dcarch

I can believe that more people are hurt by dull knives. I think that's because dull knife owners are in general people with poor knife skills. dcarch

I have a hard time understanding that. I know many experts say that. I know I am not an expert, I just can't seem to figure out the reasons that make sense to me. It seems to me logical that a sharp knife is much more dangerous. dcarch

I admit that this is my superstition. A good knife is all about the condition of the edge. A knife's good (expensive) edge is about two things, i.e. quality of the metal and proper hardening and tempering of the edge. A commercial knife sharpener uses mostly motorized grinding stones and belt sanders. Both tools require the best skills and patience. It takes very little time to remove too much metal and it takes a fraction of a second to de-temper the best edge and permanently damage the knife. I use water and sharpening stones and lots of patience to sharpen my knives. dcarch

Judging the size, relative to the thumb, seems to me way too small to be an oyster shucker. dcarch

Here is what I made: dcarch

Food goes beyond satisfying the palate. Thanks for sharing. dcarch

Is that due to kitchen renovation over budget? Wonderful dinner! dcarch

Viaduct ? & Duck Soup? Not talking about The Marx Brothers, The well known old-time vaudevillians. Why a duck? Because no one likes turkey for Thanksgiving! Got a Three-Buck-Duck. Duck at $3.00 a lb is expensive compared to $0.39 a lb for turkey. I prepared the duck Peking style because that’s what everyone wanted. Peking duck is traditionally served on a steamed bun, like a sandwich. Just to be different, I used Italian bread for the duck meat duckwiches with Hoisin sauce, and the anothers with Bazlama bread with shattering crispy duck skin. Both sandwiches come with the very last indoor ripened garden tomatoes. What happened to the duck bones? Duck soup with potato dumplings. Speaking of three-buck-duck, a bottle of Champagne Cuvee Dom Perignon 1980 was served, way above Three-Buck-Chuck. It was a Happy Thanksgiving meal. dcarch

Take away fat, skin and bones, $160 x 4 = $600 per goose. Don't get goosed. :-) Too bad, it's illegal to catch a Canada goose. dcarch

Sounds like you have pretty good idea what you can do for your situation. Couple of things to consider - Find a dimmer that you can control the lighting level. Also, a driver for your LEDs which will not interfere your digital camera (flickering). Setup your lights (double duty) on a track so that you can have your lime tree lit for 12 hours and your other plants on the other 12 hours. dcarch

I don't know if there are published spectrum data for these COB chips other than "cool white" and "warm white". I have both, but mostly I use cool white. They seem to work well. I use them almost year round. In the winter for growing salads, and spring for starting seedlings. None has failed so far. In my setup, I use two chips per fixture. that's 300 watts total. That does generate a lot of heat. So a heavy duty heatsink and powerful fan is a must. 110V muffin fans are not powerful enough, You can find cheap used powerful 12vDC computer room rack fans on ebay (mine was $3.00 each). However, they are noisy, so I used a 12vDC power supply + an adjustable low voltage regulator(controller) to slow down the fans. I was lucky to have found (ebay) those heatsinks. Actually it was one huuuuge heatsink that I cut to size. I use two fans in case one fails. That would instantly fry the LED chips. Those half -round clear plastic round lenses work well to focus the chips (ebay). 300 watts of LED can light up your whole apartment. May be you can get by with 50W to 100W. You can buy them rather them making them. dcarch

My suggestion dcarch

A follow up to what I posted before. After I removed the hydraulic jacks, I was able to force the fig branches from 36" to 10". This makes it possible to use 1 1/2" foam board for insulation. 1 1/2" Foam board is much better than burlap or blankets. also smaller surface area can minimized heat /cold conduction. Just in time for the forecast of record breaking cold wave coming in the next few hours. dcarch

I have not tried this, but I think this will work. In a very noisy restaurant, you and your companion both use your cell phones with earphones to carrying on your conversation. The cell phones have noise cancelling microphones and you can whisper into the microphones, and in-ear earphones cut out all background noise. dcarch

No need to. You can eat the rind. Very soft after cooked. dcarch

Then use my method of safely cut hard squash into small pieces, using only one hand. That vedio is designed for people who has the use of only one hand. dcarch

It can be easy and safe. ( yes really) If you have a long thin knife with a pointy tip. Stab the squash with the tip of the knife. You should be able to enter the squash with your knife. Then you just rock the knife seesaw fashion, the squash can be split without much effort. Or use a Chinese cleaver and a small hammer. dcarch

Happy Halloween to all!

Thanks For The Memory After buying my house, I realized that the magnificence huge tree in the garden is a ginkgo tree. I Googled and amazed that ginkgo is a very interesting tree. It is a dinosaur tree that it has not change much in 200 million years. It is a very tough tree that actually survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima. In addition, I don’t remember where I have read it, ginkgo nuts supposedly can improve your memory. A very beautiful decorative golden fall tree. Every year this time, I harvest a ton of ginkgo nuts for cooking. dcarch SV pork, + carrot, sweet potatoes, ginkgo nuts from the garden

It took me a little while to get the clerk in the Chinese store to say "pRessure" cooker and not "pLeasure" cooker. I was looking for a replacement gasket. Actually, I like "pleasure cooker" better. I use it so often to make cooking easier dcarch

If that tank is above ground, you may not need a pump. There should be enough hydro-static pressure. If that tank is to be under ground, you may already know that you may have to anchor it down to prevent flotation, just like the installation of gasoline tanks. dcarch

Cephalopolitics Hope this can get you to smile a little more for the weekend. :-) Squid on daikon from my garden

I am assuming you are not one of those "Square Foot" gardener? dcarch

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head --------- --------- It won't be long 'till happiness steps up to greet me" Installed 10 rain barrels. Not one drop of city tap water was used for my good size garden this year. Also, everything I have in the garden seems to be doing better than before. Might have something to do with no chlorine in soil? You can possibly get barrels for free. Check around. My system was free. dcarch

Don't do this. Just thinking out loud for fun.' Freeze your phone, then pour jello on it. Jello will instantly solidify, no chance of entering the phone. dcarch