Yep. Lucky XIII, continued from here
Eccles – at 13:55
I’m not quite sure where to stick this, but I’ll try here. This is an article warning about potential problems using high strength Hydrogen Peroxide, which I know some on Fluwikie have espoused for use in water purification:
FDA Warns Against Internal Use of High-Strength Hydrogen Peroxide uly 28, 2006 — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a health advisory to warn consumers against the purchase and ingestion of high-strength hydrogen peroxide products for medicinal purposes due to the risk for serious harm or death.
Consumers are advised to immediately discontinue use of these products, which include currently marketed items such as “35 Percent Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide,” and consult their healthcare provider, according to an alert sent yesterday from MedWatch, the FDA’s safety information and adverse event reporting program.
The high-strength hydrogen peroxide products are more than 10 times more concentrated than topical products used for disinfecting minor cuts. Ingestion of these highly corrosive products can cause gastrointestinal irritation or ulceration, and intravenous administration can result in blood vessel inflammation at the injection site, gas embolisms, and potentially life-threatening allergic reactions.
Link to Full Article (Link does require subscription)
I found this on Medscape. I have a subscription, so I’m not sure whether the page can be read by non-subscribers.
jplanner – at 06:55 July 30
Please stop flushing unused/old antibiotics and hormones down the drain/toilet. Wastewater treatment plants can’t remove them. The treatment process removes “solids,” nutrients and heavy metals. Antibiotics and hormones are pervasive in our environment. We recycle (apply) wastewater sludge on our pasture land and crop fields and the plants absorb the antibiotics and hormones as 2nd and 3rd generation compounds. We in turn ingest them when we eat those crops or the animals that eat them.
Just add a little water to the pill bottle to create a mush so the pills are no longer attractive to whomever might want to retrieve them from your trashcan—ugh! Better yet ask your pharmacist if he can reclaim them. The federal govt is looking into reclamation possibilities now.
smitty, I never thought of that. You’ve taught me a lesson. Thanks.
smitty – at 16:34 thanks so much for the info, I’ve been ignorantly flushing my old meds. I’ll stop immediately.
Excellent suggestion. I have read that these hormones and other chemicals are doing things to fish, strange things.
Think about it, nothing should be flushed but bodily waste.
bump
Last night DW and I loaded up a truckload of firewood and stacked it in the woodpile. Yes, it was dam*** hot, but we drive by where we get the firewood on our way home from work and when we saw what nice pieces were there we decided to get a load. I also paid for a dump truck load to be delivered. It cost us $10 for a pickup load and $50 to have the truckload delivered. I hope to go back this weekend and get some more. Even though it is hot as blazes, now is the time to be focusing on the winter. Everybody thinks about firewood once it turns cold.
Sounds like a wonderful price on the firewood hillbilly bill,I too need to make calls to arrange for more wood but will pay alot more than you quoted.Is that hardwood or slabs?Just took 4 beautiful ripe tomatoes out of the garden.I hope the weather breaks because with my 70 plants I will soon be canning tomatoes daily.
Malachi – at 10:16
It is slabs from a sawmill, but this mill only cuts mine timbers (which are 4 x 4 posts). That means that the slabs are nice and thick and they work great in my wood furmace. A mill that cuts boards from logs will only have very thin scraps of slabs which are for the most part useless for firewood.
Yep I found that out the hard way once :)
Malachi – at 10:26
They get EVERY possible board out of a log that they can! I willing to bet that the sawmill I get my wood from makes almost as much money from firewood as from cut timbers.
Just curious about this - Yesterday I bought a 12-pack of ramen noodles at Wal-Mart. After I got home, I noticed on the bar code sticker was printed the words “INVENTORY PREP”. Can anyone explain? Maybe someone in grocery retail? I’m guessing it’s some kind of industry lingo. Anyway, the ramen noodles are now part of my “prep inventory” :)
I received a catalog from a company called TravelSmith yesterday and noted some interesting articles that might be good prep items, including: biodegradable “Tush Wipes,” “Restop 1″ and “Restop 2″ disposable travel toilets (I’ll let you guess what the “1″ and “2″ designations mean!)- I think these would be expecially good for bug-out bags, “Fresh Bath” biodegradable extra-large wipes, disposable underwear and socks, and a portable water purifier that runs on 4 AA batteries. This company sells clothes and items to meet every travel situation. Their web site is travelsmith.com
I am still buying preps and I have run out of containers besides the 5 gal buckets what are you using to hold you bulk items as beans etc.?
Looking for fireplace bellows. I always blow myself lightheaded starting fires in the fireplace or grill.
Powdered cranberry to make cranberry juice (a staple around here). Real juice only keeps for a few months. Also looking for powdered grapefruit, without a lot of additives. Anyone have a link?
Travelsmith is a reliable company, I’ve ordered from them in the past. Good luck with your preps!
OKbirdwatcher – at 11:38 Just curious about this - Yesterday I bought a 12-pack of ramen noodles at Wal-Mart. After I got home, I noticed on the bar code sticker was printed the words “INVENTORY PREP”. Can anyone explain?
They are getting ready to inventory the store, item by item. It’s a total PITA (I’ve done it, though not with anything on that scale). There are entire companies like REGIS that only go around and inventory. I’ve noticed several stores here (WalMart and others) have had their pre-inventory tags up; it’s just that time of year for many companies.
Blackbird, a good (and cheap) substitute for fireplace bellows is a plastic foot pump.
When stores are getting ready to inventory, they want their inventory to be as low as possible because they have to pay taxes on whatever they have in stock. That might be the reason that shelves are not being restocked quickly and they’re out of things.
Blackbrd-I’m from Wi. and got my fireplace bellows at FLEET FARM.
Love Texas – at 16:35
I left my dried beans in the original packages and packed them in 5 gallon buckets. I also left the rice I bought in the original 3lb package and put those inside ziplock freezer bags. Then I packed that into empty (and fastidiously washed) kitty litter buckets.
I received an email announcement about the sales items in the link below. I have no connection with the manufacturer, or the reseller of this product, other than the purchases I have made from them which have been satisfactory. I don’t even know if this is a good price, but it seems like it to me.
