Red Raspberry Preserves

Due to a series of unforeseen events, I have found myself on vacation for the first 2 1/2 weeks of July.

Yeah me!

Basically, because of this global pandemic, everything was canceled and I didn’t burn any of my planned vacation hours. I didn’t take any time off for my youngest daughter’s dance competitions, there wasn’t any used time for my oldest daughter’s lacrosse season, no spring break, no graduation festivities, didn’t even get to take our planned trip overseas. As a result, I found myself maxed out on vacation and comp time and staring at a “use it or lose it” scenario. I know, rough life, right?

I’ve been spending a lot of time tending to the garden, going to the pool (half capacity), and doing stuff around the house. In fact, this is the first time I’ve fired up the laptop since July 1. So what’s a guy to do… well on July 6, I found myself 30-45 minutes away from the house at a farm picking raspberries!

In fact, I picked 4 freakin’ pounds of raspberries!

I really need to find some land and grow a lot more of my own food… [sigh. Get it together, Dave… if you head down this path you’ll only frustrate yourself and start airing some dirty laundry.]

Anyhoo, I picked all of these raspberries because my youngest asked me to make some more of my raspberry preserves. How can a dad say no to that?

The last batch I made was overly complicated and incredibly messy. (I tried to find the images, but alas, I cannot seem to locate them.) This time around, I went with two ingredients and a lot of stirring:

• 4 lbs Fresh Red Raspberries

• 8 C Sugar

That’s it! The recipe in the Blue Book Guide to Preserving was super simple. I highly recommend it.

After getting it to a boil and up to the right temperature for the right amount of time, I canned it all using a water bath. Pretty straight forward.

I would recommend that you find a candy thermometer or one similar to those used in a turkey fryer. No sense in burning yourself using a shorter meat thermometer.

All in all, it was easy and I made zero mess this time around.

Let's Talk Gardens... Because Everything Else Just Pisses Me Off!

So I’ve got some good information regarding squash, zucchini, and cucumbers… I going to focus on squash, zucchini, and cucumbers only. If I deviate to current events it’ll just piss me off more and then this post will turn into a rant which will lead to someone implying it’s a manifesto and then the black suburbans will pull up in front of my house. That last part was a little tongue in cheek but given the way things are right now, nothing would surprise me anymore.

Back when I was planting the garden, you know, before the country turned on itself, the wife was questioning why I plant my garden yummies on mounds. My response was simple, because my father-in-law loves his irrigation system too much. She scoffed, then I was vindicated with this article:

15 Zucchini & Squash Growing Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Harvest

Check out number 6 in their list dealing with watering… TOTAL VINDICATION! Victory never smelled so sweet!

The other topic that came up in random conversation with the mother-in-law dealt with the gender of cucumbers.

Whoa! Gender? We can’t talk about gender! Can we?

[clears throat] Umm, yes we can, well at least as far as it relates to the plant world. That’s safe and won’t bring an angry mob of protesters to my door.. maybe.

Oh well, pushing forward. It seems plants are less confused than humans as there are only two genders when it comes to plants. With regard to cucumbers, you can easily tell male and female flowers apart. The female flowers are easily identifiable due to the presence of a little baby cuc behind the flower.

Here’s an article Gma found and sent to me. Enjoy.

How to Tell Male & Female Cucumber Plants

And, as an added bonus, here’s an article on green peppers and how to tell their genders apart.

How to tell a Male Bell Pepper from a Female Bell Pepper

See, I can stay away from current events when I want to…

Big Doing's

The narrator and I received word last week from ACX that the audio recording for Part I of the series, When Rome Stumbles, has passed the final check, been processed, and is now uploaded and available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes!

ACX furnished 25 promo codes for the US and another 25 for the UK to each of us to distribute. Sooooo, the first 25 people in each country to email the publisher at djkpublishinghouse@gmail.com can get a free audio copy of When Rome Stumbles!

This is a momentous occasion and we couldn’t be happier!

And in other news…

Today marks the start of week 10 that I’ve been home due to COVID-19. By and large, I’ve required the least amount of adjustment in the family since I had the capability to work from home for years. The wife and daughters… well let’s just say there have been good days and bad days. Thankfully… mercifully, the girls are done with the school year this Friday and the wife follows a week later. After that, all three are ‘officially’ on summer break. We are hearing rumors that some private clubs may be opening their pools for the summer but we’ll have to wait and see what the Governor has to say about that. Can’t say life is gonna improve on the home front if they are all on summer break and NOTHING is open!

