Wednesday, October 24, 2018

don't pressure me, bro


DON’T PRESSURE ME, BRO
Don’t I feel all Super Ninja Prepper now!  One more skill set, I successfully after only one minor glitch succeeded in pressure canning.  Super easy, barely an inconvenience.  Now I’m not so sure why I waited lo all these many years before I started.  It sure would have made my off-grid no fridge years a lot easier.  Of course, I did first learn on a pressure cooker, and I’ve seen so many videos and read so much on the process, I guess I was already semi-trained.  That is not to inflate any achievement on my part.
*
Most prepping skills are just like this.  You worry overly much on how complicated and expensive it is going to be, then discover it isn’t all rocket-surgery-like.  It is just having the patience to make the mistakes before you get good enough to proceed, then stick with it until you become a semi-pro.  I’m only a bicycle mechanic ( single speed, NOT geared bikes ) because I continued through feeling like an idiot and having the same thing explained to me over again and again, until it seemed so simple I was confused about the initial fuss.
*
Most people can’t see spending the $85 for a pressure canner.  I bought mine because I’m committed to an initial canning run that the unit amortizes within a month to merely an additional eighty-five cents a jar canned.  It will just get cheaper from there.  I’m sure you all remember my comments on turning cash savings into food.  I have always been concerned about cash sitting around waiting for our inevitable Zimbabwe Moment of hyper-inflation.  Yet, if I didn’t have year’s worth of living expenses saved, I wouldn’t feel confident or relaxed in my self-employed role of World Greatest Non-Fiction Writer.
*
Yeah, I don’t know if I can ever claim I’ll be a marginal or even good fiction writer.  It is easy enough in principle, even if I was late learning of those principles ( goal, conflict thwarting goal, overcoming each thwart, resolution.  In principle, easy ).  In practice?  Anything you practice enough you get better at, plus there is the Thousand Monkey’s Writing Shakespeare theory.  But while fiction is actually better for our brains to grasp as life lessons, the whole Show Don’t Tell rule is what has my dander up.  What I can tell you in a thousand words, it takes five to ten thousand to show.
*
Not very economical of my time.  Anyway, back to savings.  I don’t like the savings in cash, because of hyperinflation ( when you do save cash, only save Twenties.  Retailers might have an issue with larger bills, plus they might be Drug War banned like in India.  Although India was trying to stop tax cheaters ), but I know I need some. I don’t like savings in silver, because of its coming inflated value. All indicators tell me that most likely, silver will soar to gold levels of value.  It just might not happen in my lifetime.
*
So, what silver I have, I’m keeping if at all possible.  It is there if needed, but I’ll do everything I can to keep it.  So, it is there for ONLY super duper emergencies.  Not just as a store of purchasing power.  But since I’m mostly going to be grocery shopping if the writing income stops, if I have food stored I can worry 90% less about stored money.  If the economy ( well, WHEN, not “if”, but you take my meaning.  IF it happens in my lifetime, estimated to be for five to fifteen more years ) goes to complete crap and my income drops to effectively zero, I raid the savings.
*
And since I’ll be living back out at the B-POD when that happens, I’m back to food, propane and bike parts as most of my expenses.  Food is 90% of that.  If I have 90% of my food in storage savings, only needing to buy potatoes and cabbage and the occasional piece of meat, that means I can relax a little on the feasibility of my savings being adequate.  Right now, I’m covered. I want to have a back-up to my back-up of being covered.
*
You can easily be prepped.  It is much more difficult to be Better Prepped, longer.  Well, not difficult.  Time and resource consuming.  Don’t get me wrong.  Extra food storage has its own issues.  Like mobility.  And theft.  They are just LESS negative issues than storing money to buy food.  I have more than enough food to eat now, grid up, for six months.  I have post-collapse food in excess of six or seven years, just in wheat.  What I want to do is stretch out that initial six months to a year and a half.
*
For that, I need canned meat.  I would of course prefer metal canned meat, but what the supermarket sells is nitrate stuffed crap.  What I can buy at mail order is a great deal compared to freeze dried, but still NOT on the all that cheap side.  So, glass canned meat is the best I can do right now.  However.  I’ve noticed a perceptible lessening of meat sales.  You can still get cuts of meat through Kroger’s that are nipple tingling awesome, but they now seem to be occurring monthly rather than weekly. Rut Row, Scooby!
*
Not that I am REALLY concerned.  I can still stock the heck up on chicken with the occasional pork ass thrown in ( the way I cook the pork, it tastes divine.  Butter and sauce in first thing, medium heat in a covered skillet for a half hour.  Only stir two or three times. It makes $1 pork taste like $3/$4 pork ).  I just don’t like chicken.  It isn’t “stick to the ribs” like beef.  Well, nothing is like beef.  But at least pork is closer than chicken.  So, the days of below cost meat is probably almost over.
*
If I started canning today, at six quarts a day ( what the canner holds ), in two months I could have my year’s worth of meat, and in my estimation at a cost of about $500 in meat cost.  Almost doubling that figure with the jars and the canner cost itself thrown in.  But I think I have a much better way to proceed.  I’ll cover that tomorrow.  Hint-butter.  I know it isn’t technically an animal protein.  All that and more, tomorrow.
( .Y. )
( today's related link https://amzn.to/2NK0DdT )
*
note: free books.  Zombie https://amzn.to/2Jf0Nte .  Another https://amzn.to/2JcADHo .  Here is a non-fiction one, death of democracy in America.  Not sure if it is a leftist spew or a catalog of dysfunction https://amzn.to/2q6pS0E .
*
Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page ( or from www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle books, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file. If you want them on a CD-ROM, go here for the info http://bisonprepper.com/3.html .  If you donated, you may request books no charge.  
*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.
*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there



