When It Rains

Hello Friends,

Have you had any rain lately? We finally got a good rain this afternoon (August 1), along with lots of thunder and lightning. It seems my dinner plans may have changed to cooking the burgers indoors instead of grilling. We'll see.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, RAIN. Thus far, we have had 1.24" of rain in this storm. Nope, I did not go out to check the rain gauge. I used the raindrop.farm site. 

All you have to do is plug in your zip code and click in your location to see their approximation of how much rain you have had in the past 24 hours.

This is especially handy if you want to check rainfall at another location such as a vacation home, farm or perhaps your place of business should it be in a flash flood area.

Wherever you are, I hope you got rain if you need it, and not if you don't. 

One line garden update: I picked the first pod of okra today!

Update: I just checked back to see how much more rain we got, and it had dropped to 1.07". This is what they say about how it works.

"How do you know how much it rained?
We calculate rainfall by processing data from high-resolution radars, ground sensors, and satellite data. It aggregates inputs from 180 Doppler radars and more than 10,000 rain gauges, using scientific models to derive rainfall estimates. We then deliver rainfall amounts that are hyper-localized, ensuring you receive data tailored precisely to your chosen locations.

Final update: According to our rain gauge we actually got 2.1". It was more accurate the last time we had any measurable rain.

Until next time, stay safe and stay sane (and dry).

A Truck From The Past

Hello Friends,

Car Lovers Rejoice! After 50 Miserable Years, CAFE Standards Are Dead

This could be good news for car and truck buyers and the auto industry as well. Let's bring these back, shall we?

CAFE stands for corporate average fuel economy, and here is an excerpt from the article linked above.

"From the beginning, these standards were a disaster, forcing automakers to radically downsize their fleet, which research showed cost thousands of lives because, all things being equal, smaller, lighter cars are less safe than larger ones.

In fact, a 2002 National Academy of Sciences found that these fuel economy standards not only boosted the cost of cars, but may have caused as many as 2,600 more traffic fatalities just in 1993."

You know, safety first, except when it's not.

This whole thing began in order to force car manufacturers to increase fuel economy across the board. They had to meet a corporate standard or face stiff penalties.

That meant smaller cars and larger pickups. Why pickups you ask? Well as I understand it, pickups are generally less fuel efficient anyway, so to meet these new standards they had to provide the required gas mileage per cubic foot of vehicle. Thus, the super-large pickups were able to state the required gas mileage.

Have you seen the size of modern trucks? You practically need a ladder to get in or out, and the bed is as high as my head. I hope that with the demise of the CAFE standards, we can return to reasonably sized trucks.

A shout out to The Abode of McThag for sharing this article.

Until next time, stay safe and stay sane.

More About Herbs

Hello Friends,

Let's talk some more about herbs, shall we? My current read is The Herbal Apothecary by 

JJ Pursell. Although I am only part way through the book, I find it well written and easy to understand. It covers 100 medicinal herbs with helpful color photographs. She describes the attributes of each plant, including instructions on how to make teas, tinctures, salves, and syrups, plus dosing and recipes.

There are sections on the systems of the body: cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and endocrine. These give detailed information on how our bodies work, and how herbal medicine can play a part in keeping us healthy.

At this point, my herb garden contains mostly culinary herbs, and even that got away from me and bloomed before I decided to harvest. Yesterday I picked some German thyme and Italian oregano. I had previously trimmed a new rosemary plant that had gotten leggy.

I'll continue to build my herb garden to hopefully include more medicinal herbs and have enough culinary herbs to harvest at the proper time and still have fresh when I want them.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that when using herbs in your dishes, one tablespoon dried herbs = three tablespoons fresh herbs. Just remember to triple the amount of fresh herbs if your recipe calls for dried, and always use fresh in salads and salsas and as garnish in finishing off your dish. When putting fresh herbs into a cooked dish, add near the end of cooking to retain color and flavor. I'll update on the rest of the garden later.

Until next time, stay safe and stay sane.