on. I think bulk water in the desert will be important. I’ll back them up with bottled water, save the bottles and refill from the barrels in a crisis. I’ve decided to sacrifice half of my closet upstairs for food storage. A five-person month of canned goods stacked. Then look at additional storage under the beds. #10 on the side should fit fine. All I’ll need is a low tray to roll them in and that will slide out from under the bed. I’m going for long term canned goods I can forget about for the 30-day supply. Then work on a rotating stock.
That’s all well and good MrAtoz but what are you doing to prepare for defense against the hordes of zombie strippers that will be swarming your ‘hood WTSHTF??
lol Even worse is now that Dirty Harry Reid is retiring, he’ll probably be hanging out trying to get his son elected in his place. Reid already looks like a zombie after his treadmill beat the shit out of him.
Speaking of CHIRP, have any of you Linux users got CHIRP up on Linux and actually programmed a HT with it? I don’t see much Linux traffic (some) on the CHIRP mailing list.
@MrAtoz
Thanks for that link to emergency freqs. I hadn’t seen it.
Yes, I have CHIRP up and running under Mint. I don’t even remember if it was in the repositories or if I got it from the CHIRP site. At any rate, it installs with no problem and works fine.
As to your prepping, that sounds like a plan. Yeah, if I were in the desert I’d want a whole lot of water. I’m relatively unconcerned here in NC since we get reliable regular rain. Right now, my plan is to use our rolling bins for rainfall harvesting. We have three 96-gallon ones–one for recycling, one for garbage, and one for yard waste. It’ll be easy enough to clean out the first two and sterilize them with bleach. The yard waste bin will be harder, since the stuff that goes into it isn’t bagged.
the dreaded colonoscopy
I had one and it was basically a non-event. I was knocked and part of the drug cocktail was some amnesia drug. I don’t remember anything between the words “put him out” and being on the couch at home 4 hours later. Wife says I dressed myself and we ate lunch at McDonalds but I have no memory of the events. Clean out prior was not too bad as you no longer have to drink a gallon of fluid. Just don’t go far from a toilet or tree in your yard.
what are you doing to prepare for defense against the hordes of zombie strippers that will be swarming your ‘hood
Stock up on Viagra. Anyone know the shelf life.
My green bin (yard waste) as air vents near the bottom. I do however have a 30,000 gallon hole full of water in the backyard.
As far as prepping goes, the best you could say is that I’m working on rotating my stores: at the moment I’m doing the “draw down” side of the exercise. I’ve had health issues, which is one of the possibilities I prep for. It’s a lot easier for me to shop out of the cupboard, the freezer, and the boxes under the bed than it is to get out and do major shopping. I’ll certainly do that in the future to replenish my stores, and in the meantime my bank account is growing so I’ll be in position to take advantage of specials and trips that take me near major stores. This is an illustration of why prepping isn’t the far-out activity it’s often painted, but has a lot of application to ordinary day-to-day life.
Comment #1: Bob, I have to qualify your comment about the near-indefinite life of tinned goods. It does not apply to acid contents – they fairly rapidly corrode the inside of many tins, even of quality brands. In particular, this applies to tomatoes, and to pineapples or pineapple juice. I’d expect it to also apply to citrus juices, although I don’t know that. I’ve seen this myself, and also had comments from many others. It can happen in as little as three years, and stores should be rotated appropriately. And of course, with any long-term tinned storage, the standard checks apply: making sure the tin isn’t swollen, then dumping the contents to something else, smelling them, and examining the inside of the tin for corrosion.
Comment #2: On dried beans: there are other legumes.
Lentils are small and cook much faster than beans. Whole lentils (not the split grains) make a good meat extender, and even make a satisfactory occasional meat substitute if you use appropriate herbs.
Adzuki beans are tiny Asian red beans. They are about the same size as lentils, and all the same comments apply. In addition, they can be used in many standard bean dishes, but they can also be used in savoury dishes – they are the basis of the sweet “red bean paste” Asians use.
