Quarantine tips/hacks/advice - no malarkey

[SMdoubleXL]

My uncle taught us spades.  Definitely a great game to play. 

[Schnitzel]

broccoli stems bulk the fuck out of a vegetable soup....

taste like broccoli but normally one chucks them out.

 

[Drue_Down]

This just arrived from Butcher Box 📦 (frozen)

8 lbs of ground beef, 4 ribeyes, 4 n.y. strips, 9 lbs of chicken breasts. I’ll order the same next month.... or as needed, or until this gets better.

 

It essentially breaks down to $9 per item with tax, & free shipping baked in. $9 for a grass fed hippy-raised steak (which are great quality) or 1lb. of organic meat is a good deal in this pandemic, I’m avoiding people and public places; They carry pork and fish too. You’ll get retarged in social media by similar competitors too, lots of cheaper options out there if needed.

 

I now need to figure out my liquor delivery 🍸

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Drue_Down

[morton]

Yesterday I skipped leaving the house for my walk, it was pretty remarkable how piss poor my attitude got by the end of the day.

[Mercer]

17 hours ago, Drue_Down said:

This just arrived from Butcher Box 📦 (frozen)

8 lbs of ground beef, 4 ribeyes, 4 n.y. strips, 9 lbs of chicken breasts. I’ll order the same next month.... or as needed, or until this gets better.

 

It essentially breaks down to $9 per item with tax, & free shipping baked in. $9 for a grass fed hippy-raised steak (which are great quality) or 1lb. of organic meat is a good deal in this pandemic, I’m avoiding people and public places; They carry pork and fish too. You’ll get retarged in social media by similar competitors too, lots of cheaper options out there if needed.

 

I now need to figure out my liquor delivery 🍸

 

Might need to scope this out, looks good.

[misteraven]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

Might need to scope this out, looks good.

Has to be decent ranching out your way. Suggest looking into that. Couple weeks back I picked up ground beef from our farrier, who’s also an OG cattle rancher, and it’s was $4lb. Honestly it’s the best ground beef burger I’ve ever had. Maybe you can relate to this reference... Mercer Kitchen Soho type burger beef. Anyhow, these mail order deals are cool if you really don’t have access... I used to order them back before I had my own connects... But it’s far cheaper and I’d argue far more tasty if you can find a quality local source. Plus you’re supporting local... Cutting out middle men and helping the actual ranchers that are up before dawn wrangling the livestock that you end up eating. 
 

Anyhow, not trying to shit on that tip, it’s great in cases where big chain supermarkets are your only viable option. But imagine many of you probably have some local ranching and agriculture you can tap into. 
 

On that note, here’s a couple tips...

 

If you live in an actual house and especially if you’re fortunate to be paying a mortgage for it and not rent, you really should own a chest freezer. A huge 24cu ft chest freezer is $600 - $900 and extremely energy efficient these days. Lowe’s and Home Depot regularly have zero interest, multi year financing deals (not that I encourage debt). You guys in a stable, somewhat permanent position should be looking at these and looking j to getting one. Frozen meat easily keeps for a year and longer and buying in bulk and when on sale will save you a ton of cash. It’ll also build a lot of resiliency for when you’re low on funds or when shot like this happens. Seriously worth it. If you have a little extra money and access... You can buy into a half or quarter cow from a local rancher and get the best of both... Top end restaurant quality and cheap. Half cow out here is $900 and feeds a family of four easily for a year+. 
 

Tip #2... Grow some food. If you have a yard, awesome. If you a porch, you can make it work. If you have indoor space, there’s an amazing assortment of LED / hydro setups that are dumb cheap now that half the country is trying to grow weed. Anyhow, go to a good spot like http://www.rareseeds.com and spend $20 on an assortment of stuff you enjoy eating. It’ll save you money long term, give you some resiliency and it’s good for you health and soul to grow some of your own food. Props to you if you can also keep a couple chickens. Hens lay an egg almost every day for most of the year and are about as tough to own as a cat (which is saying it’s not tough at all). Fresh eggs are entirely different from store eggs, even the expensive ones. Seriously, if you can keep a couple chickens, it’s well worth it. 

[Drue_Down]

21 minutes ago, misteraven said:

 

 

If you live in an actual house and especially if you’re fortunate to be paying a mortgage for it and not rent, you really should own a chest freezer. A huge 24cu ft chest freezer is $600 - $900 and extremely energy efficient these days.

You can buy into a half or quarter cow from a local rancher and get the best of both... Top end restaurant quality and cheap. Half cow out here is $900 and feeds a family of four easily for a year+. 

I few ex-coworkers of mine used to split the half cow costs and divide up the meat, it always looked like a great deal for long term storage. It came frozen and prepackaged like my box above, so you don’t actually have to hacksaw a cow in your kitchen  🐄 

 

I have a second fridge in my garage for booze and extra freezer storage, it’s coming in super handy now. I had to buy a special fridge that can withstand AZ summers when garages are like ovens, so far it has lasted 10 years.

