28,000 lbs of wood...

I just took delivery of 14 tons of sawmill chunks from the local mill. We burn this wood for heat all winter. They sell the wood, current price is $125 for a load, 7 tons each. So that 28,000lbs of wood cost a mere $250 dollars. The wood is still fresh, I think around 40% moisture content - so that 14 tons is really 10 tons of 15% MC wood with 4 tons of water.

That 10 tons could replace 1000 gallons of gasoline, which works out to a cost of $0.25/gal.

It's wood-gas time!!

Fire Salsa

Here is another salsa recipe. "Fire" salsa is not particularly hot, it was based on a recipe called "Fire Roasted Tomato Chipolte Salsa", and the name stuck. I heavily modified it to suit our tastes. This is fast becoming one of our favorites, so I thought I would share it, "Pioneer Woman" style with lush oversize pictures. I should have taken way more, I know - first attempt.

First off, slice up a whole onion. Go for thinner slices that will cook faster.

Put "some" oil in a skillet on medium heat; the oil will go into the salsa so don't use too much. I put enough to cover the bottom of the skillet. Add the onion:

Mouth-watering.  OK, while that is going get the other ingredients into the blender: diced tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, red wine vinegar, salt. I should add that if you have fresh cloves of garlic, they should go into the skillet with the onion. Otherwise, USE LESS in the blender - raw garlic packs a punch.

[no picture of the blender, sorry....]

Also add 4 chipoltes in adobo sauce. I got this authentic looking specimen from a Mexican grocery for $2.50:

Then I saw them at the Wal-Mart for $1.79......maybe not so authentic. Oh well, they taste good.

Add the chiles, some of the sauce, and put the leftovers into a jar in the fridge. Then clean out the can:

You can see I am using the onions cooking in the skillet. This gives the onions and the oil a good flavor. Be careful, the onions are hot. That little can heats up fast.

Once the onions are starting to look clear, they are done. Don't overcook them, it takes the bite out of the salsa. Add them to the blender, oil and all:

Now blend until smooth. Looks yummy to me:

Oh, you wanted it in a bowl? Try this:

Here's the whole recipe:

Fire salsa

1 onion, sliced

olive oil

32oz diced tomatoes

4 cloves roasted garlic (much less if raw)

½ cup cilantro

4 chipoltes in adobo

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 TBL salt

Saute onion in skillet until tender. Add ingredients to blender, puree. Makes about 1 qt.

New Vacuum

Our old Eureka vacuum cleaner finally died. The brushes got looser, slower, buzzed loudly, and wouldn't pick up dirt. So we went vacuum cleaner shopping.

Over the years, many of our houses have had extensive carpeting. We have always had a vacuum cleaner, sometimes more than one. Our house in Bristol actually had a whole-house vacuum, with hose outlets in the wall - it never worked, and obviously hadn't worked for the folks before us judging by the dirt we got out of the carpet with a real vacuum cleaner.

Our current house is actually all hardwood flooring, but we still have large area rugs to vacuum . Up until now, our vacuums have used bags. Those days are gone, apparently. Every vacuum we looked at was bagless "cyclone", "helix", etc. We got a Bissell with very similar specs to our old one. Both are 12 amps, 15" wide path, HEPA air filter. Here they are side by side:

You can see that they are nearly identical in size. Some things I noticed:

• Detaching hose is inline with the brushes; not a separate pathway.
• The tools are simple and attach firmly.
• Assembly involved *one* screw. A real 'snap'.
• It is not whisper-quiet, but that is not a big deal.
• I suspect canister capacity is lower than bagging vacuums.
• Bagless vacs are a cinch to empty, so capacity doesn't matter.
• Don't try to wash it, it isn't important. Makes a muddy mess.

The old collection system:

And the new: