Does My GPS Work Now? (It's not really about GPS, that's just a little joke of mine.)

Help me out here. I know I wrote a few days ago about how the recent emphasis on bio-fuels had pushed the commodity prices of corn, wheat, and rice to skyrocket. At least that is what I intended to write about on April 15. It seems that I quickly digressed and wrote about everything but that it seems. I quipped in the post that I didn't have GPS to give me direction. Well, now I'm trying to see if I have found that direction yet.

Now I see in the headlines that there is a shortage of rice, yes I said shortage of rice. Sam's Club and Costco are going to ration rice. Sam's Club will limit sales of imported jasmine, basmati and long grain white rices in the 20 lb. bag size.

Now rice is a staple in many countries. Rice is also the food that you always seemed to get a lot of at Mexican and Oriental food restaurants. It was always the item that filled up the plate so that it looked like you were getting your "money's worth".

Now why is this happening? I don't know, I'm not an economist. I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I'm sure that part of the reason is the burgeoning population in countries like India and China. But, don't you think that one of the biggest reasons is the recent emphasis on bio-fuels? I sure do. Think about it. Governments are now trying to push the development of bio-fuels. In order to make many bio-fuels the various grains that were destined to the various levels of the food chain are now being diverted to bio-fuel processors. This doesn't leave enough for livestock and poultry so producers pay more. This cost is passed along to you and I at the store and restaurants. There is not enough grain for the food processors to make the various food products. Producers then pay more for the grain. And yes, this cost is passed on along too. All because the government thinks the answer to more fuel is in the bio-fuel area. The answer is in more drilling and more refining capacity, not suddenly diverting our precious food resources from the food chain into fuel tanks.

Another mistaken answer is the government sticking it's finger into the auto industry by setting mileage per gallon quotas hoping to conserve gasoline. This is a topic for another blog on another day. But briefly, studies have shown that when the mileage per gallon goes up the nation ends up using about the same amount of gasoline because people decide they can now drive more. Also, auto crash death rates go up because auto makers make the cars smaller to meet the guidelines. But as I said, his is a topic for another blog on another day.© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Call Me When You Try This One

I read my brother's latest blog entry last night. He shared a recipe that he found in an old cookbook around his house. I started thinking, "Hey I could do that."

So, I did that!

I looked for just the right cookbook and I found a yummy recipe for your enjoyment. I found it in an old Calumet Baking Powder book that was from the early to mid 1920's.

Eggs in TomatoesSelect tomatoes that are ripe but firm. Plunge them in boiling water for a moment and remove skins. Cut out hard stem ends making in each a hollow large enough to hold a broken egg. Into each of the hollows drop a fresh egg without breaking the yolk, season with butter, pepper, and salt, and bake in a moderate oven until tomatoes are tender and eggs are set. Serve on rounds of buttered toast with a cream sauce.

I also found these helpful tips in the book:To get rid of ants-Place lumps of gum camphor in their runways and near sweets infested by them.Or scrub shelves and drawers with strong carbolic soap.Or inject gasoline. (Yes that is actually in the book. I am sure your local fire department and insurance company would be pleased with that particular hint.)And my personal favorite: To avoid Stomach Disorders, never use a Cream of Tartar baking powder, for it leaves Rochelle Salts in the food, and a constant repetition of this drug will produce dyspepsia.© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Garden Update

Took a few shots of the flowers in my garden yesterday. The Gazania and Scabiosa (Butterfly Blue) are really beginning to look good. We have had an Iris bloom for the first time since I transplanted them. I do not have a picture yet but I checked the Hollyhocks and the are getting ready to bloom. I planted them last year and they take 2 years to bloom. The Snapdragons from last year have about run their course. Fortunately I have planted new ones this spring. The Echinacea is getting a good start and the Carnations are beginning to bloom for the spring. I also have some Chrysanthemums beginning to bloom for the spring also.

Below are a few selected pictures for your enjoyment.

PS--The corn is starting to grow. Yippee!

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Earth Day 2008

So as not to waste the precious few resources that this earth has left and in honor of Earth Day 2008 I am recycling one of my earlier posts.

Here it is:

GOING GREEN

Did I miss something?

Apparently the color of choice has changed. I have always liked the color blue. The new color of choice is GREEN.

We got the April 2008 Country Living magazine in the mail recently. Green; REUSE; RECYCLE; REFRESH; The whole thing. On the inside it had The Country Living Green Guide; 50+ Ways To Make A Difference. I like #17 - Bulb Basics. It suggests that you drop the incandescent and go with the Compact Fluorescent. I've done that in part of the house. I don't like it. I turn 'em on and what do you think they do? They splutter and flicker and start out dim and have to warm up to get brighter. For an old man that makes it hard to see right away. They cost so much I feel like I need to use them instead of chucking 'em and starting all over again with the good old fashioned, heat throwing incandescents.

