11:07 – Our next-door neighbor Bonnie called Barbara last night and offered her a dozen fresh eggs. Barbara is going up there this morning to spend some time with Bonnie and bring back the eggs. I’m going to run one of my interminable experiments. In Olden Days, people preserved eggs by coating them in sodium silicate (waterglass) solution, which sealed them against air. They could then be stored at room temperature for weeks to months without going bad. But vegetable or mineral oil works just as well for sealing eggs, so I’m going to try sealing two or three of them and setting them aside in individual containers at room temperature. I’ll pull one out at the one, two, and three month points and test it. Not that there’s any scientific testing needed. A rotten egg makes itself known immediately with an intense odor of hydrogen sulfide gas. Once you’ve smelled that, you’ll never forget it. Interestingly, hydrogen sulfide gas is actually lethal in lower concentrations than hydrogen cyanide gas is.
The other day, Lew Rockwell linked to an interesting post by Gaye Levy at backdoorsurvival.com, 15 Ways To Prepare for a Rogue Wave of Collapse. Gaye makes the same point I’ve been making here and elsewhere for a couple of decades now. FTA:
Will There Really Be a Catastrophic Collapse?
I first wrote about the coming “rogue wave of collapse” in 2011. What I write today is a very different article. Back then, I was almost sure that a global collapse, economic or otherwise, would happen within months. Clearly, what I envisioned did not happen, or at least did not happen in the manner expected.
My current opinion is that these past six years have brought an insidious and sometimes imperceptible decline in life as we knew it before the crash of 2008/2009. I believe there is a high degree of complacency and most folks figure “this is just the way it is”. My guess is that many have conveniently forgotten what it was like to get regular raises, purchase health care insurance at a reasonable price, and look forward to retiring at age 65.
As I’ve been saying, I don’t really expect an imminent catastrophic world-changing event. Could it happen? Sure. There are any number of threats that could occur at any moment, from a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection to a large cyber attack that takes down the power grid to a lethal pandemic to a massive earthquake on the NMSZ that cuts the country in two, separating the food producers west of the Mississippi from the eaters east of the Mississippi. Worse yet, most of these events are inevitable. We know with a very high degree of certainty that we WILL be hit by a massive CME, that a large earthquake WILL occur in the New Madrid area, that a lethal pandemic WILL occur. But probably none of those will occur this year or next year. Probably. I’ve made a SWAG that the chance of a catastrophic event occurring within the next year is about 0.03. Three percent. So while occurrence is unlikely, at least in the short term, the consequences of any of these would be catastrophic, with potentially tens of millions of people dead in the US. That kind of threat is obviously worth paying some attention to.
I read one time that the most successful way of forecasting the weather for tomorrow is to predict that it’ll be pretty much the same as today. And that’s pretty much the way I predict the future in other ways. In other words, we’re going to see a continuing slow slide into dystopia, until one day that slide turns into a precipitous fall off a cliff. That day may come tomorrow or it may not come for many years or even decades, but that day will arrive. When it does, I want to have water to drink, food to eat, fuel to heat our home, guns to defend ourselves, and so on. That’s the main reason why I prep.
But there are other, less catastrophic reasons to prepare. The price of everything keeps going up, as I see in both business and personal life. An item that cost $5 the last time I bought it now costs $5.50. And this goes on, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Of course, it’s not the value of the items I’m buying that increase constantly, it’s the value of the dollar that decreases constantly. So, given the choice between holding dollars that are constantly losing value and hard assets, I want to put at least some of our dollar assets into things that hold their value. Inflation is simply a hidden tax on assets, and it’s not going away anytime soon, barring a complete collapse of the dollar (which I’m also not expecting anytime soon).
Prepping also insulates preppers against personal problems like a job loss or unexpected major expense. If something like that happens, I want to be prepared to live from our pantry for months or longer. Certainly, there are unavoidable expenses that must be paid for with dollars, but being able to minimize outgo in dollars is certainly a worthwhile goal. And then there’s the simple peace of mind that comes with a deep pantry, knowing that if there’s a disruption in deliveries we can do without any outside supplies for quite a while.
