Sarah

Crabgrass, depends on what you mean as 'face frame'. To me, 'face frame' means using 'face' or 'finish' lumber. So, no, as the milch hides/covers so much.

Building a kitchen is a community thing, for females. The word is put out, and we all go to help. And we drag a man or two along for sawing duty. Otherwise, the fitting, drilling pins, nailing, making the paint, painting, etc is 'womans work'.

Sarah

Abergris,

I was thinking that somebody would tip you on this, but no...

And, Sorry, but I can not 'vision' buying cabinets. And it would probably be an orgnung offence anyway.

Generally, we make what you would call 'butcherblock' counter tops, from scrap, all you need is a rip circle saw with guide. To tack together, drill 1/16" holes, and use nails with the heads cut off. Seal is with your option of oil or wax. I do NOT like the wax or laminate gell (trying to remember the english word... epoxy?). I have ripped out and put in quite a few, as I like deep tops. Mine are four foot deep. A man can do the work, but normally it is a 'hen session' thing. The women get togther and 'raise' a kitchen.

When it comes to the cabinets, we always have left over 'dimensional' lumber from the block work. Drawer slides and related hardware is cheap. To color, milch. Umm... google 'milk paint'. For pigment, kaolin. Look that up, and take a good look at the wear factors, the lack of toxicity factors, etc. Got some out of date milk? Go mix your own milch. VERY cheap. And with milch, it 'melemars' (spelling?)(glues together and hides everything) nicely.

The shelves themselves are often also butcher, unless we find some scrap plywood, and that gets milched too.

Some use alternate pigments and paint the countertops to match, and they wear very well, but not for me.

There is a downside. Milch paint will not be stripped by any other paint strippers. Nor will any other paint stick to it. But I look at it as 'if paint won't stick, nothing will!'.

Sarah

Stray thought... Are there multi fuel stovetops out there? Mine is a refurbished electric Queen, but two burners were converted to LP and Propane gas, respectively.

Another stray thought... What are you going to do for refrigeration/freezing? I will NOT have a freon unit with a compressor. Noisy. True, mine are smaller than standard units I have seen in the HD and Lowes stores, but I can build them in. Anywhere. Or have my man make a 'box', buying just the cooling plant. Alcohol is the normal refer agent, there is also ammonia agent ones. Power sources are AC, DC, propane, LP, oil, etc. Mine are kero/bio wick burner. We have LOADS of olive oil, and that works great.

OK, I will shut up,

Sarah

(chuckling)

I was trying to find the 'wizards in the winter'. I thought Mannheim Steamroller. No.

It was the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which used to be the Trans-Siberian Steam Express...

...behave...

Umm... One can buy lids. Think of coffee can lids. IIRC, they are about fifty cents each in packs of twenty. I don't do that anymore. I recan.

I agree with Ambergris. Smaller cans are better. And I 'cheat' by buying the pull/pop tab lids for the #2-1/2 square cans (four cup vs 13 cup for a #10) . It is a matter of convience. I get better seal, they stack better, store better, easier to open, recycle easier, etc.

Sarah

PM recieved. I am also responding 'in the clear', thinking others may also enjoy.

In the PM I was asked where the MFE (Monograph on Flavoring Extracts, 1891) was. The sender could not find it in the ICSA's free cookbook section (

I rechecked. MFE is a Librum work (http://www.librum.us) which has yet to 'pay out', i.e. pay its cost of restoration. It has sold eleven of the required fourteen. If/when it pays out, it will be be retired as a free work to the ICSA. Sorry! No, I am not posting this to be 'mercinary', see below. But I do not mind admitting that this is one I would like to see 'make it'.

The free ATOCI (Ascii Table of Contents and Index) for MFE is at http://www.librum.us/atoci/mfe.txt.

Here is a cut/paste of that portion of the ATOCI:

Quality of Flavoring Extracts Sold. 32Vanilla Beans. 33Quality of Vanilla Beans. 34Exhaustion of Vanilla Beans. 36To Make a Good Extract of Vanilla. 38Extract of Vanilla, a, b, c, d, e, and f. 39-42Tonka Beans. 43Extract of Vanilla with Tonka. 44Extract of Vanilla, "Standard". 46Extract of Vanilla without Vanilla. 47

The free sixty day demo version is available for free at http://www.librum.us/stacks/mfe-1891_v12.exe. No reason you can not grab the demo copy and copy out what you want...

A *crude* (stressing the 'crude') scanned pdf version is available at the Internet Archive, (http://www.archive.org).

Sarah.

