Skills

We love salmon in our home, and I cook it in a variety of different ways. This, however, is my “signature” recipe and it’s the one I get requests for most often. This salmon can be eaten with “the usual suspects” as sides (pasta/potato/rice, salad/steamed veg), or you can shred it after cooking and toss it over a cold salad for a summer treat. Check out the notes below, as there are cooking options listed!

Ingredients:

• 4 to 6 oz salmon per person (filet, not steaks)
• oil for cooking
• soy sauce
• fresh lemon, half sliced and half juiced
• good quality balsamic vinegar (like this one)
• white wine (optional)
• minced garlic (fresh or dried)
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh herbs: thyme, oregano, rosemary, winter savory, dill are usual

Preheat your oven to 400*F. In a high edge pan or cast iron pan, add some olive oil or other heat safe oil and spread it over the bottom of the pan. Add in your salmon pieces, skin down. Drizzle with soy sauce, the half of a lemon’s juice, about a tablespoon or more of the vinegar, and a dash of wine if you like. Then top with the garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper. You can use dried herbs, about a total of a tablespoon of herbs per 6 oz of salmon. Fresh herbs are, in my opinion, better.

Pop the salmon into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Using a thermometer, check for a finished temperature between 125* and 145* F (I like mine more rare, but some people don’t like to risk it and cook it for longer). Check the temp at the fattest part of the salmon. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can try flaking the fat part of the salmon; when it flakes easily and is no longer fleshy and dark pink, it’s ready.

Let this sit on the counter, out of the oven, for about five minutes. This lets the juices settle and the flavors mingle.

Notes:

You can cook this on your stove top, at a medium heat. Using a pan large enough for your salmon, begin with the salmon skin-side down. Cook until you start to see the cooked part of the salmon not quite to the half way point. Flip the salmon over, and continue to cook for about 2 minutes, then flip so the skin is down again. Cook until the salmon is done (see instructions above). If you have a very fat part of salmon, you can put a couple of tablespoons of water or wine or broth into the pan and put a lid over it while cooking.

You can cook this on your grill! If you have a fish grill basket, you can use that. If you don’t, then use a cast iron pan or pick up disposable mesh grill mats. Don’t try to grill salmon directly on your grill bars, because they’re too far apart and your salmon will end up in the fire, and you will be sad.

Though I haven’t tried it, I’d warrant you could even cook this in your air fryer or your slow cooker (though I’d be wary of that last). Enjoy!

I’m sure you all are tired of reading about my vehicle troubles. I’m sure this won’t be the last post about it.

Base problem, the truck is 15 years old. It was given a new frame, but it is starting to age out.

Major safety issues:

• Right front wheel bearing is bad
• Left front wheel bearing is going bad
• Right front caliber is likely bad or will go bad when pads are replaced.
• Left front caliber is likely bad or will go bad when pads are replaced.
• Front brake pads, both sides, are bad
• Front rotors, both sides, are bad. Wear pattern shows uneven application of force
• Right rear hard line to flex line at frame has bad crimp. It will fail soon
• Multiple other smaller, non-safety issues

The goal was to reduce my costs at the dealer as much as possible. His price on parts is reasonable, he puts a reasonable markup on those parts. He is willing to use customer supplied parts from me. I have told him that he can reject any parts I bring him if they are not up to his expectations.

The total cost of parts, from Rockauto was $514. Of that, only the brake calibers were the right parts. Everything else goes back for store credit, my choice.

Total cost of parts from local shop, over $500. This was ONE wheel bearing, pressed, instead of two, a pair of rotors and new brake pads. Moreover, there is the brake cleaner, brake fluid, two 12 in sections of brake line. I’m glad they know me. I wish they didn’t know me by name when I walk in.

I thought the right front went ok, after I stopped cursing about buying the wrong parts. It is verified that I made the mistake.

I will have my guy inspect my work and fix any errors I made.

The left front did not go as smoothly.

