One of our friends’ family members was grocery shopping recently at a nearby “big box”
market. She had just corralled her two small children for the walk from the parking lot to the store when she noticed a bumper sticker on the back of a nearby pick-up truck. The sticker read, “What luck for rulers that men don’t think.” The young mother was intrigued.

All along her walk across the parking lot she thought, “I wonder who said that?” and  – thinking about some of the bumper stickers she’d read in traffic recently – “ I wonder who would have a bumper sticker like that on their truck?”

All throughout her shopping experience her mind kept going back to the words on the sticker and wondering what the truck’s owner might be thinking in posting such a provocative comment.

She finally finished shopping, got back to her car and had just finished unloading her groceries and putting the kids in their car seats when she happened to look up to see a grandmotherly-looking woman in hospital scrubs putting several grocery bags in the bed of “bumper sticker” pick-up.

She couldn’t resist. “I was just noticing your bumper sticker and I wonder if you know who that quote was from?”, she asked. The woman smiled and said she did and began a conversation that included a number of interesting comments. Here are some of them as remembered:

• “You know that I’ve been around the block a few more times than you and with a young family like yours, you ought to begin storing up some extra food. I think in about three months or so we’re going to experience an attack right here in our own country.”
• “Stores like this one only have food for two days or so, even in good times.”
• “I’m now cooking with dried beans and rice from scratch. They’re especially good for you and they’re inexpensive.”
• “ Save and clean your used food jars because they’re great to store things like rice and dried beans.’
• “Start buying a little extra each shopping day and put it away for an emergency.”
• “People don’t know their history. History repeats itself and we’re about in the 1930’s.
• “About the quote; it was from Adolph Hitler. When I tell people that, they often think I’m supportive of him and/or his views but it’s just the opposite. However, the truth is the truth no matter who says it.”
• “We’re on the way to a one-world government now and a number of governments are involved in this effort.”
• “Imagine how you’d feed your family during a martial-law situation.”
• “Listen to what the people are saying.”

During the first telling of this little story, we were told that an especially spiritual member of the group listening speculated that the lady might be an angel. One of those with a more historical perspective noted that when a number of the German-Jewish survivors of the holocaust were asked how they could have missed the signs of its approach they said, “ … things happened so slowly.” And finally, a third speculated that the lady represented an example of the deep and growing dissatisfaction abroad in the country; along with a profound distrust in/of government.

Please feel free to draw your own conclusions.

Until next time; keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers changing fast.

Plastic, Liquid Medicine Dispenser: This dispenser is a single, contained unit consisting of a reservoir that holds about 2.5 ml (cc) of liquid medicine (originally) with an attached threaded dispensing nozzle and a screw-on top. Finally, a snap-on/off cap covers the nozzle and screw-on top.

This small, 2&1/4in. tall x 7/8in. wide x 3/4in. deep unit makes a great mini-oil dispenser after you expand the nozzle dropper’s opening and channel with your Swiss Army Knife’s leather punch blade (or similar tool). The foregoing procedure will let you get rid of any medicine residue by turning the unit upside down on a paper towel overnight and “load” the unit with a multi-purpose oil of your choice directly via oil can nozzle inserted into the nozzle of your new mini-oil dispenser.

This unit (formerly a dispenser for prescription liquid eye-drops) is now your field-kit oil dispenser that will deliver a surprisingly large number of discreet drops of oil to keep you moving parts moving and your metal surfaces from rusting.

Breath Mint/Candy Tins: We re-use our Altoid-type tins after wiping any residue from inside the now-empty tins with a small rag saturated with rubbing alcohol and letting air-dry. We use three sizes: a. 3/4in. deep x 2&½ in. wide x 3&3/4in. long (mints-type), b. 7/8in. deep x 1&1/2in. wide x 3&3/8in. long (chewing gum-type) and c. 5/8in. deep x 1&1/2in. wide x 2&1/2in. long (tiny-tin type).

Each type tin might find use as/in your mini-kits: fishing, first-aid, tool, survival, fire starting, or parts etc.

Please note that the ziploc-type pill pouches mentioned in Part II last week will fit nicely into tins a. and b. above and that your new mini-oil dispenser would fit well into a.

Plastic Test Tubes/”Tube Vaults”: These test tube shaped, screw capped containers are about 5.75in. tall x 1in in diameter. They will hold about 50ml (roughly 2 oz.) of liquid and are “…  made from food and pharmaceutical grade, crush resistant, polyethylene terephalate (PET).”

They are described as”Baby Soda Bottles” by one source (stevespenglerscience.com) and as “Tube Vaults” by another (countrycomm.com).

They appear to be nearly indestructible by crushing, dropping, etc and are light-weight. Their weakness seems to be that they are not flame proof and that extreme heat will melt them.

They would seem to have use as mini-cache tubes, food/ condiment containers for sealed foods/condiments for the back pack, or serviceable as almost any kit container. We just got a supply (15 for about $10 + postage) and are working them into our programs as we write this.

We’re mentioning them last because you’ll probably have to buy these as containers and not find them from re-use sources. We think they’re worth the bucks but take a look at the sources we’ve named, or kk.org/cooltools, and decide for yourselves.

Until next time, keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers moving fast.

• “… the re-using of certain items you buy. Mostly food containers. How many food grade containers do we discard everyday, from plastic peanut butter containers to bread bags? All of these items are safe for reuse and are already food grade.”
• “Take for instance plastic peanut butter jars. The big ones can be used to store things in the fridge just like Tupperware.”
• “I recalled … my grandmother and my great grandmother. Both of these women lived through extremely hard times, and I remember them saving every bread bag and food grade container. I remember them washing out the bread bags and paper milk cartons for re-use. We used these for everything from taking lunch to the garden to freezing butchered chickens and rabbits.”
• “My list of re-usable items is easy: any plastic food grade container you can think of.”
• “My recommendations for preparation of the plastic containers, is soak the label off the container in hot water. Try to scrub as much of the adhesive off the jar as possible. There is not a reason to make sure the adhesive is gone other than how it looks. If you have a dish washer, wash your plastic containers in the top shelf of the dish washer to sterilize them. Don’t put them on the bottom shelf because it will melt them.”
• “The plastic containers that can be sterilized in the dishwasher, I only see them going bad if you get tired of them.”
• “Bread bags are simply washed out with water, taking care not to get the outside wet if you can. Turn the bags inside out and hang up open end down. After about an hour turn the bag back right and let dry again. Now simply roll them up of fold them and put them in a drawer.”
• “Do not forget from whence you came.”

There is a lot more in Mr. Hayes informative article and we recommend that you read it in it’s entirety.

If you want to get a quick idea about “the Backwoodsman” you can visit them at www.backwoodsmanmag.com. The magazine purports to be “The Magazine for the Twenty-First century Frontiersman” and that description may very well fit a great many Americans in these times.

Next mid-week, PrudentHome will continue the “Using What You Have” theme with a Part II that will discuss some non-food containers commonly found around and some of their other uses. We might also throw in one or two containers that could be valuable enough to actually go out and purchase by themselves.

Until next time; keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers moving fast.