Chick pea flour is ground chick peas, or garbanzos. Available from Middle Eastern or Indian shops. It can be used to thicken soups, sauces and gravies, or as a substitute for wheat flour, possibly added to a non-protein flour like rice, potato, or arrowroot, in some recipes. In some cases, I’ve also seen it used in cooking as an egg substitute. And of course, it can always make dhal or hummus.
Split peas: I tend to favour split peas, and use them a lot in soups (often a lot of soups). However, they are a personal taste, and they’re not as versatile as the others listed.
Bob, you have a semi-tame vegetarian on tap – you might ask her about some of these things. You might also consider storing some for her. As well as for efficiency, eating closer to the base of the food chain can be advisable for health reasons if there’s been pollution, including but not limited to fallout.
Damn, that freq list looks almost exactly like the one I created to program my Baofeng units with CHIRP. The only major differences are that I didn’t include the European PMR freqs and I made the NOAA weather radio freqs T/R rather than receive-only. (I can see advantages in an emergency to being able to transmit on frequencies for which receivers are so common.)
@Don Armstrong
I’ve heard this thing about acid foods constantly, but I’ve never seen it myself. Perhaps it’s more a problem there than here? In the US at least the inside of food cans has been coated with plastic since at least the 60’s. Originally, that was bisphenol-A (BPA), which is safe and effective but has gotten such a bad rap that manufacturers have been shifting quickly to using PET instead. Both BPA and PET are extremely resistant to the relatively weak acids in foods.
I’ve already gotten Mary’s advice as a vegetarian cook (and an extremely good one; most organic chemists are good cooks) about which and how much of the various herbs and spices to store. And, yes, I’m storing not just food for Paul and Mary but other stuff as well. Mary has severe allergies, so I store antihistamines for her in bulk.
In terms of prepping mindedness I’m the only one who’s really serious. Barbara thinks it’s a good idea to be prepared, but she thinks a two person-year food supply is more than enough. Paul recognizes that threats exist, but like the others he’s subject to normalcy bias. Mary probably thinks I’m nuts, but on the other hand she’s a scientist so she looks at things logically and dispassionately. I have hopes that I’ll be able to nudge her into looking more seriously at what concerns me. I don’t know if I can get her over the hump, but if I can I suspect she’ll start behaving accordingly. Paul probably wouldn’t object. I suspect he’s more concerned than he lets on, and like any married guy he wants to preserve domestic tranquility. I suspect Frances and Al won’t do any prepping on their own, but I want them around if things get bad so I’m gradually getting enough supplies accumulated to accommodate them as well. And there are a couple other friends that I haven’t even opened the issue with but I’d want them on board as well.
If it were for preserving domestic tranquility, I’d already have five or ten times the amount of food and other supplies that I have now.
“Yes, I have CHIRP up and running under Mint.”
As do I. I programmed my Baofeng UV-5r HTs and those of my BIL with it – no difficulties whatsoever.
RBT – still considering my transition from fresh to canned food – would you give us an idea of the types of canned foods you store (if that’s not stealing the book’s thunder at this stage). Does one select for density of nutritional value – canned meat and stews – or variety – vegetables, or starches – pulses, legumes? I have very little clue, as I rarely eat canned food. I should probably take a stroll down the canned goods aisle of the supermarket and get some samples for testing.
Your #10 cans hold about 3.4L – I’d have to go to the cash and carry for something that size. On the other hand, in a two-person household, would I be better off buying more small cans instead of fewer large ones? I must look at prices, and industrial-strength can openers…
Ccould someone comment on the long term storage of quinoa and it’s use as a protein replacement/supplement?
The only prepping that I did this week was to perform loose inventory and restock canned goods. We have very little dry goods in stock and I may go visit the Houston LDS store soon. The wife is absolutely against long term food and water storage.
