What???? Odd Product Rant

 Ok...sometimes products make me stare that them because I. DO. NOT. GET. IT!

They solve problems that don't exist.

Yesterday at the grocery store...scanning the aisles of this particular one for super cheap deals (they do that sometimes).

Once it was mirepoix at a Trader Joe's....WHY?????   Just chop an onion, carrot and some celery. The cost per lb for the prechopped was BONKERS.  

Yesterday....BAGS (like plastic single use heavy bags) for something over 6$ each.  

Bags of....  INSTANT CHIA PUDDING!   Um...what??  A 1pound bag of chia seeds costs me under 5$ and these above bags are about 2 oz of seeds and some flavorings and some odd food processed extracts and products.   There is the incredible "convenience" of putting water in the plastic bag which is designed to stand up.   And then still need to find a spoon or maybe mostly close the bag and squeeze the chia/processedstuff-sludge into my mouth.  EW!  

So...expensive, pointless and saves like NO TIME OR EFFORT.  If you need "instant" chia pudding, put chia seeds and flavors and stuff in a series of little jars (or one big jar with a scoopy thingy).  Then, when you want it, add water or whatever.   
CHIA is already INSTANT.

So, after way too long, like maybe a minute, I managed to wander off and get a good deal on some non-UPF chocolate treat that is a pain in the butt to make.  

Forever Foods Instead of Forever Chemicals #5

 Forever foods instead of Forever Chemicals done so far:

1 Vinegar

2 Honey

3 Chicos 

4 Manoomin

And now.....     

5 DRY Posole.

Related to Chicos but different.  Nixtamalized hominy (field) corn redried to very very very dry.

Like REALLY dry.

They come in multi colors because...corn.   I get them direct from the people who grow and process and dry the corn.   Just got a few more pounds to get through the year.  It comes in little tightly filled zip-top bags.  I repackage into tightly closed jars.  I have never had it go bad and have stored for a couple of years with temperatures ranging from well below freezing to about 100degsF.  I know the fluctuation in temp is not ideal but it is how I live and does not seem to affect storage at least for the first 2 years.

AND they are delicious.   Pre-soak or not and boil up.   They pressure cook nicely at 3000ft elevation.  15lbs on the cooker and for however long the other stuff in the cooker needs to cook.  If it's beans, that are less than a year from picking/drying, I presoak and precook the posole a bit.  If it's delicious smoky meat, just keep it all in there for like 30min or more.  You don't have to pressure cook.  If the woodstove is going, put a pot on in it in the morning, or the evening.  You know what, put a pot on it, some liquid to cook in.  Broth, water...maybe not vodka because it will evaporate off too fast...in the pot and then add the corn.  About half the amount you want to finish with because they will swell up. Quite a bit.  You will need maybe triple the amount of liquid compared to the starting volume of posole.  That's a MINIMUM amount of liquid.  If you are also cooking other dry food like beans, dried vegetables, whatever, ADD MORE LIQUID!!!

These, like chicos, will not cook down to mush.  I've had them in soup and reheated several times.  they sort of explode but will still require chewing.  If you want mush...eat something else.

I Bet "Frugality" Gets Popular Again. Tips for Newbies to the Spend Less Be Frugal Crowd

 What with stuff costing more.    

And our 401k's crashing and burning.  Mine hasn't recovered from the nonsense in the 90s, 2000s and 2010s.  And here we are with the 2020s debacle.  You never get back the lost compound interest.   Doesn't happen.  Lose ground. that ground stays lost at the level of investment I have.  Which is the max I can afford.

Anyway, higher prices, lower benefits.   Frugality gets popular.

The thing is, frugality or thrift ....that's a long game.  Not a short term "oh crap" strategy.  Still, may as well start in the "oh crap" moment.

So ,for the newbies ,here are places to start:

1  Use it up

2  Wear it out

3  Make it do

34  Do without

Easy!

Bit more info needed

1 Use it up.   This works in every part of life.  Vehicles/transport...run whatever you are driving IN TO THE GROUND.  Repairs are almost always cheaper than a car payment.   Food...START your meal plan in the stinky crisper drawer in the fridge.  What is about to go bad?  Can you eat it as is?  DO THAT!  Can you fry it up in an egg?  DO THAT.  Can you throw it in the Freezer Soup Container (any container in the freezer for left overs and edible scraps...when it gets full, take it out to thaw, if you have an onion or some garlic, fry that in a soup pot (if not, skip it), dump in the thawing soup (or, who are we kidding...the frozen block of soup) and heat it up.  Taste it.  If it's awful add something salty/savory (salt, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, etc, or sour (lemon juice, vinegar, a can of tomatoes) or some herbs (whatever is getting old in the cupboard) and try again.  If it's bland, I go for sour or a scoop of homemade mustard.  Just use your brain and whatever you have.  Also...you won't die of bland soup.  Just eat it.   For clothes...go shopping in the closet or dresser or call a friend to borrow or swap clothes for an event.  When clothes wear out, cut them up for rags and hair bands and free gardening supplies (undies elastics make great tomato plant support ties, t-shirt sleeves are really good headbands, old undies were my gramma's go-to soft polishing clothes which was gross but effective, I make gardenting and berry picking bags out of old jeans legs with a few stitches and a grommet or sewn on tab for attachment to my belt.  Books...firestarters after you drop them in the tub and dry them out but they are wrinkly.  and on and on

