Bourbon Kumquat Marmalade

 Kumquats Rule!

It is March and the kumquats on my little (8foot) tree are coverd head to toe with fruit.

Passersbys and local homeless folks drop and by and eat as many as they can.  I encourage it. But still the tree puts out.

 Kumquats are grape shaped and sized miniature orange colored fruit where the sweetness is in the peel and the sourness is in the fruit. They have seeds. The following is a recipe that uses these remarkable little fruit.  I bought the cookbook at Costco. This recipe sold it to me. I was also intrigued by its recipe for pressure canning dry beans.    If you have some access to some kumquat fruit... this is your recipe.

Kumquat Marmalade with Bourbon  

From Preserving Everything by Leda Meredith

35-60 Kumquats 1-4 inches long and less than half as wide

1 Orange

6-7 Cups water

2-3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice

4-5 Cups sugar

¼ Cup of Bourbon

1.         Wash the kumquats and the orange, scrubbing them well with produce brush

2.         Slice the fruits thinly peels and all. Remove and discard the seeds as you are slicing. You want the juices as well as the peels and pulp, so have a bowl handy to transfer them to.

3.         Measure the combined sliced citrus and juices. Put them into a large, non reactive pot. Stir in 2 cups water for every cup of fruit and juice that you measured. Cover the pot and let sit at room temperature for 4 hours (or overnight).

4.         Near the end of the soaking time, sterilize your jars.

5.         Bring the citrus and water mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the kumquat and orange peels become tender and translucent. This will take about an hour.

6.         Once the fruit mixture has cooked, measure it. Add ¼ teaspoons lemon juice plus ¾ Cup of sugar for every cup of cooked citrus. Stir the ingredients over high heat until the sugar dissolves.

7.         Add the bourbon if using. Continue to cook over high heat until the  marmalade reaches the gel point. Remove it from the heat and skim off any foam on the surface.

8.         While the marmalade is still hot, ladle it into the sterilized canning jars. Leave a minimum of ½ inch space between the surface of the food and rims of the jars, Screws on the canning lids.

9.         Process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes (adjust for altitude).

Marmalades more than most other sweet preserves continue to thicken for days or even weeks after they’re cooked in the jars . If the freshly made marmalade is not as thick as you would like it to be, wait 2 weeks and it may get to a firmer gel.

 : ) Pat

Roofing upgrade:
This week the roofers finished with their upgrade on the home addition roof that only lasted 7 years.

The addition (870sq feet) and the surrounding roof to the peak (An additional 1000 square feet) were covered by rolled roofing 7 years ago. Rolled roofing was used because the slope to from the peak of the roof down to the edge had changed dramatically when the additional 18 feet of footprint of the new addition. The slope was too gradual to allow for a shingled 30 year rated comp roof. the rolled roof was originally overlapped and connected by adjoining roll by propane heat along the seams.  As expected it needed to by replaced.  We have now lived with our renovation for 9 years. 

For the last two years this roof has leaked.  It first leaked around the oven hood. That year was a drought year. Last year we had an "average" year for rain. The result was every time it rained in the least, water would  out of all of the lighting sockets.

During the rainy season the roofers will not take your call to even look at the problem. This summer I started off in the middle of the summer contacting the Mennonite roofing contractor that completed the tear off and shingle compostion replacement our roof 20 years ago, Specialty Roofing.  20 years ago we were the first on the block to get a new roof since the birds were grabbing almonds off my tree and "saving" them in the cedar shake shingles.

When the contractor arrived this summer, he got up on the surface and measured the square footage.  In the past  years he would be thinking of the flat roof solution of tar and gravel.  Today the move is away from that and to a polyurethene foam of 3 to 4 inches thick with a titantium coating.  This designed add to the insulation of the roof as well as prolonging its water repellant life. Total for this roof portion was $8,660. My dear wife had to swallow twice when she heard the cost of this repair. It came with an 18 year warranty.

It is tough to figure out how old you will be in 18 years, but it something that it is impossible to consider.  My wife and I will be 84..  Hopefully the house will be viable. It is 36 years old this month.

Last week the two man crew pressure washed the roof, and removed the cap that binds the two roof types together. They brought their big truck with plenty of room to gather the errant rolled roof layers. They also put down a primer coat of spray glue to prepare the surface for the thick coat. Two days later a truck with barrels of roofing foam and a truck mounted compression with the components arrived. The two chemicals were mixed in the air gun and become foam as it is sprayed out on the room. The workers had to wear hazmat suits and breathing masks to install the product.  Half way through they met a snag.  As they were working, one side pumped out beautifully and the other side clogged.  This necessitated taking the air guns apart and cleaning and scraping all the individual parts that comprise the mixer guns.  They were not happy campers but they knew that it had to be done to keep the project going. They explained that the adhesion force for the spray was so sticky that if any of it got on their skin, the only way to get it off was to wear it off with friction.  Despite the 98 degree temperatures in late morning and afternoon they suited up and finished the job. 

