Bucket Wrenches

So I'm sitting in bed here, as I do most mornings, banging out another post.  The house is quiet; my husband and daughters left for the favorite archery tournament of the year in Nevada City over an hour ago.   Without interruptions, I ought to be able to write quickly, which is good, because I'm a little more pressed for time than usual.  I've got the usual Saturday morning stuff to do, plus a bridal shower this afternoon.  For my soon-to-be daughter-in-law.  My very first.  :)
Anyway, KOTPE and Buttercup's primary wedding gift from us is a year's supply of food storage, plus some furniture.  I'm not wrapping up any of those items to take to a shower.  However, at the same time, giving them food storage without a bucket wrench reminds me a bit of one of the best Far Side comics ever.  You know, the one with the old couple in a basement bomb shelter full of canned goods, and a mushroom cloud in the sky above the house.  And the wife says to her husband, "How many times did I say it, Harold?  How many times?  'Make sure that bomb shelter's got a can opener--ain't much good without a can opener.'"

So what will Buttercup be receiving from me today?

Bucket wrenches.  Yeah, I guess I'm that kind of mother-in-law. 

For the more tool-oriented readers, these are also called bung wrenches or drum bung wrenches.  Now, most men don't actually need these bucket wrenches.  They've got all the finger strength in the world to open bucket lids.  However, it is a totally different matter for women.  And while I could open these bucket lids with great effort without a wrench in my twenties, by the time I hit thirty, that was no longer an option.  It can be hard enough to rotate food storage when it's easy.  Don't make using your long-term storage in buckets any harder by not having a bucket wrench.  And just because these wrenches are inexpensive, don't assume that they're indispensable.  You really need at least a couple.

They come in several colors, and while I would like to have gotten blue (Buttercup's favorite color), our WinCo only had yellow last night.  Amazon and every food storage company on the planet sell them for somewhere between five to ten dollars, but WinCo's got them for under two dollars. 

Unless you are using gamma lids on everything, you'll probably want to have a few of these on hand to get into your buckets.  Some choose to spend the money for gamma lids, but at seven dollars per lid, well, say you've got a hundred buckets.  One for each bucket would be $700.  Or get a couple of bucket wrenches and spend the difference on more food.  That's not a difficult decision to make.

You probably only need a couple, but if you've got a daughter like mine ("QOTPE"--Queen of the Picky Eaters), she'll say something to wig you out and make you get more.  I can't remember her exact words, but I already had six wrenches and whatever it was she said, I had to buy two more.  It is nice to have them in all the locations where we have the buckets.

Links to related posts:
Long Term Food Storage  

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com