A New Use for Freezer Burned Foods

Apparently there are a whole host of households across America that throw out foods that have been chilling in the freezer for too long.

Corn, peas, whole grains, and even some frozen meats can become unappetizing over time in the freezer, and while you could always chop it up for stew, another use could be to replace bread when you go to the park to feed the ducks.

If you've been keeping your ear to the ground, you might have heard that bread isn't really all that good for ducks. The Guardian published an article in March about this, apparently excesses of bread have no value for the ducks nutritionally, can result in the development of "angel wing", a serious deformity for this kind of bird that prevents normal flight and can even hinder flight entirely, and the increases in algal blooms in freshwater and rats on dry land.

If you are interested, here is the author's list of Safe For Ducks and Not Safe For Ducks foods:

Sfd (Safe for ducks)

• Cracked corn
• Wheat, barley or similar grains
• Oats
• Rice (cooked or uncooked)
• Birdseed (any type or mix)
• Grapes (cut in half)
• Frozen peas or corn (defrosted, no need to cook)
• Earthworms
• Mealworms
• Chopped lettuce or other greens or salad mixes
• Chopped vegetable trimmings or peels
• Duck pellets

Nsfd (Not safe for ducks)

• Bread
• Chips
• Crackers and biscuits
• Popcorn
• Sugary food - sweets, chocolate

Is it feasible to start an online co-op?

There are a lot of things that aren't really perishable that you can buy at ridiculously cheap prices in bulk.

Many seeds, nuts, and grains are sold wholesale for less than half of what they sell retail, but you have to buy massive quantities to realize savings.

Examples include Almonds,Raisins, and Walnuts  but there are many more products like this.

Would anyone be interested in joining an online co-op for goods like this, so that we could coordinate massive purchases, store and process the goods, and then ship them out to end users?

Getting bulk fruit and nuts for 60 cents a pound, and then processing them and shipping them out might end up costing a lot more than you'd think, but a lot of people are spending 5 dollars a pound or more on this kind of stuff.

The primary downside is the massive number of people who would need to sign up before it would be worth doing.

I don't eat more than 2 pounds of nuts in a month, and even at that relatively high rate of consumption I would only eat 24 pounds a year. If I could find people that ate just as much as me, that would require 1,667 people just to use up 1 minimum shipment of 20 tons from a wholesaler.

Here's my math, easily computed using either mental math or the knowledge engine of Wolfram Alpha.

I like to eat nuts, around 2 pounds of them in a month.

2 lbs of nuts per month works out to be 24 pounds of nuts a year (2 *12=24)

24 lbs of nuts a year versus the minimum purchase amount on Alibaba of 20 tons works out to 1,667 eaters minimum to finish all the nuts in one year (20 tons*2000 pounds / 1 ton / 24 pounds per person =1,666.6 repeating, and half of a person doesn't eat any nuts so I rounded up)

With more people than 1,667 I could have reduce the single person's cost to participate, achieve shorter intervals between orders, increase the variety of orders, i.e. send out nuts and raisins, seeds, or dates instead of just nuts, and make orders smaller.

So, if you know anyone looking to provide some seed funding, I guess that I'm interested.

Cut your Power Use with a Smart Powerstrip

You may not have been aware that about 75% of the electrical power used by our devices is consumed after they are switched off. Charging capacitors, batteries, and background processes can consume a large quantity of power, and it is necessary to interrupt the flow of electricity to stop that consumption.

You can monitor and cut off power use by using a smart powerstrip, which also serves to protect your electronics from power surges.

Just by plugging your appliances into smart strips and shutting them off entirely when not in use, you could save yourself well over 20 dollars a month, and that adds up to $240 a year or more!

Smart powerstrips will run you approximately 30 dollars online at SmartHomeUSA, but there are many competing products on the market. Evaluate your options and choose what works best for you!