PS: If you were unaware of the ICSA cookbook project, go on over. No, it is not Librum. The ICSA 'spun off', and has it's own management. Male. The men and the cookbooks are not mixing well. They could really use some help with building ATOCI for their version of the ATOCI search engine. Volunteers are being welcomed.

Well, a lot of things. Unlike many of our people, we had a wide selection.

A lot of breads, using a lot of different grains.

A lot of dairy. Cheeses, curds, 'gurgs' (yogurt), sylabub. (Is that the right word? Lightly fermented milk based drinks...)

A lot of pickled vegetables. Rarely a dill, usually sweet, especially 'cinnamon' which Dad loved).

'Riced' potatoes (think hash browns or formed into what we today call 'tots'.)(Also made into 'potato cookies', cut with cookie cutters and munched like cookies) Also made into flakes for long term storage.

But the downside was oatmeal. So much so that I can not eat it today. Fortuneatly my man introduced me to grits.

Very few green vegetables, or beans (flatulence issues in the family).

Sarah

of the Librum

Edited to ask:

Do canning jars pop when the seal is lost? I've never heard of that. At first I thought he was remembering the "ping" and got confused into thinking it was a bad thing.

Depends on the lids used. Ball does a 'ping' and a 'pong'. Look for 'dome', not 'flat'. Yes, there are still 'flat' out there.

An old school practice, and one that should NOT be done, is to take the rings off once you get 'ping' seal, so you do get a good audible 'pop/pong' at failure.

It is true that rings can keep a 'pop/pong' from being audible, but keep the rings on.

Sarah

There are a lot of such recipes. One could buy varing strengths in the old days, but economical homemakers bought the most powerful and cut to desired strength. I can show you advertisements for such in a lot of our old books. One brand name I remember is/was Mothers Pride, 16%.

There is a problem with the conversion of such recipes to 5%. Too many variables. What you are preserving, its acidity, what herbs/spices, how you are going to process, etc. Just too many variables to convert such recipes.

The safest thing to do is simply discard that recipe and get a modern one.

I am going to chime in with Violet, and say no weaker than 5%.

But I am also going to say no stronger than 12%. This is the cause of 'canners fingers', a common medical issue back then.

One of the reasons I suspect we only have the 5% and 9% today is that there were accidents and long term injuries in the old days. Mothers Pride is/was a very strong acid, and it will react with minerals in your water. My Mother would dilute with rain water, but make it sit overnight, pouring off top and bottom Enough said? Look up "chloroacetic acid", nothing more than chloronated water and acetic acid, if you want a case of the willies.

Discard that recipe, and get a modern 5% one.

Sarah

Jeepers and Philbe, check out 'CIS', Constant Ink Systems.

If we were to be using carts we would be replacing every other day. I hate to think what that would cost!

We just ordered some new ones about three months ago for the new-to-us Epson Artisan printers. Each CIS was fully loaded with ink, about the equivalent of twelve carts of each color, and was less than the cost of a set of carts. The firms we deal with are quite reputable, and have good quality materials. If memory serves, the cost per empty CIS was less than $100.

If we were to be buying just the ink, a full set of bottles is something like twelve refills. Just a minute. Yes, here we go, a receipt. 100ml bottles, standard six colors, $16.99 including shipping. The inks are everywhere, but I do not want to recommend any particular firm/brand. Just be sure you use dye, not pigment, inks, makes those printheads last...

We make our own special inks, so the cost drops out even more. But this is something I would not recommend for anyone but a chemist. What do I mean by 'special'? True metalic silver for dark coloured binder labels, gold for regilding paper edges, magnetic MICR for scanners, gallic (iron) for reproductions, water based, alcohol based, acetone based, gum based, dye based, 'magic marker', 'wax' based, 'oil' based, etc, Many of these are simply unavailabe at any price in carts.

If you are a person who does a lot of photo printing, we are not, then I understand you can tailor your inks to correct your colours. I have seen formulas in a lot of places to 'correct' various manufacturers inks. Epson being the most common that I have seen.

Was it Lexmark who had the commercial that their competitors ink was more expensive by weight than gold? I believe it.

Sarah

Philbe, depending on your box office store they may have the cheapies, made by p-touch, which have suddenly glutted the market. Avoid those. And the strips available for the cheapies are harder to find, and more expensive. Get a standard p-touch unit. You will understand when you look at them. Another issue I have with p-touch is that I have one of the first units, for which some size strips are no longer made, so stock now the strips you will need, as you may be caught like we were.

And to answer the other question, there were alternate 'inks' available. If memory serves me right, I saw them in a library supply catalog.

