Am going tomorrow (today now) to look at a machine that makes 6 inch by 6 inch by 8 to 16 foot long cross tie looking things. Or plastic building/retaining wall timbers that last forever and then some. Taking the cam to get some shots of it.

Uses wire insulation the is cut up in the recycling process for the metal that’s called fluff. Puts it in a mold and using a 250 ton (?) ram compacts the fluff into one solid piece.

The equipment will have to be moved and I’m along for the tear down and put a working machine back together part of the trip. This is just a first run thing to see if it is feasible to take apart and move. Don’t know much of anything about it yet.

Canned 8 pints of blueberrie jam tuesday. Froze 2 quart bags and gave the folks another half a gallon. Still got lots on the bushes. All 3 of them.

Made a loaf of banana blueberry bread today too. Added a cup and a half more flour than they called for and got it to work about right. Tastes kinda like a blueberry bagel. Good just not what I would have thought it would have tasted like. Or has the texture of or something.

The jam was taken off the stove about 6:30 pm and was boiling at the time of putting in the jars. Put them in the water bath and boiled for 10 minutes or more then out on the counter on a towel. After the second batch (small boiler only holds 4 pints) was out I put 3 small towels around them all. Jars not touching. about 11:30 or a little after I noted that they were still HOT. Took a thermometer and they were at 122 degrees f. Tis about 1 am now and they are still at 118.

Here they are with the thermometer sticking out of one side.

Shot from above showing the jars and another thermometer.

Closeup of the temp.

And to be perfectly anal about this here is one more with the towels tucked firmly back in place around the thermometer.

It’s taken me about 20 minutes to get the pictures and resize them, upload and write this crap and the temp has dropped another degree at most. Room temp is 70 or so. Quite good insulation.

Think I will call it a night and start it anew again tomorrow.

One Response to “Early morning rambling”

1. Dave says:

   July 13, 2005 at 10:50 am

   So it’s morning and I ain’t gonna go anywhere today. Not if I have to drive. Woke up with the dizzies and staggers. So gonna sit and do computer things and/or read today.

   At about 9 I checked the temp on the jam and it was still 91. Room temp was around 68. Wall quilts are sounding better and better. Add a space blanket on one side and do windows. I’ve seen this before somewhere. Maybe early Mother Earth?