What did you do today? - 2021 version

[Gumby]

Here's another good okra recipe Charred Okra with Tomatoes or Tomatillos. We prefer the tomatillo variation.

That looks great!. We also have an overabundance of tomatillos, and you can only make so much chili verde sauce.

 

[Souschef]

Hope you made it through without any major damage. Sis lives on L.I. in the center and she just got rain.
My niece was up in Conn for a wedding, and was kicked out of her hotel at 5 AM yesterday.

 

[Gumby]

Hope you made it through without any major damage. Sis lives on L.I. in the center and she just got rain.
My niece was up in Conn for a wedding, and was kicked out of her hotel at 5 AM yesterday.

At one time late yesterday, the predicted track was directly over my house, so I was a little concerned. However, the storm drifted to the east overnight and passed about 65 miles away from us. We have had moderately heavy winds and bands of rain today, but nothing too bad. Compared to Tropical Storm Isaias, which blew through a year ago and knocked down many trees in my neighborhood, this was a piece of cake.

I know that some towns on the shoreline had mandatory evacuations, but we did not in my town.

 

[MRG]

Went for a walk and met this guy. DW picked him up and acted surprised she caught it.

I also made a grocery run and hit a fruit stand fresh peaches and tomatoes for me.

 

[Walt34]

Installed a fan on top of the ESC (electronic speed control) in an R/C airplane that turned out to be running hotter than it should. This only happens in higher ambient temperatures but evidently there is less than ideal airflow to help cool it. The fan is a standard-size 30mm x30mm fan used by the billions in computers and fit perfectly, and conveniently plugs into the standard size servo port on the ESC normally used for updating the programming in it. They use the same voltages, and not by coincidence.

Since there are no holes in the ESC to attach it, and I thought drilling and tapping holes in the ESC would be unwise, I used a small dab of RTV gasket material to glue it on at the four corners where the screws would go, leaving a small space underneath the fan for the cooling air to escape the heat sink. Since this is a critical component it reports the ESC temperature by telemetry so when I fly it in a few days I'll know how well this works.

 

[Time2]

I finished the internet. I hope there's more tomorrow!

 

[Calico]

I finished the internet. I hope there's more tomorrow!

I sometimes feel that way these days.

 

[1242Vintage]

I worked!

Picked up a very part-time and well paying job shaking rock samples to test if they are in specification and baking Asphalt Concrete to determine how much oil is in it.

And there’s a bonus. Lifting and moving heavy material samples around the lab is a good workout. No reason to go to the gym on the days I work.

Kind of fun just being a worker and not having any management or supervisory responsibilities.

 

[REWahoo]

Kind of fun just being [-]a worker[/-] retired and not having any [-]management or supervisory[/-] responsibilities.

^ Revised to reflect the opinion of those of us living in an alternative universe.

But if working works for you, go for it!

 

[REWahoo]

While filling the truck today I saw this in the lane next to me. That appears to be a 300+ gallon WATER(?) tank he's in the process of filling with gasoline. Note that he's just past the half way mark and still pumping, the rear suspension has bottomed out, the rear tires are almost flat, and gasoline is dripping from the rear of the truck bed on the concrete. The engine was running and the guy was sitting in the driver's seat with the door open, listening to his radio.

I said, "Hey, you know gas is leaking out the back?"

He turned to look at me, shrugged his shoulders and closed his door.

I left.

 

[Ronstar]

Geesh^


Today got an oil change/ tire rotation on my truck, went for a 90°+ hike, went for a Jeep ride, organized my phone/iPad/camera etc battery charging station, began organizing/ cataloguing my map collection.

 

[Walt34]

Went flying R/C airplanes at the WV site this morning with my student pilot. He is getting better, slowly, but it is starting to try my patience. Everyone else I've taught has long since ceased needing assistance by now. But I do have to give him credit for perseverance so I'll stick with this for as long as he is making progress. It helps that he's genuinely a nice guy, easy to get along with, and is obviously trying. At this point my primary function is to keep him from crashing the airplane, which I usually have to do almost once every flight.

He doesn't seem able at all to recover from unusual attitudes and panics, asking me to take control of the airplane. I'm thinking now a solution may be to take it up to "dust dot high" turn it inverted, and tell him to recover. It's clear he is too reliant on the gyros in the airplane that when turned on prevent it from rolling or pitching at large angles and I have to figure a way to wean him off of that.

