Monthly Archives: January 2021

Jaws

Donna has a new assistant. No, not for work – she retired, remember? She bought something she’s wanted for a while – a Shark IQ robotic vacuum cleaner. She actually wanted it for the new park model house when we move in, but she’s been using it in the motorhome. It’s an amazing device.

It docks in a charging station – it’s battery operated. When it’s activated, it relies on a number of sensors as it finds its way around the floor. It will transition from hard floor surface to rug or carpet with ease. It can work in tight spaces such as around chair legs or tables.

It stores information in its memory and becomes more efficient as it “learns” the layout of the floorplan. When it finishes the task – about half an hour for the motorhome – it docks itself in the charger to recharge for the next use! Since it’s a Shark, Donna dubbed it Jaws.

I don’t think it will take much more time to vacuum the park model home – it’s twice the square footage but it’s also more wide-open allowing longer straight runs without a lot of maneuvering.

You might recall back in the beginning of November that I took our coach to Rocky Mountain Cummins Avondale shop on the westside of Phoenix. When they completed the lift-pump replacement, I felt I’d been taken. They overcharged for the work, including charges for work that wasn’t even performed. I filed a complaint with the Arizona Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division since I couldn’t get any satisfaction from Rocky Mountain Cummins.

The Consumer Protection Division basically just forwarded my complaint to the Cummins Corporate office. They, in turn, sent it to their legal counsel which responded by writing a letter stating they did nothing wrong. I countered their argument with another filing – their position was not justified.

Last week, a representative of Cummins phoned me and we talked it over. He agreed that a compromise solution should be made. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I just have to go to the Cummins shop in west Mesa and sign a release and they will refund me $606. A good ending to a bad experience.

Last week, Donna made an oven-roasted boneless chicken thigh recipe with a balsamic dijon garlic sauce. She served it over brown rice with French green beans with everything bagel seasoning. It was delicious – I loved the sauce.

Boneless chicken thigh with balsamic dijon garlic sauce

I think I said in my last post that experts, like author Kevin Kent, say most home cooks should have a selection of six knives or so. I’m getting there. I ordered another knife, bringing me up to five Japanese kitchen knives.

This time I ordered a petty. A petty is a small knife, usually ranging from 80mm to 180mm. The shorter size is for paring fruits or vegetables in your hand while longer pettys can used for board work. I ordered a 135mm petty from Japanese Chef Knives (JCK) in Tokyo, Japan.

This knife is from the Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan line and it’s made from a core of Hitachi Shirogami #1, also known as White steel #1 clad in soft stainless steel. The White steel #1 is a fine grained simple carbon steel without alloying elements and it takes a wicked sharp edge. The stainless cladding is unspecified, but I think it’s likely a SUS 410 series stainless like the stuff used on microwave oven or refrigerator doors.

This blade was hand forged by Teruyasu Fujiyama in Tokyo, Japan. Teru, or TF as he’s often referred to, is quite a character. He is a fourth generation blacksmith. In the 1970s, he and his father pioneered the art of cladding carbon steel by forge welding stainless steel to it. They had to experiment a lot before they got it right – 80% of the time they failed as the steel either delaminated or cracked. But they eventually got it right. TF is one of the very few blacksmiths that still make san-mai (three-layer) steel by hand forging. Most buy pre-laminated steel from the Hitachi YSS division or from Takefu Special Steel Company.

He makes three lines of knives, ranging from the value-priced Nashiji line to the mid-price Maboroshi and the premium line called Denka. I’ve read a lot about his work and a lot of knife aficionados complain about the lack of fine finish and fitment of handles on some of his work. Then they all rave about the fine heat treatment and geometry resulting in hard, durable blades with incredible cutting ability. It seems TF is rightly proud of his ability to forge great steel, but doesn’t care so much about a few stray grind marks or handle fitment. But the knife-crazy guys will pay upwards of a $1,000 for his top line stuff.

The JCK Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan line is their house brand and the particular knife I bought is sourced from the TF Nashiji line. I used it last night to slice an apple and it does have an incredibly smooth cutting feel. I also ordered a saya (wooden sheath) for safe storage. The simple magnolia wood saya was shown as available when I placed the order, but somehow it was out of stock when they picked the order. Koki-san at JCK took care of me though. He upgraded to the premium lacquer saya at no extra cost – it’s twice the price of plain magnolia!

We had some rain on Monday and Tuesday as a cold front came through. It was much cooler with the thermometer hovering around 60 for the daily highs. We had Midget-san under cover for a week when we finally had a warm, dry day yesterday. I uncovered it and found a dead battery! Something was drawing current from the battery. I put a charger on it. Then our neighbor, Chuck, brought over his charger with a boost function for starting.

