Texan with a cold forge and silent anvil here to lurk and learn

[pnut]

Eggs if dipped in mineral oil will last for about a year if kept in a dark spot that doesn't get too hot. In the winter it's not a concern but it's a good way to keep eggs fresh in the summer if you have a power outage that looks like it might last a while. 

Pnut

[arkie]

Unfortunately, the next immediate crisis facing the folks in Texas is the repair and recovery phase. Even though there are many reputable repair and replacement people/companies out there, there will be the scam artists within the plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers, restoration, loan sharks and other "services". They are the scum of the earth taking advantage of people in crisis. My personal opinion on price gouging laws, is that they are either not persued or enforced fully enough.

[Glenn]

Do not let this turn political.  If you do not like the laws, elect new officials.

[JHCC]

My brother in Houston had four water pipes burst in the cold. I've told him to send me the pieces; if he does, I'll make a pair of roses for him and his wife and send them back.

[ThomasPowers]

Here in NM having a 40# sack of dried pinto beans on hand is just normal for a lot of people.

I've been in situations where I had to eat the same stuff for a long while; I found that if you simple wait till you start thinking that the 20th straight meal of XYZ sounds *good* to you; it's not so much an issue.  Hunger does make the best sauce!

Kerosene lamps with a mantle provide massive amounts of like, the ones without provide light to get around and work but I have trouble reading with them.  

Camping gear *IS* survival gear.  Woodstoves are banned in many places; but your camping stove on the apartment balcony can still make you the envy of your neighbors.  Also have some pots suitable for cooking on your propane grill if you have one and an extra tank of propane.

[Frosty]

On 2/20/2021 at 9:14 PM, SLAG said:

When at home, during such difficult times,  you can always order in or make reservations.

You don't have to suggest that Slag. Deb has ordering me to do things down nicely thank you.

A large selection of spices will turn a 40lb. sack of beans into a huge variety of different meals, I like having navy and red beans on hand too. A little canned bacon or ham and you're golden for quite a while.

Don't forget to read the directions on canned meat, canned bacon and ham really need to be rinsed in boiling water to remove the super salty lard they're packed in. 

Dry soup mixes are excellent pantry stocks.

I like to buy by cans the case and put the newest case on the bottom of the pile, when we open it I get another. Most of our canned goods are ingredients: cream of mushroom soup makes an instant casserole from almost anything, tomatoes, stewed, sauce, paste, spicy are a plethora of tasty meals. Tomato and pea soup are regular sides, especially with grilled sandwiches. Refried beans are good all round. Enchilada sauce is a serious multi tasker, try putting a couple chicken breasts on onion slices in a small cake pan and cover it with enchilada sauce. 25-30 minutes in a 350-327 oven and you're feasting. The onion lets the sauce flow under the breasts and keeps them from sticking. 

We have a whole shelf of pasta. You should see people's expression when I serve Mexican lasagna. Of course flour tortilla pasta marinara is a winner too. 

Staples and spices will make long term isolation better than bearable. Been snowed in for a couple weeks a time or two back when. I kept a big pot of hot stuff on the heat stove for folk stopping in, the cabin was just off the trail to the RR tracks and main trail to the closest town. Got so folks would donate something for the hot stuff on their way home from town. 

Ahh, good memories of the cabin packed with folks eating a bowl of hot stuff and fresh sour dough biscuits warming up for the next leg to the back lake. A platter with a mound of silver dollar sourdough hot cakes in the middle of the table and folks eating them finger food fashion with topping applied as they took one. 

Great times.

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

Jer

The "make reservations" was a 'joke'.

Not a very good one.

sorry,

Dan.

I have to get to my first morning coffee. Back at you after I regain consciousness.

Dan.

Some of your latest post looks better in a P. M. 

[ThomasPowers]

With a lot of us folks "have reservations" sometimes serious or grave ones!

