Damp and cooler, but getting hot later. It was 94F in the shade by late afternoon yesterday. Then it rained, just enough to mess me up. I’m hoping for dry today. Got lots to do.
So yesterday, of all the things that need doing, I chose to attack the food shelves that had been despoiled by the rats, and the possum, and the exploding peach cans. Joy. Just moving all the cans to milk crates took a while, and I haven’t cleaned them yet. Threw out a couple dozen. Mostly peaches, but also some other failures due to rust or acidity. A case of tomato paste. A case of tomato puree. A half dozen condensed milks. Some random veg. There might be more as I clean them and restock the shelves. I know I’ll have ‘breakage’ due to my extremely bad storage conditions, so it’s just part of the cost, but it sucks to have it all at once and for it to mess up other cans too.
I moved 6 months, one meal a day for 2 adults and 2 kids to milk crates. It’s my minimum, my version of RBT’s “iron rations.” One can meat, one can veg, rice. Of course I have more, breakfast and more canned and dry food, but 6 months fits in 12 milk crates. Stacks really well too. Plus the buckets for the rice, one bucket per month. 32 cans per crate. Roughly the same for meat. There is a bit more variation in the size of the meat cans. So two milk crates and a bucket will feed you a nutritious meal a day for a month. You and your family. You won’t get fat, but you won’t starve either. Add a bucket of flour or tortilla mix, and a crate of soup cans and you get two meals a day. The cans leave a bit of room at the top of the crate that could be filled with oatmeal in bags, or repackaged pancake mix too.
It’s all very compact for storage and isn’t crazy expensive.
For box meals, retort pouch meat, and mixes I’m still using shallow tubs with lids but you could pack that into either buckets or milk crates too. I just find it easier to treat the tubs as ‘drawers’ and have access to the contents without un-stacking a bunch of stuff. And for day to day, I’ve got the cans in FIFO racks. Those racks were FILTHY from the burst cans, and the rodents. I ended up pressure washing them, using a scrub brush and clorox cleaner on the shelves, and then pressure washing again..
Lessons learned, fruit in cans is not a super long term storage item. Fruit in the cheapest Hill Country Farms cans is REALLY not a long term item. Rust is the enemy of cans. The FIFO racks are very hard to clean and keep clean. From now on, I’ll be putting a waste paper basket trash can liner over each bucket in storage. The lids get filthy and opening a gamma seal lid is a 20 minute ordeal of cleaning before opening to be sure you don’t drop cr@p in and contaminate your dry food. Clear plastic liners over the buckets should help tremendously. The shallow tubs worked. They protected their contents from cross contamination, and predation, and when a can inside popped, they kept the mess confined to the one tub.
If I was designing a storage/pantry system from scratch, I think I would build it around buckets and milk crates. Each milk crate holds about 32 cans with some space at the top. Mix your veg, beans, and other cans so each crate has a variety of food. Do the same with your canned meat or pouch meat. Fill a bucket with 25 pounds of rice (just shy of 3 cups to the pound, btw, and 200 calories a cup.) Stack a few months worth in the closet. Both buckets and crates stack well. Pull two crates and a bucket at the start of the month, and refill them to rotate back into storage before the month is over. You could decide to skip the rice and add another crate of veg instead. Top off the crates with breakfast food like oatmeal or pancake mix. Add a crate of soup for lunch. Campbells cans are a bit smaller but not enough to get more in a crate. There is more room for breakfast or condiments though.
Compact, sturdy, organized, and moveable if needed. Easy to rotate. Plus you can see at a glance how much time/food you have. Easy to share if you want to. Hand them a bucket and two crates.
—————————————–
Busy day today, I don’t know if I’ll get the remaining shelves cleaned and everything put back. I’ve got pickups, an airport run to do, swim meet this evening, and all the normal domestic bliss… I’m pushing my client into next week when the gear arrives. DirecTV can wait a week for their gear.