I got the car fired up and Donna and I drove over to Basha’s for a few groceries and we picked up takeout from J&M – our favorite Chinese restaurant in the area. It’s amazing how affordable Chinese takeout is – we both had kung pao chicken with rice, spring roll, two crab puffs and soup for $12.50 per plate. And the portions were large enough for each of us to have a second meal of leftovers!

I got back on the pickleball courts Thursday and again this morning. My back is holding up fine. I planned to rest over the weekend, but they needed a player to fill out round-robin play tomorrow, so I’m in. It looks like we’ll end the month with fine weather. The temperature is predicted to be 70 or higher for the next several days.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Mesa Winter

The weather held up and I was able to coach the pickleball class on Wednesday. The daily high temperatures stayed near 70 degrees through Friday with occasional rain showers. My back is much better, but with the rain showers and breezy conditions, I didn’t play any pickleball. I’m raring to go now, but we’ll have to wait until the weather improves.

With a lot of time spent indoors, I’m trying to improve my kitchen knife handling skills. On Friday night, I helped Donna prep dinner. She had chicken with peppers and tomato over orzo on the menu, so I sliced onion and also red, yellow and green peppers. I also did a fresh basil chiffonade. I told Donna she needed to enlist me as sous chef early because I’m pretty slow with a kitchen knife. I keep in mind the wise words of Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto – he says if you cut yourself in the kitchen, it’s because you weren’t focused on the task at hand or you were trying to go too fast. The dinner came out excellent and it’s fun for Donna and I to work together in the kitchen.

Chicken with peppers and tomato over orzo

Saturday morning the rain held off and it wasn’t too windy which was a good thing. Donna had a tennis tournament at 10am. I walked down to the east courts to watch.

Donna and her teammate Cindy easily won their match. It was interesting. The tennis club here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort is very well organized and a lot of members take their tennis seriously. Donna has really improved her game and looks forward to continuing to take instruction and is thinking she might play in the tennis league next season.

I had an e-mail notification of a USPS packaged delivered on Saturday. The thing is, these notifications usually mean the package arrived at the local post office. The Viewpoint mail team picks up at the post office twice a day. Then they sort the packages and will usually put a notification slip in the small mailboxes the next day. With it being Saturday, that meant I wouldn’t get the notification until Monday. So what, right?

I was anxious to receive my package because I knew what it was. That’s right – another Japanese kitchen knife. This one came from Japanese Knife Imports in Beverly Hills, California. This store is operated by Jon Broida and his wife, Sara. They sell high-quality gear and Jon is both a former chef and expert knife sharpener. Sara is Japanese – she grew up in Haguro, Yamagata prefecture in northern Japan. She says, “Imagine Ohio with rice paddies instead of corn fields.”

How many knives do you really need? Most recommendations I’ve read for home cooks is around six. Professional chefs will have two to three times as many as they need some specialty blades and back ups for their most used knives. Anything more than that and you are a collector.

Donna has plenty of kitchen knives to choose from. I wanted to have some of my own. The Japanese knives I’ve bought for myself tend to be a little more specialized and higher maintenance. I don’t want to go too far though – I don’t need a collection. There are guys that constantly buy, sell and trade knives online just to keep their collections alive and sample knives from different makers.

For me it started with a $25 certificate from Cutlery and More. I ordered a Yaxell/Enso ko-bunka – an all around small utility knife. It’s a factory-made knife constructed from stamped steel blanks – with the discount certificate I got it for around $60. Then I bought a boning knife – a Misono honesuki (Japanese poultry knife) forged from Swedish steel at about twice the price of the Enso. Then I stepped up and bought a hand forged JCK Natures Blue Moon sujihiki – a slicer from Japanese Chef s Knife in Tokyo made in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

I went to the Viewpoint on-site post office Saturday afternoon and they were kind enough to find my package among the delivery waiting to be sorted. This time I really stepped up and bought a Kintaro 210mm Gyuto (chef’s knife) hand forged by Yoshimi Kato in Echizen, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Echizen was formed when the city Takefu and the town Imadate merged in 2005.

In Echizen, there’s a place called the Takefu Knife Village. This is a cooperative that was created by a number of master blacksmiths in the area. They were concerned about aging out of business while younger workers weren’t interested in learning the traditional ways of making knives and tools. The cooperative built a modern workplace and equipped it to attract younger workers. They buy steel in greater quantities by combining orders – a lot of their steel comes from a local factory, Takefu Specialty Steel Company.

