Why I Oughta...

As I've posted about here on the blog, I'm working on my home shop.  It is going in the basement and may or may not have a window and a wall-hung bench .  I'm planning on closing up all the available space with a wall and door, but also planning on filling the joist space above the wall to ensure that the dust from the shop stays in the shop and doesn't carry out into the rest of the basement space. One concern about that is pressure.  Meaning, if I stuff the joist cavaties and seal the door with an external steel door, it is going to be a pressurized space.  The walls will be like a balloon everytime I close/open the door. When I was on the train home one afternoon recently, I saw this air filter/vent in the stairwell coming down on the Metra cars and it gave me an idea.  What about making something like this on the inside of the wall:  a spot where I can place an air filter.  And on the outside - drywall side - of the new wall, I cut a whole for one of these v

Via Adam Kuban on his Instagram handle (story) For years, I've been poking around this thread (and the various sub-threads ) on PizzaMaking.com that focus on Chicago-style thin crust (aka Tavern pizza) and in various places, posters have occasionally mentioned using diastatic malt powder - or sometimes non-diastatic - in their dough formulations.  And while I've been intrigued, I've never gone out and procured the stuff, let alone find out where I could buy it locally.  But then, this happened over the weekend on Instagram.  Slice (RIP) Head Honcho and "pizza influencer" Adam Kuban posted this upskirt and description in his recent stories .  I screenshot it above.  ( You can follow Adam here on Instagram .  Or you can learn more about his pop-up Margot's Pizza here .) He called out that he added diastatic malt powder for oven spring and color.  Color, people?!?!  That's one of the things that I've been working on over the years is a consisten

We found ourselves near the Jelly Belly Warehouse up in Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin recently and decided to take the two youngest kids on a tour and stop at the factory store.  The tour is free and is a nice way to spend an hour.   They put you on a little tram ride that takes you around the facility and shows you how they make the beans.  But...this isn't a factory.  It is a warehouse.  And we went on a Sunday when the place was shut down.  Still was fun, though.  They also have an in-house bean artist that does displays like the one you see above with Mickey and Minnie Mouse made entirely out of Jelly Belly jelly beans.  Here's the non-operational warehouse: One aspect of the tour is the wait for the tram to arrive.  There's only one tram and if it is out on a tour, you have to wait for it to come back into the station for the next tour.  They have you wait - not in the warehouse - but in a separate spot.  The waiting room is actually upstairs where they have a

Earlier this month, I posted about Nature's Best Market in Westmont and the deal they had on Chellino Scamorza Cheese out of Joliet.  Nature's Best Market sells it for $5.99 and that's quite a bit cheaper than what I normally see the stuff at Italian markets or a place like Angelo Caputos or Pete's Fresh Market.   I can't say it enough:  go find this Chellino Scamorza cheese .  If you are in the business of making pizzas at home, it will change the way you dress your pies.  It is super salty and seems to have a very high burn point, so you can really cook your pies well done and not come away with a very dark/too dark top.   The reason why I'm posting about it again, is that I've now found a second source that is in close proximity to our #newoldfarmhouse :  Angelo's Italian Market on 55th Street in Downers Grove .    Having lived in Downers Grove for more than half-of-a-year, I've now driven by this place more than 100 times.  It is ri

I've just about gotten to the end of my "Christmas Haul" posts here on the blog with this light bulb post.  Most recently, I - hopefully - convinced those of you who are reading that I'm NOT just a bird-crazy person and that all I wanted was bird stuff .  I sure did get a lot from Nat and the kids, but I also scored a few other things from my brother-in-law ( the Sortimo T-Boxx from that I recently posted ), my father-in-law ( the Craftsman Multimeter that I posted last week ) that are both destined for my basement shop.  Or...as the naming convention around here insists:  my #NewOldWorkshop .  Nat's Mom and Dad gave me this LIFX bulb that is one of a handful of smart bulbs that work directly with our Google Home and don't require a Smarthome bridge/hub.  That has a lot of appeal to me.  You can find the details of Google Assistant/Home + LIFX here on the LIFX landing page specifically for Google Home .   They show you a bunch of the commands.    I

See the lonely boy, out on the weekend Trying to make it pay. Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and Can't begin to say. Think I'll pack it in and buy a pick-up Take it down to L.A. Find a place to call my own and try to fix up. Start a brand new day. The woman I'm thinking of, she loved me all up But I'm so down today She's so fine, she's in my mind. I hear her callin'. See the lonely boy, out on the weekend Trying to make it pay. Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and Can't begin to say. She got pictures on the wall, they make me look up From her big brass bed. Now I'm running down the road trying to stay up Somewhere in her head. The woman I'm thinking of, she loved me all up But I'm so down today She's so fine she's in my mind. I hear her callin'. See the lonely boy, out on the weekend Trying to make it pay. Can't relate to joy, he tries to speak and Can

As you guys know by now, we've become bird people .  We're now running four different feeders, a birdbath and even installed a water wiggler to attract the birds with moving water .  And while we have plans to install even more landscaping , trees and (gasp!) even a water feature , we have quite a bit of existing trees , shrubs and brush in our #newoldbackyard. We're pretty lucky to live on a mature and wooded lot with close proximity to a big pond ( Barth Pond ) and a creek that runs north from the pond behind some of our neighbor's houses.  That water source is a big factor in our neighborhood being able to attract and support wildlife.  Some of it is great!  Like birds and owls and hawks and rabbits and even foxes.  Some not so great?  Skunks and coyotes are also around.  Little Lizzie was skunked last fall and I'm sure it won't be the last time. Now listen...we're not camping people.  Or at least I'm not a camping person.  But, I do love cr