Thursday, August 30, 2007

Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit

I have for many years, if fact, for most of my life, desired to taste rabbit stew. I can trace this fact directly back to Chapter Five of "The Two Towers" (By J.R.R. Tolkien) in which Samwise Gamgee cooks the brace of coney's that Smeagol (notice that I intentionally do not call him Gollum in this instance) catches for Frodo Baggins.

Every time I have heard this passage, my curiosity has been piqued. And each time I have wanted to try it. With every reading my craving for this dish has intensified.

At our house, on the occasion of a birthday, Papa will try to prepare the meal-of-choice of the raison d'ĂȘtre of the celebrations. Within reason of course.

Since at least as far back as 2001, and perhaps longer, my meal-of-choice has been rabbit stew. We don't exactly live in England (or the deep south) so rabbit is extraordinarily rare as a food source. (Although there are plenty on the wild and as pets.)

I have eaten squid, octopus, duck, pheasant, eel, lamb, et cetra, et cetra. But I have never had the opportunity to dine on rabbit. Until yesterday.

We have some friends who raise rabbits for food, but for one reason or another, we have been unable to acquire one for our consumption.

Yesterday, being my birthday, I had the great joy of going to work! Wait... hmm. There is something subtly wrong with that... But anyway, when I got back up, Lo! a rabbit in the (crock)pot!

This disposed me to be immensely gleeful. Within an hour or so, I was supping on the succulent delight of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit.

(And by the way, yes, the picture was edited slightly.)

Thursday, August 23, 2007

One Working Welder

  This past weekend I was able to get the correct plug on my new welder, and use it for the first time. After a half hour setting up, and fifteen more minutes of fiddling, I found the correct settings and fired up the new arc-welder.

I didn't have a lot of time, so I contented myself with fusing a pair of horse shoes together.

Whereupon I went to use my acetylene torch (also for the first time). When I swapped my brand new acetylene tank for a full tank, it had a plastic cap covering the output nozzle, which was great because I wasn't planning on assembling it for a while.

I remove the cap, ready to go cut some pipe for a quick project for Papa, and Lo! The inside of the nozzle was caked in crud. So, sadly, as I had little time remaining in the day, I was unable to use it at the time.
Oh well. One down, one to go.
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Tuesday, August 7, 2007

H.O.U.S. # 1 (Version 3.0)

H.O.U.S. (House Of Unusual Size) # 1 (Version 3.0)

Although this is not yet complete, it's good enough to post.


Thursday, August 2, 2007

Holeman's Observations on Government (Part 1)

Here are a few things I've noticed. Hereafter know as Holeman's Observations on Government .


  • Any program once established, will be expanded. (Typically at the same rate as the universe. Thus it can be said that "It's the same size it was before, relatively speaking.")

  • No program once established, will ever be disestablished. (Except when being replaced by a larger program.)

  • Taxes are never reduced permanently.

  • Politicians think they know better than you do. (Yes, I know "Politicians think" is an oxymoron.)



I'll add more of these as the truths occur to me.