Monday, April 13, 2015

consuming to invest 19


CONSUMING TO INVEST 19

Grain Grinder

A grain grinder does pay for itself pretty quickly.  Just in whole wheat flour alone, you spend fifty cents a pound in the store ( and, it is already partially rancid.  Not like brown rice which has different oils and really goes “off”, but with old wheat flour, if nothing else, you’ve lost vitamins ), and that is the cheap stuff.  Sometimes you are spending seventy-five cents a pound.  The feed store sells whole wheat kernels for twenty-five cents a pound ( they were thirty-I was pleasantly surprised to see a decrease.  This was January 2015, so if you read this down the road and wheat is a lot more, don’t get pissy with me ).  Half the price, and much healthier.  It might take a year or two to pay for itself, but it does.  And, a very helpful post-apocalypse tool it does make ( have more than one ).  Considering today’s transportation and smelting ( and mining ) costs, a $40 grinder is not a bad deal.  Sure, it is twice as much as it was five years ago.  But so is everything else, except your salary.  Still need incentive to invest now, before prices double again?  And what was that you say?  The “fracking gas/oil miracle of national energy independence” didn’t keep product prices from doubling?  How could that possibly be?  Oh, my, a paradigm shift!  I believe I’m getting a case of the vapors!  Ready to accept resource depletion for real, yet?

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If you have a baby, a grinder also helps with that rice cereal.  You know, the crap in the box that sits on the shelf for years?  Granted, no oils to go rancid or vitamins to lose, since it is white rice.  But you can save plenty by making your own.  I don’t know anyone who is so in love with themselves that they can’t drink regular generic coffee out of the can ( perking really increases the flavor, with a french press a close second ), but if you are some spoiled rich puke, you can always grind your own coffee beans with a grain grinder.  Also, legumes.  Grind, then boil the paste.  Refried beans without all day boiling.  Just remember what we talked about last year.  There is something in beans that protect it against raw digestion ( so birds crap it out and the plant spreads ).  You can’t, as I once believed, just add boiling water to the paste.  You must cook it for a bit.  It just won’t be an hour or two or longer like whole beans.  And older beans won’t cook up whole at all.  So there the paste comes in handy.  Also keep in mind the limitations of the cheaper Mexican grinders ( look around the upper right corner of Bison Prepper Blospot dotcom for a graphic link to Amazon for the grinder ).  They are made for corn.  For wheat, you must grind three times.  First on a course setting-plates far apart-then on a medium and then fine ( plates close but not touching ). 

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CONSUMING TO INVEST 20

Thermos

A Thermos is a great way to cut back on cooking times ( it is the same principle as a hay box cooker but for small portions ).  All a hay box cooker is is a crock pot without electricity.  You boil food for five or ten minutes, put it in the cooker ( the pot surrounded by hay or other insulation inside a larger box or other container ) and then it cooks itself for awhile.  It won’t work on all foods, and since the heat inside does dissipate even if very slowly, too long inside will spoil the food.  For instance, I would trust boiling up some meat and potatoes in the morning for a stew at lunch, but I would not think it would work for dinner.  From my own experiments, potatoes did not last the entire day to dinner without having a bit of an odor to them.  I didn’t experiment with meat since I don’t own a freezer or refrigerator.  Just be careful as the idea is to save money on cooking fuel, not to waste money on your funeral or hospital stay.  You will need to find a wide mouth stainless steel vacuum insulated thermos.  Good luck finding an affordable one.  Wally had nice $15 Korean ones but dropped those in favor of $25 brand name units. 

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You can also make coffee in a thermos.  Dump in your grounds and boiling water, seal and in ten minutes pour through a filter to get the grounds out.  About the same cost as a French press but without the moving parts to break.  Although it doesn’t clean up as easy.  I can never get all the grounds out-there is always a pesky one or two trapped in the cap or the cavity.  But think of it this way.  A drip coffee maker is $12-$15.  For just ten dollars more you have a food cooker AND a coffee maker which uses no electricity.  Yes, you must have enough patience to wait for your coffee.  A drip maker is one of the fastest ways to get a cup of coffee but it also makes the lousiest tasting one.  One final word on cooking with a thermos.  Set it one its side once the food is in, NOT straight up.  Then, the food cooks through out rather than just its bottom.

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13 comments:

  1. I had a look at the Humbolt county website James (The Winnemucca land that I spoke of previously). I'm sure it's not quite as bad as CA, but there does seem to be a fair amount of regulation. I am wondering, how does one in your situation get around all of the red tape? I'm basically poor, so several thousand dollar septic systems and wells are pretty much out of the question for me.

    To make matters worse, it's all flat, open, treeless land out there, so there is no way to be stealth about any of it, and the eyes in the sky will see all. I know that people haul trailers and the such onto their property. But it doesn't sound as if it's legal other than as a temporary situation?

