We spent a while tossing back and forth design ideas, and she had a pretty clear vision of what she wanted. Something farmhouse, but legs and structure that wasn’t too rustic… A few examples that really impressed her were here. In particular, she liked the way that the ‘leaves’ (or extensions) were made for these tables. That played to the need for a smaller apartment sized table, with the ability to add spaces when needed & when a larger dining room was available.

I got to work in google sketchup and came up with these preliminary sketches:

The red portion indicates the removable leaf system.

Kathy also had already ordered the legs that she really liked, from Osborne Wood Products. She drop shipped them straight to my house, in fact!

So, on with the show!

I started by laminating a series of 8 1×2′s to form 4 square arms for the extensions.

Then I put the table top together – a series of 1×8 pine boards, joined with pocket screws (Most of this project is joined using pocket screws, which allowed the quick build.)

The process was also very speedy with everything pre cut…

I also added an extension to my poor work bench making the cutting table of my chop saw level with the existing work bench… it made things SO much easier, especially when I could just screw down stop blocks for repeat cuts.

Once I had the apron, and joists in place, it was time to focus on the legs – which I so desperately didn’t want to screw up! I sanded one corner down just enough to get a bevel to screw into, and then screwed a hangar bolt (lag screw thread on one side, machine thread on the other) into the leg (hint: if you put 2 nuts screwed against each other, you can actually drive the screw in).

Once the bolt was installed, I could put it into the corner brace and tighten it up with a nut and lock washer.

Once all the legs were installed, the core of the table was finished!

Then I threw together the extensions, and viola! (note: the only tools actively used in the building of this table were the square and pencil)

All together, I’m happy with the build… definitely needs a good sanding, and finished, but I think I’ll leave that to Kathy’s capable hands

Stack o' jars

After a few weeks of ‘yes we can can’ attitude and know-how, we’ve come up with quite the haul:

• Lots of pickles (Lots)
• Peaches: Slices in syrup & jam
• Strawberry jam
• Pickled carrots
• Pickled okra
• A few jars of potatoes
• Chicken stock

I’m basically just documenting my network tap build:

I started off building the tap in this instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Passive-Network-Tap
For my purposes, this tap is just wrong… it basically just splices a couple network connections together (and interrupts network traffic when anything is plugged into the tap port). Perhaps linux or some other scenario can function with it, but I don’t carry around a linux laptop for the fun of it. (And I don’t know many windows sysadmins that do.)

There’s a great article here that details a proper four-port tap.

Short of going and purchasing a 4-port faceplate, I pulled all the connections on my middle tap port except the rx pair (pins 3 & 6) and it worked properly. To get both a tx and rx port in the same form factor as in the instructable, I decided I’d add a tail to the box. That also takes away the need for an additional patch cable. Here’s a picture of it hooked up:

Passive Tap Connected

(in pic above: pc is plugged into top port, tail then connects to router (wireless bridge) – laptop is connected to bottom tap port)

And here’s a picture of the inside of the tap:

Passive Tap Internal

Basically, blue and brown go straight to the top port from the tail, and orange and green stop along the way across pins 3 & 6 of either tap port. There’s also a zip-tie there so the tail can’t be pulled so hard that it un-punches anything.

Combine this set up with wireshark, and you can tap traffic whenever you need. To tap both rx & tx traffic, you’ll need two ethernet ports. Monitoring one at a time is good enough for me.

Strawberries - $1/lb @ Super H Mart

We figured we’d snag a few and make some jelly (the picture is only about half of what we bought, and we SHOULD have bought a bunch more). Sister Anne suggested that we should try a lower sugar recipe than the classic Ball recipe. I dare say that even the recipe that we used seemed high on Sugar. Well, we’ll find out about that once we open the first one. The fun here was in the making!

Andy prepping Strawberries

We diced the Strawberries into small pieces…

Strawberries pre-boil

For a total of 6 quarts pre-boil volume. Combined that with sugar, and brought to a boil…

Strawberry Jam Boiling

Be careful when making jelly, this stuff likes to foam! I’m glad I did it in my water bath canner! (We used this pot to make it in, and used the pressure canner as a water bath canner.)

*A few words of advice at this point: Use a food processor on your strawberries first, we found that ours didn’t cook down and break up as much as we expected (a la tomatoes) (I think this also effected our measurement of the pre-boil volume of strawberries – we got lower yield than expected. | Because we took some out and blended it, we were goofing around with the heat to maintain a boil: keep it low. we scorched a small spot on the pot. Nothing to adversely effect the batch, but just putting it out there…

This was the first time I had bothered to boil my lids, so when it came time to extract them from the sauce pot they were in, I couldn’t find the lid lifter that I may or may not have purchased three years ago when I thought I was going to can something.

If you find yourself in this pickle, I’m pretty sure you’ll have a glue gun, refrigerator magnet, and wooden spoon on hand:

Makeshift Lid-lifter

Just be careful not to have it in hot water for too long – it is on there with hot glue after all! – it worked fine until I had to start going for the lids near the bottom. It would probably last an entire canning session if you ran it under cold water once or twice. You could of course, do this with another food safe glue and keep the magnet on the end of one of your spoons. (Who needs another unitasker in the kitchen anyways, right?)

And the final result:

Canned Strawberry Jam

8.5 pints of strawberry jam! We calculated that we probably managed this for around $2 a pint (plus jar costs). Keep in mind, Smuckers goes for $3.50+ at Kroger, so we’re pretty proud of ourselves.

We’ll have to test a jar out before we make gifts of it to friends and family… But I fully expect to be able to trade a jar or two for some Marinara, or other great staple.

