Chili Colorado

 My Houston neighbor (RIP) showed me how she made Chili Colorado twenty or so years ago. Mine's good but I sure miss her's. It is a simple dish that is quick to make in a Insta-Pot. Serve with rice, beans, tortillas and a cold beer. It doesn't get better.

You need:

Stew meat

Onion and garlic

Oil

Stock

I use three kinds of ground chili: Ancho, Chipotle, Cayenne. Each brings a slightly different flavor and heat. I find a 1,1,1/2 ratio works well.

Ground Cumin, careful it is very easy to over do.

Knorr Tomato Bouillon, also easy to over do as it is very salty.

Saute' the onion to taste followed by the garlic till fragrant then sear the stew meat. 

Once the meat is seared add tomato bouillon to taste followed with the Chilies and Cumin also to taste and heat.

Cover with stock or water and set the Insta-Pot to manual 30 minutes. 

Serve with a side of rice and beans.

Life in North CA/South OR

 Spent some time driving to a vineyard/tasting room near US199 along the CA/OR border. The smell of growing/flowering Cannabis was strong as we drove. Our server in the tasting room talked freely about growing and using Cannabis. It was nice and I expect a result of weed being legal for years. Her husband also works for a vineyard but she doesn't drink, just smokes. For some reason I find that amusing.

We are in the middle of "June gloom" on the coast and have seen little sun for weeks except when driving a few miles inland. The tasting patio, about an hour inland, was nice with sunshine, swans and geese on the pond and a cheese plate with some very nice wine. A good way to get away from the gloom. 

One month almost down, three to go before returning to Tucson.

Happy Juneteenth

Not that I had anything to do with it but it feels good after years of advocating making Juneteenth a national holiday. I tell folks it isn't just celebrating a  Black holiday but instead celebrating the U.S. trying to live up to the Declaration of Independence for the first time. In a just world it would be as important as the 4th of July.

We are in the moterhome on the Oregon coast through September, not a lot to write about other than retired life is good.

ken  

Out of Here

 O'dark thirty tomorrow, we will be making miles for Oregon, at least as many as a motorhome can make.

Tomorrow we will stop for the night in one of the few Nevada "rest stops" just north of Death Valley. The next day brings a Walmart parking lot in Susanville, CA followed by arriving in Brookings the next day. 

After two weeks of packing, cleaning and checking that things still work. It will be good to have the motorhome strapped to my ass pissing off everyone behind me. Four months later we will reverse the process but with un-packing, cleaning and seeing if different things still work.

See you on down the road,

ken

Changes to Workspace

I've made a few changes to my workspace, I'll post a few photos.

Main bench from over the secondary bench:

Wall behind main bench:

Workspace towards sharpening bench:

Sharpening wall:

Click 'em to big 'em.

What I didn't show are the machines over by the door and the horse/mule that sits next to the secondary bench between it and the machines. That way when working on the horse/mule I can use the backside of the bench as a horse/mule work table and the horse/mule is out of the way but useable.

ken

Happy 420

 It has been a good 420 but what can I say every day is a good day and yes we did do a Brownie munch and a few bong hits during the day.

The big deal of the day is I fixed the sound of the motorhome TV. The TV speakers are "blown" if you increase volume pass the halfway mark the distortion is so bad you can not understand the dialog. My first thought was I'd dive into the spaghetti bowl of wires and figure out how to get the motorhome speakers to work with the TV, wrong sparky breath. There are not enough hours left in this old carcass to chase down that mess, but I figured out a work around. Change TVs.

I'd already tried that route and failed. The new TVs are very light but, there is that killer "but", their wall mounting screws are at best #8 screws. I often describe going down the road in a motorhome as being in your home during a level 6 earthquake as a hurricane eye wall passes. There ain't no way I'd trust #8 screws to hold the TV to the wall mount.

BTW, I'm slow but every once in awhile I can get it figured out. We have/had a TV in the exercise room that is a heavy sucker (ten or so years old) the same size as the motorhome TV and guess what, the wall mounting screws were the same size. Can you say "the exercise room no longer has a TV". At the same time I connected a pair of "Edifier" bluetooth speakers via RCA jacks to the TV. Pandora music and TV sound, it doesn't get better.  

Happy 420,

ken

  

BC Screw With 14" Crisscross Install Finished

 It's done, I can't say it was fun but there is a satisfaction stepping back and looking at the vise, then giving it a spin to hold a workpiece is the cherry on top. 

I've used a lot of different types of vices over the years but none are in the same class as the BenchCrafted metal screw with the 14" crisscross. 

The install is finished, just needs the top of the chop trimmed. Trimming the chop is a non issue, I could go until I croke and it wouldn't be a problem, just looks a little funky.

It will be good to use this bench as the main bench, it is bigger both in length and width. I can set the other bench up for MsBubba and you know the story, Happy wife happy life. No truer words ever.

ken