- This will get interesting. The political experts claim that it takes about two months for an issue to resonate with the public. Therefore, the gas at $5.00 per gallon should hit public awareness just in time for the November elections.
- I foresee one of two alternatives.
- Either Congress does something, anything, to mitigate this. Remember the 1970's "windfall profit tax" and price controls.
- Or, there is mass turn over in Congress, regardless of party affiliation.
- Interesting times.
I can't remember where in school or work I learned this. Thanks for bringing it back up, there are a few things in there that make sense for working things out. Like the color categories thing.
A 4x8 sheet of melamine board from the big box home improvement store makes a great whiteboard for working on ideas in a large space. If you use fine point wet markers you can get tons of information and ideas in one spot.
Driving an SUV is not as expensive as a new mini-van if you don't bother buying new. Yes SUV's depreciate much faster, but that really just means you get more value for the money if you buy after depreciation has taken it's biggest bite. My rule of thumb with any vehicle is 2 years old, and no more than 36000 miles on the vehicle.
That lowers the cost of ownership significantly.
The SUV fills a niche that is not accomodated by Mini-Van's, Prius's, or any other vehicle.
They are intended as tow vehicles (hence more power, beefier structure), provide more room, better visibility in traffic, and
you can take the family, with luggage to your vacation spot of choice. Yup it costs more to drive there so I'll economize by doing more sailing at the lake :)
Contact you? What so you could have pretended it wasn't you. No, no baby girl. You can only be that person I'm thinking of and I don't bust you out here because again, this is a place of business and heck I'm the one exposed. You know that there were many and you know that there were few but YOU stand alone. You and I shared something wierd, and exilerating and sporadic and intense, tragic and draining. I still, as I did then, consider myself a student of human traits. Only YOU would contact me in an anoymous manner like this. I've been tempted to contact you many times, you're actually in my e-mail address book and every time I type a certain letter your name comes up and I pause and think whether or not it's a good idea. I'll ALWAYS love you. No matter who you were/are with or what you think of me. FYI and RE: Not contacting you. If you know me, you know that I might, in my oft cynical and worst-case scenario mind set, be inclined to think that if I did contact you, you'd maybe downplay this and to reiterate, pretend as you did in the past that you were OVER me or beyond me or that you evolved from caring about me AND THAT IT WASN'T "You" sending these cryptic, duplicitous, "I still love you, don't you know?/ make an effort and come-and-get-me messages and that you'd never stoop to such a thing or hide behind a "Guest" profile. You know that's true and I ain't even mad at you, Hell I love it and you know I love it because you know me. But let me ask you something sweets: What are you hiding from? What are you afraid of being exposed or what vulnerable point are you covering up that I haven't already in someway seen? I'm a sure man, to be correct but I've never let pride get in the way of something I wanted to do. Can you say the same? This is not to be malicious. Life is short, I want to know you again. PERIOD. Who cares where it does or doesn't go. But you and I both know it's unfair for you to decide to come in and out of my life whenever you feel like it, just like you've accused me of doing in times past.
Nice. I prefer to use pen and paper. Somehow it works more intuitive to just sit at the table with a big sheet of paper and jot things down. Also important is the 'Work Quickly' point, which I find easiest with real paper.
Another advantage is that you can sit around a table with more people working on the same mindmap!
I too, once inherited a phone number that I guess belonged to a delinquent spender (or the delinquent spender gave a bogus phone number which happened to be mine), and trying to explain to debt collectors that they have the wrong number was a losing battle.
And thank you for the link, FIRE Finance! Cheers...
has anbody mentioned carpooling yet? Friends, or neighbors that go in the same direction as you, at approximately the same time. Or some areas have companies that specialize in helping commuters match up and get rides. I would think that even doing this once or twice a week would greatly help out with the budget, gas consumption, etc.
The issue is a combination of a number of influences. Big oil very much is a part of the problem, they are pegging record profits and they like making more money for less work. More use by India & China is also a contributing factor, as is high wholesale prices for a barrel of oil and the falling dollar. Congress refuses to do anything but can you blame them? Bush would veto anything they tried to do and they still might not have the votes to over ride it.