Hillbilly bill and firewood- Even though its hotter than blazes here-heat index 105 yesterday, we’re ordering our propane for the winter. Aug. is when the rates are the lowest, plus with this particular company-Mammoth Propane, if you pay your bill in full at time of delivery, you get a 5% discount. We budget so much a month through the year and stick in savings to get the discount-every little bit helps you know!
My prep for today is cleaning out my daughter’s bedroom. (Ugg) She is a brillant creative child-and can make a mess faster than any child I have ever seen. I’m afraid of what I might find- she has been know to keep various amphibians as pets! But I’m also hoping to recover several overdue library books, and personal items that have mysteriously disappared- I might also find some of my missing preps.
Green Mom – at 09:01
Same way with fuel oil here, you get a discount if you fill up in July or August.
I’ll put my granddaughter’s room against your daughter’s room anyday. My GD has a habit of “assembling” boxes and bags of items (most of them household) for particular tasks. Then she loses interest in that project and the bags or boxes end up under her bed, at the bottom of her closet, or anywhere else she might decide to stuff them. When we ask her where the _________(insert anything missing) is, she has no idea.
Petticoat Junction at 02:48 -
Thanks for the info! I do remember seeing a shirt-and-tie-type guy with his notebook and calculator in the food section - just didn’t make the connection.
HB- Thats exactly what my daughter does too! She has all these collections of things in various bags boxes ect, except the contents spill out and mingle with all the other stuff in her room.
I really hate to stiffle creativity but I would also hate for the health department to show up.
Over the summer I’ve been really slack about making my kids clean their rooms-Ive been busy, and they have too and I’ve just kind of let things go. Plus they have the upstairs to themselves and I didn’t have to see the mess. The time has come, I suppose, to don the haz-mat suit and do what needs to be done…..
Green Mom – at 09:37
Let me know when you are “going in”. If I don’t see a post from you in a day or two I’ll send help!
Green Mom - You can have one of my Tyvec suits. It’s supposed to fend off buglets and homuncules.
Green Mom and Hillbilly Bill - I totally relate. My 5yo is a slob! Can’t walk into her room in the dark for fear of tripping over or stepping on one of her plastic horses. Then 2yo slides under-bed prep boxes out so she can use them as a step stool to get up on sissy’s bed, and then I stub my toe on them. Daddy cleaned up the room earlier this week, which lasted, oh,… about an hour! My trick - she has 10 minutes to clean her room or everything on the floor goes in garbage bags (I have 6 Hefty Garbage bags full of toys in my basement). I can’t be too hard on her though, because I know where she gets it - I was the same way as a kid, so I know she’ll outgrow it or soon she won’t have any toys to play with!
Green Mom – at 09:10
My prep for today is cleaning out my daughter’s bedroom. (Ugg) She is a brillant creative child-and can make a mess faster than any child I have ever seen.
You haven’t met my two year old. He just walks through a room and things fall out of place. <rolling eyes> My 7 and 10 year old girls aren’t much better. I love ‘em to death, but I will be SOOOOOOO glad when they learn the concept of clean as you go. It would save all of us a great deal of aggravation.
I’m on vacation this week; from my 7 day in a row job with lots of 12 hr. shifts and I sure could use a little help with my bedroom. After you all get warmed up in your kid’s rooms.
Kathy in FL, Unfortunately, kids tend to learn “the concept of clean as you go” about the time they have kids of their own. LOL
Early this morning 2a.m realized I was either nip a bladder infection in the bud or end up in my doctors office. Trotted down to my preps and pulled out a big bottle of the cranberry juice mix (Don’t care for it genereally, but put it in preps for this eventuality) Sure enough it took care of what had appeared so suddenly. I think its time to start using up old preps and replacing them with newer items. Stopped at a small table farm stand. farmers wife in a nice cotton dress, blond hair, stood arranging multi colored arrangements of zinnias. We had a comfortable time as there was a nice breeze under the farmhouse trees, and we had a pleasant chat as I chose my tomatoes and cukes. Her pin money comes from her garden.
How my prep test went for the month.
We will probably be painting the exterior of the house next week. That will be a load off my mind. Its actually not the prep work so much as all the prepping that needs to be done. Gutter work, addressing long standing window issues, caulking, yard work that has been put off because it wasn’t absolutely necessary like tree and bush trimming, etc. — that is going to knock a lot off my “to do” list.
Overall, its been a good experience and I’ve learned that things are both better and worse than I thought … which is basically what the test was all about in the first place. Our strengths will help with our weaknesses and the weak areas are things we can work on.
And just as an aside … especially for those of you who will have children in the house … you may want to locate a list of old fashioned remedies (those that really work) for things like insect bites/stings and ingestions of inappropriate items.
Our two year old gave us a scare last week. He climbed up … besides being part dragon he has now become part monkey … to where I normally keep my cleaning supplies. Not even my 7 year old can get them without a step stool and usually she just asks for help. The old kids started screaming that he had opened something and was splashing it on himself and he was crying because he had gotten it in his eyes. Luckily it was just my vinegar and water cleaner … but it could have been worse.
You don’t have much time with stuff like that and having a plan a head of time will help. My 13 year old son had gotten to his baby brother first and run with him to the shower, stripped him and had the shower running on him before I could even shout directions. He learned it in Boy Scouts, but he said that he learned it from me before that … and I can’t remember specifically teaching them what to do in such an eventuality.
I plan on putting together a box to be kept close at hand of things that could be useful in such a situation.
Scared us all, though all’s well that ends well.
Monday, I washed out 42, 2-litre bottles and filled them with water. Have over 100 stored so far.
Oremus – at 14:22
Which reminds me, now that my official “prep test” is over I can start going back to the grocery store any time I want to. <rolling eyes> But I do want to start buying more drinks in 2 liter bottles.
How on earth did you rack up 42 of those things? I figure at most I’ll be able to accumulate 5 a week and not go into diabetic shock or break the budget. LOL!
My sister runs a Pump it Up franchise. If you’re unfamiliar it has huge inflatable play equipment for kids parties. She saves me the empty 2 litres.
