Thanksgiving

I am thankful that I can still freely worship God as I see fit.

I am thankful for my family, especially for Mrs ERJ.

I am thankful that we are not homeless.

I am thankful that I am still alive.

I am thankful that I still have mobility. 

I am thankful that I am not addicted to drugs or alcohol.

I am also thankful to you, my readers. Writing this blog is my "therapy" and I remember being thrilled when I hit 20 viewers in one day.

I am thankful that there is a community of people who were raised to mind our own business, to (mostly) stay in our swim-lane and to communicate when we were foundering. 

I am thankful that I am not a kid anymore. Even though there were charlatans and crooks, the path to success was clearly marked and didn't change much over the decades.

On the political front, I am thankful that we are not embroiled in unwinnable foreign wars and serious efforts are being made to end the two current hot-spots. I am also overjoyed at the progress in election integrity although I fear it will be too slow to save the Republic.

A man has to know his limitations

I gave blood today. This is the first time the Phlebotomist had to "stick" me twice in the 40 years I have been giving blood.

The first one worked fine as long as the blood was flowing even though it seemed to take much longer than I am used to.

But the "hub" clotted up after I filled the bag and they had to do a second poke on my other arm to fill the vials for blood typing and all of the other mysterious things they need to do.

Waste

One of the advantages of a simple diet is that there is less waste than a diet that demands a great deal of variety.

When I clean my refrigerator I see that I never throw out milk or mustard, apples, shredded cheese or eggs. I do toss celery, green onions, weird sauces, chip-dip and other exotic items.

The point is that the high-runners in my diet have enough demand and turnover that very little gets wasted. The "Hey, I need to buy some of this for this one recipe I want to try" invariable results in 3/4 of it being tossed a few weeks later.

I have to keep reminding myself of that as I drool over the seed catalogs. The Baker Creek catalog came today and every page is a work of art.

If I was forced to engage in triage, my list of vegetables might look something like this. If I could only grow ONE vegetable, it would be tomatoes. If I could only grow TWO, it would be tomatoes and potatoes, and so-on...

1. tomatoes  
2. potatoes
3. zucchini 
4. Turnip/Kale/Daikon (cover-crop/late fall greens/roots) 
5. green beans
6. sweet pepper
7. cabbage
8. Butternut squash
9. cucumber 
10. field corn
11. Romaine lettuce
12. beets
13. broccoli

On the other hand, if I only had a few square-feet of garden the list would look different:

1. Hot peppers
2. Garlic
3. Cherry tomatoes
4. Rosemary
5. Mint 

Some vegetables are notable for their absence. No onions, carrots or sweet corn on my list because they are grown commercially by local farmers. I can buy a 50 pound bag of carrots for $7...and I am not very good at growing carrots.

Adding more crops usually adds more complexity. There are exceptions. Turnip/kale/daikon seeds can be broadcast into the canopy of your squash/pumpkins/melons in early July (in Michigan) and will give you a second crop with no fuss or bother three or four months later. But those are the exceptions.

I admire the people like Leigh and Lucky who seem to be able to effortlessly grow a boundless cornucopia of delicious, garden edibles. Alas, I am living proof of Dirty Harry's opinion that "A man has to know his limitations".

All opinions will be much appreciated. Since choices of what you grow are very sensitive to climate, please consider listing what state or region (i.e. Intermountain West) you are in.

Added later:

For those of you who worry that my lack of success (so far) this hunting season will render us to a meat-free diet, rest assured that my friends who HAVE been successful cheerfully donated the hearts, livers, kidneys and tongues of their kills.

I have been pressure canning them. Zeus really likes a little bit of real meat added to his dried kibbles, and if push-comes-to-shove, it is plenty good enough for me to eat.

Is it OK if I characterize my deer hunting season as "Offal good so far"? 

"That happens"

 Mrs ERJ and I were commenting on one of Quicksilver's stock phrases; "That happens".

When confronted by shortfalls, calamity or misfortune, as often as not Quicksilver responds "That happens". Not a helpless shrugging of shoulders and "Whatever" but a matter-of-fact statement and "Ok, now we deal with the consequences".

No drama. You can do everything right and still get an unwanted outcome. There doesn't have to be a bad-guy or a victim. Sometimes we decide to take shortcuts and they don't work out. 

We thought Handsome Hombre and Southern Belle were doing a fine job of teaching her those lessons. Sometimes things get bumped and fall off of the table. Sometimes the dog eats your cookie. Sometimes Grandpa uses the last wet-wipe and doesn't get another package out of the pantry. Not every accident is Freudian.

"That happens".

 And then we started hearing ourselves use that phrase, same inflections and everything.

It is a little bit eerie to hear something that you wholeheartedly believe in come out of your granddaughters mouth...and then realize that it is something you had unconsciously instilled in your child, the one who is your granddaughter's mother. No wonder it resonated with us!

We were hearing echos of our parenting. Thank God it was something positive.

Just for fun

 and

 

Gloomy days and Aladdin Lamps

I heard that one of my coffee-drinking buddies wasn't doing very well, so I decided to visit him.

"Skyd" Jorgensen (not his real name) is now 80 and is down to 130 pounds. In his prime, he could run a jack-hammer all day long and then work his second job for another eight hours...day-after-day-after-day.

One of his favorite stories is how he walked into a liquor store one Friday and the young men behind the counter had a barbell they were "curling".