 

[street]

I finished up the metal roof on the old work shed. I left early and was home around lunch time. I'm tired and have been working my tail off on the new land, but I'm seeing the end now where nothing else is pressing. The next time I go to the ranch, it is going to be all play time. Lol

 

[Gumby]

I finished up the metal roof on the old work shed. I left early and was home around lunch time. I'm tired and have been working my tail off on the new land, but I'm seeing the end now where nothing else is pressing. The next time I go to the ranch, it is going to be all play time. Lol

Enjoy exploring your new land, street! I'm sure you'll find something interesting.

 

[Gumby]

We went out to our garden plot early today; it's the first time we've been since Hurricane Henri. Fortunately, nothing was blown over, so all we had to do was harvest and weed. I pulled up some of the tomato plants that have already delivered their full bounty, as well as the corn stalks that had no remaining ears. We plant corn in tranches, so it was only Tranche 1 that got pulled today. We'll enjoy Tranche 2 over the next week or so, then pull those stalks and move on to Tranche 3. I've got a prime ear drying in the garage for next year's seed. Our winter squash, watermelons and cantaloupes are developing nicely.

The young wife made gazpacho today with all the fresh harvest. It was really good. I put some Principe Borghese tomatoes in the dehydrator. And we now have enough fresh okra and tomatillo to try the recipe MBAustin posted earlier. Usually, we immediately freeze the okra and later use it in gumbo.

All in all, a pretty good day.

 

[street]

Gumby, that is exactly what I'm going to do. Lol I did take some time to setup a game camera. There are moose around I just haven't seen one, yet this summer. I seen a couple this spring thou.

 

[NW-Bound]

Finally got to build the soil solarization box, to use it to sterilize potting soil before the summer is over. It's a box built with cedar fence boards, coated with a layer of Thompson sealer, then capped with a sheet of plexiglass. The capacity is 1.5 cu.ft.

Last winter/spring, I had a tough time with my snow pea plants getting killed off by fusarium fungus in the soil. And that was soil I got fresh from a bag.

Heating up the soil to 140F is a way to kill off the fungus spores. Here hoping my harvest of snow peas will be better this coming winter.

PS. I also managed to sell enough covered call options to get more than $2K in option premium.

 

[street]

NW, so are you letting the sun heat the soil up? I know that my be an idiot question but I sometimes have been called that. lol

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes. It's using heat from the sun ray to kill the fungus spores in the soil.

When researching methods to deal with fusarium oxysporum fungus, I learned that this fungus is tough for farmers to deal with, and can cause total loss of crop. Once the soil is contaminated, it's nearly impossible to sterilize it.

I found many agricultural research papers on the web throughout the world where the authors reported good results from "soil solarization". For large scale farming, of course they have to heat up the soil in situ, simply by covering the soil with a clear plastic sheet, and let the soil get baked for at least a month in the summer. It takes that long for the heat to penetrate the soil to several inches.

Here, with the soil being spread thin, I hope to take no more than a few days for each batch of 1 cu.ft. at a time. I need to measure the temperature of the soil to see how hot it gets. The sterilized soil is then saved in a closed container for later pot-planting of veggies.

Google the following words "soil solarization fusarium fungus", and you will learn more.

 

[street]

NW, very interesting and thanks for sharing that.

I see where that baking soda sprinkled on ground and working it in can kill fungus in soil. It says it kills it instantly when mixed in and watered.

 

[W2R]

I bought a new cell phone, and spent the entire day researching phones to decide on which one.

Back in late 2016, I ditched my dead-as-a-doornail iPhone 5 that was on a $61.34/mo Verizon plan, and instead went for a $30/mo plan on Cricket with a free LG Spree phone for switching over. I figured out that in the 56 months since I switched I saved the cost of the phone, plus:

(56)*($61.34-$30.00) = $1,755.04

Well, yesterday Cricket sent me a text that began by saying,
"Hello, faster network. Goodbye, 3G. In Feb 2022, Cricket is making improvements to our network. This means your phone won't work after February 2022 and you'll need to change it. [...]" UGH!!!