For now that leaves us to figure out how to deal with it. Using less seems to be the first option available. But less driving and less cash for spending is also going to drag the country down faster as people quit buying in various industries.
I really think the only thing we can control beyond our own personal conservation is to push for some decent transit options beyond car and airline.
As for electric cars. They are still certainly viable. One has to remember that none of the automakers went into that experiment willingly. They wanted it to fail and did everything they could to make that happen. People still want those cars. If I had the cash I would be on Tesla's waiting list.
I hope you get this "guest." Again you always underestimated how I felt about you. Time after time. With more elaboration in your last message, now I know who you are and I think about you more than I care to admit or in fact you yourself would even ever concede to. It's more convenient for you to write me off as a jerk because then you don't have to deal with ugliness and imperfection reflected in your affinity for me and vice versa. So you know I even google you from time to time. It wasn't just a game to me, you should know that it never was frivilous never was a game at all. And I didn't even have an idea until now who it was and I'm not bluffing. I KNOW who you are. I know you didn't write all of those guest writer comments but you know that I know which ones you did. Don't you think it's time though that we stopped the hot and cold, on again-off again correspondence and at least agreed to be good friends. You brought value to my life, great value and it would be a shame to let the past dictate the present or the future. I think that's the point of everything, I'm doing now, the point of my blog. Even here I admit somethings will never change and that weaknesses are there but I've always admitted my shortcomings and "limitations," and you knew then and you know now. Stop being cruel and wishy washyLOL:). We could both benefit from at least being civil again.
Try a 5 gallon bucket and fill with water. Add about 1/4 bottle of Dawn dish soap and swish it around. Poke the ant mound with a stick or pencil, and then pour the solution on the mound. Sure work within 24 hours! (You might have to repeat every few days until they are all gone, though.)
No, it's not evil oil companies jacking up the prices and cackling manaically while watching the poor consumer struggle to pay for their gasoline. The price of oil is going up, due to the value of the dollar going down, and the scarcity of oil to be had. Refineries are running at 95%, because we haven't built a new one in 30 years. Everyone wants more, cheaper gas, but no one wants a refinery built near them. We can't make gas any faster to keep up with demand.
And really, with all the complaining, demand keeps going up. The majority of people are whining about the cost while filling their tanks as much as ever.
As for me? I try to drive as little as possible. This isn't too different from what I've always done, but now I am a little more stingy with my mileage. I carpool the 30 miles to work and bike when it is feasible.
I live in Texas and always after a good rain I have tons
of ant mounds show up in my front yard. I was told DAWN would
kill the ants. Does anyone know how I would measure it out
and how I would put it on the mounds ?
We have already alerted the young 'uns- this year they will be walking to swimming lessons daily at the city pool- instead of being driven. My mom's house is at the walking midpoint- she will be stocked with popsicles for what I imagine will be daily cool down breaks mid walk.
We are already walking 4 blocks for milk/bread runs at our Rite Aid- rather than getting the car out. We may consider getting a cart for walking 10 blocks to the nearest grocery store for non frozen food runs (or less perishible things) on occasion.
Kids already walk to school and I bus to work.
We usually go to the amusement park every month (3 hours drive total there & back). This is not open to negotiate *yet* but might be later in the season. We might reconsider one trip we had thought about and instead keep the money on hand to keep our amusement park habit fed (park has water rides, pools, and regular rides- very inexpensive once we get there).
We are also filling our kids summer with events closer to home--things like activity camp at the high school (15 minute walk from home) and events offered at the local park (across the street from our house) will be used more often. It is our hope that these will curtail kids wanting to be driven all over town to friends homes, etc.
akkooler - I was close? please tell me where I was the least bit off.
I agree Ron Paul is the only thinking politician but the voters don't vote for people with real ideas. They've proved that over and over. He's - unfortunately - unelectable.
