A Man's Got To Know His Limitations

I was thinking this the other day watching the guy struggling with his heavy pack during the ruck. Been a while since I've seen any of the Dirty Harry movies. Now that winter seems to be here, like it or not, I should pick a night, light a fire in the fireplace and do a Harry Callahan marathon.

Surly supplied me with a chili recipe that looks good, my running buddy, who's also a vegetarian, has a good recipe she said, and I found one in my one vegan cookbook that looks tasty. It calls for three types of beans and three colors of peppers. Looks really simple to make and I usually have all the ingredients on hand other than the different colored peppers. I'm going to give that a try next. I did make a chili pie last week. I picked up a link of jalapeno and cheese sausage from the little mom & pop grocery east of me to give it some zip. I cut it into fairly small chunks but should have taken it out of the casing and browned it like hamburger. The little grocery always has a good selection of meat. I was eye-balling the stuffed pork chops while I was there, in fact. Might have to break training, again, and get a couple of those.

I do want to get back on the program again, however. I've kept the weight down but I'm still eating a bit too much of the sweets. I enjoyed the ruck march and I'm thinking about doing some more of that and gradually adding some more weight to the pack. If I stay with it over the winter, I might be able to do some back packing come spring time if I can find someone willing to come along. The Missus doesn't mind me doing these things but with my medical history, she doesn't want me to go solo.

While training for the ruck march I was thinking about the 50 mile challenge from Teddy Roosevelt's day. I wrote about this a couple of years ago after seeing something about it at The Art of Manliness. If you follow the link there's a real good write-up about the history of the walk.

This was back in the sixties. Looks like the answer to the question is yes, definitely. With all that's happening in this country presently, I'm thinking we all should be taking our health and physical condition seriously. Actually, regardless of what may develop in the future, it's always a good idea to get a bit of exercise on a daily basis - don't want to be the guy who keels over while shoveling snow.

Veteran's Day

Something a little different for Veterans Day. Never forget what many of them have gone through.

When I pulled into the fairgrounds the other day there was a gentleman there giving directions on where to go to sign up. He was wearing a hat with a sergeant's pin on it. I'm guessing he was about 50 years old. He was a black man and it's often times hard to tell their age. I'm also guessing he probably retired after 20 years in the service. Seemed like a nice guy: smiling, friendly, but I'll bet he's still one bad-ass.

Thanks Sarge, all the rest of you and your families for all you've given.

Ruck March

I did the 10 mile ruck with Surly yesterday. It was a bit chilly and breezy initially but turned out to be a beautiful day later. The temperature was right at freezing when I pulled into the parking lot which might have kept some people away. I don't know how well this event was advertised - I never would have known about it if it hadn't been for Surly. I think the only way he knew about it was because he knows the guy in charge. So there weren't a lot of people there but the local Marine recruiter "supplied" a nice size group that led the way which included a couple of flag bearers. There also was a couple of squad cars running interference for us through town until we hit the bike trail outside of town.

The Erie Lackawanna Trail is paved and runs through some decent scenery and has very nice facilities along the way. I used to run on part of it when it was still an active railroad way back when, my mother owned some property next to the rail line and my first house after getting married was just a short hop away, so I'm pretty familiar with the area. I rode my bike on most of the trail right after it opened but hadn't been on it for quite a few years. After hiking it yesterday, I'm thinking I should plan on getting out on it again in the future.

Both Surly and I were dressed appropriately and had trained adequately so we had a pretty enjoyable hike. He was toting about 30 pounds in his ruck. I filled mine with Styrofoam packing peanuts and a helium balloon. Actually it was about 18 pounds - plenty for an old man who has lost a bit of upper body strength. There was a young guy, maybe 35, former Marine, current law enforcement and martial arts guy who was humping an 80 lb. ruck. I'm guessing that was just about half his body weight. He struggled from the very beginning but kept after it until about mile nine and then had to bail out from under all that weight. Surly, myself and a few of Surly's friends hiked along with the guy to make sure he didn't fall out somewhere along the trail since he was the last man of the group. One of Surly's buddies carried the guy's pack for about the last mile - he was a big dude and wasn't wearing a pack, so him stepping up kept us moving. I mentioned to Surly as we were finishing the Haggard song above. The title says it all.