What Gaye Levy has described can be likened very nicely to that frog sitting in the pot of slowly boiling water. Or even better, the rocks slowly piled up on the very late Giles Corey at Salem, Maffachufetts for two days until he died. For most Murkan derps, all of this is the “new normal,” and it is what they’ve gotten used to, no particular worries, stores are open, tee-vee is on, net is up, life is good. Our brave warrior heroes in the police and army protect us. The government won’t let anything bad happen…oh wait…
…but oh wait again…those bad things happen to OTHER people….far away….
Kinda dark clouds and skies here today, with occasional sun and blue patches and we had VERY strong winds all night and it is still windy; but it looks like they’re gonna try to blow the fireworks off the pier, per usual SOP, anyway, and the crowds should start arriving in the next few hours. Wife is off to great-grandma’s to paint a room; I am holding the fort and may try taking some pics and vids as things get cooking.
Already 100F at my weather station with a ‘feels like’ of 112F.
I’m scheduled to be doing cleanup stuff around the house. No sales today. Nothing looked very interesting. (Forgetting for a moment that you don’t get the deals at the sales you miss.) I’ve been piling up stuff around the house, and this is the weekend to make a dent.
BTW, anyone need a photospectrometer? It’s a Jasco V-550.
nick
Eggs are interesting: apparently, the way eggs are handled in the US is illegal in Europe, and vice versa. IIRC, in the US, eggs are washed after being laid, in a way that destroys the natural membrane (the “cuticle”) that would seal the egg. Hence, US eggs must be refrigerated. If shelf-life is important, they must be sealed using mineral oil.
In other words, if your neighbor has freshly laid eggs, and is willing to give them to you unwashed, you don’t need to seal them at all, because the natural cuticle will already have done it for you.
The best article I found on this, after a quick search, is unfortunately at Forbes. Nonetheless, here it is: eggs washed vs. unwashed
Edit: here’s a decent article that’s not behind a stupid ad-wall
Huh. I knew that the eggs bought from the Amish chicken lady (her term) lasted longer, but had no idea why. Thanks for the info.
Rush Limburger is quoted on Drudge today about BJ and Fred Klinton and how they are playing us with the ObolaLynch meeting. “We’re so close to an indictment” but it will never happen. I agree. There is no way Cankles is indicted. The best to hope for is enough swirling around the toilet that undecided voters go for tRump. Now Cankles email reveals so discussed sensitive info on Greece while her spawn-in-law started his Greek Hedge Fund. How many billions will Cankles suck out of us before she is even President?
I read the news all day yesterday about the *rescue* of people in the Bangladesh restaurant. Now it’s revealed 20 hacked to death by ISIS terrorists including three US students. I wonder what Ofukstiklikr will say now. “Uh, nope, not Islamic terrorists” “They asked for it by looking at Mofukstik cartoons”. I can’t wait for his reaction.
At least three American students have been identified among 20 people killed during an ISIS attack on a cafe in Bangladesh yesterday.
Abinta Kabir, a student at Emory University who was from Miami, Florida, died when terrorists attacked the largely foreign crowd inside the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka last night.
Fellow Emory student Faraaz Hossain, who attended the college’s business school, was also identified as being among the dead by a spokesman today. Tarushi Jain, 19, who studied at University of California Berkeley campus, was also killed.
A link that was at the bottom of the page @Brad linked in his edit. Very interesting about a certain breed of quail eggs:
http://countrysidenetwork.com/daily/poultry/eggs-meat/incredible-facts-about-quail-eggs/
The site as a whole appears to have some very good information for anyone considering the farming life for prepping. (I’ve added it to my RSS Reader to watch for awhile.)
“How many billions will Cankles suck out of us before she is even President?”
These people have absolutely zero shame and hearts of stone; they intend to loot the bejesus out of the Murkan public coffers and bleed the citizens dry, whether she gets into the WH or not. As it is, Larry Klinton the Pedophile has been out of office for years and Field Marshal Rodham and he have already amassed tens of millions through their “foundation” and other assorted slush funds and offshore accounts. They make those old-timey Afrikan tribal chiefs and “presidents-for-life” look like utter pikers and noobs. And with all due respect to the very late Edward Teach and Captain Kidd, these fuckers are absolutely the biggest pirates and brigands the world has seen thus far, though I guess Prince Vlad is definitely in the running, too.
