Blog – Page 14

Dishwasher is not friendly to aluminum

January 2, 2014 by Jason 5 Comments

Well, after a vigorous night of sausage making, I tried to take a quick way out by throwing my grinder attachments and trays into the dishwasher. I have always washed them by hand up until now. The other night, I finished up the stuffing and smoking around 2am, and was ready to get some sleep. It didn’t register to me at the time that my grinder attachments were aluminum, and I’m well aware that putting aluminum in to the dishwasher would do this because I have done it before. It’s the detergents and chemicals in the soaps being blasted at the aluminum at high temperatures.

But the deed was done, I opened the dishwasher this morning to find all the aluminum had turned a dark “gunmetal gray,” almost black! Reading around, I found everything from using citric acids, to vinegar, and even cream of tartar. I tried the vinegar and it turns out it needs a harsher acid. Cream of Tartar was next, however, this only did the trick when boiling the parts in a mixture of the tartar and the water. Even still, when it came out, the darkness was gone, but so was my shiny “stainless steel” sheen that it had previously. Also, the finish still had traces of gray colors. Here’s where I took out the steel wool and gave it some elbow grease. This did help. It buffed out the variations but it still looked like a “brushed” stainless steel instead of original shine of the aluminum. This was still acceptable to me. I happen to prefer the brushed look over the glossy look when it comes to my sink faucets and the like.

Recipe:

2 tablespoons of cream of tartar to 1 quart of water

Process: Boil the parts in the water solution for at least 10 minutes. Take out and submerge in cool water just enough to be able to handle it. Take the steel wool and polish to your desired sheen. I also tried a magic eraser. It didn’t work, so don’t bother. I did go as far as putting the polished parts back in to boil and repeated the process thinking it might improve the finish. I little more sheen was achieved, but I’m pretty confident it was just from the second round of polishing with the steel wool. My advice would be to just boil the parts once, and then polish with the steel wool to the sheen you want. The more you do it, the deeper you are polishing and therefore reaching the original shine of the aluminum. There were also recommendations to try SOS pads. Since these are pretty much steel wool with soap in it, it’s worth a try, but I again would wonder about the detergents in the pads. It’s not a fun process, but it did make the finish much less dreaded. The outcome wasn’t ideal, but it was perfectly acceptable. See some of the before and after pics below, and good luck.

Aluminum turned black from dishwasher detergents. Parts before and after.

The parts are put in to a cream of tartar and water solution.

See the difference between the ones in the tartar/water solution, and the one I'm holding above? — See the difference between the ones in the tartar/water solution, and the one I’m holding above?

After boiling in the cream of tartar and water solution, the parts begin to lighten up.

2014 outlook on fruit crops

January 1, 2014 by Jason Leave a Comment

The following is an update with concerns from the recent cold snap and how it could affect the 2014 growing season from Peter Hirst and Bruce Bordelon at the Purdue Ag. Extension. I follow Bruce extensively and have spoken to him a number of times in the past. He’s a great person to know if you’re growing grapes in the Midwest. Check out some of the drastic steps I have taken around the ranch in the past with cold temps.

With the frigid temperatures blanketing the state, damage to fruit crops is likely. We were fortunate in having good snow cover prior to cold temperatures to protect roots from damage. Trying to predict the amount of bud/tree/vine damage we might expect is a little complicated because damage is influenced by many factors including minimum temps, duration of cold temps, acclimation and previous season’s crop load. The temperature in West Lafayette and across much of the midwest has been as low as –15 F or so. What damage can we expect at these temperatures? Apples and Pears are very hardy but we’re close to the temperatures where we could start to see some bud damage. It seems unlikely that bud damage will be severe enough to reduce crops.

Peaches and Nectarines – The rule of thumb I learned from Dick Hayden is that you start to see some flower bud kill at –10 F and for every degree below –10 F you lose 10% of your flower buds. At –20F expect complete flower bud mortality. Given that the temperature here right now is –13 F (and assuming this is as bad as it gets), we expect to have some early thinning occurring but crop reduction shouldn’t be too severe.

Sweet and tart cherries – tart cherries are a little more hardy than sweets, but we could see a little bud damage to both sweets and tarts, but at current temps this is unlikely to limit 2014 crops.

Blueberries – highbush blueberries are generally tolerant of temperatures down to –15, but the extended period of cold will likely lead to some flower bud kill.

Blackberries – thorny and thornless blackberries are not hardy below –10 so we would expect to see considerable damage to vascular tissue in canes and potentially buds themselves. In severe cases we would expect all above ground growth to be killed. Blackberries commonly exhibit a delayed winter injury response where the buds may have survived the winter cold and begin to grow in the spring, but the damage to the vascular tissue in the canes results in collapse of the new growth a few days or weeks after the start of growth.