The wheel didn’t want to come off. The use of a long punch and a 5 pound hand sledge and my son’s help got that off.

The process of taking off the caliber is to first take off the flex hose to hard line bracket. This is a 12 MM (head) bolt.

That bolt head is now round and the bolt is still in place. I should have drilled it out with a left-hand drill and then used my other tools to remove it. My vice grips have gone on walk-about, so I couldn’t even use them.

I was able to break the line lose at the caliber and remove the caliber. The rotor gave way after jack bolts and banging.

It was getting late. The calibers did not want to line up. I finally got it installed, and the hard line would not go into place. I left it like that for the night.

Today started with a trip to the parts store for hard-line. Ally strongly suggested that having the part and not needing it was better than needing the part and not having it. Thank you, Ally.

After a bit of cussing, the hard line went into place. It would not hold pressure. It was time to try my hand at bending break line.

The hardest part of me was the fact that I had to stuff 12 inches of hard line where I should have been using a 6-inch length.

Moreover, did you know that the fittings will not slide around curves? They slide freely on the straight part. That was fun, straightening the line enough to get the fitting into place, then bending it back.

This was a painful process. Because there was no flex, I was bending the hardline with a mandrel in place. Think 2 foot long chuck of 1 inch diameter steel bar and a 1.5 inch diameter steel bar, 2 foot long. Yes, they are heavy. They get heavier the longer you have to hold them in place.

It got done. It was tightened to specification, see AVE’s earlier work. “Click”.

No leaks! I’m happy. I spend the time to find the right size for the bleeder valve. Wheel goes back on, the world is good.

It is time to bleed the brakes. The rear brakes go fine. When I go to bleed the right front, there is a puddle of brake fluid. It is leaking.

When I crawl under and review it, it is leaking where the hard line enters the calibers. At that point my daughter arrives home, I catch a ride with her to get another piece of brake line.

This goes a bit better as I could detach the bracket to get things into place.

So, going into the shop, they will replace the bad crimp, replace the left front wheel bearing, not the complete unit. They will check all the bits and pieces.

I did receive a few helpful comments. I do have an air powered impact gun/wrench. It does ok. I need to upgrade it, as it does not produce enough torque.

Because the gun is weak, I normally break the lug nuts loose before I lift the car. This makes it much easier after the car is up.

To access the axle nut, I need to remove the dust cover. To access the dust cover, I have to remove the wheel and rotor. To remove the rotor, I have to remove the caliber. To put the rotor and wheel back on and lower the car is more work than using a pry bar against the lug studs to keep the wheel hub from spinning.

This is filler as I’ve not looked at the news nor anything else on Friday.

As I’m writing this at 1830 on Friday, my hands are almost as grease covered as the worker’s hands in the image. I’ve been up since 0700 and have been at work on the Truck since 0930.

First stop, the auto supply store for cotter pins, brake cleaner, and brake fluid.

The first wheel comes off just fine.

Then it was time to take of the calibers. That is where I got my first surprise, these are big, and they do not float.

I’m used to calibers that are attached to the knuckle with two 14 mm headed screws. Torque specs are “yep, click”.

These bolts are normally greased and the calibers just float on the pin portion.

Not mine. They are attached with bolts torqued to 91 ft/lbs, and they are stuck. It took nearly 45 minutes to break them free using a 1″ black iron pipe as a cheater. The big issue was that there was not enough room to work the breaker bar with cheater. I got it done.

Once the caliber was off the truck, it was time to attack the rotor.

The rotor refuses to leave the truck. I whaled on it with a 5 pound hand sledge, it did not budge.

Second trip out, I sent my son to get some 6mx1.0 jack bolts. He returns with exactly what I needed. It only took three text messages. “What is grade 8?”, “do you want the type with the hex top?”, and “How long do they need to be.

Guess what? They don’t fit.