Hyper-Inflation is coming at us like a freight train. Some can see it but we can't stop it. And, it's going to hurt like hell!
Libraries are wonderful, but they are not free. Check your pay stub next time in the state tax block and find out how much you paid for those "free" movies. My library does not charge to check out, and they also have online movie downloads, so I do not even have to go there. Taking advantage of these resources frequently will save you lots of money, but there is no free lunch.
First, the story does not ever claim that the richest man pays 59% of his income in taxes. In fact, it never mentions his income. What the story says is that the richest man pays 59% of the bill (i.e. taxes).
Second, to those who argue that the poor and middle class actually pay more in taxes, you need to be a bit more specific. As a percentage, that is probably true. But in dollars, no way. A rich man paying only 25% in taxes on an income of 1 million dollars pays as much as 5 people paying 100% tax on an income of $50,000. And even that is misleading because people who make less money pay at a lower tax rate (which means they pay a lot less in dollars).
And to the person who mentioned social security taxes, noting that the rich only pay on a fraction of their income, you should take some time to see what they get out of it. The benefits for social security are capped based on the taxable cutoff, so someone who makes twice the cutoff amount receives the same amount as someone who makes exactly the cutoff amount (and the two pay the same amount). And if you think raising the cap would help the poor (more money in the system, right?), you'd be wrong. Because benefits are based on the fraction you pay of the cap, raising the cap effectively lowers the fraction you pay, and so your benefits drop (this is counteracted somewhat by there being more money in the system, but even then you can't do better than breaking even).
Finally, to whoever said that the rich get more from the government, I'd like to see justification for that. You mention that the government protects their business interests, but the government is the one who jeopardizes their business in the first place (all sorts of regulations, taxes, etc.). With the exception of corporate bail-outs (which are wrong), the rich get little from the government that they wouldn't get without it. For example, the rich are excluded (at least partially) from welfare, medicare, financial aid for college, and many other programs, while the poor receive most of the benefits of these programs (even though they payed only a small dollar amount into the programs). Someone explain to me how that's fair (and I mean fair, not ethical).
For years I've tried to shop the local Walgreen's store (which has since left its location in our city). While there's one about 5-10 miles down the road, I grew to the point where I had given up on them. Their sale items were almost never in stock and I concluded that they were printing up nice circulars just to get you into the store.
They frustrated me to the point where I just don't shop there anymore.
Hope this works out for folks but its still not enough to draw me back to them as a customer (and here's the sad part, even for free items that I would use).
Margaret, thank you so much for answering my question concerning zen themed books. There are so many out there, it is difficult to know which are most informative/useful.
if you are underage, this is not to you....
fermenting sugar makes ethinal, fermenting veggies and fruits makes ethinal and methinal from the pectins that are in the skins and flesh. your yeast lives below 110 F and slows down below 70 F, but dont get that close to either or you can slow or kill it. yeast eats sugar, pees alcohal and farts CO2. if anything else other then yeast gets in, it can pee and fart bad stuff, so keep an air trap on it,,,, balloon with pin holes is good. old timers would use wild yeast a lot, but bought was better, heat up the corn and water, cool down and cover loose, when the corn sinks, its done. strain and disill. pure sugar water yeast is sugar wine, fine to drink, yeast strain changes flavor and alcohal %, so buy a good one, up to 20% is out there. save the left over yeast and grow in fresh sugar water in the fridge for next time. have an air lock there too.
easiest still, fill STAINLESS pan 2/3 full of must, float a glass bowl in it, turn lid over and fill with ice or snow. drain as it melts. fire on low, and do not let it boil. alcohal mist will form, condense on lid and drip in bowl.
next best is a STAINLESS pan, like a lobster pot, lid is held in place with 4-8 clothes pins, seal lid with wet bread dough, have a hole drilled in lid, copper water pipe, curly kind, coming off, seal it too,, about 10 feet and drip BELOW the stove top, fumes are flamable, but the will fall and not hit a flame. if steam comes out pipe, you are either to hot on pan, coil is to hot (put a fan on it) or you are out of alcohol and water is starting to boil. water will not go above 184 if you have any good amount of alcy left in it, but if its close to that, you are done, reuse to start next batch, dont waist it.
