I’m tellin’ ya, time is flyin’ by….
70F and 99%RH. Moisture condensing on concrete deck and floor, and anything metal or solid in the garage. Can anyone say “less than ideal storage conditions?”
I did make a great dessert last night from “middle” term storage. I’ve found that the fruit cups from costco will discolor and the fruit gets mushy after the expiration date. This is pretty typical, “color and texture might change but contents remain healthy and safe” is true for cans as well. I’ve mentioned here before that when I notice that a case is aging out, I make fruit cobbler.
So last night, a delicious mango cobbler was made, and half was consumed after dinner. The mango tastes pretty much like peaches after canning. I used prepackaged cobbler mix. It couldn’t be much easier- melt butter, pour in mix with milk, dump in 4 fruit cups. Bake. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Kids asked for seconds. Success!
Managing your stores probably deserves a whole post, but the short story is — use what you have too much of. In other words, if we’ve eaten fewer eggs than normal, I will make something to eat that requires more eggs, like French Toast (Freedom Toast!). That’s a good way to use up some bread too. Or fruit desserts to use aging fruit cups that don’t LOOK attractive, but are still delicious. Think about baking, or pre-cooking meat and freezing. Pies are a way to make fruit last a few more days. Juice fruits and freeze the juice…
Anyway, I’m toying with the idea of a “use less week.” The idea is that you probably use more than needed during these times of prosperity, and would use less if times were tough, so why not try it now??
Some easy examples: toothpaste. Most people probably learned to put a stripe of toothpaste the whole length of the toothbrush. I find that less than half of that is sufficient to fill my mouth with foamy cleaning action. I’ve completely internalized this change.
Shampoo. The bottle usually says how much to use, but do you just pour some in your hand? Bigger than a ‘quarter’? I’ll bet half will give the same sudsing action. If not, just “lather rinse repeat” like the bottle says. Nothing to lose.
Hand soap, hand sanitizer. The dispensers kick out way more than needed.
Eggs. I love eggs. I now only buy the Large size though. Simple change from the Extra Large I grew up with and just kept buying. They are cheaper too. And I’m finding that one is enough for breakfast when I habitually ate two.
Toilet paper. I’d bet that most of us just use this the way we learned as kids. I did. Having kids to teach, and someone else’s butt to wipe, made me rethink both technique and amount. Not something to skimp on, but if you knew the supply was limited, would you be more careful and use less? TP is a very bulky item to store as preps, and not something you want to run out of.
Laundry and dish soap. Do you just dump some in? When was the last time you read the bottle or looked at the different marks on the measuring cup?
Ketchup or dipping condiments. Just dump a big squirt on the plate? Why not put half as much and then squirt more if needed?
Hmm, this is turning into a coupon clipping, make your own soap kind of post, so I’ll end it here, but I challenge you to look at your habits, and see if you are being a ‘good steward’ of the resources you have.
nick
Thanks, Nick.
I couldn’t disagree less about the “use less” sentiment. People selling goods want us to use them up and buy more, so they neither show nor encourage moderation. My experience – corroborated by my dentist’s complete inability to put his kids though university on my money – indicates that a pea-sized blob of toothpaste suffices if one brushes regularly. Small doses of detergents are often enough – just how dirty are most of our everyday clothes, anyway? For hand-doing the dishes, I wait until a new bottle of liquid is half empty, then top it up with water; Brownian motion does its magic overnight, and next day the bottle is full again of goop that smells and washes just fine.
Packages that are hard to empty entirely, I cut open, and scoop out the rest…. etc, etc. Waste not, want not, and pollute less too.
I’ll add I wash lightly soiled clothes on “speed wash” with a small amount of detergent. It works fine.
The older I get, the more this rings true. Especially when you really look at how much you can save by just thinking about what you are doing. Yes, using a dab of toothpaste instead of covering the entire brush head won’t make you a millionaire, but the savings add up. My most recent habit is the use of paper towels in the garage. I use the blue towels, and have a big industrial sized roll mounted on the wall. They aren’t cheap, and one sheet is pretty big (about twice the average consumer size.) I rip off half a sheet for most uses, and it works just fine.
this is turning into a coupon clipping, make your own soap kind of post
Speaking of… anyone have a simple way to reuse bar soap scraps? I’ve been meaning to try food processor-ing the scraps into dust and then adding water and microwaving but I see vastly differing ‘recipes’ online.
