Supplies

[FC]

How are your supplies of stuff from the grocery store holding up?  
I’ve begun modified hydrophonic gardening using the ideas of this guy using 5 gallon buckets and the University of Hawaii’s professor Kratky for barrels. I’m not trusting stores or people in the event of a true crisis. https://youtu.be/BuqYmRmJrHo

[Dr.Hess]

Stores are mostly restocked around here.  TP is available, although the selection is down.  Peanut butter is back in stock.  Same with vitamins.

[FC]

Step-son's household was about out of TP until I bought some here at the VA canteen.

[karlunity]

Ok so far..and lots of History books

 

karl

[AzRednek]

I got brave enough to go to cell phone store with mask on. My cell took a real dump. At first it was only me and one sales clerk. Another sales person came in with two thirst busters telling the one loading my contact info on the new phone. “they’re all outta Marlboros”. I’ve been awaiting the test results on my Chink Stink test. My phone wasn’t ringing sending calls or text messages bounced as box full. With new cell I called Sonora Quest the test lab and nobody was answering. The sales lady told me she was unable to load my call log, texts or photos. I think she was just in a hurry to get out of there desperate to go buy cigarettes.  
 

On the way home saw cops in city park apparently 86-ing homeless. Bad idea saw a grocery cart pushing group walking into my neighborhood. Neighbor told me Dollar General shelves nearly empty. Employees told her groceries and supplies going to the biggies and all they get are the left overs. 
 

I’m over the worse of what ever it was I got. I can breathe again and temp back to normal or near normal but still coughing up crap out of my lungs. Despite the warnings from a PA and two RN’s I’m going to keep taking the Plaquenil until it’s gone. Just can’t buy their logic. Perfectly fine when prescribed by a Rheumatologist but I can die for taking it for the Flu. The RN that shoved the long Q-tip down my nose said I may have compromised the test results. Couldn’t bring myself to argue with her, despite the protective wardrobe she was knee weakening HOT!! 

[Dr.Hess]

All drugs have some risk associated with them.  This Plaquenil "ZOMG, IT'S BAAAD!!" is bullshit and appears to be orchestrated by the left to try to make President Trump look bad.  Trump didn't come up with that drug idea by himself.  He just told us all that it was there and appeared to be helping some.  The left looked it up in a PDR and started telling everyone they were going to get all the potential adverse drug reactions if they took it.  Bullshit.  And PA's and RN's should not be dispensing medical advice.  Ask the doctor's little helper (PA) what the physician that is responsible for all her decisions says about it.  And the RN's, ask them if they are telling you what to take, as that is outside the scope of their license.  Everyone thinks they're a doctor, but nobody wants to go to medical school and do it.

 

Sorry, Tony, didn't mean to dump on RN's, but I've been stabbed in the back too many times by them.  A lot of them seem to think they are there to protect the patient FROM the doctor.

[FC]

You and the hot nurse remind me of something a 40 y/o nurse said to another female nurse when she was complaining about men’s sex drives, “Honey, they never change!”

[donmarkey]

Still no tp here whenever I go to the store. But did get paper towel, water, and disinfectant at Home Depot this morning, when I got material for so projects around the house. Still can’t find flour, might have to use the frozen pizza dough instead of making it for pizza night. 

[FC]

Almond flour works well.

[donmarkey]

Never tried it. We generally go meijer, a larger store like Walmart. I did find some all purpose at a small local grocery. Still no bread flour. 

[donmarkey]

I went to the store yesterday morning and it was there. But sold out within 20 minutes. It’s not that stores don’t have it it’s people are grabbing it faster than they can stock the shelves. 

[FC]

Lowes only had a smattering of employees working. 

I started an account at Lehman's and got 10% off. I ordered canned meats and a little kerosene stove.

[karlunity]

Well the PC got their recession with the help of the CCP.  (who would also be very happy to see Trump gone.Now it seems that PC ( and they are in both parties) are trying for a Depression. Hey it worked in 32!!

I think Hill will be back...If Biden does not get the political ax I would be very surprised.

 

From the pov of a ole history teacher, this is fascinating 

karl

[AzRednek]

Guess I owe you medical guys an apology for my dumping on the medical profession. I’m really sorry guys.