Final thoughts…

I think the American people finally understand that they:

• Should not rely on the government to provide anything.

• Should not believe FEMA recommendations regarding limited preparedness supplies on hand.

• Should ALWAYS have as much as they can afford to stockpile on hand for emergencies (ironically, or coincidentally, I have always recommended a month’s worth of supplies).

The acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has just released the names of those in government that requested Gen. Flynn’s name to be unmasked. Things are about to get even more interesting as we march toward election day.

Observations

So I’m finishing up my 3rd… no 2nd week of working from home. It would have been 3 but I had some presentations to do during that first week. Our Governor has recently extended the ‘Stay at Home” order until May and so, therefore, has my employer.

The wife is pissed and/or sad depending on the time of day because she “wasn’t built to be an online eLearning teacher.” She truly misses her classroom, colleagues, and students. All of which brought her such joy each and every day.

My oldest alternates between being pissed and depressed because her senior season of lacrosse is basically in the crapper… as is her senior prom and probably a graduation ceremony. There are a lot of other ancillary things being missed and that just compounds her anger.

My youngest is a social beast and she was none to pleased when her parents locked her down for two-weeks after she returned from the Gulf coast of Florida where she had vacationed with another family during Spring Break. She has not displayed any symptoms. And before you get all preachy, it wasn’t your decision and the Gulf coast had a tenth of the population that the eastern shore had on its beaches which were plastered all over the news and internet. Keep your self-righteous indignation to yourself cuz’ I’ll vote your ass off the island in a heartbeat. And for the record, the oldest is still pissed because we wouldn’t let her go on spring break because she was headed to Ft. Lauderdale with another family.

With their social schedules seriously curtailed, we’ve managed to have a couple game and movie nights… we even sat together and watched the ‘concert’ that aired on Sunday night. During the day, we retreat to our respective areas of the house to either do our jobs or complete assigned school work.

As for me, I’ve got more of a C’est la Vie approach to this. I already had the ability to work from home and did so on many occasions. The only true difference, aside from the family being present instead of in school, is that since we are all together I’d rather be doing something in the yard or fixing something around the house. Every day feels like a Saturday because I see the wife every time I head to the kitchen for coffee, I feel like we should be discussing what we are planning on doing this weekend.

The wife and I were chillin’ outside in the backyard last night and it was nearly silent.

Like, eerily, freakishly silent.

There were no planes on takeoff or approach to the airport. Every once in a while you’d hear a plane miles up flying over head to points east or west. There were no cars on the main thoroughfares or side streets. There were no firetruck, ambulance, or police sirens wailing in the distance or hauling ass up a nearby street. Depending on the time, I heard the intermittent sounds of kids playing, an occasional pet barking, neighbors on cellphones either on calls or FaceTime. Once all of that ended and people retreated for the night there was….. nothing.

S has definitely HTF

Wow! People are really freaking out!

Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t cause for concern but damn people… all of the toilet paper? Seriously?

I went to the grocery store the other night to see what was going, more for my own personal amusement, and grab a few odds and ends. The locusts had moved beyond the paper goods aisle and snaked all of the fresh meat. I’m talking about almost every last ounce of beef (hamburger, steaks, ribs, roasts), pork (ground, chops, loins), and chicken (breasts, tenders, wings, whole). Seafood was pretty much wiped out too. It was freaky!

It’s like Bernie’s personal utopia out there.

I’m guessing that the word ‘preparedness’ is no longer a derogatory term. I am also guessing that when this is all said and done, families will always have at least two weeks worth of everything on hand. I’d even go so far as to say they’ll have closer to a full months worth of food, water, and paper products. I mean there are fist fights erupting at these big box stores like Sam’s Club and Costco. I have no need to go anywhere near one of those places during all of this chaos, but I’ll tell ya what, I won’t go unarmed.

Speaking of being armed at all times (because you never know what you might encounter), did you see that the firearms are FLYING off of the shelves! Some Dem controlled towns and municipalities are seriously considering the suspension of the 2A and prohibiting the purchase/sale of both guns and ammo.

