Mitch's new parka/rain coat

I just got back from taking Mitch for a walk. I was looking at my phone when I heard a woman calling to me from a few houses back. Great. I thought while I was distracted on my phone Mitch dropped a stealth poop and she was going to yell at me for not picking it up. Nope. She had a 12.5 year old greyhound that died this January and wanted to know if Mitch would like his parka. Except for a few hairs it looks like it has never been worn. It has a nice waterproof shell which will be nice when I have to send him out in the rain.

I tried the free month of Netflix when I was home with my broken arm and didn’t really intend to continue after the free month, but now I'm hooked.

The streaming is much cooler than I thought it would be. I have 61 movies in my streaming queue and 27 in my DVD queue. The only DVD's I've watched so far have been from the Dexter TV series. I'm halfway though season 4 so far.

The streaming is $8 per month. I added the 1 DVD out at a time plan for and extra $2 per month. To get Blu-ray disks costs an extra $2 per month so I added that too for a grand total of $12 per month.

This is my arm 6 weeks after the break. Doctor said it is doing great, but don't lift up anything more than 5 pounds.

Click the pictures to embiggen.

Nothing says I love you like murder and mayhem.

Giving baking my bacon a try instead of frying for my spinach salad.

Bocce ball Christmas party and all the Bell's Two Hearted Ale I can drink!

I have a big pot of beef stew on the stove to keep me and the house warm through the snow storm today.

First snow of the season.

Last week Meijer had a great deal on pork short ribs so I got 8.5 pounds to smoke. Last night I mixed up the following rub and applied it so it could sit overnight:

3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons rosemary powder

I didn't have any brown sugar so I just used all white sugar.

I am getting ready to start the smoker. I was up and ready to go at 7:30 am, but the outside temperature was about 31 degrees and thought I might have a problem keeping the temperature up, so I decided to wait until it warmed up a bit. I took the ribs out of the fridge to bring up to room temp.

After that I plan on doing various chores while I babysit the ribs which include some more yard work and laundry.

I have the A Christmas Story DVD on for background ambience.

I got a whole-house humidifier when I got my new furnace. The humidifier has an outside temperature probe and sets the inside humidity based on the outside temperature.

Supposedly this will prevent the condensation that occurs and can cause mold and drywall damage when you forget to set the correct humidity level manually.

These are the levels that are programmed into the unit:

Outside Temp/Inside Humidity
40° / 45%
30° / 40%
20° / 35%
10° / 30%
0° / 25%
-10° / 20%
-20° / 15%

I can't wait until we start getting some consistent below-freezing temperatures to see how the system performs.

Going on the first pheasant hunt of the season tomorrow morning. I think whatever I bring home tomorrow I'll toss into the smoker with the ribs I am going to smoke on Sunday.

My awesome chopped pork sandwich I had for dinner tonight. I reheated it in a foil pouch in the toaster oven at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Perfect.

The turkey has just a couple more degrees to go. I haven't checked the poem's temperature yet.

This is what I'm starting out with.

I bought a smoker last night and put it together. This morning I am seasoning the inside and then I will smoke a turkey breast and a pork shoulder.

New furnace. The electronic air cleaner is the box with the blue lights between the furnace and the cold air return.

I got a new furnace and air conditioner installed yesterday and I'm excited about it for a number of reasons.

1. The furnace is 95% efficient. My old furnace was probably about 55% efficient, so I'm looking forward to lower gas bills.

2. It has a humidifier. In the past if I did not keep a humidifier running in my bedroom I would be miserable with a burning nose and really dry itchy skin, but it got to be a pain by the end of each heating season filling it up with water each night and cleaning it every few weeks. Plus the rest of the house wasn't properly humidified. The new humidifier even has an outside temperature and humidity probe so it can calculate exactly how much to humidify the inside air.

3. I opted for a whole-house electronic air cleaner. Their marketing material says it is 8 times better than the best HEPA room filters, and a lot of the on-line reviews say they noticed big differences in dust and pet hair after a few weeks as well as big improvements in allergy symptoms. The furnace is has two heating stages and a variable speed fan. The fan has a very efficient DC motor and you are supposed to leave it running continuously. Running it for one year would cost between $10 and $30 in electricity. The main benefit of this is it will equalize temperatures throughout the house. In the summer my upstairs was many degrees warmer than my downstairs. I would put a big fan at the base of my steps and blow cold air up the stairs at night. That should be a thing of the past. Another benefit is that the air cleaner we be continually cleaning the air.

The installers were really good about putting down drop cloths on the path from the front door to the basement door, but the tile floor in between still got some mud on it. I pulled out my Hoover Floormate and in under 10 minutes the floor was perfectly clean again. I love that thing. Huge thanks to Tim and Lisa again for turning me on to that a year or two ago. I'd replace it again in an instant.

There was an article in this week's Chicago Tribune that had a recipe for making homemade butter. It intrigued me so I gave it a try. This picture shows it this morning immediately after I separated it from the buttermilk. I still have to chill it and then under running water knead out any remaining buttermilk. I think I will salt half of it, and then portion it out in one or two ounce portions and freeze most of it.

It's been forever since I've had liver and onions, and I happened to spot liver when I was grocery shopping yesterday, so sometime this week I will make liver and onions, a baked potato and broccoli.

I have my first pheasant hunt of the season in two weeks. It will be at a state park that is just minutes from my hunting friend's house which makes it really convenient. I still have birds from last season in my freezer. I want to try making corned "beef" out of a goose. I am also thinking about buying a gas smoker like Tim-in-law. I had a charcoal smoker years ago, but is a huge huge pain trying to keep the coals at just the right temperature. I think smoking is the best thing for game.

I put in a fire this morning while I was having breakfast, working on the butter and reading the paper. Nice. I put logs inside the fireplace around the edges so the fire will dry it out and make it easy to start for the next fire. Good trick. I think I am going to have a chimney sweep come out soon. I have never had it cleaned or inspected. I also might have him put a cap on it.

I took Mitch to get his annual checkup and shots. He became a favorite at the vet's when he was in every week or two for his scratched eye. When I took him in this time all the vet techs poured out from the back and made a fuss over him in the lobby. Seriously, there were 5 people that came out to say hi to Mitch. They always tell me to bring him in if we're in the neighborhood just so they can say hi. He's like a rock star there.

OK, enough procrastinating. I got my laundry done yesterday while the furnace was being installed. I got my grocery shopping done yesterday evening. That leaves picking up dog poop, raking leaves and cutting the grass this afternoon before the rain comes in again. TTFN.