[BillyBones]

If space is available outside you can dig a hole, insert a trash can fill with straw and potatoes (or other root veg) replace lid and put a little dirt on top. You just made a mini root cellar. Just enough dirt so that the lid stays shaded in the summer and aint to hard to get back into. I know not real practical but if you are need of freeing up some space inside...

...speaking of space, i know most of us here are home owners but there are those of us who are apartment dwellers. You need to think outside the box as to where to put your box. There is loads of wasted space in every dwelling. Under the bed is good storage, but how about moving the bed about 6" from the wall and building a small cabinet that can slide out? If you have a bookshelf style head board there is a bunch of space under that. Look everywhere for wasted space then think how you can use that space. 

Pinto beans if soaked in water over night then spread out on a cookie sheet in a sunny spot with just a little water will sprout in a day or 2. A few been sprouts can break up the monotony some and are quite good for you. 

One other thing i learnt the hard way. I put away some bisquick. Took it out, vacuum sealed it and into the bucket it went. One day i went to get some to make some drop biscuits, i had no directions. Cut the directions off of stuff like that and put in with the stored goods.  

I built storage racks kind of like the ones for pop cans to store my canned goods in. The new ones go into the top and the ones i use that day come out of the bottom. 

If buying canned goods for storage do not buy the dented cans that they will put on sale. That dent could have broken the seal on the can. It may be fine to use in a day or 2 but you take the chance of spoilage or leaking in long term storage. A leaking can of something highly acidic can ruin cans that they leak on. 

Keep a couple bags of charcoal on hand, yeah i know you guys that fire your forge with will say i got plenty, but there are some of us whose main purpose for charcoal is a rack of ribs. Charcoal is great for removing impurities. It can also be used medicinally. It will relieve gas and stomach upset but most importantly in a survival situation it will relive diarrhea and vomiting.  Both of which can be quite deadly. It is also used to counteract drug overdoses and poisoning. Keep in mind though that charcoal will absorb the drug or poison. So it will also absorb any medications you are taking. DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE INGESTING CHARCOAL or any other compound for that matter. I am not a trained medical person do not take my word for it.  

Water gets boring, grab some of the pre mix kool-aid, tang, instant iced tea, lemonade, etc. It will store for quite a while. 

And for keeping yourself sane, get some books, cards, board games, etc. The TV dont work and there aint no internet with the power out. 

[Will-I-am]

Cool advice folks.  Since I am not lucky enough to have a drilled well for water, a water filter is super important.  You can go for a while without food but water is different.  Dirty water will kill you quick, but charcoal will help recovery.  Two 5 clean gallon buckets stacked with a $100 fancy filter is a good survival investment.  If the power was out for an extended period and the city water pump fails then I could hike down to the lake fill 2x 5 gallon water carriers (balanced load) and then add to filter setup.  With clean water one can think clearly to hunt, scavenge or cook survival food.  Collodial silver is a good survival medicine.  Some complete gravity water filters can be had for $250 and they would be worth it.  Alexipure is one company.  Solar panel and battery are nice too for light.  Hopefully rolling blackouts wont spread to the rest of the us.

[arkie]

Frosty, if you keep posting about all that fantastic, delicious food that you're cooking up, I may just have to come up there and eat you out of house and home!!! LOL

[Daswulf]

Will, for the bucket filter system the ceramic dome filters work and are fairly inexpensive. I understand that you get what you pay for but for those on a budget the ceramic dome filters work well. 

For added safety boil the water as well. That should be a given but...ya never know.

[Leather Bill]

Hey arkie,wait til I put shoes on and grab my hat,I'll go with you.  I've explored all four corners and I've seen the elephant,all that's left is seeing Frosty's moose before I die. 

[pnut]

16 hours ago, BillyBones said:

Cut the directions off of stuff like that and put in with the stored goods.  

Learned that lesson the hard way. I store all dry ingredients in containers as soon as I open them. I've found weevils in my pancake mix one too many times over the years but it did take learning the hard way to start putting directions in the containers.

