Friday was pretty nice, but I wasn't really able to escape early from work unfortunately. I did do some work on the CR-V build on Friday though, getting the drawer installed. I did hit an unfortunate snag; the drawer is too long apparently, even though I would swear I measured it. I do have the means to make it shorter in the future if needed, it just means breaking apart all the pieces that I glued together. For now I just installed it anyways, it just sticks out as far as the top, which is unfortunate. Installing it was a pain.
It sticks out. Sigh. It does open and close without issue, but I don't think I got the spacing perfect, it doesn't slide right. Sounds like a problem for future Allen though.
If I want to make it shorter, I could just remove the front compartment on the right (farther side in the picture). The right section is all individual pieces, and is about an inch longer than the prefabbed section on the left.
I also did some prep work for Saturday's first project. I got everything out for smoking some cheese.
Saturday had two big projects: smoking cheese, and working on the ditch. I have been wanting to try smoking some cheese for a while now. It didn't start well, the original plan was to use one of the monster ice packs that I get every week with my meal shipments, but it didn't fit.
Oh well, plan B. Plan B was just use all the other stuff I have.
The cheese sits on top of the ice to keep it cool. I went with three different types of cheeses, mozzarella, monterey jack, and cheddar. I also added some pepperoni sticks because I like smoked pepperoni. It isn't normally cold smoked, but from what I read online, it should be okay, pepperoni has more than enough preservatives and chemicals to be fine, it just isn't clear if the smoke will permeate the skin.
Plan B didn't go well either. It didn't fit in the grill with the smoke tube, my grill is too small. It is only a little portable one.
Everything fit after packing it tighter and using a smaller pan.
Smoke.
Everything came out with good color. I did 2.5 hours (applewood pellets), but not quite the whole thing since the smoke tube actually ran out of pellets at around 1:40 minutes. I caught it quickly and got it re-lit with more pellets in it. Good to know it doesn't last that long though. I did rotate the pan halfway through as well to try to get the smoke more even.
The temperature got a little close to being too warm a couple times, mostly after the ice had all melted, but none of the cheese melted, which is what I was trying to prevent.
I discovered why everyone says to make sure you wear gloves. The staining from the smoke doesn't wash off very easily.
Once I got it wrapped and in the fridge, I took a short nap. I started the smoking at 6AM since I wanted it done before the sun got over the hill and would start drastically heating things up.
Once I woke up from that, it was time to move on to the ditch. The part that I just dug out a week or two ago wasn't bad, it only took a little bit of shovel work. The harder part was honestly getting the sand bags I put in there for the winter out. Things were mostly dry, but not completely, they were still a bit slimy. But it should now be ready for landscape fabric and gravel.
I also noted that the ditch was full of undesired vegetation. So I went and dug out my sprayer and glyphosate, and sprayed down the front and the ditch.
I also went out for a bit in the evening on the rail trail.
Sunday was on and off drizzly, with some storms in the afternoon. I still managed to get a little bit of stuff done before it got too wet though. I finally (it was waay overdue) got the snowblower off the back of the tractor. I really need to find a better way to store this stuff, removing and installing 3-point stuff in a side slope is a really pain, especially the snowblower which I can't move.
I did eventually get it off and get the grading blade back on though. Thankfully I can lift the grading blade for the most part. It was raining on me as I finished it up though.
it really has been wet this year, I grabbed pliers to remove the bolt for the swivel handle, and even my pliers have molded in the shed since it has been so wet. Ugh.
After that I went and did some inside stuff. I got the AC's taken out of the windows on a short break in the rain. They are now in the tub draining. I also finally cleaned out my humidifiers from the winter. They were a bit crusty because I let them sit so long before cleaning them. I will need to decide whether to just replace that filter or I believe they are supposedly cleanable.
My power went out during the storms last night. It is nice having a spare power station around. I was still able to nuke my dinner.
I also used it for its intended purpose. I bought this to be a UPS. It ran my computer for the entire 45 or so minutes that the power was out, other than the few minutes I used it in the kitchen for the microwave. I haven't finished installing it in the living room.
I know I need more gravel for the drainage, so I am going to try to get that delivered this week, I at least hope to get the pipe installed across where I drive the tractor and mower so I can get the excavator out when Dad comes to pick it up. once that chunk is open, I can get the tractor back there to access the pile that is already back there for the drainage.
I thought it looked neat, so I took a picture of a leaf in the driveway after the storms.
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