Pot Luck

Interesting report from ERS (USDA) (4.00 / 2)

Agricultural Income and Finance Outlook (4mb PDF)

I haven't read the report yet, but according to Meating Place, corn prices are expected to rise to over $6/bushel from $3.89 right now.

I don't know about anyone else's feed prices, but mine have gone up by 40% in the past couple of years. I don't relish the prices going up another 30%-40%.

At $14.99/50# bag, I've had to stop keeping layers. I'll still have a few for my own use and to keep so I can run the broilers with them (the chicks do better when they're in with older, more active birds). But I at current prices there's now way I can feed a bird for 6 months, then have her take another 6 months to pay back the investment, only to have her productive live last for only another year after that.


Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Dec 19, 2011 at 08:45:53 AM UTC

Okay, yeah. This guy wins the Internet. (4.00 / 1)

Greatest. Twitter. Account. Ever.

Secret Kebab

Honestly, his most recent ten or so tweets kinda suck, but scroll below them for the gold.

Also, this guy apparently makes one of the best sandwiches in Portland.  He runs a delivery service, where you order via email and he meets you in a park in NW Portland.  He shows up with a paper bag and screams "Secret Kebab!" at everyone he comes across until he finds his customer.  At which point he takes their money, yells "BOOM BOOM!" at them, and quickly disappears back to wherever it is he works from.

And I thought I was eccentric.

He's not here now, he apparently lives in Turkey during the winter, but he'll be back in Portland this Spring.  I will surely seek him out then.

Oh, and he has a book deal.  Here is an excerpt.

I can not wait to know lamb adventures in town.

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Mon Dec 19, 2011 at 14:25:55 PM UTC

oh that is too funny (4.00 / 2)

speaking of Twitter I just downloaded the Twitter android app. 2 weeks ago on a really bad day I washed my cell phone after the garage door broke and I spilled paint all over myself. SO I had to buy a new phone and since I was already paying for web went and bought a smart phone. I have cell service through Walmart/T Mobile Walmart resells the service a WHOLE lot cheaper than T Mobile. I bought an unlocked phone and was going to switch to Simple Mobile which ALSO re sells T Mobile. But Walmart/T Mobile is offering free unlimited web til March So I won't switch til then.

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by: LeeN @ Mon Dec 19, 2011 at 18:30:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

until March? (4.00 / 1)

You'll be hooked by then.

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by: count @ Mon Dec 19, 2011 at 18:43:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I already am...:) (4.00 / 2)

and that is why I was going to switch to Simple Mobile Its unlimited talk, text and web for 40 bucks a month.Walmarts web hasn't been unlimited.  

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by: LeeN @ Mon Dec 19, 2011 at 18:50:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ah, OK. (4.00 / 1)

Without checking, I assumed something called Simple Mobile would be a no-web plan.

I am among the 16% of Americans who don't have a cell phone, but one son who has one uses the web a LOT when we're out and about.

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by: count @ Tue Dec 20, 2011 at 00:09:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Up late and can't sleep, so... (4.00 / 1)

...I'm cruising the YouTubes.  Can somebody please explain to me why they just don't make music like, say, Patrice Rushen's Remind Me, any more?

Where's the good music these days?  And by the way, get off my lawn!

Heh.

But nah, really.  Where's the good music these days?

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Wed Dec 21, 2011 at 11:28:33 AM UTC

Adele (4.00 / 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

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by: LeeN @ Wed Dec 21, 2011 at 18:29:31 PM UTC

"Extra virginity"... (4.00 / 2)

The 2007 New Yorker article on olive oil fraud has become a book.

The news Mr. Mueller brings about extra virgin olive oil - E.V.O.O., as Rachael Ray likes to put it - is alarming. The liquid that gets passed off as such in supermarkets and restaurants is often anything but. Shady dealers along the supply chain frequently adulterate olive oil with low-grade vegetable oils and add artificial coloring.

Mr. Mueller cites an Italian producer who suggests that 50 percent of the olive oil sold in America is, to some degree, fraudulent. The Food and Drug Administration considers this adulteration a low priority. Grody olive oil is not killing anyone. We're talking about a first-world problem here. Caveat emptor.

"Extra Virginity" suggests consumers put a priority on purchasing fresh olive oil, and taste before they buy. The good stuff is peppery and alive and, sipped neat, can make you cough. In the same way that many Americans have never tasted real maple syrup, not believing Aunt Jemima would do them wrong, many have no idea olive oil can be anything but a urine-colored and musty butter substitute.

Mr. Mueller spends time with olive growers, with chemists, with cooks and with crooks. His history lessons are never less than interesting. He explains how olive oil was a driving force of life in the Mediterranean, a source of wealth and power. "A jug of olive oil on the dinner table," he writes, "marked the triumph of Roman cuisine over barbarian beer and lard."

I stick to California and Oregon oils, myself...

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 06:27:12 AM UTC

He recomends that people taste the oil before they buy it (4.00 / 2)

I can't think of a single store or other market where you can do that. A person might purchase the smallest quantity possible from a particular supplier and then if they like the product order in larger quantities. But that won't tell you if you're getting pure EVOO or not. It'll only tell you that you're buying product that meets the requirements of your particular pallet.