I find the history fascinating and the Takefu Knife Village has been a huge success since it was formed in 1993. Today it’s a tourist attraction and supports many younger blacksmiths and sharpeners making knives with traditional methods.

Yoshimi Kato, the maker of my new knife works at the Takefu Knife Village where he forges steel into knives. He is the son-in-law of Hiroshi Kato, one of the founders of the village. He married Hiroshi’s daughter – I find it interesting that they have the same last name. I read that the name Kato ranks number 10 among the most common Japanese surnames.

I think this is a pretty cool knife. The core steel is Hitachi shirogami #2 clad in a soft stainless steel. Shirogami is often called white paper #2 or just white #2. This is because Hitachi ships it with a white paper label. The ship their aogami #1 and #2 with blue labels – thus they are called blue steel. The shirogami is a very pure carbon steel without any alloying additions. It can be made very hard through heat treatment allowing a thin, sharp blade that paradoxically is easily sharpened. The JCK sujihiki I have is made from stainless clad aogami blue #2 – it’s like white #2 with some chromium, manganese and tungsten added. Enough knife nerd stuff.

Winter has really arrived in Mesa, Arizona. Yesterday’s high was only 54 degrees with scattered showers. When it rains here in the desert, we rarely see a continuous drizzle like you might find in the Pacific northwest. When it comes down here, it usually pours with larger raindrops in small storm cells. The desert always welcomes moisture, but sometimes it can mean flash flooding. Today will only be in the low 50s with more rain. The rest of the week should be about 10 degrees warmer, but we can’t rule out more rain coming from the west where southern California is getting wet.

Who’s Tracking You?

Information is power – and that’s where the money is. How much of your information is out there? Probably a lot more than you think. Since I wrote my last post a few days ago, which featured Japanese kitchen knives, every time I open Facebook now, I’m inundated with kitchen knife advertising. I wonder who’s watching what I’m up to?

I dug into a few of the ads and found another interesting tidbit. There are companies using social media to not only advertise, but spread misleading information about their brands. For example, one brand called Dalstrong wants you to believe it makes Japanese kitchen knives. On their web site, the “Our Story” page doesn’t tell you anything about their story – it’s all advertising copy. Nowhere do they say their products are actually manufactured in Yangjiang, China.

I see ads loudly proclaiming “Japanese steel knives.” Hmmm…does that mean Japanese steel or is it a Japanese knife made in Japan from steel or what? “Japanese steel” in advertising copy usually means a misleading ad. Wasabi Knives are another company that wants you to believe it’s Japanese. Wasabi sounds Japanese, right? Maybe if a Japanese company wanted to be called horseradish they would use that name.

How about Kamikoto knives? They have an office in Tokyo and use Japanese 420J2 steel – an inferior steel not intended for knife blades. It’s usually only found in liners for pocket knives and bolsters or handle tangs. Kamikoto knives is another brand from Yangjiang, China – who knows, maybe it’s the same factory that makes the Dalstrong brand. They want you to believe it’s a quality Japanese product so they can charge $100 for a $10 knife.

Then there’s a company called Cookidea – when you read their ad carefully, you see it says “Japanese design” knives. Why would these companies go to these lengths to mislead? If the products they are getting from China are truly quality products, then just say so. I don’t have anything against a quality item made in China, however there’s a lot of junk peddled from Chinese factories out there.

About four years ago, I bought a pocket knife to break down cardboard boxes for recycling – we get a lot of Amazon deliveries and always seem to have cardboard boxes. I looked around and thought a Spyderco knife was the way to go. I didn’t want to spend much money. I just wanted a good workhorse-type pocket knife. Sal Glesser, founder and president of Spyderco, has his knife designs made in various factories around the globe. He doesn’t try to hide this fact – it’s openly displayed on his knife blade. The first knife I bought from Spyderco was a knife called Tenacious, made from 8Cr13MoV steel in China. It was under $50.

8Cr13MoV steel (Chinese)

I’ve used this knife almost daily since then – we start our day with a cup of hot lemon water while I grind and brew coffee – this knife cuts lemons most mornings. I liked the Spyderco product so much, that I followed with an assortment of Spydercos in different steel types from different factories.

Takefu Special Steel Company VG-10 steel – Japan

Carpenter Technology Steel CTS-XHP – USA

The Taichung factory has a great reputation for high quality with fantastic fit and finish.

Crucible Particle Metal CPM-Cruwear steel – USA

I have confidence in any Spyderco knife, regardless of which factory produced it. I can’t say that about Chinese companies that pretend to be something else.

