Monthly Archives: November 2021

Queen Creek, Olives and Pork

Donna and I have fallen into fairly repetitive and predictable routines lately. After starting the day with pickleball yesterday, we changed things up a bit. We hopped in Midget-San and took a drive. It was a beautiful day – blue skies, not much wind and the temperature was a comfortable 80 degrees. Perfect for top-down driving.

We headed east to Ironwood Drive and followed it south through the desert to Queen Creek. It was a little over a 20-mile drive. Queen Creek is a town straddling the Maricopa and Pinal County line. It was mainly an agricultural town with cotton farms, cattle ranches and so on, but in the last ten years, its population has doubled as housing developments exploded. It was originally a small community at a train stop called Rittenhouse in 1919.

Our destination was the Queen Creek Olive Mill. The Queen Creek Olive Mill is a family-run olive farm encompassing 100 acres. They grow olives and press high-quality olive oil. They are the only virgin olive oil producer in Arizona. We signed up for their 11:30am Olive Oil 101 Tour.

This wasn’t really a tour, it was more of a presentation. We toured the Lucero olive oil facility in Corning, California and had seen how they operate first-hand. I posted about it here. The Queen Creek Olive Mill has an interesting story though.

Back in 1997, Perry and Brenda Rea visited Scottsdale, Arizona and were surprised to see olive trees growing in the valley. They got an idea – what if we could produce olive oil here in the Valley of the Sun? They found that olive trees flourish in this arid environment. They traveled to Italy to learn more about growing olives and pressing olive oil. Within a year, they left Detroit, Michigan and the auto industry to establish their farm on 100 acres of land in Queen Creek.

They started with 1,000 trees in 16 varieties. Now they have around 12,000 trees in those 16 varieties. Olive trees are native to the Mediterranean coast but are cultivated in many places. They are well-suited to the Arizona climate as they like heat and the dry climate prevents bacterial and fungal infections found in more humid climates. The heat in Arizona also precludes olive fruit flies – they can’t take the heat.

The older trees on the farm are grown in traditional spacing – 20 feet between trees with 20 feet between the rows allowing about 100 trees per acre. The trunks of these trees split into three to five different trunks and a canopy grows overhead after several years. Traditional trees must be harvested by hand.

  • Traditional spacing near the eatery

The newer groves are higher density. These trees are pruned so that only one vertical trunk grows. They are spaced about nine feet apart and the rows are about 12 feet apart. These trees can be harvested with machinery.

Medium density spacing

They irrigate the trees for one week, then allow the soil to dry for three weeks before irrigating again. The trees bloom in April and produce huge numbers of flowers. Most of the flowers are blown away over time by the wind and they pollenate the remainders. Only about 4% of the flowers become fruit.

They start harvesting usually in October – a little later this year as they waited for cooler weather. The youngest olives picked become robust extra-virgin olive oil. It has the strongest flavor profile with a pungent, peppery aftertaste. Next they harvest olives for their balanced extra-virgin olive oil – this is the oil that Donna favors. Lastly, they pick the more mature olives to press their delicate extra-virgin olive oil.

There are six types of vegetable oil made from olives. The purest are extra-virgin and virgin oils. To be classified as extra-virgin, the flavor profile must display three positive sensory attributes – bitter, pungent and fruity. There are nine sensory defects that can show up and if the oil has any of these defects, it can’t be labeled as extra-virgin. Extra-virgin has 0.8% free acidity. Virgin olive oil may have up to three defects and no more than 1.5% free acidity.

The other types of olive oil are refined lampante olive oil and refined pomace olive oil. Refined olive oil is made from stocks that are unfit – they contain too many defects and require a physical refining process (lampante) or they are chemically refined (pomace). The last two types are misleading and I think many consumers are ripped off buying them. The fifth type is labeled olive oil and it’s made by blending at least 5% virgin olive oil with refined lampante oil. The sixth is the same thing but based on refined pomace oil.

Olive oil is best when it’s bottled in a dark glass container. It should be stored away from direct sunlight and heat sources. It’s best when used within 12 to 15 months of bottling and most quality olive oils have the bottling or pressing date on the label or bottle.

We had lunch at the Olive Mill – we ordered from the Italian-inspired eatery and took our lunch at an outdoor table set among olive trees. While we waited for our food order to come up, we shopped around in their market. Donna noticed something interesting – they had extra-virgin olive oil in three-liter bags like you can find in a box wine. Three liter bags sold for $60 – a good buy if you can used that much oil in 12-15 months.