I don’t drink sodas. Is there another way to acquire these things?
LILY!!!! Have you not posted in awhile or have we just been visiting different threads?? I told my husband last night that I was missing the imagery of your writings.
Isn’t that cranberry stuff wonderful?? Someone mentioned here once that there are cranberry pills — if you don’t like the drink, maybe your health food store or a CVS (do they have the pills??) might have some that you can keep on your shelf!
Good to hear from you!
Ask friends to save them for you. Fish them out of recycling bins. Places that host parties, probably throw out a lot.
Oh and Lily, glad you’re well now ….. and what is ‘pin money’??
Melanie, is there a day care near you? They might use the plastic bottles and be willing to save them for you.
Melanie – at 15:14
Also join a freecycle group in your area if available. They list and ask for things people are throwing away anyway. It’s a great way to slow the rate of growth of our landfills.
I found that so funny “what’s pin money?” I’ll let Lily explain but I sure feel old now.
The dust monster slayer emerges triumphant from the Chamber of Horrors! Bwaa haa haa!
Ok-didn’t find any missing preps, though evidence of prep consumption was dicovered-i.e. Pop-tart wrappers. I did find a very nice sleeping bag wadded up under the bed-don’t know where that came from, plus various unknown t-shirts, socks, hats, stuffed animals etc. We have had lots of cousins and neices and nephews visit over the summer. I put all these in a big bag and will take it to a family gathering next week.
Filled a hefty bag of trash- the aforementioned food wrappers plus old notebooks, school worksheets, old valentines that were stuffed behind the desk etc remnants of a gazillion craft projects.
A bag of outgrown clothes-will go to the previously mentioned family gathering.
a good size box of books she no longer reads will go to the used bookstore to be swapped for more books. (I secretly went through these and pulled out books that I know she will wish she had kept like her “little house” books.
a box of puzzles, coloring books, activity books etc goes to a theraputic childrens center.
Another bag of toys and misc. items will be sacrificed to the Goodwill Gods.
A box of items that belong to other members of the family (i.e. her brother’s Shonun Jump and Artimus Fowl books, her mothers favorite comb, and good scissors, four flashlights(?????) and her father’s handsaw (I don’t even want to know….) has all ready been distrubuted, plus various dishes and utensils returned to the kitchen.
whew!
Women used to sell eggs, bake bread, just to get what was referred to as pin money.I assume hair pins, pins for sewing, all those little doo dads, that weren’t in their reach otherwise. A bit of ribbon, something special like a soda for the children if they went into town. The little treats. Or for squirreling away in a jar somewhere for bad times.I think I’ll google it up, my idea of pin money is just my own way of thinking. There is probably a better version.
Thank you Kim and Slainte. Will check out both suggestions.
Today I got a shipment of flour, oats and other supplies from Walton in superpails for long term storgage. They were labeled on the outside of the box in felt-tip pen, so I guess the UPS folks will know where to come if they every get very, very hungry. :(
Green Mom,
The good scissors? That’s a death penalty offense where I live.
Melanie- If I even APPROACH within a few feet of DW’s good sewing scissors, I am threatened with immediate corporal punishment involving the removal of the offending hand. (Well, maybe I exaggerate a little).
But what harm does cutting sheet metal and stripping wires do anyhow. It’s a tool, right? It’s meant to be used, right?
Eccles,
Rotflmao! I would have killed you.
And a jury of women my age would have found me innocent.
My son once built a treehouse in the woods by the creek. Tools vanished, never to be seen again. In my house, scissors melt into nothingness. At one auction I bought a hugh box of scissors, not one remains. When I finally move I think there will be a great gathering of the scissors,. like the Highlander series. They will duel it out, and I’ll leave with the triumphant scissor. Right now I have one that is a paper scissor cutter,. It can’t be misplaced, its a foot long.
For the past 2 months on eo f my “preps” has been to practice living with less electricity. Specifically, our dryer broke and we were too lazy-broke-confused to repair it or fix it or replace it, so I just decided to live without it and hang laundry “like in the old days”…i.e. when we lived in an apartment 3 years ago and only had a washer. It’s good for the environment, and good for the laundry, right?
So, I’ve been hanging laundry in the basement for 2 months, and honestly, it’s no big deal; it;s going fine. I have a system. Also, it forcers me to not do so much laundry, if I have to look at each item as I hang it (on a clothes hanger) onto the clotehs line, I realize how many clothes I am washing, and I subconsciously cut back….
Anyhow, three days ago our dishwasher also broke. (-:
So now I’m doing the dishes by hand again, as in the old days ago (3 years ago in the old apartment.)
So, I rearranged our kitchen so the kids could eat in there and keep me company while I washed the dishes. (The 4 year old helps, too.)
We’ll see if I get the dishwasher repaired. But that’s been my prep. At least we should save some money on electricity, I hope. (I wash very frugally, using 2 dishpans, in case you were wondering.)
Eccles, I am SHOCKED that you’d even think of going anywhere near the sewing scissors. My DH has a penchant for losing and abusing tools, but at least he knows that my scissors are completely off limits. Just as your wife did, I had to make a few minor threats to convey the seriousness of messing with them, but he apparently understands and has not touched them ;)
Back in my college days I conserved dryer energy by drying my clothes on a line out back until they were almost dry, then finished them in the dryer so they didn’t have the wrinkles from drying slowly without tumbling.
Of course there were also other times when I washed my clothes in the bathtub and dried them on a line out back because I just didn’t have the couple of bucks that it would have taken to wash them at the laundromat.
I must have been in my 40′s before I had my first dishwasher. Dang, I must be getting old.
LOL! Don’t touch my scissors or my measuring stick.
AVanarts - I still conserve dryer energy but by doing the opposite. I partially dry things in the dryer, then hang on hangers to finish drying. Few, if any wrinkles :)
I did say that my daughter had the good scissors. She is being allowed to live because she didn’t touch, nobody does, my dressmakers shears. I’ve worked for years and years in costume shops-still do occasionally, where we refer to tools for cutting paper-i.e. patterns, craft paper, etc as scissors and for cutting fabrics as shears. I should have been more clear in my post-its just that my brain was still clogged with dust!
