11:07 – We spent some time yesterday reorganizing the 5×2 foot five-shelf steel shelving unit that’s our main LTS pantry, shifting stuff around and shelving recently purchased items. The unit is less than half full because for the last year we’ve been drawing it down and not replacing much of what we used. For example, our stock of Bush’s Best Baked beans is down from 120 cans a year ago to 88 cans now, Mott’s Applesause is down from 42 jars to under 20, and Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup is down from about 80 cans to about 20. On the other hand, some items are up. For example, we’ve gone from about 2.5 gallons of pancake syrup up to 5 gallons, and from about 30 cans of Costco/Sam’s chicken up to about 80 cans.
We also unbagged a bunch of old soft drink bottles that we’d put in trash bags when we moved up here. We found 45 3-liter Coke bottles, which are very useful for storing powdery staples like flour because their mouths are wider than those of 2-liter bottles, making it a lot easier to transfer the flour into the bottles. Each of the 3-liter bottles holds about five pounds of flour, so we have enough to repackage about 225 pounds. Before we use those bottles for LTS food storage, we need to wash and dry them. We’ll do that in the kitchen on an assembly line, filling one side of the sink with sudsy water and the other side with a very dilute bleach solution. We’ll do a quick wash and rinse of each bottle and then put them inverted into large plastic bins to drain. We’ll then use silica gel beads to get the last of the water out and start transferring flour to them, using the top half of a 2-liter soda bottle as a wide-mouth funnel. I don’t think I’ll bother using oxygen absorbers in them, as we’re going through much more flour than we used to.
Writing about potassium iodide yesterday got me to thinking about iodine deficiency, which is a problem world-wide. Most soils are iodine-deficient, and before iodized salt and multivitamins became common even many US residents suffered from a deficiency of iodine. Humans don’t need much–about 150 μg/day for an adult man to about twice that for a nursing mother–but not getting that minimal amount has some pretty horrifying health consequences.
Under normal circumstances, we all get enough iodine from iodized salt, multivitamins, some bread, and so on. But if iodized salt and multivitamins run out, potassium iodide tablets or solutions stored as prophylaxis against ingesting radioactive iodine can certainly serve as an iodine supplement. One 131 mg dose of potassium iodide contains 100 mg of iodine, which can also be stated as 100,000 μg. That’s the MDR for an adult man for 667 days, or half that for a nursing mother. Obviously, you don’t need much iodine to keep people healthy in that respect.
I actually started thinking about trace-element deficiencies some month ago, when I was talking with Lori about feeding her cattle. She buys grain for them, and mentioned that her vendor treats the feed grain with various micronutrients, including selenium, because the local soil is deficient in them. I don’t think we’ll need to worry about a selenium deficiency; its MDR is about half that of iodine. But if we do, I have probably a hundred million MDR doses of selenium in a bottle down in the lab. Actually, probably a billion doses.
Oh, yeah, I should have mentioned that that shelving unit is only for stuff other than #10 cans. Those are in closets, particularly the LDS stuff. We even have one closet dedicated to bottled water, which Barbara refers to as the “water closet”. (I told her to make sure no one pees in there.) We do keep #10 cans of Augason potato shreds, cheese powder, etc. open in the kitchen.
“I told her to make sure no one pees in there.”
Why not? Pee is (usually) sterile.
So you Aussies pee in your closets?
Feel proud, residents of the Houston metropolis.
I don’t know about the others, but I don’t. Just saying that pee is usual sterile and people have drunk it in extremis. There was even an Indian prime minister who had a glass every day.
Wasn’t it Germaine Greer who advocated that women drink their own menstrual blood?
“Feel proud, residents of the Houston metropolis.”
OK, that was a “satirical ploy,” by the infamous “activist,” etc., but several colleges and universities have actually set up “safe spaces” that include items like that for their special snowflakes. And snowflakes actually run to them when their feelz get upset.
lol! People are so fucking stupid!
My late Aunt Eleanor used to tell me, “David, 98% of the American people are stupid.” This would have been back in the early 1960s.
I think she was overly generous.
Top 2% qualifies one for Mensa, so I think your aunt was about right.