It is only then that I remembered that I have a nice thread gage checker. This is a steel cable with most thread sizes you would find in normal stuff. Each “key” (my son’s term for them), has an external threaded section on one side and an internal threaded section on the other.

In other words, you can screw one side into a hole, and you can screw bolts and screws into the other side.

Testing the jack boltholes I find they are 8m1.25 Off my son goes to get them.

With those in hand, the rotor comes off,

It is now time to attack the axle dust cap. This doesn’t want to come off, but a gentle (not really) attack with a cold chisel, and it gives me a gap for a pry bar to pry it off.

This revels the first clean metal I’ve seen, the axel, axel nut, and the lock for the axel nut.

With a bit of help from my son to keep the hub from rotating, I apply 300+ foot pounds with my foot. There is a load SNAP and all the tools let go. The bar being used to stop the hub from turning, the breaker bar, the 36 mm socket all went their directions.

We recovered all the pieces. I inspected the axel for damage, trying to figure out what snapped. The axle nut now spins off with just light finger pressure. Good news.

I then get the first “win” of the day. Driving the axel out of the sandpaper, err, bearing, was easy and just worked the way it was supposed to.

Driving the other side off? Not so much. After way too much effort, some stupids along the way, my son and I were able to drive the bearings off the knuckle.

The day is good!

After all that work, it is time to start reassembling the front right side. I picked up the “hub with pressed bearings” and compared it to the old part.

Not only does it not match the old part, I can’t make it work without someway to cut a spline in the damn thing.

I messed up. I wasn’t paying enough attention when I ordered front-wheel bearing assemblies. Yes, it had the 6 lugs, but it turns out that there was another version of the Tacoma which uses the heavy-duty brakes, calibers and all the rest, but it is RWD only.

I’m almost in tears. My son takes me to the parts store. They have it in stock. $195. Rockauto.com sells a better version for $106. OUCH! This is precisely what I was hoping to avoid.

It is too late to got back, I buy the parts and we go back.

With the correct part in hand, we can install the bearing assembly. I was just a question of tightening each bolt in sequence, the same amount.

I even have the right tools to torque the bolts. I’m a happy creature.

Time to install the new rotor.

This is where I started cussing to myself.

As I was checking out, I had the rotors, pads in the cart. The website suggested that I use a kit because it came with more hardware, and it was cheaper.

I went for it.

And missed that I had returned the 6 lug version and replaced it with a 5 lug version.

After a short crying jag, my son takes me back to the parts store. Yes, they have the parts in stock. 2 rotors and a set of pads. But because they only have premium in stock, $214.

The passenger side is completed. The bearing has been replaced, the rotor has been replaced, pads have been replaced, brake caliber has been replaced.

The only thing remaining is bleeding the brakes.

Starting work on the driver’s side. The damn wheel won’t come off the rotor! This required energetic use of that five pound sledge with a long punch to knock it off the rotor.

Jack bolts and a bit of hammering and the rotor came off. The brake caliber is stuck on and the head of the bolt holding the hard line on the hub side and the flex line on the frame side rounds over. I can’t get it off.

My son bounces on the breaker bar a few times before the bolts finally come loose. We managed to get the correct two bolts out, pay no attention to the extra bolt we took out.

We then got the hub ready for the new rotor. It took 30 minutes to get the rotor and caliber installed. It was then that I noticed that the hard line doesn’t line up. I take the top bolt out of the caliber and attempt to get the hard-line to attach.

That is when I called it. I was afraid I was cross threading the hard line to the caliber.

I’m tired, I’m grumpy, I don’t want to see the crap and noise that the leftist put out today.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I’m out there working on the truck. Only about 4 hours more of work.

You can have the most guns, the biggest stockpile of rice and beans, and all the best shelter, and still not be prepared to survive.

Mindset is the absolute most important thing you have to prepare for an emergency. Whether it’s a zombie apocalypse, a hostile nation bombing us, or a fire in your dryer hose, having the right knowledge and mindset is what will allow you to survive.