We also trying to decide where we want to live long term. Having a severely disabled adult daughter really complicates long term plans. We may buy another home with a large backyard and build a two bedroom addition in the backyard for her. Or, we may build a one story on the back two acres of our nine acre office property. Or, we may add a side utility room to our present home and a game room to the back of master suite and then figure out how to reconfigure her bedroom and the study into a second master suite.
“Speaking of CHIRP, have any of you Linux users got CHIRP up on Linux and actually programmed a HT with it?”
Kali Linux has some ham apps already installed with it; I’ll probably throw it on there and this Winbows machine.
“… after his treadmill beat the shit out of him.”
Yeah. And some of us remember Field Marshal Rodham’s “fall” when she got knocked out, turned black-and-blue and was out of commission for six months during her tenure as SecState. Or maybe that was before the SecState gig, I forget; hell, maybe I got knocked out recently and don’t remember chit.
“Stock up on Viagra. Anyone know the shelf life.”
I dunno the shelf life but the warning for the other kind of life tops out at four hours, so they say. Then you better call a doc. Or Saul.
Bob, WRT tinned food, you may be correct about plastic-lined tins. I know the pineapple juice I encountered was made in Australia, but that was some years ago, and I’m fairly certain it was old-fashioned tin-plate. It is entirely possible that all the bad tomato tins I’ve encountered recently were imported.
If USAmerican tins are ALL plastic-lined, it may be worth your while to add a warning about imported tins, and in particular find out about Mexico. I know a lot of preppers do some shopping in ethnic markets.
It might also be interesting to know what would happen if a home-canned jar ended up tilted, with acid contents against the lid. Home canners tend to want their tomatoes acid, and their lids heated (they depend on it, in fact, for water-bath canning tomatoes), so I don’t think they could depend on any plastic lining the lids MIGHT have (if they do) to survive.
@Denis
Your idea is good. Try some different canned foods and buy only the ones you like. I don’t have a problem with the #10 cans for just Barbara and me. They’re cheaper per weight of food. For instance, a #10 3 kg can of Bush’s Best Baked Beans costs $5.78 at Sam’s Club. It contains more than seven times the weight and costs about 5.5 times as much as the smaller cans. During normal times, we could open a #10 can, use as much as we wanted, and refrigerate the remainder. During an emergency, we’ll be feeding more than just the two of us, so not having refrigeration won’t be an issue.
I’d go for a mix of stuff. Canned meats, vegetables, fruits, etc. I’m sure you can buy reasonable size pouches or cans of dry staples like sugar, rice, white flour, oats, etc. Try different stuff and buy only the stuff you like in as much variety as possible.
No idea on quinoa. I’ve never eaten it and don’t plan to. There’s too much stuff that I already know and like.
I can’t recall the last time I opened a can that wasn’t coated inside, and I don’t remember ever having a can that was spoiled unless it had been damaged.
I’m not a big proponent of home canning. It’s expensive and error prone. I’d much rather buy commercially canned foods, which are cheap, safe, nutritious, and tasty. Same thing for home dehydration. I’ll write about both, but neither is really cost-effective, not even counting your time, and results are at best inferior to commercial products.
My next big goal is to convince Barbara to let me get a bunch of #10 cans at Costco and Sam’s Club. In a space only 25″x50″ and 8 feet high (63.5 x 127 x 244 cm), I can stack 416 #10 cans, which depending on the mix is a two to three person-year supply of food.
“normalcy bias”
I work with plenty of very smart people and the great majority of them think “that can’t happen here”. It seems they just can’t conceive of a situation where food, water and other services could be interrupted for more than a week.
A bad snow storm or hurricane is their ultimate disaster. It comes in, knocks down some trees and wires, then moves out. Afterwards “they” (utilities and government) fix it up in a few days. That is the absolute worst that can happen. The very notion of an EMP or civil unrest or broad scale collapse causes them to chuckle.
