Parker

The latest addition to our family is a mini-poodle named Parker.  She's 3 months old, very cute, very much the little rascal - into anything and everything the minute your back is turned.  Think 2-year child.  Favorite trick: dumping the water dish, water all over the place, running off with the dish.

Will chew on anything but is especially attracted to the shoes I'm wearing.  Doesn't matter which shoes, seems they all smell great and taste even better.

Hasn't had her first haircut yet, so looks more bear than poodle.  Her coat looks redder in sunlight.  Undercoat is lighter, closer to tan, first grooming will reveal long term color.

She'll be bigger than Artie when she's fully grown but about the same size now.    Has really long ears, maybe a basset hound sneaked into the family tree.

She and Artie get along great, wrestle and chase each other around until they're both exhausted.  Parker's aggressive, constantly pouncing on Artie, biting his ears, tail, whatever.  Artie gives her the what for now and then, but endures her harassment much better than I could.

Acetone, Paper and Car Wax

Ever had a nice Acetone cocktail?



Ever eat toilet paper (unused, preferably) or the New York Times?

How about a delicious carnauba wax dip with your tortilla chips?

No?  I'm betting you've consumed all three.

If you eat food supplements like vitamins, you definitely have.

Vitamin A is made from Acetone.  Cellulose (plant fiber-based things like paper) is contained in several kinds of pills - as is carnauba wax.

Curious about other stuff in your food supplements?  Here you go:
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Vitamin.html

Bounty Hunter!

Did my Dad ever hear of the word 'allowance'?  Maybe.  Didn't mean anything if he did, never mentioned  it or suggested giving one to the kids.  He had total control of the $.  Everyone else had to beg for it and justify the proposed usage thereof.  I HATED having to ask for money!

So, what's a farm kid gonna do to get some cash?  One answer: trap pocket gophers.  Pocket gophers are like moles, rarely seen above ground.  Farmers hated them because their large mounds of dirt damaged equipment and crops.  Our northern Minnesota township placed a bounty on the critters, a whopping 25 cents per.

So Trapper Mike, on summer nights after the chores were done, traipsed off into the fields to check and reset his traps.  We only had 4 traps, not much of a trap line by Hudson's Bay standards.

The traps needed to be set in active gopher tunnels, evidenced by the freshest mound of dirt.  The tunnels were about 8" deep and formed a T with the vertical hole used to haul dirt to the surface.  You had to dig down to the tunnel and set the trap so that the trigger plate was even with the tunnel floor. 

Pocket gophers don't like daylight.  If any light leaked down to the tunnel, the gopher would close the leak by packing the area full of dirt - packing it so tightly it was difficult to pull the trap out of the ground.  I used a piece of asphalt shingle to cover the hole, and piled dirt around the edges.  Despite my best efforts, the doggone critters sometimes detected light, did their thing, thereby avoiding the trap.

My trapping career ended after the third season because the township opted to discontinue the bounty.  Don't know why they did that.  Highly doubtful that the bounties they paid me were a major drain on the coffers. 

Kingsford Charcoal

We spent several days in Michigan's Upper Peninsula this summer and happened to drive through the town of Kingsford, population 5,021.  "I wonder if the town has anything to do with Kingsford charcoal." I said to Trish.  She grabbed her pocket brain and soon was reading the Kingsford charcoal story - which I found fascinating.

Would you believe Henry Ford started the grilling charcoal industry?  Yup, he sure did.  Lots of wood was needed to build the Model A and Model T Fords.  A relative, Edward Kingsford, helped Hank buy some timberland so there would be an ample supply of wood to build the cars.  After making spokes, dashboards, steering wheels, etc, there was lots of scrap wood, sawdust and stumps left over.

Hank was one shrewd dude (a genius actually), believed in the saying, 'waste not, want not'.  He developed a process for making briquettes (he shortened it to briquets) and good old Ed brokered the deal for the charcoal factory in the town named after him.  Hank promoted the product with 'picnic kits', which included a box of charcoal and a grill.  He later changed the name to Kingsford.





Charcoal sales were moderate until after WW II and the growth of suburbs.  The burbs dwellers did their grilling in their back yards instead of on picnics, and sales soared.  George Stephen, who worked at Weber Brothers Metal Works in Chicago, created the Weber kettle grill in 1952,  and charcoal sales increased even more.




My first 'grill' was a little hibachi, and sure enough, I fueled it - and several subsequent grilling devices - with Kingsford charcoal.   Kingsford now has 5 charcoal plants and commands 80% of the market.