Re: laundry detergent… right after I moved back home to help with my folks, our washer gave up the ghost. We replaced it with a whiz bang Samsung front loader and I started checking detergent options. In that machine, I’ve never used anything but Charlie’s Soap (charliesoap.com). A tiny scoop is all it takes and, in the last 8 years or so, I’ve bought detergent 3 times – I’m about 2/3 of the way through my 3rd bucket. Granted, it’s made locally, but it’s widely available.
Re: squirts and dollops… I save the pump dispensers (like Head and Shoulders comes in) and then just use refills. I’ve found that using a pump vs pour saves me a ton in the amount I use (since I wouldn’t usually take the time to take off the cap and scrape some overage back into the bottle).
Obviously, this post struck a chord, but I’ll spare you more musings for now…
Edited to add..
Re: paper towels – dad still refuses to use anything but them, but I always dry my hands on a towel in the kitchen. To me, that’s an easy one to cut down on
Moisture condensing on concrete deck and floor, and anything metal or solid in the garage.
Same here in Memphis. Looked like it had been raining in the garage last night. Air is saturated and everything is wet. Looks like more rain rain rain but at least no ice.
“anyone have a simple way to reuse bar soap scraps?”
I grew up saving them, and I know it’s a perennial prepper fav, BUT I’ve found it’s much simpler, cleaner, and quicker to just add them to the new bar!
When you are down to a sliver, get your new bar into the shower. Use the new bar. When you are done, with it nice and wet, just squeeze the sliver onto the new bar. I’ve never had it not work with a bunch of different brands, and most brands have a ‘hollow’ side that fits the sliver pretty well.
Since I started doing this, I no longer have the little slivers mucking up the place, I feel less like a hoarder, and I don’t have the slivers going down the drain to plug things up.
Seems like a win win to me, and it just took a change in habit.
n
added- be sure you don’t have any hair stuck to the bars when you add the sliver. NO ONE likes that sort of surprise.
I learned to be a toilet paper minimalist back in my submarine days. Everybody who cared about their hind end brought their own as the Navy Issue stuff was used as a stand-in for sandpaper. A person on a submarine is not allotted much space so you cannot bring on an unlimited supple of toilet paper. You learn real quick how to buy a quality TP and how to use just enough.
If you want to see a real barter economy in action be on a submarine that has had its run extended. If a person has extra toilet paper, soap, and/or cigarettes they can make a good bit of folding money as the unprepared run out and get desperate.
Added:
@nick – I started doing your soap trick long ago when I was kid. My Dad taught me, he did it during the depression with their homemade soap. BTW, they could not afford toilet paper so everyone had their designated wash rag for cleaning the private parts. Was washed out with soap and water immediately after use.
Unfortunately the “Greatest Generation” had a lot of knowledge that they did not pass along.
I think I spotted MrAtoz’s ride.
The “greatest generation” produced the boomers. They have a lot to answer for.
The “greatest generation” produced the boomers. They have a lot to answer for.
The pre- and early Boomers who raised my generation (X-er) have a lot to answer for.
Allison Janey deserves the Oscar for the mother in “I, Tonya”. Most of the people my age did not have “John Hughes” parents. Janey nails it.
Got another rat last night. Snap trap got him as he tried to get loose from the glue trap. Bait was an expired and slightly puffy can of taco meat. He’d eaten an inch of it over the last couple of nights. Guess he got careless.
The last couple of rats have been bigger. My wife says I’ve already killed the young and dumb, and the remaining ones are the smart and crafty…
n
Toilet paper. I’d bet that most of us just use this the way we learned as kids. I did. Having kids to teach, and someone else’s butt to wipe, made me rethink both technique and amount. Not something to skimp on, but if you knew the supply was limited, would you be more careful and use less? TP is a very bulky item to store as preps, and not something you want to run out of.