When we got back to the fairgrounds they had chili and hot dogs along with a whole bunch of doughnuts left over from the morning sign-up. They took a group photo, I had a bowl of chili and headed home.

My feet were a bit sore when I got home and I hobbled around the house later in the evening when my right ankle stiffened up but I'm doing fine this morning. The group from the boxing gym is doing their weekly run this afternoon, so I think I'll walk a couple of miles while they run to keep things loose.

And what's an event like this without a tee shirt? Not that I needed another tee shirt but this is the only ruck I've ever done so why not. Well run event, good cause, got some exercise and spent some quality time with Surly and some friends. Good day. Very thankful to still be able to get out and do things like this.

In Search of Chili, Part Two

While searching for the perfect chili recipe to make, I stuck with the cowboy theme and perused the cookbook in the photo. Sure enough, several good chili recipes from out there in Marlboro Country. There is even a vegetarian chili recipe. However, I doubt that one is going to make the cut. While most of the chili I usually come across locally is made with ground beef, several recipes use some bacon in the recipe. I'm not a hard core vegetarian so a little meat wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I'd like to come up with a dish that doesn't rely on the meat to make it palatable. I'm a fan of beans, so chili con frijoles as opposed to chili con carne would work just fine for me. One of the problems I have is a lack of ability to read the list of ingredients in a recipe and know what it will taste like when done or why you would use canned whole tomatoes, chopped, when it would seem more logical to just use diced tomatoes from the start. The Missus is a whiz at all that sort of thing but I like to do all my household stuff in the mornings, she's strictly afternoons and evenings. I'll fumble my way to a decent bowl of chili before long. It's just the beginning of the winter after all.

The second batch of persimmon bread. I had enough persimmon puree left over after the first batch of bread to try making some persimmon cookies but since I had some more persimmons in the bucket, I went ahead and pureed the rest of them and made a couple more loaves of the bread. The first two loaves were a bit darker in color and a little prettier on top. I'm not sure what the difference was with the second batch but I had to bake them for about 12 minutes longer also. I used some brandy in the first batch and rum in the second - that might be it. I won't know how they taste until sometime this winter since I wrapped them up and put them in the freezer. I've been eating my way through one of the loaves from the first batch and it's damn good. I've still got one loaf of rhubarb bread in the freezer also, so I'm in good shape for the winter. I would like to try my hand at making fruitcake. The fruitcake from Gethsemani Farms is excellent - might be the Kentucky bourbon - or it might just be the angel the Monks at the Abbey have looking over their shoulders. You can order it along with their fudge and other items but it's a bit on the expensive side. Quality rarely comes cheap, though.

The weather was nice yesterday so I got out and put the cover on the AC unit, drained the garden hose and got it put away and fixed the lights on the old Allis. The old girl really needs to be rewired. I discussed that with my neighbor the mechanic but I never got around to ordering a new harness. It looked like I might be better off just replacing everything one wire at a time because the tractor has been fitted with an alternator rather than the original generator along with a few other mods. That'll be next year now. It started right up, the lights work and I ran it down the lane to charge the battery a bit. I still need to check all the fluids and put some air in one of the front tires but no biggie there. It'll be ready when the snow flies.

The lights for the motorcycle carrier arrived. I'm going to get back on that project so I can haul my bike to Indy for service. I'd like to get that done before too much longer. I won't be riding it until next season but I'd like to get it taken care of before the weather gets too bad.

In Search of Chili

The Missus texted me the other day while I was at work and asked me to pick her up a chef's salad from the local restaurant on my way home from work. She ordered me up a bowl of chili at the same time. The chili was only about half the size I needed after working all day and it wasn't all that good - not bad but not great. I decided I should look for a decent chili recipe I could make for myself.

The Missus has an extensive collection of cookbooks - maybe 300 of them  - I figured I'd be able to find something to my liking. I went first to The All American Cowboy Cookbook by Ken Beck and Jim Clark figuring there would be no better place to start my search. Sure enough, lots of chili recipes. Most all the recipes in the book are from people in the entertainment business that have played cowboys, or cowgirls, as well as singers, ranch owners - there's even a recipe from Richard Petty.

