Steamed Poke greens from the Poke weed.
Sung by Tony Joe White, tells a good story about the poke weed and cooking some up for dinner. "chomp chomp."
Neighbor said he was chasing a cow that got out of the fence and was in a neighboring pasture when he noticed a large patch of fresh poke weed growing under the fence. Said he was distracted to the point of going to the fence and cutting a large bucket full of poke weed for dinner that night. Poke weed is a thing here and has been for decades. He said that a lot of folk don't like it, that he has to put hot sauce on it and would I like a small bowl to try. Again, he said that some folk don't like it. He accompanies home boiled Poke greens with a fresh batch of corn bread. I said "sure".
A few minutes later, he pulled up in the driveway with a tupperware container with a handle. Hot out of the pot. See through container showed dark green in a hot bath. "A lot of folks don't like boiled poke greens" he said again. Had a smile on his face.
I thanked him and took the container in the house. Here was an opportunity to try some fence greens common to the fields of east Texas. I showed my wife and she pulled away from me as I asked if she would like to sit down and try some authentic "poke salad greens." She said she had never tried them but "no, thank you."
Opening the lid, I noticed boiled bacon pieces and figured that the bacon was added to help with the flavor. The greens were dark, lush and drained down from the fork like spaghetti noodles as I portioned my first bites into a small bowl. Looked very much like steamed spinach and I am a big fan of spinach in any form. I added a few dabs of hot sauce and dove in.
One bite, two bites and three. Not bad. Good. A little salt, just like adding to spinach. I am a fan of most vegetables. I draw the line at rutabaga, but beyond that, enjoy most all vegetables. Grew up with my grandmother's garden.
Then I made the mistake of looking up Poke weed. I learn that it is poisonous if not boiled and boiled and boiled. The boiling takes out the poison and the weed becomes safe and edible. Folks have been eating this weed for years beyond my age. A poor people food that grows freely in the fields here and there.
Neighbor said that granddaddy lived to be 95 and ate Poke greens his whole life. Grandma, too. Point being, that all you have to do is clean it and boil it and boil it.
I will eat it again. Wife will not.
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JESUS NUT
The recent helicopter crash into the Hudson River has resurfaced the term, "Jesus Nut." It is the one single nut holding the rotor system onto the vertical transmission shaft coming from helicopters. I learned this in 1966 while attending some of entry courses in the U.S. Army's Primary Helicopter School at Ft. Wolters, Texas. That/those lessons were soon reinforced by our flight instructors when we learned how to pre-flight a helicopter. My instructor was adamant that in our preflight around the helicopter, we climb up and inspect the rotor system. That included hand turning the rotor system to visually inspect, and touching/twisting the moving connecting rods in the system. He was a believer that visual inspecting accompanied by physical touch insured a proper pre-flight inspection and he mandated all his students to do just that. I did that on every pre-flight of every flight I flew while in the Army. And yes, all of the touching and twisting found sticky control rods that needed attention by maintainence.
The main rotor hub is set down on top of the vertical shaft, special washers and spacers added and then the nut is torqued to specifications. There are metal tabs on one of the nuts that bend up to one of the flats on the nut and prevent the nut from coming loose in flight. I think that there had to be 3 of those flats bent up and touching the nut. Yes, we touched the Jesus nut as part of our inspection.
That helicopter flight program was by far the best eduction from any formal school or training I ever had to this day. There were many spin-off lessons that have applied to other mechanical devices in my life time and how to pay attention to detail.
I have watched two videos below trying to figure out what happened in NYC. Too early to say.
Now, any news story of this accident is so contaminated with jibber jabber from folks who have no business trying to explain anything helicopter related.
I have never heard of any helicopter crash directly related to the Jesus Nut coming off in flight. Bell Helicopter and the Army did make a video we saw in 1966 in flight school, of a Huey UH-1 helicopter on the ground, being tested purposefully to demonstrate what happens when lift is applied to a heliccopter rotor system without the Jesus Nut. The video was what expected it to be. Parts and pieces into destruction.
Whatever did happen in this accident, I am confident that I can say it was an instantanious catastrophic event. I would like to see more good video of the other pieces as they fall down too.
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I thought that I would check in on what Boston Dynmics is up to and some of the advances in their robots over the past couple years. Let your mind play with this!
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Mother nature and some exceptional photography.
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GET YOURSELF A 30-FOOTER AND GOMaybe nothing more than a fun read.
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JIBBER JABBER
A week of contractors working on the house. Some more roof repair and preventative maintenance on the siding of the house to prevent eventual rotting.
All the work is done and we have good bones in this ole house.
We drove to Edgewood yesterday to meet family at the Lumber Yard cafe. Delayed wife's birthday gathering and excellent food. My wife was gifted 8 lobster tails on ice. We have not had lobster since we left New Hamshire 5 years ago.
My wife steamed the tails in steamer bags for dinner tonight, two at a time, 2 minutes at 80%. Plated and devoured. She was like a kid digging, cutting and dipping into melted butter. Yea, it was grand. "Chomp chomp."
Thanks for the visit this week.
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