One word: hemorrhoids
The gift of taking a massive quantity of morphine during my first heart attack. That and the Lopressor stopped the heart attack but my bowels did not move for four days. And the Rythmol has made things even better down there.
I keep ten Sam’s Club sized packages of toilet paper in the garage stash. Plus the toilet chair. Just for emergencies.
Funny, the rats do not seem interested in the toilet paper stash.
Assuming grid up, this might be a good site to share with your social circle (assuming that we here have one).
https://community.fema.gov/until-help-arrives
FEMA has found it necessary to cover basic common sense in this day and age, as well as give explicit permission for people to get involved and help.
This is also part of the changing reality of emergency response- the acknowledgement that the real first responders are the people on site when an event happens.
This one is good too-
https://www.dhs.gov/stopthebleed
and you can print the poster and hang it at work.
And our school district actually sent out some useful info WRT the Florida murders, other than the internalized idea that violence can be stopped. I quote it below. (It is appropriate for other events and kids too.)
“Dear SBISD Parents,
In the aftermath of yesterday’s horrific Florida school shooting, all of us in Spring Branch ISD are deeply shocked and saddened, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones in this awful tragedy. Violence against our students and educators must end.
Though this event happened far away from us, your children’s questions, fears and emotions may come forth at home and, perhaps, at school. As you help your children navigate this tragedy, please consider the helpful tips below, provided by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Additional comprehensive information from NASP may be found at http://www.nasponline.org. Additional information on talking with children in the aftermath of a shooting is available through the American Psychological Association at http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/aftermath.aspx.
In SBISD, the safety and security of our students is always our highest priority. Safety protocols are in place across SBISD, all schools have a School Emergency Response Team, and every school regularly practices safety procedures with students and staff through discussions and emergency exercises. Please remind your children how important it is to take practice drills seriously.
Our SBISD Police officers are on duty 24-7, and Police Chief Dareing works closely with school administrators to assure they are equipped to lead in a time of crisis. Our Police also conduct regular security checks on all our schools and respond quickly to any possible threats. SBISD Police also conduct joint safety drills with other law enforcement agencies. Additionally, security entrances, enhanced camera surveillance, fencing and other safety-enhancing features are in place across the district as a result of our 2007 Bond Program.
This event is also a reminder of the importance of our safety procedures and check-in and screening process for all campus visitors. All campus visitors should use only front entrances when visiting our schools; other exits and entrances are to remain locked throughout the day.
We appreciate your continuing help in abiding by our security protocols, serving as eyes and ears on our campuses, and reporting any safety concerns you may have or observe. Many threats have been and continue to be stopped through information reported to the proper authorities. If you see something, say something.
Please be vigilant and remind your children to be vigilant in sharing any concerning or suspicious information seen, heard or observed in person, on texts or on social media that may prevent harm or tragedy. Our SBISD Administrators are trusted adults, and the SBISD Police can be reached 24-7 at 713.984.9805,
National Association of School Psychologists Tips for Talking About Tragedy:
Model calm and control. NASP experts say children take their emotional cues from the adults in their lives. Adults should try to avoid appearing anxious or frightened.
Reassure children that they and their loved ones are safe. NASP experts say to emphasize that schools are very safe. Validate their feelings. Explain that all feelings are okay when a tragedy occurs. Let children talk about their feelings, help put them into perspective, and assist them in expressing these feelings appropriately.
Remind them that trustworthy people are in charge. The NASP suggests telling children about the various government officials, such as police, who are working to ensure that no other tragedies occur.
Tell children it is okay to feel upset. NASP experts say parents should give children the opportunity to talk about their feelings and help them understand why they may be feeling that way. It is also important to tell them it is okay to have feelings, even anger, about national tragedies.
Observe the child’s emotional state. Not all children may express their feelings verbally. The NASP says parents should consider the child’s age and focus on nonverbal signs, such as sleep, appetite, and behavior when evaluating their emotional state.
Look for children at greater risk. Some children who have suffered from personal loss, had a previous traumatic experience, or suffer from mental illness may have a stronger reaction to national tragedy than others. Parents should contact professionals if they feel their child is reacting dangerously to tragedy.
