Day: October 16, 2025

Thur. Oct. 16, 2025 – oh oh, we’re half way there, oh oh livin’ on a prayer

It’s a good thing you can’t hear my voice when I sing. Continuing with the cool morning, warm afternoons, with overall cooling trend. Also supposed to be clear for the next couple of days. That’s a lot of clear, dry days in a row. My grass is crunchy and the grass over the septic field at the BOL is probably completely dead. That’s not good.

I did a couple of the things on my list, but avoided drywall mud again. It’s messy and I have to move stuff to do it, as well as diving deep in the garage for the tools… so I’ve been putting off what is a short and straightforward job. I have to get better at this. Picked up my stuff yesterday, with some stuff for the BOL, and a couple of household things. I’m stacked up on “pet stain and odor” remover. Damn dog.

Now to move a couple of things along, and then collect my stuff today. More stuff for the BOL, as well as some gub stuff. I won some mags and refills for the hole puncher. I’m stopping at an estate sale this morning to see if I can’t get some more. This sale also has a bunch of pews and a few dozen cans of freeze drieds… guy had some of his priorities straight.

The brand of FDs is unfamiliar to me, but matches the typical “buy this and you’ll be set” exploitive strategy employed by pretty much everyone but Auguson Farms and Mountain House. In other words, it’s all carb heavy, but still under caloried, and about half is breakfast or side dishes rather than main courses– with no real main courses except the few additional Mountain House cans. “Mac and Cheese with meat” is not dinner. A serving of meat, with a side of mac is. Soup mixes and oatmeal, cereal and pasta dishes are not really the best way to spend money on freeze dried foods, and are just in the kits to bulk out the days they can claim, and to extract extra money from your wallet.

Little protein and no fat isn’t going to keep you working in the fields all day. That’s one of the reasons I save all my bacon fat in jars. Fat is good energy and helps you feel full. The Oregon Trail cookbook I read has a surprising number of recipes that start with “melt 5 pounds of bear fat”. Heritage breeds of pig have about twice the fat of modern piggies (iirc), and the fat was more important to the household than the meat in the old days.

If you don’t have fat stored, you might want to reconsider that. You can buy ghee, lard, bacon fat, and beef tallow in the store and they all keep a really long time, especially if you put them in the fridge or freezer until they are needed. Fat can be used to preserve food too, as ‘potted’ meat for example. Saving your own is not only easy, but you paid for the fat when you bought the meat, so why NOT keep it?

Stacks don’t have to be separate from your normal life, and it’s a lot easier if they are just part of it. Put some back for later…

nick

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