“I can’t wait for his reaction.”
If any. Rest assured he won’t even breathe a word about musloid terrorism. Hell, he’s going all out to bring in more tens of thousands of them here. Gotta beat Gauleiter Merkel somehow; rest assured again we are gonna see more Orlando- and San Bernadino-style atrocities. The country is wide open for “lone-wolf” attacks, suicide bombers, and mass shootings; look at all the “gun-free” zones that are open invitations to criminal scum like this; shopping malls, schools, churches, etc.
Prepping this weekend is mainly cleanup and organization of tools and other gear, inside and out; also found an alternative for DropBox and will be trying it out, so as to post up various prep-related pics, vids and links. And dealing with a kind of annoying issue loading Glock 40 mags.
Need a new mag for your Glock? How about this: http://www.centerfiresystems.com/MAG0016.aspx . I’m tempted just for the looks I’ll get. 🙂 But I have enough magazines…
“But I have enough magazines…”
WRONG! Mags are expendibles. They wear out, break, swell, etc.
MOAR! gotta have MOAR!
Seriously, you can’t have TOO many mags. And mag springs for the ones that get soft….
nick
It’s families like the Clintons which make me realize the wisdom of executing the entire family of a deposed tyrant/a failed coup leader/a false claimant to the throne. Executing Bill and Hillary for their own crimes is nothing but justice. Chelsea’s execution could be for her own willing participation in perverting elections and extracting money based on nothing but her family connections. Chelsea’s husband not only married into the conspicuously corrupt family but extracted money for himself while losing most of his “investment clients'” money. He’s clearly no loss to the species. The grandchildren presumably haven’t done anything to merit execution. Anything beyond being born, that is. Between genetics and upbringing, those kids are destined to be lying scumbags. Might as well execute them now and save ourselves trouble in the future.
I like the way you THINK! Whack ’em all! The FSM will know zir own!
” I’m tempted just for the looks I’ll get. But I have enough magazines…”
Great for spraying the landscape but not so much for concealment, unless you’re Godzilla and you have big pockets, or you’re a kangaroo. Incidentally, when I say stuff about my Glock 40, that does NOT mean it’s .40 caliber. It’s a MODEL 40 and uses 10mm ammo, which is sorta equivalent to the .41 Magnum, which has been one of my favorite rounds since the 1980s.
Derps are moving into the AO here; next-door neighbor doesn’t have much use for them and referred to them all in a most derogatory way the other day, and when I told him about the FSA, which acronym he’d never heard, he laughed his ass off. And will be using from now on. Next week I’ll break the nooz to him about SJWs and progs.
Hey! I did more prep stuff just now here! Measured the cellar areas for shelving again and also figured out how to use some junk boards for flooring in the one corner where there’s no cement but bare dirt/gravel. Checking prices on some shelving now, and then back to laundry and cleanup details, while also keeping a wary eye on the arriving FSA types, 99% Cock-A-Soid, of course.
We’re talking about Clintons. Surely their patron deity is Hastur the Horrible, not the kindly Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Surely the Glock 40 is 40mm. That’s nothing, though. I heard some newsie say a .357 is 357mm. I think a 357 uses minivans as projectiles.
I always giggle when I see a news article mentioning a “.50 caliber” weapon. I mean, even a BB is 17.7 caliber.
Glock should probably should have chosen another number for their 40 as it was bound to cause confusion.
“Sure their patron deity is Hastur the Horrible…”
A patron or matron deity is one thing, but I’m guessing, even though we know full well that humans are capable of just about anything, that some demonic entity or other got to each one of them earlier in their lives and thoroughly took control. The same thing was true of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, etc., over and above any psychopathic tendencies and behavior. There is psychopathology and then there is evil.
“Interestingly, hydrogen sulfide gas is actually lethal in lower concentrations than hydrogen cyanide gas is.”
