u/redditunderground1

I should know, I'm old. But I never paid attention when growing up. You know the deal, parents take care of everything, so kids don't care. We had Arrowhead water delivered in 5-gallon bottles. They used to be glass. Then they became plastic. But I can't remember how water was sold in the stores. Maybe it was gallon glass jugs with a deposit. But just guessing.

Does anyone know?

I do remember the milk man delivering milk in glass bottles. So, there is that. As far as taking water on the road for outings. I guess we just used to drink at the water fountain or buy sodas. No one had personal drinking containers back then.

https://preview.redd.it/4b3whas0kpah1.jpg?width=1138&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1bf3863026e891b29641a334642add0c0c13b897

Does anyone plan for an adjoining pantry / work room to their kitchen these days? I found this on Zillow. OK, it is not exactly a pantry room. Just an example.

I would like an adjoining pantry / work room to the kitchen with 2 - 3 fridges, an upright freezer and a dedicated fake 'blast chiller' small chest freezer. (Since real ones are stupendous in price.)

Also rows of chrome wire shelving and maybe an Advance-Tabco 6 to 8 foot worktable or three.

From previous discussion here I realized that a 250 SF kitchen would be big enough...as long as I had an adjoining pantry / work room of similar size.

If you would like an adjoining pantry / work room to your kitchen; what would you like in it? If you already have one, send in some photos of it.

Are these archivist titles all interchangeable for the non-professional archivist?

'Film archivist, non-professional.'

'Amateur film archivist.'

'Film archivist.'

Should one use the title 'film archivist' and only if questioned then explain the amateur status? Or does the title of 'film archivist' imply one is a professional?

Thanks!

I'm using a folding hook knife and a razor knife. But are tough going. Is there a secret weapon toll for cutting up old wall to wall carpet for removal?

Had a slight flood where about 25% of the carpet got wet on 2 sides of the room. Enough wetness where you could hear squish as you walked. Subfloor is plain concrete slab. It seldom gets this wet, but every few years it will get some wetness creep around the edges a couple of feet into the room. What can be used for flooring on concrete if it gets damp / wet?

Or does it have to be consumed undiluted?

https://preview.redd.it/zu5o1rfgj29h1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc2d478351b51ddf0ab19f089c5393b2daa5a375

It is crazy carbonated. Other brands I tried has little carbonation. Which should it be to correctly brew kombucha?

(Question is not about flavor, it is about carbonation from brewing.)

Thanks

I've been using plastic bags. I need to do better with storage. Send in some photos of your grain bins if you can.

My mill below does not get it fine enough for me. I'm shooting for store-bought whole wheat fineness. I sieve out the rough stuff. Maybe it is about 5% of the volume.

https://preview.redd.it/p06ao69txo8h1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=8084ee9de44b834a0e203a4d574d2252a58b1566

Does your milling method allow you to use all the wheat?

I did a couple decades ago. The early tests did make a weak yogurt. Later tests did nothing. I gave up after that and don't know where things are now.

Has anyone ever tested probiotic capsules to see if they make yogurt? Or is this even a valid test even if they don't make yogurt?

I've got some hand crank burr mills and a L'Equip Nutrimill (The big plastic, loud one.) Is it worth changing to a KoMo mill over metal burr mills? Do you get better bread with stone grinding?

I have had Bronze Chief wheat for ages, and it never got weevils. I bought some Amish organic wheat and it got loaded with weevils within a year.

What do they do to commercial wheat berries, so it does not get weevils?

The weevils even chewed through the plastic bag in the Amish wheat. (No, it was not bug chewed to get in, it was bugs chewed to get out.)

https://preview.redd.it/g2vbkdcx7n8h1.jpg?width=2736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=048fdac69280a184344f6340213dc1517aa2c51b

Weevil exiting wheat berry.

How do you bring it back to room temp and get rid of the water condensation? You can't leave it in the bag. The bag gets wet. Although my bag was a woven plastic bag it came in, not paper.

I spread out my berries in giant stainless bowls and stir it once in a while. How do you do it? This is my first time doing this.

https://preview.redd.it/s0bs92aq6n8h1.jpg?width=2736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bec48e5c4bde8145d0556798e39b7938e8c7d03d

I bought some organic wheat berries from an Amish supplier. Within a year of storage, it was infested with weevils. How did the old timers keep grain without having it infested with weevils? I mean way back, ancient times to Middle Ages or even homestead days.