Three-liter olive oil bags

After lunch, we hopped back in the Midget and drove east on Combs Road a couple of miles to another well-known Queen Creek establishment – The Pork Shop. They are a butcher shop that specializes in pork – they’ve been at this location since 1979.

The Pork Shop started when the owner, Greg Combs wanted to find a way to market the pork from his swine farm. He was a third-generation pig farmer at the Combs farm established by his grandfather in the 1940s. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Combs Road led to the old Combs farmstead. He started doing his own butchering and added a smokehouse and sausage making to his operation. It quickly grew and now he no longer raises pigs – all of his pork comes from corn-fed pigs raised in the Midwest.

We shopped a bit in this interesting little market. Donna selected a few sausages and a smoked pork shank for pea soup. I snagged a pound of pork belly to slice for uncured bacon.

Pork belly

That pretty much sums up a day out and about. The forecast for the coming week looks very fine – mid 70s to 80-degree highs and nighttime lows in the 50s. The forecast for Thanksgiving day is sunny with a high of 75 degrees.

*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!

Full Plates

Sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough hours in a day. I know that’s hard to imagine – after all, we’re retired and usually don’t have any pressing matters on our daily schedule. But, we’re active and have a number of things we like to do on a regular basis. None of it really can be regarded as work – I define work as any activity that occupies my time when I’d rather be doing something else.

My day usually involves a couple of hours on the pickleball court, a couple of hours practicing guitar, and sometimes I get on the air with my ham radio and make contacts all over. Sometimes I may have a household project to tackle. Donna is busier than I am. She plays tennis as well as pickleball, lines up a couple hours of work doing various things for others here in Viewpoint, she’s on the board for the Viewpoint Concert Band and also volunteers as a street captain. And she’s actively involved in the tennis club. Now she’s learning to play golf too.

I’ve been taking a deeper dive into electronics – particularly vacuum tube amplification. To that end, I recently bought a couple of pieces of equipment that will allow me to take a more certain approach to troubleshooting, maintaining and repairing amplifiers. I bought a signal generator – more specifically a Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) signal generator that can create various waveforms and frequencies. I also bought a Rigol DS1102 Digital Storage Oscilloscope (DSO).

I used the DDS signal generator to feed the input of the DSO and calibrate it. I also made a resistive, non-inductive dummy load to act as a speaker load when I test an amplifier. Amplifiers should never be operated without a load – usually a speaker. But to avoid annoying, loud tones while testing, a dummy load that doesn’t produce sound is the way to go. The signal generator can produce a consistent, known waveform to aid signal analysis. I also made an input jumper to connect the DDS signal generator to the amplifier input.

Now I can create an input of a known frequency and amplitude into the amplifier and check the signals progress through various stages of amplification with the oscilloscope.

DDS signal generator and digital storage oscilloscope
Improperly triggered waveform on the oscilloscope
Sine wave triggered for analysis
100-watt resistive, non-inductive dummy load
Signal input connector

After building and playing my Dumble-style Trinity OSD amplifier, it became apparent to me that my Trainwreck-inspired amp didn’t sound as good as it once did. I built that amp nine years ago and it rattled around in the basement compartment of our motorhome for eight years.

I pulled the Trainwreck chassis and ran a 100 kHz signal though it. It appeared as though the tubes were breaking up and distorting earlier than I expected. I’d recently replaced the preamp tubes, so I figured it was time to replace the power (output) tubes – they were the nine-year-old original tubes. I had a matched pair of EL34 tubes on hand so I changed them and reset the bias. I made a boneheaded mistake doing that. The idle current through the tube should be set with a bias potentiometer to around 42 milliamps. I couldn’t get it under 100 milliamps! This was no good. After futzing around and scratching my head, I realized I was still running a 100kHz signal through the amp. It wasn’t idling – it was powering up the signal silently into the dummy load! I disconnected the signal generator and made the bias adjustment with no issues.

The amp sounded much better after getting new power tubes, but I want to analyze the circuits further. I wanted to only make one change at a time, but I think I see a couple of things that I can improve to make this high-gain amp operate with less background hum. I’ll get busy on that soon. I may offer guitar amplifier maintenance and limited repair service for something to keep my mind active and make me feel useful.

I made myself useful last week by preparing Memphis-style dry-rubbed babyback ribs on the Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker/grill.

