09:29 – Barbara is cleaning house and then heading out to meet a friend for lunch. Colin is hiding under my desk, apparently afraid that she’s going to bathe him again.
One of the commenters yesterday posted a link to the Coleman Camp Oven, which looks to be a good solution for baking and reheating dishes during a power-down situation. I wasn’t even aware this product existed, but I just stubbed in a link for it in the book.
I’ve been using classic Zippo liquid-fuel lighters exclusively for a year now, and I strongly recommend them as a primary fire-making tool. They’re extremely reliable, and just about bullet-proof. Literally, as many soldiers over the last 80 years can attest because their Zippos stopped bullets meant for them. As a pipe smoker, I use a lighter heavily, probably on average 50 to 100 times a day. That means my main Zippo has lit at least 18,000 times, and it shows no sign of not being good for another 180,000 lights, if not 1,800,000.
Two downsides: First, I go through a lot of flints. Every week or so I need to replace the flint, but they’re cheap and readily-available in 6-flint dispensers. Second, they’re not air-tight, which means the fuel evaporates in a few days even if the lighter isn’t used. Not an issue for me, because I refuel mine once or twice a day. I bought two 12-ounce cans of official Zippo lighter fluid originally, and I’ve been refilling those cans ever since from gallon cans of VM&P naphtha from Lowes. It’ll also burn just about anything volatile and flammable, including gasoline, acetone, or alcohol.
I also have a Zippo butane lighter, which uses a the same flint/steel lighting mechanism and provides a jet/torch flame. The advantage of this model is that once it’s fueled it stays fueled. I’m still running it on the butane I put in it six months or more ago, testing it every few weeks to see if the fuel has dissipated. So far, so good. It’s really intended for Barbara. She doesn’t smoke, so she needs a lighter that can be put in an emergency kit and left until needed. I also keep a can of butane and a dispenser of spare flints with it.