My husband understands this- tools, I mean not having dust-brain. he worked sometime as a carpenter and has, to my knowledge, at least seven different hammers. We’re still working on teaching the kids. My son is venturing into computer. We bought him some Computer cleaning/repair tools and he’s becoming respectful of his tools and those of others. My daughter is starting to ask for permission to borrow the tools, but she forgets to bring them back. (If she thinks I’m going to say “no” she “forgets” to ask permission.)
We’re working on it!
Prep for today-
Since I have been cleaning out the house to make room for homeschooling, and we cleaned out both son’s room (early in the week) and Daughter’s room (yesterday) I have a car load of stuff to go to Goodwill, recycling,etc so I’m going to do that this am. (I’ll also hit the day-old bread store and check out what the Godwill Gods have to offer) This afternoon, I’m hauling kids to the dentist, hopefully just cleaning and checkups. We are actually quite late doing this, but I wanted to get as close to flu season while still allowing for possible work (i.e. fillings) as I could.
Hope everyone has a great day and manages to cope with the heat. There are some rain clouds flirting with me this morning-Ive got my fingers crossed, but I’m not very hopeful…..
“Thall Shall Not Touch My Sewing Scissors” was long ago added to the other Ten Commandments in our house.
Average Concerned Mom – at 19:42 - I’ve been practicing using less electricity, too. I was amazed at how much my electric bills decreased when I reduced my use of the dishwasher and clothesdryer. I’ve been hanging my clothes to dry upstairs in my finished attic and they dry very quickly, even jeans (especially in this hot weather!).
We got our electric bill, after I got up off of the flour, I started turning out lights.When the temp is 107 the air-Cond. never stops!!!! Thanks for the info on the clothes dryer I will try it.
Love Texas – at 08:50 - I can do without my dishwasher and clothesdryer, but not my AC! I hope the pandemic doesn’t happen during the summer . . .
Love Texas – at 08:50
You might want to invest in a Kill A Watt meter. It is astounding how much energy a lot of appliances use, sometimes even when you are not using them.
Gppd pont Hillbilly Bill — I suppose I should actually unplug my broken appliances if I’m not using them.
Note to everyone trying to stop using the dryer re: laundry management — what works for us is, skip the clothespins completely. Hang all clothes on hangers. When dry, move hangers to closet. Skip folding entirely.
If you have more clothes than you have space in your closet — you have too many clothes. (-: Sue dresser drawers for your preps.
Spent a few days with my sister and her new baby….Brought 3 boxes of diapers and wipes…Wish it could have been more….I brought 4 frozen cassaroles and one freshly baked one as I knew her hubby would want us to go to China buffett.I gave up chinese the day I read about us here in MI having all that untested illegally imported poultry meat.eeewwwwwww……….
I used to get two wash days(consecutive days) when I lived in places in Switzerland. It sufficed. Here in the states when I used my washer and dryer I would toss things in just about every day (even if alone). Then my washer went on the fritz, and like other things I just let it go. Now and then I mosey over to the laundramat, have a good breakfast at a low end cafe, (good hash browns and coffee) while the wash washes, and while it drys I read the paper. Sometimes its as rare as once a month. I have a lot of underwear. Saves electricity and runs me about 6 to 8$ and it saves a lot of time. Have a lot of blue jeans too. Usually I don’t overdry anything, just sitting in a hot car dries it, or put the jeans out on the back stairs till dried. I feel I’m conserving everything, electricity, water, not so much tide or bleach in the sewers. I look as clean and crisp every day as I did when I washed clothes constantly. We are used to so many things that are actually not needed. For a family, of course a washer and dryer are a godsend. The older I get, the closer I seem to get to my roots, a simpler time, an easy pace, a tranquil way of living.
Well, I’ve got to toot my own horn…..I’m an avid pack rat & so is my husband to a lesser degree — I tend to save too MUCH stuff, he tends to take stuff & make a “new” place to put it, which happens to be just whereever he sets it down when he’s through with it. Our guestroom had become an office/guestroom several years ago (not a neat one) & then it became an office/guestroom/exercise room (we’re talking a space about 14′x12′! Anyway, the whole room was crowded, then I started adding in every other thing that didn’t have a home…..which was a LOT of stuff.
My attic is full of ebay stuff I sell…or want to sell….and my pantry is up there (a climate controlled area) and I’ve been reorganizing it since I moved some stuff down to underneath the foyer stairs, which is another area we cleaned out to store preps.
My guest bathroom tub had a board covering it & 3 cat crates (it’s our ‘safe’ room during storms) and about 9 big bundles of paper towels & 10 packages of toilet paper.
Sooooooo…..I gave my late mother’s rocker chair to my sis in law first of this week, which made more room in the guestroom, I had DH move the exercise equipment up to the attic (yes, it’s actually cool enough to use up there if you go up there veeeeeerrrrryyy early in the AM during summer or veeeeeeerrrryyy late in the winter.
The guestroom was finally big enough to actually set up the Aerobed again! That was a goal of mine, since if I have to have a sick room, that’s it, & I didn’t want to find myself having to move all that crap when sick.
Suddenly we got a call from family to see if they could stay overnight (first time in 3 years which is why I’d broken down the regular bed in the first place). I was READY FOR THEM!!!!
I also got our air mattress down from the attic & blew it up because it was the brother in law, who will stay in the guestroom, the daughter who was going to sleep on the air mattress in the living room, and then after a second phone call, we found out her friend was coming too, so she’s going to sleep on the sofa.
So today, I took every piece of junk from EVERY room and put it in our master bedrooom — the prep supplies & pet crates went up to the attic for the time being & will end up back behind the shower curtain after guests leave, but right this very minute, the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, the guest bathroom and the guestroom are clean & straight & you can navigate easily in any room. Our bedroom & bath are NOT clean, but with the progress I’ve made today…..including a trip to buy ANOTHER inflatable bed (this time a raised one) because the air mattress wouldn’t stay inflated, I’ve made tremendous progress & know of some other places where I can store some more preps!!! Later I found out that I think the plug for the air mattress just came loose & it’s probably OK, but I got a newer better bed out of that mistake — just don’t tell my DH!!!