use a britta filter,,, or 3,,, use cold alcohal, and filter thru. you now have drinkable stuff....
if you use fruit or veggies to ferment, even if you add sugar, you will have some extra alcohals, like methonal,, this is where heads and tails come in,,, first 5 minutes of drippings goes in the next batch to be fermented, dont waist it. the last 5 minutes too, but not if it goes over 184. it has to be cooler then that. avoid this, use sugar and water.
if you want to age it, get white american oak as store, whiddle off thin strips, bake it till it toast, pull half out, back the rest till it turns black, but does not smoke, then but in bottle and shake daily to mix, after a few weeks, she is aged about 3 years in a barrle.
aluminume=poison, why risk it,
if you drink 5 gallons of beer, do you get any odd poisons? NO, if you distill it, all you do is pull off something and leave water behind, and you make whisky, unaged, but good. dont be afraid of it.
stainless is king for food, make sure it was never used for anything other then food or drink.
bakers years is last resort, leaves a flavor and is very low in alcy%, but if its what you got,, use it, good luck.
beer and wine was made to extend the season you can use grains and fruit. winter time, most calories came from drink, everthing else spoiled.
this is all educational, never do this as it is illegal in the US and Canada. if you research enough on line, in libraries, you can learn it all. the "amazing still" is a great idea, i think i would try that one first if i really try this stuff out one day.
To which he replied: "I buy stuff for $1 and sell it for $3 ... that's 3%"!
What kind of idiot pays $3 for something that is worth $1??
- This will get interesting. The political experts claim that it takes about two months for an issue to resonate with the public. Therefore, the gas at $5.00 per gallon should hit public awareness just in time for the November elections.
- I foresee one of two alternatives.
- Either Congress does something, anything, to mitigate this. Remember the 1970's "windfall profit tax" and price controls.
- Or, there is mass turn over in Congress, regardless of party affiliation.
- Interesting times.
I can't remember where in school or work I learned this. Thanks for bringing it back up, there are a few things in there that make sense for working things out. Like the color categories thing.
A 4x8 sheet of melamine board from the big box home improvement store makes a great whiteboard for working on ideas in a large space. If you use fine point wet markers you can get tons of information and ideas in one spot.
Driving an SUV is not as expensive as a new mini-van if you don't bother buying new. Yes SUV's depreciate much faster, but that really just means you get more value for the money if you buy after depreciation has taken it's biggest bite. My rule of thumb with any vehicle is 2 years old, and no more than 36000 miles on the vehicle.
That lowers the cost of ownership significantly.
The SUV fills a niche that is not accomodated by Mini-Van's, Prius's, or any other vehicle.
They are intended as tow vehicles (hence more power, beefier structure), provide more room, better visibility in traffic, and
you can take the family, with luggage to your vacation spot of choice. Yup it costs more to drive there so I'll economize by doing more sailing at the lake :)
Patents only last 20 years, so "let the idea rot for about 50 years" doesn't work.
Contact you? What so you could have pretended it wasn't you. No, no baby girl. You can only be that person I'm thinking of and I don't bust you out here because again, this is a place of business and heck I'm the one exposed. You know that there were many and you know that there were few but YOU stand alone. You and I shared something wierd, and exilerating and sporadic and intense, tragic and draining. I still, as I did then, consider myself a student of human traits. Only YOU would contact me in an anoymous manner like this. I've been tempted to contact you many times, you're actually in my e-mail address book and every time I type a certain letter your name comes up and I pause and think whether or not it's a good idea. I'll ALWAYS love you. No matter who you were/are with or what you think of me. FYI and RE: Not contacting you. If you know me, you know that I might, in my oft cynical and worst-case scenario mind set, be inclined to think that if I did contact you, you'd maybe downplay this and to reiterate, pretend as you did in the past that you were OVER me or beyond me or that you evolved from caring about me AND THAT IT WASN'T "You" sending these cryptic, duplicitous, "I still love you, don't you know?/ make an effort and come-and-get-me messages and that you'd never stoop to such a thing or hide behind a "Guest" profile. You know that's true and I ain't even mad at you, Hell I love it and you know I love it because you know me. But let me ask you something sweets: What are you hiding from? What are you afraid of being exposed or what vulnerable point are you covering up that I haven't already in someway seen? I'm a sure man, to be correct but I've never let pride get in the way of something I wanted to do. Can you say the same? This is not to be malicious. Life is short, I want to know you again. PERIOD. Who cares where it does or doesn't go. But you and I both know it's unfair for you to decide to come in and out of my life whenever you feel like it, just like you've accused me of doing in times past.
