Thursday, March 31, 2011

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

Yo dawg, I heard you like towing, so we put a tow truck in your tow truck, so you could tow while you tow!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Wow, thats a lot of pessimistic news....better get my garden planted

Economics and Investing:

Time to plant your garden (in Ohio anyway)

You really should have started your sprouts by now (I have mine in an indoor greenhouse thingy). As soon as the snow stops falling (we got some yesterday) I'll plant everything outdoors.

Types

  • Cool-season and warm-season vegetables can be grown in Ohio. Cool-season crops withstand light frost and include many leaf and root vegetables. Warm-season crops, such as cucumbers, squash, melons and tomatoes must be planted after the threat of frost passes.

Time Frame

  • Experienced Ohio gardeners begin planting cool-season vegetables in Mid-March, according to the Ohio State University Extension web site. Ohio is located in USDA plant hardiness zones 5 and 6, with an average last frost date occurring in April-May. Warm-season vegetables can be planted after the last killing frost.

Considerations

  • Starting vegetable seeds indoors during late winter can result in transplants by the early spring planting season. Using transplants instead of direct seeding can add a few weeks to your harvest season. Successive planting can also make the most of a season. Plant new crops as soon as the previous ones are harvested.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Chicken With Lemon and Green Onion Sauce

Tried this last night, it was awesome. Still working on side dishes, although obviously chicken goes well with lots of things.

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breast halves
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
2 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
4 tablespoons butter
dash salt
dash freshly ground black pepper or seasoned pepper

Prep:

Pre-heat broiler; line a broiler pan with foil and oil the rack.
Rinse chicken; pat dry. Put chicken breast between two sheets of plastic wrap and gently pound to thin to an even thickness. Rub with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange on oiled broiler rack.

In a saucepan, combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 seconds.





Cooking:

Broil the chicken for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning about halfway through the cooking time. Drizzle each chicken breast with about 1 teaspoon of the lemon mixture 1 minute before it's finished. Serve chicken with the remaining sauce.

Goes well with a side of rice and cornbread.

Serves 4.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Tongue in cheek post about German gun laws

"Again, as a “normal citizen” you have to establish that you in terrible danger [to receive a concealed carry permit]. Being shot more than one time is considered adequate proof that you qualify. Being murdered is the best proof to get a CC. Unfortunately, a posthumous CC isn’t much use. The state does not allow citizens to be buried with a loaded weapon."

Check out the post here.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Funny one there Tam

Remember back in '50s and early '60s, when we set off something like 900 atomic bombs in Nevada? And how we just let the fallout blow wherever and it landed all over the eastern US? And how it wiped out life as we know it and all that was left from Colorado to the Atlantic were six-legged rats battling two-headed cockroaches in the glowing ruins?

Yeah. Exactly. So shut up with the panic already.

Courtesy of Tam

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Understanding the Federal budget woes

It is predicted the Federal budget deficit will reach $1.65 trillion this year with a $14.1 trillion debt and about $2.1 trillion in income. Yet the House cannot reach agreement on spending cuts. The House Republicans want to only cut $60 billion in spending and the Democrats only want to cut spending $6.5 billion. If you were to scale this down into numbers people might be able to relate to it would look like the following.
If your family income were $50,000 then:
  • Family debt is $335,700
  • Family deficit is $39,300 (spending is $89,300/year)
  • The head of household wants to cut $1,430 in yearly spending
  • The spouse wants to cut $154.80 in yearly spending 
Props to Joe Huffman

Monday, March 14, 2011

Good point, seems like common sense...but its not that common

"When General Motors and Chrysler were facing bankruptcy our government stepped in, handed both companies a ton of our money to reward them for failing, and then allowed them to pay back these "loans" with money obtained through a different tax payer funded scheme.
There is another way companies can avoid bankruptcy and it doesn't involve stealing money from the tax payers. This method, although hardly known, is to produce a better product."More of the post here
http://wp.me/puTMW-1yU

due credit to Christopher Burg

Friday, March 11, 2011

Hometown Seeds, Check 'em out, I like 'em, Not affiliated.

Pardon the fact that my template goes over the ad, I'm too lazy to fix it. I like Hometown Seeds and think you should give 'em a look see.

    Great Resources for Planning your Garden     


Planting time is just around the corner! Now’s the time to start planning your garden. 
Garden planning can be confusing so here’s a few sources to help. These can also be 
found on our website under resources.

Planting Schedules –  By finding your zone you can find the best time to plant your seeds. 
Planting Guides– Consult this guide to determine the amount of seed and space you need.
Extension Services – Check out this website to find specific information on your area.










































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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Winter Recipe

Yes, I agree this is the tail end of winter, but this recipe sounded so good I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share. I am prepping my grocery list right now and cant wait to have the house smell so wonderful.
Hat tip to Tango Juliet.


"This is about the best cold weather drink ever invented IMHO.

And to think, I put the spotlight on it at the tale end of a fairly moderate winter!

What timing!

The basic recipe:

Into your favorite crock pot, dump 4 parts apple cider to 1 part cranberry juice.

Add two sticks of cinnamon.

Poke 6 whole cloves into a nice sweet orange. Toss it into the mix.

Let it brew for 6 to 8 hours.

This mix is guaranteed to flood your house with the best aromas since fresh baked bread.