She was a smart cookie; worked as a CPA in Boston at the JFK Federal Center, commuting by bus from Fairhaven daily; played classical piano; and had floor to ceiling classical records. Checked out way too early due to some TMJ cancer thing, but had also been a smoker, back when everybody did it and nobody worried.
She’d be aghast at the levels of stupidity, ignorance, laziness and greed we see nowadays in this country, though.
There’s some morons in there someplace. Is that below stupid?
There are morons, cretins, idiots, imbeciles, etc.
We need a re-classification of the Murkan people. With percentages.
I’m pretty sure I’m not at the Mensa level, but am I stupid? Was my aunt talking about ME? Maybe she was. I’ve done a chit-ton of stupid chit in my decades on the planet and am still beavering away at stupid chit.
I don’t doubt that you qualify for Mensa.
I think we drove out most of the people who wouldn’t qualify for Mensa
I think we drove out most of the people who wouldn’t qualify for Mensa
I be still hear and me is dumb as a wrock.
We spent some time yesterday reorganizing the 5×2 foot five-shelf steel shelving unit that’s our main LTS pantry, shifting stuff around and shelving recently purchased items. The unit is less than half full because for the last year we’ve been drawing it down and not replacing much of what we used.
We had an invasion of sugar ants this week so the wife called in Altera and cleaned out the entire west side of the kitchen for treatment, including the pantry. There was about 3 or 4 person months of canned goods carefully stashed in there by yours truly. So I got a lecture from the wife last night that I will restocking the pantry by myself and half of those cans need to disappear. She don’t care where as long as they are in not in the pantry. She cannot believe how well I had the 6 ft by 4 ft floor layered with cans.
Dadgumit, my daughters best friend came over today and told us that she got laid off Friday. She has an architecture degree from Texas Tech and has been working for an interior design firm for four years. She did grab all of her contacts and got a letter from the boss on the way out the door. Plus two of her clients called her cell and said that they would give her letters also. I hate recessions !
I think we drove out most of the people who wouldn’t qualify for Mensa
Hey, I’m still hanging around and I don’t qualify for Mensa !
Half? Just restack them to look different.
Half? Just restack them to look different.
I have been given detailed instructions. She moved them all herself and is still upset.
BTW, she put everything in the dining room. I foolishly suggested that we turn the dining room into an extended pantry and got a piece of her mind.
Tell her it’s your hobby, and ask if she’d like you to choose another.
@lynn, think how many you can stack in a metal cabinet at your warehouse. Just one cabinet… surely your lawn guy would let you put a cabinet along one wall.
n
@lynn, think how many you can stack in a metal cabinet at your warehouse. Just one cabinet… surely your lawn guy would let you put a cabinet along one wall.
You would not believe how much stuff he has in there. His three story 40 ft by 10 ft pipe rack with internal stairways is simply amazing.
And he showed me an awesome picture yesterday. He is a credentialed wetlands expert with the EPA and the state of Texas. He was out killing some gator weeds in a refinery wetlands yesterday and stepped on a large water moccasin trying to get a bullfrog down. He was messing with it and snapped a picture about a foot away since it could not bite him.
He also told me that he has two guys out with back issues and one guy out with a chainsaw to the upper thigh injury. All on workman’s comp.
Tell her it’s your hobby, and ask if she’d like you to choose another.
Maybe I will store a few canned goods in the game room behind the book racks.
You know, I’ve got my 55″ TV sitting on my 1960 AR speakers. I wonder if I could get a few ten packs behind those speakers.
Prep/Hack:
Successfully picked the tubular lock on both my GunVaults and a cheap Honeywell digital safe with tubular backup. Relatively easy using a tubular lock pick. Next I’ll try with standard lock picks.
Chainsaw to the upper thigh, yikes. Think about that one in a disaster situation…
I’ve got chainsaw chaps which will shred and tangle the chain. Stops it from cutting thru. ‘course they’re hot, and heavier than shorts, but man-o-man you don’t want a dirty chainsaw in your flesh.