Raspberries – red and black raspberries are fairly cold hardy and we would expect minimal damage to varieties that are adapted to the Midwest. Some red raspberry varieties from the Pacific Northwest are not very cold hardy and may have been damaged.

Grapes – varieties will vary widely in amount of damage. Grapes have a compound bud, with primary, secondary and tertiary growing points. The primaries are usually the first to show cold damage. We would expect hardy hybrid and American varieties to have 0-25% primary bud damage at the temperatures we experienced. That is manageable as we can adjust pruning severity to account for those losses. Less hardy hybrids may have 50% or more bud damage, which could lead to some yield reduction and potentially cane and cordon damage. Cold tender vinifera varieties likely have experienced considerable damage to buds, canes, and cordons and possible damage to trunks above the snow line.

The extended duration of cold temperatures expected may increase the amount of damage we see. We’ll know more in a week or so. Right now there’s nothing growers can do except stay inside, keep warm, and keep their fingers crossed.

Peter Hirst and Bruce Bordelon

January honey bee apiary check

December 30, 2013 by Jason Leave a Comment

Temp’s in the 50’s today. Checked all three yards and liking what I see. Strong clusters and nice scenery too. But, the hard times still lie ahead for the bees. Here’s some basic tips for this time of the season in the midwest.

We do not want to disturb the bees any more than necessary. Making the bees break cluster can cause a lot of unforeseen havoc, so let’s avoid it. There’s lots we can do outside the hive.
Clear your entrances of snow, debris, and make sure there aren’t dead bees clogging the entrance. Some dead bees outside is normal and a good indication the undertakers are bringing out the dead.
Mice and other small animals might try to get in to hives. Even wooden entrance reducers can be chewed through. You can use tin or hardware cloth in front of wooden reducers.
Put your ear tight against the outside of the hive and knock. Listen for their buzz back to you.
Lift the hive from the back to assess how much honey stores there are. This takes experience. If you put candy boards on top, then check to see if the bees are up in there and add some sugar if needed (you want temps in the 50’s before lifting the outer cover.

I check in on my hives as often as possible… to assess food stores and look for anything strange around the hives. I also check after a storm or other natural event. Other than that, we’re just waiting, and letting the bees, be. Happy New Year!

Michael Bush speaks at Clifty Falls, Indiana

November 28, 2013 by Jason Leave a Comment

It was another rough season for many of us at SIBA with regards to keeping varroa mite populations knocked down to a safe number. Some in the club who have never treated before resorted to trying ApiVar for the first time. Others, such as myself are rolling the dice again seeing if our season’s management is going to pay off.

The last mite counts on my hives revealed that half my hives were in the green zone, but half are questionable. Since all these hives were started this year, I decided to let things go, winterize and see what the spring will bring me. I’ve told a few people in our club that if I suffer heavy losses again, that I may resort to chemicals myself. Afterall, we can’t be beekeepers with dead bees. That’s a tough thing to swallow. My reputation at the farmer’s market is “chemical-free” beekeeping and pure, raw honey. It’s even on all my signage, cards, and banners. It’s definitely what makes the honey sell and I don’t want to let my customers down. Equally, it’s just as important to me.

A breath of fresh air came when we listened to Michael Bush speak at Clifty Falls. I’ve spent a good deal of time on Michael’s site and even set up a couple 8-frame medium hives when I got into beekeeping around 2009. But what I failed to do was go foundationless. This is a key point that Michael Bush points to as part of his success. Michael makes the case that adding anything un-natural into the hive knocks other things off-balance. When we add chemicals, we not only kill mites and bad bacteria, but we also kill necessary good bacteria, and introduce other things that cause unforeseen problems later. He even shows through his state apiarist hive inspection reports that varroa mites are the least of his problems. He makes a compelling case. Regressing hives down to natural cell takes some time and patience, but the payoff could be grand.

For me personally, it adds some excitement by presenting another challenge I plan to meet next season. During the winter workshops, I plan to alter the frames I have to go foundationless, at least for a couple hives. For me, beekeeping is a personal journey that requires me to test everything and see for myself what works. The notes I keep seem to be disparate and make-shift at best. But it’s beginning to form a basis on my personal style of beekeeping that has yet to come. When we hear our peers like Michael Bush, Randy Oliver and Mel Disselkoen talk about the processes they employ, we wonder sometimes if they’ve found the magic bullet–the answer to all our beekeeping problems. In reality, it is ourselves who have to take these ideas and test them… put them in to practice and ideally, create a process that works for us, in our area, with our own bees. This is what holds my attention, and keeps me excited about the next season.

This series of videos is posted in the same spirit Michael has about beekeeping–they are free and accessible to all to do what they want with. I hope they charge you up as they have me. Enjoy.

Ran my first marathon in 3:46:20

November 20, 2013 by Jason Leave a Comment

A good friend of mine challenged me back in July to run the Las Vegas Rock n’ Roll Marathon with him. I was never a runner, and I mean… never, a runner. Here’s how it happened.