It’s easy to figure out infrastructure things. Do you have X number of cans of protein, and X number of bags of carbs? Check. You’re done. Even stuff like first aid is pretty straight forward. The way you take care of a broken leg is going to be largely the same no matter the situation you’re in. It’s less easy to teach yourself how to behave in an emergency.

Years ago, I was a part of St. John Ambulance. When I first joined, I took the standard first aid courses available. I then went on to take more advanced ones. At that point, my captain took me out to events to see how I’d do. The answer was, I did alright on the technical front (I knew what equipment to use, in what order) but I did shitty on the attitude front. It wasn’t that I was squeamish (frankly, doesn’t matter if you can get the job done). It was that my reaction to nerves was to giggle. Let me tell you that most hockey players do not want a giggling young adult female tending to their gaping wounds. I had to find a way to fix it.

My captain was a practical man. He decided to just work it out of me. He took me with him to some of the most brutal scenes I’ve ever witnessed. I’ve held the hand of a woman who was dying because a seatbelt eviscerated her and help was much too far away. I’ve held gauze in the open wound of a hockey player who had his neck slashed accidentally. I’ve ridden on the chest of a man while giving compressions, while being rushed to an ambulance, on the bus, and into the hospital. After a while, I stopped giggling. It wasn’t that any of it became normal. There is no normal when you are dealing with dying people. It’s that I stopped responding with the giggles.

I still giggle, and sometimes cry, and often get shakes. It’s just that those are now my reaction AFTER the emergency is over. During the emergency, I go all deadly calm, I talk softly and move slowly and deliberately, and I get shit done. There’s time for panic and upset after, but when an emergency is … well, emerging, you just Git’er’done.

Read More

Lumber has become expensive. A couple of 4x4s, some 2x4s and a 2×10, and I’m looking at painful amounts of money. Ouch.

Which brings us to working to a goal:

This cabinet will be knocked down and flat packed. We want this for events. All in all, it looks nice and will perform the functions we need.

I started looking at the materials required to make this. The costs for the lumber starts to get a little excessive. Mostly because of some wide boards that are required. In addition, we will be making more than one and some other pieces as well.

Which takes me to wood. Wood is what you find in trees and burn in your wood stove. Lumber is what you build from.

I have a lot of wood outback. I don’t even bother with all the pine that has fallen over the years because it is horrible for heating. And splitting it is painful.

In the best of all worlds, I would have some way to drag the wood out of the lot, load it into a wood mill, and then mill it to size. Base cost, about $3000. And I’m not sure if I can get the wood out. So add another $2k for the ability to move logs.

The next best thing would be to mill in place. This I’m willing to try. It requires a jib for my chainsaw and a willingness to mill. I expect to be able to pull some reasonable 4/4 lumber out this way. Beach, red oak, pine, elm and some other wood.

Ok, that tool comes first. Add a learning curve.

Now that I have that, I need to turn that 4/4 into useful lumber for building. There is nothing in that shelf unit that is beyond my skills. I’ve built furniture in the past. I expect to be able to build this.

Except I don’t have a place to build it. Which leads me to: I need a workbench:

This is an English Joiners workbench. It has a torsion box interior to stabilize the top, The apron is 2×10 to add stability. There is diagonal bracing which is firmly attached to the rear apron and rear legs to stop racking side to side. And cross bracing for the trestles to stop forward and back motion.

It is held together with screws and construction adhesive. This is where I want to end.

For work holding, a wooden leg vise will be available as well as planing stops, hold down holes, Batten stop and a crochet.

All of this will make it easy for me to work on the cabinets that I intend to make.

Except… The front apron needs to be flat and parallel on both major sides. This is no problem. I have the planes to do this. I have the knowledge of how to do it and some of the skills required.

All I need is a workbench with a planing stop.

What I require is a flat surface to use as a pseudo surface plate for woodworking. The only thing that might come close is the floor of my shop. Which is full and where it is not full, it is oily.