On the plus side, gold and silver haven’t been this inexpensive in a long time. The only problem is the places where you can get bars and coins (like JM Bullion) increased the minimum dollar amount for free shipping from $100.00 to $300.00 AND they are running low or are out of stock on just about all of their inventory. If that doesn’t make you raise an eyebrow, nothing will.

The only thing I’m looking to get out of this whole deal is a new desk and chair for my office. I’ll be spending a lot of time in here now that the company said everyone can and should work from home for a few weeks.

Staying on the topic of the company, as of 2:30-ish this afternoon (3/18/2020) our company stock has dropped $40.00 in the last month. I don’t even want to look at my 401k or my SPP (Stock Purchase Plan) account balance. I’ll take a peak in a couple weeks/months from now when things go back to normal.

Stay home. Stay safe. Wash your hands often. Keep your powder dry.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, there’s really no other way to state this… but I’ve been a busy little bee over the last several months.

• The first three installments have been re-tooled and Part I is currently being narrated. Look for each part of the series to be released on audio in successive months probably starting in March.

• The Home Remedies piece is coming along and should be ready for publication in a couple months.

• The website has been edited with several pages revamped and new pages added.

• The Welcome page has been edited with new links added and a Presidential Election countdown clock.

• I added an Environmental Science page under the Resource menu option. This page is chock full of homework assignments, tests, quizzes (hopefully coming soon), and presentation assignments/projects for the Intro to Environmental Science and the Environmental Law classes.

• The About page has been updated and specific information has been grouped together into a better, more readable format.

• The precious metals page is still a hit for those readers diversifying into those commodities so I made some minor tweaks to that page too.

• My work life is ramping up too.

• And it’s almost time to try my hand at maple syrup again.

Busy, busy, busy…

Updated Editions Released

Well, I finally finished my review of Part III and the 2nd edition of this novel has been released on Amazon. Well, I should say it’s been uploaded in Kindle and print formats. Amazon is reviewing the uploads and will release the new edition in 24 hours or so. Here’s where we stand:

• Part I - When Rome Stumbles, 3rd Edition

• Part II - Hannibal is at the Gates, 2nd Edition

• Part III - By the Dawn’s Early Light, 2nd Edition

• Part IV - Colder Weather, 1st Edition

• Part V - A Time for Reckoning, 1st Edition

Now that the reviewing and updating is complete, I’ll begin the process of getting all five parts in audio format via Amazon’s ACX platform.

While the narrator works on completing the audio format stuff, I’ll be working on the still pending non-fiction pieces, Home Remedies and Preparing to Prepare. With any luck, I’ll have the 5 audio versions plus the two non-fiction pieces published this year!

2020 is definitely shaping up to be a busy publishing year for me!

Stay tuned for updates.

Personal Progress

Topic #1: College

Well, the fall semester is over. Thank goodness! I’m happy to report that the final grades are in and I am currently carrying a 4.0 GPA thanks to a 96% in Introduction to Environmental Science and a 98% in Environmental Law and Regulations!

I feel pretty good about that…

Environmental Law is pretty dry, but I am an analyst so digging into the nitty-gritty and playing in the weeds of any law is in my wheelhouse. The Intro to Environmental Science class was by far the more interesting of the two classes. I say that because the teacher was a full-on climate change promoter. For example, on numerous occasions, one of the older students (a group which included yours truly), would push back, politely, and ask whether her statements were fact or opinion.

Every time, it seems, she stated that they were scientific facts.

Well, let me tell ya, fact or not, whenever she claimed something that is wholly debatable as fact, the class spent the next 20-30 minutes off the rails debating the merits of her statements. Differing views on the topic at hand were vigorously discussed. No one got angry. No one raised their voice. In fact, it resembled everything a college setting is supposed to be.

Over the course of the semester, many of the new young fresh-faced freshmen would ask us, wizened adult learners, in hushed tones if we were afraid of the teacher docking us points for disagreeing with her. I believe every one of us laughed. One guy said, “Aw, hell kid. These teachers don’t much mess with us old farts. They know that we know what’s what.”

And that’s how the semester went. Sometimes the class was in agreement, sometimes it pushed back. I think, all-in-all, the biggest stumbling block for our professor was her insistence that the ‘science was settled.’

Oddly enough, in a strange coincidence, it was my Environmental Law professor that shared this YouTube video where it is explained why climate data models all seem to have differing start dates. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to share with the Environmental Science professor and the class at large.

Why not poke the bear… I already had my ‘A’.

As far as the spring semester is concerned, I’ll only be taking one class, Industrial/Municipal Pollution (+ lab). This is to accommodate my daughters and their very active spring semesters.

Topic #2: Book Updates

While I have been working full-time and going to school part-time, I have also been reviewing and editing Parts I-III of the Foreign & Domestic series. To date, I have completed and released updated versions (editions) of Part I (now on its 3rd edition) and II (2nd edition) and I am currently in the middle of reviewing Part III. Once the review of Part III (2nd edition) is complete and released, I’ll begin working on getting the series distributed in Audio format.

Can you REALLY Escape the Man?

The professor in my Environmental Laws and Regulations class offered the students the opportunity to perform an extra credit project. The project was fairly loosely defined by the Prof and the only real parameter was that it had to pertain to the class in some way. Easy enough.

To me, the offering of extra credit in a college class is like being offered a matching contribution in my stock purchase plan. To not take them up on the offer of free points, or money, would be ludicrous!

It took me a while to get my arms around my concept because I tend to think REALLY big picture, but in the end, I narrowed my focus to the following premise:

Could you live off-grid and truly remove ‘The Man’ from your life?

Trying to answer this question took me down several rabbit holes, to say the least.

Say you buy some rural land and want to have your own little homestead. What will you need to make life somewhat tolerable? Well, to me, I went with water and electricity (in some form). Here’s the final slide where I finished defining all of the concepts a person might consider implementing on their homestead:

A big concept in the environmental space is the ‘Permit to Install’ (PTI) and ‘Permit to Install and Operate’ (PTIO). So in an effort to tie the concepts that I’d just outlined back to the curriculum, I asked the students if any of the proposed installs would require a PTI or PTIO.

Oh, and incidentally, if you are thinking about incorporating a wind turbine, the Ohio Anemometer Loan Program (ALP) allows qualified applicants to borrow all necessary equipment to conduct a wind study, including a temporary meteorological tower, data logger, and instrumentation. Green Energy Ohio will provide study services, such as site inspection, equipment installation, data validation, and program management at no cost.

Now, in an effort to answer the PTI/PTIO question for the presentation, I called down to Vinton County, Ohio and started asking questions. The selection of Vinton County was not by happenstance either. It happens to be where the bulk of the Foreign and Domestic book series takes place. Incidentally, I also called the Ohio EPA (OEPA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Vinton County had some interesting responses.

In a nutshell. if I am building anything outside of the city limits of McArthur, Ohio, I can pretty much do whatever I want with the exception of the well and the septic systems. Those were the only two items on my list where the county required a PTI. However, they said that, while they had no real jurisdiction over these, I would definitely need to call either OEPA or the USACE for the hydro-electric, fuel storage, and the wetland portion of the pond/wetland concept.

Damn! I was so close!

When I called the USACE and explained the hydro-electric project, they immediately sat up. When they realized it was a tiny turbine I was proposing to generate some electricity for a shop or outbuilding, they sat back down. Once they fully understood, they said all they’d really care about is the splash pad where the discharged water re-entered the surface water. They would want to see the erosion controls measure implemented.

That’s it? Sweet.

Here’s the slide explaining all of that.

Fuel Storage is highly regulated in the state of Ohio, just like anywhere else in the states I’d imagine. If you have to have fuel on-site, you’ll choose between either underground fuel storage (UST) or above ground fuel storage (AST). From a regulatory standpoint, choose UST. Apparently, the OEPA and USEPA get real jumpy with AST due to the heightened risk of massive explosions. Therefore, it is regulated more heavily than UST. But… there’s always a but… you can remove the OEPA, Fire Marshall, and a whole host of other regulations if you keep the containers under the minimum threshold of 1,100 gallons.

You’ll definitely need a PTI for the fuel storage concept.

The last concept, which I also spoke to both the OEPA and the USACE about, was the pond/wetland idea. Both of these regulatory bodies got real curious about my ideas for ponds and wetlands. I couldn’t help but think that while I was talking to them I was playing a really annoying game of ‘what-if’ with them as if I were a toddler interacting with their parents.

Once I got them nailed down on my ideas, the said some interesting things. First, they’d want to see the splash pad for the overflow discharge pipe. Second, the minute any acreage is designated as a ‘wetland’, regardless of whether it was there beforehand or I built it from scratch, I would have to, at a minimum, have the wetland restriction deeded into my property.

I personally concluded that I would avoid the incorporation of a designated wetland. That’s a can of worms no one needs on their property.

In the end, though, all of the government agencies I contacted basically said the same thing. If you let us know what you’re planning beforehand, we can tell how to avoid on-going governance from a regulating body.

Just like extra credit, that’s advice I’d willingly take.

20 AMP Breaker and Outlet Installation

Our house was built shortly after WWII. We did an extensive remodel in 2016/2017 complete with an oversized gas meter to handle the future install of the whole house generator. The electrical panel was also replaced and enlarged. What wasn’t addressed was the single 15 AMP outlet in the garage. We have so many Christmas lights the extension cord melted outlets. To say this was a fire hazard would be an understatement.

Now, I’m not one for electricity. Framing, trim work, plumbing, sheetrock, shingles, landscaping… pretty much anything that won’t freaking kill you, I’m more than capable of handling. Electricity? Hate it! Won’t touch it!

Until now. Now, I was motivated to conquer my fears.

After spending several evenings scoping things out in the electrical panel, surveying possible routes for the wire, and more than a few trips to Home Depot to review materials and prices, I was feeling confident.

False bravado? Perhaps.

After watching some videos on YouTube, I was definitely chomping at the bit. I mean, the video below made it look so easy.

Eventually, I purchased the following:

• 50’ of 12/3 wire

• 20 AMP breaker*

• 20 AMP outlet

• Post-construction box

• Outlet plate

• 3/4” Wire Staples

* The 20 AMP breaker was a double breaker and 1 pole.

I already have a sheetrock saw for cutting the hole in the wall in preparation for the post-construction box and to fish the wire. I also already owned a wall fish (aka fish tape). I did purchase an extra-long drill bit in case I encountered something a shorter drill bit couldn’t reach. In the end, I didn’t need it so it was returned.

The installation went relatively flawless. Running wire by yourself sucks by the way. You should know that going into a project like this.

Basically, I just did what the video showed for the wiring of the outlet and the work in the panel. For the nitty-gritty detail-oriented people out there, I did the following:

1.     Located my outlet placement in the garage and cut a hole for the post-construction outlet box.

2.     Taped the wire to the fish and shoved it up the wall until I could grab it through the outlet hole I cut in the garage wall.

3.     Once the wire was through the rough outlet hole in the wall, I removed the tape and sent the fish back into the basement, opened up one of the openings on the post-construction box, pulled enough wiring through for the outlet itself, then installed the post-construction outlet box.

4.     I removed the circuit bridge between the two outlets just like they showed in the video then I wired the outlet and installed it into the box. I even put the cover plate on.

5.     Returning to the basement, I used the 3/4” wire staples and placed the wire along the floor joists and replaced any insulation I’d removed.

6.     I then fished the wire over to the panel and cut off the excess length.

Now is about the time I took a few minutes to psyche myself up to play in the panel… because remember… I hate electricity.

7.     I turned off the main breaker and that’s when all hell broke loose.

According to code, when we did the remodel, all of the smoke alarms were hard-wired into the panel. When I turned off the main power supply, every single one of them went off in unison and started screaming, “FIRE,” after each alarm blast. Nothing like a little auditory annoyance when you’re monkeying around in the electrical panel. I’ll have to have someone come and look at that because if we lose power in a storm, I’ll literally have to leave my house due to the incessant alarm.

8.     I quickly removed the 6 screws holding the panel face on and located an empty slot for my double 20 AMP breaker.

9.     Then I shoved the wire into the panel from above just as the electricians had done previously. It was actually very tidy in there.

10.  Recognizing that all of the ground wires went to the left bus bar and the neutral wires went to the right bus bar, I followed suit and wired each of these in place accordingly.

11.  I then installed the ‘red’ hot wire into the 20 AMP breaker followed by the ‘black’ hot wire.

12.  Satisfied that everything was secure, I turned the main power back on.

Ahhhh! Silence!

13.  I checked for any shorting, smoke, and fire and there wasn’t any.

14.  I went to the garage and plugged in my 1500 watt portable space heater and let it run for a few minutes. The breaker didn’t get tripped like it used to do on the 15 AMP line.

15.  I re-installed the panel cover, cleaned up my mess, then went upstairs and had a celebratory beer… reveling in my mastery of electricity!