Last Friday, I tried my hand at a Japanese dish that took me back to the days of my childhood. It’s called onigiri – a Japanese rice ball. My mom made these as snacks for us – nowadays I realize it was probably due to the cupboard being bare at the time. When I was a kid, I thought nothing of it. It’s just what it sounds like, rice packed into a ball shape. I rinsed white sushi rice, then soaked it in cold water for 10 minutes or so before putting it in the rice cooker to ensure a soft and sticky finish.

When the rice cooled, I put salt on my palms to keep the rice from sticking and flattened a handful. I put bits of ahi tuna in the center and squeezed it into a ball. In Japan, I’m told onigiri can be found in delis or convenience stores and is as common there as a sandwich is here. Donna and I each had two for lunch.

Over the weekend Donna tried a couple of recipes from a cookbook she bought here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. It had recipes from park residents and was sold as a fundraiser for a community charity organization called Sunshine Angels.

The first dish was a pork tenderloin with dijon marsala sauce. The sauce was a winner and I’m looking forward to having this one again.

Pork tenderloin with dijon marsala sauce, smashed red potatoes and green beans

Last night, she made a dish called gluten-free lemon chicken Chinese-style. It had a delicious lemon glaze but the recipe was labor intensive.

Gluten-free lemon chicken with brown rice and green beans

I’m pleased to announce I have a new ham radio callsign. The original callsign the FCC assigned to my station was KF0AZQ. This was a mouthful using the NATO phonetic alphabet – it was kilo-foxtrot-zero-alpha-zulu-Quebec. I applied for a vanity callsign – I asked for K7KPR. The number is assigned by region – I had zero before because my official address is in South Dakota. I applied for a seven in my callsign because we spend most of our time in seven land – Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming are all region 7. My request was approved today – I’m officially K7KPR – much easier phonetically – kilo-seven-kilo-papa-romeo.

The rain in yesterday’s forecast for the week ahead arrived early. We had rain and gusty winds last night. It’s dry, but it’s breezy and cloudy this morning. The forecast calls for more rain and high winds this afternoon with a high temperature of 74 degrees. More rain is expected through the weekend as moisture comes up from the southwest and the thermometer won’t reach 70 again for the remainder of the week – if they have it right.

My back is much improved and I plan to coach the pickleball lesson tomorrow – weather permitting. Donna has really stepped up her games – both pickleball and tennis.

Just One More

I got through last Wednesday’s pickleball coaching session without too much pain. I was very careful of how I demonstrated certain drills and techniques, then mostly stood to the side and observed the students. It was a 90-minute lesson and I think it went well.

Later in the afternoon, DHL delivered again. Yeah, I bought another Japanese kitchen knife. I know, how many do you need, right? Well, it’s like cowboy boots – just one more is always the answer. I wanted to have a longer slicing knife to use for brisket and tri-tip off the smoker. A Japanese style called a sujihiki was what I wanted. Sujihikis are usually long and only about one and a half inches (38mm) tall at the heel of the blade. They are ideal for cutting boneless meat into thin strips.

I had sent an e-mail with questions to Japanese Chef Knives and got a prompt rely from the boss there, Koki Iwahara. I placed the order for a JCK Natures Blue Moon kuritsuki/sujihiki. These knives are hand made in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Japan had a number of well-known blademaking cities, each with its own take on knife making. Sanjo historically was a place where blacksmiths made mostly farming tools. That changed and today there are reportedly around 100 knife factories in Niigata Prefecture. Factory in this sense doesn’t mean what we might think of a factory.

Many knife makers operate out of a small dwelling – maybe the size of an American two-car garage with one to three workers. This is typical in Sanjo where all of the knife making process, other than the handle, takes place under one roof. In other areas, different steps in the process are contracted out to various specialists.

Typical Sanjo knife factory – photo from Tokyoknives.com blog

Once again, Koki and DHL came through. The knife left Tokyo on Monday and I had it Wednesday afternoon. It’s a 9.5-inch (240mm) sujihiki with a “K” type reverse tanto tip.

I ordered a saya (wood sheath) to go with it. I oiled the chestnut handle and magnolia saya with camellia oil and it darkened nicely.

The extremely sharp blade is made from Hitachi Aogami #2 – also called blue steel #2 – a high carbon steel that’s not corrosion resistant. The blade is san-mai, that is, it’s three layers. The core of Aogami #2 is clad with soft stainless steel on each side, like a sandwich. This gives the advantage of the hard blue steel edge and the toughness of the soft cladding – otherwise the blade would be too brittle and fragile.

Wednesday evening, Donna cooked seared ahi (yellowfin tuna) and I put the sujihiki to test. It sliced the ahi cleanly with one pulling stroke into thin serving slices. She served it over Japanese fried rice with grilled bok choy. Delicious!