Two days later the same group arrived and sprayed from garden sprayers the final coating for this roofing product. Overlapping strokes were the key.  They mentioned that even working up on the roof had become cooler as the roof, a think white/tan blanket was reflecting the heat rather than absorbing.

Three days later, the son of the contractor arrived with the invoice, 8/22/16
Specialty Roofing
Greg Dyck
Donovan

Polyurethane Foam and Premium Coatings:
pressure washed surface and Primed
Installed 4"x4" Foam stop edging around the bottom and sides
applied Polyurthene Foam to entire back of roof
sprayed on Conklin Base Coat and Top Coat (Puma XL)
Installed new ridge cap on top edge

*18 year Warranty           Total $8,660

Top DVDs from Netflex in the Last Two Years

My daughters conspired  a couple of years ago in getting me a gift certificate membership in Netflix DVD division for my birthday.  They pondered long and hard as to whether I would be receptive to a one or a two or even a three at time disc membership. They settled on two at a time.  When I am through watching two DVD movies and have returned them in their spritely red return postage return envelopes, a new set selected from my cue is dispatched from West Sacarmento or San Jose to my mailbox. It has worked out beautifully for me.  Some weeks when all of the stars align, I will get as many as 6 new movies to watch during the week.  The usual is 4 and sometimes as few as two will grace my computer top.  I supplement the group on order with some redbox gems that I may order on my computer and pick up at the grocery store nearby. I try to save these choices for the blockbusters that would require a "short wait" from the netfix cue. This "short wait" could be as long as a month.

Favorites of the Last two Years

Now mind you, this is in no way an Oscar list. This list is a group of movies that I have found interesting to watch over the last couple of years using the method of checkout noted above.  Some are ancient. Some are fairly new.  I offer these as a conversational starting point and an idea of my cinematic interest.  Recognize that that I have some prejudice in that I usually go for some rather sappy emotional romantic comedies, or action shoot them ups with some decent stuntwork rather than just CGI.

The following is meant as a descriptor for these movies and does not give them justice.

The Choice- A Nicholas Sparks Story set in the south with the romance centered around a choice that had to be made to sustain life.

Birdman- A oscar winning story about a actor that thought that he could fly
Boyhood- An amazing movie where the camera and the plot traces that maturity of a small boy into manhood
Bridge of Spies- In cold war times our country relied on a secret private industry "ordinary" salesman to secure the trading of Gary Powers our spy and one other American for one of the Soviet Union's top spy.

Brooklyn- The story of an Irish immigrant girl that leaves her home for a new one in America
Celeste and Jessie forever- Love and life in LA
Concussion-The story of brain injury and the doctor that discovered what was causing many NFL players to retire with strange effects
Flipped- Neighborhood girl from across the street at 7 goes crazy of the boy that moves in across the street. Era 1962
Grandma- Jane Fonda plays the grandparent of Lindsay Loein in Idaho. Lindsay is sent to live with Grandma before heading  off to college

Hector and the Search for Happiness- A psychiatrist flips out in his practice and heads for a around the world research as to what makes people happy in various cultures.

Infinitely Polar Bear- Father tries to become the responsible part despite his clinical state
 Joan Baez 75th Birthday- She sings all of the old ones and does a great job
Joe and the Volcano- Man verses his fate.. The modern allegory movie
Joy- She made it on Qvc despite her family's lack of faith
MI-5-- Mission Impossible 5 Tom Cruise and all
King of California- You will never look at Costco's floors the same. Hidden gold in California
Leap of Faith- Steve Martin squeezing the Oklahoma farmers for their last dime in the drought
Our Brand is Crisis- Joy and competition with American political advisors in the country of Boliva
Point Break- The latest with more than just surfing- infiltration of the off road criminals
The Five Year Engagement- A move to the midwest (Wisconsin) sends this gourmet chef and his fiancee  through issues
The Intern- Robert DeNario as an intern that supports a start up company in the same building as his old business

Nostalgia building a "Fort"

I grew up in a tract home outside San Francisco.  We lived at the bottom of a very steep hill.  A gigantic steep wild backyard complete with yearly washout of the ancient dune soil that started out with out a stalk of vegetation was common. As a "kid" community we had many friends from all over the community. Most of them came from working/ lower middle class families.  We were safe and our families had no fear that we would head into the wrong direction with our choices of friends or their activities. Out only admonishment was be home before the streetlights came on.

At eight years old we had such a chance to explore and and have fun with our neighbors and friends that we brought into the neighborhood.  At dusk we played street softball with whipple balls that had huge holes in them so that they would not go very far.  We played hide and seek among the parked cars (very few cars every drove down our block because it was so steep and most people without business in one of the houses didn't want to challenge their brakes or their sanity).

