Cold, but I don’t know how cold. Not even sure we got below freezing last night. My weather station is still locked up. Not enough sunshine to charge the batteries, I guess. Time for some new ones.
Speaking of batteries, I have been running eneloops in my EDC FLASHLIGHT, the Pelican 1920. I discovered that the eneloops have a much softer case than other disposables. The ends are particularly soft. When I dropped my FLASHLIGHT, the shock caused the tit of one battery to dimple the butt of the other, and they no longer made good contact. Now I’m careful to put the dimpled battery in last so it contacts the spring, and the tit presses firmly against the first battery’s flat butt. Anyone else notice this?
I opened 4 rusty cans from my LTS food last night. I needed the cans for a science experiment, and I don’t trust the ones with rust. Two were ‘pop top’ black beans, and two were normal cans of collards. In all cases the cans were still holding vacuum, despite the rusted edges. Looking inside the cans though, in one case you could see discoloration where the rust was almost through the can. They’d all still have been good to eat, but I’m not taking chances when I don’t have to.
Also, when cleaning some of the cans, I found a swollen can. It was pineapple and about 5 years old. I threw that away. Two pop top campbells soup cans were soft to the touch, ie. not holding vac. Those went into the trash too. Visible rust on the cans. Due to modern cost cutting, I don’t think we can count on cans lasting as long as they used too. Take that into consideration.
My storage area and conditions leave a LOT to be desired. Clearly not the proverbial cool, dry place. Still, I hate to see can failures. At one point I swore off cans because of the rust. But in order to get some variety, and save money, I just accept that I will lose cans. Heck, I’ve lost pouches and boxes too.
Make your conditions as good as you can. Cover your cans. Rotate and inspect your stock. Store what you eat, eat what you store.
And stack it high.
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