Quote of the day
"Pain is proof that we are still alive.
I have never felt so alive!"
The lifting is going OK. I think I completed my third of fourth session yesterday. I felt strong enough to add 10 pounds for the last set of six reps.
AND...I am more than just a little bit and pleasantly sore.
Sourdough
Does anybody have any opinions? King Arthur Flour has very precise instructions in how to create your starter.
Is there any benefit in helping it along with a yeast and/or a lactic bacteria culture? The picture in my head is to "help" the culture along with a yeast like SafAle T-58 and low temperature lactic bacteria culture like kefir or
CB 22 Shorts
Unfortunately, they have a much lower point-of-impact than the .22LR that I usually use. I plan to count the clicks to get it where I want it and then tape a card to the stock so I can "recover" the .22LR setting if/when I switch back to that ammo.
The .22 CB Shorts are no louder than a pellet gun and (supposedly) send a 29 grain, round-nosed, lead bullet down-range at 710 feet-per-second. That compares with a .177 "springer" tossing an 8 grain pellet between 850-and-1000 feet-per-second.
The .22 CB Shorts are not energetic enough to cycle a semi-automatic but they feed through a Savage Mark II bolt-action just fine.
Rabbits are not hard to kill nor are squirrels. I just have to be able to hit them in the head or heart-lung area.
Blackberries
I ordered my blackberry bushes for next spring. I ordered from Ison's Nursery of Brooks, Georgia. I opted for 10 Ouachita (approximately pronounced as "Wichita") and 5 "Apache".
 |
| The temperature at which 50% of the flower buds are killed. Source. |
Ouachita is slightly more cold-hardy than Apache. Apache has significantly larger fruit. Both varieties are from Arkansas breeding program. Both are thornless and upright. Both have good quality and very good disease resistance.
My experience with the cold-hardiness ratings on blackberries is that most of them are optimistic. If I get a good crop 2 years out of five I will be thrilled.
Rabbit hutches
Southern Belle has some rabbits arriving next week.
The previous two are no longer with us. The first one to become deceased was dispatched by her sister. They went from best friends to best enemies.
The second one may have died from over-eating snacks.
Raising livestock isn't something you learn from a book. Books are helpful...but not the final word.
I spent a couple of hours "winterizing" the three-apartment hutch that was built around a truck-cap. I put doors on both ends of each apartment and it is very well ventilated since I built it in August. I threw cardboard into the bottom to cover about 2/3 of the floor and threw in some bedding.
How old is your scope, Joe? All the turrets on good scopes all have adjustable rings that allow you to set the turret zero hash marks to the gun’s mechanical zero. All my scopes have them… even some of the old cheapo’s… kinda cut rate versions of more precise scopes…
ReplyDeletehttps://engageoptics.co.za/index.php/2023/09/16/how-to-properly-set-the-arken-optics-zero-stop-feature/
The scope is at least 10 years old. It is a Simmons .22 Mag, fixed 4x with a 32mm objective lens and a $25 price-point when new.
DeleteJust for the sake of documentation, it is hitting 1-3/8" low at 30 yards. Good enough for broadside shots at bunnies and standing squirrels but not good enough for head-shots.
You can capture your own wild yeast (the King Arthur flour instructions are excellent) and see if it works. Or... you can send away for some sourdough starter that is known to be good.
ReplyDeletehttps://carlsfriends.net/source.html for some sourdough starter that has been passed down since 1847. I got my sourdough starter from this website and have been making bread from it for years now.
177 and 22 air rifles are both quiet. Shot a cat the other day with the 22 and it jumped about 3 feet straight up and then ran. Have not seen it since. I like 22 sub sonic over shorts for critter control. Although I have some cb shorts for quiet work.
ReplyDeleteYou might like to try out CCI "Quiet" Long Rifles. I've found them quiet enough I can pop a large dog with them and the within view neighbors in their yard don't notice.
ReplyDeleteThey also make 45 grain "Quiets" that cycle my 10-22 nicely. Also quiet.
22 Shorts do pretty well with quiet busting of rabbits and squirrels and even folks walking their dogs within view seem puzzled why their dogs react. So again quieter than my springer air rifles 22 and 177.
BTW Joe, I am hoping to see a picture of that SNH anti-vole vase-cage mentioned in the Hungry Times thread.
PS Rabbits tend to do well in cold weather as long as they stay DRY and out of the wind. Keeping the water non-frozen is my biggest concern. Rabbits do POORLY in HEAT, so I use a shade roof over the rabbitry.
Michael
The picture did not show up as an attachment, despite several tries.
DeleteI had a thought, you might be able to make a model out of paper or light cardboard to get an idea of the design.
Southern NH
Thanks for the try. I am confused by the extra descriptions.
DeleteMaybe I am overthinking it. A hardware cloth square with cuts to make a box cone bottom. Place in pre-dug hole then add seeds and compost?
Am I getting this reasonably, correct?
Thanks for the reply
Yes that’s it. Te hardware cloth can be tough to work with, but it’s durable. It can be squeezed back into shape if it gets bent.
DeleteSNH
Thanks
DeleteMichael the anonymous today.
