It's a small world after all

Suitcases are everywhere. The house is in chaos. It can mean only one thing - Family Vacation. We are off to see the big mouse that lives outside Orlando. The kids are very excited. And by kids, I mean Allison (age 6), Casey (age 4), and Grandpa Eddie (age 82). He doesn't really seem to be showing it, but according to my mother he has been giddy ever since the trip entered the planning stages.

Tomorrow afternoon the girls will fly for the first time. It will either go very well or be a nightmare. If it is a nightmare, my apologies to those sitting near us. The weather looks crazy hot, but we should be near a bunch of pools. The place we are staying has a mini water park. No Trader Joe's nearby, but there is a massive Publix. Never been in one. I love walking around a nice supermarket that I have never been in before.

When we get back from Florida, we are off for a family reunion weekend. I won't be around a computer until July 26. Kind of weird. Hope I don't go through withdrawal.

Being a forgetful blogger, the last few things I have done happened without pictures. The best was making home made mayonnaise. I did it because Michael Ruhlman told me to. What can I say, I'm a lemming. All you people getting an egg share with your CSA deliveries should try it. Especially if you have a stick blender. It is very easy. Combine an egg yolk, good pinch of salt, the juice from about a third of a lemon and about a tablespoon of water. Buzz it with the stick blender. With the blender going, slowly pour in about 6 oz of canola oil. That was it. The whole thing - prep, making it, and cleaning up- only takes a few minutes.

I do not like mayonnaise. It is an ingredient. I work with someone that can not only eat a tablespoon of mayonnaise, he enjoys it. It's not right. But home made may in a dressing for a cole slaw made with CSA cabbage - really good.

I had a minor setback with the tool. It is going to work, but the scrap pipe I got is not regular, off the shelf pipe. The design will definitely work, but I doubt it will be ready for mass production. I have other ideas for a more common tool. Maybe I'll build another one, or maybe I'll put the money toward and Angle-Izer and play with arch design. The other tool problem is the JB Weld did not hold the nuts for the thumb screws. I don't think I can fault the JB Weld for that though. The nuts are small and being attached to round pipe - there wasn't enough surface area to develop a good bond. I will either thread the holes in the pipe and put thumb screws on that way, or break down and have a friend hit it with a weld. So Tool 1.0 will work, but will not be easily reproducible.

We also stacked hay for the cows. This Sunday, 300 bales of hay went up into my father-in-law's barn. First, you get to load 300 bales of hay onto trailers and climb around tying it all together. Then you get to stack 300 bales of hay in your barn. It is hot and dusty up there. But you can not beat the quality of the beef.

In other steer news: Steers LOVE corn. The hot days in May caused about 3 pretty good sized barrels of corn to get very moldy. And malty. And fermenty. And stinky. In a flash of brilliance, I came up with the idea of  burying the corn in a large pile of composting manure. Tractor digs a hole in the pile, dump the very stinky corn into the tractor bucket, fill the hole, then cover the hole. A few weeks later, it will all be dirt. The steers dug into the pile and have been eating it. They jump on the pile, kick the pile, push it around with their noses - they want that nasty, stinky, moldy and now shit-covered corn. So far they haven't gotten sick. The pile was going to get moved today. Seemed like a good idea at the time....

See you at the end of the month.