The answer is to build a workbench.

The workbench that I would make is a “low Roman workbench”. It would have a laminated top of 2x4s on edge. I don’t need to make the faces of the 2x4s “flat” I just need to make them flat enough for glue up. I can do this without a reference surface.

To make the surface of the low Roman workbench flat, I can just plain it flat. This can be done with the good plains I already have and some winding sticks.

In addition, the low Roman workbench is better suited for sawing.

For now, I’m stuck between making both workbenches or using my plainer to plain the front apron. If I use the plainer, I get to a workbench faster.

Well, my rubber ducks, thank you for that option.

I’ll use machine tools to get my joiners workbench up and running soonest. I might build the low Roman a bit later.

Now to have time and good weather to build this thing. It looks to be a three day build.

I have always loved green goddess dressing. It’s creamy and refreshing, and so garlicky! This recipe teaches you how to make it yourself, and then uses it to make some delicious meatballs. I hope you like this as much as I do.

Ingredients:

• 1 small garlic clove, peeled and smashed
• ½ cup Greek or cashew yogurt
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ½ cup packed fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup fresh tarragon, coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup thinly sliced chives
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• ½ tsp fish sauce or 1 anchovy fillet
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup panko or breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lb ground chicken or turkey
• cooking spray
• cooked orzo, for serving (optional)

In a blender or food processor, add the garlic, yogurt, mayonnaise, parsley, tarragon, chives, lemon zest, lemon juice, fish sauce, 1/2 tsp of salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Blend or pulse the ingredients together until smooth. Season with more salt and pepper, if needed. Transfer 1/4 cup sauce to a large bowl (for the meatballs). Transfer remaining sauce to a medium bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

In the large bowl with the sauce, add your egg, panko or breadcrumbs, salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Stir to combine, then add the ground chicken and gently mix to combine (do not over-mix). You want to use your hands for this, rather than a fork or spoon. Make sure you have the panko and spices well integrated. Refrigerate until mixture firms up, about 10 minutes.

Arrange a rack in center of oven, and pre-heat it to 450*F. Lightly grease a lipped baking sheet with cooking spray or cover it with parchment paper. Roll the meat mixture into 20 balls and arrange them on prepared baking sheet.

Bake the meatballs, watching closely, until cooked through and browned on top, 6 to 8 minutes. Turn the meatballs over and continue to cook for 5 to 8 minutes, checking for doneness. Divide the orzo (if you are using it) among plates. Top the orzo with meatballs, then drizzle with the refrigerated green goddess sauce.

Notes:

This recipe originally called for broiling the meatballs, but I find you get much better results if you bake them instead. It takes a bit longer, but it’s worth it. You can check your meatballs for readiness by cutting one in half to see if it’s cooked through, or you can use a meat thermometer to check if the internal temperature has reached 165*F.

I made a double batch of the dressing, and I’m glad I did. This stuff is delicious! Beware; you will not have to worry about vampires for a couple of days after eating this.

I use cashew yogurt in this because I’m allergic to dairy. There’s barely any difference in the end result. You can make the dressing vegan by using a vegan mayo, such as Nayanaise, or just leaving that out entirely and using the cashew (or other non-dairy) yogurt. The herbs are the star of this dressing, so feel free to experiment with it a bit. I’ll be doing some experimenting this week, when I add winter savory to mine!

So there’s a lot going on right now. Politically speaking, here in America we’re preparing for the “no kings day” bullshit. There are the usual California summer riots (pick your flavor), though it should be noted they’re only taking up a tiny portion of Los Angeles despite what the media would like you to believe. There’s the other protests and riots about immigration. On top of that, you have people who are boycotting the Fourth of July because of the bad orange man, and are instead planning funerals or some such. Israel just bombed Iran, which could get dicey. Ireland is having its own violent protests about immigration. On and on.