So, yesterday I shopped for a phone, and ordered a Samsung Galaxy A32 5G phone, which will work under 5G (which we have here already), and will also work under 4G LTE. This phone was not the cheapest one offered, costing $149.99 which with tax came to $163.79.

I was pretty steamed about the price until I figured out that including the cost of that phone, I *STILL* saved $1,755.04-$163.79 = $1,591.25 total over those 56 months by switching to Cricket. Plus the cost of whatever phone I would have bought if I had stayed at Verizon.

Good advice, REWahoo!!

I know there are cheaper cell phone services now than there were in 2016, but I really like Cricket a lot and $30/mo isn't too bad.

The Samsung will be more phone than I need, since I mostly just make calls and take photos. But it's nice to have more capabilities because who knows, I might acquire more modern habits some day.

Can't wait to get my new toy! I can't really put this post in the "Blow That Dough" thread, given the savings (sorry if I bragged about that too much! Pretty tasteless of me ). So instead I'll attach a favorite graphic.

 

[REWahoo]

You are very welcome, W2R.

That Samsung phone is one of the best budget phones (the kind I buy ) on the market.

Yep, DW and I have saved a bunch since switching to Cricket in 2015 and their plans are still very competitive. DD#2 and her two kids joined our plan and we are each paying $25/mo for unlimited talk, text and data. That's overkill for DW and I but a necessity for the two grandkids!

 

[NW-Bound]

I bought a new cell phone, and spent the entire day researching phones to decide on which one.

Back in late 2016, I ditched my dead-as-a-doornail iPhone 5 that was on a $61.34/mo Verizon plan, and instead went for a $30/mo plan on Cricket with a free LG Spree phone for switching over. I figured out that in the 56 months since I switched I saved the cost of the phone, plus:

(56)*($61.34-$30.00) = $1,755.04

Well, yesterday Cricket sent me a text that began by saying,
"Hello, faster network. Goodbye, 3G. In Feb 2022, Cricket is making improvements to our network. This means your phone won't work after February 2022 and you'll need to change it. [...]" UGH!!!

So, yesterday I shopped for a phone, and ordered a Samsung Galaxy A32 5G phone, which will work under 5G (which we have here already), and will also work under 4G LTE. This phone was not the cheapest one offered, costing $149.99 which with tax came to $163.79.

Hah, it so happened that we also bought 2 Samsung A32 5G phones last week at Costco. I paid $275.64 for each, including tax.

Our plan is the Unlimited 55+ Senior Plan offered by T-Mobile, for $60/month for two. T-Mobile does not subsidize any phone, hence I had to pay the full price. However, I like the T-Mobile plan because it offers some limited data roaming overseas, including Europe.

I went to Costco intending to buy the Motorola One 5G phone, but Costco did not have it, and I bought the Samsung because it was comparable in price and feature.

The impetus for the purchase was that my wife's Nexus 5 phone quit, and could no longer make calls. I had no choice but to go get her a new phone. After I set up the phone for her, liked it enough to go back to Costco the next day to get one for myself to replace my Nexus 5.

I discovered that replacement of our Nexus 5s was long overdue. While the old phones still met our needs, their battery life was so short. And most importantly, they supported so few frequency bands compared to the new phones. With the new phones, I suddenly got cell signals in locations where I could not before. Damn!

I tolld my wife the longer battery life of the new cell phones was enough for me to get a new phone. The battery of the new phone is 5000 mAh, only double that of the old phone at 2300 mAh (I just replaced mine). However, the chips in the new phone are 7nm technology, while the Nexus 5 chips are 28 nm technology. Yikes! The Nexus 5 was first sold in 2013.

PS. My wife's phone can no longer make/receive calls, but can still access the Web through WiFi. Both her and my old Nexus 5 will be used to play music. Maybe I can look into using them as remote control devices.

 

[Gumby]

I spent about two hours today looking for harina de maiz in four different grocery stores and two Walmarts, in three different towns. The first three grocery stores had no such thing. Both Walmarts carried it, but they were all sold out. But I did finally score a bag at the last grocery store, so now I get scratch made chicken enchiladas verde for dinner. Yumm!

 

[street]

NW-Bound, very interesting and thanks for sharing that.

I see where that baking soda sprinkled on ground and working it in can kill fungus in soil. It says it kills it instantly when mixed in and watered.