Sorry to not have more information for you. Since we started making our own 'magic marker', I only use the labeller when making spine labels.

Sarah

Great.

Do you have, or can get bottled seltzer?

I had a pm asking where to get, stating that her store has dropping it from the shelves.

Considering how much we use, and the price increases on the soda machine large gas bottle stuff, my enclave is looking into getting a charger.

Hmmm... Maybe I should post one of the root beer recipes, one that can be made all three ways. bottle seltzer, siphon, and fermintation.

Sarah.

Violet, this is the second time you miss-corrected me.

I let it go the last time, but this time I am going to gently correct you, even if moderated, as it is you who erred, and putting out false information. Again.

It is the sugar that is the issue, and/or improper hygene, that gives the base for such poisonings, cheat tea has no sugar.

Did you read your own cite?

"But the bacterial strain cited has very limited pathogenicity and I can’t find even a single report of a person getting sick from sun tea, from the CDC or any other source…
I’m trained in epidemiology, so I’m not inclined to pooh pooh risk. I just don’t think there’s any good evidence for this one.on that same article."

Isn't most 'sun tea' presugared when put out? I do not know, as I do not do 'sun tea'. Cheat tea is not a 'sun tea', it is hot steeped, in a capped container, so no 'airborne pathogens'. IMHO, if you put sugared tea, or any sugared liquid out, or do not practice good hygene, you get what you deserve. But no evidence even with this, IMHO 'poor', practice? I think I know why, see below.

I gently suggest you review the various unrefrigerated unsealed storage lengths for UNSUGARED teas, especially the Japanese. Weeks. Or better yet, just google 'cold steep teas'. (quickly typing it in...) Yes, I thought so. SUGARED. And by some very reputable entities.

Did you know that strong tea has been used externally for generations, and documented as effective by the CDC, as an antibiotic? Perhaps this is the reason there is no reports of poisonings with sun tea?

I was certainly gentler than you.

Sarah

Here is another from my 'bag of tricks'. We call it 'Cheat Tea' as it can be used both hot and cold, which is good for the weather transition months and keeps well, on the counter, as there is no sugar to 'turn'. It also stretches the tea supply.

One large mason jar with plastic lid.

Four 1 cup teabags of the tea of your choice.

Five packets of Truvia brand sweetener (Stevia)

Five drops Real Lemon brand lemon juice, optional, if for iced tea only.

Dump the sweetener in the jar. Any stevia based sweetener will do, but you want to be equivalent to ten tablespoons of sugar. The 'carrier' in Truvia helps with any overbrewing harshness, which you can get with some teas, like Bigelow brand orange spice. Drop the teabags in the jar after removing any strings, etc. Boil water to hard boil. Put jar in sink, in case of thermal shock breakage. Pour the boiling water to half way up the neck. Lightly cap and let cool. If using lemon juice, add it after cooling, and stir, but be aware that the addition will make the tea 'turn' quicker. No, you do not need to pull out the bags.

Even without the lemon, it will eventually turn, but it never lasts twenty four hours in this kitchen, so it never has a chance to turn.

If you want iced tea, pour over ice, it will be slightly stronger than a standard iced tea you are used to, but good. If you want hot tea, simmer up on the stove top, or microwave. And if that man is going to be working in the field, you can make it in a two liter plastic bottle for him to take with him (bags in the tea!). The bottle can be reused if you have a good set of needlenose pliers to put the used bags out.

If needing a Christmas theme tea, use Celestial Seasonings brand Nutcracker Sweet using this method. Very smooth, almost a coffee.

If you think your hot tea is weak on 'mouth feel', put some maltodextrin in it. Some use PG, but I am sensitive to that stuff.

Sarah

Had a hoot of a time at the local county swap meet. An English lady was complaining about the cost and high degree of carbonization, fructose, aspertame, etc, of commercial soda. She did this while gulping one of the lemongrass lemonades at our booth. We use a carbonator (spelling?) there, the part of a soda machine that injects the gas, so they gave her another glass with less bubbles. She begged me to write up what I do from memory, i.e., write up a recipe, and to send it to her. Here is my recipe, using bottled seltzer, but you can do this one with carbonator, fermentation, and siphon.

Because it is that time of year!

Sparkling Lemongrass Lemonade

Lemongrass, a perennial herb from central Asia, has high levels of citral,
the pungent aromatic component in lemon peel. It gives this sparkling
lemonade a deep, rich citrus-oil flavor, reminiscent of lemon drop candy.

