Posted on 03/14/2014 3:43:31 PM PDT by Kartographer
In late 2010 when we started our food pantry, we took what I would call a hodge-podge approach. We read different articles and made lists of what we used and did not use but was recommended by the various publications. There is a tremendous amount of information, and this was a new endeavor for us. So our list would take the following into consideration: rotation of meals; caloric intake/nutritional value; pleasure value (is it something we enjoy i.e. pancakes vs. oatmeal); and last but not least, cost. Before we bought, we went to an Amish bulk store and Costco to look and compare prices versus what was available on the Internet. We have children, and when we started this endeavor we were a fairly typical suburban family. We tended to lean toward home cooked whole food meals. (My wife and I argued this point a bit as "home cooked meals" has come to mean something very different now.) We also favored organic, but we did not turn completely away from fast food and processed boxed meals. We had a small garden to grow vegetables and a small raspberry patch. Still, we also would eat out at restaurants, buy bleached flour, and buy convenience meals, such as frozen pizzas, boxed pasta, and canned sauce. Considering this background, we urgently started on our pantry as priority number one. We just discovered prepping and felt that we were completely unprepared.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalblog.com ...
From the article:
“Oil does not have a long shelf life, and while we used oil, we never made the effort to break this five-gallon container into more accessible containers because it was deemed “for an emergency.” This weekend we found that it was over two years past its expiration and will have to be discarded.”
Something I’ve learned is DO NOT THROW AWAY RANCID OIL!!! Even though it may not be consumable as a food, it can still be a fuel source! I even have a non-petroleum based chapstick (made from vegetable oil) which has gone rancid, and I’ve put it in our go-pack in our fire starting supplies.
I have never been faced with rancid oil that had to be thrown away. I have read about some people using old oil from restaurants and making fuel to run motors, but have no idea how that works.
The only time I have dealt with rancid oil is if the place it is stored gets too hot. I have had oil keep for a long time as long as it is kept in normal temperatures. Some people don’t realize some of their cabinets can get pretty warm, especially those near or over a stove. People that are using a place like a garage or shed or even a closed off part of their home that they don’t heat or cool to store things need to think about the temperature fluctuations to decide what can be kept there.
I have been thinking in simpler terms, although I know that it is possible to use rancid oils in diesel engines. (or it might be modified diesel engines.)
What I have heard about is using the vegetable oil in question in a container with a wick and using it for light and perhaps incidental heating for a SMALL area.
Regarding the chapstick, it might also be appropriate to perhaps use it in foot care.
We live in a subdivision. Neighbors would not take too kindly to gunfire.
That’s too bad. We sometimes set live traps, and haul them out to our property about 15 miles away and release them into the woods there.
Some people have posted that they prop a board halfway over the top of a container of water with bait on the end in the middle. That way when the squirrel gets close to the bait he is dumped into the drink. Seems a little inhumane.
I like your way better.
The husband has been known to trap one here and there and release it at another location some miles away. I often wonder if they are able to find their way back home....
Yeah, drowning them seems a little mean. I do know that squirrels can swim, though, as I personally saw one in NY state deliberately jump into water and swim.
It is my experience that pintos grow like a bush type bean and black beans were half runner (bigger mess). But I just used seed out of the grocery store dry beans section and did not bother studying varieties.
Ellendra, though hyacinth beans are lovely to behold, they can be toxic.
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