Jump to content
MrsSurvival Discussion Forums

Ambergris

Users2
  • Posts

    8,472
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Ambergris

  1. Last minute packing, with charged electronics, this morning.  No purse.  Was given a suitcase with two nesting carry-ons that fit inside it.  Laptop won't fit into the smallest carryon, so the middle-sized one is my free-wheeler and the little one is getting stuffed with everything else I'm packing, and then is getting stuffed into the big one for cargo.  The "everything else" mostly includes my medication (apart from my one-week supply), tax software, and various documents I picked up last time I was in the US.  I will pick up more documents in the US and actually do the work next week while I'm there.

    After lunch, H is swinging back by with Mr. H, who will drive us to the local airport, a few hours to the west on the other side of the mountains in a town called Catamayo.  This is a hot, dry area and has a reputation as a high-crime town.  I keep looking around corners for Clint Eastwood in a poncho.  Mr. H would not think of having H and me go alone.  We will most likely have a light supper there.  At 5:30 I will (I hope) take the last plane to Quito in the far north of the country, arriving around 6:30 p.m.  I have since been informed that taking the last flight is risky, as it might be canceled if not enough tickets are sold.  This weighs on me, but the other flights of the day are already sold out, so it's not likely to be under-populated. 

    My plane from Quito leaves right before 11 p.m. tonight, giving me plenty of time to get through the processes with one nearly-empty suitcase and one roller-carryon, even if I get selected for extra inspection.  Do you have anything to declare? Yes, I have two tribal baby bracelets and half a pound of Amazonian chocolate.  I will probably eat again  as table rent at Johnny Rocket, one of the cafes in the airport, as it's pretty quiet and pretty comfortable there.

    I should get to Atlanta with I think a little less than three and a half hours before my final leg.  Given the fact this is the Atlanta airport, that's basically a reasonably comfortable time to get across the airport to the vicinity of the next gate, get through the bathroom line, and get something to eat so I can have my medication.  Unfortunately, the good breakfast places won't be open when I land, so I'll take cookies or something from Catamayo for the pills and if the line isn't awful maybe get an egg and biscuit once the breakfast places do open, although I'd have to rush through my bag of food if I do.  I should get on home around 9:30 tomorrow, and be sitting down to brunch before 10:30.

    • Like 1
  2. If stretching your neck like a turtle (or a ballerina) several times a day for several days doesn't make a difference, it is likely not your neck.

     

    Around here, the egg yolk is "the gold" of it, and a double yolk is "a double gold."  I bet the people are as every bit as grateful as they seem.

    • Like 1
  3. Note that when this dance originated, underpants were generally sewn as more or less a pair of tubes connected up by the waist.  ONLY up by the waist.:band2:

     

     

    • Haha 1
  4. They set out a couple of seed trays yesterday, so I can plant a bunch of seeds today and come back in three weeks to seedlings ready to set out.  

     

    I miss having large, cheap peat pellets.  Remember the "tomato size" for forty cents each?

    • Like 2
  5. Taxation of Social Security started in 1983 as part of Reagan's plan to save it after robbing it for years to fund other projects.  The plan was flawed as it did not adjust for inflation. In his day, the thought of benefits being taxable for people bringing in a total of $25k a year meant the same thing as benefits being taxed for people bringing in a total of $78k a year for our times, according to Amortization.org.  So while they planned to tax only the richest, now they tax right at half the people who get Social Security.

    • Sad 3
  6. Some information I got today: Sealed guaifenesin tablets stay potent for an average of about seven years after their use-by date, per the FDA. "It's a relatively stable chemical," says Dr. Apgar. However, when guaifenesin is in liquid form, the label date is the real expiration date.

    So this bottle I have that has a use-by date of Feb 2021 is unopened, so we can open it today and use it within the year while um, expecting normal results.

    • Like 3
  7. GD, offer to trade her a half-day of childcare for a day of heavy labor in your house, and see how she responds.  Put it in writing (like a text message) for extra laughs.

     

    A phobia is not ridiculous.  It's real.  It doesn't have to be logical to be real.

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 4
  8. Work party is heading up the hill.  I have been kindly disinvited, either because I slow everyone down so much or because they are afraid of me hurting myself up there.  Or both.  Actually, there was a wall of fixed grins and wide eyes, and a "you are coming with us?" when I came out dressed to go, which let me know the answer should be "no," so I said "no," and they were all clearly relieved to hear it.  At that point I was able to see into the lunch basket, and it was packed to feed the three of them, not the four of us.  Okay.

    So I guess I am going to study plant profiles and do a little artwork today.  Maybe watch some episodes of Kosem.

    • Like 3
  9. There has been a fatality attributed to Alaska pox, which seems to be a variant of smallpox or monkeypox or ... mousepox?  Does mousepox exist?  Mousepox is my word, but that's what I would call it if I was naming it.

    They don't know if it can be passed from human to human, but it typically spreads from small wildlife.

    It has been tracked since 2015.

    Most of the cases, which haven't been many, have been discovered near Fairbanks.

