Monday, 8 August 2016

By on August 8th, 2016 in Brittany, prepping, science kits

09:32 – I’m back up and running after losing several hours to a computer problem yesterday. Barbara got four dozen more small parts bags for chemistry kits built yesterday, among other things. We now have five dozen chemistry small parts bags and two dozen SPB’s for biology, so the next step is to build regulated and unregulated chemical bags for both and then get more kits built. That and related tasks will occupy us the rest of this week.

Email from Brittany overnight. They did a Marathon repackaging session over the weekend, and now have more than a year’s worth of bulk staples packaged for long-term storage, as well as a boatload of canned vegetables, meats, sauces, and so on, plenty of herbs and spices, and a bunch of Augason Farms dehydrated stuff. Brittany says that after they finish building the shelving and getting everything organized and put away, they’re going to take a break from prepping. And who can blame them? Like Jen, Brittany went from a pitiful state of preparedness to pretty much fully prepared in a matter of a few weeks. She’s planning to prepare a decent-size garden plot this autumn for planting next spring. She’s also considering getting set up to do pressure canning for preserving garden produce. I suggested she instead look into dehydrating. I’m not a big fan of home canning. It’s expensive to get set up, in terms of equipment and consumables as well as time and effort. For the same money, one can buy a ton of canned fruits and vegetables, literally, and the safety and shelf life of commercially-canned products is significantly better than that of home-canned products.







59 Comments and discussion on "Monday, 8 August 2016"

  1. Dave Hardy says:

    “I’m not a big fan of home canning. It’s expensive to get set up, in terms of equipment and consumables as well as time and effort. For the same money, one can buy a ton of canned fruits and vegetables, literally, and the safety and shelf life of commercially-canned products is significantly better than that of home-canned products.”

    Mrs. OFD agrees with that 100%.

    Really gorgeous today here, sun and blue skies, nice breeze, temps in the low 70s, but allegedly rocketing into the 80s and low 90s again this week. Over 100 where wife is in Kerrville, TX.

    Just back from PT at the local med center; finding all kinds of tricky exercises to do with my back/sciatica stuff and how to work muscles I didn’t know I had. The key is getting my abdominals back in decent shape and stronger.

  2. MrAtoz says:

    The key is getting my abdominals back in decent shape and stronger.

    Damn, just when football season is starting. 😉

  3. Dave Hardy says:

    Yup, get those back again, do some lifting, hit the heavy sleds, run five miles every morning at the AssCrack of Dawn, and I’ll be filling in for Tom Brady during his four-game suspension this season.

  4. MrAtoz says:

    Yup, get those back again, do some beer lifting, hit the heavy mamas at the local tavern, run from bed to the fridge every morning at the AssCrack of Dawn, and I’ll be filling in for Tom Arnold during his marathon Roseanne banging.

    FIFY

  5. lynn says:

    “Pyramid Honey”
    http://xkcd.com/1717/

  6. MrAtoz says:

    lol! They should get Cher involved. She’s great at all caps and is certifiably CRAZY.

  7. MrAtoz says:

    Clock Boy and family are suing the Irving ISD for race and religion discrimination and 4A violations. The only thing left to see is how fast Irving will crumble. Maybe settle for $2-3 million. Mr. Lynn makes some serious scratch, maybe tax the shit out of him. lol!

  8. nick says:

    Irving is north of us, Dallas area. But yeah, tax the hell out of us to fund this non-sense.

    It’s so hot here today that city of Houston EMgmt issued a high heat alert and opened their “cooling centers”. Considering I spent almost $1000 on AC work this weekend, I don’t have much sympathy for people who chose to spend their money on other things. It gets hot in Houston. A window air unit can be $150. SOMETIME in the last couple of years, anyone could have put aside that much.

    nick

  9. MrAtoz says:

    I don’t have much sympathy for people who chose to spend their money on other things.

    You mean the usual ciggies, booze, drugs, chips and assorted other junk food like Moxie and pretzels?