I’m sighing with relief that I pushed myself and was able to turn our home back into a home rather than a huge supply closet!!
Sometimes prepping doesn’t involve ANY beans or rice!
I’m workin’,
Sometimes real life intrudes and reminds us of the real priorities.
We are pressure washing the house tomorrow and hopefully will finish prepping all of the small repair projects this weekend so that next week we can begin painting the exterior of the house. House hasn’t been painted in 10 years and there are places that are really needing it. That bit of work will be a load off my mind.
At the same time we will be reorganizing all of the outside stuff … such as lanai, front porch, and anything that needs to go in the shed.
As an added bonus since we are painting already, we will repaint the cool deck around the pool … which hasn’t seen new paint in probably 15+ years, before we bought the place anyway.
Lots of work to look forward to.
Kathy in Fl - I want to thank you for all of your help in relation to meals and sip. Your months experience and the time you took to document it here is appreciated and so very helpful. Thanks again, for taking something unknown and breaking it down into steps/plans/days/weeks. Lots of work that benefits anyone who followed your month as I did every day.
Lily at 14:25 -
“The older I get, the closer I seem to get to my roots, a simpler time, an easy pace, a tranquil way of living.”
hear! hear! I’m trying to get there too :)
Anybody here ever do dumpster diving? In our college town during the moving weekends (end of May, start of August) there are so many things dumped by the students. I have found furniture-which I love to paint/refinish and then resell. But my latest find was 6 milk crates. These are working out great in my storeroom for storage of preps. Very sturdy and can easily be moved. Great for canned items. If you run across any, grab’em.
I found an antique armoire in town fell in love with it and bought it a great price and it was delivered today. After my husband and the man got it into my quest room and the man left I looked at it and said food storage!!!!!!! So now I have a new place to store stuff---------What fun!!! Sure could use another one! I think this means another trip to town!
The husband and the offspring learned very early to not touch my good sewing shears and sharps without my permission. If they want to use scissors, I have generously provided three pairs for household use. Just do not touch my tools.
Why does using an apostrophe cause a wiki search box to pop up? It has happened every time I have attempted to use a contraction in this thread(which explains the stilted posting).
TR,
It changes the way the software reads the title. Post threads minus any punctuation marks.
Love texas- if you want to cut down on the power bills, I would suggest you stop using old fashioned incandescent lightbulbs and start using COmpact Fluorescent bulbs. The way they label the packaging is confusing, since some manufacturers label them as though they were 60 or 75 or 100 watt lamps, when in actuality they are 15, 18,or 22 watt lamps.
A quick lesson. The power consumed by a lamp, whether it be incandescent or Compact fluorescent ends up in the room in the form of heat. The lower the number of watts consumed, then the less heat that is deposited in your room that you then have to pay the AC to blow back out again.
Think of it this way. Look around at night. Suppose you see a total of 4 60 watt and 4 100 watt lamps burning in the downstairs while people are active. That is the equivalent of 640 watts of heat being dumped into your room. About like a small space heater. You wouldn’t dream of running a space heater in summer, would you?
Here is a Mantra to learn and repeat incessantly. Watts is what I pay for. Lumens is what I get. read the label of a lightbulb package. it specifies power consumed (and radiated as heat) in watts, and light output as lumens. The fewer the watts you consume for the same number of lumens, the cheaper the lamp is to run, and the cheaper the AC bill will be to remove that waste heat from the house.
True story. We live in an all electric house. Everything is electric. Lights, heat, AC, water heater, well pump. Everything. We air condition it much cooler than normal folks. We have over 3000 Square feet. And our electric bill for July just got here. $240. I think that’s pretty good. Winter is about the same, including heating the house with electricity.
The more you learn, the more you can cheat the power company out of its profits.
here is a thought experiment for you to do. The power company distributes pamphlets to teach you how to save energy. What;s in it for them? they make their money by selling you electricity. There are ricks out there your mother (and your power company) never taught you. Stick with us kid, we’ll teach you some good’uns. But stat with Compact Fluorescent lamps.
And a note to the Prep Lady’s Sewing Circle-
I never actually used my DW’s sewing scissors for those purposes. I just threaten to. So y’all can put those pitch forks and torches down now. OK?
Thanks for the info, Melanie@1927.
Eccles@2001: Pitch forks and torches? Please. We wield seam rippers and rotary cutters.:D
The compact florescents ARE great. Another trick is to shut everything down as much as possible at night-example UNPLUG applances like tvs and computers-they will continue to draw power even when switched off. We found these great little LED glowlights at Lowes that we plug in critical areas of out house-top, bottom and landing of the stairs, in frount of the bathroom, kids rooms etc. they give off plenty of light, yet remain cool to touch and use very little power-something like seven cents of electricity a year. That way we don’t have to leave any lights burning at night.
Prep for today concerned Homeland Security.
DH and son constructed a spud gun. For those of you not familiar with a spud gun,(and I was blissfully in those ranks until a very short time ago) it is Basically constructed out of two lengths of PVC pipe, a sparker and a can of hair spray. This weapon will propel ammunition of a vegtable variety an astonishing distance, produce a thunderous boom, terrify any domestic animals that might be lurking around and cause everybody else to FOTFLTAO. We had rather too much fun firing produce that was, shall we say, somewhat past its prime? Dh sent a potato some three hundred feet in the air. A rotten tomato didn’t go nearly as far, but the sound it made when it hit the ground was way cool.
Of course this time of year, if we couldn’t scare of an invading horde with the spud gun, we could just club them with the zucchini.
Well, if the spud gun dosn’t
Eccles—
By all means let us know when it is time for Lesson 2 in how to avoid paying too much to our electric company! Fluorescent bulbs are all in. Unused appliances have been unplugged. (Wait, was that lesson 2?) Anything to save a little money for more preps. (Or in my case, paying off old debts.)
Oops sorry about the end of that last post- I meant to say; IF the spud gun dosn’t work out, a pumpkin catapualt is next in the works.