Not everyone agrees.
https://chemm.nlm.nih.gov/chemicalsuicide.htm
HYDROGEN SULFIDE
At 100 parts per million (ppm), it is Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH).
As little as 400 ppm can cause unconsciousness.
At 1,000 ppm, victims immediately suffer cardiopulmonary arrest.
For incidents involving the release of hydrogen sulfide gas, the 2012 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) suggests an initial isolation distance of 100 feet for a small spill or release of gas and a protective action distance of 0.1 miles (during the day) and 0.3 miles (at night).
HYDROGEN CYANIDE
The IDLH for hydrogen cyanide gas is 50 ppm.
Inhalation of 135 ppm for 30 minutes is fatal.
Inhalation of 270 ppm is immediately fatal.
For incidents involving the release of hydrogen cyanide gas, the ERG suggests an initial isolation distance of 200 feet for a small spill or release of gas and a protective action distance of 0.1 miles (during the day) and 0.4 miles (at night).
Too freaking hot for me to do the real work in the yard I should be doing, so I’m just puttering.
Trimmed some of the citrus trees. I’m currently getting limes from my tree. Really delicious limes. Seems a bit early, but I’ll take ’em. Very tasty in tonic water on ice, which is a very refreshing summertime thirst quencher.
Weeded the raised beds and the pots.
Continue training the grape vines to the arbor.
Still getting delicious carrots.
Picked a half peck of peppers.
Did some bush trimming and yard pickup.
SHOULD be getting my flammables cabinet in place and filled with flammables but it’s currently in full sun and too hot to touch.
Should be putting out flags. Front yard’s in shade, so that might just move up the list.
Did some online research for a wife project.
Answered some ebay questions.
NOT a busy day, but staying busy as I can.
nick
Wind died down, lotsa derps around, music in the pahk stopped, feurwerken to commence at dusk, probably in a couple of hours. Lotsa feurwerken going off already all over the place, told wife I was having flashbacks with Charlie in the wire and all, and might have to let a few fly. She agreed it was a good idea. Also my longing for an M79 was good with her, too.
Maybe I’ll put the 13-star Betsy Ross flag out tomorrow. I had the Green Mountain Boys one up but it was too windy earlier.
and might have to let a few fly.
Farts? I’m channeling Mr. SteveF.
I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t joke about farts, I joke about fart jokes. I make meta-fart jokes, or possibly fart meta-jokes. Totally different than your low-class attempts at humor.
No, I think you’re channeling Mr. Ray, the master and expert of FLASHLIGHTS and FARTS.
I was considering various calibers and haven’t made up my mind yet; one of the issues is that at least 80% of the females passing by the domicile so fah are morbidly obese, and I mean some real beasts, too; WTF is up with Murkan womyn these days, anyway? How can they let themselves get like that? I’m up around 245-250 pounds and every other female that waddled by has outweighed me, easily. And none anywhere near 5’8″, let alone my height.
I’d also say about 90% of the males are fairly slim and trim, with a few fatties here and there but most of them look OK, if slovenly, per usual. Standard-issue Murkan uniform: baggy saggy shorts, 4X tee shirt, baseball hat, heavy stubble. Like overage Cub Scouts, armed with smartphones.
So I figure 5.56 for the males, and at LEAST .308 for the rest.
Just grilled up some turkey burgers, with tomatoes, Worcestershire, and Nance’s hot mustard. I’ll be more ambitious on the actual Independence Day; grilled picante chicken, bandito baked beans, and a taco salad, getting into the spirit of it all, amigos. Viva Independencia! Viva revolucion!
Well, I had to get the junk out of the driveway, so as soon as the shade shifted, I was out there moving my flammables cabinet into place and putting all the gas cans inside.
It is nominally a 48 gallon capacity, but the way the shelves line up, and with my 5 gallon plastic cans, I was able to fit 12 cans for a total of 60 gallons. I was also able to fit a shelf in the middle that will take 1 gallon square cans, so I put 8 gallons of colman fuel in there too.
I feel a lot better about having a bunch of gas stored behind the garage now that they are in the vented, double wall, and screened metal cabinet.