  10. Dave Hardy says:

    “…junk food like Moxie and pretzels?”

    WHAT??? Junk food??? R U crazy??? It’s protein and carbs, muchacho! With a combined salt and sugar boost to keep my eyes open and all systems go! As I watch the rolling chit-storm sweep the continent and hit lotsa fans.

    No A-C needed here, and our corollary situation would be any whiners and complainers bitching about the cold during the eight months of cold weather, lol. What, they couldn’t put in a damn wood stove or fireplace and buy a few cords of wood? Seriously, the wood stove paid for itself the first year in heating oil savings.

    “… filling in for Tom Arnold during his marathon Roseanne banging.”

    IIRC, that particular relationship has been over for a very long time…..let’s see….yup, he’s on his fourth marriage. That’s nothing, though; our remaining jarhead in our group has gone through six. That’s right, SIX. And he is one effed-up individual, but has worked two days a week, for over seven years, commuting 200 miles each of those days, to do peer support for guys even more effed up than him at the White River Junction VA Med Center.

  11. lynn says:

    Clock Boy and family are suing the Irving ISD for race and religion discrimination and 4A violations. The only thing left to see is how fast Irving will crumble. Maybe settle for $2-3 million. Mr. Lynn makes some serious scratch, maybe tax the shit out of him. lol!

    Clockboy ain’t gonna win this one. The jury pool will be a bunch of retired people (Irving has become a retirement community) and they are tired of the nonsense.

    Irving is 280 miles north of my home and office. So their taxes do not affect me (but see note about retired people – they can elect to defer their property taxes until death). So, Irving is a tax short city (except for the Los Colinas area).

    Mr. Lynn and his wife make fairly good scratch but we ain’t even close to the one percent. Shoot, we are barely in the top ten percent. And we’ve got some serious mortgages to pay between the house and the office.

  12. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    We’re solidly in the top 99%.

  13. lynn says:

    Seriously, the wood stove paid for itself the first year in heating oil savings.

    We in the engineering biz call that an ROI (return on investment) of one year. That is about what any oil or natural gas project has got to be now to get funded. Use to be an ROI of three years would get funded, not today though.

  14. lynn says:

    And here is that bottom 1%:
    http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.ch/2016/08/in-case-you-were-wondering-what-this.html

    “Somebody needs to be held accountable for my 15 kids…”

    And number 16 is on the way.

    Simply amazing. I generally don’t believe in forced sterilization until I watch nonsense like that. You have one kid and are living off the “government”, you need to be sterilized. Men and women both.

  15. Dave says:

    We’re solidly in the top 99%.

    We’re solidly in the top 50%.

  16. nick says:

    “Mr. Lynn and his wife make fairly good scratch but we ain’t even close to the one percent. Shoot, we are barely in the top ten percent. And we’ve got some serious mortgages to pay between the house and the office.”

    You might be surprised by how low the bar is for top 1%. Nationally, “You might be surprised to learn that the top 20 percent of income earners bring in a household income of just over $100,000. The top 10 percent of earners have a household income of more than $148,687. To be considered in the top 1 percent, household income is at least $521,411.”

    In Houston it’s annual income of Top 5%: $216,189 Top 1%: $423,345.

    That’s less than most people would probably guess, and well within the reach of a professional or small business owner, especially in a household with two earners.

    nick

    http://www.businessinsider.com/income-required-to-be-in-the-top-1-in-the-most-expensive-us-cities-2016-4

    http://www.usfunds.com/investor-library/frank-talk/what-does-it-take-to-be-in-the-top-1-percent-not-as-much-as-you-think/#.V6js16KmxyA

  17. nick says:

    And note that it’s income not net. So your high mortgage means you have less cash but you might still be 1%.

    N

  18. nick says:

    Currently working in my driveway where it’s 105R in the sun with 41%RH and feels like of 114F.

    Came in to cool down.

    n

  19. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Why sterilize both? It’s women who have the babies.

