Ahh, the rewards of taking giant dogs for a long walk.
I decided the canal was boring and went to the mountains instead.
Took the Javelina Trail up into South Mountain Preserve (that's what the sign says, anyway), went along a narrow trail for quite a ways and then found a good, steep hill with a cool looking pathway going up it. We headed up there. Danes weren't struggling, Leopard Dog was climbing it with ease. Got to the top and all 4 of us were breathing heavily.
Went up yet another one and then started back down again.
It was a couple mile long walk in total. It's so beautiful up in those mountains. Yes, it's all desert type terrain, but it's a step out of the city simply by walking 3 blocks. Really - the difference is amazing. Plus, you get back in there and the sounds and sights of the city disappear. Only when you climb to the top of a hill or mountain do you see the city - which usually isn't anything spectacular because the first thing that glares out at you is the brown layer of smog covering the inner-city.
I don't know if that's hitting the place where I live or not. I'm up off the desert floor since I'm so close to the base of the mountain. The brown cloud only goes so high - but impossible to tell if my house is in the midst of it or not. I would like to hope not.
Anyways, I'm off to Fry's - they are having some good sales on certain things. Hamburger Helper is on sale for a buck a box. It's usually at least 2 bucks per box. I am not an AVID fan of it, but when I add my own ingredients, it makes it taste better. The thing I like about it is that the kids love it, it's easy to throw together. It's one of those things I cook when I don't really feel like cooking. I'm going to get at least 25 boxes of it - I'm still doing my food store thing that I haven't really been talking about. In that department, I could easily live a month off of what I have in my house now in terms of food, working towards 2 months.
But I don't want to get into that now. I just don't believe we are anywhere NEAR the end of this economic collapse. From the beginning of this nonsense, at least some of the financial guru's have speculated that the end of this thing will be sometime in 2010, when the final ARM's come due and that will be the last of it. From what I have been reading on certain forums, 2009 could be far WORSE than 2008. That's bad if that's true. I don't live in fear, but I do want to live realistically. Realistically for me, food is not something you can live without - and if it gets really bad, I want something to be able to fall back on.
As for right NOW, I'm going to take my little trip to Fry's : )
ben
11 comments:
I think that stockpiling is a good idea, although I have been trying and I just can't buy enough. Meat is so high right now that it's hard to get anything but pork or ground beef. For four, it costs about $16 for ribs, steaks, or chicken breasts/wings, and roasts. Pork chops are about $10 for four.
Apples & oranges are about $1.25 each.
No wonder we always resort to bread & pasta!
not a bad idea to stock up on non-perishables.i got a pretty good supply laid in myself
Kate: Well ribs and steaks are things I only buy when they are on sale - and a good sale at that. Otherwise it's chicken and ground beef - and I only buy those 2 items on sale as well. I did buy a roast today - a small one - that I am going to dump in the crock pot and let sit in there today until it pulls apart with a fork and then turn it into barbequed beef sandwiches.
I don't buy apples or oranges unless I find a good deal on them - around here you can find big bags of them being sold at great prices on side-of-the-road setups.
But, hey, pasta is wonderful!
Old: Yes, I can imagine you do! I'm trying to get the storehouse up to a 3 month supply of food - all in the non-perhishable form. Meaning a lot of canned and boxed goods.
ben
Just keep an eye on expiration dates and be sure to be aware of insect or rodent infestations. The most I ever bought was 14 cases of canned goods at one stop, but that was way before even people getting excited about Y2K.
Truck is stopped in Idaho facing south. I am really impressed at the picture quality he puts out.
It's pretty cool nowadays that every single thing you buy from the store - just about anyway - that is food - has a stamped notation on it about the expiration date. I didn't look at Hamburger Helper's expy date: Looks like about a year for Hamburger Helper. Not bad. I only bought today that which I like and would eat. I'm particularly fond of the cheesy hashbrowns. Problem with Hamburger helper is that most of it needs milk. If you're hurtin' for food, one wonders if milk is even an option. But I got it anyway.
They also have that Campbell's chunky soup - meal in a can basically - for a buck a can. That stuff is 2 years in storage before using. I'm looking at getting another 30 cans of that, too, before it goes off sale.
I just went there, the truck is driving through what appears to be snow on either side of the road and a lot of water on the road itself. I remember thsoe days. I did read his site a little - he's a Christian and I also looked at the equipment he's using. Probably cost a little bit by the time you put that entire package together.
I used to stock up, but found that too often the expiration date arrives before I use it, even canned goods. Throwing stuff out cost more in the end. Tomatoes are VERY high for us at the moment.
In the end, I'm starting to buy stuff when I need them and stock up very little.
I do pretty good with food. I bought three 8lb bags of organes for $10 and 4lbs of apples for $4. and two big boxes of strawberries for $3. I am good too go for meat as Jim's brother works at a locker out in the country. So I have lots of meat. I also buy anything on sale. We buy a lot of stuff at Sam's club and other discount places. One thing Jim does not want me too do is be cheap with food. Been there done that in our youth.
Roz
Dorrie: Yes, a definite drawback would be letting it go to waste. I also love tomatoes - and find them at a good price at a farmer's market not far from here. In fact, that place has a lot of good veggies and fruits for lower prices than supermarkets.
Roz: Yeah, I ate the mac and cheese, hot dogs til' I felt like puking stuff when I was younger. Incredibly, I still love hot dogs but eat them very rarely because they simply aren't too good for your health. I don't remember eating mac and cheese in the last decade, maybe the last 2 decades.
I can't do Sam's club - I end up spending too much there. I'll buy things that aren't such a great deal, too, and then end up just wasting away the whole reason I went there, which was to find some deals and get out.
I also have lots of meat - but I buy the stuff on sale and freeze it. Because I travel all over the place, I can stop at all kinds of places, get the deals and move on. There's a cattle ranch near Casa Grand that has a store where I sometimes stop in and buy 20, 30, 40 pounds of beef or whatever. The meat is much better quality than what I am seeing in the grocery store with a great price.
ben
I found it interesting that he went to truck stops and interviewed many drivers about what they did and did not like about their company.
His guestbook has many truckers or family members of truckers posting comments. One comment was from Siberia.
He is out of the snow now heading south to Salt Lake City and then on to Nebraska the same way he just came.
Hope you had a wonderful day, B. :)
I go to a truckers website - truckersreport.com - and view the stuff that is written there about the various companies. I've been perusing it lately - a "just-in-case" type of thing. I don't want to work for any of them because they are all either OTR or Regional. My days of OTR are over for now, anyway.
Doanli: Why thank you and I hope the same for you!
ben
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