I heard you have to freeze the wheat berries to kill the bugs. But they didn't do that.

https://preview.redd.it/6hig856nh18h1.jpg?width=5375&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=89d46c401c22b4069810e9de2449f9a148282aa3

I received an email from someone critiquing my archive for its lack of metadata. The discussion will give you some background on how my archive operates, its goals and how it compares to what a proper archive should look like, as proposed by Homer. I've also included an old, warped Kodachrome 4x5 from my archive that was probably shot in the late 1940's for your perusal to open things up.

Here is the letter...

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Hi Daniel,

I wanted to say that the collections across your sites are fairly impressive and I'm sure that they hold significant historical and cultural value. 

However, as most of them appear to be missing essential information that would draw interest from the right people and institutions, may I suggest that every single image, video, audio etc. comes with the expected meta data?

Put differently, one needs to stop thinking in terms of "interesting old stuff" and start thinking in terms of archival evidence, and become very methodical about the approach. The metadata should answer five questions at the very least, in order to be genuinely useful:

• Who made it?
• What is it?
• When and where was it made?
• How did it get here / in your possession?
• What exactly has been digitised, altered, preserved, or lost?
• Does the original artefact still exists, and who has it now?

In more practical terms, a serious record should include the following.

The aim is not to write an academic essay for every object. The aim is to give each item enough context for archivists, historians, curators, researchers, and institutions to understand what it is, where it came from, whether it can be used safely, and why it matters.

1. Basic identification  

• Unique item or collection ID
• Title or short descriptive name
• Item type: photograph, film, audio, letter, poster, document, etc.
• Collection name
• Related items, if any

2. What it shows or contains

* Short description
* People, places, organisations, or events shown or mentioned
* Date or estimated date
* Location, if known
* Language, if relevant
* Any inscriptions, labels, captions, handwriting, stamps, or notes

3. Where it came from

* Original source: film, print, negative, tape, letter, scan, etc.
* How it was acquired: garage sale, estate sale, donation, auction, found collection, etc.
* Acquisition date
* Acquisition location
* Previous owner or seller, if known
* Any uncertainty about provenance

4. Rights and permissions

* Copyright status, if known
* Rights holder, if known
* Whether it may be public domain
* Whether copyright is uncertain
* Any privacy, donor, cultural, or ethical restrictions
* Credit line required for use

Important: old does not automatically mean public domain. If rights are uncertain, say so clearly.

5. Physical object details

* Original format: 35mm film, photographic print, negative, cassette, reel, typed letter, handwritten letter, etc.
* Size or duration
* Colour or black and white
* Condition: damaged, faded, scratched, torn, mouldy, incomplete, etc.
* Whether the original still exists
* Where the original is stored

6. Digital file details

* File format: TIFF, JPEG, WAV, MP3, MP4, PDF, etc.
* File size
* Pixel dimensions, scan resolution, audio quality, video resolution, or duration
* Date digitised
* Equipment or method used, if known
* Whether the file is an original scan, edited version, restored version, or access copy

7. Why it matters

* Short note on historical, cultural, artistic, social, or research value
* Why this item or collection may be useful
* Relevant themes or subjects
* Links to related people, places, events, collections, or publications.

I appreciate that achieving this level of curation, cataloguing, and archival description is a gargantuan amount of work. In practice, not every object can be documented perfectly from day one, and some metadata will always be incomplete, uncertain, or provisional. That is normal. The point is not to produce museum-grade records overnight, but to apply a methodical approach that makes the material safer, more discoverable, more useful, and more credible over time, that someone else (or an institution) can take over without spending tends of years to try to identify what all of that is and means. As yourself, most people and institutions are underfunded and short staffed and simply don't have the capacity to investigate such materials despite the potentially strong interest.

Even a basic structured record is better than a loose upload with no context. At minimum, each item or collection should have enough information to explain what it is, where it came from, what is known or unknown about its creator, what rights status is attached to it, what physical or digital format it exists in, and how it was digitised. Uncertainty is acceptable; silence is the problem. A record that says “creator unknown”, “date approximate”, “copyright undetermined”, or “provenance based on garage-sale acquisition, unverified” is still far more useful than no record at all.

