We made a lot of pickled things this week — pickled green tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, and pickled baby corn.
Pickled Baby Corn
Cornbread Waffles
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp ground chipotle pepper
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
2 duck eggs
4 tablespoons melted butter
Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Mix the buttermilk and eggs together and add to dry ingredients. Blend well, then drizzle in melted butter and mix to combine. Cook in a waffle iron.
The Kittens Returned
All of the stray kitties disappeared last Thursday — no Patches, no Cali-Kitty (although there may only be one grown up calico cat … still don’t know!), no Cali-Kitten, no Fritter, no Black Currant, and no Pebble.
We saw a calico girl yesterday — she ran by while we were getting the chickens and turkeys into the coop and ate — and saw Patches earlier today (she was really hungry!).
But, tonight, Anya was playing a video game and saw some movement outside. She thought there might be a raccoon or opossum … but looked again and saw the kittens.
Autumn Hive Inspection
We inspected our hive this afternoon — they need food! There are maybe three frames full of bees, so we consolidated down to one hive body and removed all of the empty frames. There are bees bringing in nectar and pollen, very little brood (research tells me this is normal for this time of year since rearing brood takes a lot of resources). Most importantly, though, we need to order winter bee food and get that into the hive quickly.
Frost Harvest
There were a number of frost advisories, so we harvested the tomatoes (red and green), corn (fully grown corn and anything else that was on the stalks), and last cucumbers.
Rubber Mulch as Bullet Backstop
We found a video of someone firing different rounds point-blank into a barrel filled with rubber mulch. This seems like the worst-case depth of mulch you’d need in a backstop for different bullet types (i.e. there would be less energy if you were firing from ten meters or a hundred meters, so there would be less penetration). I wanted to record the round types and approximate depth
22 long — 10″
9mm — 14-15″
40 cal — 18″
300AAC — 20″
Reverse Electrification
Back when federal law phased out the sale of incandescent light bulbs, people stockpiled these bulbs instead of buying more energy efficient bulbs in the future. As I see California approve Advanced Clean Cars II — and Washington and New York looking to follow in California’s path — I wonder if de-electrification is going to become an industry.
Basically the reverse of buying a petrol vehicle with a blown motor and converting it to an EV … buying an EV (because that’s all that is available to be purchased as a new vehicle), buying a crate motor (also legal), and swapping the electric propulsion system for a petrol one. Eventually, reduced demand may well turn gasoline into an expensive, niche product produced in some small-batch refinery. Until then, I can absolutely see the incandescent bulb hording types going for re-petroliumed vehicles.
Yet Another Fence Comparison
We’re getting more fencing and, yet again, I find that different lengths have different price-per-foot (and not in the way I expected where longer rolls are more cost effective). Looks like we’ll be getting a bunch of 50′ rolls instead of a few 150′ rolls.
| Item | Length | Cost Per 1 | # Required | Total |
| GardenCraft | 50 | 16.99 | 12 | 203.88 |
| YardGard | 150 | 79.99 | 4 | 319.96 |
Kittens
We’ve been feeding a calico kitty or two — still not quite sure on that one! She wasn’t around for a few days, and voila … now there are kittens. An orange and white one, two gray ones, and a mini-calico kitty. We need to find someone who does low-cost spay/neuter so we don’t get overrun with cute fluffballs!
Corn Harvest
We picked a few ears of corn today — Hickory King fresh from the stalk:
