so waht ya doin today?

somebody's gonna be mad tomorrow.
i have 6 heads of broccoli to cut, and the spinach needs a serious picking again.
all of the broccoli are already putting on secondary heads and most of those are big enough to pick too.
i've determined my cauliflower plants ain't putting on heads because they got too hot, yeah,,,,, meanwhile half the other stuff is struggling or dead because it's been too cold.
the seeds from one pack of summer squash have all popped up, but the new package hasn't had a single plant come around from it.
the bell peppers are fine, all the green beans in the open 3' away are dead, there's 85 pea plants in one box but the one next to it [in series] has maybe 20, and one other box has like 10 pea plants in it but i have never ever planted any in there.
siiigh i dunno.

we did get up to around 60 today, so that was an improvement.

Today is our Father's Day, since Marie was herding aircraft yesterday. Pizza and antipasto salad will be supper.

popper said:

Maybe I'll get to schedule my next visit to college friends there so I can see them. Been to the space museum, salt mines, etc.

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Um, you do know this Tractor Pull, I was talking about was in MN, right?
The NTPA only come to Hutchinson, MN once a year, on Father's Day weekend.

Moving a BUNCH of BIG presses to the new shop.

Is this finally your "forever" shop?

I moved a gun safe and a 20-ton hydraulic press into my shop recently, and this weekend should be moving in a second lathe. Hopefully I'll never have to move from this here Empire of Rusty Treasure because it would take an Army batallion to move all my crap.

Looking forward to some details about the second lathe.

Pups. Late to bed, up early. Like having a troop of 4 year olds staying overnight!

Supposed to rain all week. Not sure what I can get done today.

Bret, were the pups de-wormed? Roundworms are very common cause of those symptoms, you mentioned.

The weather guesser says summer weather is arriving with the first day of summer.
Hopefully it will be safe to move the okra plants from the window to the garden.
My snow peas are loving the cool temps. Seems like I have to pick them every other day.

Winelover said:

Bret, were the pups de-wormed? Roundworms are very common cause of those symptoms, you mentioned.

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Yep, I just went through it with my new puppy. Puppies even get them from the mother's milk. Here's an interesting article from the American Kennel Club.

Well durn it, the rabbits ate off my second attempt ar sunflower plants... ill try once more before I make rabbit pie..

Got the smoker out all Cleaned and prepped. About ten Ill start it and get it to temp. When I smoke fish Im more careful about temps and I like them LOW. ITS EASY TO OVER smoke fish. It generally takes smoke easily ESPECIALLY when fillet. I prefer smoke with skin ON. But didnt prep these for smoking. It was a after thought.
The fish looks great after nearly 48 hours in my seasoning brine. Nice and firm and tinted to brine color. Its in fridge now "tacking up".
Ill start about 11:30 -12:00. Planning on needing 5-6 hrs of smoke. Ill start about 250 to get smoke rolling, then down temps to 150° range for remainder of time. Only opening once about 15:00 to swap rack positions. Check 17:00 ish for doneness.

CW

Yup, vet checked that. He's right as rain this AM. Probably a "bug" going through them. Thanks for the thought though!

I've never smoke fish. I've had it though. Went to a Christmas party at a marina in Key West when I was working on a new plant down there. One of the fishing guides smoked a Cobia if I remember right. It was tasty.

Tractor Pull, I was talking about was in MN nope, thought Ks. Pu the case trimmer away, too darn hot to do any more. Gotta stick a cast in to see what bore dia is. Don't have any unsized or large 145gr so gonna be a while before I try to cast anymore. Fan just doesn't cool the garage down enough to do much work there.

Snakeoil said:

I've never smoke fish. I've had it though. Went to a Christmas party at a marina in Key West when I was working on a new plant down there. One of the fishing guides smoked a Cobia if I remember right. It was tasty.

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This is first for me with Striper. Blue fish is real tasty Smoked with Teriyaki and soy.
Salmon is still king for me. Dry salt brine with real maple Syrup. Is ta die for for us. Its a Christmas and New Years treat! Easy too just smoke entirely @ 180-210° couple three hours and done.

This Striper recipie called for 225° for smoke immediately turned down to 125° smoke 10-12 hrs. I dont like that low. 155/165° will be my target started 225/230° for smoke. Then 5-6 till done. But still easy. And quite rewarding!!

Im doing a video from start so Ill post that with recipe if anyone is interested.

CW

I am what many will call a lazy smoker. But it is because it was how I was introduced to smoking my own stuff. Guy let me borrow an electric smoker so I could do a turkey for a July 4th party about 25 years ago. The turkey came out great, was a hit at the party and became a party staple for 10 years of July 4th parties at our camp. I ended up buying a Brinkman electric smoker after that first experience and have been using it since. I just replaced the element in it 2 years ago. I also picked up another one at a garage sale that was like new so I have one at home, too.

Zero controls on the smoker. Plug it in and it goes to about 150F. Originally it had lava rocks in the bottom around the element and you put the chips on the rock. I made a chip pan out of an old stainless soup pot that sits right on the element. Much easier clean-up when done. My pulled pork is famous amongst family, friends and neighbors. I've done ribs and brisket. Have not done a turkey in a long time. Probably should. What I love is you grab the bones in the legs and they slip right out of the meat and it looks like the leg has never been touched. Skin is like rubber, though and that goes in the trash.

I'm on a major walleye lake so I might just smoke a walleye one of these days. Will only do one as an experiment. Walleye is such a delicate flavor that I might find that I don't like it. Don't want to ruin more than 1.

Last two weeks I’ve sold about 1 - 40’ flat trailer and 4 - 20’ bumper pull trailer loads of building material out of my driveway. Besides put some money in the pocket, my 250 yard long drive will look clean after consolidating what is left.
Directions to my place used to go like this: go 2.8 miles, turn right at the American Flag, and if it starts look very “Alaskan” your in the right place.
Well today the rains have let up so I’m going to gather up all the balance of the remaining materials, dunnage and consolidate into neat pelletized piles. Karyn will be very happy.
Yesterday we drove to Healy and picked up a pellet stove to supplement the wood heater in the house, opposite sides of the down stairs. Hopefully we will be able to reduce the oil consumption for the boiler to just supplying our hot water..

Striper will benefit from smoking........walleye, not so much, IMO.

Winelover said:

Striper will benefit from smoking........walleye, not so much, IMO.

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Yeah, this is what I was wondering. Hard to improve on natural walleye.

Last week, I was told there is a couple branches down, in front of the 200 yd berm (at the sportsman club), one of them hit the target backer (4x8 plywood) and knocked it off the posts. I was asked to cutup the branches and fix it. I said I would, after the weather cools down a bit (the last few days have been hot and humid, yesterday was 103º with "feels like temp" of 113º).

Today, is still to humid, but the next few mornings "might" be nice enough for me to tackle the project.

So, I went out there today, just to check it out. Well, the 200 yd berm has a large Ash tree down and major damage to the target stand, more than what I was told. ALSO, there is a mid sized Elm down, in front of the 100 yd berm, covering up 90% of the multiple target stands. There will be lots of brush to haul and plenty of good firewood. I will surely need my ATV and trailer...which I didn't think would be needed from what I was told. Probably 6 to 12 hours of work, not the 1 hour I guessed from what I was told. Now I just need to "get excited" about doing that much work, which is hard to do, when the temp is in the 80s and humid. If the next few mornings are a no go, we are suppose to get some GREAT wood cutting weather next week. I may just wait until then? I should of taken photo. BTW, this is in a woodsy area, Mosquito Hell.