Random Questions

Yowie. Maybe very very diluted bleach solution??

Rub a lemon and salt mixture over the stain @JustaMom5465 and leave it overnight. You can also use a fine grain sandpaper and buff it out. Just use a coat of oil after it’s out.

Soft Scrub with Bleach took out stains when my kitchen used to have light Formica countertops. It would probably work well on butcher block, too.

Do you think so? In my grandparent’s generation a lot of people had to kill what they ate. I have a cookbook from my grandma that always starts with one chicken (or even opossum) and details out how to clean/pluck/whatever in a section of the book. Cow and pig killings were almost holidays in the fall with everyone gathering together to help and feast.

There were very few vegetarians in her day - none that she knew. It seems to be a more modern trend.

We have family in Italy that still raise their own animals to eat. Some of the best food I’ve ever tasted!

I also agree with @creekland that there are very few vegetarians (and also very few folks with food allergies).

Severe food allergies would have been “culled” out in the past by the affected kids not surviving. That’s one area where modern medicine and understanding has been incredibly helpful.

Thinking of our travels, many areas where they raise their own animals to eat have few vegetarians. Disney has probably created more vegetarians by their representing animals (even mice!) as “human” vs those who see and raise the real thing in person.

I should probably add I’m not at all anti vegetarians or vegans. We, ourselves, choose to eat less meat to help the planet and our health, but we personally won’t go vegetarian because I’m not convinced it’s the best choice for omnivores - esp humans - who need some of the nutritional content meat easily provides.

We do, however, very much support humane treatment of animals vs factory farms. We pay extra for Certified Humane (and NOT vegetarian fed) eggs when I need to buy them, etc. (Usually our eggs come from our own chickens though.)

However when it comes to choosing vegetarian, I definitely don’t think if more people raised animals there would be more vegetarians. I don’t see that anywhere in history for the majority. I see the opposite.

We’re not living in the past or in Italy, though. Heck, I know people that don’t even want to see bones or chicken skin.

Many folks in the US live far from farm life. That didn’t used to be the case.

Additionally, it was a JOKE and I didn’t say “majority”. I said “many more”.

I’m just musing with a discussion - not meaning at all for anyone to get upset.

I saw your statement this morning that got my mind thinking, that’s all. It’s kind of an interesting thing to ponder.

Speaking of discussion - just had more on the same topic with farming lad. He proposes that the reason more people are switching to being vegetarian (where it’s happening) is because they can. Food is plentiful. People are wealthy enough to be able to have choices. Their choices depend upon their whims (health or personal preference or whatever).

Where people are poor and/or food is scarce they eat what they have access to because they need the nutrition. That might be plants or meat. In many areas they ate both, but the meat was raised on areas where they couldn’t raise plants for eating and it ate the plants (or parts thereof) humans didn’t eat. This includes hunted meat if they didn’t raise their own.

The lad seems to have some solid reasoning behind him.

It’s a big world out there.

From Wikipedia:
The earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant number of people are from ancient India, especially among the Hindus[1] and Jains.[2] Later records indicate that small groups within the ancient Greek civilizations in southern Italy and Greece also adopted some dietary habits similar to vegetarianism.[3] In both instances, the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence toward animals (called ahimsa in India), and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers.[4]

Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire in late antiquity (4th–6th centuries), vegetarianism nearly disappeared from Europe.[5] Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat for ascetic reasons, but none of them abstained from the consumption of fish; these monks were not vegetarians, but some were pescetarians.[6] Vegetarianism was to reemerge somewhat in Europe during the Renaissance[7] and became a more widespread practice during the 19th and 20th centuries. The figures for the percentage of the Western world which is vegetarian varies between 0.5% and 4% per Mintel data in September 2006.

In my old world family, they couldn’t afford to have meat a regular part of their diet. It was a very big deal to slaughter. Planned.

“Vegetarian,” when used to convey intent, can be misleading. It’s what they had. If something didn’t preserve (pickled herring, sausage, ham,) all they had was vegetables, grains, whatever. Barrels of sauerkraut, bags of grains., apples, potatoes, beets, onions, etc.