A better approach would be phased and systematic rather than perfect from the outset. Start with a minimum viable metadata standard for every item or collection: identifier, title, format, date or date range, creator if known, place if known, source/acquisition details, rights status, short description, digitisation details, and condition notes. Then improve records gradually by adding controlled subjects, transcriptions, related people, related places, technical metadata, provenance notes, and links to related materials.

The essential shift is this: the upload itself is not the preservation work. The preservation work is the combination of the object, its metadata, its provenance, its rights assessment, its technical integrity, and its historical context. Without that structure, the material may be online, but it is not truly curated, not truly archival, and not fully usable.

Best of luck,

Homer

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Here is my reply...

Hello Homer,

Nice to hear from you! Thanks for taking the time to outline your suggestions. I seldom, if ever get such thoughtful letters nowadays. I get a lot of emails from younger people. Goddamn, they can hardly write a coherent sentence or two, Homer. 

You must be a professional archivist, or you are one heck of an anal citizen archivist!  (Anal as in an analysis oriented person.) I can't argue against adopting any of your suggestions. Unfortunately, I am a 1 man show and an old man at that. Health is poor and not much time or energy left to do it all. Consequently, I prefer to get the most bang for my buck and document as much of the material I can and let others do what investigative / text work / metadata work they would like to do. 

I'm not a professional archive, museum or special collections library. Even so, there are benefits as well as shortcomings when you are a 1 man show, Homer. My archive can be very fast acting when it comes to acquisitions and making decisions. For example, I've dealt with a lot of museums over the years. Museum acquisitions usually follow this hierarchy. 

The curator proposes the acquisition to the head curator. 

The head curator proposes the acquisition to the deputy director. 

The deputy director proposes the acquisition to the director. 

The director proposes the acquisition to the acquisition committee.

The  acquisition committee votes to approve or not approve the acquisition.

Now, every museum is different, but this is a common example of the acquisition process. It may take 6 months to a year for the acquisition decision to be made. And I'm talking about donations to the permanent collection, it does not have to be a purchase. From what I gather, but I'm not sure, this is the reason most museum curators are women. Women have a lot of patience to deal with all that acquisition process bullshit. I couldn't deal with it, Homer.

For my archive, I can acquire things in 10 seconds. Even though non-professional I maintain a very large and diverse archive that prides itself in putting hi-res open content material online. I modeled my archive after the 'old' Getty Open Content archive. The 'new' Getty has gone to hell. The diversity and scope of my archive has nothing to do with the popular politics of the day aka wokeness. It has to do with the fact that I have a huge number of interests and have no prejudice in collecting. But, I will admit my fast moving, 1 man archive cannot compete with professional archives when it comes to metadata and text. 

Here is Google on the subject:

Professional archives and special collections often employ staff dedicated solely to organizing, structuring, and managing data about collections. The specific title for this role depends on the institution, but these professionals most commonly hold the following titles:

Metadata Archivist: The most direct title; these professionals specialize in applying standardized metadata schemas to both digital and physical records so they are easily discoverable.

Digital Archivist / Digital Asset Manager: In archives with heavy digitization programs or "born-digital" records, this role focuses on the long-term preservation and structured metadata of digital files.

Metadata Librarian: Frequently used in academic or research library settings, these individuals bridge the gap between traditional library catalogs and archival finding aids.

Archival Metadata Specialist: Often seen in large, grant-funded projects or specialized societies, this title highlights expertise in the transcription and cataloging of specific historical collections.

Depending on your professional background, would you like to explore archival degree programs, look at typical salary expectations, or learn about specific metadata standards (like Dublin Core or EAD) used in the field?

A while back a person wrote to me to complain that I didn't offer PDFs of certain material. I gave him hi-res JPEGs. Isn't that better than giving him a shitty low-res PDF like some archives offer, Homer? From what I offer, many things are possible. He could make his own PDF in any res he chose to, as well as individual JPEGs to use as he liked. I can either spend my time making PDFs and writing text or in acquiring and digitizing archival material and putting it out there.

