Monthly Archives: April 2022

Rotation

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It’s not just theory…you really do need to rotate stuff from food storage. Today’s example: salsa from two years ago. It keeps just fine in the classic ‘cool, dark place’..like my basement…but I figured it was time to update. So…a quick trip to CostCo. As you may notice, there are some markings on the lids. The ‘C’ in a circle indicates it was purchased at CostCo, the price is marked on it, and the date.

I keep quite a bit of this sort of product on hand. Cook up some chicken (or open a can of chicken), shread it up, cook it in a bunch of salsa, mix in a large amount of cooked rice, cover with Mexican cheese blend, and eat with corn chips. Cheap, filling, and pretty yummy.

But, the takeaway here is that you need to rotate through your stuff otherwise when you finally need it you might not like what you find. Also, ‘best buy’ dates are wildly conservative.

Canning deal

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A little inventory, math, and inventory math told me that while I’m pretty well positioned on canning lids, it might be a good idea to lay in a few more jars. A couple dozen cases of 12, at least. So, since Saturday is my somewhat-usual shopping day I decided to hit a few places around town and find the cheapest price on cases of pint jars. I stopped after my second attempt:

Uhm…okay. I’ll take them all. So that works out to about $0.83 for one new pint jar, ring, and lid. I’m good with that.

I like the pint jars for their single-serving proportions. I do keep quarts around, of course, but the majority of the jars I have are pints.

I’m sure there are other brands out there but the stakes are too high for me to tkae my chances on Johnny-come-lately brands or, worse, made in China stuff. Ball and Kerr, in that order. Nothing else.

So I managed to put a pretty good chunk of my jar needs into the green. Thats good. I need to get down in the basement and do a thorough inventory of jars, lids, and bands. They are something I usually don’t track because a simple look at the shelves tells me there’s “a lot” of them, but I suppose I should be more precise.

Anyway, it seemed like a good deal and that it might not be a bad idea to take advantage of it. So..I did.

Tribe recognizes tribe

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We’ve all heard people in the preparedness community ask this particular question: “How do I meet like-minded people?”

As I’ve said before – if you have an interest and are active in a field that appeals to surivivalists (guns, backpacking, military/LE, radio, ‘primitive’ camping, being a Mormon, etc.) you probably already know several survivalists and just aren’t aware of it. But, may times you discover, in a casual conversation, that the person you are engaging with is on the same wavelength. Todays example comes form me standing at the deli counter picking up some chicken strips for lunch. The kid behind the counter takes my order….

Him: Three chicken strips today?
Me: Yeah, thanks. How are you doin’ today?
Him:I saw today wheat is up 33%.
Me: Hmm. Well, it’s gonna get worse before it gets better.
Him:Yeah. I’m trying to put some stuff back.
Me:Yeah, me too. I just cleaned out two cases of canning lids from aisle 6.
Him: Me and my brother can. We’ve been doing a lot of canning lately. I need to get water, though.

And we chit chat for another minute about the topic of socking away food against inflationary increases and filling up propane tanks this weekend.

Thats how it happens. No secret handshakes, no coded ‘Want to meet’ ads in Craigslist, no Friday night meetup at the VFW. It happens organically all the time…just keep your ears and eyes open. Tribe recognizes tribe.