Questions for Icequeen

[WolFish]

Yuck, that brings back horrible memories. Me coming home from a vacation, and my flatmate had forgotten to take out the trash (plastic bags) for two weeks, she had thawed the freezer and thrown all the meat out before that. The bags were on the balcony, in the blazing sun.
Blowfly pops everywhere in the apartment, where there was something like carpet, or possibility to crawl away, there they were.
When I came back, she had just left for her vacation. Spend an awful lot of time cleansing the place, and the balcony. Did not want to sleep there till it was all clean again. Kept a few pops in a glass jar with a lid on it, to see what critters it were.

We had no mice.

When it is hot and humid, there will be maggots. I'm a vegetarian, but in summer, they will be outside in my green trash bin. (probably not blowflies) There is no way to prevent them. I do have all my "edible" trash in a bin outside, away from my house. (There is a small bin I clean everyday in the house, in summer I empty and rinse it more than once a day) Never ever do I want a maggot infestation in my house again.

arg
OK, not complaining anymore. We never had them in Florida; wonder if the central air kept it too dry in there. We left the trash for 10 days when we went to Hawaii (albeit a very small amount of trash) and the only issue when we returned was a minor odor.

[renaeden]

We have had maggots. The flies are attracted to the leftover cat food in the bin. We leave the back door open for the cats to come in and out while we are home and that is how the flies get in. We (Kayleigh and I) are considering getting a cat door fitting so no flies get in. They are expensive though.

[WolFish]

Bought a window air conditioner (for double hung windows) and thought it would be easy to find instructions to install it in my casement window. Instead every site has people who respond by telling the OP to go out and buy a casement air conditioner or a portable air conditioner. Most of the OPs had no option to do so.
Found a couple of posts about how to install in a sliding window, and finally one that said take the window apart.

The air conditioner is 16 inches wide and without the screen the opening is a little over 17 inches wide. There is a wide sill on the outside but the inside is weird. It has about 4 inches on one side of the window and maybe 2 on the other and then there is wall (yes, I live in a garret - but it's a nice garret).

I'm thinking maybe to put a 2x4 under it and bolt the air conditioner to that, and then another piece of wood where the window is supposed to hold it. Since there isn't much clearance on the sides I can use insulation. For the top part of the window I was thinking maybe plastic corrugated since I already have a piece.

OR
maybe I should sell my collection of hawaiian shirts and go buy a casement air conditioner from pall-mart.

[Icequeen]

It would work about the same way as putting it in a sliding window.

Most of the time I see something similar to this around here...only a lot less stable.



or this...



almost the same thing, just a little neater...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Mounting-a-Standard-Air-Conditioner-in-a-Sliding-W/

Never had casement windows but, I think I would end getting one of the portable AC units on wheels and seal off 98% of a small window except for the vent hole rather than fight with one of these installing it.

[Trigger 11]

How's your big ole truck?

[WolFish]

I don't have the amount of clearance on the window to do the second one. The first one won't work since mine is a true casement window.

I am going to see how hard it is to remove the window and the crank. We've plenty of wood to build up the sill inside and out. The real issue is that there's one inch of clearance - the air conditioner is 16 inches wide without the window kit, and the window is 17 inches.

We have a portable but it's huge. It was originally intended for my room but it's 'way heavy and has a big footprint. We have that one installed in the living room with corrugated plastic in the rest of the window.

[Icequeen]

How's your big ole truck?

My 94 Chevy S10 is still going great.

I'm now up to 45,000 miles.

If I keep it up I should hit 90,000 in only 20 more years.

[WolFish]

OK, meds last, but what about supplements and herbs in a house that in the summer reaches 90+ degrees?
My mother is giving me all these things she hasn't used and I am going to throw them away. I used to keep them in case I might need them but that's happened maybe two or three times in all the dozens of things she's given me.

I should think that something like turmeric wouldn't last being in that house for two or more years. But that's a long term benefit thing so there's no way of telling.
What about shitake mushroom extract? We eat those so I am throwing them out because the maker put all kinds of filler in the capsules. We can get the powder at the market
Or Ashwaganda? I like this stuff but if it's not fresh will it work less or not at all? This one is short acting so I am trying that too. No difference so far.
The cocoa powder with ashwaganda in capsules doesn 't seem to be doing anything either. It's a year and a half out of date.

What should be my limit? A year out? Six months?

[Icequeen]

OK, meds last, but what about supplements and herbs in a house that in the summer reaches 90+ degrees?
My mother is giving me all these things she hasn't used and I am going to throw them away. I used to keep them in case I might need them but that's happened maybe two or three times in all the dozens of things she's given me.

I should think that something like turmeric wouldn't last being in that house for two or more years. But that's a long term benefit thing so there's no way of telling.
What about shitake mushroom extract? We eat those so I am throwing them out because the maker put all kinds of filler in the capsules. We can get the powder at the market
Or Ashwaganda? I like this stuff but if it's not fresh will it work less or not at all? This one is short acting so I am trying that too. No difference so far.
The cocoa powder with ashwaganda in capsules doesn 't seem to be doing anything either. It's a year and a half out of date.

What should be my limit? A year out? Six months?

Roots and bark they say 1 to 2 years (if stored properly).

6 months to a year with everything else.

Personally I find most of them kind of start losing their effectiveness after about 6 months or more.

Vitamin and mineral supplements normally a year past the expiration date or longer (if stored properly).

The 90 degree heat factor would probably make me pitch them. They won't make you sick, but I doubt they will do anything.

[WolFish]

OK, so the next one is butter. Not sure when I left it in there but it's been in the freezer for maybe 8 months or so. My mother would start yelling if I bought new butter, so I used it. It tasted like freezer but otherwise seemed OK.

