Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[jinman]

Bird, I like the Olive Oil idea. When I want a healthy baked potato, I also use salsa on mine instead of butter/sour cream.

 

[pacerron]

I love those little downy woodpeckers. Yours is very intent on getting to that suet. I like your high-dollar suet cake holder too. By the time the suet is gone, the sunlight has probably brutalized the ICBINB container.

That chunk of suet will probably be gone within the week. The red bellied woodpeckers really like it, too. We buy it in a package of various sized hunks at the grocery store meat department and keep it in the freezer.

All the good food out there attracts flocks of Starlings from time to time and they really can eat a lot of suet in a hurry.
They don't like to hang upside down and can't read very well so they think the ICBINB container is a no trespassing sign
The wire cage type suet feeders let the chunks fall through when they get smaller. Thus the high tech oranges mesh bag and of course
used baler twine to hold it all together.
As Bill says, " we are just simple folks."

 

[Western]

Ron, like the suet feeder:thumbsup: Like how you kept it "pithy':laughing:

 

[blueriver]

Were you out of power or just seeing how the early pioneers lived?:confused2: Some folks like to bake potatoes in an oven until the skin is dry and tuff, then scoop out the center and put butter on the skins. I don't like anything tuff and chewy and don't like to waste a lot of electric power heating the oven to just bake potatoes but I do love baked potatoes with grilled steak or with anything, for that matter. We just wrap the potatoes in plastic wrap to keep the moisture in and do them in a few minutes in a microwave that has a rotating table and variable power settings. Perfect everytime:licking:

No we had power .. I just threw out a suggestion and we put them in .. A few times I said .. Think those taters are done .. Then I'd say .. Think those taters are done!!!

 

[blueriver]

Another new adventure .. We've been wanting to render our own all natural pork lard .. I say we very lightly!!

Anyway Cher did her first ever batch today .. Got 2.5 qts .. So tonight we doing the taters fried in fresh lard!!!

 

[Western]

Another new adventure .. We've been wanting to render our own all natural pork lard .. I say we very lightly!!

Anyway Cher did her first ever batch today .. Got 2.5 qts .. So tonight we doing the taters fried in fresh lard!!!

Well , at least "somebody" was productive at the BR house today:laughing: This time doing the "bury them deep" will turn out good

 

[Western]

Hey, any of y'all smart on running a sub panel? Been so long for me, the grounding part has me befuzzled.

 

[dave1949]

This seems to be the best thread for this. Now I feel bad about the meat and cheese I ate, but it's fine to continue at age 65. :laughing:

Meat and cheese may be as bad for you as smoking -- ScienceDaily

A high-protein diet during middle age makes you nearly twice as likely to die and four times more likely to die of cancer, but moderate protein intake is good for you after 65. But how much protein we should eat has long been a controversial topic -- muddled by the popularity of protein -- heavy diets such as Paleo and Atkins. Before this study, researchers had never shown a definitive correlation between high protein consumption and mortality risk.

 

[blueriver]

Hey, any of y'all smart on running a sub panel? Been so long for me, the grounding part has me befuzzled.

What part of the grounding? BTW... I was a mechanic all day .. Found the front passenger side u-joint bad on the F250 .. Got my parts and tore into it .. The large axle snap ring is a butch .. I broke 2 of my cheap snap ring pliers .. Bought a 3rd and it bent!!! Therefore off in the morning to find a REAL MANS snap ring pliers!!!!

 

[pacerron]

Hey, any of y'all smart on running a sub panel? Been so long for me, the grounding part has me befuzzled.

What is your befuzzlement?
If your thinking of a new earthen ground rod at the sub panel location, that is usually frowned upon because you can create a potential
between the two points. Lot's of them done that way though, especially in out buildings some distance away from the main panel.
If the job has to be inspected, in your location, better check the code and get local clarification.

Your befuzzlement may be about something else, I'm just guessing at what your asking about.

 

[bindian]

My barn/workshop has a sub panel and I grounded it. It is 100 feet from the main breaker box.

I always bake my taters in the mircowave, but like the oven baked ones better. I usually forget the time needed for the oven. After working outside all day, I fire up the grill and use the mircowave, cooking the taters, as a timer when to flip the steaks. 6 minutes each side usually does it.

I need to try the butter and sea salt on the over bakers next time. Only salt in my house is Sea Salt.