And this being Massachusetts most of them are completely unarmed.
Natural selection is merciless. I just want to take steps to minimize the probability that I, my family, or my friends will end up being naturally selected.
I assume that the folks you refer to are neither engineers nor historians, all of whom are (or should be) aware that it can in fact happen here.
Off-Topic…
Anyone have a water heater (natural gas) recommendation? I’m checking Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards and that essentially gives me the choice of Rheem, Whirlpool, or Richmond. Though, as with most things, they’re probably all produced by the same 1 or 2 manufacturers.
I’m checking Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards and that essentially gives me the choice of Rheem, Whirlpool, or Richmond.
My plumber put Bradford-Whites in my house two years ago. The water heaters have the swirly cold water entry tube at the problem to try to keep the sediment mixed in the water instead of depositing on the bottom plate.
http://www.bradfordwhite.com/hydrojet-total-performance-technology
No, it could never happen here in the USA:
http://shtfschool.com/about/
“My name is Selco and I am from the Balkan region, and as some of you may know it was hell here from 92-95, anyway, for 1 whole year I lived and survived in a city WITHOUT: electricity, fuel, running water, real food distribution, or distribution of any goods, or any kind of organized law or government.”
“I assume that the folks you refer to are neither engineers nor historians”
We are a pharmaceutical company. Mostly chemist, biochemists, biologist and engineers. Mostly smart people but real history has not been taught in this country in a long time. I think history isn’t real to them.
I guess the best example of what I am saying is the head engineer in our technical ops department. Now that his children have finished school and he no longer needs the big house he plans to sell it and move into downtown Boston (IMHO the least survivable place in all of New England).
I have one sibling out of three that is aware of potential events worse than the usual storms and shortages/outages. He was/is an IT professional (until he was fired outright by a nasty vindictive boss, 30 years w/UNIX down the tubes). So he’s aware of how hard it can be to make a living and/or go without stuff, at least. He’s also armed. Nobody else and they find the concept laughable. We’re crazy.
Boston is probably the least-survivable place in New England, though followed closely by the other cities, i.e., Woostuh, Springfield, Hartford and Providence. Ditto Albany, NY. With adjacent rings of non-survivability extending out to their suburbs and exurbs. I would not care to try my chances anywhere in southern New England or in the Vampire State south of the Adirondacks. And smaller cities like Manchester, NH, Burlington and Rutland, VT, and Portland, Maine, would not be great places to be, either.
“…real history has not been taught in this country in a long time. I think history isn’t real to them.”
Hear, hear! Absolutely. If it ever was taught in this country. When I was a kid back there in elementary skool the classrooms always had pictures of Lincoln and Washington on the walls. Now we know a bit more about those guys. But it still isn’t taught in the skools and you have to dig a bit to get this data. Growing up in Maffachufetts, of course, we were taught that the glorious Civil War was fought to end slavery, period. And the distinct impression was given that everyone was on board for the glorious Revolution. Also that the Good War was for us as pure as the driven snow. Vietnam was bad, though. Gulf Wars good. Hard to keep it straight, ain’t it?
Paging Mr. Eric Blair…paging Eric Blair, please…Eric Blair….
My aunt sent this to me and I thought it was worth torturing a few electrons over.
The Arrogance of Authority
A DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) officer stopped at a ranch in Texas, and talked with an old rancher. He told the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.” The rancher said, “Okay, but don’t go in that field over there…..”, as he pointed out the location.
The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, “Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government of the United States of America with me!”
Reaching into his rear pants pocket, the arrogant officer removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher.
“See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish…. On any land! No questions asked or answers given! Have I made myself clear? ……. Do you understand?”
The rancher then nodded politely, apologized and went about his chores.
A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running for his life, being chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull.
With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer, and it seemed likely that he’d sure enough get gored before he reached safety. The officer was clearly terrified.
The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs.
(I just love this part….)