Personally, I've had to give up EVOO for lack of money. This coming year, I'm going to raise ducks and geese and render cooking oils from their fat.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 12:25:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Joanne's right (4.00 / 2)

I buy the Spanish evoo from trader joes at 5.99 a bottle.

speaking of fat
French Jews fry latkes in goose fat ( geese are kosher)

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by: LeeN @ Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 14:57:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I've been working on an olive oil article (4.00 / 2)

based on an interview he did for radio. What a world olive oil is! Anyway, maybe I'll stop sitting on my hands and finish it up and post it here.

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by: Crider @ Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 16:14:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

He's probably... (4.00 / 1)

...referring to the boutique-y place which specialize in just oils and whatnot, is what I'd guess.  There's a place downtown near the South Park Blocks like that, and they occasionally have little cups out for tasting.  Farmers' markets, too.

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Fri Dec 23, 2011 at 00:53:33 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

school nutrition (4.00 / 1)

Georgia school overcomes hunger to claim state title

Dec 21
By Cameron Smith

For many of Parker's athletes, the only meals they would eat all day were school-subsidized breakfasts and lunches. After Parker raised the issue with Burke County school nutritionist Donna Martin, the nutritionist discovered the school could apply for a federal program called the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.

With that federal funding, Burke County suddenly could feed 500 lower income students dinner for just $3 per meal. No sooner had the in-school dinners started than the team's performance began to turn around on the field.

School nutrition matters.  

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by: count @ Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 12:46:10 PM UTC

Burke County jobless (4.00 / 1)

Burke unemployment rate still lower than neighbors'

2011-11-30
By Elizabeth Billips

January 12.2
February 11.4
March 10.2
April 10.2
May 10.7
June 12.9
July 13.1
August 11.4
September 10.2
October 10.5

Unemployment in Jenkins County, a neighboring county, was 18.6% in October.

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by: count @ Thu Dec 22, 2011 at 13:02:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Heating water for my first ever batch of home brewed beer (4.00 / 2)

I'm working with a 2 1/2 gallon pot, heating it on the stove. Only one burner works on the stove, and it's one of the small ones. Which is a PIA. One of these days I'll get another stove, but until then, this is what I've got...

Anyhoo, I'm using 7# of Pilsner pale malt (I think it's a 2 row barley) and 3# of the hard red spring wheat I malted myself. I ground the Pilsner at FH Steinbart, where I bought it. I ground the wheat myself. Part I ground in the blender and part I ground in a hand crank grinder a friend gave me last year.

I sifted the wheat after I ground it and now I have 1 1/2 cups of wheat bran to add to the bread I'm going to bake tonight while the grist is mashing or the wort is boiling.

I'm using a 5 gallon Igloo cooler as my mash tun. That thing holds temperature like crazy. I preheated it with hot tap water this afternoon and it held the water at 124°F for 2 hours.

I love it. I'll get around 5 gallons of beer out of 10# of grain, over 10# of wet brewers grains for the birds (can't wait to see them tomorrow morning when I give them their first batch of warm grains on a very cold morning) and 1 1/2 cups worth of bran for bread making.

Grains, the gift that just keeps on giving...

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Fri Dec 23, 2011 at 01:44:46 AM UTC

hurting Boehner (4.00 / 1)

John Boehner: the latest Tea Party stooge

Gary Younge
23 December 2011

Before British prime minister David Cameron went into his fateful European Union negotiations regarding the euro earlier this month, it is said he used the "full bladder technique". To concentrate the mind on the task at hand he remained "desperate for a pee" throughout both the formal dinner and talks. When it came to sealing the deal he subsequently went and pissed Britain's bargaining position up the wall.

One can only guess what John Boehner's strategy has been during the past week over the payroll tax cuts. But it looks like he employed the "full bowel technique" with equal success. His Tea Party caucus kept stuffing him with rhetorical bran muffins so that every time he went to a microphone he was full of it. Then, when crunch time arrived, the Republican establishment, the White House and Democrats in Congress teamed up and beat the crap out of him.

Ouch, or maybe not. I admire Younge's wordsmithery, but I saw Der Boner's press conference. He was less arrogant than usual, but he didn't cry. Maybe he isn't much hurt. After all, he forced Obama and Senate Dems to abandon the idea of paying for the tax cut extensions by raising taxes for billionaires.

I like Younge's take on the Tea Party:

They are the muffin peddlers.

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by: count @ Fri Dec 23, 2011 at 17:19:33 PM UTC

Heh. (4.00 / 1)

My favorite is, naturally, 'a party of Jays.'  That sounds like a heck of a time!

;-P

A 'bloat of hippopotami' is another good one, as is a 'warren of wombats.'

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 09:55:25 AM UTC

Ughh. (4.00 / 1)

In cities from North Carolina to Washington state, crowds pushed, fought or rushed the doors to buy the black-and-white Air Jordan 11 Retro Concords, which went on sale on Friday.

In a Seattle suburb police had to use pepper spray to break up fights in a crowd of up to 2,000 people at the Westfield South Center mall.

Two entry doors were broken and 25 police officers were needed to subdue the crowd enough.

One man punched a police officer. "He did not get his shoes," said police spokesman Mike Murphy. "Instead he went to jail."

We can't even get half the population to vote; yet release a pair of fucking shoes or a new doll and people are trampling, choking, shooting and tear-gassing each other in the streets.

Oh wait, considering that second thing... umm, maybe that first thing is actually a good thing, then?  Only half-joking, I think...

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 14:14:43 PM UTC

Bread and circuses my friend (4.00 / 2)

bread and circuses...

It works because the population as a whole is a very different entity from the individual human. I see the same thing with horses.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Sat Dec 24, 2011 at 15:27:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]