YouTube Deleted My Channel

 YouTube deleted my channel when a scammer or virus or something invaded it and apparently posted some forbidden videos. Google simply deleted my channel with no warning or explanation, and no evidence at all. Now I have to go through a long and complicated process to try to get it back. Google sucks, and that was a really crappy thing to do.

Corie E. Mushrooms doing some jumpies.

My Kimchee Recipe and Instructions

 NOTE: Plan one day of salting and 3-5  days of fermentation.

Things you will need:

- Sealed glass container
-Large mixing bowl, stock pot, or crock. Use only stainless steel, glass, ceramic, bamboo, or wood. 
-Wood, bamboo, or stainless spoon to stir with.

  If you like kimchee (kimchi), you need to either have a Korean grandmother, a very cool friend nearby who makes it, or make it yourself. Store-bought kimchee is ok, and some of it is pretty good, but homemade is always better. Just take a little time and do it right. Make your own.

  I usually make basic kimchee with napa cabbage (The Korean name for napa cabbage is baechu (Hangul: 배추) , but sometimes I will use some red cabbage too, or add wild green things like purslane or poke. You can put anything you want, really. I'm just going to tell you how to make the most common type (beachu-kimchi), which is napa-based.

Napa cabbage is the best for kimchee, and it is easy enough to find in pretty much any grocery store. The rest of this stuff is pretty common, too, except maybe the chili paste. Any Asian market will have an assortment of chili pastes to choose from, but if you don't live near one, look in the Imported Foods aisle of your Publix/Kroger/Wegmans, etc. You could make some chili paste if you really need to. (You are clever enough)

(Don't forget scallions!)

So, get some napa cabbage, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, carrots, fish sauce, shrimp paste (I use tiny frozen shrimps and soak them until they are less-salty, then I chop them up in a coffee mill), and either daikon or red radishes. I use jicama because it is easier to find, cheaper, and mostly because it stays crisp longer. And scallions. Try to use organic as much as possible.

Start by cutting  out the base of the cabbage where it is tough, and give the bits to your baby goat helper. She may not eat them, but she will probably at least smell them. Then the leaves are easy to separate. Traditional method (baechu-kimchi) is to layer the leaves with the paste in-between them,  but I do it a different way. I prefer to chop them into bite-size pieces and mix everything evenly, which makes  a lot of nice juice. (All that liquid is really great to drink or add to other things.)

STEP 1: Peel all of the leaves off and let your baby goat helper inspect them for quality with her keen sense of smell and discriminating tastes. 

STEP 2: Stack the leaves with sea salt in-between them in the pot. Cover it and leave for 24 hours. After that, rinse it several times in clean water until the salt is gone. Do a good job of this, because it's still going to retain a lot of salt.  

I give it a good stir in several changes of water until it is least-salty.

STEP 3: Drain and chop the cabbage leaves, slice thin the (peeled) ginger and garlic, carrots, and whatever else you want to put. I cut the jicama (or daikon radish) like matchsticks. Add the chili paste (in whatever amount you  want), a little fish sauce (be careful!), some shrimp paste (or not), and jam it all into the sealed jar. Put it somewhere out of the way for a few days with the top OPEN but covered with a cloth or something. Fermentation produces CO2 and will explode the jar if you seal it too soon.

In three or 5 days  it will be nice and tart with lots of liquid. I refrigerate it at this point to stop it from getting too strong or getting mold on top.

What the? What?

You are never going to believe this one.

  A few days back (a week, maybe?) I found myself in a very frustrating position. I had nearly finished the transmission replacement on the Winnebago LeSharo, and one of the two M16x1.5 banjo bolts used on the final drive cooler was missing. Never mind the technical details - that doesn't matter. What does matter is that without that very uncommon piece of hardware, my departure could not happen on time. I need to get back to Florida ASAP.

  I had to find one. I started looking online, but I did not really want to order one without being able to confirm the dimensions, and none of the few available had all specs listed. Herb said we should take the one we have and go check with some of the auto parts stores and industrial supply stores in Tuscaloosa. So we did. Every single one of them. I had already spent several hours online looking, and then we spent most of the morning driving around and looking, and we were nearly out of options.

  In the truck, we were talking about how strange things happen when a person needs an odd or rare part. We had both experienced the phenomenon of going to the least likely place and just mentioning it casually and the person saying: "Oh yeah! I have ten of those out back!". We also talked about how the best way to find a lost part is to buy a new one and then install it, and wait until the next day; the lost one always shows up.