“Your badge! Show him your BADGE…….. !”
Normalcy bias- yep that’ll kill you.
Dec 8, Sept 12, Black Monday, many dates in history that show it won’t happen until it does happen, and then everything changes.
It drives me nuts. Bad things have happened. Bad things continue to happen. I’m sure the folks in the Balkans were thinking it couldn’t possibly happen (reading Selco, I am literally sure of this.) Crimea, Ukraine, Venezuela, Argentina. Think a year’s supply of toilet paper is nuts? Ask the Venezuelans who can’t find any today. Thinks central banks won’t seize your deposits? Ask the Cypriots.
Think the US government won’t seize your gold coins? Ask your grandparents (or parents.)
Hell, ask a New Yorker if their lives have changed in the last decade.
Ike, Rita, Katrina, Loma Prieta, Banda Ache (sp?), Fukushima, all took (or are taking) years for the recovery. Forest fires, floods, winter storms, they all happen.
Or hey, one of your co-workers in the oil and gas industry just got back from West Africa and he has a fever. His kids are in your daycare. Or your cousin works for the Port Authority and he’s been eating lunch with the guys holding thermometers at the airport, now he’s got a fever too. Are you prepared to stay in your house for 20 days?
There are so many things that would benefit from a little prepping. Whether the disaster is personal, local, regional, national, or international, having resources at hand will make it better.
nick
(this is not at all what I meant to write. I guess that happens.)
I’ve seen that rancher/badge story a few times already; it could apply equally up here in cow country Vermont.
Good points, Mr. nick!
Did someone say Zombie Strippers? (Calamitously bad movie, as one might expect. I watched it so I could mock the stupidity, but couldn’t bring myself to. It would be like rolling a quadriplegic kid’s wheelchair into a swimming pool. Even I wouldn’t do that.)
Ouch. I copy edited that one for Bill. True, getting my comments to him was a kludge because of technical difficulties (file format and operating system issues; I ended up reading the .mobi and making a text file of changes which he had to manually review, approve, and enter), but I have to admit that I saw that I missed several typing-level errors, when I read the final version.
“Calamitously bad movie…”
What? Even with Jenna Jameson and Robert Englund? You philistine!
Ah, I know, I was gonna chime in on canned food.
I’ve shared my thoughts on #10 cans before. Hard to work into you daily life, (under the ‘store what you eat, eat what you store’ idea), too much wastage for a small family, food fatigue, etc. Smaller cans cost more per unit volume, but not eating what you’ve bought costs more.
I’m one of the guys shopping at ethnic markets for preps (and the large ethnic sections of our major markets.) Most of the world does not have refrigeration, and those that do don’t have the size ‘fridges that we have in the US. This means that there are a LOT of choices in shelf stable foods produced for those markets. There are traditional canned foods, as well as ‘pouch’ foods. I prefer pouches as my storage area is prone to high humidity and cans can rust. I’ve lost cans to spoilage due to rust. Also, many of the pouches I’ve tried have very tasty, minimally processed food in them… they are aimed at mainstream consumers and are not the scrapings and cheapest cuts as US canned food (meat esp.) tends to be. Further, the wider variety of flavors and textures should help with food fatigue.
Specifically, I’m buying canned beef, sold as ready to use for burritos, tacos, etc from Argentina and Brazil. The quality is high, the taste and appearance are great. The cans are fully lined. I’m buying pouch meat, shredded beef and pork, aimed at the same market, and produced in the US and Mexico. There are unflavored versions available too that are very versatile.
I buy Indian entrees for variety, in pouches.
I buy several “meal kit” type pouches that say “just add meat” for use with the costco canned chicken and beef. Some are aimed at US consumers, some are indian or hispanic in origin, some are asian. Lots of Hamburger Helper style box dinners are available now for chicken too. These are easy to integrate into our normal meals. The kids love taco night, and it is much easier than cooking the meat from scratch.