Almost all the houses on the block were were occupied by people that owned the homes. Many were bought with VA loans and many of the occupants were the same age range of my "Greatest Generation" parents. We were the boomer kids.  We didn't know it then or even knew that we were the biggest spike in population growth that the country had known for generations.  Business was booming. Houses could not be erected fast enough and certainly schools and school buildings had to constructed quickly to accommodate us.

We had a great time growing up in this community.  My friends and I had ongoing floating monopoly games within a quarter mile radius that introduced us to all kinds of kids with all kinds of families. A few families were a little richer than others.  I think that sad to say, they were richer in wealth because they had fewer kids to raise.  Those that brought more kids into the family had a tougher time in government or wage stabilized environments.

A family moved in eight houses away from us on our little street.  They were family that was Dutch. They had only one daughter.  Their house was neat as a pin.  They were so happy to have this daughter.  They want to give her everything that she wanted. She was not a thin girl and had a bobbed haircut. What she wanted has was to build a gigantic fort. A fort in a kids mind was ultimate realization of  independence in their world. A place to be home, their home and not have to deal with the vagaries of home ownership. To this end her father found a way to bring left over pieces of wood of all sorts to the backyard. He may have been a carpenter or maybe just a construction site scavenger. As kids we never asked where we were just happy to have them. As neighborhood kids we looked at this project as a great adventure.  If she liked you, you could help her build. Nails and hammers were provided and buckets of bright latex blue paint.  Oh my.

No planning, no quality control, just get out their and build with the wood and nails and paint.  Did it ever become a viable clubhouse... well no.  Was she or us ever happy with the results? No not really.  Did we have fun building... oh yeah.

Our community was a transitional community.  Maybe all of them were in that era.  Dad's got better jobs and moved to bigger homes or to somewhere the weather was better.  Her family moved out within a year and a family from Fuji moved in.I always wondered what became of the "fort" when they people moved in.

I was reminded of this world this week when I was making raised beds for my tomatoes and vegetables.  I made 3 raised containers 12 inches deep. They are 8 feet long and 4 feet wide.  I used number 10 screws that were 3 inches long to secure the ends to the lengths.  Grabbing up the wood and attaching the screws brought me back to the 50's era fort construction site and the kid that had unlimited wood, nails and blue paint.  : ) Pat

Spring Delights in the Central Valley

There are a couple of things that I really look forward to in each spring season.  One of them is the emergence of the beautiful flowers on the fruit trees in front.  The other is the amazing smell of the orange trees in blossom.

February is the month that the fruit trees flower.  Bees seek out my yard when there is no wind and the sun warms the air to the degree that no sweater or jacket is needed. My mom always said that bees have a great union.  They do not work when there is not great conditions.  We often get wayward bees in the beginning of the season as the almond groves around us have bees in place and are waiting for the almond trees to blossom.  During the height of their blossom, our fruit trees may be in great position but will not get the bee attention because of the readiness of the almond trees to fulfill the bee's pollination needs.  The almond season is not very long.  My friend the beekeeper is busy transporting bees almost every evening during this time.  He starts with bees transported to Bakersfield 150 miles away in early January.  He ends up in the Northern Sacramento valley in late March. The trees reach their height of blossom for only a couple of weeks each year in February. Peach trees are in blossom for about 3 weeks.  The blossom season starts out with the pulots and ends with the pomegranate trees in May and early June. Pomegranate trees blossom after the trees get their leaves.  All of the other trees have blossoms before their green leaves arrive.

This time of the year, March headed to April, is the time that the citrus, particularly the orange and lemon trees produce their blossoms. First the oranges are in blossom.  Next will come the lemons into blossom with their amazing smell. This phenomenon seems to always be around Easter.  In the central valley, we are in prime position for navel oranges.  Our region is region is 9.  In many years we may be in region 8. Region 8 allows of for temperatures to be no lower than 30 degrees.  Region 9  has temperatures that may reach 26 for a couple of hours. 26 degrees could result in damage to citrus  trees. This low number occurs only once or twice in every 3 or four years.

The spring is also a time for starting the garden in the backyard.  Last year we had a great season of tomatoes and Italian sweet peppers.  A portion of the backyard was rototiller and I planted in the grooves the little plants that I grew from seeds in January,  The big issue last year was to get enough of the garden watered in the correct proportion to its needs.  Last year was a drought year.  Young tomatoes and peppers need to be watered more often than our water restriction allowed.  So I hand watered the garden with big orange bucket.  I was a little late in getting the seeds planted in their peat pods.  I supplemented my little Burpee seed tomatoes and peppers with 6 tomato plants that I bought in Costco. Theses plants were considerably bigger than my little seedlings.