The shit may not hit the fan this weekend. It might not do so this year. Hell, it’s entirely possible it may never happen. That’s my favorite option, though I don’t ever count on it. I plan for “it goes down today” and hope for “never happens and you’re left with food in the basement for any other kind of emergency.”

I’m not doing anything special to prep for tomorrow. I’m over at my partner’s place, and we’re going to sit quietly at home. We might go for a walk in the local forest, but that’s about it. There aren’t any things planned for either his area or mine (btw, this is one of the reasons why I still have friends on the Left… so I know where and when shit goes down), but we don’t want to chance it. Sunday we have to go out of town to pick up a wall tent for 18th century and medieval events, but we’re going from one small town to another small town, all in one state in which he has a carry permit for. While he’s nominally Left(ish), he’s hella 2A positive, and he’s also not afraid to drive over someone to protect me or us. So I feel relatively safe. I know he won’t slow down if people are doing stupid stuff on one of the side roads we have to drive on.

No, I don’t carry. There are reasons, but frankly it’s nunya*. I fully support 2A, and I pick partners who are both 2A positive, and like to carry on the regular. I arm myself in other ways. Also, frankly… having boobs helps. Don’t ask, just accept. Anyhow…

My house has food. If the worst happened and martial law was called for, we’d just stay home with the doors closed and our ears open. We have eyes outside the house, so we don’t need to go out to check on things. We’re well armed, well stocked, and there’s no reason to leave. If it got bad, my partner would join us here, because we’re just better prepared than he is. That would leave us in a very comfortable position regarding keeping zombies at bay.

In all likelihood, nothing would happen near me. We live in the middle of nowhere (on purpose), BECAUSE of stuff like this. As a youngster, I longed for the bustle of a city. Today, I just want those damn kids to stay off my goddamn lawn. I’m glad of that, because it’s safer here. Safer, not safe, though. I have to always keep that in mind. There are always quiet people local to you, even in the middle of nowhere, that could be agitators or rioters in the right situation. So we stay ready, and we remember that we’re only as safe as we’re prepared to be.

We’re pretty safe, though.

If you haven’t figured out a way to batten down your hatches, spend time tonight doing so. If you live in a suburban or urban area, or god forbid a big city like NYC or Boston, make sure you are READY for tomorrow. It might be a big nothing burger, in which case you can laugh at me on Monday and I’ll gladly accept chiding. On the other hand, it might be a big something, and I’d like to know you’re all as ready as you can be. Go pick up some rice and beans, and a few cans of tuna and spam. Grab some bottled water. Just in case. It’s summer, and none of it will go to waste. You can have a bbq on July 4th and use it all up, if that’s what you want. But go get some extras. NOW.

I hope you all have a very quiet weekend. I hope it contains nothing more than mowing the lawn, having some steaks on the bbq, and yelling at the kids to stop letting mosquitoes in the house.

*nunya – nunya biznez, aka none of your business.

My internal infrastructure is getting better and better. Unfortunately, it is still not stable enough.

The router is having issues with memory. I need to add more memory to fix the issues. The problem being that I need to take the router out of production to do so. I’ve not been willing to do that.

The symptom is that connections time out. The fix, restart HAProxy.

HAProxy forwards traffic to the ingress service. This should be running on multiple servers, but it currently is not. There is an issue which I have not resolved where communications from the second ingress service gets lost, leading to the gateway not responding.

This means that when the server that runs the ingress service has to reboot, all ingress stops.

The network is broken into segments, each segment is on a different subnet. Ceph prefers to be on a single subnet.

My solution was to use OpenVSwitch to create a virtual network for Ceph. This works great!

This adds a dependency on OpenVSwitch, which should not be an issue.

The underlaying physical network depends on good routing. The reason I don’t use static is that some nodes have multiple paths and I want there to be multiple paths for every node. This adds a dependency on the routing stack.

Free Range Routing, or FRR, is the solution. It supports OSPF, which is the correct routing protocol for internal routing. It just works.