    What else have you heard?

  10. The Ecuadorian cinnamon has both lead (2000 times higher than the US safety limit) and chromium.  The plant and company that produced it have shut down, but you have to trace the supply chain.  The bad cinnamon was found in samples from Negasmart, an Ecuadorian company that supplied the spice to Austrofoods, which made the applesauce pouches. The applesauce pouches were sold under three brands: WanaBana, Schnucks and Weis.  

    I have not heard of other cinnamon or fruit recalls.  What is the other problem?

    Okay, I backtracked and found that there's trace amounts of lead in the other cinnamon, not nearly as much as in the Negasmart cinnamon.  Not sure about the Ecuadorian fruit other than these pouches.

    • Like 3
  11. We are harvesting the winter garden.  Cauliflower has about finished up--I think there's one more after tomorrow's soup.  Peas/beans are done.  We pulled most of the dill this past week to harvest seed.  There's some assorted greens left.  Lots of flowers are still blooming, but lots have gone to seed.  The corn tassels are drying.  We planted cosmos, cilantro, spinach, and tomatoes over the past two weeks.  Planting is a good way to guarantee a move or buckets of rain.  Got the buckets of rain.  Hoping for the move, but who knows when?

     

    Edit:  Nine fat figs on the bucket-tree.  One is changing color but still hard.

    • Like 4
  12. So Tyndall was a 19th century physicist and his name is used alongside Pasteur's in much of the world.  I've seen it, but associated it with something else.  In India, Tyndallization is used as a standard practice.  Here's a pretty representative Indian text:  https://rbrlifescience.com/moist-heat-sterilization-principle-types-advantages/ 

    There are references to when it fails, but I can't find any numbers as to how often that happens, and whether it can be traced to proper technique, such as not making sure the stuff in the middle of the bottle has been held at the proper temperature for twenty minutes during each of the three consecutive boiling days. 

     

    And, yes, the science sources as opposed to the cooking sources say three consecutive cooking days.   

     

    The information I am getting indicates it is about as effective as pressure canning, assuming each is done correctly, but much more time consuming, and is preferred for things that cannot handle the pressure or temperatures of a pressure canner.  But people putting out a video on this technique WOULD say it is effective, right?  That's a self-selecting bias.

    • Like 3
  13. On 2/27/2024 at 7:38 PM, Mother said:

    I had to look this up.  I’ve read about and even tried some of the preserving processes from other countries and a lot of the old time means but I had not heard of tyndallization.  The description I read says to boil (100°c = 212°f) the product for various times, (mostly 20 minutes to 45 minutes, it seems to vary depending on who’s describing it) once a day for three days, and holding the product at 37°c (98.6°f) in between.  I haven’t taken time to find particulars, such as is that IN the jars?  
     

    The process seems to be aimed at killing the bacteria and also the spores that would multiply in the cooler temps. The bacteria would be killed with the first boiling and I’m guessing by the time the third boiling is done the spores are also wiped out.  That does sound logical to me.  
     

    I wonder why particularly in India.   Something you might have to take into account is the same things we do here, the amount of acid in a food, is this done with meat and dense vegetables?  Are they doing something specific besides that we might not do?  They are probably not preserving beef as isn’t that considered sacred there so what meat might they be using if it IS used for meat that is.  
     

    I find this very  interesting.

     

     

     

    The videos I was watching said to boil for an hour and a half to --in one video-- four hours, and in between boils to remove from the water and keep it at room temperature, then repeat the next day (and sometimes a third day) to kill any spores that might have hatched.  I so not see how twenty minutes of boiling would hope to bring the center of a bottle of meat to a temp high enough to do anything.  What struck me was that this combined the Amish very long processing of meat with something that appears to make sense--bring the cans back and re-process to kill anything that might have hatched, since what hatches is much easier to kill than anything still in spore stage.  However, what appears to make sense does not always work out once you take it out of theory and apply a microscope to what actually happens.  What I want to know is whether anyone has applied a microscope and found that this does not work, because they have people in white lab coats (which anyone can buy, rent, or borrow) saying it does work.

     

    Some of them were pouring small amounts of "nine percent vinegar" into the jars, which I don't think you can even get here. 

     

    Much of it was soups, stews, and chicken-based stuff you pour over rice to be used within the month, although they often say "can be kept in a cool dry place for up to a year."  Some was bottled meat (pork, beef, chicken, sausage) that was largely done in German, although a good bit of the Indian stuff was really concentrated on the chicken.  

     

    One of the people bottling meat (pork, as I recall) crammed it in and/or used a lot of fatty bits in various segments, which had me going "yeah, right" a lot of times, but then said "this keeps in the refrigerator for a very long time" and otherwise made a point that it was not intended to be shelf-stable.  

     

    With some people, like the one doing meatballs in thickened sauce, I had to go through my history and click to remove all their videos so Youtube would stop suggesting them to me, because of putting thickeners in sauces and so on.  That let me know I couldn't trust anything else those particular people said.  

    • Like 3
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.