This year I started the Burpee seeds on Super Bowl Sunday.  The first week of February is just a little late to start seeds in our area. The last average frost date is February 15.  The tomato seeds take 10 days to sprout.  They are no where near transplanting time until their second leaves are well established.  I think that they need at least a month to get to a stage that they can be considered a success. I used really big peat pods to start the seed. This allows them to stay in their peat a little longer without having to be transplanted into an intermediate pot. They are ready to get into their Summer spot.  I am making 3 elevated gardening beds this year.  There are 12 inches tall, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long.  They are made with redwood boards. I need to put a little stain/finish on the wood before they are filled with great soil.

Onward and upward to a great garden this year! :  ) Pat

A New Folder on the Mac Desktop

New Folder

One of the great things about being in the Mac interface is working with what other systems call the directory. Basic to working on the Desktop (what you see when you trun your computer on) is making a new folder for the stuff that you will be creating.

Make sure that the name in the right hand corner says Finder. You can command Q the program if it does not show finder. It might say Safari in the upper right corner or Firefox. You can click and drag down the drag down the column to Quit if you do not want to command Q.

With Finder visible in the upper left hand corner, click and drag down the choices until you see new folder. When this is visible and highlighted, let go. A new Folder will appear on your desktop. Find this new folder and change the name to something that you want.

Once this is done you are ready to drag files into it that you want to organize in this category. So click and hold on the name of the file and drag it into the new folder.

You can have many new folders and use them to organize your computer documents. Just repeat the procedure as outlined above and you can have as many as you have hard drive space.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Alaskan Cruise: Tips on things to Tag Along

Alaskan Cruise: What to Bring with you

Many of these tag a longs apply to travel in general and certainly most cruising situations.

Electrical Bar and an Extension Cord

Many cabins have just one electrical plug. Having an electric bar that allows you to plug multiple plugs into electric plug. An extension cord is needed as the plug may be way across the cabin. An extension cord will allow you to bring the power to where you need it. We allows need this as the power chair needs a place to be charged. If you have multiple electronics you will also need this handy convenience.

Sometimes the only  power outlet is in the bathroom only. We have forgotten this once and had to "borrow one" from the front desk for a 14 dollar deposit.

Night light 

If you have an interior room, it gets really dark in a cabin. A night light may save your toes or your head.

Laundry Pods and Quarters

Laundry soap comes in small plastic pills. These are great for cruise travel. A small baggie of these come in handy when laundry needs to be done. This stuff is highly priced when you get on the ship. Quarters are handy to run the machines. I have heard that some of the machines are now taking cruise cards... but again a baggie of quarters is pretty good insurance.

Your Own Soda

My wife is sensitive to sugar and caffeine. We always pack a cube of diet caffeine free  cube in our check in bags (using the platform collapsible roll on). Sometimes this will result in you appearing on the bad boy list and having to explain yourself but liquid is critical on the ship. When ever you go onshore I have never been turned back bringing on additional soda to replenish the supply.

Drug Store supplies

While the ship store has a ton of things to buy, it is pretty thin on items that you would normally buy in a drug store, particularly personal care items. They only care one kind of deodorant, and just one kind of toothpaste. A quick stop to Target or Walgreens will add comfort to your trip.

Cash

Cash is handy for buying items on shore and will work really nicely in the casino slots or tables. Ship casinos will also use your cruise card. When using your cruise card for casinos, a numeric password for that use is generated. Any winnings go on your cruise card or may be cashed at the cage the day before you leave the ship. The debarkation morning has no staff working the casino and no way to trade in your winnings for cash in your pocket.

Don't for get the tips for the various people that help you on the ship.  All drinks come with an automatic 15 percent tip included. 

Paperback books

Even though many people will love their kindles or their kindle apps on ship, a paperback book or two is pretty nice to have in your hand when you have time to sit and watch the water go by. Bring some new ones and pass them on to others in the library trade section. 

Sunglasses and Skin Care

Sunglasses are must up on the glaciers. Don't forget some lip balm and some sunblock. While most of days in Alaska are filled with rain in the summer, when the sun comes out it will burn everything in sight. If you are off hiking, mosquito protection is also comforting.

Snacks

It might seem odd, but we always bring along a box of crackers and cheese comb kits. They are the ones with the little plastic stick in them. They always come in handy when you just don't want to get up and face the crowd or for whatever.  They also go great with the fruit you will order for your room. Don't forget to order a pear, an apple and a kiwi if you like them delivered free to your room every day.  That is one cool thing about Princess Cruises. Don't forget to have high tea at least once on every cruise... its special and included in your cruise package. 

Water Bottle

Off the ship it is great to bring ship's water with you. If your have your own water bottle, you can save yourself some grief worrying about the safety of the water you drink.

Misc

I am sure I have forgotten one thing or another... you will too.  The list above I hope will not be in that category.