    If it were me, I’d let mother and children starve to death. Bad genes are bad genes, and deserve to die out.

  20. lynn says:

    In Houston it’s annual income of Top 5%: $216,189 Top 1%: $423,345.

    That’s less than most people would probably guess, and well within the reach of a professional or small business owner, especially in a household with two earners.

    Nobody counts the gross income of properties in their income, only the net income. Too many expenses that are difficult to categorize. So, we don’t even make the top 5% for Houston.

  21. lynn says:

    Why sterilize both? It’s women who have the babies.

    It takes two to tango.

    Seriously, that is being sexist. If a man has fathered a child who is on welfare, he needs to be sterilized. If a man wants to stay out of the sterilization line, he has got to help pay for his kids.

    Never gonna happen for either sex in the USA.

  22. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    So? You’d be sterilizing twice as many people as necessary. And it’s women who decide if and when to have children.

  23. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    As I have said repeatedly, a man is responsible for half the cost of an abortion. Nothing more.

  24. nick says:

    but women can give birth, on average, to only one child every year, while the irresponsible man can father literally hundreds (not LIKELY to, but possible.)

    He’s likely to only father a few to a dozen, but that’s still more than the woman.

    n

  25. nick says:

    “it’s women who decide if and when to have children.” under current (and any likely law) this is legally true, but what they are currently deciding is when to have SEX with a MAN. The pregnancy can’t occur without the man there.

    So both responsible for the act, legally only one responsible for allowing it to continue, but then both responsible for the cost of raising the kid, with the BULK of the responsibility financially on the man.

    Our current social and legal system encourages unwed motherhood and irresponsible men and women, while penalizing responsible men.

    I don’t know what you could actually do to change it without massive upheaval socially and massive change legally.

    n

  26. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    All of these laws and customs predate safe, cheap abortions and birth control. The woman is solely responsible, financially and otherwise.

  27. SteveF says:

    We’re solidly in the top 99%.

    I witnessed someone attempting to brag about her high IQ by proclaiming that she was in the 2nd percentile.

    re parenthood, parasitism, sterilization, and money, I’m in principle agreed with RBT. In practice, this would lead to riots and death. I’m OK with that, and in particular I’m fine with killing everyone in a “demonstration” of freeloaders. Society seems not to be OK with that, nor with the consequences of “you get what you pay for” in terms of out of wedlock babies. I’m not sure of how to handle that conundrum, though you can’t go wrong with killing sponge-headed, innumerate progressives whenever you have the opportunity.

  28. Dave Hardy says:

    According to Mr. nick’s quoted stats on income/percentages, we are just out of the 10% with only Mrs. OFD’s income now, but throw in my SS and we’re in like Flynn! Wheeeeeee! When I was still working full-time, we were SOLIDLY in that 10%. But never anywhere near the Annointed and Holy One Percent. Many of whom are apparently unaware that the rest of us even exist.

    As for abortion/sterilization, etc., I find it historically interesting that none of this was such a huge effin issue as recently as when most of us here were kids. But it took off like a rocket, coincidentally? in the Glorious Sixties, didn’t it. Sure, we heard about the occasional abortion or that back in the 30s some “mentally challenged” peeps were sterilized, but that was it. And if a girl got “in the family way,” they either forced Romeo to the altar or if he’d dee-deed outta there she went to a “home” somewhere and most likely that baby was given up for adoption, but they certainly weren’t butchered in the wholesale discount tens of millions like they’ve been since then. With the usual suspect fembats shrieking: “If the Pope could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament!” and “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”

    What to do nowadays? Like I said, I’m basically clueless; this is like unto mass immigration; these demons are long outta Pandora’s Box and the box can’t be closed again. An obviously stupid and undisciplined female who’s been conditioned by the society and economics and culture to spawn sixteen children with no father around and being utterly dependent on the State is a real problem. Let them starve? It may come to that, as the State’s free money runs out finally. Multiply that woman by however many hundreds of thousands or millions and then what? I’m guessing she lives in a city somewhere and those will all be deathtraps, so I’d also guess we’ll be looking at MASS die-offs eventually. Some estimates range from 60-80%, with what, 40% of the population concentrated on the coasts?