Stack some more food. You know you like to eat. And if you don’t, I’m pretty sure you don’t like to starve. Having at least one secure meal a day could make the difference for you and your family.
Nick
4 milk crates, and 2 buckets per month and you are living large.
In the Oslo airport waiting for the Vienna flight. Buying drinks or other small items in the shops beyond security one really has to be careful. Twice I got the sales clerk charging for items I did not purchase. Once was for some unrecognized items, another time was for three 3 drink bottles when I only purchased 2.
Accident or scam? I am leaning towards scam. People are in a hurry for the most part, don’t check the receipt due to the currency differences, or just plain do not understand. Yeh, I am leaning towards scam.
The cost of stuff in the airport is high anyway due to the location. The wife lost her earbuds. So I got her new wireless earbuds that are noise canceling. Sort of like Apple with a charging case. I bought them in one of the duty free shops. The Apple AirPods Pro were almost $100.00 more in the store than in the US based on my quick currency calculations.
I got waylaid by security again with my camera bag. No camera, just sunglasses, chargers, cables, hearing aid supplies and charger, lots of little flashlights. The bag was sidetrack for additional manual inspection and explosives residue testing. It was not a big deal as we had plenty of time.
First post.
People are cheating bastards wherever you go. The PLTs in the FUSA want you to think it is only “Ugly Americans”. After traveling to many spots around the World in the military, I know every country has its crooks and miscreants.
Second post.
More like “We’re all going to be rich!”
That’s what the PHBs see in the tech. Whether or not it will work and the long term implications is not of any concern.
At some point, I need to read how the monkey trick works. About a decade ago, I set out to teach myself CUDA to try some DES hacking, but life always intervenes.
I haven’t flown with my HP48 since 9/11. The calculator would pop the explosives residue sensors in San Francisco every time I flew through that airport, and, what was fun and got a laugh in the 90s would probably land me in a room getting a cavity search today.
I also don’t travel with anything that can’t be easily replaced at low cost if stolen/lost, and the calculator is “EBay Gold” anymore.
Fruit in cans, also tomatos: acidic. The slightest damage to the coating on the interior of the can, and they will eat through it. On the other hand, non-acidic foods in cans are subject to botulism when contaminated. You can’t win…
Slow day here: some student presentations in the morning, and not a lot planned for this afternoon. I could be grading some projects, but probably won’t – it’s not urgent. Sometimes, it’s nice to be bored. I will try to get everything done by the start of July, so I can take 3 weeks or so off…
Another reason to hate the IRS:
Supreme Court Rules That IRS Can Request Bank Account Info Without Notice To Third Parties
There is no due process left in the FUSA. Law enforcement can seize your stuff just by saying they are investigating you. Good luck getting it back. Soon you’ll be arrested for NOT putting your money in a bank where the IRS can take it on a whim. The feds are scared shiteless of crypto-currency. I haven’t even mentioned the IRS is armed and has it’s own SWAT teams.
Most of the universities here are done for the academic year except the Summer classes.
July/August were the only months with decent weather in the Northwest so the CS program there didn’t have any classes in the Summer at the Vantucky branch campus a decade ago. That changed this year, however, since the community college in town applied with the state to offer four year degrees in Computer Science without any protest from the administration at the main campus.
Things that make you say, hmm….
The IRS employees at the big facility here in Austin are just as p*ssed as everyone else about being told that they will have to return to the office five days a week. Cracks are starting to form in the wall.
Everyone in that office fills some kind of hiring quota, the Veteran numbers being most common so my wife hears the complaints.
Unlike private employers with security restrictions, the IRS employees can’t simply set up TeamViewer at the office and “work” from home. The 2021 tax returns weren’t processed in Austin until July/August of last year.
Overcast and damp. Not boiling hot.
Stuff not dry though, even after sitting all night. Still can’t re-shelve everything.