Tell children the truth. The NASP says parents shouldn’t try to downplay the event. Children could be even more worried if they think their parents are too scared to tell them what is happening.
Stick to the facts. NASP experts say parents should not embellish on what happened or what might happen as a result of the tragedy. They also say not to dwell on the scale of the tragedy.
Keep your explanations developmentally appropriate. NASP says elementary school children need brief and simple info with explanations of why they are safe and why their lives will not change. The older the child is, the more questions and opinions they will likely have.
Monitor your own stress level. Experts say parents need to take care of themselves as well by talking to loved ones and other community leaders about their own feelings of grief and anger.
The NASP also says parents should focus on their child over the week following a tragedy, maintain a normal routine, and spend extra time reading or playing quiet games with their child before bed.
While in this day and age, we can never be absolutely protected against all circumstances, we take very seriously the responsibility we have in keeping your children safe and secure. Our Police Department will work with us to reflect on, discuss and debrief this tragedy with administrators and staff, accordingly.
We are also providing resources to our teachers, counselors and administrators to equip them to listen and help your children should they ask questions and/or show signs of worry and concern.
Thank you”
n
”
Funny, the rats do not seem interested in the toilet paper stash.”
Mice might want it for bedding, but rats just nest in the fiberglas insulation. Rats are TOUGH.
n
Mueller Indicts 13 Russians Accused of Election Meddling
“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity,” Rosenstein said, adding there “there is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”
—————-
This is it? This is all he has?
Russians are accused of creating fake social media accounts for both PRO and ANTI Trump campaigns. Isn’t all that covered by the First Amendment?
There is nothing there. The Left must be in panic that Mueller found nothing on Trump.
“Mice might want it for bedding, but rats just nest in the fiberglas insulation. Rats are TOUGH.”
Yup. I’ve had rats nesting in the fiberglass insulation around a dishwasher.
Only if they are US Citizens.
“Russians are accused of creating fake social media accounts for both PRO and ANTI Trump campaigns. Isn’t all that covered by the First Amendment?
Only if they are US Citizens.”
According to anti-tRump federal judges: Only if they are US Citizens or here illegally from Mexico.
Re: School shooting solution. Eliminate gun free zones. That’s it, that’s all. These Yo-Yo’s won’t try if there is even a whisper of a chance someone might shoot back. No guards, no metal detectors, razor wire or any other prison tech. Would work for airplanes, too.
“Deputies called to suspected shooter’s home 39 times over seven years”
https://nypost.com/2018/02/16/deputies-called-to-suspected-shooters-home-39-times-over-seven-years/
“Before Nikolas Cruz carried out his mass killing at a Florida high school this week, police responded to his home 39 times over a seven-year period, according to disturbing new documents.”
Something is really, really, really wrong here. Why didn’t the local Sheriff have the kid in a psych eval ?
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
Yeah, the libturds try to push the US Constitution applies to *all*. I’m sure very few have even read the bird cage liner (Hi, Mr. OFD).
Where do you get that idea? Haters don’t have freedom of speech. Non-liberals don’t have freedom of association in either the “associate with people” or the “refuse to associate with people” sense. And that’s just two of the five items in the First Amendment.
“Something is really, really, really wrong here. Why didn’t the local Sheriff have the kid in a psych eval ?”
Why expect that of a Sheriff? What about the nutcase shooter recently in NoCal? Wasn’t the Sheriff called out several times when the nutcase started shooting in the neighborhood?
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-norcal-elementary-school-shooting-20171114-story.html
Why expect that of a Sheriff? What about the nutcase shooter recently in NoCal? Wasn’t the Sheriff called out several times when the nutcase started shooting in the neighborhood?
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-norcal-elementary-school-shooting-20171114-story.html
Another person who should not have had guns. The violent mentally ill should not have guns.
I am not sure if the mentally ill should have or not have guns. But if they are violent, definitely not.