Nice. I prefer to use pen and paper. Somehow it works more intuitive to just sit at the table with a big sheet of paper and jot things down. Also important is the 'Work Quickly' point, which I find easiest with real paper.
Another advantage is that you can sit around a table with more people working on the same mindmap!
Hmmm I have like 7 old disposable cameras sitting around I may have to give this a shot :)
Thanks for all the great comments, folks!
I too, once inherited a phone number that I guess belonged to a delinquent spender (or the delinquent spender gave a bogus phone number which happened to be mine), and trying to explain to debt collectors that they have the wrong number was a losing battle.
And thank you for the link, FIRE Finance! Cheers...
has anbody mentioned carpooling yet? Friends, or neighbors that go in the same direction as you, at approximately the same time. Or some areas have companies that specialize in helping commuters match up and get rides. I would think that even doing this once or twice a week would greatly help out with the budget, gas consumption, etc.
The issue is a combination of a number of influences. Big oil very much is a part of the problem, they are pegging record profits and they like making more money for less work. More use by India & China is also a contributing factor, as is high wholesale prices for a barrel of oil and the falling dollar. Congress refuses to do anything but can you blame them? Bush would veto anything they tried to do and they still might not have the votes to over ride it.
For now that leaves us to figure out how to deal with it. Using less seems to be the first option available. But less driving and less cash for spending is also going to drag the country down faster as people quit buying in various industries.
I really think the only thing we can control beyond our own personal conservation is to push for some decent transit options beyond car and airline.
As for electric cars. They are still certainly viable. One has to remember that none of the automakers went into that experiment willingly. They wanted it to fail and did everything they could to make that happen. People still want those cars. If I had the cash I would be on Tesla's waiting list.
I hope you get this "guest." Again you always underestimated how I felt about you. Time after time. With more elaboration in your last message, now I know who you are and I think about you more than I care to admit or in fact you yourself would even ever concede to. It's more convenient for you to write me off as a jerk because then you don't have to deal with ugliness and imperfection reflected in your affinity for me and vice versa. So you know I even google you from time to time. It wasn't just a game to me, you should know that it never was frivilous never was a game at all. And I didn't even have an idea until now who it was and I'm not bluffing. I KNOW who you are. I know you didn't write all of those guest writer comments but you know that I know which ones you did. Don't you think it's time though that we stopped the hot and cold, on again-off again correspondence and at least agreed to be good friends. You brought value to my life, great value and it would be a shame to let the past dictate the present or the future. I think that's the point of everything, I'm doing now, the point of my blog. Even here I admit somethings will never change and that weaknesses are there but I've always admitted my shortcomings and "limitations," and you knew then and you know now. Stop being cruel and wishy washyLOL:). We could both benefit from at least being civil again.
Try a 5 gallon bucket and fill with water. Add about 1/4 bottle of Dawn dish soap and swish it around. Poke the ant mound with a stick or pencil, and then pour the solution on the mound. Sure work within 24 hours! (You might have to repeat every few days until they are all gone, though.)
Linsey Knerl
Oil exec #1: "Oh man...we just made record billion-dollar profits again, people are going to hate us."
Oil exec #2: "Yeah. Maybe we should put some money back into the system in the form of rebates or something?"
