Wow, I just finished a week and a half ordeal with Questionable Content and managed to read through all 1717 pages. It was a pretty good experience to read it all at once. I got to see the artwork progress as characters got introduced and the story progressed. I enjoy that it is an ongoing story and not random subjects every time. My favorite character by far is Pintsize.
Some other comics to check out are (in no particular order):
A new one I’m getting into is Girls With Slingshots
The best thing about working downtown in the summer is easy access to Taste of Saskatchewan. Unfortunately this year it is not as good as it was last year. Prices have gone up a bit as I think last year the tickets were $2 and now they are $2.50 and many of the desserts are two tickets now instead of one.
I wish I had taken some pictures but I’ll give you a quick highlight of what I’ve tried and which I liked and which I didn’t.
Likes:
So-so stuff
Didn’t like
Honorable mention goes to Opa! for there baklava. I doubt they made it but as usual it was quite good and for one ticket I wasn’t complaining.
We’ll see if I can scrounge up some money to go tomorrow because I’ve already spent $30 in two days. $15 for lunch really isn’t that bad in the bigger picture and you do get amazing variety to choose from but it adds up.
I’ve had the idea to make a solar powered, timer controlled, watering system for about 2 years now but haven’t done it until now. I’ve slowly collected all the required parts and it’s about 95% done.
This shows an overview of the system. In the bucket is water and a submersible 12v sump pump, in the silver box is the batteries, solar controller and 12v timer. On the rail is the flower box with watering bar and a 5w solar panel.
Here is a closer look in the bucket. It isn’t very exciting just a 12v sump pump I found at Princess Auto for $12. It does a pretty good job and it’s 1GPM rating is about right for this. I haven’t trimmed the 3/8 tubing yet as I might move the bucket under the deck to save space. Ideally it would be hooked up to the rain spout so I wouldn’t have to fill it.
This is a look inside the silver box. It contains two 17AH 12v batteries that were used in some UPS’s at work. They hold a charge and seem to be generally healthy. There were two in each UPS and it seems that the other battery failed in each case leaving these more or less fine.
In the top right is the solar controller. It is a 5A 12V controller that can be found on eBay for $5 plus shipping. It’s not the greatest but it does stop charging at 14.4 and it controls the power out to the system so if the batteries get too low it shuts off the power. I can’t remember the exact specs but it should prevent the batteries from getting too abused. Below the controller is the timer that I found on eBay. It is very hard to find a on/off 12v timer for less than $80. This one is actually a 7 day timer with 20 programs and it cost me less than $30 shipped. I was actually expecting a bag of parts and the board but it arrived fully assembled. The downside to all these timers is they are limited to a minimum on/off cycle of 1 minute. I wish I could do less but 1 minute should put 1 gallon of water on the plants, not the end of the world.
I ran the cables through holes in the handle that face down so I shouldn’t need to seal them. I might put a little silicone on them just to keeps bugs and dust out.
This is a 5w panel. Nothing special but it may end up being too small. The timer has 4 8-segment LED displays and the controller has 5 LED’s on it so my idle draw isn’t insignificant over 24 hours. I ran the math and it will be close but we’ll see. I might not have to run the pump as much as I originally expected.
Here is the distribution bar that I build out of some 1/2 PVC pipe. It has a small hole every inch on top so it should give even watering. The valve is to regulate the flow but I don’t think I’ll have to use it. I did some thinking on this about how to get the water evenly distributed and figured out to drill the holes in the top of the pipe. This way the pipe fills up and then comes out of all the holes at the same time.
I’ve still got to mount all of the electronics to a board to clean up the box. The timer also takes a 4.5v input to keep the programs if the power gets interrupted. I’ve got a battery holder for AA’s but haven’t incorporated it yet. I need to strain releif the cables when I put the board in. For now I just wrapped the cables in electrical tape so they can’t be pulled back through the holes in the box.
All that’s left now is to transfer some seedlings out to the planter and setup the timer. It should take care of the rest.
I’ve been making my own bread for 6 months or so now and someone asked me why I do it. I’m making it with a bread maker, not by hand so it isn’t another hobby but it still has it’s benefits. I think it tastes better, it’s infinitely customizable and I think it costs less. That last part got me thinking… does it really cost less?
Well I took my pen and paper to the local Co-op the other day.
So my loaf of bread cost me about $1.16 to make. Now before you take that number to the bank keep in mind there are a lot of approximations, guesses and rounding involved here. I found conversions for weight to volume for most of the ingredients but I has to guess for the yeast. I’m sure this number could come down if ingredients are purchased in larger quantities or on sale but this is my normal shopping purchases.