28 comments:

  1. From the comments the other day:

    https://bisonprepper.blogspot.com/2018/10/barter-talk-2-of-2.html?m=1#comment-form

    “Silver experiment, if anyone has any advice or experience with this, please speak up...
    My idea is to take a generic, one-ounce silver round, and pound it with a hammer to make it into the size of a sheet of notebook paper to maximize the surface area of the ounce. I would then coil it up (think the sideways view of a snail shell) and place it inside my wide-mouth Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottle.”


    I’d stick with the SODIS method, peace out. Have a few clear glass jars on hand, and still pre-filter through cloth as you had intended. This method will work whenever the sun shines, which in some areas, is quite a few days of the year.

    Another trick to try, is to take two of those large glass jugs (That wine, and sometimes fruit juice come in). Place them both on their side, mouth to mouth (sealed with tape or something) water to be purified in one, and the other, an empty vessel to receive the purified water. Cover over the clean empty jug with earth. This is just another form of distillation, which is as pure as it gets, and a variation of the solar still.

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sodis+water+purification&t=lm&atb=v78-4_b&ia=web

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the reminder on the simple still method.

      Delete
  2. re:
    BUTTER!

    I know, I know. A lot of folks think I'm some sort of flavor investigator, with my years of growing-up on a farm surrounded by grandmothers and aunts and all the rest of my extended family.

    And I admit to owning a restaurant for ten years.

    But, hey. What about that elusive 'mouth feel'? That sensation of satisfying wonderous nodding "Oh, yeah..."

    Might I be so bold to suggest pastured cows. Grass-fed. Outdoors eating the food they recognize as food.

    Butter is rich in vitamin K2, so essential to strong bodies. And hearts. And == this should perk the interest of future zombies == vitamin K2 builds and maintains powerful brains.

    Kerrygold offers their version of herbed with garlic. I get it by the cube for US$1.99 at NaturalGrocers in Eugene, Oregon.

    During the meandering stroll between the checkout and the truck, some of that cube needs sampling. Just to be on the safe side.

    And on the ride home, I admit to a few more nibbles. Smiling. Yes.

    [sighs in mystical self-transcendence]

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim, check out: "Pleasant Hills Grain". (Food and equipment company) they have canned butter, cheese, ghee, etc. Grains and all other stuff. Some pricey but good folks and quality. Minion approved!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 50% + on Wally buckets of wheat. Not bad for one bucket, but years worth?

      Delete
    2. If a minion gets a windfall, inheritance, sells a comic book collection, etc. Then he or she may make those yuppie buys where a freight truck drops pallets at their B-pod and 'boom', all prepped up.

      Delete
    3. I'm still waiting for that CIA contract to bribe me and use my evil genius brain for the emperors benefit. Payable up front in gold. I sometimes wonder if the other Yuppie Scum Guru's didn't get similar deals to spread disinformation ( the bankers love prepping by credit card, and large concrete bunkers that show up on drone views ).

      Delete
    4. Would you rather lose outright, or maybe win?
      Yeah, me too.
      I have a Mega lottery ticket over there and haven't looked up the numbers yet, the thing was held last night.
      So I COULD be a millionaire right now. But probably not, according to the odds of winning.

      If I look at the numbers and didn't win anything I will feel bad. But if I just let that ticket lay where it is, forever, I can go about my business languishing on the thought that I MIGHT be a millionaire! YAYYY!!!

