John Weiland

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since Aug 26, 2014
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RRV of da Nort, USA
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Recent posts by John Weiland

Pete Podurgiel wrote:

Josh Hoffman wrote:
How does the goose egg compare to a chicken egg?




Taste-wise, they are about the same. Goose eggs are great when scrambled but not so good for pan-frying (they're a little tough).

I hear that people who like to bake tend to prefer goose eggs.



Yeah.....I'll use 1 goose egg to replace 3 chicken eggs in a baking recipe.  I used to give most of our goose eggs to someone from the Philippenes who used them for salt water brining, then hard boiling.  Just note that the ratio of yolk to white is quite a bit higher with a goose egg compared to chicken egg as well.
2 days ago

Rico Loma wrote:Enlightening discussion here, thanks to all for boiled/preserved ideas.  We give away lots of eggs to friends, no real bartering but like all things ...our gifts come back in small ways.

I started with 53 straight run chicks about 22 years ago. Brilliant idea. Not.
I was partly aiming for soil enrichment so built five movable tractors. Predation from skunks, raccoons,  possums and others meant a struggle.

After a long day of work I often was greeted by a Gladiator 2 scenario; in my ignorance I neglected to predict the multiple roosters battling so intensely for dominance. Cue the stove being  lit for Coq au Vin.

One grizzled veteran of the battles gave me the name of our 7 acres: One-eyed Jack Farm



Pretty close to our experience as well, with possible twist being the cold climate.  As I type this from just waking, it's -22 degrees F outside.  Because the chickens over the years sorted out into their own clans, they ended up choosing their favorite outbuildings for roosting,---one building being a deliberate chicken coop, the others just inhabited due to 'clan-ism'. When it gets below 0F, the nightly ritual is to plug in various heat lamps to keep warmth in the building, but all buildings were built with south-facing windows and tend to warm into the 30s by day, the sun increasing in strength with each passing week.  The downside of the heat lamps being on is that it induces egg laying,....just too early in the season.  If  hen lays and I don't find the eggs within a few hours, those eggs will freeze and crack (still useful, but not so storable).   Because of our livestock guard dogs, ground-based predators are now a minimum and the losses are more from hawks and owls, but the chickens  through years of natural selection have become quite wild and wary.  Rooster fights are an issue, but are the easiest way to whack a few unruly males, so focused are they on the battle at hand. But soon it will be warming up to the point of needing to provide nesting boxes, even as the hens now, if they want to raise a clutch, will need to nest in a hidden place....something they are very skilled at these days!
2 days ago
Can't say how these will do in your soil types, but for wind, humidity, and cold tolerance, you could try Juneberry (early summer berry, not as flavorful as blueberry, but darn good....June bearing.  https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/trees/handbook/th-3-33.pdf ), Nannyberry (fall-bearing, nice colored fruit and leaves, berry like a small prune when ripe   https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/trees/handbook/th-3-63.pdf ), honeyberry (Haskap;  early bearing....relative of honeysuckle), and ...... well..... Honeysuckle (inedible fruit for humans(?), varying flower colors, hardy and invasive.  I also second the recommendation of aronia berry.  Good luck!
3 days ago

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:......In a couple of minutes I was able to track down name-brand DC-powered chargers for Makita, Dewalt, Milwaukee and Ryobi. These would be more efficient (less conversion loss) than a 120V wall charger plugged into a pure sine wave inverter (which would work fine otherwise).



A quickie along the lines of Tom's last entry..... I could find knock-offs for 12VDC->20VDC chargers for Dewalt, but is there a Dewalt-branded charger with this capability?  If you come across it, could you please send a link?  Again, just for the 20V-size battery.  Much thanks in advance!......
1 week ago
Thomas,  

Are you being careful about her diet?  What have her cholesterol and glucose numbers looked like lately? :-)

I suspect I will never be as "seasoned" (firewood reference.....see how I did that? lol) a pro as many here at choosing fodder for the beast.  The diet here consists mostly of elm, box elder, and spruce, with ever increasing portons of green ash due to the recent arrival of the emerald ash borer :-(  But somewhat frustratingly, I've not yet acquired the knack of really knowing what is good, seasoned, dry wood from that which looks "good enough" and end up suffering the consequences for bad decisions.  Fire that struggles to consume the meal I offer it is a sad sight indeed and I feel the walls of the room collectively roll their eyes at my efforts!  I guess it's one more skill to hone in retirement.  Akin to Dr. Doolittle, looks like I need to learn how to ♪"talk to the firewood..."♫.
1 week ago
See immediate prior post for introduction to this entry.....