I have a friend who has the same injury. He lost his balance and brought the saw down on his thigh. Since he was falling, he clenched on the trigger… he made a recovery, but it was ugly.
nick
@mrAtoz
I was looking at this set, how does it look compared to yours?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-Pins-Adjustable-Tubular-Tools-7-00MM-7-5MM-7-8MM-3-piece-set-Safe-Box-Lock-/302010587762?var=&hash=item46513bda72:m:m9B7yBamFZ68F0acCmMGF8w
n
I caught a chainsaw to the thigh when I was about 16. Way back up in the hills with a tractor and a trailer, no roads. Tore my pants and just knocked my leg. I was damned lucky. That was back in the 60’s when there were no chain brakes or protective chaps. Much more force and I would have died from bleeding out. Big assed saw with a 36″ bar and powerful motor, the kind that would take a leg and not slow down.
I got a used set of Southford tubular picks in 7, 8 and 10 pin. The *key* (lol) is the tension mechanism. Your set has different diameter barrels, but are all 7 pin. Southford are expensive, so it took awhile to find a used set. I can’t make out the tensioner on yours. Cost about $60 used.
I cut my thumb one time many years ago opening a jackknife the wrong way while I was buzzed a little. Still got a little white scar there.
Other than that, been deuced lucky for most of my life outside of working for Uncle.
Working on a farm I had more cuts and slices than I can count.
Most serious was when I fell off a barn roof I was fixing. My fall was stopped by deer antlers on the side of the barn by being impaled in the right armpit. Hanging about two feet off the ground. Had to reach over with my left hand and lift myself off the antlers. Damage was serious but the vein was missed. A 30 minute ride to the doctor, no appointment, and was seen immediately. ER would have been another 30 minute ride. Repair took a couple dozen stitches with several internal stitches. Could not move my arm for a week and full recovery took four months.
Another serious one was when I was on my motorcycle and got run off the road. The hay hooks sliced open my chest to the bone. Held the skin and muscle together until I got home. Used scotch tape to hold the cut back together as I did not want my aunt uncle to find out.
Someone told me a story about sliding off a tin roof. Went several times without incident. Then came the time a nail caught a testicle as he slid down.
Testicle stayed on the roof, he didn’t.
Someone else told me about using the kitchen drawers as a step ladder. Worked fine until jumping down, when the corner of a drawer caught a testicle as the kid went past…
Funny thing about the jackknife cut. While camping with my family I was trying to cut an acorn in half for some craft project we were doing. Slipped and cut down into my left thumb to the bone. Tape and bandaids for that ‘cuz we weren’t gonna spend any time at the hospital for a little cut… 40 years later, you can still see the scar and the skin always cracks there because it didn’t heal right. Minor injuries, but good stories.
UN-like a farm. LOTS of farm accidents. It’s surprising anyone lived thru a childhood on a farm.
nick
Habitat for Humanity reStore (the one that DIDN”T post a 30-06 no concealed carry sign) had a full entry tool kit for $75.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lock-Technology-1000-Master-Towing-and-Recovery-Supreme-Lock-Out-Kit-/311708624571?hash=item48934826bb:g:fm8AAOSwTA9X7Ert&item=311708624571&vxp=mtr
They routinely sell for that on ebay though, so I didn’t pick it up. That’s one of those things that can get you in a lot of trouble on the wrong day.
Still, never know, everyone should have at least a slim jim, and the “packing strap” opener, and a thin wood wedge… and should be able to open their OWN vehicle with the slimjim.
nick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwz1N8NUy-4
Chainsaw to the upper thigh, yikes. Think about that one in a disaster situation…
The chainsaw got into his thigh just above the bone, four inches deep on this guy. Harrie got him into the Southwest Memorial ER at 10 am or so. Then they sat there for eight hours or so. Harrie’s wife came in and spelled him just as he was taken back.
I’ve cut my left knee seven inches long down to the bone. 35 stitches inside and 65 stitches outside. Takes a while and several suture packs to get that done. One hour to clean out the glass slivers and two hours to stitch if I remember correctly. Plus an IV in each arm for fluids replacement. Some of those stitches were four inches long as the ER doc was trying to get it all to hold together.
“… and should be able to open their OWN vehicle with the slimjim.”
Back in my cop days, we all had slim jims and routinely opened vehicles for peeps locked out. Esp. comely young wimmenz.
