Ask and Ye Shall Receive
That’s from the Good Book, isn’t it? I thought that it might be appropriate for a Sunday Sermonette.
When I have written of shoveling snow at the White Wolf Mine, a number of you scoffed at me. SCOFFED.“You need a snow blower, LL,” was the common rant and refrain.
Now that winter has passed, I bought one, with a 28″ wide scoop barely used, from a neighbor who is moving to a retirement situation. It has an electric start and looks to have enough industrial muscle to handle Arizona snow. The most fallen in a single event in memory here was five feet, and that was a decade ago, back before global warming threatened all of us who survive the pandemic.
I thought that $400 was a good price and when I die, I’m sure that my kids will include the snow blower when they auction off the hovel. I know that Sears sells Craftsman snow blowers for a lot more money than that, so I don’t feel as though I was taken advantage of. They’re $1050 plus tax at Lowes and refurbished, they’re over $800.So cool I can hardly wait for winter to return.
Throwing Caution to the Wind
Like snow, blasted from the blower, I went with pasta (full of carbs) and shrimp (not full of carbs) for supper last night. Fredd, let Aunt Sally eat her heart out. It’s not barely defrosted corn dogs and beer.
Adrienne and some of the rest of you have been goading me with your delicious quarantine meals and I wanted you to know that I could respond. No, it’s not cooking with LSP. I can’t hope to match his culinary skills (but advice from Blue Centurion is his secret weapon).Saving the Planet
Got a cough? Need ten million surgical masks? I’m your guy.
www.globalstrategiesmedical.com Ventilators are coming on line shortly. We also are selling COVID 19 test kits, not on the website. Minimum order 100,000, but they are the good ones that you can use at home. A drop of your precious blood and 15 minutes later you’ll know.
In a world where such things are hard to come by, I have them. Yes, I feel a bit like Corporal King (Rat) in the James Clavell novel by the same name.
Pricing floats on supply and demand. Lock in an order and I’ll give you a price. Ask and ye shall receive.
Snow: I had thought that you were looking to rig that Dodge Power Wagon (the yellow one) with a blade. This little rig looks a bit dainty to be handling the frozen glaciers that have yet to recede to the north.
Pasta and shrimp: Yes, carbs up the ying yang, but tasty. And Aunt Sally would not approve: no micro wave involved in the preparation, how good could any of this be? Not very, if you ask Aunt Sally.
Be careful what you ask for. As the great Hank Worden, as Mose Harper in The Searchers, said as all the Comanches in the world were about to ride down on him:
"That which we are about to receive, we thank thee, O Lord."
Whoa. The blade on that snow blower looks like it could mow down a horde of zombies or two. The snow might be gone but keep 'er gassed up just in case.
Such a consoling message! And the pasta looked delicious. I've been making NAVAJO BREAD.
Simple, tasty and a good way to use stockpiled flour. A kind of cross between tortilla and naan.
Global cooling will strike as soon as we're clear of the pandemic, and I need all the horsepower that I can harness. But it's Arizona, not Illinois…
The Searchers was a great movie. The Comanche were about as tough as existed in terms of light cavalry — until the buffalo hunters wiped out the herds. It's interesting how that one link being removed from the food chain, brought them in.
My next machine purchase will need to be a wood chipper…
Frybread is good, and does indeed work well as a tortilla for "Navajo tacos". It's interesting up here in Northern Arizona near the center of the Navajo Nation that they are completely ignoring the quarantine. Some of the locals are concerned. Of course, they won't be concerned enough not to eat frybread.
You made a good choice LL. Both the snowblower and dinner. Dinner looks really yummy!
OMGosh – that's exactly what I craved last night. Did I have it? Hell noes! I was a "good" girl and ate a plate of raw veggies and some left over "tuna delight©, which was just as good as the day before.
Beautiful snow blower, LL. You got a great deal!
Thank you, LindaG.
Costco's shrimp are pretty good. Living inland as both you and I do, we're denied the fresh shrimp that are available on the coasts. I don't know what tuna delight is. Does that mean that the fish was happy to sacrifice itself so that you could have a delicious meal?
"So cool I can hardly wait for winter to return."
I so enjoy plowing snow with my garden tractor and blade that I do the neighbor's drives.
I have yet to use it this year.
the bored neighbor kids has been hand shoveling everyone's drives and walks, including mine.
I may have some dirt dropped on the lawn and spread that with it. Then seed.
I had to make something for meatless Friday and wanted to keep it simples sooooooooo – I chopped up some celery and onions and sauteed them. Made a batch of country gravy with a Southeastern Mix, threw in a can of Kirkland Signature Albacore Tuna, and added some peas. I then noticed some left over roasted cauliflower from the night before and tossed that in too. Naturally there were spices involved. Ladled on baked potatoes it was delicious.
Third day left overs was stuck in breakfast omelets this morning.
I often buy Costco shrimp. I've gotten lazy in my old age and buy the cleaned ones.
If the snowblower is self propelled, I suggest you get a set of chains. Makes the job much easier.
I expect that I'll use the machine to clear snow at the homes of widows locally who tend to be snowed in.
There is no shame in buying cleaned shrimp.
Tiny chains? I may need to make a set. I doubt that they're sold.
Oh ye of little faith…
tractorsupply.com/tsc/search/tire%20chains
I blew the motor in my lawn tractor years ago.
The gas leaked past the float needle seat and diluted the crankcase oil.
While waiting on a crate motor, we got a blizzard.
When I got home from work, a guy was blowing my drive and the neighbors' with a large 2 stage blower like it looks like you have obtained.
He was my neighbor and had run out to Walmart to get it for $750.
He asked if he could store it in my garage as he had no place to store it.
My motor came and he never used that blower again.
Then he moved to South Carolina and told me to keep it.
My son has it now.
Does a great job.
You are still going to have use for it. Well, it won’t be deep but I’ve seen several snows here in Preskitt in May.
It snowed up here in the high country on Memorial Day last year. Not enough for the snow machine, but still — snow.
The panic response to "WE NEED VENTILATORS" would be amusing if the subject wasn't actually serious. America is REALLY good at tooling up and mass producing ANYTHING if we get a burr under the saddle to do so.
Cranking out ventilators in massive quantities will be no challenge to an industry that can produce MILLIONS of cars a month…something far more complex to make.
The much bigger problem however is that the ventilator is nothing but a giant expensive paperweight all by itself. To use it you first must have a BED to put whoever needs the ventilator in. That BED must be in a ROOM of somekind with the necessary accessories….i.e Oxygen flow, Suction, Compressed air etc. etc. Next you need nursing staff to care for the person who MUST be medicated into unconsciousness while intubated….and that is 24 hour a day care at a ratio of one nurse to every three patients…AT MOST! Go past that ratio and patient outcomes drop precipitously. Finally there is a
LOT of other trained, highly skilled and experienced professionals required to provide the care such patients need…..such as respiratory therapists, lab techs to do blood work, imaging techs to do x rays and CT's on such sick patients etc. etc. etc. The ventilator is just ONE item in a long laundry list of things needed to care for critically ill patients. And the investment in personnel takes YEARS to produce competency. No…the push to crank out machines that most people wouldn't recognize let alone be able to use is just more of the Media and Big Gov panic response to DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING…even the WRONG THING…as long as we look like we are addressing the 'problem'.
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