How I start the seeds

Here I am going to talk briefly about how I start my seeds since it is time to start getting ready for the spring.



Step 1. Get an egg carton and put some potting soil starting mix in the little pockets. Put some water on the soil. Then put some seeds on top of the soil. I have found there is no need to try and bury them. This one has some cilantro seeds.





Next wrap some plastic wrap around the egg carton. This will help keep the moisture in. Especially in Colorado and NM. Take the wrap off every day and spray some water on the soil and then cover it up with the plastic wrap until the seeds are on their way. I usually put them somewhere that is warm with alot of light.





Here is a picture of some plants that I decided I could leave the wrap off of. Once they get a little bigger I will pull them out of this eggcarton, and replant them in a pop bottle. I have found it is better to take the egg carton off when replanting, but not everyone agrees with this.

The planting season is rapidly approaching

The planting season is rapidly approaching. This weekend I went to Colorado to see my Mom because she had a stroke. She told me she would like some cantaloupe growing at our house. She likes to eat cantaloupe for Breakfast. So I got my brother Baby Tao and we dug up a farm at her house. Here is Baby Tao raking some weeds out. This dirt had alot of roots. It was pretty hard to dig up. Luckily we had a really stiff pitchfork that could break up the dirt. We also got alot of exercise with the pick. After we finished I got Tao a new shovel and some seeds so he could plant a farm for Mom to enjoy.



Here is Bear. He is about to blow away.




Here I am getting my home farm in New Mexico ready. I am trying to get as many weeds out as possible.

First Farm Feast

Last night My old machine shop friend Seth came to visit with his wife Christine. It was the first time the farm got used for a meal. Christine took some sour dough bread and dressed it up with some olive oil and a combination of thyme, basil, oregano, marjoram, and some other kind of basil. It turned out really good.





Here is Christine with her creation.



Seth was kind enough to bring some homemade apple wine (shown here) along with a variety of home brewed beers.




My friend Billy informed me of this Buffalo Chicken Dip. I decided this would be a good time to try it out. It turned out really tasty. I highly recommend it.





Here is a link that tells how to make the Buffalo Chicken Dip.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2226159_crack-dip-buffalo-chicken-dip.html

First successful soup pour with a homemade double boiler

After a little Internet research and a trip to the thrift store I made my own double boiler with a $5 crock pot, a tin can, some old nuts and some wire. Here it is in action melting some soap down for a pour




Here is the soap after it started to melt. It appears to me that soap is not very heat conductive. It takes a long time for fat soap chunks to melt. It seems to really help to have the soap shredded up before melting.



After the soap was melted I poured it into my mold. It is pretty viscous. This is very different from the paraffin wax I used before. That stuff was basically as runny as water when it was melted. This soap is more of a paste. After it cooled I noticed it had significantly less shrinkage than the wax as well. I did a little bit of experimentation with adding a sprue to my last mold, but it does not look necessary with the soap.



Here is a slightly cleaned up image of my first cast soap.

The Days of Rectangular Soap are Numbered

Recently I decided that I needed to carve some soap. I discovered however that the current shapes of soap were not satisfactory so I decided I better come up with some new ones. I pulled out the hacksaw and the MIG and I put this mold together this afternoon. This picture shows a second pour of wax. My initial tests with soap did not work too well. According to the Internet I need to get something called a double boiler to melt the soap. I will look into that later.




This is a picture of my first wax pour and the resulting ingot.

State of the farm

The farm is starting to outgrow its table. I think I am going to have to expand to another table so I can start some more sprouts for the spring. These are two of my favorites.




This is my avocado tree. It is really taking off. My other avocado tree went dormant after I replanted it, but now it is starting to show some new buds.




This is oregano. It smells really good. I think it could be put on a pizza or in a salad with spinach, or maybe on tacos.

Peanut Butter Hockey Puck

Recently my roommate moved out and took all the pans and spatulas with him so I was in serious need of some kitchen tools. After realizing that a cup makes a poor substitute for a spoon I decided to do something about it. I now have more pans than I ever knew I needed. When I got home from work I decided I better start making use of my investment so I invented this new desert. I call it the peanut butter hockey puck. Here is how you make it.


Ingredients:
ritz crackers
chocolate chips
peanut butter
sunflower seeds




Step 1:
Take those crackers and make some peanut butter sandwiches.




Step 2:
Mix some peanut butter with the chocolate chips in a bowel.



Step 3:
Put that bowel in the microwave and melt those chocolate chips. Stir in the peanut butter as it gets soft.

Step 4:
Throw a peanut butter sandwich in the chocolate and cover it up. Then put it on some kind of sheet covered with wax paper.





Step 4:
Now put some sunflower seeds on top of the chocolate covered sandwich. (This will make you feel like you are at a baseball game.)





Step 5:
After covering up all the sandwiches put them in the refrigerator to cool them down.