I even buy canned hot dogs, from Holland. They are great for the kids.
It used to be if you wanted animal protein in cans in the US you were very limited. Cheap meat loaves, tuna, chunk chicken, pickled fish, chili, or dinty moore style stews pretty much summed up you choices.
You can store grains in bulk, but my challenge was always meat. Now I have so many good choices. Danish hams, pouch shredded beef and pork, whole chickens, meat balls, pre-seasoned meats, and chunk chicken/beef/fish, even hot dogs for the kids.
Yum yum, and now I have to get dinner on the table….
nick
Even I wouldn’t do that.
Even if the kid was in a wheel chair like this?
We’ve even got ethic stores out here in the Land of Sugar. I’ve only been in a couple and the food is awesome when I have been brave enough. Need to go more often.
I buy several “meal kit” type pouches that say “just add meat” for use with the costco canned chicken and beef.
Got URL?
Hahaha….ethnic foods at our local markets hereabouts in Retroville are generally Franco-American-Quebecois stuff, like Tourtière and pea soup but us rural New England types share a bunch of traditional foods with them, like baked beans, the chowders, ham dishes, and all the varieties of maple products. Even poutine is OK if done right, which it usually ain’t.
I guess we’d have to zip on down to Burlap and the college towns for more ethnic varieties; I know Burlap has a couple of Mexican restaurants, the usual Chinese and Indian, and at least one German place. Presumably the Trader Joe’s and communist co-op markets have more stuff; I’ll have to check it out.
The Dinty Moore and canned chili ain’t gonna cut it here. We may even try canning our own homemade stuff. Then again, if we run short or run out and are hungry, we’d probably kill for a 30-year-old can of Dinty Moore or SPAM.
@OFD, you might find your bigger or “flagship” grocery store has more than you expect. That’s where I find a lot of it. We have an asian grocery chain (famous in Cali, and now here) that has a large selection. Otherwise, with hispanics well dispersed throughout the US you should be able to find a fairly large store. Among other things, they might have canned “table” cream (like runny whipped cream or thick heavy cream) which is a necessity for my coffee. Likely to have “Lido” brand powdered milk too. Made by Nestle’ and aimed at kids, it tastes the most like whole milk of any I’ve tried (H/T to Commander Zero’s blog for the recommendation.)
@Lynn, you’ve got a bunch of middle eastern stores out your way for sure and there should be some indian and asian. Any HEB ‘big’ store should have several aisles, and the Kroger Signature stores do too. I’ll go look at my shelves and see if the manf. list websites. If not I’ll try to google the names.
nick
Smaller, local grocery store owners might be willing to special order items, too. You might have to order a case, but it can be done. Price might be higher than in the big stores that regularly carry it, but may not be; in the five years since I last made a special order, groceries from Amazon and such have gotten bigger and cheaper.
@Lynn
Here’s a list of some of the things where a distributor was listed.
http://www.sampcoinc.com – pouch meats, shredded
http://www.marfood.us – and meatballs, also the Ranchers Brand taco meat
http://www.chata.com.mx – pouch meats, flavored
Just add meat:
http://us.passagefoods.com/ – indian ‘just add meat’ pouches
http://www.amazon.com/Gourmantra-Korma-Indian-8-Ounce-Boxes/dp/B002UUXL4K – gourmantra indian meal kit
Kraft Velveeta Cheesy Skillets
Annie’s Homegrown, skillet dinners
Like I said, the selection of shelf stable has expanded tremendously. (I’ve also bought a bunch of shelf stable heat and eat meals, but they are mostly not super. I have them in my second tier of food, but wouldn’t eat them by preference. Of course, I wouldn’t eat MREs by preference either. Some are by Dinty Moore, some by Taco Bell….)
nick
posted the list but lots of links put me in moderation…..
nick
I could eat Dinty Moore and Chili Mac day in and day out. I loved the old C-Rat ham & eggs. The ones with the metallic taste and you’d fart metal smell for a day. I won’t starve, but the rest of the family might if they don’t give a shit about what I store.