The thing that would make this a really good comparison would be the cost of a loaf of bread, which I forgot to get and since I haven’t bought one is so long I don’t even know what it costs. My guess would be about $2.
If your bread was $1 cheaper than store bought it would still take you more than a year to pay off the bread maker. This is assuming you make a loaf a week and your breadmaker was about $60. I was lucky enough to get mine for free so the savings are rolling in.
I’m not going to retire on the savings but the smell of fresh bread in the morning is hard to beat plus I know what goes into my bread.
Here is the Coleman 237 lantern. It is the largest of the single mantle lanterns that were offered by Coleman. The 237 runs on kerosene or gasoline and the 236 is the same but is a quick lighting gasoline version. The 237 has to be preheated to start. This particular lantern is from 10 (October) of 1962. I have four of these lanterns now but usually collect the older (pre 1960) ones. These newer ones have a modern style vent which I don’t think looks as good as the old ones.
This is the first time I ran a lantern on kerosene even though I have 6 that can use it without modification. Kero is much cheaper but it also smells when it burns. Apparently if you spend some time tuning the lantern the smell will go away. It is not as convienent either because you must preheat the lantern. That involves taking the vent, bail and globe off. Filling a little cup on the generator with alcohol, lighting the alcohol and waiting for the generator to warm up. After that it runs like a regular lantern.
Maybe now I’ll get my other 237′s going and maybe even a 247 which despite the name is half the size.
I’ve had quite a lot of compliments on the jerky that I make. So far I’ve made it from moose and deer but beef would work just fine.
This recipe is for 5 pounds of sliced muscle meat
In a large ziploc bag mix
1/8 cup of coarse salt (I like to use kosher)
1 cup Demerera Sugar (Dark brown sugar, not golden sugar)
1 cup teriyaki (I like to use Golden Dragon Thick Teriyaki)
2 cloves of garlic (minced or pressed, depending on how visible you want the garlic to be)
1 Tbsp of Cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp of Worcestershire
1 Tbsp cooking molasses
½ Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup water
1 cup apple juice (if you don’t have it just up the sugar content)
Some pepper. I just put in a few grinds/shakes. Probably about 1 Tbsp.
Add you meat and put in the fridge overnight. I usually try to turn it a few times while it is marinating.
I like to smoke it for 4 hours with either hickory or mesquite and then dehydrate until it cracks when bending but does not snap. This is usually about 8 hours total at 150F in my Bradley smoker.
If you don’t have a smoker I’m sure a dehydrator would work just fine. Many people do it with screens an a box fan as well. I would suggest adding some curing salts if you’re using the fan as the jerky never gets cooked. The FDA says you need to get the meat over 165F to kill ecoli. I’ve never got it that warm and there are some studies online saying that longer at a lower temp with curing salts kills just about as much bacteria. It’s up to you.
If you’re not using a smoker you will probably want to add some liquid smoke to the recipe.
I’m still working on a recipe for ground jerky. It is harder because you have to carefully manage the amount of moisture you add to the meat. With muscle meat you marinate it and it just picks up what it wants to. The ground stuff has to get the flavour but with too much juice it won’t extrude properly and will take longer to dry.
If you like jerky I would say make your own. Store bought jerky averages about $30 per pound. Ouch. Home made is going to be much cheaper and it’s not very hard. Tonight it took about 20 minutes to get the marinade ready and get the meat in the fridge. Tomorrow it’ll be that much more time again to get it in the smoker. Then you just sit back and watch the magic happen.
I’ll get this out of the way first, I am not a photographer. I do like to take snapshots and once in a while I think I get something that looks good.
Sask Tourism has a photo contest going right now and they are looking for all kinds of photos from Saskatchewan. You can enter up to three pictures in about 6 categories. Below are the three that I enetered.
The first image is from my grandparent’s acreage. I was just snapping away and for some reason I like this one.
Picture two is from a wind turbine install that I worked on near Guernsey, SK. It’s just so blue yet very “green”.
I took the last picture out of my drivers window while waiting for a train to cross highway 35 near Tribute, SK. I really like how the telephone poles and the train disappear around the bend.
A couple Christmases ago I asked for an ice cream maker because I wanted to try making my own. Congrats to my mom for finding an ice cream maker in the middle of winter. Turns out they are not a hot seller when it’s -30C outside. This got me started on making my own food.
I’m not referring to “healthier” as reduced fat, calories, diet food, etc. I’m using it in the sense that I’m trying to limit the amount of weird chemicals, hormones and antibiotics in my food. We’ve always tried to do this for as long as I can remember. We’ve always had access to my grandparents huge (I use huge loosely here. The two gardens are about 50′ x 200′) garden so our vegetables have always been produced organically. I don’t think I’ve ever had to buy potatoes or carrots.