I was commuting 45 minutes to my Newport, KY office Mon. Wed., and Fri’s. Since my job primarily consists of working on the computer and talking on the phone, I didn’t get a lot of exercise. However, I had already started going to the gym on my lunch breaks earlier in 2011. From about Oct. 2011 to Mar. 2012, I was hitting the gym diligently for a 30 minute workout. First thing I did when I got to the gym was run on a treadmill for 15 minutes. This, to me seemed counter-intuitive since I I have a treadmill at home, and didn’t need to be paying a gym to use theirs. Since the gym was about a mile and half up the road from the office, it made perfect sense to run to the gym, skip the treadmill, and jump right in to my workout upon arrival. As a bonus, I got a quick “cool-down” run back to the office. It worked so well, I didn’t miss a beat, and I felt energized for the rest of the day. The run to the gym one way was about 1.5 miles. It was an easy run, but perfect before and after my workouts.That equated to about 6 miles per week. In March of 2012, I began working from home exclusively. So, I cancelled the gym membership and needed to find something else to do. I got a lot of exercise building a chicken coop and installing a pool myself before our July vacation. This is when my good friend suggested I run a marathon with him.

The timing was really great I guess. I had the spring chores wrapped up and was on vacation. What was I going to do to stay in shape when I got back? I took my friend up on his offer. In fact, I bought shoes and began running on my vacation. My first runs were along Lake Michigan and ranged from 2-3 miles each. I kept it up when I got back and ran the month of July… when our real training schedule didn’t start until August. August hit, and I was already in the groove. I was doing 7-8 minute miles and could do them pretty effectively, it seemed. I found my pace, and carried the water on my back.

I did my runs in the mornings. Runs under 8 miles could be done before I took the kids to school. When the miles increased above that, I had to run them after I got home… but before the work day got crazy. I started feeling pain in both my hips if I ran anything over 6 miles. That’s when I took a closer look at my form and got advice from others as well as checking out the local running store. It was a little weird identifying and correcting my running form, but I did… and the pain wasn’t there after my runs. So, I ran forward!

In all, I missed a total of 3 workouts, and 2 were near, the beginning of my training schedule. I missed a later 17 mile run only due to freezing rain. I have run many times in the rain before, but had to draw the line at freezing rain. Once in the groove, I stuck to it and didn’t miss a beat. When the runs got over 10 miles, the pain started coming back. Upon closer inspection, it appeared as I tired, I was falling out of form. Here is where I learned the importance of conserving energy. I slowed my pace. I was running 7:36 miles… and I was forcing myself to run marathon pace of 8:23 at least for the bulk of the run. Then, if I had the energy towards the end of the runs, I would burn out the remaining miles. It worked good for me. Because I conserved my energy, it took longer to “fall out of form.” There’s no doubt that long distance running requires decent running form. When you identify and correct it, the feeling is something great.

As the miles increased, something new seemed to pop up–random pains here and there. Each was a challenge to be conquered. I already eat a decent diet and have been avoiding processed foods since Dec. 2010. Since then, I dropped from 190 (my heaviest,) to 175. I always stayed around 175, but by the time marathon day came, I was down to 160 and it felt great. My diet is nothing calculated, and I don’t spend time counting calories. However, I most meals are made by myself or I’m very aware of what’s in it. By eating “honest” food in moderation… be it plants, meat or anything, you will more easily lose weight, and feel better. The feel better part is the result of keeping preservatives and other scary scrap jammed in to processed foods out of your body. Still, I didn’t eat a serious runners diet, but this year, it will be my goal to gravitate more towards one. I love vegetarian meals, but alas, I also love meat… and in fact, I’m just delving in to Charcuterie… the art of curing and drying meats. This is another blog 🙂

I’ll spare you the play by play of my marathon day run, but let’s just say I’m happy. I did carry my water on my back and blazed past all the water and Gu stops. My friend and I set out to do a 3:40 marathon, and I nailed a 3:46. I didn’t know how decent that was at the time until I told other runners ad got their response. When the final results were in, I saw that of the 5000 people who ran the full marathon, 2900 people finished it, and I was number 386. Looking back, I can count a number of things that slowed me down, or things I could have done better. Because of this, I now feel I have to do it again! However, the next marathon will probably be a half marathon. Why not? I’ll do a half marathon… then, perhaps commit to another full one later.

So, to all the people that have heard me mention this was my first marathon, and likely my last, sorry to disappoint. It’ s looking like I need to step it up a notch, all in the name of good health. For any novices that are interested, here is the training schedule I maintained for my first 26.2, along with my actual times for each run. The 3 items in red were the 3 runs I missed. Items highlighted in green meant that I beat the suggested run time. I hope this inspires at least one person to possibly give a full or half marathon a try. Maybe I’ll see you at “the pig.”