08:20 – I got email from Jen, letting me know that she’s ordered egg powder, Morning Moo’s, butter powder, and cheese blend powder from Augason Farms via Walmart. Thirty cans of powdered eggs, 24 cans of Morning Moo’s, and 18 cans each of butter powder and cheese blend powder. That’s 90 total #10 cans for four adults and two teenagers. This woman doesn’t mess around. Her UPS guy is going to hate her. Again.
As I told her early in our exchange of emails, it makes me nervous when people order huge amounts of stuff based on my lists rather than thinking things through and deciding what specific items are best for them. But she raised an excellent point. I’m writing a prepping book, tentatively titled The Book That Will Not Die, and many readers are going to do exactly what she’s done, ordering specific items that I recommend. Not because they’re mindless drones, but because they want to get at least the basics in place as quickly as possible. Even if their purchases aren’t optimum for them, they’ll be a hell of a lot better prepared than if they sat there analyzing things to death and never actually getting around to stocking up.
Jen recommended a site run by a woman named Brandy Simper, who writes as The Prudent Homemaker. Jen recommended I start with About The Prudent Homemaker and Living on Our Food Storage. Both are well worth your time to read if only as more evidence that there doesn’t have to be an asteroid strike or pandemic or EMP to make long-term storage worth the time, effort, and cost. All it takes is a routine event like job loss, which happens thousands of times every day. This woman fed herself, her husband, and their seven children for two years from her stored food when the Las Vegas housing market collapsed and her husband, who’s a real estate agent, found his income cut to a small fraction of what it had been.
13:58 – I just shipped a kit to Switzerland, which isn’t a new country for me but is still kind of cool. I remember how cool it was when I finished, in amateur radio terminology, WAS (worked all states) by *finally* shipping a kit to Hawaii. And then how cool it was to reach WACEA (worked all continents except Antarctica). I seriously doubt we’ll ever reach the WAC milestone, if only because there are countries I wouldn’t ship to on a bet, but it’s pretty cool to have shipped kits to as many countries as we have. Things must be pretty dismal outside the US if people are willing to order science kits from us and pay heavy shipping surcharges to get them shipped internationally. I know that’s true of several countries, including Canada, because I’ve had several Canadian buyers tell me that it wasn’t a matter of them thinking our kits were better than local products; it was a matter of there not being any local products.
Ding ding ding ding ding!
Analysis paralysis is a real problem, as is the best being the enemy of the good. So many times I’ve advised people to do something, do anything, don’t just sit there making the optimal plan. (True, that has been mostly in my professional work rather than personal interactions, but the principle applies.)
I assume that part of the deal with prepping is to try to live for a day, a week or a month of your stored food to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
Las Vegas? What happened to cause the bubble to burst?
We’re gradually phasing in using stored food rather than fresh. We still use a lot of stuff that’s not shelf-stable, but we’re testing shelf-stable replacements. For example, Barbara periodically makes a casserole with ground beef. Until now, she’s used frozen ground beef purchased at Costco, but a couple weeks ago she made it using canned ground beef from Keystone Meats. We agreed that it wasn’t as good with the canned beef, but it was certainly acceptable. The Keystone Meats ground beef is of lower quality than that sold by Costco, which is apparently the best available. Barbara guesses that the Keystone stuff is what she called 70/30, versus the 95/5 stuff from Costco. But now we know the Keystone yields acceptable results, and I currently have two cases (twelve 28-ounce cans per case, 42 pounds total) in our pantry, less the one can she used. We’ll continue using Costco ground beef as long as things remain normal, but if things go way downhill, we’re set with a year’s supply of ground beef at just under a pound a week. Same deal with stuff like canned chicken, pork, tuna, SPAM, etc. etc. None of it is as good as fresh or fresh-frozen meat but it’s all more than good enough.
Housing collapsed all over the US, but some areas, including Las Vegas, were much worse hit than others.
The Vegas collapse started when our loudmouth-in-chief demonized companies that “wasted” money on conventions and business meetings. Even Harry Reid (powerful democrat and senator from Vegas) came out publicly against the president’s statements. The result though, was an immediate series of layoffs as hotel bookings were cancelled. I remember something like 10% of the workforce was laid off. That was the trigger, combined with a speculative (overheated) housing market, and the general economic downturn.
