Light posting tonight

Farmer's Market is tomorrow. We were up at 4:30am to watch a neighbors house being moved about a mile to another neighbor. The house was so big they had to cut it in half. The moving crew was amazing -- no wasted motion, very slow and methodical and the move came off without a hitch. It is a lot of fun watching professionals at work. The truck driver positioned his truck within inches of obstacles but didn't clip anything. Dinner tonight was Beef Stew (from our half-cow -- we are going to be needing major dosages of Lipitor if this keeps up). I make it with a V-8 juice base and some hot peppers so this ain't your mommas dish. The stew meat was excellent -- no membrane, very little fat; just odd small trimmings of different kinds of meat. One thing that struck me tonight is the amount of "fluffing" that commercial supermarket meat goes through before it is sold. They brine it to cut back on the free blood. They can also dip it in a mild Clorox and water solution to get rid of any taint odors and some places will treat it with Carbon Monoxide gas to give it a bright red color. Truly fresh beef has a dark red color with a hint of gray to it. The looks and the bits of blood may take a moment or two getting used to but the flavor is very much worth it and like I said last night, we are eating from a cow who lived a peaceful life and was munching fresh sweet grass up until the day she was killed. Commercial beef live a very different life although inroads are being made there by people such as Dr. Temple Grandin. Finally, a guy is coming over tomorrow after market to look at a small welder that I am selling. A nice little Lincoln Mig-Pak 10 that was more than enough for my projects in Seattle but not with the work I do here. Getting it set up and running so he can try it out.