Seared ahi over fried rice with bok choy and a dab of wasabi

On Friday, Donna made an announcement on social media that she’s been considering for awhile. She officially announced her retirement. No more articles, newsletters or books to write, no more interviews with magazines and no more blogging. She’s selling her Internet domain name and completely leaving the organizing business. Her days are already full with tennis, pickleball, bicycling and sometimes just relaxing with a book.

I had another delivery and set about doing some regular RV maintenance work on Friday. I had ordered replacement filter cartridges from the RV Water Filter Store for our dual canister water filtration system. I replace the cartridges on a regular schedule – the sediment filter gets changed every three months while the carbon block filter gets changed every six months.

The water here in the desert is very hard with lots of mineral content. Additionally, in December, they replaced the water meters in the park, which undoubtedly released sediment into the pipes.

The 5-micron sediment filter really showed a lot of trapped debris and rust. I like the 5-micron element as it it’s fine enough, but still allows good flow. A one-micron filter would trap smaller particles, but it also impedes flow.

The weather has been delightful – as forecast, the highs have been in the mid to upper 70s with overnight lows around 50. We’ll have a few more nice days ahead, but clouds and a chance of rain are in the forecast by the end of the week.

Yakitori

I haven’t been motivated to write a post in the last week. In fact, I haven’t had much motivation at all. My back problems persisted. I was good for a couple of days, then the sharp pains returned for a few hours. Then I was good again for a couple of days followed by another set-back. I’ve been taking it really easy – resting, reading and not lifting or reaching for anything.

The situation is far better than it was a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t been able to play pickleball or engage in any real activity. I’m feeling pretty good today and I plan to give my weekly pickleball lesson at noon – I cancelled last week’s session.

One thing I managed to accomplish was making yakitori. Yakitori is a Japanese dish, typically made from chicken and grilled on skewers. It can be made from other proteins though. Yakitori can be seasoned very simply – just salt and pepper – or it can be grilled with a tare (TA-reh) sauce glazing. Tare can also be served on the side with the yakitori.

I made my tare sauce Friday afternoon. It involved combining a number of ingredients including soy sauce, mirin, rice wine vinegar, saki, brown sugar and chopped spices like garlic, ginger, scallions and black peppercorns. I combined the ingredients, brought them to a boil, then simmered them. Before I put the sauce pan on heat, I measured the depth of the liquid by dipping a wooden toothpick in it. The tare stained the toothpick, giving me a starting depth gauge.

I simmered the tare until the liquid reduced by half. This took a lot longer than I expected – close to an hour. I strained the liquid into a Mason jar, removing all of the chopped ingredients and refrigerated it. Tare can be kept refrigerated for a long time – some Japanese yakitori chefs keep adding to their batch of tare and haven’t run out in years!

On Saturday, I boned four chicken thighs. The new honesuki boning knife I mentioned in my last post worked a treat. But, cleanly boning each thigh to produce one continuous piece of meat was harder and took longer than I expected. I’m sure I’ll get better at it with more experience. I planned to make a yakitori called negima.

For this, I cut the thigh meat into squares of about an inch. I kept the skin on about half of the pieces. I skewered it with a one-inch cut of green onion between every other chicken piece. I also rolled up some of the peeled skin to skewer on the end for a crunchy bite called kawa.

Once I had the skewers cooking on the grill, I brushed them with the tare. You need to wait until the chicken is nearly done to avoid burning the tare.

Meanwhile, Donna prepared Japanese fried rice. You may wonder, what’s the difference between Japanese fried rice and Chinese fried rice? Mainly, Japanese fried rice is made from short-grain rice while Chinese uses long-grain.

She also sauteed shishito peppers to have on the side. We plated the food with some extra tare on the side.

My kawa didn’t come out crispy enough. I think I packed the skewers a little too tightly. It’s a learning process, but the meal was delicious. The tare was a real treat – the chicken was tender, juicy and flavorful and the fried rice was nearly perfect. I’ll keep working on perfecting yakitori.

Last night, Donna prepared an Italian dish for dinner. She’s been wanting to go to Cafe Roma, one of our favorite Italian restaurants, but with the covid restrictions we haven’t made it there. Donna made her marinara from scratch, added Italian sausage and served over sausage stuffed ravioli. Delicious!

Sausage stuffed ravioli with marinara and Italian sausage

So, other than food topics, I don’t have much to add at this time.

Our neighbors from Iowa, Dean and Janice, arrived yesterday. We’ve been next-door neighbors every winter for the last four or five years.