  We were in one of the last industrial supply locations, and the man said we should go to the other place and make sure we go straight to the "old-timer", because he would know if they had anything unusual like this. Of course, we already knew this, and we also knew that it is even more likely that an old black man would know. The really old black guy at a place usually knows more about everything there than anyone. Why? I don't know, but it always seems to be so.

  I was thinking about other possible ways to find one, and it occurred to me that I was
only looking for a banjo bolt used in similar applications. I knew that they were used in motorcycle brake systems, and after a bit more thinking, I remembered them being used on turbo-chargers, too. I mentioned it to Herb, and he said: "There's a turbo shop right down here in Buhl, about 5 miles down the road". Well, we had run out of ideas, so we figured might as well go have a look. I knew when I woke up yesterday that I would be finding a bolt by end of day, and the day was winding down, so it seemed like this was it.

  We drove down to http://www.mjmturbo.com/ to see if they might have one. Buhl, Alabama is a one-horse town, and I am not even sure if they have a gas station. They DO have the biggest turbo shop I ever saw. This place was amazing. Thousands of turbos everywhere.This looked like a serious operation, but when we got out and walked over toward the building, it seemed deserted. We suddenly heard someone calling from the stairway of one of the buildings, and we went over to see this person. It was an old black man. I showed him the bolt, and he said something like : "Oh yeah - we got about a thousand of those out back". He was not kidding.

  We went inside the big warehouse, and he started looking through buckets and coffee cans under a bench.It was dark in there, but I knew right away that we would find it. Within ten minutes, he handed me one and I said it would work. He took it over to the blast cabinet and cleaned it up, and while he was walking, I got out the only cash I had, which was a Ten. I asked what he would take for it, and he said $1. I would have given $20, but I figured I better just give what he asked, since this situation was already spooky. We walked toward the exit and I nearly walked off the dock. I told him I didn't want to do like Corie Mushrooms did when she jumped off the fallen pecan tree and her front legs buckled. He seemed to like that I had baby goats, and he laughed about that. I thanked him and shook his hand, and we left.
 

  I tested the new bolt and it fit perfectly. I had spent nearly a week looking all over the world for a seemingly rare part that was absolutely essential, and right at the very last minute before running out of ideas, all the necessary elements came together, as if by magic, and it was all settled - just like that. From the moment of remembering the possibility of a turbo application, all the clues coalesced and it was so obvious and simple. I do admit that this can be considered simple logic (a basic algorithm), and that anyone could examine all possibilities and eventually reach a solution, BUT - at the same time, it really, REALLY seems almost impossible that this worked out the way it did.

  This is actually more normal in my life than not. I always think about how people worry so much and they get mad at me sometimes because I just sorta "wing it", and everything always works out for me. It's true - I always know everything will be fine, and somehow - it always is. I have a charmed life. Somehow.

Epiphany?

  I just experienced what some would call an "epiphany". It was fascinating, and surprising. I came inside from walking with the babies, and I sat down with my catfish and organic fries and was listening to the Band Of Horses Live at Nudie Jeans 2014 recording on YouTube. Some of the songs they played were what would be called sad songs by most. Melancholy at best. Anyhow, I was thoroughly enjoying being inside in the A/C and my food was remarkably good, as it usually is (I spent many years honing my craft and I am obsessive about quality and attention to detail), and it suddenly occurred to me that I was experiencing this music in a way I never had in my life.

   This is the interesting part. These songs, by nature, are written to express something the writer has experienced, usually, and they seem to elicit a similar response in the listener most of the time -when they are really well-done. Yeah? You with me? Anyhow, I have (mostly)always either been "in love" or "feeling bad-about-some-failed-love", and thus I either listened only to "happy" music or "sad" music.

   Just now, however, I suddenly found myself experiencing a very new response to this "sad" music. For the first time, I heard the song. Just the song. I heard what HE was feeling, and I heard the lyrics, and the instruments, and the art of it. I had no emotional response whatsoever, other than a rational appreciation for the poetry of the song. I am neither "in love" with someone, nor mourning the loss of someone. I am merely alive and well, and pretty happy. It is utterly fascinating to me. I am truly amazed.

   I guess I passed an important mile-marker in my growth as a human today. Yay!