Good morning!!!!

[B7510HSD]

If you order an InstaPot, be sure to get the glass lid so you can slow cook with it. That's how I use mine most of the time, and unlike most slow cookers I've had in the past, it doesn't scorch the food to the bottom of the pot. And with the saute function, I can sear chunks of beef and clarify onions in the same pot.:thumbsup:

Good Info thanks!! :thumbsup:

 

[txdon]

You can slow cook without the glass lid if you leave the top vent turned to the side. The optional glass lid is nice to see inside. Here is another web site with a detailed comparison on the models.
Instant Pot Specifications, User Manual and Cookbook

I was just going to get RNG to chime in because he is the expert "Instant pot" meat cooker.

It works really fast to steam thicker greens also, like kale.

 

[rswyan]

That's good news on the health front.

Thanks ... I sure thought so ...

Your fish news brought a heavy sigh from me. We just sold the 125 gallon a day or so ago.

Sorry to hear that ...

I managed to score a 100G Long a while back off CL for way cheap ... it looks to be brand new and appears to have never been filled. Have wanted a 6' tank for a while. Would have preferred a 125G (or larger) ... but the price was right.

That looks like a beautiful setup, and a happy fish!

Yeah, they seem to have taken to it pretty well ... well enough to try raising a family anyways ... :laughing:

The tank is an old 10G I had ... wish I had painted the back black before I set it up.

It's a little on the small side but the tank environment seems pretty stable now ... so I'm reluctant to mess with it or try to move them at this point ... especially with them breeding. They can be kind touchy about changes breaking the pair bond.

At some point I suppose I'll have to tho' ...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I need to grind off the edges.

I'd just bend the edge up to help keep stuff in the shovel.

going to get some serious seat time today and a good test for my rear camera on the Kubota. Need to drill fifty holes for fifty hybrid willows.
Nice warm cab on a cold day, all good. Need to remember to take a different CD out, the one in the cheap stereo they give you has been in
there way too long.
Maybe some Allison Krauss while I drill holes. Need to see if it has a USB input; don't think so.
I just gave the Kubota a full lube a few days ago, hooked up the air grease gun to my compressor and that makes it a lot easier for me
as we all know how many zerks there are on a FEL. And then the ones down near the front axle, the front steering knuckles, and then four zerks in
the rear. I keep greasing the FEL hoping that graunching noise will just go away but I think I might have slightly bent something a year ago whaling on a stump.
The same stump I now really need to take out totally because it's in the only entrance to the nut orchard, and i want to have that opening in the tree line look nice.
Job security, endless stuff to do here...all good, particularly since I've subbed out the lawn mowing I can now do these other projects I have been longing to do.
Just could never get to them being a one man bad.

One more day and it warms up enough to go back outside. I have to weedeat around my house, foot high weeds in spot. At least they look nice...weeds are like cockroaches,
I bet the freeze didn't hurt them.

No heart attacks in the snow guys. One guy already keeled over from this blizzard shoveling snow. No heart attacks. That's our motto. Thomas, Roy, and...
but have fun out there...ultimately we are all like little kids and want to play in the snow some time. Like Cat Fever catching air...

 

[rswyan]

nice fish RS! You've really come a long way with that tank.

Thanks Drew.

May they all have long life and may the ick go next door.

I've been very lucky as far as disease and parasites go (zero, so far as I can tell) ... my only losses so far have been from outright aggression from tankmates.

Had some juveniles of these:

... unfortunately they all got picked off, one by one (at night) ...

These are next on the acquisition list, for a single-species tank:

I worked outside for six hours today, the beginning thankfully in a warm cab digging holes, and then this afternoon I planted
25 hybrid willows. Edge of an old farm field, other than roots, very soft sandy soil and easy to plant in.
Frankly it feels like magic compared to what I've been used to all my life.

High thirties, windy, plenty of fresh air for me. I'm sitting in my chair with the little heater blasting away at me and
I'm trying to warm some cold bones. One more day of this cold.

Made a fresh pot of coffee since I admit to drinking leftovers this morning with lots of milk.
A little later I'm going to sit down in the kitchen and cut up the rest of the seed potatoes I have, as my
fireman neighbor expressed interest in my leftovers. It's time to plant potatoes here. And snap peas and hardy green beans.
I just jumped the gun a little...