Pnut 

 

 

[Leather Bill]

Weevils in stored grain products is common.  I would like to see weevil infest flower put into vacuum sealed bag to see if they survive vacuum .   Point is whether vac sealing would prevent infestation.  Having said that,I've eat alot of bread made from flower after weevils had been sifted out. 

[BillyBones]

I think my roses are weevil free. And i have not seen any on the geraniums either, the peonies do get ants but i am pretty sure no weevils.  (sorry we love a good type-o)

 We always had to sift flour for weevils. Aint seen any in a long time though. I  am not sure about vacuum sealing but i knw they will survive the refrigerator. When me and the exwife were still married she was really into baking breads and the like. I did not know there were that many different kinds of flour. But i noticed that the more expensive the flour, and yes some are quite pricey, were more prone to get weevils that the cheap old Gold Medal flour. 

Just always remember to chose the lesser of 2 weevils. 

[Leather Bill]

 I know what you mean Bones.  I worked with a gal that pronounced the Gold Medal kind same as most pronounce both but the sweet smelling kind "flyers"and I always got a chuckle.   I think highly processed flours have non or less weevils than "organic" flour.  Maybe Frosty will shed light on how they compare for sour dough.  I'm betting he prefer's organic but I'm courous if he prefer's flour with or without the weevils.                                                               Proof all my writings and you are sure to find plenty. One would think double vision would act like spell check but it doesn't.

[Frosty]

On 2/21/2021 at 1:02 PM, SLAG said:

The "make reservations" was a 'joke'. Not a very good one.

I have to get to my first morning coffee. Back at you after I regain consciousness.

No, it was a good enough joke to play along with and before your morning coffee. I'm impressed.

I never noticed a difference in flour where sourdough was concerned, Bill. I haven't done any sourdough cooking in a long time though, maybe the new bleached flour is different.

I don't think I have any weevil experience either then again nobody probably mentions baking with weevils, so maybe.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

Old joke about hillbillies.

That thing on your car is a "tower" that thing up on the hill is a radio "tire", so we cut grass with "pire mire's" 

Works better if you actually hear the words pronounced. 

Like ganny said that bread baking stuff was "fla-ur" and the smelly good things were "flares" 

[ThomasPowers]

If it weren't for weevils no old salt could have eated the hardtack!

[Scott NC]

Protein.  Throw in some barrels of salted citrus for scurvey.  I war in the Navy!

[ThomasPowers]

Sour kraut is also an antiscorbutic: cheap, easy to make and stored well in Northern Europe.  Side effects include early research in gas burner technology.

[Scott NC]

  Inefficent, yet effective at relieving bloating.  

[SLAG]

Messrs. T.P., and Nodebt,

A lack of vitamin c causes the serious disease called scurvy.

An antiscorbutic is an agent (supplement, or "drug") that prevents scurvy. (for example vitamin C).

Vitamin C's chemical name is ascorbic acid.

Lemons and limes have great amounts of the vitamin. Sauer Kraut is loaded with it. And rose hips have even more.

English sailors were given a lime ration starting in the late eighteenth century. (1795), And they got to be called "limeys' because of that.

During the second world war, England used rosehips to supplement the citizens diet. Especially children.

Just sayyin'

SLAG.

p.s. has anybody on the site tried freezing the flour after pumping in some carbon dioxide, or carbon dioxide plus argon into the container? That is the gas used for MIG welding.

[Scott NC]

   I will have to look up rose hips.   Did you know the tiny segments that make up citrus are called vesicles?  I bought a cabbage at the store today to try some sauerkraut, but with all the stuff they spray on it, I'm not sure there's any bacteria on it to get it to fermenting.  I've made it with heads from our own garden.   I almost asked about it on Vulcans Grill sauerkraut thread but figure I will find out on my own.   Sailors eat pretty good these days, I think.