Hot and humid. [74F and dripping, overcast. I purely suck at weather forecasting] It is Houston and summer….
Yesterday was hot and humid, although less of both than previous days this week. Stuff was actually drying out once I dumped the standing water. Sometimes we’ll go days with water in every nook and cranny because it just can’t evaporate. And I was able to work outside for a while, without my vest or my head exploding. Nice little break.
I took some time and did pool care. Skimmed off the leaves, swept the bottom, and made a big siphon hose to suck out the debris. My little siphon hose took too long and used too much water. And it clogged easily on the half eaten pecans. The damnable tree rats are chewing the still very undersized and unripe pecans in half. That makes two marble sized pieces to drop in the pool, since they can’t eat them. Bigger hose, stronger flow, less choking, and I had that cleaned up in a jiffy.
Then on to pulling some inventory to go to the local auction. I’ve got two big black bins full, and more to go. SO MUCH MORE. The auction isn’t appropriate for all the sort of stuff I have to sell, more for the household/estate stuff than the industrial stuff, but I’ve got plenty of that too. In the process, I was going through stuff in the house, on the patio, and in the garage. Miles to go before I sleep, but every journey starts with a single step, right?
Dinner was Taco Tuesday. Canned chicken, canned beans, tortillas and fixin’s from the fridge.
Daughter one has a visit with the orthodontist this morning. We were doing a retainer to move some teeth around so they didn’t get damaged before we could do the braces. She lost the retainer. It’s been months, so it’s time for a reassessment.
Daughter two is complaining of a mild headache and feeling “pukey”. No actual vomiting, but no appetite either. I’m wondering where she picked up a bug, and the only answer is ‘swim practice’. That is double plus ungood as it points out how easy it would be to get something else. I’m not feeling great either, with occasional coughing, and some mild headache. I’m blaming mine on allergies and doing too much reading with my cheap ‘cheater’ glasses. We might stay home from swim today. We’ll see.
As part of my cleaning up and moving stuff, I moved some rice from bags in the black bins to buckets with O2 absorbers. I filled two buckets and could have filled a third and fourth with rice and another bucket with flour. 30 pounds per 5 gallon bucket, 2 cups a day, and each bucket is good for approximately 30 days. That’s a nice tidy number and easy to see at a glance what inventory looks like in ‘days’. I find it much easier to think in terms of ‘meals’ or ‘days’ when looking at my stored preps. I absolutely never think in terms of ‘calories per day per person.’ Bob and I had some discussions about our different approaches to thinking about food, and I’m convinced that mine has fewer built in barriers to action, lower friction for the prepper, while his has the advantage of having math and science behind it. Like a lot of prepping, it’s easy to go off into the weeds and to find reasons not to start. “Oh, I have to figure out how many calories are in a bucket of flour before I start storing it.” “are mylar bags really necessary? What about oxygen absorbers? I don’t have any.” Stuff like that. My method feels a little more haphazard, but really, do you think in terms of making a pot of rice or of cooking 1700 calories of foodstuffs?
However you think of it, get started if you haven’t already. I’m eating rice stored very haphazardly in 2014 and it is delicious. (stored in a black bin, limited airflow, no vermin, constant comfortable temps.) I didn’t use O2 absorbers, or repack into mylar, or any of the other things. I saw a case of ebola in Dallas and panic bought a bunch of food. I packed it tightly in bins at my secondary location, and ignored it until this year. Because I moved it home, I’m repacking it into buckets as they are more air tight, and easier to move when full.
I’ve rotated the 2014 stuff to the front and put the 2019 and 2020 in the back. If I move some back to my secondary storage, I’ll move the 2019 and 2020 food. My point is, you don’t have to do it perfectly, or in any particular way at all. You don’t NEED all the rest of the stuff or to spend a lot of time. Rice is cheap. Flour, sugar, salt, and even peanut oil (my stored fat) are cheap. If you have some spoilage, it’s a small price to pay vs. NOT having any food. To the staples, add canned food- meat, veg, and beans to start, fruit, pie filling, and ‘weirder’ stuff as you can. The cans will do just fine for years if you keep them cool and dry without any other work on your part.
You can and should build off that food stockpile, but at least you won’t starve to death in the first 3 months of a disaster, whatever that might be (prolonged unemployment being the most common, sick spouse or kid being the second.)
So, get started, or keep going, but keep stacking.
nick