"Iffen I can do that 25 times, will you give me a fifth of vodka?" Skyd challenged. 

The older of the two men looked at the weights and then at Skyd. "If you can do it one-handed...then I will give you a bottle of vodka. If you can't, then you pay double."

Skyd started to reach for the weights when the man added "...left handed."

Skyd cranked out the 25 curls with the 90 pounds using his left arm.

Then the man challenged Skyd. "I will give you two bottles if you can to another 25...but you give back that one if you cannot."

Again, Skyd started to reach for the weights when the man added "...with your left hand"

Skyd knocked out another 25 curls using the same arm he had done the first 25 with and left with two, free fifths of vodka. Vodka has very little taste, but the vodka in those two bottles tasted like victory.

Anyway, Skyd is in decline. He was short of breath just sitting and talking.

He insisted that I take one of his precious Aladdin Lamps. He and his now-deceased wife collected them. That is not a great sign in terms of how much longer he expects to live. I didn't ask for it. He told me to bring it over to the table from where it was displayed.

We had talked about Aladdin lamps in the past. It was one of the wonders that my dad remembered from his childhood. He grew up poor during the Great Depression. His dad had TB and died in 1936 "poor". Raised by his widowed mother in a shack by the river round the bend from the hobo-camp poor. 

We talked about his will and how he wants his estate to be divided up. He only has one heir, and that heir has been stealing from Skyd. Perhaps he thinks that since he is going to inherit it all anyway, he will just speed up the transfer.

In other news, Skyd told me that he had a plumber quote the cost of replacing his water-heater. The quote was for $3000.

I realize that there are extenuating conditions: Poor access, old pipes and such. But I have to wonder if maybe the plumber looked at Skyd and thought "This guy is tottering on the brink of dementia. He is a pigeon waiting to be plucked."

Unfortunately, there are people in EVERY profession (and most families) who see people who are in their last five years of life as nothing more than resources to be strip-mined. 

So it has been a gloomy day.

The weather is changing and the sky is gray. Plants are being squirreled away in piles of mulch and compost to over-winter. I ran out of time getting them into the ground.

Cherish the people who treat you well. 

Fine Art Tuesday

Guillermo Gómez Gil was born in Malaga, Spain in 1862 and died in 1942.

Renowned for his seascapes and luminous light. In general, his paintings are very easy and restful to look at.

A tip of the old fedora to the tireless Lucas Machias for suggesting this artist.

A story in pictures

 

I used the wire from a surveyor's flag . 1/8" diameter holes. Peanut butter for bait. Long ke-bob skewers also work but you need 3/16" diameter holes.

About an 1-1/2" of RV antifreeze in the bottom of the pail

Books, keys, scopes and budgets

It came to my attention that my hunting and fishing buddy "Shotgun" never read a book by Robert Heinlein. I plan to fix that deficiency.

Shotgun informed me that he thinks Louis L'Amour's book "Last of the Breed" might be the finest book ever written. Do any of you have any opinions as to WHICH of Heinlein's many books is the best "first" book? If that is too broad of a question, then which of his books is the most like Louis L'Amour's book "Last of the Breed"?

Keys

One of my brothers bought a Kawasaki murder-cycle. It only has one key. The dealer told him to have a second one cut at a lock-smith's. The best lock-smith in town told him to get it from the dealer.

Photos of the business end of the key

My brother found a firm in the U.K. that will cut a new key if he has the key-code or if he sends them a picture !! 8-) !!!.

Do any of my readers know of sources in the US who can provide this service?

Thermal scopes

Scopes that help shooters make ethical shots in low-light conditions are HUGE force multipliers. Short video here that compares several models from one supplier.

There are countless varmints that only come out at night. Raccoons, 'possum, hogs, coyotes and so on. Having some kind of thermal scope also helps identify items that might be lurking in the background.

There are two key-words used to describe scopes that are sold for low-light conditions. 

The older technology is "night vision" which relies on an infrared "flood-light" and video technology that can sense IR light. Actually, nearly all digital camera technology can see short-wave IR; commercial cameras require an IR filter to remove short-wave end the IR spectrum to ensure that IR sources like hot pavement and heating elements on stoves don't show up as light sources. 

The down-sides of the old "night vision" technology is that it gobbles batteries and is a huge beacon for anybody looking for IR.

The newer technology is "thermal" which is passive and senses the difference in temperature between your target and the background. For example, a 'coon in a tree is warm while the tree is cool and the sky in the background is near absolute zero. That is an easy "find". A 'possum moseying along in front of a stone fence that has been baking in the afternoon and evening sun is a much more difficult "discrimination" problem.

Low-end "thermal" scopes with coarse image resolution are available in the $700 range. Very functional (in my uneducated opinion) with 300x400 pixel resolution can be had in the $1400-$1700 range.

I don't see value in putting thermal on every rifle and air-gun in the safe but I can see that having one on a general purpose firearm. If shooting varmints that took refuge in a tree is on your menu, then you need to be hyper-vigilant about where your bullet will land...and you should strongly consider mounting the scope on a stout, nitro-spring pellet-gun or a low-recoiling shotgun (like a 20-gauge, semi-automatic). 

Noo Yawk take notice

Most cities in Germany are on the brink of bankruptcy

Their cash-burn is accelerating by the month. Budgets that were made last year are hundreds of millions of Euros in the red this year. Most of the black-hole is related to immigrants "pulling" benefits they are not paying into.