Homer, in the big picture I don't know much about most of what I archive. I don't do this as a job; I'm not a professional archivist. I do it as a volunteer archivist also known as a citizen archivist, as the Internet Archive terms such people. I do this work out of a love for preservation of history; but mostly I do it from my own curiosity about certain subjects. I just acquire what interests me and archive it for the historical record as an offshoot to my own visual education. 

I don't know the backstory or provenance of much of the material I deal with. Most of it boils down to...'acquired from a picker on eBay' or 'picked up at a yard sale' or 'found in the trash,' type of thing. I do spend a lot of time making sure most of the material is digitized in decent quality. Something that is lacking in many professional archives I see when it comes to what they offer to the general public. So, I would hope that my image quality would make up for my lack of text / metadata.

The other option that you suggest would be to document only a very small fraction of what I do and spend my time writing and filling out forms and checklists. The result of that would be to let the majority of the material I deal with end up in the landfill of material lost to history. My personal nature is not much for text, Homer. I'm a visual sort of person. I used to be a street and social documentary photographer. So, I spend time on visuals and not on text. I put my effort into the quality of digitization, that is allowed within my limited financial and time budget as well as some audio work. But none of my work is of the highest quality, due to a lack of finances for highest quality digitization. And not much effort is spent on text due to lack of time, lack of interest in text and poor health. 

Homer, my archive operates under the auspices of...something is better than nothing.

And let me just touch on the health issues I mentioned to you above, Homer. If I sit too long, sciatica acts up and my leg gets shooting pain radiating down the leg and it goes numb. Then the leg aches and keeps me up all night and has sharp shooting nerve pain while I walk in the daytime. If I stand in one place too long my gouty toe bothers me and my ankle and knees start to act up. Since I can't afford electric worktables of adjustable heights my back and neck act up. I get wrist, elbow and shoulder pain from the computer mouse. Eyes are also an issue with the computer screen, and on and one. Homer, when you are old, daily life is very different from when you are young. Consequently, you get less done and it takes longer to do it.

Here is the general rule for this topic we are discussing, Homer. 

"Don't give more of what you freely want to give, even if you will get no thanks. Expectations, such as thanks, are pre-planned resentments."

12 -Step Program

I'll be honest with you Homer. If I had to fill out your checklist form of metadata requirements, I'd give up archival work completely. I'd have to be paid to do that type of drudgery work. And it would not be a field I'd want to work in anyway, even if I was paid. I only work in areas that interest me, not wanting to work with material that I have no interest in. That allows me to give freely of what I can and want to give, but I can't give much else beyond that.   

Thanks again for your excellent suggestions! 

I used to travel a lot and took my own bread. I added extra salt and some white vinegar to keep mold down on unrefrigerated bread. I had to add more yeast because of the extra salt and vinegar. I learned a few months ago you can keep mold down in home baked bread by adding olive oil to the mix.

I use 3 cups of flour 50% APF and 50% RYE or WWF. I add +/- 35ml olive oil. Can’t say for sure. It is 2 overflowing serving spoons which are bigger than tablespoons. Maybe it is 50ml, dunno. You test it out. The bread is not noticeably oily anyway, so it is not flooded with olive oil.

Something in olive oil prohibits mold. I’ve never got mold on my olive oil bread, but the most I’ve kept it is about 2 weeks. I usually eat it up within a week but recently baked 3 experimental loaves so had lots of bread sitting around. House temp is 70f - 81F. I don’t bake tough crust rustic breads anymore. Teeth are shot, I just back softer sandwich breads.

I used to travel a lot and took my own bread. I added extra salt and some white vinegar to keep mold down on unrefrigerated bread. I had to add more yeast because of the extra salt and vinegar. I learned a few months ago you can keep mold down in home baked bread by adding olive oil to the mix.

I use 3 cups of flour 50% APF and 50% RYE or WWF. I add +/- 35ml olive oil. Can’t say for sure. It is 2 overflowing serving spoons which are bigger than tablespoons. Maybe it is 50ml, dunno. You test it out. The bread is not noticeably oily anyway, so it is not flooded with olive oil.

Something in olive oil prohibits mold. I’ve never got mold on my olive oil bread, but the most I’ve kept it is about 2 weeks. I usually eat it up within a week but recently baked 3 experimental loaves so had lots of bread sitting around. House temp is 70f - 81F. I don’t bake tough crust rustic breads anymore. Teeth are shot, I just back softer sandwich breads.