More lulz from Sir HILLARY! Apparently she “wiped clean” her private server of all email. She also said she gave all of her gummint email over. Since she said it, the matter is closed. I guess we don’t need those Federal regulations on storing email anymore since all politicians tell the truth and don’t make mistakes.
“I loved the old C-Rat ham & eggs.”
That shit sucked when it was cold, but little chance of that in SEA. It’d flop out steaming, like what flopped out later on. I liked the fruit cocktail stuff and that was a high-ticket trade item.
“Apparently she “wiped clean” her private server of all email.”
Before that she said she’d deleted half of the email, around 30,000 of them. Then her and the State Department danced around, farming out different versions of more fables and tall tales to their pet media outlets. Then she said she would retain control of her personal server and fuck you. When she had the presser about all this stuff she acted very annoyed that she had to say anything at all about it. “Because I’m HILLARY! and I deserve to be President right now and I don’t have to abide by the same rules you little people do because fuck you.”
Can someone explain to me how this is any different from one of Henry VIII’s ministers just doing whatever and fuck you, or Molotov for Stalin?
Keep badgering Field Marshal Rodham about this stuff and you could end up like Vince Foster.
Oh crap, there I go calling people names again.
A tip for anyone who is faced with prepping for a colonoscopy with the prospect of drinking several litres of peglyte or other such delights. I found that if you get it very cold (I had mine in February so I just put it out on the balcony) it is almost palatable, just. Of course after drinking it, you will start to shiver like hell. Drink a glass of hot water as a chaser. I had to drink 8 litres of the stuff over 2 days and this made it bearable.
How about textured vegetable protein as source or supplement? I add it to vegetable soups where it works well and turns the soup into an almost complete meal. It is easy to find in almost all bulk food stores and if properly stored should keep for a long time.
How do tetrapaks compare to cans for storage? They are lighter than cans and somewhat easier to store. And of course they cost more.
Here’s a good article in the Washington Post on the GermanWings pilot. This corresponds 100% with the information available in the German press.
Fantastic info on canned and pouch foods! Thanks all. I will add the local ethnic supermarkets to my list of places to look – we both like Turkish and Asian food anyway and those Dutch Zwan sausages are one of the canned items I know I do like!
“I prefer pouches as my storage area is prone to high humidity and cans can rust.”
From reading Thor Heyerdahl, Chay Blythe and Bill Willis, I recall that those seafarers used to remove the paper labels from their canned goods and paint a note of the contents on instead, then varnish over the whole lot to prevent rust. Is that overkill for domestic storage? Willis recounted a funny-afterwards-but-not-during eposide: he had neglected to fix the labels on one delivery of canned goods, and the paper dissolved in seawater, so he was reduced to opening unmarked cans – his menus were decidedly random…
“Ouch. I copy edited that one for Bill.”
I doubt the problems I saw were your fault. There were a few typos, but I was concerned more about sentences that appeared to have been chopped in half or had a middle section missing. It looked more like conversion problems to me.
Huh. Thanks for the info; I’ll pass it along to Bill.
I did get the official, published version of Lightning Fall, but didn’t read it carefully. I’d read the book twice as part of editing and couldn’t bear to do more than skim and spot-check and in a few places go back to my notes to see if I’d missed a typo I spotted just now. I’m guessing there weren’t that many mangled sentences, maybe a couple per chapter, and I just didn’t happen across any.
Quinoa flakes currently at Safeway – Ancient Harvest brand.
Close to instant. Mixed with hot water in a bowl, then 1 minute microwave.
Beyond high protein gluten-free hot cereal they can be sprinkled onto watery stews to suck up the overage so it is more filling than soup.
“The advantage of rolling your own is that the shelf lives of white sugar and molasses are essentially unlimited, while brown sugar doesn’t store well.”
