Dear Heloise: Please advise your readers to keep their product warranties and instruction booklets in a file cabinet, a binder or someplace that holds all of the instruction booklets that come with an item they've bought. When you need it — and eventually you will need it — the information will be at your fingertips. — Annalise D., Lime Ridge, Wis.

If you’re cool with forgoing taste in favor of an ultra-light pack, you can skip food prep tools altogether. If, however, you opt to bring anything that needs preparing, you’ll need to plan for cooking it. At a minimum, your mess kit should include a small metal pot, a lightweight spork, and a metal cup with collapsible handles. Ideally, all the pieces of your kit should nest inside one another to maximize packability. Lastly, you’ll want a lightweight stove —  the ultra-portable MSR PocketRocket 2 is a great choice — plus a couple of fuel canisters. Plan on relying on making and cooking over a fire whenever necessary, but having a camp stove is a wise backup.

A dead mouse was on a glue board under the warewashing sink; there were mouse droppings and other debris on shelving and inside cabinets throughout the storage and food prep areas; raw shrimp was in the sanitize basin of the warewashing sink rather than the designated food prep sink; ribs and egg rolls, prepared in the food facility and held for more than 48 hours, located in the refrigeration units, were not date marked; boxes of raw meat, broccoli, sauces, bags of onions, and other vegetables were stored directly on the floor and not elevated at least six inches above the floor in the food prep/warewashing, walk-in, and storage areas; open containers of sauce and raw broccoli were observed in the walk-in refrigerator beneath containers of raw meat; microwave cavities had grease debris on the surfaces; there was mold on blocks of wood in the food prep area; the meat grinder had an accumulation of food residue on the food contact surfaces and was not being washed, rinsed and sanitized at least every four hours.

Polyurethane glue can be helpful in certain situations, such as when you want to glue the end grain of a piece of wood to another piece of wood. Wood fibers are like straws, and when you spread any kind of glue on the end grain of a board, the glue is sucked up into the wood. PVA glue shrinks as it cures, so when you glue the end grain, the joint winds up with almost no glue and is weak. But because polyurethane glue expands, it creates a much stronger joint. For a landscaping project, in which you are probably using fairly wet wood, the benefits multiply.

Q: You blogged that, in 2010, you heard a talk by Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute. You wrote that his talk shook you to your core. How so?

To find out what kind of packaging a new drug requires, it is important for pharmaceutical manufacturers to work with a partner, who knows all the technical and regulatory aspects of the process, who has established a good project management to quickly and efficiently carry out the packaging development, and who is able to produce large numbers while maintaining consistently high quality. Whether the result is a drop-in, an integrated or a completely individual desiccant packaging solution, it needs to be integrated smoothly into existing processes of the pharmaceutical manufacturer. 

Pizza cutters will grow dull over time just like any other blade, which is why the UpGood pizza cutter sends you two blades instead of one. Both blades are made from rust-resistant stainless steel, and the hand-guard design protects you from any possible nicks or cuts as you slice. The finish is completely non-slip for added safety, and this slicer even disassembles easily in the event you'd like a more thorough clean.

You're in a rush and just want to get the groceries put away, so you throw the raw chicken on the top shelf. No big deal, right? Wrong, said Toby Amidor, MS, RD, and author of the upcoming book "Smart Meal Prep for Beginners."

Undoubtedly one of the most iconic products in the food container world, the classic Kilner clip-top storage jars are ideal for preserving all kinds of foods, from fruit, spices and jam to rice, herbs and coffee, and are also great for storing non-food items such as cotton wool or buttons.

In terms of survival essentials, having a reliable shelter is on par with fire-making capabilities. At a minimum, you’ll want to keep dry even if you can’t keep warm. Ideally, you’ll be able to shelter in place at home, a friend’s house, or a backcountry shelter. However, it’s wise to pack a backup option in case things really go sideways.

And yeah, I now have a new appreciation for both the engineers who solder, screw, and test every single card as well as the marvellous machines that help them do it. Seriously, those little robotic component-placing magicians are mesmerising. I could watch them all day… which might make me more suited to factory work in China than I might have initially expected.

Windy with occasional showers or thundershowers. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.