“Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.” – John Benfield
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Joyful Moments
I once heard that the purpose of life was to accumulate “joyful moments”. You know, those moments in life where you say, “Life is great! I’m glad to be alive!” Times when you feel truly joyful, that all is at peace, that life just can’t get any better.
Usually, I experience them with Lynne. We experience them together and we look at each other and say, “joyful moment!”.
But, tonight I am alone. Lynne has gone Upstate to pick up her Mom. She’ll spend the night and come home tomorrow. So, I made some homemade vanilla ice cream, cooked a steak, made some “rosti” potatoes and reheated some of Lynne’s world-famous baked beans. I sat outside with seven of the most beautiful dogs in the world (who were behaving, for once) and listened to the birds sing and watched the jet contrails spell “HI” in the sky. The temperature was perfect. The humidity—not too high. The squirrels were jumping from limb to limb making the tree branches shake. And, I was listening to the latest Dixie Chicks album—agreeing with their politics and learnings from criticizing Mr. Bush’s plan to invade Iraq from 3 years ago. What a great life!
I hope you are all seeking and recognizing and enjoying the rare, but beautiful, “joyful moments” in life.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 05/31/2006 at 06:00 PM
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Monday, May 29, 2006
Weather Station is Up-And-Running in NJ
Today, I got the weather station mounted, the server computer running, and the webcam working. So, you can now view the current weather and an image of our back yard on the weather site. (Just click on “Personal Weather Station” to the right, or go to http://www.rickandlynne.com/weather/index.html . All the data should now be accurate for our location in NJ, including temperature, humidity, sun rise/set, etc. However, because of where the station is mounted, it will not accurately reflect wind—but it will be representative of what the wind is like on the back deck looking down over the pool!
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • Site Announcements • by Rick on 05/29/2006 at 12:45 PM
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Monday, May 15, 2006
Lynne Has Started Her Own Blog
Lynne has started her own blog. There, she plans to keep a “diary” of life in New Jersey. It is just getting started, so has a few glitches, but is online and ready for your visit.
Just go to www.rickandlynne.com/lynne
Give it a visit!
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 05/15/2006 at 03:35 PM
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Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Want to Read our “Christmas at the Cabin” Articles in Order?
For those of you who are struggling to read our “Christmas at the Cabin” articles in reverse chronological order, or who are visiting for the first time and want to read from the beginning, I’ve created a special page with all articles in the right order. Just click here to go to that special page. You might want to bookmark the new page. Visit often!
Update: Don’t forget to visit the online Christmas Gallery often for updated photos!
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 01/04/2006 at 09:51 AM
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Monday, December 05, 2005
Soap Making
Recently, Lynne and I have tried making soap at home. Making our own soap is fun because we can pick the oils to use (olive, palm coconut, etc), the fragrance, the color, and any additives like herbs or flowers. The process is not difficult, although you must use some caustic ingredients, so much care must be taken by wearing gloves, glasses, aprons, etc.
We plan to give homemade soaps as a Christmas gift to friends and family. So, this weekend we wanted to make a soap from scratch. (We’d used a kit with all ingredients for our first attempt several weeks ago.) We had some sage flowers from the cabin, and we bought a nice fragrance (essential oil) that complimented the smell of the sage. We decided to use olive and coconut oil along with a little bit of castor oil as the oils in the soap.
The process is pretty simple, heat the oils to about 100 degrees. Make a lye solution (lye and water) and let it cool to about 100 degrees. Then combine the two and stir until the mixture starts to thicken. Add the color, fragrance and herbs at this point. Pour into a mold. Cover with towels to insulate and let it set undisturbed for two days. Then, remove from the mold, cut into bars, and allow to age for several weeks. The whole process is called “saponification”—the making of soap from lye and oil. It is a bit hard to believe that that bubbly stuff we use to clean ourselves is a complex combination of oils and lye.
We did encounter a major problem in doing the soap from scratch instead of a kit—finding lye. Lye, or sodium hydroxide, is a very caustic compound that is used in drain cleaner. It has been commonly available in hardware stores, WalMart, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. under a brand name “Red Devil”. To my knowledge, Red Devil is the only 100% lye product that has been commonly available. The problem is, lye is also a key ingredient in the making of methamphetamines—it, along with Sudafed, is used in meth labs. So, many places have decided not to sell it anymore. I found 2 bottles at a local ACE hardware store, but they won’t be carrying it anymore. And, it was not available anywhere else either!
I began to feel like a criminal as I would ask at various stores if they had Red Devil lye. You could just see the salesperson assessing me for the likelihood that I was running a meth lab. I asked openly in so many places, that I expect the cops to arrive any minute…
We don’t know if we will be able to continue with our new hobby of soap making since the lye is such a critical ingredient. Maybe we can find a source for it where we can “register” and they keep track of our purchases, or maybe there is an online source. Don’t know.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 12/05/2005 at 04:44 PM
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