Let's visit on the Porch II (Laurel, Antelope: accepts, unique, how much)

[MTSilvertip]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Noticed that, did you? I remember when HEET was practically necessity... -40 and a little moisture and you sure wish you'd spent a buck for one of those blue-and-yellow cans. Perhaps the one good thing about ethanol-contaminated gas...

I only buy the ethanol-free gas for the small engines, mower and such, which appreciate the premium octane too; figure for the truck it's a lost cause, and doesn't seem to bother it much anyway.

The manual for the old Craftsman mower says to not use Premium, but it runs so much better (and longer) there's no comparison, so the manual has been deemed Wrong.

So what's in the stabilizer stuff they sell to counteract ethanol? all it says is "petroleum distillates".

STABIL is kerosene. There's other brands out there but I don't know much about them.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

STABIL is kerosene. There's other brands out there but I don't know much about them.

So why can't a person just buy a jug of kerosene for a lot less??

And what does it DO ?? My inner chemist wants to know. Didn't find any good info; looks like maybe all it does is coat the innards to keep water from reaching 'em, and maybe somewhat coats the ethanol molecules, so it stays more mixed.

Just amazes me that people say hey, add ethanol for higher octane! On Et10, my old (1978) truck lost about 10% power and ran significantly hotter; wound up switching to premium to retain the same performance as on non-ET regular. Don't see much difference with the new (1991) truck, but it's EFI.

Jay Leno has a video on his stabilizer of choice:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL_8SkZjEPc

[Reziac]

About 50 here in Laurel this morning (I'm right at 3200 feet, but the river being so close mitigates the weather quite a lot), going to be a mild sunny day. Unfortunately my garden usually gets frosted first -- apparently cold air comes down the hill and it's right in the path. If I could find a tarp that's 6 feet wide and 100 feet long, I'd wrap the corral to try shunting that cold ground flow around it. It's sheltered on the NE side and has SE exposure, but that doesn't do anything against the ground flow.

Already picked and dried about 40 pounds of tomatoes (amazing how small they get when you take the water out ), but there's probably that much again still green and hard, and we won't even discuss that durn zucchini. Five more watermelon and two honeydews that should beat the frost, and a few more that probably won't. Dug the potatoes and onions a couple weeks ago cuz was starting to lose 'em to the wet ground. The carrots were either already rotted off or clingin' so hard you need to dig 'em with a backhoe, so they're still out there.

If I can have your share of the beef, you can have my share of the elk. If I liked venison, all I'd need do is wait under the deer magnet, er, I mean the apple trees.

Heard a wolf, briefly, about a week ago. Coyotes have been around since then, so I assume the big boy wandered away again.

[MTSilvertip]

Originally Posted by Reziac

About 50 here in Laurel this morning (I'm right at 3200 feet, but the river being so close mitigates the weather quite a lot), going to be a mild sunny day. Unfortunately my garden usually gets frosted first -- apparently cold air comes down the hill and it's right in the path. If I could find a tarp that's 6 feet wide and 100 feet long, I'd wrap the corral to try shunting that cold ground flow around it. It's sheltered on the NE side and has SE exposure, but that doesn't do anything against the ground flow.

Already picked and dried about 40 pounds of tomatoes (amazing how small they get when you take the water out ), but there's probably that much again still green and hard, and we won't even discuss that durn zucchini. Five more watermelon and two honeydews that should beat the frost, and a few more that probably won't. Dug the potatoes and onions a couple weeks ago cuz was starting to lose 'em to the wet ground. The carrots were either already rotted off or clingin' so hard you need to dig 'em with a backhoe, so they're still out there.

If I can have your share of the beef, you can have my share of the elk. If I liked venison, all I'd need do is wait under the deer magnet, er, I mean the apple trees.

Heard a wolf, briefly, about a week ago. Coyotes have been around since then, so I assume the big boy wandered away again.

With the move this year, no garden, but there's a Hutterite colony just down the road so I've picked up some staples from them. I also harvest wild edibles. Chokecherry crop didn't do well with the cold spring, but there were a lot up by the cabin, at least until that big black bear got to them.
Sold a bull last week because I still have a freezer full of beef and elk, (and the wife's frozen pizzas).

I'll have a good butcher steer next fall though. I was seeing a lot of deer and hearing coyotes at night, but they went quiet and the deer disappeared, so I think your wolf came North. 😬

I can't eat deer meat unless it's cured in a sausage or jerky first, but I have no problems with elk meat.
Love me some fresh antelope, and there's some nice ones running around the place. Got my tag, just waiting for the season to open.