    And we’ll probably end up with cannibal armies, like in “Lucifer’s Hammer.” Not a big stretch, evidently, for certain groups, since it still continues on the continent of origins. Oh wait—the Accepted Scientific Dogma is that we ALL came from there and we ALL had that same MOM, the anthropological “Eve.”

    Just weed-whacked and mowed the yard and watered all the flowers and veggies; around 80 right now and dropping to 57 tonight. WE NEED RAIN! Why don’t y’all on the Gulf Coast send some of that up here? Saw it on the tee-vee at the waiting room this morning for my PT; they keep it on the Weather Channel. Whole area under a big flood watch.

  29. lynn says:

    “Will Smith Hopes America Can ‘Cleanse’ Itself of Trump Supporters”
    http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/08/08/will-smith-hopes-america-can-cleanse-trump-supporters/

    Well, I am fairly sure that his “Suicide Squad” movie and future movies can make it on their own without my $10… Cross him off my list.

  30. MrAtoz says:

    Smith is the typical dumb libturd. Scientologist but won’t admit to it. Doofus kids with no guidance. Couldn’t think his way out of a wet paper bag. Ruined a lot of movies because he’s a horrible actor.

  31. lynn says:

    And Smith was speaking from Dubai, another muslim country that horribly represesses women, Christians, Jews, and any other non-male and/or non-muslim.

  32. Dave Hardy says:

    Anyone who pays any attention whatsoever to actors and other celebs when they bloviate about political and economic matters, or anything outside their particular specialty, is nuts. What a waste of time, and yes, do like Mr. Lynn and don’t spend yer hard-earned dough on their shitty movies and records. (I like to spend mine on Mel’s flicks, lol; any of y’all seen “Apocalypto”? He’s got a new one coming but I forget the particulars.)

    Why is it, though, so many actors fall for that Scientology crap? What a racket.

    Mrs. OFD just called and it’s 105 in beeeyooteeful Kerrville, TX, where she has to keep her eyes peeled for scorpions and rattlers. Says it’s too hot to go outside; I told her you just gotta get used to it, like ol’ hubby here did, back during multiple trainings in east TX and then the even hotter countryside in SEA. One way to lose weight FAST.

  33. lynn says:

    Edit: And a little something for you current and former IT types:
    http://www.cringely.com/2016/08/08/outsourced-probably-hurt-delta-airlines-power-went/

    On that Cringely column, an interesting quote: “Delta Airlines was an IBM outsourcing customer, they may still be today, I don’t know. They haven’t returned my call.”.

  34. lynn says:

    Mel Gibson is making a sequel of a little known movie that he made before. It is called something like, “The Resurrection of the Christ”.
    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mel-gibson-planning-passion-christ-901299

    If you want to see a preview for it, rent “Risen”.
    https://www.amazon.com/Risen-Cliff-Curtis/dp/B01BZ4DS58/

    Highly recommended. BTW, the single most violent movie that I have seen in years.

  35. lynn says:

    There may be some sense left in the Bush Gene Pool:
    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/08/08/jeb-bushs-son-parts-ways-with-family-throws-support-behind-trump-its-a-bitter-pill-to-swallow

    George P. Bush will probably be the first Hispanic governor of The Great State of Texas in the next decade. Then, who knows ? It kinda depends how people feel about the Bush family. And his junkie sister (very sad story, I feel for Jeb Bush and his wife).

  36. nick says:

    Gotta IBM AS/400 in the back of my truck, as we speak!