The Dr I had for years retired and he spent his final few years at a clinic. I was dealing with a bureaucracy trying to get an appt with a real Dr. I was turned away from a hospital ER after they took my temperature telling me to contact my PC (primary care Dr). I had all the virus symptoms but I had to jump through numerous roadblocks trying to get tested. Found out later if I had lied and told the triage RN that I had recently traveled overseas. I could have been tested immediately. 
 

I guess dealing with the clinic for several days over the phone set me off. Turned out what I thought were PA’s turned out to be MA’s giving me bad advice like one saying hang up and call 911. As much as I tried I couldn’t convince them the hospital told me to contact my PA after being told numerous times to go to the ER. Following Dr Hess’ advice I asked what I assume was a MA. Did the Dr tell you that and what did he say. After the call I got a return call from a real PA that set me up a phone visit with a real Dr. 

Being a clinic that charges on an income sliding scale. I was a bit afraid the Dr might not be the best but I was desperate. Turned out he was pretty sharp and went above and beyond. He put the staff to work gathering up my records from specialists I’ve been seeing and even personally contacted my Cancer Dr by phone. From his voice he sounded young and probably wanted to do some networking but I was finally relived I was getting some help. When the Dr called me back a few days later he had already called in an order for a MRI and Rx’s and within 24 hours I could breathe again. I’m still weak from what I was told was an upper respiratory infection but at least I don’t feel like the grim reaper is near.

Tony as much as I ragged about RN PA’s , turned out many I spoke with were neither. I have no idea what a MA is but in my mind they have no business diagnosing anything or determining who gets a Dr appt. The MA’s I was dealing with, their real job is being translators as the clinic gets a lot Spanish speaking patients. When I was hospitalized years ago at The City of Hope it was a shrink PA that probably saved my life. She was the one that discovered three different Dr’s were prescribing pain meds and I was being overdosed. I guess the Dr’s or staff called her in as I was doing and saying some pretty stupid stuff and hallucinating. I don’t remember much of it other than begging the Dr’s for neck and back traction.
 

Anyhow Tony and Doc Hess I do apologize for venting about fighting the medical bureaucracy during this shut down. Guess I miss the days when I could call the Dr’s office early morning and get an appt that afternoon. I have a feeling in the future telephone Dr appts might become the norm. 
 

 

[FC]

Not a problem.

PAs are about the same level as nurse practitioners, but PAs aren't nurses. MA I assume is a medical assistant, which is an administrative position only.

There's a female horse's rear patient that sends messages frequently. She signs her name and puts, "disabled veteran". Give me a break! That's you, that's me, and that's every Joe and Lucy that I deal with. You're not extra special!

[AzRednek]

Late 80’s and early 90’s I often visited a RN working with a DO for Osteopathic manipulation on on my lower back. I don’t quite understand the degrees but she could write Rx’s not being a Dr. She was really cool, she was a lesbian but loved lesbian jokes. Her schedule was rarely full and she could spend time shooting the breeze.

She came from Luke AFB and I heard the pilots loved her. From what I heard she worked with the pilots needing to crash diet needing to shed weight rapidly to remain fighter pilots. She also as she said help nurse back to health dehydrated pilots that overdosed themselves on Milk of Magnesia and not drinking any fluids a few days before being weighed. 

She once told me and some staff a comical story how she got in trouble over and got a written reprimand in her file. She told us Luke was expanding and renovating the female officers showers. She said we looked at bare butts all day and nobody minded sharing the male shower facility for a few weeks. She said there was a male MD that was so shy he refused to undress in front of male Dr’s. She told us the shy male Dr had some kind of surgery and was out for a couple of hours. In the recovery room a couple of RN’s painted his balls blue before he awoke. She wasn’t directly involved but her staff was under her control and she turned a blind eye after hearing about It.  

During the 80’s while she was still at Luke. She was the ranking officer heading up a rescue crew after a serious roll over wreck of a Greyhound bus on the interstate about 15 miles from Luke. The local paper praised the crew for saving lives. She rapidly put together a medical crew on an AF bus arriving ahead of paramedics from nearby cities. Hated to see her leave but according to the Dr they couldn’t come close to paying her what she was offered by an out of state medical practice. 

[FC]

Hmm, and she didn't get kicked out. I can see why she got reprimanded. They took a big risk playing a joke on that doctor.