I never plant more than 2 zucchini, but they freeze well if you shred them. Make good zucchini bread and pancakes in the winter. 😁

[Reziac]

Elk is okay, elk liver is good, but yeah, deer is better stuffed into something else. Never had antelope. My sister likes bison, but I don't care for it. There's a good reason we have cattle. Mmmmmm, beef. :thumb:

That's handy having the Hutterites next door! I buy their eggs here at Walmart of all places. They're definitely feedin' those chickens right -- good flavor, nice color in the yolks and strong shells. Not worth the bother of keeping my own chickens when I can get them to do it.

If I'm gonna keep doing this garden thing, I need to get a standalone freezer (cuz I don't like canned veggies). But I don't need a big one nor really have a place for it, and the reviews on all the small ones suck (30% DOA, and some are obviously repacked damaged-freight returns -- how else do you get dinged up inside a pristine box).

We didn't get any chokecherries at all, but last year's bumper crop are still taking up part of my freezer (such as that is).

Do you blanch the shredded zucchini, or just freeze it straight off? I wonder if shredded-and-frozen could be fried like hash browns; I only really like it fried, not in stuff. I've got a whole bucket of 'em here plus two big ones that got missed for too long... durn stealth zucchini.... I only planted two and that was an accident. None of the melon-type stuff came up and I had to replant 'em all... then a month later the first one comes straggling out of the ground and then I had two.

Rez's ugly zucchini bake:

Split an oversized zucchini (mature enough to get stringy) lengthwise and clean out the seeds. Fry up a pound or two of your favorite sausage, season as desired, and mix it with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Fill the zucchini with this mix (I suppose you could top it with cheese if you want), and bake at 300F for about an hour, or until the zucchini is tender. It looks like a giant cat barfed in your oven, but it tastes great.

[MTSilvertip]

I have 2 small chest freezers, they work really well in tandem. I fill both, and when there's room, I combine into one and unplug the other.
I'm completely off grid with solar power, so that really helps with the power bill...😁

I've never blanched the zukes before freezing the shredded product, just in freezer bags.
I have used the frozen zukes by mixing with some flour, egg and baking powder, and a little salt, then frying like a potato pancake. My father likes to mix in some nutmeg with his.

Pretty tasty 😋

[Reziac]

That power bill is cheating. I've thought about doing small solar, just the inexpensive sort used for an RV, to power small optional stuff. What sort of solar setup do you have? How much juice does it make?

So what brand of freezers did you get? Appliance repair guy here says 1) get Frigidaire or Whirlpool, all others are junk, 2) you can keep manual-defrost outdoors, but not auto-defrost. So the good ones are outta my price range. Might as well do the cheapest possible so I'm out the least if it quits -- that would be the $140 chest model at Costco (same as the GE without the fancy label, but longer warranty at Costco). 7cu' is plenty for me. Haven't seen a used one that ain't been rode hard and put away wet.

Your dad must watch Townsends, or have one foot in the 18th century. Apparently they seasoned everything with nutmeg! which you can now get bulk for cheap at the new Winco in Billings.

Prolonged freeze predicted over the weekend would get to the tomatoes even if covered, so I picked 'em all... got a couple big buckets of green tomatoes. Jerked up the peppers and they're hangin' in the porch. Left the carrots in the ground and threw dirt over 'em; they'll keep a while yet. And I'll finally be rid of that zucchini.

[MTSilvertip]

James Townsend has some great videos. I particularly like the one on preserving fresh eggs.
No my father has a deep distrust of the internet, so he doesn't watch videos. My family is very old in this country dating back to the early 1600s, I think his taste for nutmeg was handed down through traditional cooking from his grandmother, great-grand mother etc.

Rain wind and fog here, sleeting a little off and on, about 34 degrees, good day to sit by the fire and drink some home gathered nettle tea

[MTSilvertip]

Oh yeah, I have a 48 volt system. 2 large panels, a propane generator and a Honda gas generator for back up to charge on low sun days.

Works well, but I need to expand the battery storage some. It wasn't set up for the batteries to last under full load for more than 24 hours, hence the generators. The guy I bought from did a good job, but the system just needs more capacity.

Using golf cart batteries right now, but I'm thinking of upgrading to gel for longer life of the battery with less memory issues.

My freezers are Whirlpool by the way. One of them I've had for nearly 30 years, and it still works great.

[Reziac]

Just looked at the highway cameras. Browning looks like January. Still just drizzle here. Brought in the seasonal house plants.