What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

Canned 31 quarts of salsa tonight.

 

Awesome! I am envious. I didn't do any canning this summer.

 

A big garden is a handful for one person to take care of. Would you be able to find someone to share the work and the produce with?

 

Thanks, I needed a little chuckle.

 

I didn't know about water exploding, maybe some of you don't know either, so I'll risk it and post this here: (from a FB post)
A 26-year old man decided to have a cup of coffee. He took a cup of water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had done numerous times before). I am not sure how long he set the timer for, but he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When the timer shut the oven off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup, he noted that the water was not boiling, but suddenly the water in the cup 'blew up' into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of his hand, but all the water had flown out into his face due to the build-up of energy . His whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face which may leave scarring.
He also may have lost partial sight in his left eye. While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to him stated that this is a fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave oven. If water is heated in this manner, something should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such as a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc, (nothing metal).
General Electric's Response:
Thanks for contacting us; I will be happy to assist you. The e-mail that you received is correct. Microwaved water and other liquids do not always bubble when they reach boiling point. They can actually get superheated and not bubble at all. The superheated liquid will bubble up out of the cup when it is moved or when something like a spoon or tea bag is put into it.
To prevent this from happening and causing injury, do not heat any liquid for more than two minutes per cup. After heating, let the cup stand in the microwave for thirty seconds before moving it or adding anything into it.
Here is what a local high school science teacher had to say on the matter: 'Thanks for the microwave warning. I have seen this happen before. It is caused by a phenomenon known as super heating. It can occur any time water is heated and will particularly occur if the vessel that the water is heated in is new, or when heating a small amount of water (less than half a cup).
What happens is that the water heats faster than the vapor bubbles can form. If the cup is very new, then it is unlikely to have small surface scratches inside it that provide a place for the bubbles to form. As the bubbles cannot form and release some of the heat that has built up, the liquid does not boil, and the liquid continues to heat up well past its boiling point.
What then usually happens is that the liquid is bumped or jarred, which is just enough of a shock to cause the bubbles to rapidly form and expel the hot liquid. The rapid formation of bubbles is also why a carbonated beverage spews when opened after having been shaken.
If you pass this on, you could very well save someone from a lot of pain and suffering.

 

Yup, heard of this one before

 

I have done this. I reheated a cup of water in the microwave. When I set the cup down on the counter the tiny bit of bump from striking the counter was enough to cause the superheated water to fly up out of the cup in one big belch. Luckily I wasn't standing over it. It didn't really fly up out of the cup very far - like out of a firehose or something. Maybe 6 inches high at most. About 2/3 of the water just decided all at once to not be in the cup.

 

The expansion of water (liquid state) into steam (vapor/gas state) is phenomenal!

It will expand over 1000 times! That water is going to do something once it expands that rapidly!

 

True, the only thing that expands faster is my fat arse if I don't control what I eat............

 

When I became single and moved here, I gardened for a couple of years. I found myself neglecting it more and more. I stopped even bothering for a couple more years. The last two years I have put a couple of tomato plants in planters and that is my vegetable gardening now.

I used to start all my plants from seed and had a large, rolling 3 shelf plant starter. It was 3-4' and I could start a sh*t-load of seedlings in there. I kept thinking I would get back into canning salsa, and it sat in my basement basically being converted to shelves to hold stuff. Last year I faced reality and rolled it out to the curb, loaded with all my seed starting trays, extra grow bulbs for the included shop lights, and other supplies. Someone picked up the whole package shortly afterwards and I hope they have put it to good use.

 

4 1/2" of rain yesterday. It must have softened the ground or a woodchuck hole collapsed. I have some re-stacking to do now. I'll be able to cut the canes out of that area now.



I have a few days off and we have great weather for it. Plans are to finish sanding attic bedroom drywall, maybe install baseboard re-stack wood piles, finish and paint the wood bundle rack so our son can get started selling them, maybe try chainsaw carving pumpkins, sharpen mower blades...

 

I had intentions of planting a garden as soon as we moved in back in June. I even went so far as to buy some seeds. Ha!

The garden was in dis-use and was sodding over with weeds 4' high as it hadn't been used in years.

Long story short, due to moving, working, entertaining, etc. etc. I finally got the garden tilled (whew) and decided to throw those seeds in even though it was way too late. That was done on 1 AUG.

I have been enjoying radishes for over a week now. The other short term crops may not have enough time but if we have a warm fall, I should be enjoying some peas and beans.

It was better than just letting the seeds winter over on a shelf and ending up with a lower germination rate next year, no?