Growing up in the US with these immigrants, my favorite foods were the non meat. When you think about it, lots of us like the non meat. Pastas, couscous, bulgar, the cabbages, latkes, veg based soups, whatever. In some cultures, beans.

About medieval times, there was also mandated tribute to the king or local lords. Or priests. Not always a lot left over.

I know for myself, how often meat was consumed was never part of the discussion. Even today in a good part of the world it’s not part of an everyday meal due to cost and/or availability.

Our discussion was merely whether folks chose to be vegetarians if they had to kill their own meat. I don’t see that correlation widely existing until modern times, but I’m sure in history there have always been some.

Religious reasons and everything else were outside of the scope of our musing. Those have existed forever.

Anyone here have to evacuate their home for fire or other natural disasters? We are planning in the remote chance due to fire danger that we may have to do so. Obviously H and I and dog and cat are first priority.

What time period did you have to prepare? What was good to bring, not bring? What ideas seemed good but were not? What should you have done you did not?

@rockymtnhigh my evacuation/packing list for my dogs is:

  • kibble
  • jarred single-ingredient baby food to mix and fill
  • kongs
  • microchip info
  • vet info; some familiarity with animal hospitals along your possible routes
  • shot, registration records
  • leashes / harnesses / Gentle Leaders (my dogs are large and can be reactive)
  • long lines for a little freedom with security at rest areas
  • bowls and water
  • waste bags
  • meds if any, plus preventives given routinely (Tri-Heart and Bravecto here)
  • towels and lots of water to cool them off if needed; I had my AC fail 1,100 miles away from home in high summer with a large black long-haired dog.
  • blankets, toys, dirty laundry that smells like you to help soothe them

For people:

  • under your circumstances, fire extinguisher(s)
  • nonperishable food
  • can opener, utensils (ask me how I learned)
  • IDs, deeds, titles, passports, birth certs – whatever vital records you have in your home
  • phone numbers, other contact info
  • paper maps
  • a radio and batteries
  • water
  • cash
  • flashlights, batteries
  • utility knives
  • soap towelettes / rags / paper towels
  • toiletries (sunscreen!), OTC and Rx meds, first aid supplies
  • sleeping bags, blankets, pillows
  • books
  • electronics, charged portable chargers, car chargers
  • full tank of gas, check all car fluids
  • work gloves

If your username means you live anywhere near the Rockies, then you probably already carry blankets, etc., year-round. Wear comfortable clothes and excellent shoes.

We have some version of the above with us whenever we go somewhere, and while it’s gone mostly unused (we haven’t been in an emergency situation like yours), we never regretted bringing it. My husband calls it cheap insurance.

Hope you don’t need any of this – stay safe!

https://www.aspca.org/sites/default/files/disaster-preparedness-checklist.pdf

True, some of this we carry already in the car year round. We also have a small shovel and deet/sunblock/OTC meds already in the car normally. Maps are essential as we have traveled for hundreds of miles without reception.

I copied off @HouseChatte list to have ready for panic time. Once we had no utensils on a cross country trip! That’s easy to forget.

LOL @rockymtnhigh2 I forgot to mention shovels! We have them in our cars all year, so it would be like saying “Don’t forget your tires!”

Besides the essentials listed above, the two things we have “ready to go” should we ever need to leave due to a housefire or whatever are an old box of irreplaceable family pictures and a small lock box with all of our essential paperwork in it (those listed by @HouseChatte mostly).

Then we’d grab our backpacks which we slide computers into. Inside those we have our passports (left over from the days when we traveled often). If we couldn’t get those, that’s not as important as the lockbox has copies, but H’s computer is pretty important for him for work. Mine, not so much, just for fun.

To us, if needed, everything else is replaceable.

Best wishes to you.

Hard copies are certainly better but you could consider taking pictures and putting them in the cloud. That could mean simply emailing yourself copies of the pictures or even just having them on your phone. At least then you have all the numbers you need and a visual image just in case the worst happens and you can’t get to the originals. Stay safe and I hope you don’t have to evacuate.

But don’t rely on your phone only. Anything important email or put on Google drive etc. This way you can always get it at a late date. Phones fail and can get lost. Your phones should be set to automatically back up to cloud for these things but you will be surprised how many are not.