 

The wife and I are looking into gardening options, that’s the only food we’ll need fresh. Thanks for the rare seeds recommendation.

[Mercer]

@misteravenwe're in the process of establishing our own peer to peer network now, pimping our breads/sourdough starter. You'd be surprised what people are growing for themselves in city limits here, and how stable local peer to peer supply chains are, when compared to just grocery. It's more free market of course so sometimes it worth it, sometimes it isn't, you have to be a little more shrewd and clued in to local pricing.

 

The urban environment limits many aspects of agriculture, but for small scale labor intense methods like indoor grows for cash crops like weed, or just growing mushrooms, and micro-greens, even tilapia/aquaponics. These people all do it for reasons beyond the scope of your local grocers, and large scale food distribution networks, and they're eager to network with like minded individuals, mentor people and give advice. We're working online to network and arranging safe ways to exchange which is a shame because we can't meet in person most of the time.

[Mercer]

16 minutes ago, Drue_Down said:

so you don’t actually have to hacksaw a cow in your kitchen  🐄 

This is what stops me from hunting myself, but I'm thinking that's probably the most economic way to fill a freezer in most cases. I mean on one hand I don't want to skin and butcher a large animal. It seems like a morbid, and depressing task. On the other hand I do like the idea of murdering innocent wild animals so it's a tough choice.

[Dirty_habiT]

On of the most economic ways to fill a chest freezer is to buy a half or whole cow from the butcher.  Hunting is definitely cheap as well.

[where]

I’ve been grabbing a goose from the park here and there and I’m keeping them in a cage under the sink just in case.

[misteraven]

41 minutes ago, Mercer said:

we're in the process of establishing our own peer to peer network now, pimping our breads/sourdough starter.

On that tip, going to share a bread making book from a friend that owns a cafe / coffee shop in Soho and has been making some pretty amazing artisanal bread.

 

He shared this sourdough starter recipe with me as well: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/7-easy-steps-making-incredible-sourdough-starter-scratch/

 

If anyone makes any of these recipe and shares photos / feedback, I'll send you some 12oz stickers for the effort.

 

FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST.pdf

[misteraven]

30 minutes ago, where said:

I’ve been grabbing a goose from the park here and there and I’m keeping them in a cage under the sink just in case.

You joke, but this is a normal thing in places like Miami even without a pandemic driving people to desperation.

[Mercer]

2 minutes ago, misteraven said:

On that tip, going to share a bread making book from a friend that owns a cafe / coffee shop in Soho and has been making some pretty amazing artisanal bread.

 

He shared this sourdough starter recipe with me as well: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/7-easy-steps-making-incredible-sourdough-starter-scratch/

 

If anyone makes any of these recipe and shares photos / feedback, I'll send you some 12oz stickers for the effort.

 

FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST.pdf 11.09 MB · 0 downloads

This is one of the bible's of sourdough. My wife has had this book since before she started making sourdough. Funny you know Ken, she bought it when we lived in the East Village but didn't have room to make sourdough in that apartment.

 

 

 

Really dig when she makes the sourdough pancakes, but hate having to run it off later...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[misteraven]

For those with you with a little more money than space, that are still interested in growing enough food to maybe put a little dent in your grocery shopping...

 

Indoor, all inclusive LED based hydroponics - https://mygardyn.com/

 

Its a subscription service that allows you to pick seed pods of stuff you want to grow and then use your smartphone and some tech to make growing herbs / fruit / vegetables as easy as configuring an app and letting an algorithm handle everything for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mercer]

If I'm spending that much I'd rather build my own larger light/hydroponic configuration myself. Something like that to me, even though I'm the intended market luxury apartment type it's worth $300 tops, couldn't see myself paying $700 and a monthly membership fee. OF course I'm unusually handy and have worked with both light and hydroponic systems before, so it might be worth $700 to someone. That works out to like $20 per leaf of lettuce.

[misteraven]

9 minutes ago, Mercer said:

If I'm spending that much I'd rather build my own larger light/hydroponic configuration myself. Something like that to me, even though I'm the intended market luxury apartment type it's worth $300 tops, couldn't see myself paying $700 and a monthly membership fee. OF course I'm unusually handy and have worked with both light and hydroponic systems before, so it might be worth $700 to someone. That works out to like $20 per leaf of lettuce.

I’d pay it if we’re 2.5x bigger. It’s super polished and dialed in. Pod idea is brilliant too. You can definitely DIY your own, I plan to myself, but this thing is slick. Subscription thing is cool, but hate that the automation is killed if you kill the subscription. That’s just unnecessarily lame of them to do. But yeah, will be hard to top the fit and finish on this thing even if you can build it at 1/3 the cost. Usually a believer of ‘buy once, cry once’, but this isn’t quite large enough to suit my needs and buying two or three is retarded money. 