Green mom - that sounds like so much fun. My kids (and dh) would love that! Good way to scare someone, or at least gross them out with rotting veggies!
OK
lesson 2.
For many this is already done, but if not, you should immediately switch to Low Flow shower heads. If you use electricity to heat water, this is a substantial bill reducer. With natural gass coming up rapidly, you folks with gas heaters need to do this too.
Here is why:
A high flow old fashioned shower head can flow up to ten gallons per minute. As a general rule of thumb, about half the water in a shower comes from the water heater. thus, you will be flowing about 5 gallons per minute.
Depending on your electric rates, it costs you about 1–2 cents per gallon to heat the water. So, at 5 gallons per minute, at even 1 cent per gallon (and its usually more), a 10 minute shower will cost you about half a buck. If you feel it appropriate to shower daily, that is about $180 per year in electric bills to heat the water for one household resident to shower. Got a couple of teenagers? Then Uh-Oh.
Same scenario, this time using a Low Flow shower head. Now you are using about 1–1/2 gallons of hot water per minute, so now you are spending 15 cents for the same shower, or about $55 per year. Thus a savings of $125 per year per resident, assuming you shower daily. And assuming you hold the shower to only 10 minutes. longer shower? higher savings.
This does not take into account the water and sewer charges that some of you are paying for the opportuity to flow water from the shower head, past your body and back down the drain.
Work the numbers. One of the unsung savers of utility bills is the low-flow shower head. And those of you who act like they did on that Seinfeld episode, you deserve the bills you get.
Spud guns are a lot of fun, but they are also powerful. I have heard reports of people putting a firm tater through a car windshield. There are dozens of different ways to construct such a gun with a variety of propellants. I live in WV, if you can blow something up or start a fire with it, we know all about it.
Hi just wanna add my 2 cents about the dryer issue, where I live in Australia hardly anyone uses a dryer, we all have what are called Hills Hoist clothes line (aussie invention) its a clothes line in the back garden on which we dry all our clothes sheets etc. My parents brought me a dryer when I had the children and I only use it very occassionaly maybe 3 times a year even in winter we dry outside in the non rainy patches (like right now) and at night if it raining we have an indoor clothes wire dryer we set up and they dry over night, when i did use the dryer for one season our electric bill went up about $50.00 for that 3 month period so it quickly stopped. Everything is more than double the cost of in USA except health insurance so we must save where we can. Cheers
Today I drove a distance to pick up some internet orders and check out various items ‘live’ vs the teesny pictures on the internet. Purchases include: new sleeping bag; Mountain House freeze dried food and heater to try (freeze dried ICE CREAM??); canned items on 10 for one sale; finally found a 3qt metal can of EVOO, WUSTHOF knives; shears and sharpener — LOVE them; replacement drinking glasses for the ones the dishwasher etched to death; freeplay hand-crank flashight (one minute of cranking gives an hour of pretty good light, “no batteries or bulbs required, ever”); extra environmentally friendly fire extinguisher; 3% hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol on sale; Dr Scholl’s moleskin plus sundry small other purchases. The place I went to was close to a fancy new mall w/ Valet parking so I spent some time deciding not to buy a bunch of new clothes and other items I don’t need.
Now to find room for all this stuff.
Am I supposed to know what to do with freeze dried ice cream? There are no directions outside the bag, besides ‘ready to eat’. Are there directions inside? Do I add water?
Freeze dried ice cream - just eat as it is. You’ll see.
Melanie – at 19:22 I’m workin’, Sometimes real life intrudes and reminds us of the real priorities.
Yeah, our reason for getting the other aerobed & rushing to get everything neatened up was to have the overnight guests who were also going to a memorial service the next morning — my husband went with his family to this service of his cousin’s wife, then came to where I was out of state to our annual family reunion on my mother’s side. My only remaining sibling of my mother’s is from Idaho and is in his 80′s and his wife has Parkinson’s & they were going to be traveling since June 15th to go to her family reunions in VA, to some Veteran’s events in DC (in reverse order), then to TN for our family’s event yesterday. Partway through this veeeeeerrrryyyy long trip for people in their 80′s, the lady who was looking after Aunt Dixie got homesick & wanted to go home so they had to arrange for that & then travel by themselves from DC to VA where my uncle got a UTI and the antibiotics they gave him at a doc in a box made him so sick he was throwing up even water for a week — how on earth he managed to take care of his wife and her increased needs for help and take care of himself too, was just unbelievable.
Plus, once they reached the cove (that’s what we call an area where mountains’ feet come together sorta), where he grew up, it started the process of most likely being the last time he’d ever be there. He was visibly tired, and sad at the same time, and the rest of us were painfully aware of how fragile they both had become in the year since we’d seen them, and he knew every sunrise in the Cove was so precious to his memories.
Anyway, not to get too sappy, I’ve had a hard time with what I’m calling residual grief of losing my last parent, and 2 of my elderly “children-cats” in the past year and with DH having been to a memorial I wanted to attend too, but couldn’t due to my own family’s event, as well as the saddness of watching my uncle say goodbye to his roots, and being worn out from rushing to clean the house, etc., I spent the entire trip home crying & talking to my DH about how I was feeling & whether he and I thought the dead come back to ‘visit’ you (like my sister thinks) or whether they are so totally enraptured with being (what I believe) in the presence of God on a higher plane of understanding, that they are no longer worried with details of what goes on with us and don’t come back to visit us, and whether it’s the same with cats, etc.
I say that to show that it was a heavy, hard conversation — when you’re more aware of your own mortality, these conversations take on a more serious, deep meaning. I was just barely able to talk sometimes because of the tears & the pain I was feeling. I know that I tend to be overly-sensitive emotionally, which doesn’t help either, and after 2 hours of heavy conversation, I’d almost gone through a whole new box of Kleenex I’d put under the car seat!!!
So my prep for today………I need a bigger boat……of Kleenex. I probably need to stock as much Kleenex as toilet paper, if I’m going to possibly find my self in melancholy or devestatingly sad frames of mind or am going to be deathly sick from flu!! Gotta have more!!!
So we move forward one more step.
