Category: Uncategorized

January 8, 2020 – Happy New Year; Remove Your Barriers

January 8, 2020 /
This really rings true for me

Welcome to 2020. Time to get back to work. I first heard of this video several months ago and I was struck at how much this description resonated with me and my charactere. I think that it boils down to whether you really want to do something or not and how difficult it may be.

I think that you have to be intellectually honest with yourself on that subject. Like this project for instance. I have wanted to do something like this for years, but as you can see I have made little progress. It will also be difficult to make some income, let alone a living right now.

Almost daily, while I was on vacation I thought “If I was really doing this blog as a job, I would be posting daily, despite being on vacation”. The platform is mobile enabled, so I could have done it with my phone – but that’s much harder than using a computer. So I didn’t.

“When I get back, I will have all these ideas”. I still do, it has taken me five days to get back into the swing of things.

“When I work for myself, I can arrange my own schedule”. Yes, but if you dont work during the day, you still need to do it in the evening.

Hopefully this year, I will move beyond some of my own Toolbox Fallacy. I encourage you to look critically at yours.

December 18, 2019 – Cheap Wine

December 19, 2019 /

This should go in the ‘Approachable Wine’ stream but I haven’t posted in the blog yet today, However, $4.99 at Rainbow Market is the intent of the database search so here is the review.

  • Tasting Notes – Cherry, Plumb (my wife thought), low tannins, low acid, somewhat sweet please see comments above
  • Pairing- Chicken pot pie and green salad
  • Notes: pleasant, higher alcohol than normal, pair with stronger foods
  • Ratings- 4 stars out of 5 (because of tasting and not a strong comparison yet). However one of the more pleasant zinfandels lately

December 17, 2019 Stock or Water?

December 17, 2019 /
Making stock requires a few common ingredients

Reading ‘Salt, Fat, Acid Heat’ by Samin Nosrat a few months ago, one of her statements struck me. I am paraphrasing, but the implication is use homemade stock or water if not on hand, do not use pre-prepared or store bought stock. After listening to a few podcasts and reading the ingredients, I tend to agree as well.

The good news is, making stock is cheap and easy. The biggest hurdle is time followed by the end result storage if you don’t use it all in one setting. What I am showing in the picture is two whole chicken carcasses (mostly bones and skin), onion, garlic, celery, carrots, salt, pepper and bay leaves. I also don’t get too fussy about the proportions. I try to get two carrots and two celery stocks with half an onion, but I use what I have on hand. You can save parts on hand in the freezer until you feel like you have enough offal or bones or you need to make stock for a recipe.

For best results, try to keep it under boiling, but that is really for clarity and not flavor. My style is to let it go overnight, turn it off in the morning and stick it in the refrigerator the next evening. I also try to let it cool, skim off the fat and filter the liquid through a coarse strainer if I have the time

When complete, I put about three cups in a quart jar and put them into the freezer. If I have less than three cups, I put it into the refrigerator for current use. You can also pressure can it for shelf stable storage. That is it. In the words of Charlie Papazian, ‘Relax and have a homebrew, it will be alright’.

December 16, 2019 Polymath Daily, Episode 1 – Beta Podcast

December 16, 2019 /
[office src=”https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=C6E1DFFEE482B6E0&resid=C6E1DFFEE482B6E0%2186849&authkey=AE27qSPWCUfVxfU” width=”98″ height=”120″]

Polymath Daily Podcast 

Episode 1 

  1. What is a polymath?  
  1. Definition 1: A person whose expertise spans a significant number of subject areas, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.1  
  1. Definition 2: Contributing to both art and sciences
  1. Sources 

December 13,2019 – Skills and Tools are Valuable

December 13, 2019 /
This dirty job can save a lot of money

Having both skills and tools make a lot of sense. My last call to the plumber cost about $200 dollars for him to clean out the drain. Ultimately, it turned out that he got a toothbrush and a McDonalds toy out of the shower drain (in a rental house). I was shocked for multiple reasons, the first of which I had tried to snake it already. Second, there way a cover screwed over the drain hole and last there hadn’t been kids in the place for several years.

This little snake cost $7.70 at box store and about ten minutes of time to clean the drain. I ended up buying one because my last one broke and it had been on my to do list for a while. This job could have been done without the specific tool (having the skill), but rentals frequently have these kinds of issues so having the tool is helpful. The point is, for a little cost and effort, I saved $200.

The only real consideration is probably time. I think a lot of time, people replace ‘I don’t want to spend my time doing that’ with ‘I don’t have the time to do that’. What took me ten minutes might take someone 30 minutes. In the alternate scenario, you would be scheduling a plumber, being available and paying a bill that you would probably rather not. For the most part, we have the luxury of approaching situations in that manner.

Even if you don’t know how to do something, be brave and I promise that you will feel confident in the future about such a task.

December 11, 2019 – Using Your Time Effectively

December 11, 2019 /
Fill the smoker to make the best use of your time

I was trimming the neighbor’s cherry tree that was hanging over the yard this fall and I didn’t want to just throw out the branches. So I got to thinking about what I could do with them and I thought smoked salmon. I have never attempted it in my side box smoker even though I always kind of wanted to.