Why does anyone want brown sugar? I avoid it unless it’s granulated, and then only with coffee.
Rolf wrote:
“A tip for anyone who is faced with prepping for a colonoscopy with the prospect of drinking several litres of peglyte or other such delights.”
Last time I had one of those (in 2013) the prep wasn’t so bad. Not anything I would have drunk normally, but infinitely better than the stuff I had to drink in 2006 and before.
What I’ve found by research and a very small amount of personal trial about quinoa, is that it’s not worth it for me. If I didn’t have the traditional European cereals, then maybe, but I prefer them. Quinoa has a bitter saponin coating that needs washing off. Once that’s done, it has a smaller than average amount of higher-quality than average vegetable protein. If someone wants to serve it up, and it’s properly prepared, I’ll eat it. However, I don’t think I’ll be buying it again.
Thanks for the input on quinoa. I like it myself, but most of the family prefers rice.
My go to grain for breakfast is now Red Mill groats. I bought a little hand “rolling” machine that works great. I read about steaming the result and drying it out before cooking. Cooking for 20-30 minutes. I roll the groats, sift out the dust, and boil for 5-6 minutes and eat tastes great to me. A little salt, mixed berries, yum.
“Why does anyone want brown sugar?”
To bake cookies. And a bunch of other baked goods. If one bakes, that is.
“My go to grain for breakfast is now Red Mill groats.”
You mean Bob’s Red Mill groats, amirite? That guy started out with maybe half dozen mixes in the stores and now has an Empire.
http://www.bobsredmill.com/?gclid=CP3ApNLvy8QCFUIR7AodJUkAMQ
Here’s another guy who started with one magazine years ago and now also has an Empire:
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/?hpv=ca
Yup. My daughter makes rice flour waffles with his stuff. Yum.
BTW, Sir Hillary used to be a lawyer for the Watergate Committee in the House. She knows the value of not leaving records, especially 24 minutes of silence on a tape that stands out like a sore thumb. So much better to erase everything.
Hillary Bitch Rodham also impressed her Watergate investigation boss so poorly that he didn’t give her a letter of reference at the end, one of only two junior lawyers in his career that got that treatment. She apparently was dishonest and didn’t seem to have any concept that laws and ethics were supposed to apply to her. Shocker, I know. The thing I don’t understand is why he didn’t recommend her for disbarment, or at least an ethics investigation.
I’m being snide, of course. Members of the self-regulating professions protect each other first and foremost, with “the public good” a distant second.
Didn’t she get dumped from that committee finally? Basically for being even more dishonest than the other shysters. I fault her parents mostly for her amoral behavior but at some point her own free will kicked in. Good and hard. Also Methodism. Just funnin’, Greg, just funnin’.
“She knows the value of not leaving records, especially 24 minutes of silence on a tape that stands out like a sore thumb. So much better to erase everything.”
24 minutes? I would have sworn it was only 18 minutes.
Watergate spawned some great cartoons. The three I remember best were:
1. Nixon saying “Let me make myself per________ly clear.”
2. A secretary ringing the White House doctor, telling him “There’s been a terrible accident.” (Nixon had been put through the shredder, his individual slices spell out, one letter at a time, “C R E D I B I L I T Y”.)
3. Then Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam is being escorted out of the Oval Office by an aide, who is telling him “Mr Prime Minister, I know that G’day ya old bugger is considered a friendly greeting in Australia, but…” Out of picture Nixon is hurling spools of tape at Whitlam.
Watergate provided wonderful theatre. Unfortunately, it allowed the inept Jimmy Carter in in 1976.
“I fault her parents mostly for her amoral behavior but at some point her own free will kicked in.”
Hasn’t our host told you? There is no free will.
I pulled that number of minutes of tape silence out of my memory which is getting worse by the day.
BTW, if I were pres there would be no tape machine in the oval office. No freaking way.