are we crazy

Not enough time to do all the things I want to do.

Am I crazy to want to use my skills of dehydrating and canning, etc towards just reducing my every day costs and getting things done?

Example; cooking and using spaghetti squash. What a pain to cut, cook, and we only use 1/2 a good size squash at a time. Cooking a batch and freezing worked, but didn’t like the quality. Dehydration was the way to go. So right now, have a couple of whole ssquash (with holes poked into the skin) roasting in the solar oven. Then, split, seed, and dehydrate the inners.

It also worked with butternut, although that was done on the oven as did 4 at one time. only 2 squash fit well into the solar oven. But now that I have some stockpiled, just doing 4 at a time keeps the inventory in good shape.

Plan on canning some bacon this weekend and maKing some breakfast sausage which will also be canned. No freezer space required, and when we want/need its done.

My husband will be having some surgeries this year and know haVing foods on hand will make life easier than having to run to the store all the time! And with “supply chain shortages” a real thing now, there’s nothing wrong with having essentials on hand, right? and lets be honest, prices are NOT going to go down appreciatively any time soon. So buy when its on sale or the quality/quantity is available and have it for when its not! Will not be growing spaghetti squash this year, but am trying a good yellow fleshed winter squash along with the usual zucchini. That worked out well last year with zoodle-ing the zucchini and freezing it. But liked the Spaghetti squash more as it held up better. This year, may try zoodling zucchini and dehydrating it.

There is also the need to cook and dehydrate more rice. maybe this afternoon will get on that.

Just sooo much to do all the time. How did our ancesters/elders cope?? Well, they didn’t have to answer the phone or bill customers or work a full time job at the same time did they?

beware the Ides of April

For the first time in 5 years, tax deadline is once again April 15th. Caesar may have been stabbed on March 15th, today we ALL get stabbed! Saw some interesting statistics today, where do our tax dollars go? The government collects an estimated $4 TRILLION from us common folk. Biggest slice is back into Social Security (they should never have touched it!), Health Care is next and between the two amount to 50% of our tax dollars. Third is Military. and fourth, and between military and this one, another 25% is accounted for, INTEREST ON THE U.S. Debt! Not principle, Just the interest!!

So was thinking, and know we all are thinking similar thoughts every time we see holes in the “supply chain”, WTF?!?!?! Did we EVER think this would be America????

More importantly, how do we interpret what is happening so we can prepare for what ever the hell is going on?

Yeah, go the supermarket on Superbowl Sunday and the snack section is wiped out along with soft drinks. Extra special pricing on butter or eggs – off they go. But on a day to day (in my case Sunday to Sunday) basis, how does the entire case of Eggs disappear. Even organic eggs at $10/dozen are gone! Not just in one store, but several!! Empty shelves instead of Milk. During Covid, being in a state that produces Chicken and Beef, we had both, but little pork. But outside that, how do we still have supply chain shortages on American (it should be, better be!!) produce and meat/poultry?

Now, we’re seeing empty Gas tanks. This is a tourist town and we’re 90 miles from the states biggest city (conglomerate of cities actually), and 45 miles from the third biggest city. We get something like 3.5 million visitors a year with a permanent population of just under 10,000. So we have gas stations. And people are reporting going for gas and finding none. Now, they are not being specific (only super? only regular? Only on Tuesdays?) and it is possible that our discount stations are selling out over a busy weekend. Understand that allocations are based on how much the station sold in the same period last year, so more tourists this year could mean more gas being used in the same period this year.

But, really? A few years ago (before Covid) the Pipeline that brings gasoline to our state broke and we neither had shortages nor crazy prices! Now? This isn’t supply and demand economics.

To top it all off, husband is having health issues and is facing some major surgery. Biopsy tomorrow, but no results until Monday and that will determine what happens after that, but kidney removal is absolute. So I’m preparing the house and food so I don’t have to leave for a while plus trying to get my garden together. And age is giving me a hard time there! What usually takes a matter of hours is taking days cause I need lots of rest and aspirin between sessions!!

solar cooking time again

Actually, all year is solar cooking time, but as we eat dinner at noon, sometimes there isn’t enough daylight in the morning during the winter for the solar oven to get hot enough. This little cooker is great for 2 people, and today found that a couple of hours is enough to cook a teeny bit of meat (older people eat less). and one hour is too long for asparagus.

The little silicone bags are from Zip Lock and are GREAT! They have heavy enough to use in the freezer and not get freezer burn. They work in the solar oven and can just be washed and re-used again. The seal is thick, easy to seal, easy to open, but secure in the meantime.

The cooker itself is old enough that the carry handle has just rotted out. A season of AZ sun and the material is done for. BOOOO. Even the rings busted through so no easy back pack with this toy.

Experiment

some days, it feels that life is getting weirder by the minute. Other times, wonder if its all in my conspiracy theorist imagination. Talked yesterday with a friend who will be named CLUELESS. He does not see any of the warning signs we do. The price of gold sky rocketing as it has been gets a shrug. The government spending at pandemic levels for WHAT??? gets another. The people poring over the border is a That’s a good thing. Homelessness means the government isn’t spending enough. Of course, CLUELESS is a never Trumper. Now, they are entitled to their opinion and to vote their opinion, but to vote for ANYONE BUT without paying attention to what they bring to the table is a terrible thing – in my POV.