The book has a lot of photos of all these greats and some bits of bio on many of them. I saw Will Rogers in the book and knowing he was probably the greatest trick roper of all time, decided to see what I could find. The video above is six minutes but gives you a real good idea as to his skill level. If you don't have time to watch the whole thing or aren't at all interested in trick roping, watch the very first few seconds. Good advice there.

The book had a blurb on Ben Johnson as well as his recipe for buttermilk biscuits. Even though I grew up watching the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers, Ben Johnson is without a doubt my favorite movie cowboy. He wasn't just an actor, he was the real deal as a cowboy. The only person to win a World Champion Cowboy and an Academy Award. Pretty smart guy as well - left an estate estimated at $1,000,000.

No shortage of cowboy singers in the cookbook. Here's one of my favorites: This one's for you Pop!

Time Has Come Today

Woke up this morning after falling back asleep for a bit - clock said 7:07 so I got up only to remember the time change, so it was only 6:07. But this realization came after taking the antibiotic for the Lyme Disease - the one that says not to lie down for ten minutes after taking it on an empty stomach preventing me from just turning around and hot-footing it back to bed. As long as I was up I changed all the clocks, and of course, I grumbled about it the whole time like I always do. However, I now understand why we change the clocks back. The Missus told me last evening the Indiana Liquor Commission told the tavern owners they didn't have to quit serving at the first 2:00 o'clock. They could turn the clocks back and continue to serve until the second 2:00 o'clock. So apparently the whole idea of turning the clocks back in the fall is to allow one extra hour of serving time for the tavern owners once a year. Now it all makes sense. And it almost makes up for the time wasted changing every clock in the house and upsetting everyone's internal clocks. If they're bound and determined to change the time, how about making all of us in Indiana be on the same time? That would make a whole lot more sense to me.

Snow & Cold

The weatherman was right about the snow. We got a bit as you can see from this view looking out on the front yard. The Chicago television stations were all about the snow - some of the northern suburbs got about 6 inches. The temp last night was supposed to get down to about 24 degrees.

I picked all of the peppers figuring they weren't going to make it through the night. Always the optimist, however, I did cover them up again. I also picked persimmons. I got a bucket the same size as the one with the peppers full of nice persimmons so I can make a couple of loaves of bread. Like banana bread or rhubarb bread, persimmon bread is right tasty with a bit of butter and a hot cup of tea or coffee. There's still more persimmons on the tree but I picked all I could reach without getting out a ladder. I think the recipe calls for 2 cups of puree. Depending on how much I get out of my bucket's worth, I might pick a few more to make another couple of loaves to freeze.

While I was outside in the snow, I got the electric cord strung out to the chicken coop and plugged in the waterer. I usually put a light in there about the time of the winter solstice, unless it gets real cold before then. Chickens are pretty hardy creatures and usually do OK as long as they're out of the wind but the light plus the heated waterer makes a big difference in that small coop. The light also keeps the chickens laying during the days of short daylight.

I took a good look in the barn at the dirt piles and figured out it's a woodchuck/ground hog that's burrowed in. I found the other end of the burrow where he gets out of the barn along with what appears to be a maze of tunnels underneath a couple of pallets that I put down to keep some machinery parts off the floor. I haven't come up with a plan of action yet but like the Mounties, I always get my man.

I machined up some little parts for work and installed the brackets I made for the nail cabinet. I've actually got quite a bit of work to do for my employer. I came up with the solution for the bike carrier. It shouldn't be too tough to do, just a little ticked off with myself for the design failure. I ordered some taillights for the job. They are the small round ones that go into a piece of 1-1/2" tubing. With the lights protected inside a piece of tubing, they shouldn't get broken while loading the bike. I put a pair of these in the sidecar and was pretty happy with them. I'd rather not have someone rear end me because they couldn't see the truck taillights and smash the bike and the truck.

Looks like it's going to continue to have daytime temps in the thirties for a few days then warm back up to mid-forties. Yep, it's winter, like it or not.