Starting a fermentation project

I have written in the past about Carl making Kombucha (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/11/kombucha.html and https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/12/some-humor-and-food-pictures.html). He had gotten a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) from a friend at Venture Out a few weeks ago and started that project up again while we were at the farm. 

He has also developed an interest in fermenting fresh vegetables. I think his interest started with sauerkraut (which he enjoys but which he feels has often lost its nutritional benefits when you purchase it as it has been canned and thus subjected to high heat). His son-in-law, Kent, shared about some of the items he ferments when we visited in April, and Carl has been watching a number of YouTube videos, so he decided to give it a go...

He bought a cabbage (4 pounds), and we got the veggie chopper from the container while on the farm. He chopped cabbage and a few carrots...

... and put salt on it to start the creation of brine. The cabbage really reduced in size with the effect of the salt creating brine...

... he put it into quart jars -- using the handle of an ice cream scoop to pack it into the jars. On the right side of the jars, you can see glass weights on the table. On the counter on the other side of the yellow bowl, you can see a few large cabbage leaves that he kept out. He placed the big leaves over the top of the shredded vegetable mix as a type of "cover" and then placed the glass weight on top of the leaf, to hold the shredded vegetables down in the brine.

About 2.5 quarts of potential sauerkraut. It will take 2-4 weeks of sitting and being left alone on the counter for the cabbage to make into sauerkraut.

He checks the jars each day for "floaters" (any pieces of cabbage or carrot that have gotten out from under the cabbage leaf on top and are floating in the brine) and scoops them out. This is probably more of a problem for us than for most fermenters since the jars are bouncing around as we travel down the road. He also is watching for mold or anything else indicating impurities have gotten in (which would necessitate dumping the whole jar).

The finished product should have live probiotics in it so will have health benefits as well as, hopefully, good taste! I guess we'll find out in 2-4 weeks how it is going!

Allocating storage

We've had the desk area installed in Gracie for a couple of years but have felt that we were not effectively using the storage capabilities under the desk... when we were working on inventorying some of the items in the storage bays underneath, we remembered how we had used a metal storage shelving unit in two pieces, and decided to try to do the same under the desk.

We got the shelving unit from Home Depot, and decided to try putting it under the desk. In doing so, we realized that we had issues with various cords that are present under the desk that we needed to deal with. We ordered an under-desk basket that we decided to install...

It is hard to work under the desk as it is not quite tall enough to sit up under. It does have the ability to raise the desk with just the push of a button, so we raised it a little, but were limited by the valences around the windows on how high it could go. Here you can see the basket under the desk with the power supply in it, but the cords to plug into the power supply are not yet connected.

Laying down on the job, coiling up cords and getting components plugged in...

Here you can see most of the cords plugged in, but at this point we had decided to move the NAS (Network Attached Storage) device to the floor (it had been on the desk) and Carl was now under the desk doing the hookups for that.

We still have some additional tasks to do -- getting storage boxes that fit onto the shelving units -- but we feel that we have more options in what we can put there and keeping it more organized!

On a rainy Saturday

Last Saturday was a day with showers on-and-off... but we decided to get out and do some things around New Kent...

The New Kent Farmers Market was open at Talleysville... since it was the first market of the month, there was a bounce house for the kids.

There is cover for most of the vendors.

Some veggies...

... pork.

Regina at the Poplar Springs Farm booth.

New Kent logo'd items available for free.

Another view of the market

On our way back, we drove through a couple of new neighborhoods of houses to see what kinds of homes are being built. We stopped at Emmaus Baptist Church because they were having a yard sale (being held inside) -- but we forgot to get pictures there.

Later we headed down into Providence Forge to visit one of the restaurants that we enjoy -- Don Miguel Mexican Restaurant.

We also stopped at a couple of the thrift stores in Providence Forge (they are actually the same thrift store but have two locations and different types of goods at each - one is mainly clothes and the other is mainly household goods).

A rainy day but we enjoyed what we were able to do!

Replacing the stove top

We had been carrying a replacement stove top with us since we were last at the farm about a year ago. 

