Monday, July 14, 2014

misc. #43

MISC. #43

I might talk a lot about Kroger’s verses Wal-Mart, but believe me I am not happy going shopping. This is just one of those pesky details one must keep up on. Once a month, sometimes less in the winter if the roads are bad, I rent a car to go in to go grocery shopping. Yes, I can and have done this exclusively on my bicycle, but I can’t tote bags of wheat or bulky items ( like a big trash can- I’m going to start a new composting project as soon as I can dig without passing out from the heat and once I make that dreaded lumber run in a U-Haul. The hole is already mostly done but right now with our heat wave even 6 AM is too hot and worse yet an unprecedented humid ) in a three gallon basket. Renting a car is one of those budget items filed under luxury. I can drop it as soon as needed or desired. Hell, even going into town once a month isn’t worth the one restaurant meal a month I allow myself. One after another places are getting more expensive and/or substituting something or other in place of real food. I feel like I’m eating in Haiti at a roadside stand selling mud pies.

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Anyway, despite relegating Wal-Mart down to the bottom of the shopping pile, the place I spend the least, I still feel violated shopping there. I checked on DVD movies on my way to the food and The Walking Dead was priced at an incredible DOUBLE ( $42 verses $23, third season ) what I paid at Amazon for a new copy. And when I got to the coffee, I was stunned and shocked. Master Chef had gone up in price. All the last coffee crop failure it had stayed at $5.28. Now, at the very rumored start of the new one it had gone to $5.68. I don’t know if this is an indicator of price hikes everywhere or it is just Wally humping us again. I guess I’m just buying Kroger’s “Psst” brand coffee, still at $5.29. It doesn’t taste as good, but I’ll persevere.

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And on the subject of coffee, French Press coffee makers. I love them for the simplicity and energy savings and ease of clean-up ( important when water is conserved ) but I’m getting tired of buying new ones. The “shatter proof” ones have easily broken plastic pieces and the glass ones break too easy. I just busted up another one ( think about it. You are on the way to making coffee, meaning you haven’t had any yet, meaning you are half asleep and clumsy ). I’m devolving back to the vacuum thermoses and reusable filters in a trash picked drip basket.

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I don’t know how long it will last but Kroger bags of flour are at $1.49. I had already gone to the other end of town and didn’t feel like doubling back, so I just bought white flour instead of wheat kernels at the feed store. I try not to do that too often. Flour, for the same weight, takes extra storage space. I can fit 100 pounds of berries in three five-gallon buckets with room to spare for a smidge more. With flour, I have an extra ten pounds left over I can’t fit in. Very irritating.

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And speaking of “The Walking Dead”, as soon as I get done paying $50 for three seasons on DVD, I see an ad that the series is coming to broadcast TV this fall. MyTV is the station. Granted, NOT watching ads is worth something, as is watching in the order you pick. But still. I feel this was directed at me personally.

END

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21 comments:

  1. buying flour makes more sense to me...less wear and tear on the grinder and your arm.Buy pancake mix,or bisquick instead

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flour is fine, but you can't eat on just that. Half and half with kernals for healthier eating. Doesn't bisquik have oil? Flour lasts forever, not sure about the pancake mix.

      Delete
    2. no clue about oil in bisquick.The list claims beef fat/lard,but it must be a powder...But it has to taste better than your microwave bread gruel.

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    3. Dude, my ASS tastes better than nuke bread.

      Delete
    4. Bisquick has a shelf life of about one year. After that the baking powder goes defunct.

      I had some old bisquick that I was able to salvage by just adding in new baking powder.

      For long term storage, store baking SODA and cream of target. Mix together right before use to make your own baking powder. For every 1 tsp of baking powder needed, use 1/2 tsp cream of tarter and 1/4 tsp of baking soda.

      Idaho Homesteader

      Delete
  2. Quit whining about FORTY measly cents!

    I'll send you 5 bucks to make up the price difference for ten cans, OK?

    How long will ten cans last you?

    YKW
    MM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ten cans, being careful, a year. I can afford forty cents, but not if it is going to asswhore Wal-Mart

      Delete
  3. I found 6 wish lists for James Dakin at amazon. Which one is yours?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a merchandise, a kindle, one just for books, one for music

      Delete
  4. Mr. Bison Amazing Hair Man,

    I was wondering something. I have taken your advice and purchased some bayonnet style LED bulbs/bases for making my own 12V light sources ..... How long have your bulbs lasted? I see broad ranges of reliability on the comments section and am just wondering.

    C in KS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. About five years now for the original, 3 or 4 years for the improved brighter ones. The only failure was one that got in the way of a leak. I'd buy with confidence- but always have back-up just in case.

      Delete
  5. Bisquit has oil in it (hence you only need to add water). I've seen recipes online for making your own bisquick (basically, you put all the dry ingredients with it plus oils in it) .... recipes geared towards people who want to control ingredients, quality, organic nature, and preppers (i.e., once the SHTF, make big quanities of homemade bisquick once per month so you can quickly make easy breakfasts/etc. without using a lot of precious time making everything from scratch everyday).

    C in KS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm thinking it would save on heat, more valuable than time

      Delete
  6. They do make all stainless steel french presses ..... I love my regular one for iced coffee, and have been thinking a sturdier steel one would be nice for longer term ....

    $26 at Overstock. Didn't price Amazon, which of course, linked through your page would be preferred for all your loyal minions ...

    C in ks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All minions who don't wish to lose their "loyal" status.

      Delete
  7. Probably the simplest of all composting setups James, is the one detailed by Kurt Saxon in his tire garden article.

    Find some tires of all the same width. Cut out the side walls, same as with the tire garden. Stack them one a top another, and fill them with your composting material. When you wish to turn the mixture, you remove the top tire, place it off to the side, shovel the top most layer of compost into that tire, stack the next tire a top the first one, and so on.

    Extra precautions must be taken with humanure. The internal temperature of the bins must reach a certain temperature, and maintain that temperature for a certain interval (I don't have it in front of me, but I believe that it's at least two weeks at 180 degrees? But this must be confirmed) in order for all harmful pathogens to be killed. Probably not worth the risk to me, but many have had good success with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm going underground to counter the winter cold

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    2. It is actuall 160 to kill the human pathogens for a couple of hours. You might want larger tires to get up to that point, or , better , just let it sit more than a year - that pretty much gets rid of everything AND if you only put in it what comes out of you there is no way you could be putting back in you what didn't come out (aka no sick strangers to use your composting toilet- that's going to be our rule.
      Finally use it to fertilize only food crops maybe fertilize the fallow fields that your are just going to turn over in a year or two.

      Delete
    3. Mass graves make good soil for eventual use. Just wait out the pathogens

      Delete
  8. I use Nissan French Press, stainless, and insulated, solid so far 3 years.

    ReplyDelete

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