    Tearing it down for scrap. The power supplies are worth something…i think

    n

  37. pcb_duffer says:

    [snip] WE NEED RAIN! Why don’t y’all on the Gulf Coast send some of that up here? [snip]

    The weather fools are claiming we might get 10″ + of rain by the end of the week. The low places, such as they are, will be flooded. Worse, the golf courses will be well nigh unplayable. But the highs will only be in the mid 80s, so we won’t be sweating while outside.

  38. Dave Hardy says:

    “If you want to see a preview for it, rent “Risen”.”

    I have it downloaded (before a certain site went kaput) but haven’t watched it yet.

    “(very sad story, I feel for Jeb Bush and his wife).”

    It’s called “blowback.” Check out Roger Stone’s book on the Bush crime family; Jeb was up to his elbows in narcotics trafficking back in the day.

    “But the highs will only be in the mid 80s, so we won’t be sweating while outside.”

    Hard to notice sweat when you’re swimming underwater.

  39. MrAtoz says:

    I have it downloaded (before a certain site went kaput) but haven’t watched it yet.

    🙁

  40. lynn says:

    The weather fools are claiming we might get 10″ + of rain by the end of the week. The low places, such as they are, will be flooded. Worse, the golf courses will be well nigh unplayable. But the highs will only be in the mid 80s, so we won’t be sweating while outside.

    I thought you were in the Houston area with me, ech, and nick ?

    Ain’t no ten inches of rain in my forecast for next ten days:
    https://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=KSGR

  41. Ray Thompson says:

    Delta Airlines was an IBM outsourcing customer

    The story I encountered (can no longer find the link) is that the main power to primary data center failed. When the generators tried to come online something failed that caused a fire thus shutting down the backup generators. When those died there was no longer any power to anything. The story also stated that there were about 600 hundred servers and it was taking time to bring them online properly from the unexpected power failure.

    My experience with disaster planning and recovery is that there is always some link that is common to the primary and backup systems. That link cannot be made redundant, even with a completely redundant data center in hot standby mode. That link is the one that will fail when you need it, not when you are testing. It is then you find out where this single, non-redundant, link is located.

    In one of our unannounced testing of the backup plan for the bank IT where I worked we discovered weak links every time we tested. These tests were unknown to anyone except about three people, such tests occurring in the middle of the night to test the systems.

    Our backup site was in Paoli PA while we were located in San Antonio. One of the tasks of the tests was to get everyone needed to Paoli within 8 hours. The first test we did unannounced we discovered an issue that was never considered. Most of the staff that had to get Paoli by commercial flight did not have enough limit left on their credit cards to buy the airline tickets. Thus the bank had a credit card stored in a secure offsite location, available 24 hours a day, where the credit card had no limit. (Well, probably the assets of the holding company which was a few billion dollars). That card was then used on the subsequent tests to purchase all the tickets, such tickets being very expensive as some had to fly 1st class (me, being one of those) because of lack of coach seats on the flights.

    Yeh, the tests were expensive. But the actual costs of the tests were almost paid 100% by the reduction in insurance premiums and fines by the state for not having a tested disaster plan in place.

  42. Dave Hardy says:

    Cue up that old Eubonics Delta ad from somewhere, it was funny as chit. Wait…yo…here it ih:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RljdyXeft04

    And here is Mr. B’s succinct summary of How Things Work in Mordor at the Top Now:

    https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/bracken-sends-84/

    Sounds like he’s right on the money again.

  43. Dave Hardy says:

    Just watched “Hyena Road” on Netflix; highly recommended. Our Canadian allies in The Suck, getting killed for nothing, naturally, in a place no one in their right mind would want anything to do with. The decision-makers don’t read history or they’d know about the British and the Soviets and their fun times there. We don’t read it, either, or we’d have known about the Vietnamese and their long history of wars against the Chinese, the Japanese and the French.