Oil exec #1: "Good idea. And I'll support legislation to look into windfall profits. After all, if people hate us, they won't buy our gas."
Oil execs #1 & #2: Cackle maniacally and count their money.
What ridiculous comment!
No, it's not evil oil companies jacking up the prices and cackling manaically while watching the poor consumer struggle to pay for their gasoline. The price of oil is going up, due to the value of the dollar going down, and the scarcity of oil to be had. Refineries are running at 95%, because we haven't built a new one in 30 years. Everyone wants more, cheaper gas, but no one wants a refinery built near them. We can't make gas any faster to keep up with demand.
And really, with all the complaining, demand keeps going up. The majority of people are whining about the cost while filling their tanks as much as ever.
As for me? I try to drive as little as possible. This isn't too different from what I've always done, but now I am a little more stingy with my mileage. I carpool the 30 miles to work and bike when it is feasible.
I live in Texas and always after a good rain I have tons
of ant mounds show up in my front yard. I was told DAWN would
kill the ants. Does anyone know how I would measure it out
and how I would put it on the mounds ?
Thanks, Beverly
We have already alerted the young 'uns- this year they will be walking to swimming lessons daily at the city pool- instead of being driven. My mom's house is at the walking midpoint- she will be stocked with popsicles for what I imagine will be daily cool down breaks mid walk.
We are already walking 4 blocks for milk/bread runs at our Rite Aid- rather than getting the car out. We may consider getting a cart for walking 10 blocks to the nearest grocery store for non frozen food runs (or less perishible things) on occasion.
Kids already walk to school and I bus to work.
We usually go to the amusement park every month (3 hours drive total there & back). This is not open to negotiate *yet* but might be later in the season. We might reconsider one trip we had thought about and instead keep the money on hand to keep our amusement park habit fed (park has water rides, pools, and regular rides- very inexpensive once we get there).
We are also filling our kids summer with events closer to home--things like activity camp at the high school (15 minute walk from home) and events offered at the local park (across the street from our house) will be used more often. It is our hope that these will curtail kids wanting to be driven all over town to friends homes, etc.
akkooler - I was close? please tell me where I was the least bit off.
I agree Ron Paul is the only thinking politician but the voters don't vote for people with real ideas. They've proved that over and over. He's - unfortunately - unelectable.
Hyper-Inflation is coming at us like a freight train. Some can see it but we can't stop it. And, it's going to hurt like hell!
Libraries are wonderful, but they are not free. Check your pay stub next time in the state tax block and find out how much you paid for those "free" movies. My library does not charge to check out, and they also have online movie downloads, so I do not even have to go there. Taking advantage of these resources frequently will save you lots of money, but there is no free lunch.
First, the story does not ever claim that the richest man pays 59% of his income in taxes. In fact, it never mentions his income. What the story says is that the richest man pays 59% of the bill (i.e. taxes).
Second, to those who argue that the poor and middle class actually pay more in taxes, you need to be a bit more specific. As a percentage, that is probably true. But in dollars, no way. A rich man paying only 25% in taxes on an income of 1 million dollars pays as much as 5 people paying 100% tax on an income of $50,000. And even that is misleading because people who make less money pay at a lower tax rate (which means they pay a lot less in dollars).
And to the person who mentioned social security taxes, noting that the rich only pay on a fraction of their income, you should take some time to see what they get out of it. The benefits for social security are capped based on the taxable cutoff, so someone who makes twice the cutoff amount receives the same amount as someone who makes exactly the cutoff amount (and the two pay the same amount). And if you think raising the cap would help the poor (more money in the system, right?), you'd be wrong. Because benefits are based on the fraction you pay of the cap, raising the cap effectively lowers the fraction you pay, and so your benefits drop (this is counteracted somewhat by there being more money in the system, but even then you can't do better than breaking even).