Rack of Memphis-style smoked babyback ribs

Donna served it with a medley of roasted vegetables and a loaded baked spud.

It looks like a small portion of ribs – it’s only two bones. But let me assure you, Donna and I had second servings of the ribs. They were outstanding!

Donna came up with an Asian-inspired flank steak recipe that also hit it out of the park!

Asian-inspired flank steak strips with brown rice and broccoli

The weather here in Mesa, Arizona keeps getting better and better. For the last week, we had highs in the mid-to upper 80s with overnight lows in the upper 50s. Today the forecast calls for a high of 82 degrees and the long-term forecast calls for highs around 80 and overnight lows in the low to mid 50s. Very pleasant!

*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!

Snowy Rooftop

My last post mentioned Bill Hansen, Owner/Operator of Sun Limited Foam, Inc. who was here with a helper to install Cool Foam roof coating on our park model home. As the work progressed on Tuesday, it became apparent that they wouldn’t get it finished in one day as they’d hoped. They ended up knocking off a little early – I imagine it was pretty hot up on the roof as the cloudless sky produced a temperature in the upper 80s.

They were back at it Wednesday morning, but this time Bill brought two helpers. It was a lot of work but they had most of the foam layer done before taking a lunch break. They had a trailer with a generator and pump that pumped the foam chemical through a hose which they used to spray the product over the roof. The foam layer is about one-inch thick and has an insulation value of about R13 to R15.

The foam coating is a tan color and it alone would insulate and seal the roof, but it isn’t UV resistant and would break down from constant exposure to sunlight. So, once they had the foam covering everything, they switched to a pure white elastomer product to spray over the foam coating. This elastomer adds some insulation value, but its real purpose is to protect the foam below and reflect sunlight from the surface. This helps keep the place cooler on sunny days – of which we have over 300 per year here in Arizona.

Bill spraying elastomer product over the foam coating
Looks like snow on the roof – when he’s finished it’ll all be white

The Cool Foam coating covers everything except for the car port roof. It extends a few feet over the car port roof to seal the edges where the car port corrugated metal roof joins the house.

We’ve kept busy with different activities here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. I play pickleball most mornings while Donna plays tennis twice a week and pickleball two or more days per week. I’ve also started 90-minute coaching sessions on Tuesday afternoons. Donna is also learning to play golf – she had her first lesson with her friend Ginny over the weekend.

Most days, Donna provides home and companion care services for a couple of hours per day. People here at Viewpoint that need help with cleaning or moving or pet sitting and various other tasks can hire Donna and she’s been in fairly high demand.

We both also practice music most days – Donna with her clarinet and me hacking away on the guitar. Donna finds time most days to come up with great dinner dishes as well. Last Tuesday, she made country style ribs in the slow cooker and served it with a baked potato and asparagus.

Slow cooked country style ribs

A couple of days later, she baked fish in parchment paper and served it with Southern fried cabbage with bacon.

Fiah baked in parchment paper and Southern fried cabbage

Last night, she made balsamic steak tips with mushrooms and served it with spaghetti squash with bacon and parmesan cheese. Delicious!

Pan fried sirloin strips with mushrooms

I have to rant about something. My dental insurance premium is supposed to be automatically paid through my Healthcare Reimbusement Account (HRA), but something went wrong there and Cigna billed my credit card. No big deal, right? Just submit the expense to the HRA and get reimbursed. But here’s the issue.

They sent me an e-mail stating that my credit card was billed. The e-mail had a link to the MyCigna website so I could view the details. I clicked on the link. No payment details there – no payment history (I searched all over the site). The e-mail also had a phone number for Cigna billing and enrollment services if I had any questions. I called this number and went through about a dozen menus and questions before I spoke with a person.

They told me to click on Payment History on the website. I asked them to tell me where I would find this option – there’s no search function on this lame site and no payment history option that I could find. The person told me they don’t have access to the site, so he couldn’t tell me how to find the option. Some helpdesk, right? I asked him if he could look up my account and e-mail me a payment receipt so I could submit it for reimbursement. He said he could only mail a paper copy or fax it to me – like we all have fax machines at home in 2021. Maybe 15 years ago that would’ve worked. So that’s the service from Cigna – a link to website that doesn’t show any payment detail and a phone number to a helpdesk that isn’t very helpful. I’ll have to wait 10 to 14 business days for a paper receipt in the mail!

