say CHEESE!

Also celebrated 5 years in the desert by trying my hand at cheese making yesterday.  Didn't curd up like the YouTube tutoral I watched...but still ended up with just over a pound of cheese from a gallon of milk.  Thanks to my Ustream friend Grovesgal, I came across this site that should do the trick.  http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-homemade-mozzarella-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-174355

Had two strikes against me from the start...no microwave for the final fixing - and turns out the brand of rennett I was using required a bigger dose.  Not the mozzarella I was looking for...more of a soft goat cheese texture.  Presenting Field Lab Basil Jalapeno Cheese.
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5 years and no degree

In the fall of 1977, I went off the the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Calculus was the first class I failed in college and thankfully I have never had a use for it.  After 5 years in college and three different majors, ( I flunked out twice but made dean's list once)  I headed to NYC to seek fame and fortune in the fashion world.  The second building from the right is where I spent my folly in the university system - Hinshaw dorm.  Fast forward to today - 35 years later...my five year anniversary in the SW Texas desert.  I learned a lot more about myself and the world these past five years than I did in college.  I think that is what they call "continuing education".  Celebrated by ordering a new camera.  Been keeping an eye out for a Canon T3i bundle deal.  Found one at Amazon and bit the bullet.  Here's to enhanced imaging for year 6!  55,79,42,0,B,1

sometinup

16 sheets of roofing...384 screws. 

Nice calm day - perfect for handling 14' tin up high. 

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the right white...

Put one last coat of barn red on the south side today.  Primed all the trim I have ready then tried out an antique white that I am quite happy with.  Glidden Pro Master Interior/Exterior Latex Flat.  I find regular bright white trim to be rather frightening when used against a dark color.  (I am rather particular about color...coming from a guy who painted the interior of his upstate NY farmhouse 35 different colors - this is just 5 out of 12 different color schemes in the old homestead).  Note:  the family that bought my house had the entire interior repainted all white...ouch!
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trimmin...

Bulky fascias up on the north and south side (14' 2x12's are beasts to work with).  Trimmed out the south entrance to BenLand. 
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beefy soffits

Picked up some 2x10's for gateway trim, gate hardware, and 2x12's for some super heavy duty soffits.  What mystery project is the other item for?  59,81,45,0,B,0

instant gratification...

Information and communication available at your fingertips.  Instant gratification.  Living in the moment dulls any sense of the thought of eternity....the utimate Big Picture.  "Life in the fast lane".  "Freedom of choice".  Thinking "out of the box" (nonconformal, creative thinking) is being slowly dissolved.  God's Truth is still considered a "right to believe" but no longer considered a mandate on behaviour.   The Christian beliefs this nation was founded upon are being compromised.  Have you noticed?  These cowboys know what life is really about.

MAN is a moral creature by virtue of transcendent wisdom intrinsic to a moral code that is immune to the instincts and impulses of any one generation — instincts that hold animals captive, but from which man is free to escape. However, when humans abandon absolute morality in favor of the rights and wrongs relative to their own time period, they voluntarily constrain themselves to the instincts and impulses of one generation. They thus partake of the same circumstantial basis to which animals are in bondage and, in so doing, conjoin themselves to animals, i.e., to a form of life that is incapable of moral behavior. As we have seen, animals are incapable of moral behavior in an absolute sense. They have knowledge provided only by their immediate environment; and in the absence of human intelligence, as they store, retrieve, and process this knowledge, they do so with an intent and expectancy whose only thrust is immediate gratification.

Psalms 92: 1-9
1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.4 For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep . 6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. 7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish ; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:8 But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.9 For, lo, thine enemies , O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish ; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.