The weather has been a little cool, but more than bearable. Our daily highs have been mid-to-upper 60s. Overnight lows are very cool, dipping to the upper 30s or low 40s. We should see 68 degrees today with clear skies. The forecast through the weekend calls for abundant sunshine and daily highs in the mid 70s.

DHL Delivers

In my last post, I said we were planning to drive over to Lotus International Market in west Mesa to buy some odds and ends I needed to learn how to make yakitori. My memory was faulty though. Lotus International wasn’t the store I thought it was. It had mostly spices and ingredients for Indian cuisine. We went to Asiana Market about a mile west on Dobson at Southern Avenue.

By then, it was after 1pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch. Asiana Market has a small food court where we found excellent Korean style noodle dishes for lunch. I also found what I was looking for in the store. Getting in and out of the Midget didn’t do my back any favors, so I took it easy over the weekend.

Speaking of favors, RV Parts Center did me right by shipping out the TriMark door lock right away. It arrived intact on Monday. The broken entry door lock assembly was bothersome. I had it rigged so I could get it to open the door, but I was a little worried about it not working and locking us out of the coach.

Broken door lock – the handle is out of alignment and barely useable

Removal of the lock assembly was quick and painless – it only involved two circlips and one mounting nut.

With the old lock in hand, I could see clearly how it failed. The pivot point for the mechanism was cast into a pot-metal housing. The metal fatigued and a piece broke off, allowing the mechanism to slide out of the housing rather than pivot as designed.

Installation of the new part was a breeze. The outer handle surround is a little different shape on the replacement part – it’s a more modern look.

I had one issue though. The part that clamps the lock assembly to the door has an arrow and is marked “Keyplug this end.” When I tried to put the clamp in place, it wouldn’t sit right. I flipped it so the arrow was pointing down and it fit perfectly. I assembled it this way and it worked fine. But it bothered me.

I got on the Internet and searched through TriMark’s site until I found engineering drawings of the lock assembly. I found the nomenclature they use for the lock. Keyplug refers to what I would call a lock cylinder. For reasons I can’t fathom, they want the mounting clamp oriented with the arrow pointing toward the lock cylinder. I took it back apart and flipped the clamp – it took a bit of fiddling, but I got it in place. Job done!

Tuesday turned out to be a breakthrough day for me. My back was much improved – I still had a lower back ache, but that’s the thing. It was a dull ache, not the sudden, sharp debilitating pain I was experiencing up until then. I cancelled the pickleball coaching session for Wednesday and I’m hoping another week of resting my back will do the trick.

I was outside reading a book and monitoring radio traffic on two local repeaters when a Jeep stopped in front of our site. The driver called out “CQ…CQ…CQ.” That’s ham-speak meaning “seeking a contact – any station.” It turned out to be Dave and Shannon – fellow RVers we met a few years ago in San Diego. I didn’t know Dave was a ham, but he is. They’re currently at Usery Regional Park, but need to move in about a week and they were checking out Viewpoint. We chatted for a few minutes before they left to look at another RV park.

Our friends Dick and Roxy Zarowny arrived from Spokane, Washington on Tuesday afternoon. They’re two sites down from us. Yesterday, Dick was having an issue with his generator. Previously, he had a carburetor problem and a shop replaced the carb. He was trying to run the generator, but it wouldn’t start. I went over to have a look. What I found was a voltage drop at the generator when he tried to start it,. I suspected high resistance or a bad battery.

We found a lot of corrosion at the chassis battery terminals. Dick took them apart and cleaned them with a baking soda solution. The generator still just clicked without turning over. Dick made a call to someone in Spokane and was told to switch the 50amp connection off. The generator started. I can’t make sense of this – the transfer switch should have all loads disconnected from the generator until the generator is running. It’s puzzling. I’m afraid I wasn’t much help – I was concerned about bending and reaching while checking it over – I didn’t want my back to start acting up again. I still have a dull ache in my lower back.

My current obsession is Japanese style cooking and Japanese kitchen knives. It all started when I bought a set of Japanese kitchen knives for Donna. Japanese knives tend to be specialized for specific tasks. They’re also elegant – my set of J.A. Henckels German kitchen knives seem clunky in comparison. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a Japanese bunka knife, thinking it would be just the thing for trimming meats for the smoker. It turned out to be a good choice – it makes trimming fat and silverskin easy.

I spent about a week looking for a Japanese boning knife. I settled on a honesuki – a Japanese knife specifically made for breaking down and boning chicken. It also works well for pork ribs and any task other than actually cleaving through bones. After much reading and comparisons, I ordered a Misono 145mm Honesuki made from Swedish carbon steel.