[AzRednek]

Don’t know Tony, I was never in the military but I guess it’s about the same as bad conduct for employees I supervised. My ass got chewed over their poor performance, overtime especially. 

[manureman]

  Tony thanks for the link to gardening with Leon! I’ve wanted to try raising tomatoes in containers for several years because of having blight in my gardens to the point I can’t get much of a tomato crop. I’ve got the mineral tubs to give the maters a try and some 55 gallon barrels to give the cucumbers a go in.

   Have you started anything yet? I’ll be getting a late start if at all this year because of the virus, can’t get more than just a few hours out of the truck since the feds have dropped the hours of service regs and everyone running scared of running out of groceries and the packing houses working around the clock.

   I’d appreciate it if you could give me a few pointers if you come across anything you learn by actually doing it. Thanks Jim

[FC]

You can see what I’ve got so far here. https://www.sporterizing.com/index.php?/topic/12981-gardening-with-leon/

I recommend spray painting the containers to keep them from UV deterioration. See Leon’s talk on fertilizers. I really like Lowe’s blue bag potting soil and Evergreen manure/compost. Leon says watch the manure nitrogen if you aren’t going for greens. I put acidifier in the berries, and put them in a mostly shaded area. Leon said keep tomatoes off the ground. 
Living Traditions Homestead is good too.

[FC]

I've got no confidence in the security of our country after Covid. It was a relatively minor scare, and look how people, and government reacted. That's why I'm prepping for shortages and hardships now. Thoughts?

[Dr.Hess]

My observations from shopping at Walmart, etc., not just reading the internet, are that people are very easily fooled and manipulated.  The level of fear in people's faces, especially at the start, was just amazing.  It's like they all believed the zombie movies as being real.  Especially certain minorities and poor non-minorities that tend to vote Democrat.  It was easy to see how Obama got elected, twice, by watching people push shopping carts full to the top with things they never eat or use down the isles of Walmart. 

The government(s) reactions to this was way out of proportion to the actual problems.  One must wonder why.  Just because they could?  Too stoopid to understand the real threats/risks?  Both? 

They Mormons say everyone should have a year's food as one of the basic blocks of their religion.  I think they are right.

[manureman]

   I’ve wondered about the response to this from the beginning. I really don’t buy the it was an accident story and don’t think I ever will. It makes me wonder what is really going on.

    My parents were both brought up in the depression and I was raised up to believe that hard times are very real and to be prepared. I’ve seen some mighty lean times , just like a lot of us but I’ve never been truly hungry ,both of my parents had been.

    The Mormons do have the food storage right and you are right not to trust our government or that our food supply is safe. I’ve spent my entire life fighting Mother Nature farming and there are just to many things human beings and governments don’t have any way of controlling for anyone to be comfortable believing otherwise.

    I’ve been a prepper for years, raising a garden, raising and butchering our own beef and hogs, canning and freezing stuff. I don’t have a lot of luck with my fruit trees mainly because I don’t like to use chemicals but I do get some stuff off of the couple dozen I have and they draw in other sources of protein.

    My Dad was an old man when he died 25 years ago and he’d just laugh and shake his head when people would talk about living off the land by hunting and fishing if times got bad, he claimed there wasn’t hardly anything left to hunt or fish for and that it got that way fast and with a lot less people doing it back then. I always believed him when he said that but now I truly understand after seeing the panic buying. 
  I dry canned beans, rice, oats, pasta... in fruit jars enough for a couple years a long time back but I’ve started helping my kids now that they are grown and have families but we are using Mylar bags oxygen absorbers and heat sealing them. We live in Mennonite and Amish country so dried goods in bulk are reasonable @ about 50 cents a pound in 50pound sacks to repackage in smaller amounts for long term storage.

  Mormons claim that stuff when put up proper will last 30+ years, makes me sleep a little better and my tinfoil hat seem a lot lighter. 
    Jim

[Dr.Hess]

I have read that wheat stored in the pyramids germinated.  I'm pretty sure that if you put 25 lb of wheat in a plastic bucket and sealed it up, it would stay good longer than we will.

[FC]

Somewhere I read it wasn't true, but I don't know for sure. I know DNA deteriorates. I did hear of 15 year old watermelon seeds of a near extinct SC variety that revived a variety. No active plants were left.