  44. Dave Hardy says:

    Oh my goodness gracious, no sooner did I post that then I got the email and the link:

    http://buchanan.org/blog/got-us-endless-wars-125520

  45. Dave Hardy says:

    http://www.infowars.com/pharmaceutical-exec-hillary-clinton-has-parkinsons-disease/

    Whatever she has, it ought to immediately disqualify her for the job; since nothing else, like, say, war crimes, lying to the FBI and DOJ, treason, etc., seem to count. How about if someone is a spastic zombie having seizures all the time and falling down? And is also a total psychopath….

  46. MrAtoz says:

    That Black dude looks like Michael Jackson’s doctor. He probably has a Camelbak full of propofol under his jacket for nite nite time. I wonder which Klinton will croak first.

  47. Dave Hardy says:

    “I wonder which Klinton will croak first.”

    My shekels are on Larry; he’s got HIV and probably tertiary syph. Decades of drug abuse and countless “partners” in the sack, quite a few of whom were hookers, often two or three at a time, plus all the underage teens. And it looks like Cankles has Parkinsons but I would not rule out some other kind of seizure thing nor diabolical possession; she is the classic example of what Ann Barnhardt calls “diabolical narcissism.” Larry has it and so does Chelsea Hubbell. Ditto Obola.

  48. nick says:

    Don Garlitz, (Big Daddy) showed you can live quite some time with 3rd stage syphilis. All those blacks in the south that were unwittingly experimented on too.

    Her latest freeze was just today.

    coming closer together??

    n

  49. lynn says:

    Do you reckon that she was having a bad seizure the day BenGhaziabad happened? And that her freaking staff just sat around until she finished rebooting. And, yes, I have watched the entire process. I used to have a friend who had seizures the fourth week of every month. She would just suddenly collapse and we make her comfortable. Her husband would pick her up and take her somewhere where she could sleep it off for a couple of hours.

  50. lynn says:

    “Two Benghazi Parents Sue Hillary Clinton for Wrongful Death, Defamation”
    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/two-benghazi-parents-sue-hillary-clinton-wrongful-death-defamation-n625861

    Nothing to see here, just move along.

    However, probably kind of an exercise in futility. Sovereign immunity comes into play very quickly here. Or not as the plaintiffs are claiming defamation also.

  51. Ray Thompson says:

    However, probably kind of an exercise in futility.

    Yep. The parents will probably die in a horrible car crash.

  52. pcb_duffer says:

    [snip] I thought you were in the Houston area with me, ech, and nick ? [snip]

    Depending on just where in the sprawl of Houston you are, I’m close to 1000 km east of you, but still on the Gulf coast. And it’s raining as I type.

  53. Dave Hardy says:

    Hope y’all will be OK down there, Mr. pcb-duffer; the weather channel was hyping it pretty heavy yesterday on the waiting room tee-vee.

  54. pcb_duffer says:

    10″ of rain over a few days is reasonably common around here, we have to get 20″ in say four days before things really get hard to deal with.

  55. lynn says:

    [snip] I thought you were in the Houston area with me, ech, and nick ? [snip]

    Depending on just where in the sprawl of Houston you are, I’m close to 1000 km east of you, but still on the Gulf coast. And it’s raining as I type.

    Ah, we are on the far side of Houston from you. Since Houston is roughly 130 miles wide now, we could be conceivably 200 km further away from you.

    And we are dry here. Houston is hot !
    http://spacecityweather.com/houston-has-reached-peak-summer/

    We are doing the rollover thing now and will be moving to peak winter soon.

    Snicker.

  56. paul says:

    We are doing the rollover thing now and will be moving to peak winter soon.

    Here, NW of Austin, Summer usually breaks mid-September.

    First frost (where I have to haul the potted plants indoors Right Now) is about mid-November. Some years that’s mid-October but pretty much by Turkey Day at the latest. It seems to depend on how much rain we are having.

    Long way to the peak of mid-January / early February.

    It’s interesting to watch. 🙂

  57. lynn says:

    We are so dry here that the UPS truck just pulled a 100 ft dust tail on my gravel road.

  58. Dave Hardy says:

    Eat yer hahts out, pilgrims! Leaves have stahted to turn here!

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