Gardening, canning, pickling and everything related
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RON PARRISH
Jonathon I came across this on the weekend and remembered you wanting to do a garden and thought this was really cool. Just thought I would pass it on to you. hopefully tag works.RON PARRISH that looks pretty cool.
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Had a pain in the b u t t day today tearing out the kitchen faucet and replacing it with new one today. That is tight quarters for broad shoulders!
Rewarded myself by making some pickled eggs and pickled sausage. Lots of Frank’s Red Hot in the brine. Now the 2 week wait.

ND Mike Those are going to be great. You can’t have enough Frank’s as far as I’m concerned. I remodeled our house a few years ago. The thing that amazed me was there were no water shut off valves any where except the main line from the pump. I changed that. We have shots shut offs everywhere now.
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ND Mike Those are going to be great. You can’t have enough Frank’s as far as I’m concerned. I remodeled our house a few years ago. The thing that amazed me was there were no water shut off valves any where except the main line from the pump. I changed that. We have shots shut offs everywhere now.
wdaly I can’t believe they plumbed like that in the past. Each faucet and appliance should have a shut off.
It’s going to be a long 2 week wait to try those eggs and sausages.
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wdaly I can’t believe they plumbed like that in the past. Each faucet and appliance should have a shut off.
It’s going to be a long 2 week wait to try those eggs and sausages.
ND Mike I feel your pain on the wait. I’m on my third week waiting on smoked cheese. I have a horseradish cheese that I can’t wait to taste.
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johnsbrewhouse Looks like the opening scene to a real life horror story! I am sure that took a good chunk of time out of your day
Jonathon couple of days, worse part was the I had to shut the water off to the house because the water line had broken behind the surround of the tub and we had water leaking. My wife stores all kinds of crap under the stairs that never see’s the light of day. I cut the lines and cap them once I opened the wall. I had to go get the PEX expansion tool from my son-in-law we own and get parts and pieces to put it back together. About a three day project with the drywall.
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ND Mike I feel your pain on the wait. I’m on my third week waiting on smoked cheese. I have a horseradish cheese that I can’t wait to taste.
wdaly smoked horseradish cheese sounds great!!!
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ND Mike I feel your pain on the wait. I’m on my third week waiting on smoked cheese. I have a horseradish cheese that I can’t wait to taste.
wdaly I think you’ll be alright to give it a try at the 18-20day mark. Re-wrap after trying and wait the full time and try it again. I usually wait 2 weeks on mine and it doesn’t seem to mellow a lot more after that. I smoke most of my cheeses with Alder, Pecan (my 2 favorites), or Hickory or Cherry. Most of my cheeses I smoke for 2 hours. After the first hour of smoke I put it back in the fridge to cool and do a second batch for an hour. Then the first batch goes back in. When finished I will let it cool for at least 2 hours before I wrap in plastic wrap. After another week I will vac pack. We love our smoked cheese and have been doing it for 15 years. I also noticed that nobody mentioned Provolone. Two of my favorites are Provolone and Muenster. Give them a try I’m sure you’ll enjoy them, especially in a 2 or 3 of a kind grilled cheese!
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Jonathon couple of days, worse part was the I had to shut the water off to the house because the water line had broken behind the surround of the tub and we had water leaking. My wife stores all kinds of crap under the stairs that never see’s the light of day. I cut the lines and cap them once I opened the wall. I had to go get the PEX expansion tool from my son-in-law we own and get parts and pieces to put it back together. About a three day project with the drywall.
johnsbrewhouse did you use sharkbite connections from copper to pex or did you use solder on connections then pex?
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johnsbrewhouse did you use sharkbite connections from copper to pex or did you use solder on connections then pex?
ND Mike My house had CPVC so went from CPVC to Expansion PEX fittings. We try not to use Shark-Bite fittings with the PEX since when ended up with a fitting a leak at our camp. The expansion fittings work so much better. Going from copper to PEX I would use solder on to PEX expansion adapters. I sweat all my copper. I’m old school I guess, I can sweat and braze copper.
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ND Mike My house had CPVC so went from CPVC to Expansion PEX fittings. We try not to use Shark-Bite fittings with the PEX since when ended up with a fitting a leak at our camp. The expansion fittings work so much better. Going from copper to PEX I would use solder on to PEX expansion adapters. I sweat all my copper. I’m old school I guess, I can sweat and braze copper.
johnsbrewhouse thanks for the advice!
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ND Mike My house had CPVC so went from CPVC to Expansion PEX fittings. We try not to use Shark-Bite fittings with the PEX since when ended up with a fitting a leak at our camp. The expansion fittings work so much better. Going from copper to PEX I would use solder on to PEX expansion adapters. I sweat all my copper. I’m old school I guess, I can sweat and braze copper.
johnsbrewhouse Why did you decide to convert from CPVC to PEX? I always had really good success with CPVC on multiple residential projects, although I still prefer Copper, min. Type L. I just don’t trust the PEX totally yet, especially when the fittings are used vs the manifold system that it was designed for. I had worried about some problems with it when I first started seeing it used a lot with the fittings vs manifold, that would be similar to PB tubing. I have heard it has manifested itself to some degree. The CPVC will be brittle though & not as flexible as PEX, but not as rigid of course as good Copper (so expensive these days). The CPVC needs to be insulated very well. There are pros & cons to each & every one of them. When we decided to restore this old house we are in now (I am way behind due to lack of energy, etc.) rather than build again, I redid all the potable water system with Type K Copper, I believe in it. On the other hand, I have personally & professionally seen more problems though with Copper than PVC or CPVC. Interesting hmm, I don’t know what to say about myself. Yes, solid silver solder is the way to go if you can. It is a pain though doing it on an existing structure & I am not as good at it as I used to be.
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johnsbrewhouse Why did you decide to convert from CPVC to PEX? I always had really good success with CPVC on multiple residential projects, although I still prefer Copper, min. Type L. I just don’t trust the PEX totally yet, especially when the fittings are used vs the manifold system that it was designed for. I had worried about some problems with it when I first started seeing it used a lot with the fittings vs manifold, that would be similar to PB tubing. I have heard it has manifested itself to some degree. The CPVC will be brittle though & not as flexible as PEX, but not as rigid of course as good Copper (so expensive these days). The CPVC needs to be insulated very well. There are pros & cons to each & every one of them. When we decided to restore this old house we are in now (I am way behind due to lack of energy, etc.) rather than build again, I redid all the potable water system with Type K Copper, I believe in it. On the other hand, I have personally & professionally seen more problems though with Copper than PVC or CPVC. Interesting hmm, I don’t know what to say about myself. Yes, solid silver solder is the way to go if you can. It is a pain though doing it on an existing structure & I am not as good at it as I used to be.
calldoctoday PEX is a really good product, been around for many more years then people realize. Beverage lines are made of PEX and most European homes all contain PEX. The CPVC is the reason why I had to replace the valve, it became brittle and broke due to some contractors poor installation. Once you have used PEX, you’ll never go back to CPVC. I like copper as well, but the prices are sky high now. Also with PEX you have to use the right style, we use the expansion type that has an expandable sleeve that goes over the tubing that seals it to the barbed fitting rather than a crimped band. Another thing with PEX is that it can freeze somewhat and will expand without splitting. Here is a picture of our well house at our camp, it done all in PEX 1/2"- 1 1/4". We did this all ourselves, we own an cordless electric PEX expander, makes it easy.

