Picture of Oiled Bird

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

An oiled bird sits on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast after being drenched in oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill Thursday, June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
—-
We have an addiction to oil. Future generations are going to look back at us with disgust at how we mis-used natural resources and destroyed the plant for our own convenience.

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Plum-Flavored Sugar, Hold the Worms

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

I’ve quickly moved through the 5 stages of grief since finding that my precious plums were playing host to some very rude and uninvited worms.  A few people advised me to just cut out the bad parts of the fruit and use what was good.  That is what I decided to do.   I had a good deal of satisfaction washing those worms down the drain, ending their happy future as plum-egg-layers.  I felt good that I was able to still use the fruit, rather than just throwing it all away like I was intending to do last night.  I learned a few things while cutting up the fruit:  1) it is actually easier to pit a plum with a worm living in it.  2) birds can eat a worm out of a plum through a single tiny hole.  3) cutting up a bunch of plums is time-consuming work.

After I got all the fruit cut up, I only had 2 cups of fruit, far from the 6 cups the recipe called for.  After some advance math, I figured out how much sugar I needed.  The process of making jam is super easy.  You just heat it up, stir in the pectin, stir in the sugar, and keep stirring.  The only hard part is getting the water, jars, lids, and fruit all hot at the same time.  This is one time a big stove would be handy.  I came out with 4 half-pint jars of jam.  The taste taste results were outstanding, but I don’t know how you can go wrong with anything with that much sugar!  I’ll be able to use less sugar once I get a pressure-cooker though.

Plums
Canning Rack, painted black
The canning setup
Hot Jam going into the Jars
Water Bath
Finished Product, cooling
[Show slideshow]
Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

My First Canning FAIL

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

I was excited to see that my plum tree is full of fruit that is ripe or near ripe. I decided to seize the moment and go ahead and make some plum jam tonight. I was missing a few things, lemon juice, pectin, and a tray for the jars to sit on in the water bath. Bryson and I went to the Super Target to get these things. Turns out Target has a few items for canning, but mostly worthless. Next stop, Wal-Mart. I couldn’t find a canning tray there either. They had a kit that came with a plastic basket, but it would only hold 3 jars and looked like it would last about 4 times. I decided to make my own using a stove burner cover by drilling holes in it. At $4, I wouldn’t be too upset if it didn’t work out.
We got home with just enough light left in the day to get some fruit off the tree. I picked what I thought would be enough and came inside to get started. I drilled a bunch of holes in the burner cover, then decided I needed to sand it a little to remove all of the sharp burrs that were created by the drilling. As Murphy’s law dictates, I cut my finger while doing this.
Moving on, I got the jars set up in the water bath to heat up, lids ready for heating, tools cleaned and ready, and started cleaning my fruit. Guess what? EVERY PIECE OF FRUIT HAS A WORM LIVING IN IT! I little research tells me it is too late to do anything about it, all the fruit is infected. You have to spray very early to take care of this problem. I’m very disappointed to say the least!

Fresh Fruit
Improvised Canning Tray
Canning Tools
Lids
Canning Bath
Worms, living in my plums
[Show slideshow]
Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Neighborhood Hazard

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

If you are a motorcycle enthusiast, you might have already heard this story, but it is definitely worth reading again.   (theme similar to the bricklayer story)  The original appears to come from a guy selling a book.  (and thanks David T. for bringing it to me on a day I didn’t need another distraction, but sure enjoyed it)
—

Neighborhood Hazard (Or: Why the Cops Won’t Patrol Brice Street)
I never dreamed slowly cruising through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous!

Studies have shown that motorcycling requires more decisions per second, and more sheer data processing than nearly any other common activity or sport. The reactions and accurate decision making abilities needed have been likened to the reactions of fighter pilots! The consequences of bad decisions or poor situational awareness are pretty much the same for both groups too.

Occasionally, as a rider I have caught myself starting to make bad or late decisions while riding. In flight training, my instructors called this being “behind the power curve”. It is a mark of experience that when this begins to happen, the rider recognizes the situation, and more importantly, does something about it. A short break, a meal, or even a gas stop can set things right again as it gives the brain a chance to catch up.

Good, accurate, and timely decisions are essential when riding a motorcycle…at least if you want to remain among the living. In short, the brain needs to keep up with the machine.

I had been banging around the roads of east Texas and as I headed back into Dallas, found myself in very heavy, high-speed traffic on the freeways. Normally, this is not a problem, I commute in these conditions daily, but suddenly I was nearly run down by a cage that decided it needed my lane more than I did. This is not normally a big deal either, as it happens around here often, but usually I can accurately predict which drivers are not paying attention and avoid them before we are even close. This one I missed seeing until it was nearly too late, and as I took evasive action I nearly broadsided another car that I was not even aware was there!