I’ve been stocking up on bandanas that I find at thrift stores. With my allergies, I use a lot of kleenex. If TSHTF, I’d rather save the kleenex for other things!
inelegantly, I often use tp for kleenex, especially for bulk usage such as during colds. it costs less.
blackbird at 01:58 -
“…so I spent some time deciding not to buy a bunch of new clothes and other items I don’t need.”
That’s the choice I’ve been making for months now and it’s gone far in helping pay for preps. Priorities. As for the clothes and other items, I haven’t missed them a bit. Tells me I had plenty already ;-)
Eccles---thanks for the hints, I have been using the FB for a while—but I need to check into the low flow shower head---we are restricked to our water usage now(drought) and it is not getting any better. The lake we get our water from is down 18 feet now and we have not had rain in 6 weeks and it is hot very hot. Our population is 105 thousand so it is going fast. We need to do all we can. Well the armoire holds all of my freeze dried and dehyrated foods and all of my back TP. I think it will also hold my paper towels. I would have never thought I would get so excite over storage space!!!! My how life changes!
Mari – at 10:46 Say more about your bandana plan. Do you plan to wash them out (and avoid germs), when would you use one vs the kleenex saved for other uses?
OKbirdwatcher – at 12:22 Exactly. It was fun looking for a little while, then deciding I didn’t need ‘em.
Regarding pin money. My mom had her pin money for emergencies and to keep it safe from theft. They keep it in a little pouch ‘pinned’ inside the clothing or around your neck on a string. She lived through WWII in England and that was one thing people did. I have something similar. It is a little travel pouch with a few pockets but very thing. I wear it around my neck and it holds cash, a spare house key, and my credit/debit cards, emergency phone numbers etc. I am always afraid of getting ripped off on the bus or train, so this works well. Or, if you get separated from your BOB in other ways. My German Jewish grandma used to always have hers pinned under her apron that she always wore. She always said, “never use it unless you have too. It is for emergencies”.
Question regarding preps:
DH’s base food group is bread, which doesn’t store well. Same with regular crackers, the shelf life isn’t years as with my other preps. What are y’all planning for bread in SIP? Baking is an obvious answer, are there other suggestions out there? I’d prefer to prep to have multiple choices, so > 1 solution is best (especially ones that are easier than *having* to bake — I enjoy it, but if I’m sick — with anything, not necessarily BF)I know I won’t feel like it).
I’ve ordered a can of brown bread, as an experiment.
blackbird – at 15:09 - If I’m SIP and don’t feel sick (but have a runny nose), I’d use the bandana to blow my nose and save the kleenex & TP. I’d wash the bandana along with my clothes. If I suspected I was coming down with an illness, I’d switch to the kleenex or TP and also wash or disinfect hands more often. Some guys regularly use handkerchiefs - this is my way to do the same thing but with pretty colors!
blackbird
Being from New England, brown bread was a staple ingredient growing up, along w/Boston baked beans (still have the old family beanpot, it’s probably over a hundred years old). Thought about buying some myself, it is available in every supermarket here, only problem is it is rather high in sodium and usually contains milk and we are slightly and very lactose intolerant! High on my list of preps not yet obtained are a bread machine and flour. Way back someone recommended Ak Mak crackers from Trader Joes, great product, but shelf life is only about four months (no preservatives)and they are so tasty I can not keep them long enough to rotate. Ordered some of the worlds best chocolate, at least IMHO, plan on hiding some of it as it seems to have a tendency to evaporate. Also bought a bottle of my favorite Single Malt Flu Killer, but opened it so a guest could try it, so once opened that also evaporates so back to buy another! One more order of FD items and hopefully a couple of boxes more MRE’s. No matter how many things I prep, there always seem to be a few more things we need. That last 5% or so of preps is very elusive…
Hi Nautical Man, thanks for your reply. I grew up in new england but don’t recall much about brown bread. Think I’ve had it but was not impressed with the taste. Will check it out though. Have flour, and an also thinking of getting a bread machine. Suggest looking for a used (never or slightly used) machine. Lots of people buy or get them and then it doesn’t work out. I’m spending enough across all the aspects of prepping that some savings here & there would be a plus. Have not researched brands yet, tho. Have you? Chocolate is a problem to prep for as it disappears around here as well.
Mari – at 22:04 Thanks for the info, makes sense. Appreciate the use of recycled materials (and color!).
Nautical Man- One thing about a bread machine. I have personally found that the bread machine mixrs they sell at the supermarket are really inferior to just using scratch ingredients.
They seem to use dough conditioners and other chemistry to make up for slightly low amount and quality of ingredients. If folks use those mixes instead of scratch, I can well see them dumping the machines at the first opportunity.
Scratch is the way to go with a bread machine.
Eccles - you are a man of many talents. My dh wouldn’t even know what a bread machine is, let alone be able to discuss the finer points of scratch vs box baking!
I have started baking bread—baked yesterday, it come out of the oven just in time for dinner love that yeasty taste. I can make four loaves at a time. My husband also likes crackers, I have thought that if sip we can bake bread and then use some of it toasted with a little olive oil and that might be like crackers.
Eccles, thanks for the tip on breadmaking ingredients. It helps explain the population of 2nd hand bread machines floating around. I don’t much see the point of any mixes, seems like an opportunity to ingest extra chemicals. How hard is it to combine flour and whatever for bread, pancakes, etc?
I don’t recall ever using the bread machine mixes, but we have a machine that we don’t use anymore. It seems that a loaf never stayed around long enough to cool. :)
We would take a taste and then not stop until the whole loaf was gone.
blackbird – at 08:07
Me! Me! Me! Let me answer this one! I have the SIMPLEST most FOOL PROOF bread recipe ever for a bread machine. In an SIP situation you can substitute 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil for the butter.
AVanarts – at 08:20
I have found that if you make bread regularly, the usage goes back to a more normal level.
HBB- In my own personal recipe, I use about 2 TBS of dehydrated butter (from SurvivalAcres) plus about 3 TBS of Light Olive Oil (you can use Extra Virgin if you want a more mediterranean taste). In so doing, I eliminate the need for butter and dry milk. The bread comes out tasting very nice.
