I’m sick as a dog. In hopes of wriggling our of having to go to work, I took a home COVID test. I don’t have them but my visitors are Canadian, so they stock up on tests.
I tested negative but it changes nothing. I have all the same symptoms that I did a year ago. And two years ago. And three. It’s a seasonal virus I invariably get in August. What does it help to know that it’s not this coronavirus but some other coronavirus? I’m still sick.
I ate a bread and butter sandwich, and it tasted horrid. Had some watermelon – horrid. To set a benchmark, I drank some Coke because that’s a taste that doesn’t offer much variation. It tasted horrid. I tried it on a nephew, and he said it’s delicious.
Went to the store and discovered that the salmon I always used to buy at Sam’s is twice the price it used to be. Literally, twice. So I bought chicken thighs instead. Who cares if it all tastes like raw sewage to me at this point? I’m baking them with tomatoes, herbs, cheese and pea shoots.
Clarissa's Blog 
I have heard from others who had it recently, that it is common to test negative for the first few days, and then start testing positive around day 5, when you’re already past the worst of it. And the thing is contagious for a ridiculously long time.
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I also had Covid twice. I was coerced to take 3 doses of the Pfizer vaccine between the sicknesses. They were completely useless since both times I had exactly the same symptoms with the exact same intensity. To add insult to the injury, I felt sick for one evening after the first and third dose, and really sick after the second. Nothing like a government that cares for us, right?
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When you’re sick with this kind of thing, avoid anything with raffinose in it, especially cruciferous/brassica vegetables.
What’s in them can be weaponised against you by opportunistic bacteria that are usually kept submissive except when you’re going through a viral infection.
Backup plan: basmati long-grain rice with lots of good salt (Celtic or Real Salt) and cultured butter (which we prefer Finlandia or President here because we can’t get Cornish butter).
I can already hear it: “But Crackpot, what about American butter?”
Yes, I know it exists.
There are some California and Vermont producers of what’s called “European style butter” here, but in the main, it’s as if most American butter producers don’t know what real butter is.
But real butter, real salt, and carbs that are easy on the stomach makes a better plan than staying miserable because you haven’t eaten stuff that will stay with you.
So … I’m going to preface the rest of this with a warning: this isn’t alarmist, this is about inflation hedging.
The farm reports for the Inter-Mountain West pretty much say the same thing, and it’s not good.
“Inputs cost” is the major driver behind ranchers culling their herds of cattle, and it’s just now ramping up after starting out slowly about ten weeks ago.
Beef prices will slide lower or trend at what they’ve been over the past few months right now, and there will be very little to no shortage of beef anywhere.
But toward the end of the year, if what these experts in their agricultural supply fields are saying about the real situation involving the US beef supply are correct, I’d expect at least what you’ve just discovered with salmon.
Actually, I’m expecting $40/lb New York strips.
Now the potentially alarmist part: buy a chest freezer, or better yet, buy two.
Load your freezer or freezers with all of the beef you can afford.
Prices will be much better if you can split a single steer (or cow, the way this is now going) with a few other people since you may be able to get the processing done under state regulations instead of the USDA, saving both time and money.
These forecasted massive price increase drivers for beef aren’t going to affect chicken production as much, but lamb would certainly also be something to stock up on.
About cheap freezers: these don’t use R-134a or R-410a, but instead typically use cyclopentane, which is an inflammable coolant.
They’re safe enough to use in a garage if you keep them away from things that could puncture them, especially the coolant lines, and if you keep them away from ignition sources and high heat sources, such as the back end of vehicles.
We were in Ocala a few weeks ago and saw that even the Target near the mall had basic feature 5 cubic foot freezers for under $300.
Given that you’re in a somewhat suburban sounding kind of place, having a 35+ cubic foot freezer is probably not something your utilities bill would tolerate, and you probably don’t have space for it.
But you could stick two or three of these smaller freezers in some otherwise unused corners of your house, and individually they draw less power than a typical desktop PC.
I also can hear this: “But Crackpot, you probably have local farmers to buy meat from!”
And yes, we do, in single head of cattle quantities even.
Every head of cattle that gets bought locally doesn’t wind up at Winn-Dixie or Walmart.
Yeah, ever heard of the USDA Strategic Meat Reserve?
Me neither, but China has one for pork, go figure.
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