Elections have consequences. They are often unexpected.
nick
Yeah, Jen is extremely decisive, obviously. When she decides to do something, she does it Right Now and lets nothing get in her way. I suspect she’d have made a good infantry officer.
I just wish I could convince her to comment here, or even to allow me to post her emails to me with the serial numbers filed off. Lacking that, I just went back and created a “Jen” category and flagged the posts that mention her.
I say again…this board is dripping with testosterone and gearheads, even without a buncha NFL players, lumberjacks, and Delta operators. Lotsa chat about flashlights, guns, radios, what a piece of chit Obummer is, the thickness in mils of plastic jugs, etc. I can’t imagine too many womyn being interested for long, once they read a few days’ worth of posts. Does Barbara have any theories as to why this site is about 99% male? ‘
Or does my little theory suffice?
Oh, almost forgot; the regular misogynist comments, not least by yours truly sometimes.
Right now the only thing that I can add to the fine discussions regarding prepping is a very simple axiom I follow:
Make a decision, then make it right
A point to ponder and from experience it has never failed me.
This is a good time of year to browse Costco, still plenty of camping gear and gas grills. The nice thing about Costco is whatever you buy it is easy to return. Follows my axiom, buy that grill/camp stove/whatever and stress test it out. If you don’t like it Costco’s no hassle return policy makes it right.
What makes you think that? Granted, commenters are overwhelmingly male, but I get plenty of email from women who follow the site.
Flashlights? Did someone mention flashlights? Say, I was thinking of a new flashlight design, one powered by disgust at the mass of humanity. True, the light would be greenish due to the unreleased bile, but that’s good because the human eye is most sensitive in that part of the spectrum.
re Jen, it’s obvious she needs a secret identity. The tried-and-true method is to get the rules for a paper and dice role-playing game, roll up a character, and then role-play on the blog.
… Which could be kind of awesome, actually. Nert of South Bend, black sheep of a family of wealthy merchants who drifted into a life of pick-pocketing and then second floor burglaries, would no doubt have many useful comments on our favorite topic, flashlights.
Nicely put.
The Vegas collapse started when our loudmouth-in-chief demonized companies that “wasted” money on conventions and business meetings.
It was the recession and housing collapse in California. A huge chunk of the Las Vegas income is from SoCal, something like 25%. In addition, lots of the “whales” from Asia and the Middle East cut their visits, either due to lack of funds or by going to Macau. In 2008, gaming revenues were down 10%, visits down 5%, and continued to drop. For 2014, visits were up a few percent, but gaming revenues were down about 2%.
the regular misogynist comments
What does female plumbing have to do with this site?
I know that’s true of several countries, including Canada, because I’ve had several Canadian buyers tell me that it wasn’t a matter of them thinking our kits were better than local products; it was a matter of there not being any local products.
Filling a void is usually a great business. This is how I get half of our new business. Somebody calls me or emails me and says why don’t you do this. I had a guy from England call me this week and ask how to do something that he wants to automate the calculation of badly. Takes him a week to do the calculation in Excel (the setup is a disaster). It will take my software about 10 seconds after about a month’s worth of programming.
“Granted, commenters are overwhelmingly male, but I get plenty of email from women who follow the site.”
Well then, I sit corrected! Hey, ladies, jump on in anytime, y’all! We don’t bite. Much.
Lost Wages out there is a problem from the git-go; it’s a one-industry town, so fah as I know, and if that industry goes belly-up, buh-bye. Like all them Rust Belt steel and mining towns. Or the city where I was born, once the Whaling Capital of the World. What a laff that is now, eh? We love whales! They’re cute! What dizzy murderous bastard could harpoon one?? Then I lived in Brockton, MA, the former Shoe Capital of the World. We don’t make shoes in Murka anymore. Lived in Leominster, MA for a while, previously the Plastics Capital of the World…get my drift here?? Oh, and my very first full-time IT job was in Gardner, MA, Chair City, where they used to make furniture, since all moved to the Carolinas and overseas.
Our current burg has manufacturing going on with ice cream, medical lab products, machinery, firearms, and we did have an Eveready battery plant until fairly recently. Plus LOTS of dairy farming, fruit orchards, lumbering, wood products, and let’s not forget tourism.