I've thrown out most of the supplements from between 2011 and 2014. Clearly she wasn't using them so no loss - she will think they went to good use, and they did - I used the empty bottles to manage the supplements I do want. She did make one recommendation that has some clinical support, but otherwise, what she was giving me was stuff that her naturoquack had prescribed for her.

Tomorrow I will do another purge and keep only what's in date or 6 months out.

['andersom']

OK, so the next one is butter. Not sure when I left it in there but it's been in the freezer for maybe 8 months or so. My mother would start yelling if I bought new butter, so I used it. It tasted like freezer but otherwise seemed OK.

I've thrown out most of the supplements from between 2011 and 2014. Clearly she wasn't using them so no loss - she will think they went to good use, and they did - I used the empty bottles to manage the supplements I do want. She did make one recommendation that has some clinical support, but otherwise, what she was giving me was stuff that her naturoquack had prescribed for her.

Tomorrow I will do another purge and keep only what's in date or 6 months out.

Your butter should be OK.
Maybe you can cut/scrape the outer layer away, and thus remove the freezer taste. Oxidation still happens in the freezer, at a very low speed. It starts at the outside of the butter. If the outer layer clearly is darker than the inside, just cut it away.

[WolFish]

OK, so the next one is butter. Not sure when I left it in there but it's been in the freezer for maybe 8 months or so. My mother would start yelling if I bought new butter, so I used it. It tasted like freezer but otherwise seemed OK.

I've thrown out most of the supplements from between 2011 and 2014. Clearly she wasn't using them so no loss - she will think they went to good use, and they did - I used the empty bottles to manage the supplements I do want. She did make one recommendation that has some clinical support, but otherwise, what she was giving me was stuff that her naturoquack had prescribed for her.

Tomorrow I will do another purge and keep only what's in date or 6 months out.

Your butter should be OK.
Maybe you can cut/scrape the outer layer away, and thus remove the freezer taste. Oxidation still happens in the freezer, at a very low speed. It starts at the outside of the butter. If the outer layer clearly is darker than the inside, just cut it away.

It's all the same color. I buy high fat butter. Maybe fat has a slower oxidation speed? This stuff is Danish stuff called Lurpak. My mother buys Horizon because it's organic but it also gets that darker layer around it. I buy my own and hide it in her freezer.

Remember all those science experiments in my fridge? My mother is a thousand times worse. She eats things even I would not eat. Or she heats them up and asks me to try them.
She has a very good toilet.

['andersom']

OK, so the next one is butter. Not sure when I left it in there but it's been in the freezer for maybe 8 months or so. My mother would start yelling if I bought new butter, so I used it. It tasted like freezer but otherwise seemed OK.

I've thrown out most of the supplements from between 2011 and 2014. Clearly she wasn't using them so no loss - she will think they went to good use, and they did - I used the empty bottles to manage the supplements I do want. She did make one recommendation that has some clinical support, but otherwise, what she was giving me was stuff that her naturoquack had prescribed for her.

Tomorrow I will do another purge and keep only what's in date or 6 months out.

Your butter should be OK.
Maybe you can cut/scrape the outer layer away, and thus remove the freezer taste. Oxidation still happens in the freezer, at a very low speed. It starts at the outside of the butter. If the outer layer clearly is darker than the inside, just cut it away.

It's all the same color. I buy high fat butter. Maybe fat has a slower oxidation speed? This stuff is Danish stuff called Lurpak. My mother buys Horizon because it's organic but it also gets that darker layer around it. I buy my own and hide it in her freezer.

Remember all those science experiments in my fridge? My mother is a thousand times worse. She eats things even I would not eat. Or she heats them up and asks me to try them.
She has a very good toilet.

Maybe the high-fat is the reason. Don't know. I know that if I buy cheaper butter it gets darker on the outside way faster than when I buy the more expensive brands. The wrapping around the more expensive brands is more solid, so I guessed that that was the reason.
I like butter, but I am the only one eating it in this household. So, I cut it in pieces, and then freeze most of it. Sometimes I forget that I still have butter in the freezer. It always was good.
Read a bit on it, because of your question. Lots of different results. The most scientific one said it was not a problem at all to store it long term in the freezer.
Made sense to me. In Europe there used to be very cheap X-mass butter in theseventies, to empty the freezers of the European Economic Community.

[WolFish]

My mother bought too much food and now expects me to eat it. I have gotten away with tossing the spoiled stuff when she isn't looking. She's forgetful, too, so when she bought something I actually like (shrimp) she left them on the table for a few hours. I socked them in the freezer when I discovered it.

The odor is slightly off, but I put garlic and onion an spices, oh, my. The shrimp aren't sticky, slimy or stinky. They just smell a little odd. I left 2/3 marinating in spices, soy sauce and lemon juice while I cooked and ate 1/3 of them.

Just wondering what the limit is. I don't have the energy to get far enough to any grocery store so I am kind of at her mercy. Today I am eating hot food for the first time because I managed to get the heating done while she was on the phone. Otherwise she comes along and pulls the plug so it doesn't waste electricity (or successfully heat my food).

I might be able to cook the shrimp on the stove - I did last night's meal while she slept. Otherwise she would tell me to put it in the toaster oven. With shrimp, that means it will be over or seriously underdone. I don't know how to cook shrimp in the oven.

[WolFish]

never mind. the shrimp were not ok. at least i think it was the shrimp. it could have been the cucumbers. I thought i had tossed all the soft ones, but i was so hungry i might had missed some. I did eat a lot of rotisserie chicken skin, but that was relatively fresh from 2-3 days ago. in any case, i'll wait before i eat the rest.