2  Wear it out.   Clothes...keep wearing them.  Boring...maybe.  NO ONE CARES what you wear.  If they do, they are shallow buttheads whose opinion does not matter.  Change into chore clothes if you do office work and then come home to outside work.  Vehicles....keep driving that rattle trap. USE IT UP.  When it really really croaks or you have to trade it in on a reliable rig for some reason, strip it of usable things like extra rims and tires so you can sell them separate or trade them or give them to friends who will wear them out and maybe, or maybe not, return the favor.  I gave away a car once.  The receiver loved it but it didn't work for them, they took one set of wheels for the vehicle they do drive, sold the car to a poverty stricken mechanically talented person who meshed it with other similar vehicles and hopefully came up with 1 running car.  Glasses...my godson gets his previous pair of glasses tinted as sunglasses when he gets a new pair of regular glasses.  Wears the sunglasses until they are scratched beyond usefulness.  Kitchen gear...learn to sharpen a knife.  A good knife resharpened will last generations.

3 Make it do.   I have an event coming up where Western States Business Casual is the dress code.  So I'm darkening up my black jeans and wearing my best thrifted eddie bauer shirt with some turquoise jewelry.  Good enough.   Vehicle...I have a crap truck that will haul 1/2 ton.  I need 1 ton of pressed sawdust logs for winter heat.  I found a place that will sell me the 1 ton pallet of logs for a price and let me haul it as 2 half ton loads.  It cost me 10$ more in gas, but that's 40$ less than delivery on 1 ton, AND 50$ less than buying 2 half ton mini-pallets most years.  I make do.  And I do the math (that's a more advanced tip...DO THE MATH).  Shovels...I have 4 broken shovels (because...shovels are not prybars but I am a slow learner on that).  So now I have 4 large hand scoops and I am learning to replace handles. "make it do" also means FIX STUFF.  I bust my glasses a lot as well.  Then, I bust out the superglue.  The latest triumph...lost the lense out of a favorite pair of progressive readers mid winter.  The frame broke on a snowy dark morning as I walked to the car.  The lens could be heard skittering away on the snow.  Couldn't find it so I got out the 2nd pair (they were cheaper by the pair of I bought a pair of pairs) and got on with life.  MONTHS LATER the snow thaws.  I am off the main walkway to the car one day and spot the lens!  TADA! I pocket it.  Find it again a week or so later.  Then eventually the glasses and lens are reunited with superglue (all braced in place with rubber bands off egg cartons and broccoli bought through the winter and stashed for re-use).  I glued it before I went to work so the stank would dissipate while I was gone.  It worked.  While I was at it, I glued some other stuff.   The glue was from a 5$ craft kit so basically free as I did and enjoyed the craft (see above...use it up).  

4  Do without.  Do without until you find a good deal, can borrow/trade for an item, or ...most often...figure out you didn't need that thing anyway.   E.g.  I would LOVE a cool garden shed or storage shed.  BUT, those cost money.  Or skill.  I don't want to spend on it and I have no skill.  So, the camper I used to live in is the garden shed.   Works fine.  Cost 1100$ many years ago.  I lived in it over 2 seasons for a total of about 12 months...that's cheap rent!  Then turned it into the storage shed.   Fine.  I have a friend who drinks tea every day and does not own a teapot.  She's happy with a sauce pan and pouring the water into a cup from that.  I use a teapot (bought at thrift) but have no wish for a teaball or strainer.  I just strain the tea leaves out with my teeth when I use loose leaf.   I just don't care.  Computer...my home computer is ancient.  I "make do" with my sister's dead iphones minus the simcards.  Which is also amusing when I insist I do not have a smart phone...then clearly pull one out of my pocket to use public wifi.  As for vehicles, due to lifestyle choices I would have trouble making do without owning one, but I have friends who have gone that route.  The do fine.  And live in town.  You can rent a car if you need one or borrow them.  A friend let go of his pick up when I assured him he could borrow my old beater one anytime.  Other friends lend me their rototiller.  Another and I share rental of a log splitter rather than either of us buying one.   Main point;  do not just go buy something you think you "need".

Just try all of those before you buy crap or panic.

So, there are your starter tips.  Welcome!

Forever Foods Instead of Forever Chemicals #4

 Parched Wild Rice

Manoomin.

Also unparched (raw) wild rice.   