So I finally received a new charger (lithium capable) and a pair of 12V light bulbs bearing a standard E26 light bulb socket base.  It's considered a 3W bulb, so only drawing 0.25A if I'm calculating correctly.  I'm concerned, however, that my BMS or some aspect of the monitoring system may be wonky.  With the new light bulb installed and illuminated and having bypassed the inverter creating a dedicated 12V circuit, my phone app for the battery is showing it in 'Standby' mode with 0 amps/watts draw on the system.  Yet the app/BMS appeared to be functioning fine during the previous battery recharging....I was able to monitor state of charge by the hour on the app.   I've had the light bulb on for 3 hrs now with no change on the app monitor.  Thoughts?.....  Any comments much appreciated.  Battery is 12V/100 Ah Ecoworthy brand. Thanks!
1 week ago
Didn't know if this warranted a new thread or not, but decided to follow my last post in this thread with description of a new "member of the family" :-)

Following on the success of 'solarizing' the EZGO golf cart in the entries above, it was decided that we needed something more robust than our gas Gator for cold weather operation.  In short, we do not have heated storage for our vehicles so they must be able to start and operate below zero F, sometimes down to -30 degrees F.  We opted to stay with lead-acid battery technology since operation and charging of LiFePO4 batteries is still quite temperature dependent.  Even at the sacrifice of power in cold weather, the lead acid batteries will function and recharge in cold weather, providing sufficient power for my wife's animal feeding needs.  The golf cart in previous posts rides a bit too low, is not 4X4, and does not have the same cargo capacity as the Gator had.  So I was able to find a used Polaris Ranger EV (48V) which so far has been great!  We haven't tested it below zero yet....that should happen during the coming week.  But at $6K as a used unit in great shape (275 hours) and fairly new batteries, it seems like a worthy purchase.  (New machines from name brands for electric 4X4s tend to run near $20K or higher, but there are several newer imports for around $12K.) For snow in winter and mud in the spring, the 4X4 likely will aid us much. I've already planned out the solar addition to this cart as I was so pleased with way the EZGO worked out.

Derek Thille wrote:......

When I make overnight oats, I will typically use 5-8 different plant products that go into the mix.  I'll usually use oat milk if we have it on hand.  Aside from the oats, I'll add some of chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds (slices or slivers), raisins, dried cranberries, dried currants, hemp seed, cocoa powder, and when preparing to eat in the morning, some ground flax seed.



Part of the reason I brought above up soaking grains other than oats overnight was because we are mostly consuming oatmilk as our milk these days.  So it just seemed a bit heavy on oat products to use oatmilk on oats, although I still eat this combination for most breakfasts.  If I make my own oatmilk, I add an enzyme cocktail to aid in reduction of the 'slime' effect which occurs due to the high β-glucan content in the oats.  Also liking chia and other additives to boost flavor and nutrition.
1 week ago

Nancy Reading wrote:......but porage is a whole different thread subject of course!



Like beginning with the spelling! LOL.... I've only ever seen 'porridge'  Do any other languages use some version or derivation of this word?
1 week ago

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:......But here I never saw groats made of oat (Avena sativa), only of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum). Whole grains (not cut, rolled or anything) are sold in the good-food stores to, all species (oats, wheat, barley, rye, and buckwheat too) are available, but not in all stores. In larger stores in the cities there's more choice than in the small town where I live. Maybe there they have oat groats too ...



But now I have to ask within this thread if overnight soaking (room temperature) of the other small grains like wheat, barley, or even rice will soften the grain enough to eat directly..?  Or would it still need a brief cooking to render it edible (for human mandibles).  Thanks!....
1 week ago