      Simple pleasures are magnified out here in the sticks even if they're delusional.

      Delete
    5. I can't remember the exact number, but state lotto's are something like thirty times WORSE odds than the Nevada casino's. And you are almost always a loser at the casino.

      Delete
  4. Canning should be a kitchen sister to the shooting brother called reloading. There is a bit of initial investment, but costs per unit goes down, as well as broadening your capabilities in that area. I would can way more on the meat side then on side dish ingredients. Tool up into the butchering and an improvised processing area. Having some items such: good multiples of knives, saws, grinders, processing equipment, etc and a basic facility or plan will beat out the grocer middleman as opportunities arise. (Not a whole cow, but deer, sheep, goats, dogs, fowl, etc) When yuppie tourists hit a deer on the highway and stand around bewildered, grab it, it's meat! Store meat is already old and colored up as partly franken food. The stores and meat counter will be closed, "long time, G.I." plan around that accordingly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also, carry around a bucket and shovel in your trunk. Granny Clampett any stray possums and armadillos.

      Delete
    2. It seems hard to believe, but I read somewhere that it’s illegal in many areas to pick up road kill.

      That would be like someone throwing Rosie O’Dumbbell down into the roadway to stop a runaway bus. Technically, it would be illegal, but for the life of me I can’t imagine why :D

      Delete
    3. Roadkill=less profits to Big Ag. Also, road kill users probably ate the squirrel brains, are insane, and will go all Waco if The Man tries to take away his "self-sustainable" protein source ( you know, because cars are so sustainable ).

      Delete
    4. If you grab a roadkill deer around there parts without paying the ransom you might end up in the slammer. Even if you shoot a deer on your own property the law says you have to pay that ransom, and it will be expensive if you do it at the wrong time of the year. Most of the people I know ignore the tyrants in that regard and rightly so.

      Delete
    5. But it's for the ( deer ) children!

      Delete
  5. Can some meats or hearty meat meals in the smaller pint sized jars as well. Can be later taken or re packaged as patrol or lookout post rations. When a minion is skinny down in size from the coming famine rationing it won't take as much to fill the collapsed tummy behind the protruding rib cage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And, you usually find the pint rather than quart size jars at the thrift store. I just wish I could find a bulk source for lids. They are a quarter/30cents each in the groceries.

      Delete
    2. Not familiar with the "tattler" reusable lids, but the yuppie preppers up in rawlesland refer to them. Maybe cost mitigating if you can get half a dozen uses or so out of them.

      Delete
    3. Last night we had, in part, a can of the Keystone Beef from Walmart. https://keystonemeats.com/canned-meats/all-natural-beef/

      Not bad at all. $7.74 for a 28oz can. It has a flavoring to it but it was pleasant. Even my picky wife liked it and told me to pick up a few more cans.

      Didn't have any gristle or fat or any other nefarious things in it, it was all edible. I didn't dress it up neither. Just heated it up in the pan, then scooped it over top of some boiled carrots and potatoes, over top of a sheet of wheat bread slathered with budda. Mmmm, nom, nom, nom....

      We called it Beef Manhattan and envisioned ourselves dining in the penthouse suite on 5th Av. while watching an epi of Zane Gray Theater.

      Delete
    4. Damn, I forgot about that the last time I went to Wally. I was actually surprised so many of their food prices came down.

      Delete
    5. 12:57-those reusable lids seemed like bad odds to me, the number of failures eating into the savings pretty much where it was a wash using disposables or not.

      Delete
  6. I can't remember where I read it but if you buy lids by the case the price becomes reasonable. Of course you have something like 2000-4000 lids but what the hay.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ok I went online and looked. The best deal I found was Fillmore container generic (made by Ball) in sleeves of 288 for about .21 each. These are wide mouth ones. I remembered them being something like .15 ea when bought in case lots which seems to be 6 sleeves of 288 for a total of 1728 lids I could not find that price but that was from a few years ago anyway.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great price for bulk stocking for after the collapse. Source? Right now I'm buying new jars with lids. My odds and ends jars I get at the thrift store don't make it worth buying bulk. Thanks.

      Delete
  8. You can also stretch your protein. Tuna and oatmeal for example. One envelope of tuna (mylar packed for your storage convenience !) with half a cup of COOKED oatmeal makes a pretty good size meal. Low tech - low cost. It has possibilities.

    Then there is eating insects, but not many people are willing to go there - yet.

    Bon apetit !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try to always combo your carbs and protein. More Stick To The Ribs. For insects, boil the little bastards and then skim the fat off the top of the water, leaving the carcasses behind. More yummy.

      Delete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED