chromedome

They still make those big commercial units that attach to a workbench, for sure. Not so certain about the wall-mount domestic kind, like my grandmother had. This one is just a simple hand-held unit, like any other except (in my experience) better made than most.

Macadamia lovers in BC and Alberta, beware... some Dan-D Pak macadamias are being recalled for salmonella. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/dan-pak-brand-raw-macadamia-nuts-recalled-due-salmonella-0

The upstairs (ie, rest-of-house) can opener broke a couple of months ago, so I took my OXO up there to be the main can opener in the house. A few weeks back I bought a very ordinary Swing-Away, which I've had before and considered solidly workmanlike. I got mine at Canadian Tire, though I believe it's the same model Walmart sells. While I was away, my GF used it to open the cans of soft food for our kittens. Much to my surprise, it works both as a conventional and as a side-cut opener. I never would have thought to try it that way - I loathe side-cutters - but I know many of you like them, so I'm throwing this out there as a potentially useful data point for someone.

annnnd, Arrowroot biscuits are being recalled for foreign matter (paper, soft plastic). https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/gerber-brand-arrowroot-biscuits-recalled-due-possible-presence-pieces-soft-plastic-and

I'll start with a footnote to the above post. After resetting the breaker, melting the block of ice from the chickens' heated waterer and getting it set back up, the next morning it was again frozen solid. It appeared that the extension itself wasn't working. Now, this particular extension had previously met with misfortune, and I had replaced the female end on it, and taped it well to keep out the elements. So I shrugged, and resigned myself to removing and reinstalling the end, thinking that some moisture had made its way in there after all. ...until I went to use the snowblower, and found a two-foot length from the middle of the extension cord stuck in its teeth. I had very diligently lifted the front end of the thing to cross the cord when I was clearing a path to the chickens' run, but apparently it slipped my mind when I was widening the path on my way back (sigh). Which would also explain blowing the breaker. In my defense, it was early and I can't drink coffee any more! It feels ridiculously early, but we've just bred our does for the first time this year. The kits from this round of litters will all be at "adopting age" when Easter rolls around, because as mentioned in previous years we get a lot of people wanting one as a pet. Fortuitously this also coincides with the new-to-homesteading crew wanting breeders to work with (and, for that matter, established bunny people looking to freshen their bloodlines), so this is when we sell a lot of our rabbits for the year. In a good year, what we make from selling bunnies in early spring will essentially cover their food costs for the next 3-4 months. So, a funny story. Serious commercial breeders, as I've mentioned before, will monitor the bucks' attempts and will, if necessary, manually intervene to ensure a successful breeding. We're not that hardcore, so I just leave the does with the bucks overnight. It's not as certain but we seldom fail to get a litter, and when we do we just breed that doe again on our next cycle. No big deal. So Saturday morning, after leaving the bucks and does together overnight, I was moving the does back to their own cages while I fed and watered them all. In one of the end cages was Hilda, a big black doe, with our new silver-grey buck (Horatio). As I was puttering, Horatio found himself at their shared cage wall at the same time as the (ahem) "doe-eyed beauty" in the next cage. They stopped and each pressed their noses to the wire, sniffing at each other with their whiskers a-quiver, and you could all but hear the "Heyyyy, baby..." from him. Suddenly Hilda, who'd been facing the other way, whirled and began chasing him around the cage and bowling him over (she's much larger than he is). It's hard not to anthropomorphize at moments like that.

This falls squarely in the "you probably know someone" department. (Some) Pillsbury Pizza Pops are being recalled nationally for E. coli. I vaguely remember there being another such recall recently, but this one says it's "New" rather than "Updated," so... (shrug). https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-pillsbury-brand-pizza-pops-recalled-due-e-coli-o26

As a bald person who raises rabbits, I find that rather amusing.

I'd honestly thought that was a pan-Canadian thing, at least among those of, say, early Gen X and up. It was very much universal in the Maritimes when I was growing up.

Turns out (surprise!) that keeping avian predators around is a good way to limit bird/rodent damage to cherry crops. https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/tiny-falcons-are-helping-keep-the-food-supply-safe-on-cherry-farms/

The hot dog maker's new owner is Smithfield. https://apnews.com/article/nathans-famous-hot-dogs-smithfield-merger-9927a1f0fde1ff32c2f95dc4949d3dfd

(He's a well-known historian and author...)

Putting this here, because... this is why we don't (shouldn't) put fatty food waste down the drain, folks! https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/17/fatberg-poo-balls-sydney-beaches-malabar-outfall-secret-report

Yup, I saw it with a lasagne when my kids were young. I'd put it down to just the acidity, though I scratched my head a little over the severity of the deterioration. Good to know what was actually happening.