09:56 – It was 37.4F (3C) when I took Colin out at 0645, but the damp breeze made it feel colder. When I took Colin again around 0900, the temperature had gone up to only 40.8F (5C).
I’d noticed the first time I had Colin out that Barbara’s hanging wire-mesh bird feeder was completely empty. That was odd, since at dinnertime yesterday it had still been half-full. But I think I know what happened.
About 2100 last night, I was finishing watching a Youtube video and was planning to give Colin a last time out. He was lying at the front storm door, calmly surveying his domain. He suddenly went into Cujo mode, barking and snarling viciously. At first I thought it was the two little dogs that have recently been showing up to visit him. When Colin momentarily moved aside, I could see that it wasn’t one of the dogs. It looked like a C-A-T, so I went over toward the door and it ambled away as I did so. By the time I got out the front door, being careful not to let Colin get past me, it was just disappearing over the far end of the porch. I could see its striped tail. A raccoon, then.
I have nothing against raccoons generally, but their place is not up near my house. They’re vicious and carry rabies. I’m sure that Colin could rip up any raccoon who ever lived, but he might get bitten while doing so. So I grabbed my big flashlight and some .45 ACP raccoon repellent, and headed out into the yard to look for it. It apparently saw me coming and got the hell out. But I think it came back later and vacuumed out all the seed that had been in the feeder.
Yesterday, I showed a lot of progress health-wise. My breathing is now pretty much back to normal, I’m back up near my normal daily fluid intake level, and I’m convinced I could sleep through the night if Colin would stop walking around whimpering every few minutes.
There was an interesting article with videos over on zerohedge.com this morning about LBGTQABCXYZ activists arming themselves and training for what they expect to be another civil war. Oddly, articles in almost all conservative/libertarian publications seem to be against this. I’m all in favor of it.
That’s because I’m a Constitutional absolutist, and in particular a 2nd Amendment absolutist. The People have the absolute right to Keep and Bear Arms. That doesn’t mean just People I approve of. That means convicted violent felons, Antifa, BLM, muslim jihadists, child molesters, etc. etc. In other words, the scum of the earth. Why? Because if we give the government any ability whatsoever to limit the 2nd Amendment, we essentially give it the ability to destroy the 2nd Amendment.
11:23 – Email from a regular reader raising the subject of powdered eggs. She was baking last night and needed three eggs. She thought she had a full carton, but it turned out there was only one egg left. She didn’t feel like getting dressed and running to the supermarket, so she decided to open one of her precious cans of Augason Powdered Whole Eggs. She made up the two eggs she needed per the instructions, and the cake turned out fine.
This morning, she decided that since the can was already open and the clock was ticking on its shelf life, she might as well try making powdered egg omelets for breakfast. She was kind of expecting the powdered eggs to taste noticeably different. She said the yellow color of the mixed eggs was not quite the same as with fresh eggs, but the omelet tasted normal to her and that neither her husband nor their son noticed anything different. Useful data point.
I did suggest that she could greatly extend the shelf-life of the remaining egg powder by transferring it to canning jars with oxygen absorbers. Just put the lid in place and screw down the band tightly. After a day or so, remove the band and check to make sure the lid sealed. If you don’t have oxygen absorbers, the lid won’t seal, but that’s okay. Just keep the band on there, screwed down tight. The remaining eggs should remain good for months if not longer.
Oh, yeah. I almost forgot to mention…
For situations where you’re using eggs structurally, like most baking, you don’t really need to use eggs at all. One excellent substitute is ordinary gelatin powder. You can buy that in bulk for $6 or $8 per pound, and it keeps for a long, long time. When you get to the point in the recipe where you’re to add a fresh egg, simply mix one tablespoon of gelatin powder with one tablespoon of room temperature water, whisk until mixed, and then add two tablespoons of very hot water and whisk until mixed. That’s the equivalent of one whole egg. From experience, I know it works fine for recipes that call for only one or a few eggs. I’m not sure how it’d work with recipes that call for many eggs. But in the former case, the gelatin proteins are doing exactly what the egg proteins do: serving as a glue to hold the rest of the components together.