u/bodybyxbox

Went there for the first time today. Great vibes, great service, crowded but you could tell they work like a well oiled machine. I had high hopes for the food and drinks and it was...okay. The fried sweet plantains were the exception; they were perfect. The Cubano was dry. The plantain chips were soft and flavorless. And the drinks were not great. Again, very mid. Not well balanced; too sour, not enough "strong" (aka alcohol). Did I just experience a one off, or are the food and cocktails there just mid even though google reviews and the atmosphere suggest a great cuisine experience?

Even the word spreadsheets is beautiful.

I started a new spreadsheet last night to track gardening data and I was so excited and happy. Naming all the variables, making sure you operationalize everything just how you want it, making it precise but not overly bloated....

One spreadsheet i had ended up with 700 variables and 10,000 participants! Too big to truly enjoy sifting through the data.

This spreadsheet will be at least 100 variables, maybe more! Perfect size to luxuriate in. I can't wait!

I've been a doomer since before that was a word. It was the popular topic to chat about with my PhD cohort was how climate change was going to collapse the whole shebang. That was before Trump appeared as a particularly disgusting symptom of a deep disease of corruption, brutality, sexism, racism, classism and anti intellectualism. Now the idea of only dealing with climate change seems quaint and easy.

For me, the only way to quiet the panic was to prepare the best ways I could; secure land and clean water and learn how to raise/grow food. In 2019 I thought I had about a decade to learn how to homestead. I am grateful for getting at least 7. But I actually don't think my solution is necessary anymore. I think there will be shortages, but the US can grow soooo much food, and has so much food literally lying around!

Wait, what? Yes! Food is everywhere in the US, you just need to know what it looks like! If it helps you to to have a prepper goal to quiet those feelings of helplessness, and you don't have 50k to blow on land and building off grid (which again is probably not necessary), than my advice is to spend the next few months deep diving into foraging! I like Melanie Weird's content and book. And of course Black Forager is amazing. Food is growing as weeds all around you, and it was very empowering to me to learn that.

An additional task is to learn how to gorilla grow potatoes everywhere you can think of. One of the easiest plants to grow period, super nutrious and yummy and familiar and calorie dense.

Being in nature and learning valuable skills will help you so much more than therapists at this point (not including meds, take yur meds!)

I've been wanting to cull a few extra male ducks (if you don't already know; too many males and they start roughing up the females and causing problems). Well the perfect opportunity presented itself today, so I stopping working on fencing (a constant need it seems) to round them up, grab them by the necks, break those necks (I use the broom handle technique), and then pluck and butcher them. I'm now making duck feet and neck broth, one duck confit in the instant pot, and another breast is drying out in the fridge eventually to be cured with salt and sugar and then cooked up like bacon. I hope it works out, first time im trying the recipe.

It was a really good day. Thank you to this community for giving me a like-minded place to crow about it!