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johnsbrewhouse Why did you decide to convert from CPVC to PEX? I always had really good success with CPVC on multiple residential projects, although I still prefer Copper, min. Type L. I just don’t trust the PEX totally yet, especially when the fittings are used vs the manifold system that it was designed for. I had worried about some problems with it when I first started seeing it used a lot with the fittings vs manifold, that would be similar to PB tubing. I have heard it has manifested itself to some degree. The CPVC will be brittle though & not as flexible as PEX, but not as rigid of course as good Copper (so expensive these days). The CPVC needs to be insulated very well. There are pros & cons to each & every one of them. When we decided to restore this old house we are in now (I am way behind due to lack of energy, etc.) rather than build again, I redid all the potable water system with Type K Copper, I believe in it. On the other hand, I have personally & professionally seen more problems though with Copper than PVC or CPVC. Interesting hmm, I don’t know what to say about myself. Yes, solid silver solder is the way to go if you can. It is a pain though doing it on an existing structure & I am not as good at it as I used to be.
calldoctoday Use silver solder on my stills, we use lead free solder on the plumbing, but good quality. I have sil-brazed fittings as well, you never get them apart.
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calldoctoday PEX is a really good product, been around for many more years then people realize. Beverage lines are made of PEX and most European homes all contain PEX. The CPVC is the reason why I had to replace the valve, it became brittle and broke due to some contractors poor installation. Once you have used PEX, you’ll never go back to CPVC. I like copper as well, but the prices are sky high now. Also with PEX you have to use the right style, we use the expansion type that has an expandable sleeve that goes over the tubing that seals it to the barbed fitting rather than a crimped band. Another thing with PEX is that it can freeze somewhat and will expand without splitting. Here is a picture of our well house at our camp, it done all in PEX 1/2"- 1 1/4". We did this all ourselves, we own an cordless electric PEX expander, makes it easy.