LEMONGRASS SYRUP
ENOUGH FOR 4 SERVINGS
3 large stalks lemongrass, untrimmed and thinly sliced grass
1 2/3 cups water
3/4 chip sugar
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon

Bruise the sliced lemongrass by pounding it on
a sturdy surface with a meat mallet or a heavy
skillet. Combine the water and bruised lemon-
grass in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer
over medium heat, stirring occasionally; let
simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Add the
sugar, stirring until it dissolves, and then add
the lemon zest and juice. Bring the mixture
back to a simmer over medium-high heat, and
let simmer for 5 minutes. Then remove from
the heat, let cool for 30 minutes, and strain.
This syrup can be stored in the refrigerator
for up to 2 weeks.

TO MIX WITH SELTZER Combine the syrup and lemon juice
in a tall glass. Add the seltzer and stir just until
blended. Add ice and serve.
1/3 cup lemongrass syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups seltzer

Sarah

I understand your being overwelmed working with the search engines. To be honest, your scanning comes down to costs. The scan hardware is not that expensive, about a thousand dollars, but the database access is. Something on the lines of two-three thousand a month. IF they let you in.

To give you a better idea, the county library comes to us, every so many weeks, to put their scans into the database, as they do not have enough usage to make it economically feasible. If a county can not, then I doubt you can. No offense. They bought a secondhand 3m bar scanner, which mounts a memory card, and they scan the isbn (only!)(LOC#, OcLC#, etc does not work. So the product must be newly (re)published in the last, oh, six years or so.). This micro sd card they bring in, convert to Excel spreadsheet here, and upload. It comes back fully populated in about a hour for a thousand or so new ISBNs. We charge them a small fee, and actually lose a little money on their researches.

I would contact your local public library. Make a list in the format they require, and give to them. And, speaking as a research librarian, please donate generously. We all are struggling to keep our doors open.

Sarah

of the Librum

In my case, it was expected. We tend to large families, so in that I am the exception. One by first husband (RIP), one by second.

Frankly, in my culture, I can not imagine not having children in a household. If a couple is not a fertile match, there is adoption. A *LOT* of adoption. Further, if a family simply can not support theirs, the 'extras' are lovingly 'fostered'.

Nor is it unusual for a child who shows special aptitude in a trade, etc, not supportable by a family, they may also be fostered to provide them with the support of their apparent calling.

I do not have a 'fosterling'. My husband and I have the resources should such become. Being that my husband is a master craftsman, it could happern. And my equipment is still in working order, so who knows.

Sarah

of the Librum

Thanks all. A busy day that was for sure!

I got a lot of research taskings dumped on me, a lot were 'April Fools', but not all. I usually counter with like.

Here's one, 'How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?'. A woodchuck can chuck wood! About a pound per throw.

And a lot of little gotcha gags.

Now if I can just figure who put the vinegar in the spine repair heat glue. Whew!

I still do not know why I was born on April Fools day!

Sarah

of the Librum

Sounds like you've got a job on your hands! LOL Have you checked with other states libraries to see if they could recommend some sort of software (?) that would put you on top of the game? Hope you get it worked out, nobody...nobody...likes "bootleggers" that roam the internet, and there's alot of them that put together bootleg computers that have no install disks etc., so if you ever crash you've got resource but to buy new software to install.

(sigh) Yes, we conferred with other libraries. But by the rating system we don't rate any discounts (too small), and the most popular one starts at $15k, there is a per-book fee, and it requires the reader to link back to a DRM server, which is something we specifically do not want.

Another (sigh), we just learned that another project has been 'lifted' and google-ized. They did not even bother to try to remove the watermarks. What makes it so bad is that it is large entities that are the 'bootleggers'.

The search continues,

Sarah

Violet,

Thank you.

Faked pickling spices for flavoring. Sheesh.

Sarah

of the Librum

Testes:

A good test on the new one. It makes sense. The converter was grabbing the underlay text, no OCR on your end. Again, thank you, TheCG..

Philbe, I am sorry, I see I was not clear. OK, the Librum really is a library, with real 'Patrons'. The average Patron comes to the site, and uses the 'card catalog' to search for whatever they are looking for. But unlike a card catalog, it searchs ATOCI, Ascii Table Of Contents and Indexs. They take any 'bingos' to the 'Research Desk', a by-the-page server, where the Patron can view thumbnails and download individual pages, which charges $0.07 per page, think of a photocopier. Optionally the Patron can download a free 'check out' copy, which is good for sixty days. Should the Patron desire, they may also download the 'full' copy, normally $5, or buy a 'grab-bag' disk..