All of our previous kitchen knives have been made from stainless alloys. This Swedish steel is a low alloy steel often referred to as carbon steel – a misnomer as all steel contains carbon. Carbon steel can take a finer edge and be hardened in way that holds the fine edge for extended use. It also is easier to sharpen in most cases than stainless steel which has a high chromium content.

Steel made from iron ore mined in Sweden has been a choice for sword and knife makers for centuries. It was known to have a finer grain and great strength. Now we know why – the iron mined in Sweden has trace amounts of a magic ingredient – Vanadium. Nowadays, vanadium is routinely added to many alloys for greater strength. The big drawback is corrosion resistance – or lack thereof. Carbon steel will corrode and rust fairly quickly if not kept clean and dry or oiled. Since the intended use of this knife is parting and boning chicken or separating rib bones, I wasn’t worried about corrosion. It would be different if I intended to use it on acidic fruits and vegetables. With the intended use, I don’t think keeping it in good condition will be an issue.

Remember the troubles we had with the US Postal Service? Here’s a contrasting delivery story. I ordered the Misono knife from Japanese Chef Knives (JCK) in Tokyo, Japan. I placed the order late Sunday afternoon which was early Monday morning in Tokyo. The next morning, I had an e-mail from JCK telling me the knife had shipped via DHL. Tuesday morning I had tracking info from DHL and expected delivery was between 2pm and 6pm Friday. Wednesday morning I had an e-mail with updated tracking – the knife went from Tokyo to Cincinnati, Ohio on Tuesday. Wednesday morning it arrived in Phoenix. Then I got another update advising delivery would be Wednesday afternoon! I received the knife around 3pm Wednesday. Tokyo to Cincinnati to Phoenix to Mesa – it left Tokyo Monday and I had it two days later!

I’m impressed with DHL Worldwide delivery

Knife packed with blade wrapped in anti-corrosion paper

I also ordered some accessories from JCK. Donna’s santoku knife doesn’t fit in our knife blocks, so we’ve been keeping it in a drawer with the blade protected by a cardboard cover. Keeping knives loose in a drawer is less than ideal. Not only can it be hazardous to have sharp blades exposed, the blade can also suffer damage when the edge is jostled against another hard steel knife in the drawer.

Japanese chefs often store their knives in a wooden saya – a sheath made from wood. I ordered three sayas of different sizes from JCK – one for the santoku, one for the bunka and one for the honesuki. They’re made from magnolia, are light weight and will protect the blades from damage or unsuspecting fingers.

I also bought some camellia oil on Amazon. This oil is food-grade and comes from Japanese camellia seeds. It’s often used as an antioxidant for skin and hair, but it’s favored by chefs and wood workers for preserving blade steel.

The great weather has continued with blue skies, light winds and afternoon temperatures in the low 70s. The highs are forecast to be a little lower over the weekend – high 60s – but we should be back into the 70s next week. The overnight lows are very cool. The cloudless skies means the temperature drops quickly at night and last night, we had a low of 35 degrees.

Goodbye 2020

Happy New Year! January 2nd already! The new year is always a time for reflection and also for looking ahead. The last 12 months have been interesting, and not in a good way. It’s an old Chinese curse – may you live in interesting times! For us, it started around March as dire pandemic predictions were being made and people reacted.

First, there was the run on toilet paper. Then there were lines to get into stores and new rules for social behavior. Eventually we had lockdowns. You all remember this. It also meant a change in our plans for the year. We stayed here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort until the end of April – a little later than usual. We felt like we were fairly isolated from the general public in a bubble here.

Our original thought was to leave by mid-April and head over to San Diego. Lockdowns changed that plan. We decided to stay out of California for a while. We went to the northeast part of Arizona, then headed up through the Navajo Nation to western Colorado. We stayed out west and went up through Wyoming, western Montana and parts of Idaho we hadn’t visited before.

By mid-July we found ourselves in familiar grounds at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. By staying in rural areas up to that point, the pandemic was less bothersome and we didn’t meet anyone that had symptoms of the Wuhan flu. In western Washington, we visited family and I took up ham radio as a new hobby.

We left Washington in mid-August and came back through Idaho on the west side, staying mostly rural again. We saw some awesome sights along the way and came down to Utah – where we saw more awesomeness. We spent October at Lake Pleasant, Arizona, then Buckeye before settling back in at Viewpoint on November 14th.

We managed to avoid coronavirus symptoms along the way. We stayed at fewer places than we usually visit and only traveled about 4,100 miles in the coach in 2020. We stayed healthy for the most part – until I hurt my back a few weeks ago.