Jeezum, all youse guys with the horrifying injuries back here. I’ve gotten off way easy. Bits of shrapnel, nothing serious; a cut thumb; and now a sore-as-hell lower back for about eight months.
Spent four hours today refreshing my memory banks on arcane RHEL chit; tomorrow I’ll look at a few more things with that, and then it’s storage and AIX afterward. (web/phone interview Monday). Wife took one look at the screen here and said “That looks deadly.”
Went and saw the “Sully” movie today based on James Patterson’s review. Was very, very good and had no idea how the government people treated him.
http://www.jamespatterson.com/movie-reviews/movies-16-0926#1
Interesting data point on how small our world is.
As y’all know, I sell on ebay, which is a global marketplace. I routinely sell to Australia, various places in Europe, and points south of here. I’ve sold a couple of times to Russia or former USSR countries. Canada in the past, but not recently.
So I sold a microscope to a guy in Georgia (not in the southern US). After some email back and forth to be certain it was what he wanted, and worked, etc. I sent it to him, thru a freight forwarder, and it arrived in good condition only 15 days later. I’m pretty sure it cost less than $30 for the shipping, total. 6800 miles across an ocean and half of europe. That’s pretty cool for an online garage sale.
nick
RBT wrote:
“Top 2% qualifies one for Mensa, so I think your aunt was about right.”
I’ve heard you only need an IQ of around 130 to join Mensa. That can’t be right – my IQ is nearly there.
Lynn wrote:
“So I got a lecture from the wife last night that I will restocking the pantry by myself and half of those cans need to disappear.”
Know any good locksmiths?
“I foolishly suggested that we turn the dining room into an extended pantry and got a piece of her mind.”
How long did you say you’ve been married?
Lynn wrote:
“Went and saw the “Sully” movie today based on James Patterson’s review. Was very, very good and had no idea how the government people treated him.”
They didn’t. That stuff was made up for the movie.
@lynn said: “Dadgumit, my daughters best friend came over today and told us that she got laid…”
On my screen the line break was at laid. For a moment I expected the next line to say “my daughters former best friend”.
@Ray Thompson said: “Working on a farm I had more cuts and slices than I can count.”
There was a time when just about every farmer was at best only missing a toe or fingers, sometimes part of an arm and/or leg.
Even though I was only a “vacation/holiday farmer” on my paternal grandfathers farm I only have a broken elbow and inguinal hernia to show for it.
During my submarine days I managed to avoid any serious injuries. However the Machinist Mates routinely received serious burns from steam pipes and hot oil lines. They also go some nasty lacerations on pipe hangers. Our Doc would sew them up on the mess deck, special corner table reserved for him. I believe that I have mentioned before that all our Docs (Corpsmen) all had experience with Marine Units in Vietnam. For them a 3-year tour on a submarine was a vacation in paradise.
My brother was a Corpsmen. Retired at E-7 because he couldn’t get promo slots. He sewed a bunch of guys up in the Philippines. The ER let him sew a guys nearly severed ear back on.
A question for Mr. Ray:
When you travel overseas, did you take your iPhone? Was it unlocked from your carrier or bought unlocked? What sim card did you buy? Did you have to restore your iPhone from iTunes after the unlock?
I may be travelling overseas next year and want to bypass AT&T travel plan.
“As y’all know, I sell on ebay…”
Would you be destroying your opsec to give us a link to your store / auctions? I am always in favour of supporting ebayers who ship internationally (and I wouldn’t mind having a microscope either).
“I may be travelling overseas next year and want to bypass AT&T travel plan.”
Switch to T-Mobile, travel to 147 countries is unlimited text and data and phone calls 20-cents/minute. Included in the plan, nothing extra to do. No new SIM either.
Switch to T-Mobile
Doesn’t answer my question. To switch, I would still have to unlock from AT&T. Plus, I think I can easily beat 20c/min with a local prepaid sim.
Overseas. The only places I’d travel overseas this year or next would be Greenland, Iceland, and Antarctica.
If Mrs. OFD asks you to go to Ireland on vacay, you wouldn’t go? What about poor Princess and her roaming the Eurotrash countryside? How cruel. I may be all over the Caribbean next year. Maybe I’ll just buy a local burner phone for buying “stuff”.
