Hot and humid.\u00a0 [74F and dripping, overcast. I purely suck at weather forecasting]\u00a0 It is Houston and summer….<\/p>\n
Yesterday was hot and humid, although less of both than previous days this week.\u00a0 Stuff was actually drying out once I dumped the standing water.\u00a0 Sometimes we’ll go days with water in every nook and cranny because it just can’t evaporate.\u00a0 And I was able to work outside for a while, without my vest or my head exploding.\u00a0 Nice little break.<\/p>\n
I took some time and did pool care.\u00a0 Skimmed off the leaves, swept the bottom, and made a big siphon hose to suck out the debris.\u00a0 My little siphon hose took too long and used too much water.\u00a0 And it clogged easily on the half eaten pecans.\u00a0 The damnable tree rats are chewing the still very undersized and unripe pecans in half.\u00a0 That makes two marble sized pieces to drop in the pool, since they can’t eat them.\u00a0 Bigger hose, stronger flow, less choking, and I had that cleaned up in a jiffy.<\/p>\n
Then on to pulling some inventory to go to the local auction.\u00a0 I’ve got two big black bins full, and more to go.\u00a0 SO MUCH MORE.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In the process, I was going through stuff in the house, on the patio, and in the garage.\u00a0 Miles to go before I sleep, but every journey starts with a single step, right?<\/p>\n
Dinner was Taco Tuesday.\u00a0 Canned chicken, canned beans, tortillas and fixin’s from the fridge.<\/p>\n
Daughter one has a visit with the orthodontist this morning.\u00a0 We were doing a retainer to move some teeth around so they didn’t get damaged before we could do the braces.\u00a0 She lost the retainer.\u00a0 It’s been months, so it’s time for a reassessment.<\/p>\n
Daughter two is complaining of a mild headache and feeling “pukey”.\u00a0\u00a0 No actual vomiting, but no appetite either.\u00a0 I’m wondering where she picked up a bug, and the only answer is ‘swim practice’.\u00a0\u00a0 That is double plus ungood as it points out how easy it would be to get something else.\u00a0 I’m not feeling great either, with occasional coughing, and some mild headache.\u00a0 I’m blaming mine on allergies and doing too much reading with my cheap ‘cheater’ glasses.\u00a0 We might stay home from swim today.\u00a0 We’ll see.<\/p>\n
As part of my cleaning up and moving stuff, I moved some rice from bags in the black bins to buckets with O2 absorbers.\u00a0 I filled two buckets and could have filled a third and fourth with rice and another bucket with flour.\u00a0 30 pounds per 5 gallon bucket, 2 cups a day, and each bucket is good for approximately 30 days.\u00a0 That’s a nice tidy number and easy to see at a glance what inventory looks like in ‘days’.\u00a0 I find it much easier to think in terms of ‘meals’ or ‘days’ when looking at my stored preps.\u00a0 I absolutely never think in terms of ‘calories per day per person.’\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Like a lot of prepping, it’s easy to go off into the weeds and to find reasons not to start.\u00a0 “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?\u00a0 What about oxygen absorbers?\u00a0 I don’t have any.” \u00a0 Stuff like that.\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n
However you think of it, get started if you haven’t already.\u00a0 I’m eating rice stored very haphazardly in 2014 and it is delicious.\u00a0 (stored in a black bin, limited airflow, no vermin, constant comfortable temps.)\u00a0 I didn’t use O2 absorbers, or repack into mylar, or any of the other things.\u00a0 I saw a case of ebola in Dallas and panic bought a bunch of food.\u00a0 I packed it tightly in bins at my secondary location, and ignored it until this year.\u00a0 Because I moved it home, I’m repacking it into buckets as they are more air tight, and easier to move when full.<\/p>\n
I’ve rotated the 2014 stuff to the front and put the 2019 and 2020 in the back.\u00a0 If I move some back to my secondary storage, I’ll move the 2019 and 2020 food.\u00a0 My point is, you don’t have to do it perfectly, or in any particular way at all.\u00a0 You don’t NEED all the rest of the stuff or to spend a lot of time.\u00a0\u00a0 Rice is cheap.\u00a0 Flour, sugar, salt, and even peanut oil (my stored fat) are cheap.\u00a0 If you have some spoilage, it’s a small price to pay vs. NOT having any food.\u00a0 To the staples, add canned food- meat, veg, and beans to start, fruit, pie filling, and ‘weirder’ stuff as you can.\u00a0 The cans will do just fine for years if you keep them cool and dry without any other work on your part.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
So, get started, or keep going, but keep stacking.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
nick <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hot and humid.\u00a0 [74F and dripping, overcast. I purely suck at weather forecasting]\u00a0 It is Houston and summer….<\/p>\n
Yesterday was hot and humid, although less of both than previous days this week.\u00a0 Stuff was actually drying out once I dumped the standing water.\u00a0 Sometimes we’ll go days with water in every nook and cranny because it just can’t evaporate.\u00a0 And I was able to work outside for a while, without my vest or my head exploding.\u00a0<\/p>\n