Finally, to whoever said that the rich get more from the government, I'd like to see justification for that. You mention that the government protects their business interests, but the government is the one who jeopardizes their business in the first place (all sorts of regulations, taxes, etc.). With the exception of corporate bail-outs (which are wrong), the rich get little from the government that they wouldn't get without it. For example, the rich are excluded (at least partially) from welfare, medicare, financial aid for college, and many other programs, while the poor receive most of the benefits of these programs (even though they payed only a small dollar amount into the programs). Someone explain to me how that's fair (and I mean fair, not ethical).
For years I've tried to shop the local Walgreen's store (which has since left its location in our city). While there's one about 5-10 miles down the road, I grew to the point where I had given up on them. Their sale items were almost never in stock and I concluded that they were printing up nice circulars just to get you into the store.
They frustrated me to the point where I just don't shop there anymore.
Hope this works out for folks but its still not enough to draw me back to them as a customer (and here's the sad part, even for free items that I would use).
Margaret, thank you so much for answering my question concerning zen themed books. There are so many out there, it is difficult to know which are most informative/useful.
I will definitely be seeking them out!
Thanks again.
Jenny
if you are underage, this is not to you....
fermenting sugar makes ethinal, fermenting veggies and fruits makes ethinal and methinal from the pectins that are in the skins and flesh. your yeast lives below 110 F and slows down below 70 F, but dont get that close to either or you can slow or kill it. yeast eats sugar, pees alcohal and farts CO2. if anything else other then yeast gets in, it can pee and fart bad stuff, so keep an air trap on it,,,, balloon with pin holes is good. old timers would use wild yeast a lot, but bought was better, heat up the corn and water, cool down and cover loose, when the corn sinks, its done. strain and disill. pure sugar water yeast is sugar wine, fine to drink, yeast strain changes flavor and alcohal %, so buy a good one, up to 20% is out there. save the left over yeast and grow in fresh sugar water in the fridge for next time. have an air lock there too.
easiest still, fill STAINLESS pan 2/3 full of must, float a glass bowl in it, turn lid over and fill with ice or snow. drain as it melts. fire on low, and do not let it boil. alcohal mist will form, condense on lid and drip in bowl.
next best is a STAINLESS pan, like a lobster pot, lid is held in place with 4-8 clothes pins, seal lid with wet bread dough, have a hole drilled in lid, copper water pipe, curly kind, coming off, seal it too,, about 10 feet and drip BELOW the stove top, fumes are flamable, but the will fall and not hit a flame. if steam comes out pipe, you are either to hot on pan, coil is to hot (put a fan on it) or you are out of alcohol and water is starting to boil. water will not go above 184 if you have any good amount of alcy left in it, but if its close to that, you are done, reuse to start next batch, dont waist it.
use a britta filter,,, or 3,,, use cold alcohal, and filter thru. you now have drinkable stuff....
if you use fruit or veggies to ferment, even if you add sugar, you will have some extra alcohals, like methonal,, this is where heads and tails come in,,, first 5 minutes of drippings goes in the next batch to be fermented, dont waist it. the last 5 minutes too, but not if it goes over 184. it has to be cooler then that. avoid this, use sugar and water.
if you want to age it, get white american oak as store, whiddle off thin strips, bake it till it toast, pull half out, back the rest till it turns black, but does not smoke, then but in bottle and shake daily to mix, after a few weeks, she is aged about 3 years in a barrle.
aluminume=poison, why risk it,
if you drink 5 gallons of beer, do you get any odd poisons? NO, if you distill it, all you do is pull off something and leave water behind, and you make whisky, unaged, but good. dont be afraid of it.
stainless is king for food, make sure it was never used for anything other then food or drink.
bakers years is last resort, leaves a flavor and is very low in alcy%, but if its what you got,, use it, good luck.
beer and wine was made to extend the season you can use grains and fruit. winter time, most calories came from drink, everthing else spoiled.
this is all educational, never do this as it is illegal in the US and Canada. if you research enough on line, in libraries, you can learn it all. the "amazing still" is a great idea, i think i would try that one first if i really try this stuff out one day.
just a note, skybus went under too, which makes three in a week.