@denis, I’m reluctant to link my online persona with my real world life. Anyone with the desire could figure it out, if they were motivated, but I’m not ready to make it easy for them.
If there is something specific you’re looking for (and I get some weird stuff from surplus auctions) you can let me know. At the moment, I’ve got several low end but very usable stereoscopes, and (not listed) a few mono ‘student’ microscopes. I’ve got a couple of nicer binocular scopes and a nicer stereoscope too.
I’ve got a bunch of electronic pipet dispensers, and a pallet of tips in all different sizes (not all listed) for the science minded. Lots of PCR trays too.
As soon as I get enough time, I’ll have some of the thermal imaging cameras I got at Christmas time ready to sell. I’ll offer them up here first since they are a bit harder to come by than average and have obvious relevance to prepping.
I sell a bunch of stuff with little or no utility for prepping or home science that I try not to mention. I don’t want to clog up (or take advantage of) RBT’s blog.
You can send me email at my last name @a ol . com — note that I don’t check that address daily, or even every few days.
nick
How long did you say you’ve been married?
34 years last January.
“If Mrs. OFD asks you to go to Ireland on vacay, you wouldn’t go?”
Funny U should ask; she’s mentioned MOVING there a couple of times recently. lol.
“…Anyone with the desire could figure it out, if they were motivated, but I’m not ready to make it easy for them.”
I wasn’t motivated in the least but found out anyway, accidentally, a good while ago.
“…I’ll have some of the thermal imaging cameras…”
I’m waiting for prices on those to go WAY down, particularly the rifle sight varieties.
When you travel overseas, did you take your iPhone?
Yes. My phone is from Verizon and the sim slot is unlocked.
For Verizon phones from the iPhone 5 on the sim slot is unlocked.
I remove the Verizon sim while on the airplane and install the sim from Germany. When I land I turn on the phone and I have service. Sim is sent by the former exchange student so I have no idea which service. Any of them will work on any phone that supports GSM.
Get your provider to unlock your phone, then connect to a computer running iTunes and fully restore the phone. Should remove any sim lock.
I like getting a local number so that I avoid any charges. Coverage is not as good as the US outside of the cities when using data.
I found that with the time differences I wasn’t calling home anyway, so it wasn’t worth any hassle of changing numbers, etc.
I did add international texting, and used texts to coordinate Skype calls from my lappy to home.
(did this in china, scotland, and Norway)
I guess if you connected to wifi you could even use skype from your cell….
nick
Danke, Mr. Ray.
Yep, Skype is an option. I needed to make calls to people in the country from the train so a local number was the best option.
Lots of options, pick what works best. I like the local sim method. Price was good as the former exchange student we were visiting paid for the sim. No hassle with changing numbers, just swap the sim. No one was going to call from the US. Did leave my Germany number with work. Wanted to make it expensive for them to call me.
Dave Hardy wrote:
“Overseas. The only places I’d travel overseas this year or next would be Greenland, Iceland, and Antarctica.”
You could visit Oz, and leave Princess here… 🙂
Just joking man…
Princess would bust U in half. She’s six feet and 210. 44DD.
And then she’d clean out yer bank accounts.
Greetings Mr. Thompson,
We at the people at YouTube would like to know what happened to your amazing chemistry lab videos 6 years ago and why you haven’t updated ever since. I have been reading your “Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments” and I absolutely loved your writing and had my share of enjoyment. I see that you are political as well which is quite fascinating for a guy who was about “100.000% science”. YouTube just needs a reply to your absence and would greatly appreciate it if you make more videos.
Sincerely,
Strike
Thanks for the kind words.
Alas, I doubt that I’ll ever do more youtube videos. Since I posted the last one, I’ve written two more titles in the Illustrated Guide series, biology and forensics. Around the time I stopped making videos, my wife and I decided to incorporate a business to build and sell science kits to home schoolers. In the last six years, we’ve sold a boatload of these kits, which fully occupies our time. I think we’re doing more to promote science with young people this way than we ever did with the videos.
“Princess would bust U in half. She’s six feet and 210. 44DD.
And then she’d clean out yer bank accounts.”
It’s okay, I don’t discriminate against short, flat chested girls… 🙂
Not much cleaning to do, I’m afraid… 🙁