It is super dry, easy to store (just keep it dry).   In an accidental test I checked its tolerance for extreme temperatures in storage.  This is because I live off grid and don't heat the place when I'm not home.  So, some stored wild rice in a tightly closed mason-type jar went through a few freeze thaw cycles down to well below zero (fahrenheit) and above 100degs (also fahrenheit!) multiple times.   Then, I found the jar and cooked it up.  Still fantastic.

The parched style costs more, but is also quicker to cook, easier to bust up into a flour type product without fancy grainmill, just a little mortar and pestle or a couple of rocks or a cloth bag and a hammer (put the rice in the bag, use the hammer on it....don't try to bust rice with a cloth bag alone).  

Forever Foods Instead of Forever Chemicals #3

 Chicos

These are SUPER DRY slightly smoky corn kernels from the SW of the US.  

Because they are BONE DRY and a bit shriveled and kind of pre-cooked, once I put them in a jar, they store virtually forever.

"Virtually" partly because I will never be able to test truly long term storage.  They are DELICIOUS so I end up eating them in a matter of months.   

Still, rumor and lots of actual knowledge attests that they are still good after years of dry storage.

To cook: presoak (or not if I forgot to do that and I want to eat).  Cook in water, broth, in soup you already have going.  They need MOISTURE because, as noted above, VERY DRY.   They puff up to about 3x the dry size and add a smoky flavor to whatever they are cooked with or thrown on top of.

Quite chewy and I've never had them go mushy or decompensate even after days in leftover soup or simmered for hours. 

LEONARD PELTIER IS FREE!!!!!

 https://youtu.be/4bVeoNfsYGw?si=nYaTlZ7BaDkqeVhh

I cannot believe this!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/18/leonard-peltier-prison-release

It's Getting Better

 OK, you get real humble real fast with a back issue.

I haven't been able to lift or workout much/at-all which annoys me (I am a late bloomer as far as gym rats but I hate losing strength it took me a decade to build up). but I have been doing really light no-impact hiit workouts for the elderly and yoga daily.  And taking some aspirin.  

The aspirin works since I rarely take ANYTHING for pain.  It's not eliminating the pain, which would probably result in me overdoing things and re-injuring my back.  Aspirin takes the edge off so I can get around without cussing every time I move.

Yesterday I put my pants on without strategizing first!  And got out of the car without pushing the seat all the way back and pivoting on my butt as a solid unit.  Just stuck my leg out of the door and got up!  A MIRACLE!  Or, patience and letting things heal.

I am planning on hitting the gym for a very short, light session today mid-day.  I usually like to be  there in the wee hours of the morning when no one can see me, but for the moment, it's too cold out to drive that early...correction, too cold out to get stuck behind a wreck that early....and I want to be able to flag down a passerby or call the gym manager if I re-hurt myself and end up stuck on the floor.  It's a gym where one is usually ALONE (awesome!)

I think the back is ready for some controlled lifting of very very light weights. I could do a back bend this morning during my yoga session and that was impossible for the first week.  

things that went well during the injury:

having the 8lb NIEL logs to burn rather than having to split wood or pick up wood chunks of unknown weight.  

having enough water on hand  (have to haul it up hill during the winter for drinking purposes as the well water gets stale and gross.  And I'd have to lift the handle on the outdoor spigot which was not going to happen) to get through the first few days without hauling.

having multiple boot/show options as not all were possible to to put on.   

having enough clean clothes to make it though just one more week before hitting the laundry (more hauling and toting.  I COULD have made it work with multiple trips up and down the hill but ugh.  Those extra sox and undies meant I did not have to worry about it

having a floor-sleeping option.  Getting in and out of the loft when I had to be on hands and knees to get out of bed...there is only 6" of space beyond the camping mattress in the loft to work with.  That's FINE when I'm FINE, but not if I needed a level hard surface big enough to let me maneuver through various contortions to get on hands and knees to get out of bed.  So, camping mattress to the floor, chair blocking the door (not ideal but it's not like I could get up and run out if the place burst into flames anyway).   

having completely indoor toileting options.   People kept telling me "just pee outside!" uh...right.... 1+ times in the middle of the night every night you want me to come down from the loft, put something on my feet, find the headlamp, mosey OUTSIDE (down the stoop), find somewhere not visible on a moonlit night (and all day every day I'm home) from the highway, squat down, not pee on my ankles and then reverse those steps back into bed?  NO.  Also staying ahead of the toilet situation so i had a day or two to sort my back out before hauling the compost (which one hauls before it gets too heavy) bucket to the processing location OUTSIDE far from the homesite.

having enough food on hand.  Duh.

having first aid supplies on hand including aspirin and pain rub (arnica hippy dippy stuff)

Things that were not crashing successes...

losing my stability poles (ski poles from thrift) so I stopped at a thrift store ASAP and got another pair.  

having a leaky hot water bottle and no instant handwarmers!   so I didn't have an easy option to put heat on my back.  Still working on fixing this one.

falling down in the first place but...I fall often so this probably isn't going to change.