Breakfast in ma belly, coffee in the cup.
n
Peter relates the story of Hannah Duston, who decided that she had had quite enough.
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/an-eye-for-eye-in-early-colonial-times.html?m=1
>> First post.
So…the real reason for your trip is exposed!
🙂
– hey DM your editorial is showing… why else would it be “alarming”?
n
Uh-huh
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/06/08/nyt-those-masks-that-supposedly-worked-against-covid-they-fail-against-even-smoke-particles-n556464
If you tried to have this discussion three years ago, half the population and every level of government considered you a criminal.
Austin still has lots of Good Germans who, if they aren’t wearing the armbands -er- masks, they keep one within arm’s reach in the car and at home, ready for the moment ze old days return, ja.
Big Smile!
Climate Cult Leader John Kerry…
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/06/climate-cult-leader-john-kerry-uses-d-day-analogy-to-shill-for-green-energy-inanity/
missing photo caption:
Kerry describes the effect carbon dioxide had on his privy member, and how therapy returned it to normal size.
Included, when the dispenser is not empty. Happened one time. For charging for bathrooms, the bathrooms are in horrible shape.
The wife and I learned the hard way to carry a package of tissues when outside the USA. The train stations in Japan only take correct change for a packet of TP, there is none in the stalls. I don’t even want to describe the rural train stations where the toilet is just a four inch hole in the ground. Hint, in a pinch, your underwear can be used for wiping and you can go commando after that. Even in a suit.
Also in Japan, some of the streets in Tokyo have public toilets for men. In the middle of the street. There is a swinging door that comes up the waist of the average Japanese man. A 5’2″ man, I am 6’1″. So you are standing there peeing as people walk by.
Germany and France are not much better.
“The food shortages continue…”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-food-shortages-continue.html
“I placed an order with our local butcher last week for a large quantity of brats, made with a South African seasoning recipe. (His rates for a special order like that are very reasonable, less than two-thirds of his normal retail price.) This is a butcher with local access to meat, and an extensive operation: yet, a week after my order, it still isn’t complete, because he can’t get the right mix of meat in stock to grind it all up and make the brats. That’s partly due to private individuals, like my wife and I, placing orders with his supplier for a quarter, or half, or full cow; but it’s also due to local farmers and ranchers having reduced their herds so sharply over the past year (thanks to drought, and feed and fertilizer costs) that the local slaughterhouse can’t get enough meat to handle the demand for it. That’s the first time I’ve known them to be low on stocks. It probably won’t be the last. This summer is likely to see much higher prices for beef than before, and pork and other meats are following right along behind them.”
The real shortages are not here yet. Paying $20 for single cabbage will get your eyes opened as in 2029 in the “The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047” book at the beginning of the Great Great Depression.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandibles-Family-2029-2047-Lionel-Shriver/dp/006232828X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Dadgumit, somebody moved my top review of the book down to the second review.
Arrived in Vienna. Couple of train trips from the airport, then a long walk to the hotel. A small room with a toilet area about the size of the bathroom on a small plane. The other area is a shower and a sink, about the size of an RV show and sink.
No A/C in the room and it is warm and humid. Have two fans, one came with the room, the other begged from the front desk with both moving the air around in the room.
Did a small walk to a local restaurant for some dinner. I realized I had not eaten since breakfast. It was big breakfast with an awesome display of food at the Oslo hotel (Scandic) close to the airport. I guess that held me over.
Wife asked for a Coke on the plane, that cost me $4.00 for a small can. And some grumbling from the flight attendant when the wife asked for ice in the glass.
Good dinner, huge hamburger. I have eaten a lot of German food which is really close to Austrian food. I did not want Schnitzel as I have had that before. A hamburger just sounded good, and it was. No refills on the drinks and sparkling water (wassa mit gas) costs money, just like the coke my wife and I ordered. Fairly large glasses and I emptied both of them as I was thirsty.