“Fueled by Hatred and George Soros, Dems Are Quietly Winning Elections”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/02/14/fueled-by-hatred-and-russian-interference-dems-quietly-winning-elections/
“Something very quietly is happening out there. It’s not being touted, and it’s a little bothersome that it isn’t being touted. The Democrats are showing remarkable discipline here in not touting what is very quietly happening out there. And what is very quietly happening out there is that the Democrats are winning elections. They have recently begun to win elections. They are winning special elections. They are winning local and state elections.”
“And they’re not shouting about it. They’re not being loud and boisterous and celebratory at all. They won another one. And the last five or six of these elections that they have won — one was in Missouri — they’re flipping Republican seats. The election they won yesterday was in a district that Trump won by eight percentage points in 2016.”
Nancy Pelosi in charge of the Congress again in 2019 ? Say it ain’t so !
Good plan. You make that rule, and I’ll be the one to decide who’s mentally ill and thus barred from owning weapons.
I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.
— Democrat Party motivational speaker Josef Stalin, 1923
Nancy Pelosi in charge of the Congress again in 2019 ? Say it ain’t so !
She’s so batsh*t crazy at this point, I’d be surprised if the caucus put her back in as Speaker, especially if the flipped seats are won by X-ers or Millenials.
2019 is the year that my generation will have to depose the wheezebags or lose their own shot at the leadership trough and, possibly, the Presidency through at least 2024.
Here’s a really scary thought — the Speaker does *not* have to be a member of Congress. That’s just the convention, not the law.
Speaker of the House Oprah, anyone? Moochelle?
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?
Speaker of the House Oprah, anyone? Moochelle?
Hulk Hogan. The Rock is making way too much money to do anything else at the moment.
This may have been covered in the past, but I don’t remember seeing it…
Any recommendations for reasonably priced LED shop fixtures? I can’t seem to keep 8’ fluorescents working and was thinking of adding an LED fixture or two to supplement.
I have two of these 4 ft LED fixtures in the garage. They are like daylight.
https://www.samsclub.com/sams/2pk-led-shoplight-4-ft-led-shoplight/prod20051839.ip
@SVJeff, be very careful if you will be using them with rotating power tools. LED lights tend to flicker, like florescent tubes… This can lead to “the wagon wheel effect” where spinning tools look stationary. The cheaper the light, the more the flicker….
nick
Thanks Nick. The only thing that rotates is my Phillips screwdriver and there’s rarely much power supplied. This is the area in the back of my dad’s office where I refurbish the Win98/2K computers I sell.
Ok, I’ll bite, who’s buying win98 pcs and what are they using them for??
n
(keeping in mind I have an xp machine running as a server for my vinyl cutter, cuz that’s the last version they made drivers for…)
Oddly, most of the 98 machines I’ve sold have gone to Northern Europe but I don’t know for what. The local ones I know about have been used for embroidery and land surveying.
The vast majority of what I sell is Win2K – I’ve shipped all over the world (one went to Japan last week) and have sold to Boeing, Borg-Warner, Georgia Pacific, and the like. But the key is what you mention – things like drivers and the huge expense of upgrading to newer versions are the 2 I hear most.
I found Nick’s elusive quarry… http://thechive.com/2018/02/16/daily-afternoon-randomness-44-photos-16/#slide-14
I also got those LED lights from Costco – the two-packs. Really liked the first two that I got,so got two more. Had to get them on-line, as the ones in my local Costco weren’t the same.
These are the ones that I got online: Feit Electric 4’ Linkable LED Shop Light with Pull Chain, 2-pack, Item #1057373 for $59.99. There were different ones in the store that weren’t as good, IIRC.
Apropos of nothing at all: After months of fighting WLAN problems, I have finally figured it out. It turns out that my access points (Cisco WAP4410) both thought it was 2011. They have a setting where you can choose to manually enter an NTP server. If that’s not selected, I assume they used to connect to some Cisco server – one which apparently doesn’t exist anymore. Entering an NTP server manually seems to have fixed the problem.
I don’t know enough about WLAN protocols to know why an access point needs to know the date and time. Or why they mostly sort of worked anyway, just slow and with lots of hiccups.
I think I spotted MrAtoz’s ride.
Lol! Chopper pilots are weird.