You can easily capture your own wild yeast, or if you are into it, you can use the yeast from a beer. As it turns out, the baker used to his his yeast from the brewer once upon a time. I made a starter a few years back using the yeast from a German Heffewiezen and it was awesome! Mix your starter to about the consistency of runny pancake batter. It should be ready to go once you start to see bubbles rising to the surface of the starter. Once you start to use it, feed it 50/50 flour and water.
ReplyDeleteIf you just want to run critters off use a .22 BB Cap:: Elmo Blu
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to overthink sourdough starter. This is a good guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZpnEHkMvw0. Once you get it going, I agree with rubberduck on how to refresh.
ReplyDelete"It's easy to overthink sourdough starter" Absolutely agree. King Arthur is a great resource. My personal reference book has been European and American Professional Sourdough Cooking and Recipes written by George and Berthe Herter 1975. I began my current starter (Yuri) with Lalvin RC 212 Red Wine Yeast a couple years ago. I keep it refrigerated and feed weekly. Just this week I removed about 4 cups of 'discard' and spread it on sheets of parchment paper and dehydrated for about 36 hours at 95 degrees. Should anything happen to my active starter I have enough dehydrated to revive the same strain for a lifetime. I also gift small packets with instructions for reviving. Brewer's yeast is key for the lactic acid bacteria. I also only use High Gluten flour also.
ReplyDeleteSir, I purchased a few boxes of CCI Subsonic 22LR for a little canned bolt rifle and promptly forgot about them till last summer when my grand daughter wanted to do some plinking. First round was so quiet, I thought we had a missfire. Po[nt of impact was low and right by about 2". We then tried it in an old 10/22 and it cycled fine but was still low and right. I haven't even seen 22 short in so long I can't say how the two would compare sound wise, but it's pretty quiet in the 10/22 and does work the action. Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteI used to use Aquila super colobri- a 20 grain projectile and no powder: quieter than most pellet guns.
ReplyDeleteNow I use subsonic ammo with a silencer and all I hear is the bolt cycling.
Jonathan
A friend gifted me a couple dozen boxes of Colibri and Super Colibri. I have a Heritage Rough Rider pistol and a Stevens single-shot .22 rifle I use them in. You are correct about them being quieter than my .22 air rifle!
DeleteIF you want the "Sour" flavor and the chewy texture, DO NOT adulterate your starter with plain bread yeast... Then it will simply become "bread".
ReplyDeleteThose true Sourdough cultures give specific flavors and texture.
If you want some good cultures to try, go to https://sourdo.com/ Not cheap, but worth the money.
Personally, I like the SanFrancisco and the Yukon cultures, but I don't bake or eat enough bread by myself to make it worthwhile to keep them going.
As I understand it, a sour dough starter from San Francisco for example, would be replaced by local yeast over time? So its not wort it to spend big $$$ on expensive starters? That's what my wife tells me. (I believe her, if only to promote marital bliss. Also I married "up", so that is a thing too....)
ReplyDeleteMy mental image is that local yeasts and bacteria will join the party and if the conditions of the overall-population of the culture favors them over other, more senior strains then their numbers will increase. If the conditions favor the senior strains then they will remain dominant.
DeleteThose conditions include the feed material's components as some oligosaccharides are difficult for many bacteria to digest. A flour rich in oligosaccharides would favor, at least as a subpopulation, bacteria with an enzyme package that can digest them.
Frequency of feeding the culture and temperatures are major variables.
Some yeast strains are "killer" yeasts. They are infected with an RNA virus that they have a tolerance for. When a non-killer yeast is exposed to that virus it dies and its place in the fermenting mass is replaced with the infected strain.
Bacteria have the ability to inject genetic material into other bacteria, even bacteria of other species. So the incoming bacteria can contribute to the "gene pool" in that way as well.
Pain, ah yes, workout pain. 4 months ago, being a way out of shape 67 year old woman, I walked into a hardcore, powerlifting / bodybuilding gym. Serious competitors here. Go big or go home..right? First 6-8 weeks I only had some periodic minor soreness. As I’ve gotten into the heavier weights and harder movements I’ve had some more pronounced ouchies. I have found that arnica cream helps. Never used to think much of homeopathic remedies but my local health store recommended it when I went in there after cracking a rib. Fastest healing anyone who has ever had a cracked rib has heard of. By the large tube!
ReplyDeleteThere are tons of fitness YouTubers but the one I frequently consult to see how to do some of the exercises I’m not familiar with (after getting my monthly program from the gym owner) is physical therapist / professional sports team athlete trainer, Jeff Cavaliere’s, Athlean-X channel. He's got tons of high profile creds that you can see on his actual web site…athleanx.com
DeleteI used to keep meat rabbits but not communally as the females are very territorial and will kill the males if you put them in the females cage. For mating you should always put the female in the males cage .....But I digress as for meat purposes they should be kept separately in wire cages.
ReplyDeleteERJ!
ReplyDeleteI dehydrated some excellent starter just last summer. If interested, I can send some for you to rehydrate, along with instructions, after the holidays.
You should have my email address if you want to get in touch.
DaPerfessor