Unfortunately, FRR and the Linux kernel will stop talking to each other. When this happens, we lose routing of the physical networks.

When we lose routing on the physical network, the OpenVSwitch network stops working.

If the OpenVSwitch network goes down, then the different Ceph nodes can’t talk to each other.

All of this is to say, I’m sorry for the issues you have been seeing with this site. Thank you for hanging in there.

I had to find the sick FRRs and restart them. Once that happened, everything came back to life.

When the deep heat of summer hits, and the idea of cooking anything makes you queasy, this is the perfect meal for any time of the day. I adore gazpacho soup because it’s all the deliciousness of a salsa but in a soup. There are layers of delicate flavor that combine to make something incredibly special. Just don’t be like Rimmer on Red Dwarf and ask for it piping hot. 😉

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ pounds ripe red tomatoes (about 4 large or 9 small)
• 1 small Vidalia, sweet yellow onion, or red onion (½ pound), peeled
• 1 small cucumber (½ pound), peeled and seeded
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cored and seeded
• ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, plus extra for garnish
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
• ¾ teaspoon fine salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• V8 juice OR tomato juice (optional)
• curly parsley, Italian parsley, cilantro, green onion (optional, garnish)

First, prepare your vegetables. You’ll need a blender or food processor bowl, a medium serving bowl, and a small bowl for mixing, all ready to use. Core your tomatoes and cut half of them up into about one inch chunks. The chunks go into your blender. The other half of the tomatoes should be chopped fine and added to the serving bowl. All of the juice and seeds can be tossed in the blender. Do the same with your onion, the cucumber, and the bell pepper, though discard the pepper seeds.

Add the basil, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and a half teaspoon or so of black pepper, preferably fresh ground. Put the lid on your blender and blend the contents, starting on the pulse and then gradually increasing the speed to high. You want the mixture to be completely smooth, and it will take about two minutes. If there isn’t enough liquid, you can add in a little V8 or tomato juice, a tablespoon at a time until it’s the right consistency and thickness for you.

Add the liquid to the fine chopped vegetables, and stir well. Again, if there isn’t enough liquid, feel free to add more V8 or tomato juice to make it “correctly soupy” for you. Add in a pinch of salt and pepper, to taste, and set in the fridge to chill. The gazpacho needs at least two hours and up to 24 hours to rest.

Before serving, give it another taste. It may need a bit more salt. If you like, you can top the gazpacho with finely minced parsley and/or cilantro, or sprinkle it with thinly sliced green onion or chives. Small basil leaves are also a nice addition.

Notes:

I usually serve this soup with a side of salad that includes a good protein such as chicken or shrimp. As a fun alternative, you can switch out the V8 and add in Clamato and a splash of hot sauce, and top the soup itself with shrimp for a “shrimp salad soup” that is really tasty. You can also consider adding miniature croutons, tiny shrimp, or even other summer vegetables such as corn, finely chopped zucchini, etc.

Skill is not knowledge. Knowledge is not skill.

20 years ago, I made one net with a 4-inch mesh with rope. It was large enough to roll a small boulder into with the backhoe, then I could lift the boulder and move it where I needed before dumping the boulder.

I designed it to be able to lift in excess of 1.5 tons.

Once I completed that task, I forgot about making nets.

The primary reason? In my state, fishing with a net is (generally) not legal. I had intended to make a gill net to take fish from a local river.

Getting Started

The cost of tools for netting is very low. You want a netting needle and a sizing stick. I made my sizing sticks from a chunk of wood off an oak tree. I did purchase a set of netting needles. I will make a netting needle shortly.

Other than the needle and the sizing stick or card, you will need cordage. I started this learning adventure because I saw an ad for “Tarred Bank Line #36”. The price was ok, and it had a nearly five-star rating.

When it arrived, I found that #36 was larger than I wanted for what I was going to make. I ordered a pound of #15, which turned out to be precisely the size I wanted. Tensile strength of approximately 117lbs and a diameter of 0.051inches.