And we would be remiss if we did not mention the plethora of law enforcement and military organizations in the vicinity. Let’s see…city police, who also patrol the town; country sheriff’s HQ; Customs and Immigration; Border Patrol; State Police; U.S. Army Reserve, and Vermont Army National Guard.
Hopefully enough of a mixed economic base to last a while, with multiple possibilities for retro industry and commerce/transportation.
Unless I’m misreading something, you’re a bigger destroyer of industry than the entire federal government. You might wanna keep that on the down-low, know what I mean?
Now, if you could somehow turn your powers to destroying and shrinking government, I’d lead the way in raising funds to get you to live in DC.
@Miles
You definitely want to get the Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) – 1.2v.
The Alkaline batteries are 1.5v, but are not re-chargeable.
The Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) are 1.2v, but have memory problems.
(are they still even making them ??)
This is the 21st-century, the current technology is NiMH.
My Panasonic cordless phone uses 2 regular NiMH AAA betteries
which are available in almost any store at a reasonable price.
I wish that all the manufacturers would use the standard NiMH
batteries in all their products that are rechargeable. Life would
be so much simpler.
I’ve thrown away all my old rechargeable cordless phones that
needed a custom battery that costs big bucks.
The cordless phone I’m currently using is …
Panasonic Expandable Cordless Phone System 6.0 Plus KX-TG6512B
Black, 2 Handsets
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Expandable-Cordless-KX-TG6512B-Handsets/dp/B0036D9YKU/
I’ve had it for several years now. It’s the BEST cordless phone I’ve ever had. When I’m giving technical support to a customer I sometimes have to talk for HOURS, and it just keeps on working all day if need be. Of course I use a headset, so both my hands are free. I’ve NEVER had to replace the batteries yet. The handset beeps when it needs to be recharged, so when I hear the beep I walk over and grab the other handset and just keep on working/talking. The customer doesn’t even hear the beep.
They also have a model with a built-in answering machine, but it’s more expensive.
If I ever need to get another I’ll get one with bluetooth so I can use a wireless headset.
Like I said, I’ve thrown all my other old cordless phones away, this one works so well. Highly recommended.
Yeah, we’ve been using a Panasonic DECT 6.0 Plus cordless system with four handsets for several years now. I think we bought it at Costco. Our includes an answering machine. We’ve never had to replace the batteries.
“…I’d lead the way in raising funds to get you to live in DC.”
It’s worth a try, but to live there I’d have to be aloft 7×24 in a B-52 making daily and nightly bombing runs. As I fear my mere presence alone would not suffice.
37 here last night and dropping to the low fotties again tonight. Then the low 80s by Tuesday/Wednesday, or so they say.
Beautiful sunny day but never got much above 50 or so today.
@Miles
If you’d like to learn more about the 2008 Global Financial Meltdown, there’s lots of excellent videos about it on YouTube.com …
Global Financial Meltdown (Must See. Full doc) – CBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4XfNiqwQDo
It was the collapse of Lehman Brothers that really clinched it. Did you have many repercussions in Australia ?
Documentary The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers Moral Hazard 2008 – BBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfslbOhvkrg
There were lots of Frontline episodes that covered it too, but many of them have been removed. Here’s one of the best ones …
Power, Money, and Wall Street : Documentary on The Problems of Wall Street and Big Money 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxatClFpjJ4
Or you can watch all four episodes on the Frontline website here …
Money, Power, and Wall Street – PBS Frontline – 4 Episodes
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/money-power-wall-street/
Like I said, they all used to be up on YouTube.com, but then they eventually were removed.
Another excellent documentary was Charles Ferguson’s “Inside Job”, which also was up on YouTube.com for a while, and then eventually removed. It’s actually still up there for pay per view. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. There’s also interviews of him by Charlie Rose and the Commonwealth Club, both excellent. I’d previously seen his first documentary “No End In Sight” (about the fiasco in Iraq), so I knew that “Inside Job” would be good too.
“No End In Sight” is still up on YouTube.com, if you’d like to watch an insider’s view of what went wrong. Here’s the link …
No End In Sight – 2007
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyfm75jmkbI
Back from my weekly foraging trip.