Sounds like fun :thumbsup: ... except for the temps ...

 

[txdon]

RS your ejection fraction was lower than mine after the heart attack. Mine was 35. Yesterday was my 6 year anniversary of the day I got another chance.
The heart does heal itself after it is damaged from lack of blood from a heart attack. The damaged heart muscle repairs itself. 3 months after my heart attack my ejection fraction was back up to 55. Be careful, what you are not seeing is if the plaque is still forming. My brother went all the way to 90% occlusion in three main heart vessels with no intervention or symptoms (that he mentioned) till his heart couldn't provide enough blood circulation and he had heart failure and died at age 56 after just feeling like he had a flu for 3 days. He, sadly, like many did not think diet really mattered. He was on no medication. In the Century heart study I'm in, I get Pet scans and my heart circulation is improving so I'm at least comfortable in saying that I am not going down the same road he was. Good luck and stay hydrated this summer.

I was thinking of your aquarium when I put a bubble machine in my swimming pool to get the alkalinity and ph in line.

 

[txdon]

I'd just bend the edge up to help keep stuff in the shovel.

That sounds good, any idea how I can bend the edges?

I did find a trench shovel with a 4" scoop and it would fit in my Dads cattle guard but my cattle guard space in-between pipes is 3.5".

 

[rswyan]

Hey yerself, RS! Good to hear yer alive'n'kickin', and probably healthier than I am.:laughing:

LOL ... I dunno about that ...

I'll be curious to hear how the statins work out for you. I've been on 'em for several years now, and I'm starting to think that part of my over all sore joints might be caused by them. I'll probably stop them for a couple months once the weather gets warm and I start getting more active to see if it makes any difference. Other than that, I haven't noticed any other ill effects, and I'm not even sure the joint pain is associated with them.

Yeah ... when I first tried them (back in '07) they caused me all kinds of problems with stomach upset (in addition to the joint pain) ... I didn't make it two weeks before I chucked the 'script ...

At the time my cholesterol wasn't even all that high ... but I had had a HA and it's apparently just part of the routine that cardios do ...

Now, so far, so good ... but I haven't been exactly religious on taking the meds either because I forget (which reminds me ...) ... but I'm tryin' ...

Will keep ya posted.

 

[300UGUY]

Good afternoon Good Morningers

32F and partly cloudy here @ 15:00, won't get above 50F for the next 10 days ... so hibernation will probably continue a while longer.

Just stoppin' by to say Hey !

Glad to see the crew all now appear to doing well ... :thumbsup:

I recently saw a cardiologist (first time in mebbe 4 years or so I think) and had an echo cardiogram done, which turned out to be a fairly pleasant surprise. They measured my ejection fraction at just over 50% ... which is **** sight better than it was 4 years ago when the two tests they did ranged I think from in the high teens to a little over 30%.

I asked how they figured that happened and the cardiologist said "Your heart repaired itself." Ahhh ... ok ...

Told him that seemed kinda impressive ... considering I hadn't been taking any meds ... and the other thing of course ...

So with that bit of encouraging news, I agreed to get back on the heart meds. My cholesterol was borderline high (230's IIRC) so I agreed to give a statin another whirl as well. Blood ox (98%) and sugar (92) were both good ...

Also saw an orthopedic doc who diagnosed my hip condition as just being bursitis. A shot of lidocaine/cortisone in each hip and I was strutin again :laughing: ... although at this point (3 weeks in ?) the cortisone starting to wear off a bit. Good to know tho' that I probably won't be requiring new hips anytime soon.

Have some recent additions here ... two of the Julies paired off and have spawned ... probably a dozen or so fry in the tank at this point. This is either Poppa or Momma ... not really sure which at this point:

View attachment 502390

Purty fishy !! I just went to my doc today, I need to get way more serious with the sugar. Everything else seems ok, but no more ice cream, pie, or candy....all the good stuff!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Got up into the 40s today. Melting is starting. I just put some snow back into my driveway, a pile with a bunch of rocks in it. Spread it out, so it won't be a problem.
Got the neighbors cat out of the barn. It got in a couple nights ago, I left it in since it was so cold out. Gave it food and water. It's an outside cat that lives mostly at my house. Somewhere I will have a mess to clean up.