Tomorrow we take a train journey to Kaufenberg where the exchange students live to visit the parents again. It will be a good time.
The Chinese now own Smithfield, and I wrote back before the pandemic about the substandard, freezer burned pork we had for Christmas Eve dinner which was purchased “fresh” at Sam’s Club.
Even before shortages, we’ll see the quality decline significantly.
And, yes, I took the uneaten roast back. It is the only way they learn. Since then, we either bought the roast from HEB or, starting in 2021, make deep dish pizza.
Wife asked for a Coke on the plane, that cost me $4.00 for a small can. And some grumbling from the flight attendant when the wife asked for ice in the glass.
The Europeans are really weird about ice in water. And they are really strange about plain old water. Most of the water treatment plants were bombed in WWII and did not get fixed until the 1950s. So they depend on fizzy water for drinkable water.
All the illegals around here line up to pay for bottled water. They just won’t trust the water from the tap.
n
I tell my employees to not drink or make coffee from the tap in my office building. All of the water wells around here were under the river water during Hurricane Harvey for a week or two. I buy ten cases of water a month to drink and make coffee from.
“Dilbert: Robots Read News 06/08/2023 (posted as “ok to share”) – this one is actually pretty funny”
https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/comments/144jgss/robots_read_news_06082023_posted_as_ok_to_share/
I suspect that somewhere in the bowels of the funny shaped building that we have multitudenous plans to invade Canada.
I now have four new Michelin Defender LTX P275/65R18 tires on my 2019 F-150 4×4 for $1,243. I got a screw in the curved area of the back rear passenger side tire last Sunday and Sam’s Club condemned the tire since they call that part of the sidewall. Since the tire was basically worn off in the center, I did not get a warranty. Tires are the downside of driving your truck like you stole it.
Peter relates the story of Hannah Duston, who decided that she had had quite enough.
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/an-eye-for-eye-in-early-colonial-times.html?m=1
Having a rope tied around your neck and being led somewhere really focuses your thoughts. And in 1697, nobody is coming to help you.
“Germany triggers EU investigation into Chinese biofuels”
https://hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2023/06/germany-triggers-eu-investigation-into-chinese-biofuels/
“EU incentives for biodiesel production made with waste oils and fat to increase renewable energy use have caused concerns that companies in Asia are mixing biofuels with cheaper oils and exporting them to Europe.”
“Germany “has asked the Commission to carry out an assessment to determine whether the sustainability criteria and requirements for greenhouse gas reductions … are met for fuels originating in China,” the spokesperson for the German Environment Ministry told Reuters.”
I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that the Chinese would fake their biofuels for cash.
“Canadian Bacon”, the only fiction film Michael Moore directed IIRC.
I can’t recommend the flick in general, but one celebrity cameo is pure genius.
I had the opportunity to meet that person and get an autograph in Portland, but I was being responsible and went to something related to grad school. I should have picked up the autograph.
Today would have been Joan Rivers’ 90th birthday.
Letterman is a legend, but he knew when he was beaten.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hVYLtFbWMEs
I wonder how long it took Dave to stop laughing.
F150 Lightning tires are even more expensive thanks to the added weight of the battery. That doesn’t get a lot of press either.
Tommy Boy has been talking up the “T3” Lightning successor this week. Maybe he should focus on fixing his existing production problems before adding a new nightmare.
Who, precisely, is coming to help us now? Food for thought.
What? Pulled? Clots? I’m shocked. Shocked!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12174791/J-Js-COVID-vaccine-taken-19-MILLION-Americans-pulled-FDA-plummeting-demand.html
J&J was doomed from the start. Since that jab used adenovirus tech and not mRNA, people who took that shot remained part of the control group which Moderna and Pfizer tried to eliminate in the US but failed.
F150 Lightning tires are even more expensive thanks to the added weight of the battery. That doesn’t get a lot of press either.
Tommy Boy has been talking up the “T3” Lightning successor this week. Maybe he should focus on fixing his existing production problems before adding a new nightmare.