Only one estate sale and no yard sales. Between the holiday weekend and the weather, I got skunked.
I did get a bunch of medical stuff for cheap. A case of disposable gowns, some surgical blades, gauze pads, some physician samples– anti-fungal cream, very useful; and some eye drop antibiotics for the advanced just-in-case kit. They had a couple of cases of surgical gloves, but they were too small, powdered, and latex. I got some of the ‘stay cool’ evaporative cooler headbands, about 8, for a buck.
Two good books- Backyard Orchardist- growing fruit trees at home, and complete works of EA Poe, in a nice hardbound edition. Also got a Federalist Papers in paperback. I’m building a pretty good ‘classics’ library, mostly with Complete Works volumes. At a buck or two per book, you can’t beat the value. I’ve got Twain, Poe, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Aristotle, Austen, Kipling, Wells, Grimm, Andersen, and Doyle. Between my wife and I we have most of the classic individual books from our university Art and Theater studies. Add in Churchill’s History of the English Speaking People, and his WWII series ($20 each at estate sales), some from our founding fathers, some other concise histories, and I think I’m pretty well covered.
I have several study bibles, but not KJV, and I’m missing the hymnal and book of common prayer (recommended by others.) I’ve got quite a bit on eastern religions, esp. chinese ones. The KJV, Book of Common Prayer, and Hymnal are recommended for their use of the english language as well as for their insight into christian belief. Say what you will about religion and christianity, it is the bedrock of western civilization, and as such, must be understood, as much for the reaction to it as belief in it.
Stopped by Habitat ReStore and scored a Mosquito Magnet for $25. It’s an older model but was pro-level when new. Not much that can go wrong with them. It’s not really a prep, but will make the yard MUCH nicer to use as long as things stay normal (so most of the time. It’s important not to get so caught up on preps for disaster that you lose sight of the everyday.) Pest control will be an issue post-SHTF. RBT, have you looked at any natural or unnatural methods or considered it at all? After the hurricanes mosquitos and flies bloom and swarm. It’s NASTY out just when you are spending more time outside.
Got some of the stuff for my antenna project. Will try to keep moving on it.
Got some more plants for the garden.
We are under flash flood watch, with 8-11 inches due over the next two days. Given the ground is saturated, and the rivers, creeks, and bayous are all at flood or above, it could get bad. At the house I got 3/4 inch in about 10 minutes as I was going out this afternoon. All the other parts of town I was in were dry, which is typical for here. Lots of little micro-climates.
I better get started on dinner. Hungry kids home soon.
nick
“Also got a Federalist Papers in paperback.”
The Ralph Ketcham volume, I presume? Keep yer eyes peeled for the Anti-Federalist Papers in the Penguin Classics edition. Also: “Secret Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention, 1787.”
If you can find it: the four-volume edition of the late Murray Rothbard’s “Conceived in Liberty,” and Mercy Otis Warren’s history of the Revolution.
Try to find a BCP published prior to the 1970s editions, when the translators made a hash of it and got all twinkly treacly modern with the language; 1928 is probably the last good year, but try to find earlier, like 1666 or even the original 1549.
The country’s main literature for a long time here was the KJV and “Pilgrim’s Progress,” while the more educated also went in for Shakey and Roman classics. This was/is a British Protestant nation, believe it or not, like it or not. And we are still having to live with and cope with ingrained Calvinist attitudes and beliefs, recognized as such or not.
@ofd, thanks for the recommendations.
I tore open the Mosquito Magnet. It will need a new fan from my junk box, then it should be back in action. We need it BADLY.
I got most of the plants in the ground, only the blueberry bushes left to go. Oh, and strawberries and asparagus. As part of my awakening to the woefully under producing garden, I bought a bunch of strawberry plants. Basically if I want them for the kids to eat (we eat 2# a week, on average, not the 2 BERRIES a week we’ve been getting) I need a LOT more plants. The same was true for the asparagus. I got five plants in the ground, but I need 25 or more. I’m going to put together a strawberry tower. I can get a bunch of plants in a few feet of yard space by going vertical. I will use scrap wood and bang it out quickly. That is the best sort of project for me. Idea –>complete in one day. Otherwise, if I have to do a little at a time, it just seems to stretch out for weeks. Witness my radio projects….