The rig had a regular glass-top electric stove top, which we rarely used because it made the rig pretty warm, and required us to move part of the countertop to use it (leaving us with less counter space). Instead, we have a single-burner induction cooktop that is sufficient to meet our needs most of the time. The one we had been carrying with us is a two-burner induction cooktop which will have the same disadvantage that part of the counter space needs to be moved to use it, but wouldn't create as much heat inside the rig.

The difficulty was that the size of the new stove top was a little different from the old one -- so we'd need to cut part of the top of the cabinet out. Also, the old stove top was hard-wired into the coach, and the new one had a plug -- so we needed to change out the hard-wire connection box to a plug.

Old stove top in the opening (the top part of the counter is moved to the side -- this is what we need to open up to be able to use the stove top. You can see the wire hanging out under the stove top coming out where a drawer usually is located (we removed the drawer to figure out what needed to get accomplished).

Carl loosened the old stove top from the counter and removed it.

We then checked and the new stove top was a little deeper in the space, but not quite as wide. We marked how much of the counter top needed to be cut off...

... and Carl borrowed Jimmy's sabre saw (or jig saw)...

... and cut the additional piece out. You may be able to see that there are no drawers under the opening at this point (so we didn't put any Corian dust into the drawers as we were working).

The new induction stove top in place -- you may not be able to see it, but the new one is not quite as wide as the original -- and we'll need to get that filled in before we use the stove top as any spills would end up going into the drawer underneath. Carl has cutting board material in Mesa that he thinks he can use to make the pieces to fill in the gaps.

Carl also changed the box that had been used to contain the hard-wired connection into an outlet box. This is located in the back of the sink cabinet, of course up high and very inaccessible. But, he was able to get it completed with minimal cramps and pain incurred!

A not-yet-quite-complete project, but well on its way!

A visit to Parker Store

We went to Richmond to visit a place that will produce new hydraulic hoses (put the correct ends on a new hose to replace a hose that is leaking). When we drove into the parking lot and were looking for the sign, Carl said, "The Parker Store, hoses while you wait!" He was making up the "hoses while you wait" part... but inside the store...

Welcome to the Parker Store, Hydraulic Hoses, Made While You Wait!

So, maybe Carl can see through the wall into the store?

The store actually had "AFP" on the outside, as well as "Parker Store" up on top -- we weren't certain that they were the same thing, but turns out that they are... "Applied Fluid Power, Inc."

All sorts of Parker Store logo'd merchandise if you wanted that and not just a new hydraulic hose!

A visit with friends

One of the ladies, Marilyn, who babysat me when I was growing up -- at the house where we lived until I was in first grade -- had noticed on Facebook that we would be in New Kent and asked if it would be possible for us to get together. We settled on last Tuesday and she came, bringing her brother and two sisters with her!

We had a good visit, catching up about friends and memories, reminiscing about times past. They, of course, remember my Mom and Dad and Aunt Libby -- so it was good to hear their memories of my family. It was so good to see all of them!

Frances, Bobby, Carl, Patti, Janice (Marilyn taking picture)

Frances, Bobby, Marilyn, Patti, Janice (Carl taking picture)

It is always fun to bring to memory times with friends!

A vent repair

We had a roof vent that was cracked and needed to have the housing on top replaced. Unfortunately, its location is very near the back corner of the roof and we weren't comfortable with replacing it from the top of the roof... so we decided to wait until we could get to the farm where we'd have other ladder options available to us.

Carl could use Jimmy's Little Giant ladder to come up the back side of the RV and work on the vent. You can see that it is right next to one of the solar panels, so there is not much room on top of the rig to get to the vent. He started by cutting some more of the old white plastic from the vent off -- it was very brittle and cracked off easily.

The new vent cover (a 360 Siphon) directed us to shorten the pipe down to 5/8", so Carl cut it off as indicated.

We wanted to use silicone to attach the new vent cover, but unfortunately, the tube of white silicone caulk that we had onboard had cracked. Initially Carl tried scraping the caulk out of the cracked base of the tube, but ultimately...

... we got a previously unused tube of silicone (not exactly white, but good enough) and he was able to complete the job.

All done - hopefully this one will last a long time!

These vent covers serve to pull air out from the holding tanks or from pipes going to the holding tanks. We have two over the bathroom area -- one for the grey and one for the black tank. The one we were replacing is over the washing machine. The intention is that they will prevent odors from the holding tanks from stinking up the rig!