Eccles – at 09:17
I will have to give that a try. You also use dehydrated eggs in one of your recipes don’t you? How does that change the taste?
HBB- I add 2 TBS of dehydrated eggs to make a Challah I basically use my standard White Bread recipe, which is 3 cups of unbleached flour, 2 TBS sugar, 2 TBS essential wheat gluten (You probably don’t need this), 2 TBS powdered butter, 1–1/2 TSP salt, 3 TBS olive oil and a packet of quick rise yeast. And a cup plus a bit of water (adjust for dough texture during kneading).
The powdered egg really changes the whole product. You would be amazed at how different the Challah comes out from the White bread. Also, the added eggs makes it rise better, so you may want to watch it the first time so it doesn’t get ahead of you.
Eccles – at 09:54
You are a breadmeister indeed!
Bill- Not quite. I still can’t get consistent slices thin enough. We actually need to make more breads per week because I can’t quite get the slices as thin as store bought. I have read the advice of the nice ladies who have tried to sharpen my skills as a bread slicer.
I think that bread slicing comes under the general heading of neat. Ands as I have explained before, I don’t do neat.
Eccles, thanks for the tips on bread making. Plan on doing from scratch not only to have a better taste, but to avoid the milk ingredient, so also thanks for the olive oil info, sounds great. Imagine that soymilk could be substituted, don’t know of any powdered Lactose milk, does anyone? Maybe this is a product that they or other companies could think of bringing out.
blackbird, have not bought the machine as of this moment, but went to epinions, where you can find great reviews by folks on just about anything made, and have decided to go with the Panasonic which seems to have great reviews by many. The important thing is that while there are many highly rated machines, there are a number of so-so ones and some downright poor ones, so it is very helpful to read through some of those reviews before buying.. Thanks to all for their imput on this.
You may not do neat Eccles, just infinatly useful and always good natured and helpful to everyone.
Eccles,
Are you using a bread knife?
Yes. I slice either manually with a serrated bread knife or using an electric knife with counter moving blades. I get nice slices. but if I try to take them too thin, horrible things begin to happen.
I have my best success in slicing heavier breads (I make one with about 1/2 cup of Rye flour that’s really good).
Look. I can work under a microscope probing micron sized features on silicon wafers. I just can’t slice bread thin enough.
(Now here’s an idea for a new product- A combination bread microscope and probing station).
I would imagine he is using a rhodium laser flagrume.
Blackbird about the bread issue. Does your dh like tortillas? That is a staple around here. I learned to make them about 10 years ago and there is a learning curve but everybody here loves them. All they require is flour shortening and salt.
I personally would not get a bread machine. Chores are going to help keep our minds off the chaos.
I am organizing my preps todays and when I ran across all my bags of dry beans I wondered if we are suppose to freeze them like the flour to kill any “unwanteds”?
need more food – at 12:37
yes
Hmmm…I think I need to get some loaf pans and a good serrated edge knife, just in case I have to make bread again.
I tend to use the yeast that advises storing in the refrigerator. Does anyone have suggestions for yeast that can be stored on a regular shelf and lasts longer than a couple months?
OK, this is definitely something I had not considered…using your car as a solar oven. :)
Woman Bakes Cookies on Dashboard
BEDFORD, N.H. (Aug. 3) - Blistering heat was just what Sandi Fontaine needed to bake cookies for her co-workers - on the dash of her Toyota Rav4.
With temperatures soaring Wednesday, Fontaine placed two trays of cookie dough on the dashboard, shut the doors and retreated inside to her air conditioned office…
Fontaine first tested her dashboard oven three years ago. She said anyone can do it; the only requirement is for the outside temperature to be at least 95 degrees, so it will rise to about 200 degrees in the car. Temperatures in the area reached the mid to upper 90s on Wednesday.
Texas Rose - yeast is a dormant living thing. The warmer it is, the quicker it burns thorugh its stored resources and dies. I believe that any yeast will last longer if you store it in the refrigerator.
(How about freezer, does anyone know if this is OK as well?)
Eccles I’ve read 7–10 years for yeast in the freezer and I’ve read if you freeze baker’s yeast, it will last indefinitely. So either way it last a good while. Sams has a great buy on Fleishcmans instant yeast 2 - 1lb vacuum sealed foil packs for $3.04.
Oremus, thanks for the bean info…now I’ve got a lot of bean freezing to do!
All I know about yeast is it’s essential to making pizza dough the way I like.
(And now I have the image of all those little yeastie critters, each in their own stasis pod, waiting for me to bake them in pizza dough)
I have been buying Red Star or Fleishmans yeast in the 3 pack strips. I bought a bunch with an expy date of July 2007, and some lately with a date of Oct 2007. I keep it in the refrigerator where it is supposedly good for two years past the expiration date.
Eccles I freeze my yeast and it should last at least 2 yrs in freezer, I also freeze my dough enhancer and gluten.
Average Concerned Mom – at 19:42
Just wanted to let you know that I’ve taken some of your ideas on living with less electricity and put them into practice. I used to do many of them as a matter of routine when we first got married and had the first baby.
After a while though, time became more important than saving electricity and I got into bad habits.
Our last couple of electric bills have given us coronaries though. They bumped the rates. <sigh> And it became pool and ac season. Ouch! Now if I can talk my husband into hurrying up with the clothes line. He doesn’t want me tying cord to everything in sight … with 7 people that is just about what it amounts to … and even with ac, the humidity makes things take longer to dry.
But … every little bit counts. Thanks.
Dense bread made up in compact loaves (say about 4″ x 4″ or so) is easier to slice very thinly than your average sized loaf of yeast bread. Also, letting it cool completely helps.
And I don’t know why, but bread knives are the best … especially the serrated ones.
The other thing you can do is have “open face” sandwiches if you cut your slices thick. Or only use one “slice” and then fold it in half.
Kathy in Fla. - One question that may help you save some energy money. Are all of your lamp shades white and translucent? or do you have darkly colored lamp shades?
This thread has gotten really long, really fast. Let’s continue it here
Eccles’ last post is copied over to the new thread. Also, links to entire series are listed.