I’m sure that home made ice cream isn’t lower in fat than the store bought stuff but it is simpler. Home made vanilla ice cream consists of milk, cream, egg, sugar and vanilla. That’s it. Nothing I can’t pronounce. Everyone seems to really enjoy the ice cream and I have the opportunity to make changes to the recipe. My grandmother asked me to make a “light” version for my grandfather since he has diabetes now. I used 1% milk instead of whole milk and replaced some of the cream with milk. I also reduced the sugar by half. It was still ok but you could really tell there was less fat. I can’t say the sugar was missed though.
After the success of the ice cream maker I wanted to continue down this path. My girlfriend’s step father is quite the outdoors-man so November of 2008 I went hunting for the first time. I was able to get a two year old white tail buck that resulted in about 60lbs of meat. Nothing is better than having a nice juicy steak unless it is having a nice juicy steak that you put on the plate from start to finish. He was a big help in getting me out there, lending me a gun and helping to clean and butcher the animal. It helps that he is a trained meat cutter and works for one of the largest butcher shops in town. Deer has many advantages. It is leaner than beef and it has never had any antibiotics or hormones injected into it. Since it was a young deer and I got a clean shot (I actually shot it right through the heart) it has a very, very mild wild taste. If it is cooked more than medium rare I cannot taste the wild at all. Now I have half a freezer full of steaks, roasts and ground meat that can be used in place of beef. It’s better for me and it worked out to less than a dollar per pound.
With all this meat I wanted to make some jerky and my dad helped me out by giving me a Bradley Smoker for Christmas. Man, everything is better after it is smoked. I’ve done a few batches of jerky as well as smoking some corn on the cob. I’m planning to do some smoked burgers soon and try doing a roast. There are some creative things to try as well. How about apple smoked cheddar or mesquite smoked peanuts? I’m getting hungry thinking about it. I should be able to make jerky for a few dollars per pound including the “price” of the meat. That’s a little cheaper than the store and once again I can pronounce everything that goes into it. My current recipe has teriyaki, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, molasses, garlic and either hickory or mesquite smoke. Maybe the teriyaki has some odd ingredients but I’ll probably try making my own soon enough. Just recently, he got me a commercial meat slicer so my jerky making should be easier. I’m also planning on making my own sandwich meat.
Speaking of sandwiches, my latest acquisition is a bread maker. My grandparents sold their acreage, a sad event, and I was able to get their spare bread maker as well as a deep freeze. I’ll have more room for when I go mule deer hunting this fall. Anyways, I setup the bread maker to have a loaf of bread ready for me when I woke up and that was sure a pleasant smell to wake up to. I’m sure it’s the same feeling coffee drinkers get. Today my lunch sandwich was made on fresh bread. Again, a very simple ingredient set. Flour, water, yeast, milk (I used milk powder so I could leave it overnight at room temp), sugar (to get the yeast going), and salt (to help limit the yeast).
The next thing I want to try is making my own sausage. I’ve already talked about it with my girlfriend’s step dad and he seems on board. He’s got the old hand crank grinder and sausage maker and I’ve got the smoker. It should work out well. After that I’m not sure what is next. My dad has one of those counter top herb gardens so I’d like to see how that goes. I’m considering using an old fish tank as a green house with some grow lights to make my own year round herb garden. This might be a little more challenging and considering I have no room left I might have to hang it from the roof.
All of this has given me a really good idea of where food comes from. Hopefully this will encourage some people to seek out new sources of food other than supermarkets. At the very least try going to the farmers market and buy some locally grown food. Better yet start a garden and grow it yourself. The sense of accomplishment is amazing.
It was a long wait but series (season) 13 has started. For those who don’t know Top Gear is a “car show’. I put that in quotes because it’s more like an entertainment show that has an automotive theme.
In this episode they had a challenge to a three way race between a Jaguar XK120 car, a Vincent Black Shadow motorbike, and No. 60163 Tornado, a brand new mainline steam locomotive completed in Britain in 2008. It was a 400 mile race to Edinburgh from London but the car and the bike had to stay off the motorway. Highlights included Hammond not being big enough to start the Vincent, May not being the slowest and Clarkson running through a fancy hotel in coveralls while coated in coal dust. It was a great time. It is not available in North America so youtube is an ok place to find it. But there is a better place.
The best place to find top gear videos is through torrents… how do you find the good torrents? Go to www.finalgear.com. There was so much traffic from people trying to get top gear that we brought the site down and even with the downtime they said they still broke all their old traffic records.
If you’re bored of re-runs and reality shows give Top Gear a shot. You might want to start at season one though. Don’t worry they’re all online.
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