Unfortunately I still have gas cans that won’t fit. I have 2 nato style metal cans and one round metal can, and a bunch of small 1, 2 and 3 gallon plastic cans for mixes, etc.
They will have to live in a plastic cabinet like before. They are empty most of the time, so it’s not as big a deal.
I kinda wish I hadn’t sold the other cabinet, but it did pay for the cabinet I kept, and put $200 in my pocket for gas (or goodies.) That’s the kind of stuff I’m looking for at sales, something to use for me, and something that will pay for my stuff and give me some extra money.
Still have some shelves to make for the remaining (to be reorganized) plastic cabinets. I’ve got a lot of other non-flammable fluids to store too, so one cabinet for those would be nice.
One other good thing with moving this stuff around, I’ve found some containers that were deteriorating or had cracked and leaked. I’ve either used the stuff (some concrete cleaner on the driveway) or replaced the cracked lids, or moved the project that calls for the fluid up the list.
Busy day and not done yet.
Nick
Added- speaking of lids. . . I hate the auto shut off gas can spouts, but I’m too cheap to pay for the replacements online. The replacements are more than I like to pay for the whole can! But what to do? Well, I realized I don’t actually need a spout per can. Most of the time I’ll be pumping from the can, and not using the nozzle anyway. Home Depot has a replacement cap for a gas tank on some sort of power equipment that is less than $5, and fits the gas cans perfectly. Problem of the huge spouts, and broken caps – solved.
Nah, OFD, you can use a varmint round on the plus-size individuals walking past. Just aim for the knees or ankles and they’ll thunder down to the ground and stay where they are until they starve to death. Of course, if they’re carrying as much, um, food storage for a long, cold winter as you suggest, it might take months for them to starve to death, but it’ll happen eventually.
Months? Some of them might could take YEARS to finally check out. Damn. What the eff do these people EAT? And the fatter they are, the more flesh they evidently like to display; arms and legs like tree trunks. Tattoos are still big in this country, I see. Very attractive.
Getting near dusk; almost time for the big show.
Show’s over now, another good one, too; we’re practically right under the displays; they’re lit off from the pier, maybe a hundred yahds from our front door. Easily 45 minutes long. Two cop boats out on the bay, per usual. And a drone overhead, filming the whole deal, pointed out to me by the neighbor kid who sometimes mows our lawn and/or stacks firewood for us. He was carrying what looked like a cut-down PR24 club in his pocket and handling the parking/no parking at their driveway. I asked him WTF was that, a weapon? And he said yeah, he bought it at the park (which is right behind us). I ask, oh, they sell weapons at the park? He says yeah, “early in the day,” and then they close up. I gotta check dat chit out pronto.
And now we have the amateurs well into the night; some with fancy stuff, too, like the denizens across the street, evidently. Must be nice to have the dough for that chit, plus the ciggies, cell phones, big-screen tee-vees, etc.
Back to the cleanup/scut grind tomorrow.
Perhaps one of your future fatty neighbors, Mr. OFD:
A wannabe-daredevil needed five stitches after pointing a lit firework directly underneath his chin, causing him to singe his beard.
Zac, from Decatur, Indiana, got his friends to film him while he held an exploding Roman Candle firework at face.
The video begins with him telling the camera that he is about to play ‘Russian roulette’, although it is unclear what he means by this, since he points the lit firework directly under his chin.
Maybe Obola shit another EO “all fatties to Vermont!”
I noticed that the drone was still in place above the bay at 00:33 this morning; neighbor kid sez the Army runs them and then will sell the vid footage to various organizations and groups, supposedly. The kid has actually been a good source of ‘hood intel, as has an old fart who lives across the street, but I don’t see the latter to talk to him that often.
Only one male fatty across the street, and ironically his gf is petite; the rest of the fems over there are beasts. And no apparent casualties from their semi-pro fireworks last night.
the Army runs them and then will sell the vid footage to various organizations and groups, supposedly.
lol!
The Obola emasculated tranny military. Now the services have to go out and beg for scraps using drone footage. Say it ain’t so.