The only problem is keeping it and making it keep. Previously I’ve tossed the whole lot into a tupperware container and put it in the fridge… a few weeks tops like that. More if you’re brave.

Today I figured I’d ask for some help from siblings and embark up on a long off-put journey down ‘canning lane’. I’ve made pickles in jars before, but they don’t count… they turned out awful. Besides, you can make pickles with a cold process anyways. Tonight I wanted to make something shelf stable.

So, after a consult with a sibling, I decided that my Fagor Pressure Cooker would suffice as a pressure canner for my needs (if anything, it’s going to go above and beyond the required temps/pressures for canning broth – which won’t effect it the same way nuking green beans would..)

Canning Process Underway

Above you can see the pot of broth on the back left (This was the pot strained into… the stock pot was larger). Front right is the Fagor pressure cooker… which fits 4 pint jars.

And then there is the end result:

Canned Broth

You can see that some jars boiled over… a lot. I have one that is literally half empty. Another consult with another sibling indicated that the cause of this was headspace. I was under the impression that it was some arbitrary ‘leave an inch’… but apparently it’s much more important than that. Lesson learned.

Overall, I’m terribly happy that I’ve preserved something and made it shelf stable. Not to mention split up this batch into usable amounts. Wonder what I’ll put in jars next weekend…

BTW: This article was of very good reference on the subject: http://www.simplycanning.com/homemade-chicken-broth.html

I quickly made it through the first 20 pages which thoroughly introduce you to the act of stretching, the health benefits thereof, and the safety precautions you should take (which include not pushing too hard, something I discovered wasn’t necessary to achieve remarkable results).

In a matter of half an hour I had made it through an introductory series of stretches that focused on the legs and were remarkable easy. This resulted in an immediate sense of well being – it was like I just stretched the stress out of my overly tense legs. (And I know how to stress.)

For years I worked back stage at theatrical shows and witnessed countless dancers and performers stretching prior to performing. Their abilities are astounding to say the least, but I realized last night that I had never been taught why or how to stretch properly or specifically, and therefore never saw stretching as something a ‘non-dancer/athlete/etc’ needed to do on a regular basis. Wrong.

Call this a failing of the public school system’s physical education programs (a farce being dealt to a generation taking little interest to in the first place), or a lack of interest on my part – the bottom line was that I had no idea of the need or methods to properly stretch.

Perfect example: you always see people leaning over an outstretched leg to stretch some portion of the leg (which I learned was the hamstring), but never had it been clearly stated in the detail that this book does:

• whether to lock the knee or not
• the exact placement of the sole of the bent leg
• look at a point in front of you and focus as to not improperly bend the back
• make sure the foot of the straight leg is upright and relaxed

All in clear, concise language with wonderful illustrations. Google has a preview available here.

The 30th anniversary edition features a new section for the desk warrior of today with ‘computer stretches’ that are appropriate for the office environment. Perhaps a good stretch could do as much or more than that ’5 Hour Energy’ the other people are popping…

I’ve just scratched the surface of the book, and can’t wait to delve deeper – here’s hoping you will to. The full 239 page soft cover 30th anniversary edition is available from Amazon for $13.57 (at writing). And no I’m not being payed to say any of this, just sharing some well being

I’m sorry for subjecting my (1) reader to advertising on the site – impressions since I placed the ads on the site have totaled an estimated 11¢… not enough for Google to cut a check (they would have had to of charged me for the paper the check was printed on.)

It is not an aspiration of mine to financially gain from this blog, and doubt it ever will be, so effectively I just pushed advertising on all (1) of my readers for no reason.

Sorry, I’ll try to not be so much of a dick moving forward… the ads have been removed.

Driver of 1993 Ford Ranger slams into rear of Andy’s truck, parked on the street. Driver tested .209 BAC & admitted to text-ing while driving: Georgia text-ing while driving prohibition went into effect 12:01 July 1st – initial reports indicate this is the first citation ever issued under that law.

Definition of small world: When your neighbor can tell you about the night the driver of the ’93 Ranger had… “That guy is the bassist for a band I know – they were on at the Clermont the night before.. somebody was at the bar buying the band so many shots that evening, they couldn’t even go on for their set!”

Pictures:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

-”The screen’s bad”
-”Oh, how old is it?”
-”About ten years, maybe newer.”
-”Oh, then not really, no… but I may have a use for it.”
-”OK”

(That was summarized.)

I’d seen a number of write-ups of people turning old laptops into digital photo frames, and I figured this would make a good candidate. (After I replaced the backlight bulb – first ever for me; it was interesting.)

No real details on the build. Basically:

-Make sure you have a working laptop that will join a wireless network and you can remote to (LogMeIn, etc..)
- Rip the screen out of a laptop, mount it to a matte and in a shadow box. (I literally just hot glued the screen to the matte, and fit the matte into the clamps behind the glass (I kept the glass in place for protection.)
-Remove all the extra stuff from the body of the laptop to reduce weight, size, etc.
-Add any components you want to the laptop (I added a PCMCIA wireless card – yes it’s that old, and the receiver to a wireless keyboard and mouse I have.)
-Extend the power button off the motherboard or bezel and mount a button to the box to turn it on and off.
-Mount body of laptop in shadow box (I used mounting tape and secured it to the back panel.)

Enjoy – there’s lots of things you can do with it. I plan on using it as a photo frame with my photos and a box in the kitchen to view recipes off of – options are endless, and I’m not going to go into them here…

Photos:

Screen, mounted on matte

Front side

Finished Unit