I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!

[markmud]

Update: healing has happened. Now, I'm working on stamina. Oh, I still have aches and pains, but they're happening more and more in different parts of the body. I get tired so easily now, but I'm improving. Yesterday I was in Home Depot and didn't find myself plotting my visit to insure I was taking the fewest steps possible DEMA was hard on me, but I succeeded. It's good to improve.

Hi Pete,

You have no idea how good that makes me feel. When I see you on Little Cayman, I think you will see the malady that I am suffering with (I doubt it will be healed by then). My skin is failing me. It is no way to live. The medical pros use this word most often: "interesting". We deal with these health maladies all the time...I guess it will end when we die.

Your biscuits with some of my homemade blackberry or raspberry jam sounds scrumptious! God I live for food!

How is the weather at the ranch?

cheers,
m

 

[Bubblesong]

“Lily Flour” v Is that a florida brand?
I have to substitute gluten free plus xantham gum ingredients for my daughter, but I’m going to practice this, and see if i can find joy too.

Congrats on healing! I got four surgeries next year, and after this suffering and recuperating business, we all deserve a tee-shirt that says “This Carcass Climbed Mt. Kantkillamee!”

 

[The Chairman]

“Lily Flour” v Is that a florida brand?

It's a Southern Flour thang. It's a lighter flour than its Northern counterparts and one of the main reasons why Southern Biscuits are so light and fluffy. It has less gluten too, but it's not gluten free.

When I see you on Little Cayman,

Are we there yet???

 

[Akimbo]

It's a Southern Flour thang. It's a lighter flour than its Northern counterparts and one of the main reasons why Southern Biscuits are so light and fluffy. It has less gluten too, but it's not gluten free.

Are any of these the right ones?

White Lily Self Rising Bleached Flour - 80 oz

White Lily Self-Rising Buttermilk White Cornmeal Mix Enriched

White Lily All Purpose Flour - 80 oz

 

[The Chairman]

White Lily Self Rising Bleached Flour - 80 oz

This is not it. I never use self rising flour.I'll find it for you.

The Buttermilk tang should come from real buttermilk, not some unidentified substance. My daughter is allergic to Soy and many breads have soy in them. Many FOODS also have soy in them. Cooking from scratch gives me total control over her diet and mine. Usually, I'll take a food I and/or my daughter enjoy and figure it out. I cook great pancakes and hash browns from scratch as well. My sister wants me to tackle pie crusts next. Sure, why not? I want to do yeast rolls at some point as well.

 

[The Chairman]

White Lily All Purpose Flour - 80 oz

This is it! I never noticed the "All purpose", but that's on my flour.

 

[markmud]

I cook great pancakes

I am a fine connoisseur of hot cakes! I built my own kitchen in my walkout basement so I could make my own food without interference from the chef of the house (Cathy is a scratch chef like you; I am just a cook).

Do you use whole wheat flour in your hot cakes? Do you like them thin and slightly chewy, or thick and kind of crumbly? Do you cover them with fresh fruit and then drizzle real maple syrup over the top?

We had Georgia peaches from the Peach Truck a few months ago, I put some in the batter and then piled them high on top. Holy whaa! Combined with a link of Spanish "cho-dee-so", and I was in USA heaven! "Cho-dee-so" is not Mexican Chorizo. I like them both but the Spanish folks spice theirs differently.

I am still using Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust rolls (not good enough to make my own pie crusts). I made Pecan Pies for Thanksgiving using no Karo syrup. I used UP Michigan maple syrup instead of Karo (I did not use troll syrup from downstate, real UP syrup). I am prejudiced.

I have some Pecan Pie left, I am going to eat a slice right now.

see ya!
m

 

[The Chairman]

Do you use whole wheat flour in your hot cakes? Do you like them thin and slightly chewy, or thick and kind of crumbly? Do you cover them with fresh fruit and then drizzle real maple syrup over the top?

I like mine thick, soft and fluffy. I use Lily Flour, and almost the same recipe except for the grated butter, milk rather than buttermilk and no Baking Soda... I do add a bit more sugar and vanilla extract. There are all sorts of additives, including pineapple, bannannas and blueberries. I am planting native blueberry plants to help with that endeavor. If you use a mix, add an egg or two and don't forget the vanilla. Yum. My cakes are usually soft, fluffy and a half inch thick or better. I had one batch that approached an inch in height. Pancakes are easy, and Lily makes a Cake Flour, that I want to try on it. To befuddle company and have some fune, substitute Horchata for the 3 Tbsp of sugar. People will think they're eating some fancy pastry.

I made Pecan Pies for Thanksgiving

Huh... mine never showed up. What's up with that? Warm pecan pie with a scoop of Nilla Icecream is my absolute favorite desert.

 

[michael-fisch]

Damn you all! I gained 5lbs just by reading your descriptions without having to eat it.

Michael

 

[The Chairman]

I will admit it: I abuse my Hustler. I go places I should take a Bush Hog through first. But I don't have a bushhog: I have a Hustler Raptor SD with a 60" deck. She was one of the first purchases when I bought this 10.82 acre plot about 2.5 years ago. The weeds were a bit over my head for over half, and a lot of it was scrub oak, Hercules Clud and vines over a third of it. Very little of it was actual lawn, and I've just kept pushing back on it all so that now it looks awesome.

Mid point last season, I successfully removed the inner baffles on a hidden stump and cracked the deck aft of the chute. Of course, I'm always chasing noisy bearings on this unit. However, instead of having to replace the bearings on the blade towers, I had to replace the three idler pulleys. I think this was the first time on them, and one was really noisy. So I changed them all out and welded the cracks. Of course, it wouldn't be a normal day, if everything went smoothly. As I was checking out my equipment, I realized that I had a leak on the acetylene side. I traced that to the hose connection on the torch which was easy enough to correct. I still have a tiny leak, but it's too cold to play in the water. I'll wait for a warmer day to track that down. As it sits, it takes almost 3 hours to leak down. Since I'm using oxy/acetylene rather than a MIG, I'm taking care to get good penetration. The way I had the deck propped up, the edge was really easy to weld and the bead looks great. The break just aft of the chute was tough because a) it was vertical and b) there were two different thicknesses involved. Yeah, it's a bit gloppy, but the hammer test rings solid.

​

I even took time to put a basket on my welding cart and widen the wheel base by four inches. The increased stability is awesome and she even rolls better. I had put garden wheels on this cheap handcart ten years ago, and had a narrow ramp it had to negotiate. I don't live there any more, so now it's easy to drag where ever I need it.

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Now, the next part of this restoration is to replace the baffles under the deck, so all the grass will go out of the side chute. I took semi-careful measurements of the deck and spent some time on OnShape.com to come up with this: Onshape Feel free to use this, if you find it useful. Now, I just need to fabricate it. It's going to be 11 gauge (1/8") by 4" steel. I can do this one of three ways. One single piece Two mirror images, or three arcs. Have a way to make the acute bends, if I can get a long piece arced. Any way, here's the CAD rendering of what I'm trying to do...​