During a very distastefull exchange between Google, Internet Archive, and Hathir Trust, we learned that they were stealing our content, cracking it, and serving it up as theirs. We really are not out to make money but we do need to keep the doors open. To be 'ripped' that way, well...

The present ebook software, FAVP, must be replaced, and we want something that: 1) while we cannot deter a truely determined thief, we still want the cracked out work to be very obvious that it is stolen. 2) will run on the various ebook readers out there. 3) have a 'library checkout' function.

There is no 'DRM' out there for the various tablets/etc that will support the 'check out' in a 'stand-alone' mode, so those we will have to lock inside a 'exe wrapper', but the 'full' version would not be, but will be PDF with Author Password set, and another encryption algorithm also used..Yes, the second was in place for the test (I did not mention that. ) . But considering the lack of users grabbing 'check out' editions, we may simply drop that option.

Clearer?

Did you notice the very low transaction cost per page in the Research Desk? That breaks down to $0.05 (per item charge), and $0.01 (per item percentage), and that leaves $0.01 to us. That is a special rate by PayPal, 'electronic bulk'. But we are looking for something other than PayPal.

Sarah

of the Librum

I simply am not able to find the answer to this on the forums I am searching.

Lets try one more time. Try to 'convert' this one...

http://www.librum.us/stacks/testyesnoocr.pdf

That one has the 'underlay' Adobe OCR stripped out. If text shows, it is the conversion doing OCR. If not, then the conversion was grappling the underlay (which it should not be doing, from what I have been able to find).

Now this is interesting! I tested the link, there is a 'pdf' watermark, and the watermark did not show in the browser, but does on stand-alone.

Thanks again,

Sarah

Don't apologise! Please. You have no idea how much this is helping me!

Umm... Was that the testyes.pdf that came through?

Now I need to learn if your converter was doing OCR, or if it was picking up the underlaid text. Back to researching more forums...

Sarah

of the Librum

I think I am going to sit back and watch this one. To me, there are two kinds of 'corned beef'.

1) corned beef is beef that is salt cured. Or grain cured (packing in grain, like millet to dessicate). Usually marinated before curing. Like jerky.

2) beef that is pickle cured. Think of those 'hot' picked sausages.

Or is this another case of a different food with the same name?

Sarah

of the Librum

Umm... Yes and no. 'Oyster' crackers, and I am not sure they are the same in the English stores, were just such. They were baked that way, in dimpled cast iron trays, to be such a larder stretcher. Think of a dry matzo or hard-tack baked into nuggets, using a 'honey dropper' to fill the dimples in the tray. Such nuggets were beloved by our late Majerestadt, but his were a bit 'sourdough', and had a bit of oatmeal. Shelf life is 'indefinate', if you can seal away from air borne mold/mildew/etc. I also know that such was issued to confederate troops by the state of Alabama as a trail food in wax paper bags (and the reinacters love the 'wheat bullets').

Sarah

of the Librum

Sheep bone is also done this way, along with chicken, pork, beef, and game birds. Sheep is my favorite, but be sure to skim/refine that tallow you will get later. The tallow is not flavorful eating , and the tallow has many uses.

In the theme of 'never throw anything away!':

After you have rendered all the goodie out, five times, not the three noted above, the old timers make 'bone oil', particularly of pork, but any would do, as a liniment for arthritus or as a 'neats foot' oil, or as a carrier for all kinds of leather products, to include dyes and polishes. (Black soot plus the oil is still the best boot polish!)(The original formula for 'Lincoln Stain Polish', so beloved by our Marine Corp, is this with a black shelack added.)

If you find a three crockery bowl set, normally red clay, you might have a bone oil 'still'. Crock#1, the largest, looks like a flower pot, with a hole in the bottom. Crock#2 is the only glazed one, and fits the bottom of #1, and catches the juices from #1's hole. #3 is a top, dished to hold coals, like a dutch oven. Fill with 'dry' bones, put in fire, baking the remaining oils from the bone. Product is normally a dark red, and viscious, and has an abbadoir (off-blood) smell. The bones were crushed after rendering, and often used up to three times with new bone. This was called 'bone mother', and you might find this term use in a lot of the WWI-WWII cookbooks for jellies, and as a thickening agent for 'wheatless' days recipes and the like.

Grandmother made a lot of the mother. She would add something to it, not vinegar, and it would be a hardish jelly, great for my beloved apple drops, think lemon jellies. Sigh: Another lost trick...

Trivia: Where does the word 'neat' come from? Neat is an old world word for 'cattle'. Now ya know!

Sarah

of the Librum.