Same thing with the April 2008 issue of Metropolitan Home. This time Renovation Goes Green. They purport to have advice from top eco-experts. I don't know. I didn't read it. It wasn't my cup of Green Tea.

And now to top it all off I saw an ad from Wal-Mart touting Campbell's Tomato and Chicken Noodle Soup for Earth Day as being green and good for the environment. The label is green and the ad informs us that the can is recyclable; like it wasn't before? The ad also tells us that it costs less in packaging and to ship it because it is condensed. ????

It's always been condensed. So isn't it really the same as before?

I suppose that green is the new gold and if you advertise that your product is green then everyone will flock to it.

Sounds good to me. I think I'll try it!

For the rest of this week this blog is going GREEN in an effort to REUSE, RECYCLE, and REFRESH. By doing this Horst Household Happenings will now be eco-friendly, it will cost less to package and ship, and best of all save all coastlines of the world by keeping the polar ice caps frozen. Somehow the color green does this. I think it has to do with the way the heat energy from the sun is absorbed or something by the green instead of focusing it's deadly powers on the polar ice caps.

PS: Let me know by Saturday if you think I should keep the blog green or revert back to my tacky energy wasting ways on Sunday.

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
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I told you I was recycling today. I picked up the whole thing and dropped it right in here, credits and all. Cool huh?

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
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Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

Picture Monday, April 21, 2008

I have come across a lot of pictures of my parents. I thought I would post a few this week. I don't know exactly when some of these pictures were taken but I will do my best.

The above pictures are of my Mother, Bobbie. She was in the band at Waco High School. The picture on the right shows her in her graduation gown.

This is another picture of my Mother. I am not certain when it was taken. Probably in the late 40's after she married my Dad.

This is a picture I found that shows my Father's Dad on the left. That is my Dad, Teddy, on the right. I am not certain who that is in the middle. I don't think it is my Grandmother, but I could be wrong.

These are later pictures of my Dad. This is how I really remember him at work at Central Freight Lines on the left. Boy he knew those freight tables and tariff rates forwards and backwards. I used to visit him sometimes and play on the adding machine. Thinking back it was amazing to listen to him when he was on a call about rates. The picture on the right is probably from the 70's. He passed away in 1978 and I still miss him greatly. It is nice to know that he is with the Lord though. © 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
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It Really Was FREE

We had our HVAC duct work checked and sealed yesterday. I could say we had it done in honor of Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22. But we didn't. It just worked out that way.

Let's go back about a month. We got a letter/solicitation in the mail from TU Electric. They were saying that we could have a company come out and test and seal the duct work in the house. All for FREE! Well this sounded too good to be true but my father-in-law insisted that I send it in. After all it was FREE! So I filled it out and sent it in and waited.

Then someone called and set up an appointment to come out on a Saturday. Crud! There goes a perfectly good Saturday. Saturday arrived and so did the technician around 10:00 AM. He introduced himself. Dan Coker is his name. he came in a explained the process. I showed him around the house and where the two HVAC units were inside and outside the house. Dan then proceeded to bring in his equipment and get right to work.

First he hooked up his "blower door" on the front door and turned it on and began checking for air loss. He took his measurements and did all of his technical stuff and then got done to the "dirty work". He took off each duct grate in the house and used sealer to seal up all the areas where the ducts had worked loose. he even showed me a duct in an add-on room that was very loose and losing a lot of air. Maybe that explains why the room was always hot in the summer and cold in the winter. He sealed it up and continued. After the ceiling ducts he moved to the inside units themselves. He sealed up duct work on and near the unit. When he was finished he did another test on air loss. This time i was in the den and I could actually feel the air coming out of the duct. The air flow felt much better.

Dan cleaned up his mess and put his stuff away. We filled out paperwork. There is always paperwork. Once filled out he went on his way. We had a cooler house and were none worse for the wear. Later in the day I was actually getting cold in the house. Our extra room felt much cooler too. This is the room that had the leaky duct. And last night I could actually feel the AC blowing on me. WOW!

And all was FREE! Plus, he didn't leave a mess.

I looked up the company, Two Rivers Energy Services. They are out of Wasilla, Alaska. There website gave a lot of interesting information and explained why the service is FREE! Without going into great detail I will say the utility companies get credits from the government in order to pay this company, Two Rivers Energy Services, for their work. Therefore, it is FREE! That is if you don't consider that the money to cover the credits paid by the government to the utilities has probably already come from you and I.

Bottom line, I was pleasantly surprised and very pleased with the service. If you are interested I would heartily encourage you to check with your utility provider and see if they do this also. Or check out the Two Rivers website or give them a call at 972-358-0465. The only proviso that Dan mentioned to me was that customers on Co-op lines were not eligible. Also customers with window units were not eligible; after all they have no ducts for AC and the window units cause a lot of air loss for the heat during winter.

Tell 'em you want Dan Coker to do the work if he is in your area (Central Texas). © 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.