more infrastructure improvements - part 3

A person is defined by the tools he has. With the East wall outlets installed and the floor washed, I decided to set up the electronics work station utilizing a good section of the wall that is sheltered from the before noon sun. Since its dismantling for moving from Portland to the ranch it has been sitting disassembled for 3 years now. How it all come back together gets fussy the longer they sits.

steak au poivre - part 2

While I made this dish a couple months ago, I didn't have green pepper corns nor Cognac. I went onto Amazon and ordered 2 cans of green pepper corns in brine. I also have a bottle of Hennessy. I gave this dish a go again without trying hard to make sure I have the other ingredients like reduced beef stock. I knew I can improvise and work around this minor detail.

more infrastructure improvements - part 2

By planning ahead, I provisioned two loops along this East wall when I dropped a four-plex outlets on the corner of a North wall. The loops provide the 20A service run to the four-plex while allowing me to later add two more four-plex outlets. In all there are actually 16 outlets all are GFCI protected, as required by code in a garage building.

more infrastructure improvements

I never appreciate the need for a personal weather station until I moved out into the country. In a city all one needs are outdoor and indoor thermometer and indoor humidity sensor. Living in the country one needs to be more in tune with the weather including precipitations, sun, moon, cloud, storm, and wind. I'd never thought much of the Acu-rite weather station until I experience with one. It came with the property from the previous owners. The only thing I want to change is the location of the outdoor unit.

still, still yet another mini split installation - part 1

Some might think that I've gone mini split crazy. It is not. I'd always like them and I was one of the earlier person in US to install them, back in early 2000s. At the ranch I have planned to install one in the cabin. The cabin has no water or toilet. The only means of heat is a wood stove, or electric heater. I want to improve its amenities including water, heating and cooling, and a bath.

happiness is authentic hong kong style chow mein

This is one of my favorite Hong Kong restaurant dish. It is a Cantonese fried noodles called chow mein. Even in Hong Kong this dish is often too oily and lack adequate and quality topping. A Google search on chow main returns a lot of images of the supposedly chow mein. Most I would not touch with a ten feet pole.