[misteraven]

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

This is what stops me from hunting myself, but I'm thinking that's probably the most economic way to fill a freezer in most cases. I mean on one hand I don't want to skin and butcher a large animal. It seems like a morbid, and depressing task. On the other hand I do like the idea of murdering innocent wild animals so it's a tough choice.

You don’t have to process your meat, lots of places do it, even out here. Lot of hunters don’t even bother. Larger butcher shops do it for a fee ($250 for half cow), but smaller operations will do it for a cut of the total beef equivalent to the general dollar amount. Being honest, it’s not really a huge chore for those with more space than an apartment. Lots of YouTube videos on it, but it’s an investment to get setup (quality knives, bone / hack saw and vacuum sealer). 
 

Also, hunting is an awesome option. Most people think Elk is better than beef, they’re larger and an elk tag is like $30. Even if it’s a few hundred dollars to process, you’re likely paying well under $1 a pound for meat that most say is about the best you can get. We flopped on our deer tag when you came to visit, but then again it’s $14 to get a tag and you can get several. Worth it if you’ve had fresh deer steak or sausage. 

[metronome]

Wife and I have something similar to that mygardyn ... we have the https://www.towergarden.com/

I think we paid around $1,000 CAD for it.  Financed it interest free over a year or so.  It was her prerogative to get it so I made her pay for it. 

[misteraven]

1 minute ago, metronome said:

Wife and I have something similar to that mygardyn ... we have the https://www.towergarden.com/

I think we paid around $1,000 CAD for it.  Financed it interest free over a year or so.  It was her prerogative to get it so I made her pay for it. 

How’s it worked out for you guys? You using it and harvesting?

[metronome]

It takes a little trial and error to get it dialed in but it's really good for simple things like leafy greens, herbs, cucumbers, peppers, some things trickier than others.  We're a family of 4 and 3 of us are vegetarian and it definitely pumped out enough for us.  

 

edit:  

On the local rancher/farmer tip ... I'm not sure how it is for you guys down there but here in my neck of the woods some ranchers consider the elk on their land nuisances because they piss on the bales and ruin it for their animals being raised.  You can hunt here well outside of rifle season with a bow and often these guys will invite you onto their land to try and deal with the elk (you still need a tag but a non rifle tag is cheaper and more are issued).

And another meat option to look out for, that is delicious, is bison meat.  

Edited April 5, 2020 by metronome

[Schnitzel]

My coworker has very little space on here balcony so she's just bought two bags of expensive potting/vegetable mix and planted a packet of pease in one and a packet of beans in the other.

curious to see how it's going because it was looking crazy couple of weeks back.

 

But she has a penthouse apartment overlooking the harbour with about 8 hours sunlight per day that can be sealed off to dodge the worst of the autumn weather like a greenhouse.

[Drue_Down]

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/heres-how-long-your-fresh-produce-will-really-last/

 

 

 

[KILZ FILLZ]

[misteraven]

LOL, you build that? Dangerous stuff man...

[Drue_Down]

Dyson Creates 44 Free Engineering & Science Challenges for Kids Quarantined During COVID-19

 

http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/dyson-creates-44-free-engineering-science-challenges-for-kids-quarantined-during-covid-19.html

 

 

 

200 Free Kids Educational Resources: Video Lessons, Apps, Books, Websites & More

 

http://www.openculture.com/free_k-12_educational_resources

 

 

 

[Dirty_habiT]

@KILZ FILLZMacgyver over here.

[Ko SprueOne]

On 3/28/2020 at 12:58 AM, T4M* said:

This one fits in here, only because my friend's roommate is freaking out and unable to stay still.  She got layed off the Casino, she is used to seeing different people from the Black Jack Table and I don't blame her.

 

But on the real, she finds an excuse to go out and she seems to be hungry all the time. I told my friend to tell the roommate that I'm a ninja and I will shave her eyebrows myself.

 

I first read that as " ... Shave your elbows off" when you first posted this. I didn't read the paragraph above it until just now then realized it reads, "eyebrows". I thought you were being funny but also sort of made sense. I mean I use my elbows a lot when I go out like for the rear bus doors activator and those pedestrian crossing buttons, etc.  If you were to use your newly created stumps then that would be very painful and that would discourage you from leaving the home. 

[Drue_Down]

 

 

BTW, I found TP & paper towels at local Walgreens & CVS, but not grocery stores. I guess the masses are afraid they are Petri Dishes 🧫 of sick people needing prescriptions 💊

 

I had a supply already, but this was the first time I’ve seen them on the shelves in 2 months.

[SMdoubleXL]

That’s a great idea @Drue_Down

 

have you been adhering to it? 

Edited April 23, 2020 by SMdoubleXL
I’m nosey