I got a smoker on the end of my grill. Smoked baked tater is another reason I gotta cut some hickory limbs and fire up the smoker.
hugs, Brandi

 

[Western]

Here is the scoop: (An electrician was "helping me" and now has disappeared :laughing
Synopsis:

200a service main for house. ran 3, 1/0 al to shop, 120' underground for 125a sub-panel (2 hot, 1 N). Waiting on my 125a breaker to put in house main.

I have a 200a panel (for the shop) which has the crossover connection between the neutral bus bar and the equipment ground bus bar. I have 2 8' ground rods.

Since I didn't run 4 wire (I was told since it was separated outbuilding, to run the 3 wires) Not sure if I just leave the crossover and connect all the circuits to the equipment ground? and where to I connect my ground rods? to the shop frame, equipment bus bar, or just to the panel box?

All metal building, set on concrete, so no ground through frame.

 

[blueriver]

Here is the scoop: (An electrician was "helping me" and now has disappeared :laughing Synopsis: 200a service main for house. ran 3, 1/0 al to shop, 120' underground for 125a sub-panel (2 hot, 1 N). Waiting on my 125a breaker to put in house main. I have a 200a panel (for the shop) which has the crossover connection between the neutral bus bar and the equipment ground bus bar. I have 2 8' ground rods. Since I didn't run 4 wire (I was told since it was separated outbuilding, to run the 3 wires) Not sure if I just leave the crossover and connect all the circuits to the equipment ground? and where to I connect my ground rods? to the shop frame, equipment bus bar, or just to the panel box? All metal building, set on concrete, so no ground through frame.

I only asked because I know sheep about this !!!! But I can say this .. Electricity is simple .. Wire it up if all the lights come on and the plug ins work and u don't get knocked silly .. Congrats !!!!

 

[farmgirl19]

For baked potatoes, we just scrub them, dry them, then rub olive oil on'em, and microwave them. The olive oil keeps the skins soft.

I don't want the potato skin to be soft. Microwaving steams the potato, I prefer them baked. Best "compromise" I have found is to microwave them until half done, then oil and sea salt them and finish them in the oven. That crisps up the skins, better than just microwaving them.

 

[blueriver]

I don't want the potato skin to be soft. Microwaving steams the potato, I prefer them baked. Best "compromise" I have found is to microwave them until half done, then oil and sea salt them and finish them in the oven. That crisps up the skins, better than just microwaving them.

I'm scared .. Olive oil .. Oil burns and dad gum it in the fire place coals that could result in an FIRE!!

 

[Western]

I don't want the potato skin to be soft. Microwaving steams the potato, I prefer them baked. Best "compromise" I have found is to microwave them until half done, then oil and sea salt them and finish them in the oven. That crisps up the skins, better than just microwaving them.

There ya go Jim, best of both worlds and only might cost you a few more pennies:thumbsup:

 

[farmgirl19]

I'm scared .. Olive oil .. Oil burns and dad gum it in the fire place coals that could result in an FIRE!!

You aren't leaving them uncovered in the fire place coals! But I like them lightly oiled and salted and left to crisp those skins!

 

[pacerron]

I'm scared .. Olive oil .. Oil burns and dad gum it in the fire place coals that could result in an FIRE!!

Don't get Olive Oil on fire, Popeye will come after you.

 

[pacerron]

There ya go Jim, best of both worlds and only might cost you a few more pennies:thumbsup:

Dredging the potato in salt and cooking in the microwave causes the salt to draw the moisture out of the skin making it crisp like oven baked
in about 10 minutes. Leaving it in the microwave, without opening the door for another 5 minutes continues the cook and makes the potato
fluffy inside, like oven baking.

I don't know if that is true, but does have some logic. IMO
The source was the internet where anything can be claimed true by any self-proclaimed expert/idiot.

 

[NativeSon]

What part of the grounding? BTW... I was a mechanic all day .. Found the front passenger side u-joint bad on the F250 .. Got my parts and tore into it .. The large axle snap ring is a butch .. I broke 2 of my cheap snap ring pliers .. Bought a 3rd and it bent!!! Therefore off in the morning to find a REAL MANS snap ring pliers!!!!

BR-Dang you're tough on equipment.......any one that has an anvil that they want broken call BR.

Charlie