But to my conspiracy theorist imagination, today experimented with oven canning using the Solar Oven. I eat my Oatmeal on a daily basis, or nearly so, which means the 10# bulk bin does not go bad before its done. But there’s a bin of brown rice in there to be repacked, and want to get back to bread making. So 4 x 1.5q jars of rolled oats into the solar oven. They are too tall for the front, or at least so that the glass closes, but for oven canning, don’t think it matters much if its propped open some. temp got to 225 which is more than adeqate for the job!

Thinking and reading

A dangerous thing to do sometimes. Today I was thinking about books I’ve read that have influenced me to where I am today.

Now, I’m a voracious reader, averaging a book a day since I was about 5 years old. Yes there have been days when I didn’t read – rare, but they happened. then again, there have been days when I’ve read 2-3 books at a sitting. As a child read children’s books, but was still in single digits when I began reading books about archeology, particularly the Aztec, Mayan, Olmecs. Yes, Egypt. Got into Arthurian fiction. Also biographies; there are a lot of biographies aimed at younger readers!! Science fiction was a long time favorite – and then there is Bradbury.

And Bradbury brought me around to the difference between Dystopian fiction and Apocalyptic fiction. Had long thought that Earth Abides was the book that got me thinking about survival – as an individual and as a society. I read that sometime in my early teens, between 13 and 16.

But what about Fahrenheit 451? A society that was presented strictly through the aspect of reading and books, but is to my older eyes, socialist. a Nanny State. Where people had their lives dictated. While Fahrenheit 451 did not go to the before or after, what was the general decline of freedom that lead to a society that was so easily controlled? and where would that society go when productivity of the populace declined to where it could not support the populace? Because you know that will happen!

1984 is the big book that most of us think as the mark of our changing society. Some toss in Brave New World. Both read when I was in my later teens. Fahrenheit 451 when I was probably still a single digit age or just about, Earth Abides a few years later. Then Brave New World. Then 1984. Then Animal Farm. Later still, Atlas Shrugged. Atlas Shrugged seems to be about where we are now, but instead of the quiet revolution of John Galt, will we have something more violent as it all falls apart and people begin to riot and destroy as their lives fall apart, food becomes even more difficult to find. Ayn Rand didn’t see that. Then again, Atlas Shrugged never really goes that extra step, does it?

Now we have TONS of Apocalyptic fiction to choose from – EMP’s, Plagues, General government take overs. The last I read was about Civil Forfeiture; someone who just said no and fought back creating a revolution. A couple I read seemed to have no beginning or end, just basically government overreach pushing everything to a breaking point, but never the other side being represented as to what they were looking to accomplish – just the POV of the people trying to survive, usually in violent gun battles. Like video games and the most popular movies, lots of explosions, noise, flames, etc. No point, just a lot of BANG!!

One had an excellent idea, just start pushing elected officials to start answering the question, How are you going to keep to your oath of office? Or, Why are you breaking your Oath of Office. how do you justify that LIE?!

And that all leads to another thought. It was very much a thing of those rebellious years of the mid-60’s to -70’s to read these books. Yes I read Marx. and it was pretty obvious THAT was a plan that was not going to work!!

Never read Mein Kempf nor Mao’s little red book, although I know some did.

Were we programming ourselves? Did reading those books make what is happening now to be more obvious as to their end result? It doesn’t seem so. Despite so many making reference to our society becoming more 1984ish, a lot of people don’t seem to care. In reference to the Oath of Office question, something I’ve asked frequently, people seem willing to give up their freedom readily. They don’t want the responsibility that freedom brings. They’d rather be safe. Take what is happening in Arizona right now; a rancher in southern Arizona is being tried for murder. He went out of his house, armed, seeing armed men crossing his property – AGAIN! an “undocumented” – gotta be PC here – alien was shot and killed. His gun DOES NOT match the bullet. No eye witnesses. But he’s on trial for murder. The government is not keeping him and his family safe. They would rather take his gun. They would rather this man and his family cower in their homes in fear while armed criminals – and they are doing a whole bunch of illegal activities like human trafficking – cut through his property. and if they should decide to enter his home? They should die, cowering in their bathroom????? You speak to an Anti Gun person about this and the reaction in their brain is something like Johnny 5 or Robbie the Robot going through a “that does not compute” breakdown. They will stay with the Anti Gun stance and just say things like That would never happen, or they should move. Isn’t that simple. A couple of 70 year olds, who will not be able to sell their property, should just give up their family home of decades, their life style, and MOVE! With what money and where would they go?

Am not interested in seeing blood in the streets, some of which might end up being mine, no thank you!! But kind of think the Oath of Office idea has merit. Would really like to see our elected officials keeping their Oath of Office and thinking about the people of this country rather than enriching themselves. But getting rich and scheming and scamming seem to be the order of the day. See Wayne LaPierre!

Have no answers, just more thinking going on . . .