Looking forward, things will change again. We’re purchasing a park model home here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. It’s a small unit – about 800 square feet – on the nine-hole golf course. Our back deck will face the fairway just before the 6th green. There are two golf courses here – the nine-hole and an 18-hole course. There are also swimming pools (four), tennis courts, pickleball courts and shared areas like banquet halls and so on that are currently closed down.

The plan for the future is to travel during the summer months when we can find good weather up north and escape the desert heat. We’ll store the coach and stay here over the winter months.

Meanwhile, life goes on. And it’s not such a bad life. The pandemic is affecting everyone and everything but we aren’t complaining. Donna continues to cook great meals and I still get to man the Traeger for smoked meats. In fact, I cut a two-pound London broil and made jerky a few days ago. Donna thinks it’s my best jerky ever.

We had a couple of setbacks though. Our microwave/convection oven broke and needed to be replaced. With that done, it was only a matter of time before something else came up – Murphy’s Law and all that. A few days ago, the entry door latch started sticking. Then Donna opened the door and said something went “pop” and the handle didn’t feel right.

I took the door panel off and found a broken door latch mechanism. When you pull the handle, a part of the mechanism rotates in the door latch housing. This rotating part is what levers the door lock pin to release the door. The part has a stamped pin/axle that fits in a hole in the housing. I found the housing had broken – a piece of metal separated and opened the hole for the pin/axle so it no longer captures the pin/axle. This, in turn, allows the rotating part to just flop around instead of levering the door latch pin in to allow the door to open.

I found a source for the TriMark door latch and lock assembly at RV Parts Center. But, the catalog was unclear and although I thought I had found the correct replacement part, I was unsure. On Wednesday morning, I called RV Parts Center and talked to John. He thought I had the right part in mind, but wanted a photo of the old assembly to be sure. I was pressed for time. I had re-assembled the door panel and I had to coach my pickleball session in half an hour – and I needed to have lunch before I went to teach the pickleball lesson. John told me if I couldn’t get him a photo soon, they wouldn’t be able to help until next week – they were closing for New Year, Thursday through Sunday.

I scrambled and got him a photo.

John confirmed the part match and shipped the part Wednesday afternoon. It’s scheduled to arrive January 5th, but it was shipped via USPS priority mail. I haven’t had much luck with USPS lately. I ordered cigars on November 28th and they were shipped priority mail. On December 5th, the update just said “In transit.” On December 20th, they were still “In transit.” I called the shipper and they sent me a replacement order, which shipped out on the 22nd. On the 23rd, I received the first order – 25 days in transit! On the 26th, I received the replacement order – four days in transit! So, it’s hit or miss. Donna missed with USPS on Christmas cookies she sent out to family. None of them arrived before Christmas although she sent them on December 15.

Giving the pickleball lesson turned out to be a mistake. I got a little too “hands on” in the session and Thursday I could hardly move without intense pain in my lower back. I’d been taking naproxen to counter the inflammation for a week and needed to stop. Naproxen is hard on your stomach and kidneys. Donna heard about a natural pain reliever called Curamin. A woman here at Viewpoint takes it for chronic knee pain and she swears by it – it allows her to play pickleball pain free. Donna found it at Sprouts Market and bought a bottle for me. I started taking it Thursday evening and it works! I’m experiencing less pain than I had while I was taking naproxen.

Now I just need to rest my back and allow the strain to heal. I’ve been taking it easy, spending a lot of time reading. I read the Knife Engineering book cover to- cover and learned much about steel chemistry and manufacturing. Donna joked that it must be a real page turner! Seriously, I hope I never lose the thirst for learning.

We continue to enjoy good home-cooked meals. This week Donna prepared a delicious chicken dish – spinach and cheese stuffed chicken.

She kicked off the new year with a breakfast frittata that had asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, ham and Italian cheese with herbs.

Last night we had great Italian sausage lentil soup. Super tasty! She got the recipe from a friend who says it’s a New Year’s tradition in their Italian home to make this soup. It’s supposed to bring good luck in the new year. The soup can also be made with cooked ham or smoked sausage. The original recipe called for ditalini, but Donna substituted orzo.

Today, I think I’ll drive over to west Mesa to the Lotus International Asian market. I want to buy some ingredients for Yakitori – I want to make some Japanese dishes. The weather had remained on the cool side and I’ve left the top up on Midget-San. Our daily highs have just been breaking into the low 60s with overnight lows in the high 30s. Brrr. There’s a warming trend forecast though – we should be back in the 70s in the next week with lows in the 40s.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Monthly Archives: January 2021

Jaws

Mesa Winter

Who’s Tracking You?

Just One More

Yakitori

DHL Delivers

Goodbye 2020

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