A friend of mine just told me that his buddy has a year old King Ranch F-150 Lightning that he was using to pull his 26 foot trailer with a race car and two motors inside it. The battery on his F-150 just failed and Ford wants $31,000 for a new battery.
I would be looking for a lawyer.
We had some anxious moments here at the WinSim office this week. I still have the two original 3.5 ton Trane A/C units here from 2004. They work great when they both work. Monday morning, the south unit was not working. I called out my a/c dude and he found a 3.5 foot water snake wrapped around one of the condenser fan blades. He removed the snake remains but the compressor was hotter than a pistol. He could not get the condenser fan to start so he ordered a new fan motor and fan blade. He comes back the next day with the new fan motor and blades but flips the unit on first to see if the compressor is toast. Everything cranks up and runs like it should now that the snake carcass is gone. He took the fan motor and blades back to the dealer.
King Ranch F-150 Lightning.
Show Ya.
Ford will pick him apart on the battery. Even the home charging station reports in to the mothership, and the truck telemetry probably runs non stop thanks to 5G.
God help him if he was “fast” charging.
My guess is that the Lightnings will all be gone in 10 years, one way or another. Ford has to make replacement batteries “available” for seven years after the sale, but the law doesn’t require them to provide a new battery.
Hyundai owners know the drill, even for IC cars.
>> They clearly built outlook for desktops, never considering that the computer itself would move. That design choice haunted Outlook until at least 12 years ago when I stopped using it.
Iirc, things were better in corporate environments where user data resided on a MS Exchange server.
Breaking…
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/08/politics/trump-indictment-truth-social-classified-documents/index.html
So who else was found to also have classified documents in non-secure locations? those will also face charges, right??
Fair is fair!?
Seems the LSM missed this story yesterday…
https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/7/23752618/cnn-chris-licht-david-zaslav-discovery-cable-news-fox-msnbc-television-news-peter-kafka-on-media
Shocked I am!
Licht had nothing to do with Stephen Colbert’s continued presence on the CBS payroll.
After CBS fired James Corden, they revealed the losses at that hour running $20 million per year, and that was with Carpool Karaoke generating hits on YouTube.
Quick, name a recurring Colbert bit.
See the problem?
Breaking…
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/08/politics/trump-indictment-truth-social-classified-documents/index.html
So who else was found to also have classified documents in non-secure locations? those will also face charges, right??
Fair is fair!?
All is fair in politics and war according to the old saying.
BTW, I am very unhappy about this. Looks like a game of gotcha to me.
Yup, this is definitely a “Show me the man and I will show you the crime” scenario.
https://news.yahoo.com/prosecutors-ready-ask-trump-indictment-193915222.html
>> Standing on concrete in the cold and damp for 5 hours after sweating thru my clothes for 5 hours really took a toll.
@nick, keep one of these in the car. Also handy if you need to change a tire.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/06/08/rep-greene-describes-what-was-in-that-fd-1023-and-bill-barr-contradicts-rep-raskin-n556620
Absent any language in the FBI charter it would seem possible to indict, convict, imprison and strip pensions from every FBI official who hasn’t done his job, which is every one for the last ten years.
They just need to front-end the whole thing with legislation retroactively extending the statue of limitations. After all, if they can do it to priests they can do it to people who have been screwing the country.
“And on June 6, the Dragon 2 fleet’s cumulative time in space surpassed the Space Shuttle fleet’s time with 1,324 total days in orbit!”
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1666538477805248512?cxt=HHwWgIDR4c763aAuAAAA
Wow, that is a non trivial achievement.
Please, tell me again that SpaceX is a flash in the pan.