Cool Post

It's feeling like winter all over again, with bracing cold and bitter winds, carrying a soft snow and a hard promise of wind chills below 0 degrees, car accidents, and bad situations.

The only upside to mention of the terrible cold is my choices in midwintery couture. I have a bespoke cotton coat that belonged to my father, along with a crew neck woolen sweater from J.Crewe and Nike sweat pants that I have been using as snow pants.

All of these are in addition to my Covington shirts, cotton Docker slacks, and Jockey thermal under clothes.

So, in summary, I'm looking cool, staying warm, and dreading the cold.

I hope all of you out there have been taking care of yourselves!

A Quick Study

I usually attribute a number of positive qualities to myself, among them my capacity to study up and learn pretty much anything that I need to within a relatively short period of time.

This has served me well many times, and allowed me to succeed in a number of less than perfect situation. That said, it is usually a good idea to get a grasp of a situation to learn the basics prior to starting out in a new situation in life.

Along with my work and my hobbies, and the process of filling out application after application, I've been doing self study on a few online courses.

Hopefully a few of the skills contained therein prove useful to me.

The Power of Poaching Can Save You Time and Money

Say what you will about cooking meat, but it is kind of a hassle. You have to worry about the temperature of your pans, the time that you keep your ingredients at room temperature, the length of cooking, and the overall safety of your kitchen to a much greater degree than you do for simple vegetables.

I actually like to eat meat, and I cook with it pretty frequently, so I have found a method that works for me.

I cook large batches of food, and store them for future consumption as a regular practice to save me some time and prevent me from running out to grab a ready made meal, so I usually have one or two cooking days a week, usually over the weekend.

On these days, I will poach the meat that I plan to eat over the course of the upcoming week. I boil it in hot water until thoroughly cooked, and then process it further into whatever form I plan on eating it in. I can quickly sear the sides of a piece of poached meat before slicing it up over some pasta, chop it up and toss it into a pan of fried rice or a pot of stew, or even just pour some sauce over it and freeze it for a future entree.

It really keeps the workload down, and I can poach whole pieces of meat, so I don't have to cut raw meat unless I'm receiving primal cuts from the butcher, which rarely ever happens.

Does anyone else out there poach their meats?

I realize that I might catch some flak from people that like to eat their meat anywhere below well done, but that is fine. I just prefer thoroughly cooked meat.

Angel Investing: Big Risk, Big Rewards if you have the money and the friends

As a recent college graduate with my own financial issues, I've had a lot of time to think about the way that money exchanges hands. I've learned about the different financial instruments available to the average person, from the different tax sheltered retirement vehicles, tax credits and deductions for business owners, employees, students and families, and evena number of different securities.

I am always looking to learn more, and not too long ago I came across the phenomenon of Venture Capital, and more specifically investing clubs for venture capital.

The ideas behind angel investment, or venture capital, are reasonable. These days, businesses can undergo meteoric growth within a relatively short period of time, and an early investment in a successful company like Reddit, Youtube, PayPal or Google can pay back well over 300x the initial sum within only a few years.

The problem with venture capital, however, is that it is extremely risky. Companies might like to be the next Google, but there are hundreds of thousands of websites and web based businesses and entrepreneurs that are making peanuts, or losing money every year on hosting fees.

So, much like any savvy investor, these venture capitalists have decided to diversify their investments. Instead of spending $500,000 on a single company to boost it into a profitable position and prepare it for an IPO where you stand to make nothing, or $60 million, these investors find 9 like minded individuals to each contribute $50,000, and each get their share of $6 million. And they will be able to invest in 10 companies instead of just 1.

While the risk may not be reduced in each individual case, the investor will not be broken by the failure of a single business, but rather by the failure of all 10 of the businesses.

For more information, please consult the following:

http://www.angel-investor-clubs.com/

http://www.cbeid.org/Angel%20InvestmentClubsSummary.pdf

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Inside-Entrepreneurship-Angel-investment-clubs-1265773.php

http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/