Neanderpundit

in a conex box, in the middle of BF egypt, while a thrashing thunderstorm rages through outside, a couple of miles from anything, while the coyotes fight over deer carcases more or less outside the window, and foxes drift past like ghosts, is a bit spooky.

Still, it’s good sleeping, nobody to bitch about you snoring, and you just have to crawl out of bed once in a while and feed the fire. And sometimes you have to get out of bed and go Out There to pee.

Thankfully, I had an empty gallon milk bottle so I didn’t have to brave the rain, wind, foxes and coyotes in the wee hours. Did I remember to empty that and burn the bottle? I think I did. That is I know I emptied it, but I hope nobody finds that and reuses it for anything.

Thank God it was a gallon, too, I forget how large my bladder has become after thirty years of long distance driving.

That if a Catholic Priest diddles a kid, EVERY CATHOLIC IS EVIL, but a coach serially molests kids and they don’t go after Miss Hampstead the third grade teacher in Ord Nebraska?

Condemning a group because one of their number is a tool is asinine in the extreme, and always will be. Not all educators or coaches or priests or whatever are assholes because one or ten or a hundred are.

This post from Grau made me think of one of the biggest pains in the ass about prepping (To me, anyway).

Milk. Milk is a pain in the ass because even with good refrigeration, you only get so much life out of it. When I was in Africa we drank a lot of “Long life” milk, which was most of what was available; you could get conventional milk but it was spendy and not easy to come by.

Long Life milk is also available here, under the term “Ultra high temperature” pasteurization, and one of the common brand names is Parmalat.

This stuff has a six month shelf life at room temperature. It’s not horribly expensive, and it’s not horrible.

One other thing: For a very brief time I helped out around a lighthouse. The operator did something I was amused by then and have done ever since. he used plastic ice cube trays to freeze milk and cream. No, you couldn’t exactly bake with it anymore, but it was fine in coffee, which was what he used it for. Think of it; coffee with cream six months from supply. the ice cubed milk brought the coffee to operating temperature and creamed it all in one go. It was a good solution then as now.

If you’re in the middle of the Zombie apocalypse, drinking long life milk and eating tactical bacon will be just fine. If the shit hits the fan, the people who are prepared will be obvious not by their giant trucks filled with arms and ammo, but because they’ll be clean and well fed.