Spring has arrived

Today it is going to get up to 26 degrees and sunny!  And the first flowers are blooming.  Life is good for me.  G's life is less good, because she gets to watch all this from a chair - recovering from foot surgery.  Lots of other things going on, all at once.  I am working to organize the new Vanguard 15 fleet - our first "real" meeting is a week from today.  And work is reasonably busy.   Arkontheridge (that is our domain) now has web capability, so I will be learning how to build basic web sites.

More later.  Sorry to all I have been such a bad blog writer!

Today it is going to get up to 26 degrees and sunny!  And the first flowers are blooming.  Life is good for me.  G's life is less good, because she gets to watch all this from a chair - recovering from foot surgery.  Lots of other things going on, all at once.  I am working to organize the new Vanguard 15 fleet - our first "real" meeting is a week from today.  And work is reasonably busy.   Arkontheridge (that is our domain) now has web capability, so I will be learning how to build basic web sites.

More later.  Sorry to all I have been such a bad blog writer!

Chuck’s trip to
Florida

In the beginning of March, I went to
Florida
for one of my “multi-phase” vacations.  The primary motivator for this trip was to visit my Mom in
Naples, Florida
, and see what could be done about her poor trailer, that got damaged quite a bit during hurricane Wilma last fall.  Blown away (completely – you don’t even ask where they went!) were her screen porch and carport, as well as some windows.  All told, quite a mess.  My sister Kathy had visited in January and done some magic (she painted everything!), so things were not nearly as grim as they had been in the past.  Either way, here is what is left:

 

 

One the larger tasks was to do some work on the wheelchair ramp.  This used to be covered by the now-missing screen porch.  Now it is working on getting a suntan with occasional baths.  So at least a no-slip surface needed to be added to compete with the algae that will come with time.

 

Secondly, her electric wheelchair has taken up bungee-jumping over the side!  See those side rails?  Well, when the chair gets bored of going just up an down (booorrriiiinnnggg!), it instead decides to jump over the side.  This is, well…. “disconcerting” to the occupant!  Well, to solve it, in added on to the side rails so the chair cannot jump.  And did some other things around the house.  We also went out to dinner several times, and had lunch with “the aunts” – here is my Mom, Patty and Ro.  Can you tell they are sisters?

 

(First, in case it is not clear, "mess production" is a play on words, after "mass production", which this was).

Time for the annual cabbage roll cooking! Start with a kilogram of meat / rice mix, and a large, 2 kg cabbage.  Make lots of rolls, two full pans for the oven (I think I made around 30 cabbage rolls).  Fill the cabbage leaves with meat, roll up, put in the pan, then pour the tomato sauce (with lemon juice and "sour salt", a.k.a. citric acid).  Bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Result - many rolls.

Now what do you do with them?  Well, the goal is to freeze them for long-term keeping.  So I put them into vacuum pack nylon bags - sometimes one roll, more often 2 to 4 rolls per bag.  Add some sauce.  Now the trick is how to evacuate the air from the bags (ALL of the air) without sucking out the contents of the rolls.  Easy - freeze them first.

This works best in the winter...  Roll up the tops of the bags, and then set them out on top of the hot tub to freeze.  Luckily tonight it was -8 C, so they actually DID freeze.  Here is a picture:

Once the contents are frozen, you then use the "suck and seal" machine to suck out the air then melt the top of the bag.  The result freezes for up to 2 years - picture below (this is actually chili, from a past project, not a cabbage roll).

First thunder of the year!!!!  Yeah!!! Spring is coming!

(Florida trip report due soon - many photos to sort, etc.)

Well, I am completing the second day of my "vacation" in Florida.  I put that word inside quotes, because the first order of business is fixing various things in/on/around my Mom's mobile home, which got pretty beaten up in hurricane Wilma in November.  Kathy proceeded me in January, and also had a working vacation, cleaning and painting everything in sight.  I am doing things more like replacing hinges and doing some modifications to the wheelchair ramp she has.

The weather is perfect (of course) - sunny with highs around 25 - 26 deg C, lows about 19 deg C.  Last night I slept out under the stars and it was wonderful.

Now the the important thing in life -- the continuing search for the perfect Butter Pecan ice cream.  As those of you who know me know, everywhere I can I tend to order BP ice cream, to compare them.  Some are rather bad (Friendly's restaurant takes last place honors), but I have found a new high.  It is hard to actually imagine anything better.  The place?  Brewster's in North Naples, Florida.  It is fresh ice cream made "every morning" (I thought about this, and decided that this does not guarantee the MY ice cream was made that morning, only "some ice cream is made every morning"), and is very soft in texture -- Abbot's consistancy.  Full pecans.  Wonderful!

To earn my ice cream, I did at least go running.  Like our last vacation here, I am going to try to do this each day here (Masha and I last year vowed the same, and at least got running several times).

Monday - more work here.  I will probably visit the Thomas Edison / Henry Ford museum in Ft. Meyer's in the morning, then do a bit more work, and go swimming with my mom.

Tuesday - probably a visit to Corkscrew swamp in the morning, then lunch with my aunts (Roberta and Patty).  I will then go somewhere - not sure yet.  Maybe sailing - thinking about it, at least.

'Nuff for now.