Some things managed.

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Two cookbooks have been put in my sights. The first, Household Discoveries & Mrs. Curtis’s Cook Book, is out of print. After a bit of looking I did find it, and ordered it. Simply put, I cannot afford to hope it will be available at some other time. The other, The Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition, re-edited (many times) from it's original publishing (self published!) in 1931, is in my "cart" (heh!) at Amazon. I will try to keep that book list fresh and buy those next month. I could have bought it this month but I believe a cash reserve is more important. Well, one of them is on the way, probably the more essential one as this was before modern cooking methods, even electricity. As well, it is half cook book, have domestic principle book (to include cooking methods, home care, and even soap making). I suspect it is not a book for the squeamish.

Looking over my water softener pellets, I realize there is no special use for that. It is, however, a purified salt. Hmm, how useful is salt? Doh! From drying, or other methods of storing meats, to table use, to... well. Salt is a good thing. While this may be an imperfect salt, in hard times one uses what one has. Let me see, 17 bags at 40 pounds each... 680 pounds of... well... salt. Yeah, that could come in handy. And at $4 to $6 a bag, it is basement bargain salt. Yeah, okay. Soft water to preserved meats, and beyond. I guess that is not so bad a deal. I had thought, sadly, that perhaps water softening expenses were purely a loss.

The more one learns, the further one goes. This rabbit hole is either a path to insanity, which at some points it seems destined to be, or it is (and most likely) simply the path of life, real life. The cost, of course, of this life, is heavy in modern terms. But modern terms, I think even modernists agree, are true insanity. A beamer... really? That is a goal? Sex with women who if you knew their history you would not touch, regardless of how perfect you have been taught to think they look? Really, seriously? Drugs, vacuous beliefs, and a disdain for any kind of reason or objective truth in life? That is merely suicide on a slower pace. So, yes, this is the way. The insanity one finds on this path is not because of the path but because of our own misunderstandings and the incorrect notions we have been indoctrinated with so that we help modernism by becoming a vacuous cog.

Modernism, when it was young and to a degree even now, provides wonders. All wonders, however, are double edged swords. For example, the medical field. It seems when advances there allow people to live longer, they turn their collective backs on reproduction of their own kind. Many women I see today are 30 to 50 and just figuring out... they probably never will have a husband, let alone children. They, what, forgot? Wow. And yet things like chlorine, DDT, gasoline, motors and engines, microscopes and glasses, have revolutionized our life, our ability to survive, and our ability to understand and view things never before known. It seems, however, that our technological house of babel is about to be felled by the successes it has made. How... interesting. Still, as I enter the rabbit hole and begin setting up a warren of sorts, I cannot but stop and give some thanks to having been some part of that in order that I might be ready for the end of it. Odd, but while ultimately gratifying, it is sad too.

Well, I have things to do. I doubt if I will get to much today. If my sleep cycles are coming around, my capacity to do much with my days is not. I have dishes, checking the hen house, filling the gas tank, and some minor shopping on my list in spite of my doubts. Oh, and a bill to be paid. Things to do, as I may.

Good day.

Update: A recipe for butter was found. It looks practical. From what I have read, salted butter lasts longer. And, from D.C. and others, clarifying the butter might make it last even longer. I cannot remember what it is called, but when/if I remember, I will do research on that specifically. Hmmm, geet? ghee? I will look. Little bits and pieces of information are coming together so that I may figure out my next steps, additional foods to add, and such. My hope is to buy wheat for a year, or close to it, next month or the following. Depending on how high prices go, of course, and how soon they hit the market. If prices go too high too fast, I may simply wait. The shop I bought the cookbook from has confirmed and then offered a tracking number. Yes, I am excited. That was fast, courteous, and simple.

So much of what is sold can much more easily, cheaply, and with better end products, be made at home. I would even guess that drying and maybe freeze drying, at some cost and with some significant research, time, effort, and some possibly scary costs, could pay themselves off in less time than one might think. For a one man band, however, I am left sort of scraping by. My money does not allow getting ahead until I am in a position to advance. But it is on my mind and I hope it is on every preppers mind. The old axiom, 'Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish, feed him for a lifetime.' is more true than ever. When there is no one to teach, no internet to access, and little available, it will be skills and tools on hand that will make what you have feed, cloth, warm, and hydrate you. Buggers but that is a lot of stuff! Yeah, yeah, I will get back to it. Hush.

I keep hearing how conservative FOX News is. It is not conservative. It is pro-business. It is softly to the right of center more of the time then not. But it is as conservative as Olympia Snowe. It tracks more with the Republican party, at perhaps a 60% to 40% ratio (just a guess, but). Further, it is conservative purely in economics, ignoring social and cultural issues. Those people, even then, at last reported political giving by employees quote I have gave to Dems 70% to 30%. It is in no way conservative. I am still waiting for a fox to FOX as FOX was to CNN.

Update the Second: Rendering beef tallow and tanning rabbit hides now have rudimentary exploration. I need to start printing some of that. I would guess that the beef tallow would be similar to producing lard, or using many other animal type fats as oils. Further, I would suggest that much of what works for rabbit hides would transfer to goat, calf, or possibly deer and elk hides. If nothing else, in a pinch, it would be worth a shot and some experimentation. One note, I do not think any fats on wild game, barring organs, would be worth using, and that for direct cooking and eating, not rendering. I hope to remember to check on that at some point.

Yes... a research day. Urhm, by the way, if you want something researched, or even have a list of things... let me know... for a dolla. Seriously, and no dollar needed.