    Do folks living as you do ever get hassled by the PTB in your parts? Ideally I'd like to haul an old double wide onto my property. Can someone do this in your county without permits?

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    1. I chose Elko over Winn. because of the lack of regulations. Mobile homes need permits and get taxed extra, but a travel trailer is just like parking a car on your land. I was harassed about no approved grey water leech, but got around that by agreeing to haul it into town with my black water to dump. I think a neighbor narced me out on that one. If you live in western Elko county, you only add an hour on to a commute to Winn., if traveling to Cali is a concern. Trailer living here is no prob, it is the septic they worry about ( and tax amount ).

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    2. Thanks James, that was helpful.

      One really does need to do their homework when scouting out an area to live. Wooded areas concern me far less since trees make hiding much easier. But other than that Modoc land, I see no other land in CA, or for the most part, anywhere in the west that is wooded and within my price range.

      Any ideas on what one would expect to pay for a typical septic system out that way?

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    3. Even though here in rural Montana there are NO residential building inspectors or permits a guy recently got a slap on the hand for building a pole barn on his own 40 acres. Why? well the IBC is adopted for cities and towns around here, and the guys property was part of a 'development' that had a 'development association' that had rules about what could be built (must be 'according to code'). Some nosy neighbor complained about the 'eyesore' - became a lawsuit and the barn erector lost the court case.
      My property is straight from the State and has no caveats like a development might - other than the withheld mineral rights. But it still made me determined to get the privacy - I mean wind break - trees up and established ASAP. Hilly terrain helps conceal things a little but there are always some sight lines into a property, trees bushes and ancillary structures are good fall backs. best of all is to have things completely buried or other wise out of sight.

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    4. Septic permit here is $800. I image the backhoe and system are similarly priced everywhere.

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    5. Agreed on the out of site structure Grey. I only hope to excavate, then cover before the "eyes in the sky" spot it.

      The plan was to plant many trees as well, but I also fear that an oasis of green in the desert will be like a big pointer of the "come and get me" variety. No hills in the nevada land I've been seeing in my price range unfortunately.

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  2. I'm a serious coffee drinker and have been for 40+ year, drinking a new one right now. Couple years ago I switched to instant after getting tired of all the non-cost effective swill makers out there and their inherent baggage. I hit Wally yesterday and got (2) of the GV big jars of instant for $5.88 each and a giant jar of the GV dry creamer for $3.98, we already had ample sugar. So about $16+sugar for 2 months of long mud - I drink (4) 12 oz cups a day. Thats $2 a week or 30 cents a day or 8 cents a cup. Beat that with a stick. OK, I will. My "coffee pot" is an anchor hocking glass 1 cup measuring cup, and 2.22 minutes in the nooker and I'm ready. When the powers out I bring the water to boil over my camping single burner propane stove in about 3 mins. Once you switch to instant all other coffee tastes like shit water. My 2.

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  3. BTW, good tip about laying the thermos on it's side, causing the contents to heat more thoroughly. Just make sure that lids on tight.

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  4. I bought a second grain grinder (spent too much and probably won't hold up) as a back up for a cast iron one I had picked up at a yard sale for $5.00 20-25 years ago. When I moved recently I looked at the cast iron one more closely--a Corona! Still plan to buy the one above so I have two good ones. Thanks for your blog.

    NW Senior

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  5. In addition to turning the thermos on its side, you're supposed to rotate it at least once. I have the Aladdin thermos, and while it seems like a quality thermos, it does not keep the contents hot for very long. I researched this once before, and if I recall correctly, the wide mouth thermos weren't the best for this application (even though they're the easiest to get the food into) and the Nissan brand thermos was rated the best.





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    1. I heard the same-wide mouth needed for cooking but doesn't retain heat.

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    2. "I heard the same-wide mouth needed for cooking but doesn't retain heat."

      Correct James. In case I wasn't clear, the article mentioned that the wide mouths were not the best to use for this purpose.

      Personally, I'd probably still go with the wide mouth due to ease of filling. But you would have to place it in some sort of well insulated container or covering. I even have to wrap my Aladdin in a blanket so that it doesn't cool too quick.



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    3. On testing vacuum bottles for insulation power: especially a used one-
      Look for obvious problems: deep dents, broken tip on outside bottom of glass vacuum liner. Dispose of these after clearly marking them. The glass can be smashed and mixed up on your next concrete project with the rocks and broken pottery.
      Boil a kettle of water that will completely fill your insulating bottle. Fill and cap with the boiling water. Make a note of the time and put it with the bottle. In about 5 minutes, feel the outside of the bottle full of 205 degree plus water. It should be dry and room temp or cooler. If it's warm, you don't have a good insulator. It's a liquid container of extra size and weight, and should be donated/disposed of. Assuming nice cool exterior, leave it alone for 24 hours. In 24 hours, open the cap and poke a digit in carefully. It should be too hot to take a bath in (over +60C). Vacuum bottles don't last forever, but they are really useful until then.

      pdxr13

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