The weather in a word has been delightful. We were pushing 90 for a few days, but it’s mostly been mid to upper 80s with comfortable evenings and overnight lows in the mid 50s. The morning temperatures are very comfortable. The swamp cooler easily handles the afternoon temperature and we haven’t had to run the air conditioning. Today’s forecast calls for a high of 85 and next week is supposed to be 5 to 10 degrees cooler.

*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!

Cool Foam Roof

We finished October with a few days in the low 90s here in Mesa, Arizona. It cooled down a bit on Sunday with a high of 88 and today we expect a high of 82 degrees. The golf course is open and golfers have come out in force. We’ve had a few golf balls strike our roof.

Yesterday, while Donna and I were walking to the pickleball courts, we saw an unusual cactus in a neighbor’s yard that’s bearing fruit. I think it’s a variety of senita cactus called totem pole. It’s not native to the Arizona desert, but it’s often planted as a landscape feature. It does well here, but is originally found in the Baja California peninsula. It’s not frost tolerant.

Cactus bearing fruit

Some cactus fruit is edible and there are many recipes for prickly pear fruit – it’s commonly harvested. Others, such as saguaro, are edible but cannot be picked in the desert, only from cultivated plants. Cholla fruit is also edible, but you’d have to be pretty brave to pick it – I won’t go near a cholla.

We’re having our roof coated with Cool Foam today. Bill Hansen, the owner of Sun Limited Foam is here with a helper. They’ll put a foam coating over the shingle roof of our park model home and the Arizona room metal roof and they’ll lay down OSB over the corrugated metal roof on the shop/shed/ham shack and foam it. The foam dries instantly and is then coated with a reflective white elastomer coating.

The total thickness of the coating is about one inch. It will reflect heat from the sun and provide an additional insulation barrier against heat and cold. It also effectively seals the roof against water intrusion. It isn’t cheap, but I think it’s a worthwhile investment in our home.

I skipped pickleball this morning to go over the job with Bill and be available as they started work. At noon, I’ll head over to the pickleball courts to give my first lesson of the season. I’m accepting four participants at a time for a 90-minute coaching session which entails about 20 minutes of oral presentation clarifying rules that are often misinterpreted and common strategies and then we drill on a few shots before scrimmaging games where we critique each point played. It’s fun and this format was well-received last year. It also helps my game as coaching this stuff reinforces in my mind the things I should be doing on the court.

I’ve been playing my Dumble-style OSD guitar amp daily. I had an issue at first that took me a couple of days to figure out. Many guitar amplifiers have a circuit called negative feedback and a potentiometer to control it. This potentiometer is usually labeled “Presence”. It boosts high frequencies and colors the sound. Regular tone controls usually labeled bass – middle – treble, cut unwanted frequencies to shape the tone. They are subtractive, they can’t add, they only cut frequencies. Presence on the other hand adds to the original high frequencies.

In a push-pull amplifier with two or four power tubes, one half amplifies the upper part of the sine wave (positive voltage) and the other amplifies the lower part of the sine wave (negative voltage). For the feedback circuit to work, you have to apply only the negative signal. If you have positive feedback, bad sounds usually result. I had a unique problem. My bass response went all wonky only when I played the fifth fret of the sixth string ( “A” note on the low E string). It turned out I had positive feedback, not negative. I had a hard time figuring this out because I never heard of positive feedback making bad things happen on one note only – usually guys complain of squealing or horrible sounds all the time. Anyway, it’s straightened out now and I love the amp.

With Donna back from her trip to Florida, I’m back to fine dining. She made a new pork tenderloin dish called best baked pork tenderloin which is seasoned with Italian seasoning and served it with shredded Brussel sprouts – another first. We loved it.

Italian seasoned pork tenderloin with shredded Brussel sprouts

Last week I needed to retrieve some stuff from our coach at 202 RV Valet. They have great security there, but we have 24/7 access through a coded entry gate. It records the unique code used whenever anyone enters, so they have records of who came in and when. Many of the enclosed spaces hold high-end boats and a few are in the covered spaces where we keep our coach. I noticed a guy was visiting his boat and snapped a photo of his ride. He parked his Ferrari next to his boat.

Ferrari and Centurion wake boarding boat

We’re expecting another week of fine weather with highs in the low 80s and overnight lows in the mid 50s. The last half of the month should be cooler with daily temperatures in the 70s and overnight lows dipping into the 40s. No complaints here.

*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!