This leads me to another tip. When I do the annual apple tree pruning, I always save a bunch of water shoots to later use in the smoker. It saves on waste and is perfect for all the smoking I have done.

Looking at the calendar, school is ending for the year and the holidays are barreling upon us. I really wanted to get this experiment done. As I was planning last night, I thought ‘I am going to have some extra room, I should smoke something for dinner as well’. So I got a chicken out. I think that will go well with collard greens (still in the garden) and black eyed peas.

Sure, it would be nice to have an electronically controlled smoker, but since I am going to the effort of tending the fire why not fill up the unused space? The salmon will be vacuum sealed for the future and dinner will be delicious tonight.

December 10, 2019 – Waxing about the Past

December 10, 2019 /
A 1980’s piece of plywood

Growing up, we had a family reunion every August at my grandparents place. My grandfather built this table where you would put food along with blocks of ice to keep the food cold. He died in 1994, but my grandmother still lived at the farm and this table was still there, albeit covered with bird poop and rotting legs. I asked to borrow it in 2015 for my father-in-law’s 60th birthday. I had to do a lot of repair to make it serviceable.

Grandma had told me that she really didn’t think it needed to come back, so it sat in my driveway until 2017 when I decided that it need to be retired because it was in my way. I took the 1/2 sheet of plywood off for later use since it seemed to be in serviceable condition. I recently ripped a couple strips off for a project that I am working on. I looked at the core and was amazed by two things. One, how many consistent layers are in the core and two, the lack of voids.

It got me thinking about the origin of this plywood, wondering how many of the people that made it were still alive. The resource that old growth timber was and how stable and durable that material was. Today we have OSB and engineered studs and beams that are economical and straight. We have more wood products that are theoretically better for the application, but we don’t have the durability. In my life, we have seen the likes of engineered siding fail, improper air sealing causing sheathing to rot and imported products offgassing to make homes toxic.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a believer in technology and the global economy and I understand that failure is a great teacher. But, wouldn’t it be great if we appreciate things right now?

As we rush into the holiday season, I am trying to make sure that I value the right things, appreciate the things that may never be the same again and focus on the durability in life. I hope that you do that too.

December 6, 2019 – Epic Fail

December 6, 2019 /

Here I am, over four and a half years after my last entry.  Well, as you can see, my test failed and I haven’t had much success on this platform or with consistency.  It is probably worse that I quit my job almost eight months ago without a parachute and haven’t done much (professionally) since.  Is it bad to say that I haven’t been happier in a long time?

I was recently speaking to a friend about this as we had some quality time making tamales together.  He told me that at one point, he didn’t work for nearly two years.  He said that he went until he ran out of money and then started over.

It got me thinking about the fact that it is going to be OK and reassured that others have had this funk too.  I really don’t want to wait until I have no choice, so it is time to get industrious.  Re-engage!

April 6, 2016 – Finding Contentment

April 7, 2016 /

For those that know me (really well) they would know that I have been struggling for several years with my job. When I was younger, I believed that I was capable and qualified to do anything. Put a twenty years of maturity on and of course I now know that while that may be technically true, many things I am no longer willing to do.

Part of me wishes that I could start over, part of me knows how successful I really am at least income wise.  But, as the saying goes “Money doesn’t buy happiness”.  My creative output is very limited and I find most mornings dreading the upcoming work day.  Several successive executives have had stress related heart attacks.  It is hard to imagine another week let alone 25 more years.

A friend, mentor, boss and vice president announced two weeks ago that he was leaving my company for what amounted to irreconcilable differences.  I find that very ironic considering he was the one that challenged me to wait for pending organizational changes and trust that his brand of revolution would lead the company into something I could believe in.  Needless to say, I felt a little betrayed, while at the same time vindicated for some of my personal differences.  That night I felt pretty low.

I am not super religious, but a Christian nonetheless.  One of my New Years resolutions was to read an study a daily devotional.  Honestly, I have failed at the daily part but continue to work through several entries a week.  This is the interesting part: that night the scripture was 1 Timothy 6:1-10.  I’ll help you if you haven’t read it, it’s about danger of greed and putting your struggles to God.  Now, I have been praying off and on about trying to find the lesson in my struggles for years.  Maybe this is it?

I am not quite sure, but one paradigm that has shifted in recent weeks was to expect that an outside influence would some how magically change things for the better is just not a reality.  Any change in my perception is going to require me participating in the outcome.  I still hold many of the same desires and struggles that I had prior to two weeks ago, the difference is that I might have found the message in my struggles.

March 28, 2016 – More, More, More

March 29, 2016 /

I have so much that I want to get to,  near term topics…

  • Reconnecting with lost friends and my struggle with interpersonal relationships
  • Along a similar vein, friends with serious health struggles that I want to make contact
  • Rebuilding a deck
  • Tool reviews
  • Fun driving my new 2016 Mustang GT
  • My struggle with job satisfaction and 1 Timothy 6
  • Being a better son, grandson, cousin and co-worker