I should do some computer work, or some more repairs, or at least list some ebay stuff, but I’m beat. Time for bed. Hope I can sleep tonight.
nick
” We need it BADLY.”
No doubt. I had my fill and then some of hot and humid climates. We suffer here when it goes above the high 70s. And we want our bats back for summer rains; we’re a 5-10-minute walk from where two streams flow into a freshwater marsh which is a wildlife refuge between square miles of farmland and Lake Champlain. Skeeters here are small but persistent buggers and we’ve only seen a few bats coming back lately when we used to see them all the time. Now also just starting to see bumblebees again.
We tried blueberries here but it was a dud; soil not acidic enough and too hard and shallow. We’re doing OK with blackberries, though and may try rhubarb. We’ll also have to go vertical with some things and do more with containers in the limited sunlight and space we’ve got here. I’m wondering now if I should look into renting or leasing more garden space from one of the very nearby big farms and also see about maybe going into it with neighbors. We’re not gonna be able to cut it in our space, even with just the two of us.
“…if I have to do a little at a time, it just seems to stretch out for weeks. Witness my radio projects….”
You ain’t alone with that; same deal here; I’d like to bang out a project in a day and have done so occasionally but not often enough, and stuff on my list just hangs for weeks and months without getting done. I could easily spend 40 hours a week here just on the lists for house and yard and projects. You seem to get more done in a day than I manage in a week, though; setting the bah quite high, Mr. nick.
I have radio and pooter projects underway also but consider them fun, and thus have to let them hang while I work on less desirable/fun stuff.
Oh my goodness, it’s almost 01:00 here in autumnal northern Vermont where the temp right now is…oh…OK…a balmy 53 and looking to stay that way overnight…
Then I lived in Brockton, MA, the former Shoe Capital of the World. We don’t make shoes in Murka anymore.
Not true. I am currently wearing a pair from Hersey Custom Shoes made in Fitchburg, Mass. http://www.herseycustomshoe.com/
They are by far the best fitting shoes I have ever worn. Expensive up front, but they last a long time and can be resoled. He even made a couple of pairs with non marking soles to use while sailing.
Rick in Portland
“That is the best sort of project for me. Idea –>complete in one day. Otherwise, if I have to do a little at a time, it just seems to stretch out for weeks.”
I used to work on big projects a lot – we bought this place as a “fixer upper” 15 years ago, and we’ve done a lot to it and to the garden. But for the past year or so it seems like I’m stuck in molasses: a project that ought to take a week or two winds up taking months, because I just can’t motivate myself to work on it. That sounds really stupid – heck, it feels really stupid. It’s almost certainly a side-effect of a new medication I have to take, but I haven’t yet managed to find a way to adapt to it or get around it. Frustrating as hell.
Thanks for that link, mr. rick; I hadn’t heard of those guys before. I see they have an 8-month waiting list just to become a new customer. Fitchburg is a classic old decrepit New England mill town that’s seen better days. It’s gotten hard, gritty and mean in the streets and there is a drug problem similar to the one up here, mostly heroin, meth and pills. Glad to see a local kid is doing something good there.
Wow, slept in and feel better than I have in days. Wife kept the kids occupied. A good partner makes all of life so much better.
WRT projects and motivation, it might be mild depression. It can rob you of your drive without seeming to affect you in other ways. I know from experience. Or it could be the drugs, even some OTC have that effect, Alegra does it for me. Or, you might have too much sugar in your diet. If you are hypoglycemic sugar will make you sleepy. When I was on the low carb diet I practically vibrated with energy and my brain felt more alive than in years. Please talk to your doctor (and if he dismisses it, to another.) We only get so many days on this rock, no point in wasting them.
We got 1.4 inches of rain this am. Other parts of the state got clobbered. Looking at official rain gauges in my area, and applying a x3 correction factor (since our area shows .4 and I got 1.4), some parts of town show over an inch and must have gotten several inches.
http://www.harriscountyfws.org/
I looked at weatherunderground.com’s “Hyperlocal” reporting (which uses volunteer stations) but I can’t figure out how to see the rain gauge data, only temperature. I’m pretty sure it is reported….
Well, we’ll see what projects I can get going today. Hopefully SOMETHING will get done 🙂
nick