Cool, turning warm later. Part sun, and humid. Probably. If I guessed right. But that was what the day turned into yesterday, so I’ve got at least a 50/50 chance of being right. Weird to go out in low 80s temps after the cold. Houston.
Spent the day catching up on stuff, not doing plumbing. I did cut my hair, shave, and trim my beard. Cleaned up around the house too.
Ended up selling an ebay item, so now I have to find it. It’s somewhere. Not where the other listed ebay items are, unfortunately. While looking for it, I went through about half of one storage unit. Found stuff to bring home, sorted some bins, and found the bigger grinder I picked up earlier in the year. It’s a vintage Enterprise “tinned” number 22 meat chopper. It is manual, and bolts to a table. I’ve got a couple of smaller Universal grinders, but they clamp to a table and tend to squirm around too much.
I spent a while boiling the grinder and parts, then scraping and cleaning. It came up pretty nice, considering it’s about 100 years old. The plates are razor sharp still. Unfortunately, it was missing the blade. Fortunately, grinders were sold by size, #12, #22, #32, #8, etc. for a long time. There are brand new parts available, plates and knives. So I bought the cheapest one on amazon, to see how it works. I don’t use the grinder very often, and a replacement blade that looks like the original was $37 instead of $13. Even the cheap blade should outlast me, but if it doesn’t, we’re either living like it was 1890, or I can order another. If push came to shove, I could make one from steel plate.
A manual grinder/chopper/sausage stuffer is a good backup tool, and a useful kitchen accessory. If you are harvesting wild game, you already know that. If you think you might in the future, or that you might process it yourself instead of paying a shop to do it, get you a grinder… They are widely available in estates, and online. Make sure it’s not worn out and comes with the blade and a variety of plates. I see smaller ones still in the box relatively often.
Why my sudden interest in getting my grinder working? I want to make some of my family recipe sausage for the holidays. Pork butts were on sale, and allspice was back in stock, so with a working grinder, I’m good to go. Just need to get some sausage casings. My local HEB used to carry them, but doesn’t have any. There is a sausage supply house near my secondary location, and I’ll be headed by there later. They keep in the fridge for a long time, and are pretty cheap, so I’m not worried about the cost, just the availability.
Of course, anything I do today will be after my semi-annual trip to the dentist to get my fangs cleaned. Whole family is going this morning. That will probably occupy us most of the morning. Dental care is important. People died from dental problems. Don’t be a people.
Get out there and find some stuff to stack. This week, try to get everything you’d need to process wild game- or at least familiarize yourself with what is involved. Knives, saw, grinder, lift, trays, pans, cutting boards… and watch a video or two. You might not every need the familiarity, but the tools aren’t expensive, fit in a smallish box, and might feed your family.
Stack it up.
nick