You know, I am beginning to think that Elon Musk bought twitter just so he could get his tweets out. Even the crazy ones.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1666971942237372418
There is a piece of pie for sale in my neighborhood for $399,900.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/1235-nautical-ln-richmond-tx-77469/9367451?lid=7869122
Not the part that Gwynne Shotwell runs which is Dragon, Falcon, and whatever the company does with the Boeing Goldfinger mini-Shuttle.
Whew. Long day. Home from swimmeet. Kid did ok.
Had a storm blow in just as the meet was starting. Never got rain at the pool, but when I got home there were some branches down.
Phone was down to 3%. I guess it didn’t charge last night. I haven’t had a phone die or even get close in years. Funny how much has changed.
Tired. Need to get to bed early tonight.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12174791/J-Js-COVID-vaccine-taken-19-MILLION-Americans-pulled-FDA-plummeting-demand.html
lot of misteps.
n
Not the part that Gwynne Shotwell runs which is Dragon, Falcon, and whatever the company does with the Boeing Goldfinger mini-Shuttle.
I actually had a person over in a scifi forum tell me that Elon Musk is a waste of good food and that anyone could do his job. I was flabbergasted. Elon Musk has a gift for running businesses and building working products. Never, never, ever discount a person who gets things done. Besides that, Elon Musk is D. D. Harriman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delos_D._Harriman
Musk is not a scientist like Tony Stark. Musk is an engineer who knows how to hire awesome people who can get things done.
“Saudi crown prince threatened ‘major’ economic pain on U.S. amid oil feud”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/saudi-crown-prince-threatened-major-economic-pain-on-us-amid-oil-feud/ar-AA1cjtGB
“Last fall, President Biden vowed to impose “consequences” on Saudi Arabia for its decision to slash oil production amid high energy prices and fast-approaching elections in the United States.”
“In public, the Saudi government defended its actions politely via diplomatic statements. But in private, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman threatened to fundamentally alter the decades-old U.S.-Saudi relationship and impose significant economic costs on the United States if it retaliated against the oil cuts, according to a classified document obtained by The Washington Post.”
“Eight months later, Biden has yet to impose consequences on the Arab country and Mohammed has continued to engage with top U.S. officials, as he did with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the seaside Saudi city of Jiddah this week.”
Biden made a good decision here.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Tough to say in one sentence.
Small hotel room in Vienna in line with most hotel rooms in Europe. No A/C which is also common. We have a fan in the window to get some cooler air in the room. I have not been able to find any air vents in the room so I guess the windows are the only way to allow air in the room.
Breakfast was excellent with a really large variety of food. The hotel brags on being green, solar hot water panels, organic food, all LED lighting, motion detection lights in the hallways. And like most European hotel rooms one has to insert the room key in a slot to turn on the lights.
Today we travel to Kaufenberg to meet the parents of the exchange student. We have met them before when they came to the US over Christmas to visit their daughter. We have also been to Kaufenberg, from what I have been told, was 16 years ago. It does not seem that long ago.
When we were in Kaufenberg the father took us on a tour of the turbine blade stamping plant at which he worked. Huge metal processing place. Huge presses that would shake the substantial concrete floor when they stamped. Chunks of red hot metal that was incredibly hot. Twenty yards away from those pieces and heat was still impressive and it was impossible to get any closer without protection. Hats off to the people that work in that environment.
All the travel going forward is by train. About 8 train trips that are planned, there will probably be a couple of side excursions. Next plane trip is the flight home from Frankfurt to Atlanta. No 1st class time, just Premium Select which is still much better than coach or economy+.
I find it strange that almost all the local news stations in the US will not display their content over here. It does not make much sense. I cannot think of any logical reason why a news station would limit their web presence. People from the US do travel and would like to get local news.
@Ray, so http://www.foxnews.com is blocked?
>> You know, I am beginning to think that Elon Musk bought twitter just so he could get his tweets out. Even the crazy ones.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1666971942237372418
So looks like the ‘auto-delete his crazy tweets’ code is working. @lynn, what was the gist of the tweet?
Those AI robot coders never sleep.