And the Walls Came a-Tumbling Down

Walls of jars and cans, that is.

We Preppers have lots of food in cans and jars. Traditional commercial canned goods and food we can ourselves is less expensive than those expensive free-dried food for preps, for one thing, and this way much of our food storage is what we use anyway - thus it gets automatically rotated.

But these things are HEAVY and full of water, unlike dehydrated or freeze dried food. So when the husband and I put together the kitchen pantry unit we added center reinforcement to the shelves that would hold heavy stuff. OTOH, we left the side attachments as they were, little push in plastic crap in pre-drilled holes in the press-board sides.

Well.

Yesterday morning I went into the pantry unit to get something out of it. As I said, this is full of stuff I use daily. The door of the pantry unit wouldn't close. I casually looked - no can were blocking it. Odd. I looked further. Okay, one of the shelves had slid forward a bit and was blocking the door. I figured I could just slid it back....

I pushed - and the little support under that corner of the shelf popped out and skittered across the flood. And the hole it has been in was deformed, as was the little support. In fact, ALL the supports and holes of that shelf and the one above it had that problem. And the sides of the unit were bowed out severely.

The cans, now realizing that with the door open and support in that corner gone, started sliding.....

I grabbed boxes and stared loading cans and jars into the box, starting with the heaviest ones. But as I emptied shelf space the shelves got MORE angled and slidey, I guess as torsion changed and the unit warped differently. More of the stupid mostly useless plastic shelf supports skittered around the floor.

I did rescue all the jars and cans before any died. Then washed the shelves, since that was easy and they were accessible. Then it was off to the hardware store for L shaped brackets.... then the joy of installing them on top an bottom of each shelf, since there is NOTHING I like batter than wielding a heavy drill while flat on my back wearing safety glasses to keep particle board shards out of my eyes ...

Oh, wait - all my husband's #2 drill bits were in BAD shape. I glared at him (at least he was working with me on this) and went back to the hardward store for a 10 pack of them. And every dang #2 drill bit was from China, to boot. Gag. Had to buy 'em anyway.

Back home, back to work. Opened a bar of Lindt milk chocolate (not that IT is American made, either, for that matter). Finally got it all done, but it took forever. Would have been FAR easier doing it at the beginning, no flat on back drilling if we could have put the unit on ITS back, but it's bolted to the wall and other furniture.

How was YOUR weekend?



Frondly, Fern

Altars, an Alternative View

Pagans, most of you have WAY too much crap on your altars.

It's a table for you to do work on. Keep it clear of extraneous stuff.

Calling quarters? Great! Then there's no need to repeat elemental symbols on your altar.
Using salt water and incense to scribe the circle? Great! THOSE go on the alter.
Have light in the room? Great! No need for a candle.

What about magical tools? If you don't have a reason to handle them, don't have them on your altar - they are symbols and already included in your body. Your mind, your will, your emotions, your body, the fire of life or spirit within you - alread there if you're there.

Constantly having 'symbols of the season'? Feh. You're working 'in a place that is not a place, in a time that is not a time'. And sometime we'll discuss the issues involve with planetary energies - yeah, it's coming on Yule here in the North, but it's coming on Midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere. I consider it more complicated than I want to get into now.

Depending on how you are doing the hoodoo you do, you might want to avoid an altar cloth. Like if you are making Briget's Crosses out of reeds. The altar will be your work surface, and you'll be doing wet messy work.

In the words of Thoreau - Simplify! Simplify! Simplify!

Frondly, Fern