What did you do today

[ShotgunDave]

Follow-up visit with the surgeon yesterday. Got some things done: removed the 38 staples, told me I no longer had to wear compression stockings ( both very welcome) and cut down my daily Tylenol prescribed use. Feeling a bit more comfortable today.

Excellent news!!

[mazo kid]

Thanks guys. My wife still won't let me go to the basement, which is where I REALLY want to be; that's where most of my toys are! But I understand, it would be very easy to over-do down there and hard to get back upstairs. Patience grasshopper!

[Captainkirk]

Thanks guys. My wife still won't let me go to the basement, which is where I REALLY want to be; that's where most of my toys are! But I understand, it would be very easy to over-do down there and hard to get back upstairs. Patience grasshopper!

Seems to me you could pull up the pix of that High Wall and spend all night gazing at the screen.

[Hawg]

Thanks guys. My wife still won't let me go to the basement, which is where I REALLY want to be; that's where most of my toys are! But I understand, it would be very easy to over-do down there and hard to get back upstairs. Patience grasshopper!

Going up an incline or steps is a major no no after surgery. Glad to hear you're feeling better.

[Electric Miner]

Short excursion run on the SVRR. Followed by the maintenance bus with the engineer's lunch (two small children, one bedraggled henway).

[ShotgunDave]

Very nice RR you have there EM. Love the maintenance Bus.

If you have a few spare minutes, You might enjoy this video. 

about 20 years ago, I helped Roger with a lot of the rolling stock and some of the features around the layout.

[Electric Miner]

I've watched that one before. Nice!

[Electric Miner]

Cleaned and reorganized my kitchen. Cold smoking St. Louis style ribs for sous vide tomorrow.

HVAC guys are here doing the install on the air conditioning. We went with the guys we did simply because they were not only the lowest bid for what we wanted, but they were the only company to do actual measurements and load calculations to figure out what we actually needed. The other companies eye-balled it based on house size and said "Yeah, this is what we think you'll need.

We found out from the guys we hired that the new furnace that was installed by the previous owner just before we bought it was a great furnace, but was installed with some sketchy short cuts, which they are fixing. Also it's about twice as big as we actually need for this house.

A/C install is supposed to be done tomorrow. Then I am likely going to Prescott to shop on Thursday, and Friday it's back down to the desert to, hopefully, finish my buddy's house.

Ooh! UPS just stopped by. They dropped off the last piece of pond over-liner we needed to finish the pond liner. Then we can start cementing in the edging for the pond.

They also dropped off my new track-cleaning locomotive for the Sprite Valley RR.

[Necessaryevil]

I went to the range today and fired all manner of ammunition through my new Hatsan DF12 semi auto box magazine fed shotgun. It was great !

[Electric Miner]

Vacuum packed two kinds of pulled pork, bone-in strip steaks, and potato salad for the freezer. Started 12 pounds of green chile bacon. Seasoned and started green chile strip steaks in the sous vide bath for dinner. Vacuumed the pond, cleaned the pond pump and re-tinted the water. Not sure what else was on the list for today, but sometime here, we gotta start hard piping the pond filter into the pond.

Oh, and while vacuuming the pond, I spotted another bunch of tiny baby fish, so we gotta start making a serious effort to re-home some of these fish.

Haven't been doing any shooting lately, due to fire conditions. Can't shoot anywhere but an actual range, and I haven't had time to go to a real range. On the plus side, the lady next door was going through her late husband's stuff and apparently found some black powder. She's going to bring it over to me when she gets a chance.

[valforgettaboutit]

Vacuum packed two kinds of pulled pork, bone-in strip steaks, and potato salad for the freezer. Started 12 pounds of green chile bacon. Seasoned and started green chile strip steaks in the sous vide bath for dinner. Vacuumed the pond, cleaned the pond pump and re-tinted the water. Not sure what else was on the list for today, but sometime here, we gotta start hard piping the pond filter into the pond.

Oh, and while vacuuming the pond, I spotted another bunch of tiny baby fish, so we gotta start making a serious effort to re-home some of these fish.

Haven't been doing any shooting lately, due to fire conditions. Can't shoot anywhere but an actual range, and I haven't had time to go to a real range. On the plus side, the lady next door was going through her late husband's stuff and apparently found some black powder. She's going to bring it over to me when she gets a chance.

EM, green chile bacon just green chiles and bacon or more to it? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Electric Miner]

Ingredients

Coarse kosher salt - 3%
Sugar - 2%
Ground Hatch chiles - 1%
Granulated garlic - 0.5%
Granulated onion - 0.5%
Ground cumin - 0.5%
Coarse black pepper - 0.5%
Cure #1 - 0.25%

How to use this recipe...

All those percentages above are a percentage of the weight of the pork belly that is being cured for bacon. I work in grams because it is more precise than ounces.

I take the pork belly and cut it into smaller pieces for easier handling. Then you weigh a piece of your pork belly and use that to figure amounts for ingredients.

For example: if your piece of belly weighs 1000 grams, 3% of 1000 grams is 30 grams, so you would use 30 grams of kosher salt for that piece of belly. See how that works?

Mix a separate batch of cure for each piece of belly. rub all the cure into the piece of belly, then place it into a vacuum bag with all the cure and vacuum pack it. You can use ziplocs as well, just make sure to put it into a pan in case of leakage. The cure will draw moisture out of the meat. When it is all packed, it goes in the refrigerator for 10-14 days.

After that I cold smoke it. During the winter, when temps stay below 40 degrees, I smoke it for 12-24 hours. During the summer, I cold smoke it for no longer than 3 hours. In any case, do not let the internal temp of the meat go over 130 degrees, or you will start rendering the fat out of it.

 After smoking, it gets repacked and goes back in the refrigerator for seven days before slicing and repacking.

[mazo kid]

On Thursday AM we took a trip to Prairie du Chien, Wi. to pick up my 1885 Browning 45-90 rifle. Took 14 handguns and long guns to put up for auction in October, along with some other miscellaneous items. Half of the trip (scenic route rather than 4 lane highway) followed the Wisconsin River, pretty drive, less traffic. It's always nostalgic to take this trip "back home" even though so much has changed since my family moved away.

[ssb73q]

Hi mazo, why didn't you put those firearms up for sale in the Buy Sell, or Trade section of this message board?

Regards,
Richard

[Captainkirk]

Hi mazo, why didn't you put those firearms up for sale in the Buy Sell, or Trade section of this message board?

Regards,
Richard

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