.
.
One of the many things I am researching is a wheat grinder. I have reviewed many devices, considered complaints and compliments, considered the price ranges, and... As usual it comes down to price. If you do not mind a glorified paperweight, buy that $20 device. If you are the king, buy the $$$ one. If you are like me, you just add it to a wish list too big to reasonably seemingly ever fill. Advertising almost ought to be banned. At least require advertisers to be held to some standards, and include them in the warranty responsibility process. If there are laws on the books, they are not being well enforced. No new laws, that only favors the big companies while sparing neither quality or price. There are two or three I am looking at. They start at about $180 and go up. The favored one, not really by price, happens to be the $180 device. For another couple hundred, I could add an electric base as well, for current convenience. As well, it has attachments that work with both the manual and electric bases which allow for everything from slicing vegetables to grinding meats to almost anything such a device would be good for. The whole package, including both bases, comes in at about $500.
The list grows, the budget is the same, and that is that. I am currently trying to order purchases and needs versus wants and luxury. Understand, though, that some luxury is a need. Take a week long hike somewhere. Put a Snickers in your pack. Remember it on your fourth day out. Then you will understand. Then again, carrying nothing but Snickers probably would not be good. As food is being gathered and stored, water is about to be handled, and a home has been secured, heat, cooking, and food processing are coming into their own. Livestock and gardening are... well, under consideration if a bit further off than what I had hoped. Prepping the house itself is... in the distance but on the mind too. Still, I need to find what is most crucial, should the world stop tomorrow, and get on that first. But a cheap fix is often no fix, just a money loss and later larger expenditure or going without something crucial.
The good news about heat and cooking is that there are more options out there than what I would have guessed. I am not sure of pricing, longevity is always an issue, but combined heating and cooking devices using several energy sources offers some relief. It does get complicated, when considering shelf life of the fuels, whether the source can be used indoors safely or not or within what parameters, and how expensive any of this is. The food processing, at this point, is a matter of obtaining a mill and a pressure cooker, perhaps then a canner and the needed pieces for that. Oh, and livestock. That will just have to wait until... well... I am hoping, as I meet locals, I might speak with others who already raise chickens, rabbits, goats, and horses. Have you seen the price of new tackle for a horse? Wow! It is coming along though. Like climbing a mountain in a precarious manner, do not look down. Actually, do not look up either. Just... climb.
I have decided to discuss whether a drug has come out that acts like an opium blocker the next time I see my doctor. The article suggested that there is one but it loses it's efficacy quickly. This doctor is rather hostile to the notion that I might have my unofficial diagnosis. Then again, she is hostile period. I am not sure I could work with her on anything. I am almost guessing, that if one could block that self-made material for a period of time, say a year or two, that the body might recover from the production and addiction in that time. I am pretty sure it will hurt, hard. I have not felt things, to include most physical pain, in decades. Oh yes, it would hurt. I think it would offer my life back though.
I'm not sure what you're looking at, but I bought the Country Living Grain Mill on the strong recommendation of a number of independent sources that ought to know. It wasn't the cheapest, by far, but I don't recall paying $500 for it either.
ReplyDeleteIn re your diagnosis, which is your "official" diagnosis and which is the unofficial? I didn't get that clear from your coded message previously.
The device you recommend is going for right at $400, with a motor $775, within a few dollars. While it does have some attachments, those seem a bit limited and would add a great deal to costs. Mine, with motor and hand, mill, flaker, grater/slicer, and meat grinder, is at about $500. I will be looking them both over as well. Is it better? Perhaps you can tell by looking since you already have and use (?) such a device. Here is the link to my choice, atm:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.internet-grocer.net/family.htm
In spite of research being a bit of a pita, I do enjoy it. My batteries run down, though, too. But it is worth the time, in my opinion. Good gear will last a very long time, perhaps more than my lifetime. Bad gear can see you dead. And no one has a ton of gold sitting, so price does matter too... well, maybe Gates and Soros, though they might be trying for foodstuffs as they realize that can become a tyrant based bubble which they can maintain through mere destruction of their holdings, if they can truly gain control (Ted Turner controls much or most of beef in America... a scary thought, very scary).
Oh, as for diagnosis... I will still remain mum other than to say the official diagnosis is considered organic, the unofficial is environmental or situationally developed.
ReplyDeleteAh, ok. That clarifies which is which, and also why they are not interested in the unofficial. Why then they'd have to *do* something about it, being responsible and all...
ReplyDeleteRe a motor for the Country Living Mill, I thought to rig one up myself for far less than that, or rig it to an exercise bicycle. The large pulley on the grinder handle makes that a snap.
ReplyDeleteRe the one linked, well, it does read as a good quality item. I tend to trust that site, as I've bought stuff from them (food, specifically some canned meat and cheese) and I've been happy with it myself after reading their good reviews. I don't regret getting the mill I have however, and would probably still get it again if I were now shopping for one.
What I like about the Country Living Mill is that it is made of cast aluminum. The Family Grain Mill is "high impact" plastic. Just my thought, but for the long haul I prefer metal.
ReplyDeleteThanks. That will give me some things to consider in my run-up to purchasing this item. I burned out on reading about that material, for the moment, but I will get back to it as a potential purchase gets closer.
ReplyDeleteWith diagnosis, it has more to do with the fear that it is actually from the service, and more like I think. It would mean... a lot of things the V.A. doesn't want to deal with. That diagnosis would only rate 65%, as well. And, I have been treated for it, lightly. So, it seems, pay more and treat quietly, and deny deny deny.
ReplyDeleteI can't say what I (sometimes) think is true, I can say they dance around it like a cat on a hot tin roof. Further, the medical field in there is rather hostile about even considering the possibility at this point. Imagine the local reaction if you are I put a big ol' 'rainbow' on our back bumpers. They aren't passive about their... sensitivities about this, either. But, but... it isn't in your record! (in truth, there doesn't even seem to be a path there, so... I don't know, I just know after I told them about how troubling it was for me after having hid it for as long as I could until it burst out, I went from 10% to 100% in 3 months).
I think they realize there is something there. And even those who are record proven with this... scare the hell out of them. Those who aren't record provable are monsters under their psychological bed, for a thousand reasons. They know denying is as much their duty as it was mine, until I couldn't hold it anymore. Makes me trouble and... a bit of a traitor.