Cautions and suggestions: Be sure you get good sweet oranges. Some navel oranges have very bitter rinds. Bad juju! I recommend buying two. Eat one for testing purposes.

Naturally the cider/apple juice to cranberry juice ratio can be varied.

Use caution with the cloves. They are potent little critters. Six is the most I'll use these days. The use of more than six ventures into +P territory very quickly.

This brew is very receptive to alcohol. I prefer cinnamon schnapps but I have seen others use rum with success as well"

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

OK, lets get this straight

Not that I am a true Republican, so I guess I can't rant too hard at the dumb decisions that party makes, but can you please make sure that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are given the wrong date and address for the Republican Convention in 2012? If either of these two RINO's gets nominated you might as well just not even bother. Bobby Jindal, however, would give Barack a real run for his money.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Like New Again

So, my CRKT Carson Design M16-10KZ (which is a really long name for a knife btw CRKT, more on that later) came apart, mostly, in my pocket today at work. Nothing was damaged, just the main screw had worked itself loose and the blade had popped free from its pivot point. So, I took this as a sign that it would be a good time to take the knife completely apart* and clean it.

Now, its always important to maintain your gear and while I do sharpen the high carbon blade from time to time, I do admit that my everyday carry knife (EDC) does get a little less loving than some of my other backpacking, outdoors, fishing, camping, etc equipment. I just don't normally think about it, honestly. It goes in my pocket every morning with my wallet and cell phone and gets dumped in my wallet box every evening when I come home from work. I use it almost daily at work, giving it un-dignified work such as opening packages and mail.

Well, I was once again amazed at the quality of craftsmanship that convinced me to buy the knife originally. After cleaning all the parts and re-assembling it (I did have a little trouble getting the brass and the teflon bearings back in place) the knife works as good as new and I have a big smile on my face. 

I've had it over 3 years and have been very pleased with the blade and the feel of the handle; many folders feel loose or slippery in your hands and can lead to you cutting yourself, this model just "fits". This good grip allows me to be confident when I am using it for something other than packing tape and I have yet to nick myself with it. As far as EDC's go, this one gets 4.5 stars (I would give it a full five if it had an easier name).

As for the name (CRKT Carson Design M16-10KZ), CRKT has a number of (Kit) Carson Design blades and they have a number of variations named M16-##XX, so many so that I have long since forgotten what my designation actually means, although I assume it refers to the tanto style blade. A simpler name might have been the CRKT M16 Tanto. For a company that does a really good job with their own acronym (CRKT stands for Columbia River Knife and Tool and I pronounce it "cricket") you think they would find a way to make saying the names of their knives a little less hard. Spyderco's habit of giving their knives one word names comes to mind. Its kind of like Ford vs Lexus. While a Mustang may be lacking in certain specs when compared to the IS F11, I would much rather tell people I owned a Mustang versus admitting to owning the Lexus alphanumeric mouthful. Just MHO.

*I didn't take the zytel scales off the steel frame as I saw nothing to be gained doing that, it would likely just loosen the factory screws forever and I also didn't take apart the nifty CRKT Auto-LAWKS safety as I figured that was just asking for re-assembly hell.

For anyone shopping for an EDC, I would highly recommend you at least glance at the knife in question, its about $25 on Amazon and no I don't get any money from Amazon for sending you there, I turned off all the commerce settings on my blog months ago.

Dimensions
Open Overall Length7.125 inches
Closed Length4 inches
Weight2.3 ounces

Blade
Length3 inches
Thickness0.08 inches
Material8Cr15MoV
Blade-HRC58-59
FinishEDP
GrindHollow
StyleTanto
EdgeTriple-Point Serrations

Handle
MaterialZytel
Liners2CR13

Lock
TypeLocking Liner
Safety SystemAutoLAWKS

Carry
Carry System1 Position Clip   


Here is Kit Carson's M16® Every Day Carry (EDC) with our Zytel® InterFrame build. Our knife users told us, "We want an affordable work knife that we can give hard use without feeling guilty, and one that won't break us up if we leave it on a job site or drop it in the river."

We heard you. So we set about to make the Zytel EDC the best value in the work and sport knife world.

That starts with textured Zytel® scales and a dual 2CR13 stainless steel liner InterFrame. Assembled with Zytel back spacers and Torx® fasteners, the result is amazingly rigid. Zytel is a fiberglass-filled nylon that offers excellent toughness and resistance to solvents. Teflon® bearings at the blade pivot and an adjustable pivot screw allow for perfect blade action.

The blade is 8CR15MoV high-carbon stainless steel which gives an ideal combination of toughness and edge-holding ability in a work knife, and also allows easy field-sharpening.

The M16®-10KZ features a dual hollow grind Tanto-style blade with Combined Razor-Sharp and Triple-Point Serrated edges similar to our "Big Dog" M16 models. The result is maximum blade strength and ability to saw through cord, webbing, nets or vegetation quickly. It has a black EDP blade, black frame and hardware for a non-flective tactical look.

Of course, it features the Carson Flipper, which speeds opening of the blade and acts as a blade guard when the blade is open.

The real breakthrough was our ability to engineer our patented* AutoLAWKS knife safety into all models, which automatically actuates when the blades are open, making these folders into virtual fixed blades when locked.

Add to these features the standard removable Teflon®-plated stainless steel clothing/gear clip plus the CRKT limited lifetime warranty, and you have one of the truly great knife values of our time.