Two bad decisions and insufficient situational awareness…all within seconds. I was behind the power curve. Time to get off the freeway.
Continue reading →

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Working from Home

Posted on May 29, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

I brought all the stuff I’ve been working on in the office home so I could spend the weekend here instead of all alone in the office.  This is all equipment from automationdirect.com (the walmart of industrial automation).  I’ve been pretty impressed with everything, especially considering they are generally 1/2 price of the competitors.  I’ve called in to their tech support several times (free) and I’ve always been connected to a real English-speaking, knowledgeable technician right away.  PLC is DL260 w/ ECOM100 Ethernet, HMI is C-More 12″.  I’m also using a standalone ProLinx module to translate between Modbus/TCP and AB Ethernet that is used by some of the vendor equipment I’m interfacing with.  (that module cost more than my whole PLC rack by the way)

Posted in Work | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Can you guess what’s in the picture?

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

Can you guess what’s in the picture?

A) Strawberry ice cream

B) Chicken

C) Plastic foam

D) None of the above

Answer below

What you need to know:

Folks, this is mechanically separated chicken, an invention of the late 20th century. Someone figured out in the 1960’s that meat processors can eek out a few more percent of profit from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows by scraping the bones 100% clean of meat. This is done by machines, not humans, by passing bones leftover after the initial cutting through a high pressure sieve. The paste you see in the picture above is the result.

This paste goes on to become the main ingredient in many a hot dog, bologna, chicken nuggets, pepperoni, salami, jerky etc…

The industry calls this method AMR – Advanced Meat Recovery.

In 2004, as a result of  mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) ruled that beef could no longer be processed this way, because testing showed that parts of the bovine central nervous system ended up in the meat.

As for products using mechanically separated chicken and pork, FSIS ruled that they are safe to eat, but required them to be labeled as such.

Despite them being safe, FSIS states that no more than 20% of the meat in a hot dog come from mechanically separated pork.

http://www.fooducate.com

Posted in Interesting, Strange | Tagged | 1 Comment

Butt Lift Procedure Picture

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

Received via e-mail:
—
Dear Family and Friends,
Most of you know I went in for a small surgical procedure for a butt lift. I did not have the most pleasant of experiences. I wanted to show you how it turned out. Please, refrain from getting this procedure.

You will regret it!

Much Love,
Please see my photo below……

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Mason Jar Case Project

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

masoncasefronttop2view
Dave suggested that cases would be a good way to store mason jars full of food.  At first I thought this was unnecessary, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.  If all your jars won’t fit on shelves, you need someplace else to put things, and placing them in sturdy boxes allows for safe stacking and easy transport.  We figured out that an area 16-1/2″ x 16-1/2″ x 7″ would allow for 25 pint jars or 16 quart jars.  Filled weight with quart jars would be 33 pounds.  I couldn’t get this out of my head until I had a design down, and so this is what I’m sharing:

masoncasefronttopview2 sides:

1/4″ plywood cut 16-1/2″ x 8-1/2″

1×2 (or 3/4″ x 1-1/2″ S4S) cut 16-1/2″

(2) (or 3/4″ x 1-1/2″ S4S) 1×2 cut 7″


front and back:

1/2″ plywood cut 18-1/2″ x 8-1/2″

masoncasebottomfrontviewbottom:

3/4″ plywood cut 16-1/2″ x 16-1/2″





masoncaselidlid:

1/4″ or 1/2″ plywood cut 18-1/2″ x 17-1/2″

(4) 1×2 cut 15″ (or if you want to be able to use the box as a stool, use a piece of 3/4″ plywood cut 16-1/2″ x 16-1/2″)

leave 1/2″ space along the long side and 1″ space along the short side

(Updated 5/25/2010: changed front and back from 1/4″ plywood to 1/2″ plywood)

Posted in Projects | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Garden Update: May 22, 2010

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

The family went to the McKinney farmer’s market this morning and found some good deals. One the way back we stopped at the local nursery off Greenville. They had a sign out front ‘retiring, everything must go’. I asked the lady helping me what the story was, she explained that the area would soon be the new stadium. I was not impressed, an over-priced, over-hyped, concrete shrine to the religion of football replacing a local nursery with lots of beautiful old native trees.
Anyway, I did get a great deal on some plants. Their tomatoes were $1 each. I knew I needed to replace 2 of my upside-down tomatoes, and figured I could find room for an additional 2 on top of that. Those upside planters don’t seem like a good match for little seedlings. I think you need a plant that is over 12″ in height to start with. Also, Amber wanted to fill up some of her pots with geraniums, so we got a flat of those too.
Most everything is growing pretty good right now. I think it is too hot for the new carrots to survive in the full sun. They sprout up, but then die within a day or so after they experience the full Texas sun.

Baby Herb Plants
Herbs
Radish and Sweet Potato
Green Grapes
img_5547
Upside Down Tomato Plants
New Marigold
Celebrity Tomato
7 Tomato Plants
Beans are Taller than Me
Butter Beans, Black-Eyed-Peas, Cucumbers
Corn
What\'s Left of the Sunflowers
Watermelon
Cucumber
Blackberries
New Tomato - Black Prince
New Tomato - BHN 444
Troubled Tomato
Marigold
[Show slideshow]
1 2
Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

More Jars

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Brian Gallimore

Mike went to a garage sale and picked up a bunch of free jars for me. Looks like there are lots of quart jars in there, along with some non-canning jars too. I’m done looking at craigslist for a while, I have enough!

Posted in Life | Tagged , , | 1 Comment