johnsbrewhouse I will have to agree with you on most every avenue including the brittleness of the CPVC & the fact that most of the problems with it is due to folks getting in a hurry or too much of a hurry with it & PVC either sch. 40 or 80. I forgot that when I started seeing it showing up around here a lot, that I would make my usual comments & the fact that it had been used in Europe for over 40 years already & that was back in the late 90’s I believe, but I would make the off the wall comment that I had not been doing neither design or construction in Europe at all, so I couldn’t speak directly for it. There is not questions it is #1 out there for residential & we are seeing it in more & more commercial too. Of course, over the years I have seen that happen with lots of materials that were sold with a fever as being the best thing this side of sliced bread & I was more open to trying new things back then to then discover it was not quite what they hyped it up to be. Sorry for being the pessimist. I am still open to new things, every day, just a little slower at accepting them at full face value without more time on the street. I will agree though, there are a lot of good plusses to PEX, many that you mentioned, & Copper has gotten totally ridiculous in price. I have the debate with myself often, since I do not do hands on anymore, nor design, if I were to build another one for us, what would I use. I have been arguing with myself for a while on it.
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Vaguely related to this category but… Thinking my Xmas cactus is a little confused. That, or we have a lot of winter left.

Now, what did the groundhog say?



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Vaguely related to this category but… Thinking my Xmas cactus is a little confused. That, or we have a lot of winter left.

Now, what did the groundhog say?



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Vaguely related to this category but… Thinking my Xmas cactus is a little confused. That, or we have a lot of winter left.

Now, what did the groundhog say?



PapaSop it looks really nice
thanks for sharing. -
Vaguely related to this category but… Thinking my Xmas cactus is a little confused. That, or we have a lot of winter left.

Now, what did the groundhog say?



PapaSop hope not just got my peppers and tomatoes started.
Anyone ever try the soil block method. This’ll be my first go at it. Hate to change what works but the benefit of this seems to make sense. Planted some the usual way as well as an insurance policy.

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PapaSop hope not just got my peppers and tomatoes started.
Anyone ever try the soil block method. This’ll be my first go at it. Hate to change what works but the benefit of this seems to make sense. Planted some the usual way as well as an insurance policy.

Surg No, but if I did not have all the starter pots used over & over again, that would probably bee what I would use. It seems good because so long as you can keep the moisture level just right, there is no removal of the seedlings when it comes time for permanent planting, you just plant them & allow them to keep growing, so it is more natural I suppose you would say.
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Made some Branston Pickle for Christ.as gifts this year. If you’ve been to England, you’ll recognize this ubiquitous brown vegetable chutney that is served with sausages, cheese, meats etc. Indeed, if you ask anyone for a pickle in the UK, this is what they will hand you. I will post a full recipe and notes in a separate thread sometime soon, but saw this thread and wanted to share my most recent canning / pickle project.

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