The first loops

They say you can make a net without a sizing card/stick. Don’t bother. The time/cost of a sizing stick is so low and the advantage is so great that it isn’t worthwhile to do without.

You make a loop. I tied a double half hitch, knowing I was going to be pulling the loop tighter after the first set of loops was cast on.

Use the sizing stick to make your first loop the correct size. Tie a double half hitch on the main loop. Then make your second loop using the same sequence. Repeat until you have created 16 new loops.

Pull your main loop tight.

Second Round

This is where you start tieing actual net knots. Each loop you add, from here out, will be a tied to an existing loop with a sheet bend.

Tie the loose end and tie it to a metal ring or a dog clip or carabiner. I would use a carabiner, but I don’t have any handy. Tie a six-foot length of line to the ring. Now anchor the long line to something sturdy, such as the leg of a heavy table.

I used #36 bank line. I wrap it around something, then put a one-way slip knot in. This allows me to shorten the anchor line as my net gets bigger. Otherwise, I need to move further from the anchor point, which might not be possible.

To make your first true loop, run your line around your sizing stick, down the front and up the back. Bring your needle from back to front from your first static loop. Pull everything tight, so that the static loop is pulled hard against the top of your sizing stick. Use your thumb to pinch the running line hard against the stick to keep it from loosening.

Take your needle over the top of your sizing stick and around both lines of the static loop, back to the front. This should leave you with a loop in the running line resting on the top/front of the stick. You want to feed the needle down through this loop.

Now pull the running light tight, slowly. You should feel and see a bight tightening around the static loop. As it starts to pull up, it will pull out from under your thumb. Make sure that the loop coming from under your thumb snaps on top of the static loop.

If this knot is made correctly, it will be small, tight and lock the line in place on the static loop and create a new static loop.

You can now repeat for the next static loop. You will now have two new loops.

We want to expand the net, so we are going to make a second loop on the same static loop.

This pattern repeats, 1 loop to a static loop, then 2 to the next loop.

When done, you should have 24 new static loops, completing your second round.

Note, you will have been adding loops to your sizing stick as you go. When you need, just slip the loops off the back end of your sizing stick.

Third Round

This is where it starts to get fast and easy. From here it is a one for one. You keep going around the net until your needle runs out of line.

Fourth Round

If you want to make your net a little bigger, you can do a 1,2 pattern or a 1,1,2 pattern. It all depends on what you require and want. For me, the fourth through final rounds were the same.

Tieing On

When you reach the end of the line on your needle, it isn’t an issue. Because the net is a series of knots, nothing will happen as you prepare the next length of line.

Load your netting needle. Put as much as you are comfortable pushing through your loops. Unlike other fiber things I’ve done, such as knitting, there is nothing difficult in tieing on.

Once you have loaded your needle. Tie the tail of the old line to the new line using a sheet bend. The loop should be in the new line. Trim the loose ends relatively close. Not so close that the knot will pull apart under tension, but not so long that you have something distasteful.

The only issue is to make sure that the connecting knot does not interfere with tieing on to the static loops. It shouldn’t be placed within the knot connecting to the static loop.

Finishing

When you are done, stop. Trim the tail close, but not too close.

Now get a larger line to use for the rim and handle.

I used the #36 line. I should have used something larger. Or I need to whip the line to make a comfortable handle.

Feed the finishing line through each static loop in the final round. Always feed in the same direction. For me, that is from in to out. But it doesn’t matter.

You are going to tie the finishing line to itself to create a finishing loop or handle.

Make sure the finishing loop is large enough that the mouth of your net will open as wide as you want or need.

It was surprising to me how large the mouth will open.

Put something in your need to shape it. Hang it by the handles, enjoy the results.

Conclusion

The next one will be better.

Here is an ok video on what I made. I got sizing (16 and 24) from her video.