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Lighter Load with a Toad

In just 22 days, we’ll be making a major change in our lifestyle. We’re gearing up for the move to our new-to-us park model home here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. We will take possession on March 1st. Our motorhome will remain in site 5245 until the end of March, so we have a full month to make the transition. I plan to move everything out of the cargo trailer and put it up for sale. In the future, we plan to travel without the cargo trailer and leave the MG Midget behind.

To accommodate that, I’ve been looking at alternate transportation – we will tow a vehicle directly behind our Alpine Coach. We’ll be able to travel a lot lighter since we won’t have to carry everything we own all of the time. We’ll be able to leave behind winter clothing and a lot of the gear that’s in the trailer and basement compartments when we travel in the summer months.

After considering our needs and options, I decided to shop for a used pickup truck. We can set it up to flat-tow behind our coach and use the bed of the truck for things like Donna’s bike and the Sea Eagle kayak. Not all vehicles are suitable for flat-towing (all four wheels rolling). Most automatic transmissions with a few four-wheel drive exceptions can’t be flat-towed without making major modifications such as a drive shaft disconnect or external automatic transmission fluid (ATF) pump. Automatic transmissions will generally self-destruct if the driveshaft spins the output shaft of the transmission without pumping fluid through the transmission to cool and lubricate it. The ATF pump is usually found at the front of the transmission and only pumps fluid when the engine is running.

Most manual transmissions don’t have this issue. Some modern manual transmission designs still have flat-tow issues though. It would take a lengthy technical description to fully explain this, but I’ll try to simplify the details. In modern manual transmissions, the gearsets mesh together full time – that is, if the input shaft is spinning, the gears on it are turning the gears on the output shaft. However, only one set of gears can be engaged at a time. For this to work, one half of the gearset spins freely on the shaft (the shaft runs through the center of the gear) until the shift fork moves the gear along the shaft to engage splines, thus locking it to the shaft. Simultaneously, the previously selected gear is moved off of the splines and spins freely, so only one gearset at a time connects the input to the output.

Here’s where the problem can happen. In some modern designs, the gears on the input shaft are fixed while the sliding gears are on the output shaft. This means that with the transmission in neutral, engine off, the input shaft doesn’t spin as the output shaft is turned by the driveshaft because the output shaft spins freely through the center of the output gears – in neutral, none of them are locked to the shaft splines. The transmission relies on the spinning gearsets to splash the gear oil throughout the transmission. Since the gearsets aren’t spinning, things aren’t lubricated as well as they should be.

In older designs, the sliding gears weren’t all on the output shaft. Some were on the input and some on the output with corresponding fixed gears on the opposite shaft for each gearset. This kept oil splashing about any time either shaft was spinning. I had to do some research to find out which manual transmissions could be flat-towed without risk of damage. It turned out Toyota doesn’t recommend flat-towing any of their trucks, regardless of transmission type. I’ve read where several people have said they do it with Toyota manual transmissions and haven’t had any issues, but I don’t think going against the manufacturer’s recommendation is a good idea. Nissan, on the other hand allows it, but they advise starting the engine and letting it run in neutral for two minutes to spin the input shaft after 500 miles of flat-towing. This is easily doable.

I told Donna I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a vehicle that will be pulled behind the coach and subject to the road rash that’s inevitable. I also said I wasn’t interested in a lot of bells and whistles that could spell expensive repairs on a used vehicle. She bought into the concept.

I watched the Internet sites and found a few interesting trucks in the area. Yesterday we made a trip to west Mesa to look at one and take a test drive. It was a 2015 Nissan Frontier. It’s the base “S” model, 2.5 liter four-cylinder (QR25DE) engine with a five-speed manual transmission. This is the basic, no-frills model that Nissan advertised with a MSRP under $19,000 in 2015. By no frills, I mean no power adjustable seats, no power windows – that’s right, it has manual window winders and manual mirror adjustment. It does have climate control though. I didn’t want electric power windows – that to me means a possibility of having to replace a $300 window regulator when a manual window winder is under $100. I can roll windows up and down, no problem.

We took a test drive and I liked it. Back at the car lot, we dickered a bit and came to a deal. It was 2:30pm by then and we had dinner plans. Donna needed to shower, dry her hair and get ready to go out, so she left in Midget-San while I finished the task of buying the vehicle. Since I was dealing with a used car outfit, it wasn’t so simple to finalize everything. Once we had agreed on a price and the manager approved it, I told them I wouldn’t be financing – I would write a check for the purchase price.

Then I had to wait while paperwork was generated. I looked at the breakdown of the final cost and saw a “Doc fee” of $499! I told them to forget about it, there wasn’t any reason for me to pay a document fee when all they had to do was write up a sales receipt. There weren’t any financing or credit reports to generate. They rewrote the sales agreement lowering the purchase price by $500 and keeping the $499 doc fee. I was okay with that, but it shows how shady car sales can be. By keeping the doc fee on the paperwork, it made the floor manager on duty look stronger to his management, while cheating the salesman out of some commission. Salespeople are usually compensated with a percentage of the gross profit of the sale price (retail price paid minus wholesale cost of the vehicle and reconditioning costs equals gross profit). They don’t get anything for fees paid.

They left me stewing over this for about 45 minutes before I could finish the paperwork with their “closer.” This is where they try to generate some extra profit by selling mechanical breakdown insurance they call an extended warranty. I made it clear right away I wasn’t interested and finally got out of there around 3:30pm. We have a toad now – our 2015 Nissan Frontier truck.

This truck will be a lighter load going down the road than the loaded cargo trailer and our overall length will be four or five feet shorter. In RV parks, we can quickly disconnect the truck and won’t have to deal with finding a long pull-through or dropping the trailer.

I got home in time to shower and head out with Donna to the Power Food Park where we were meeting Howard and Sara Graff. The Power Food Park is an empty gravel lot with picnic tables, lights strung up, hay bales and few games like corn hole. Food trucks come in to the lot and it opens at 5pm for dinner.

Howard, Sara and Donna at the Power Food Park

We heard that Four Peaks Brewing would have a truck there Saturday night and we planned on having a cold one with dinner from one of many food offerings. It turned out that Four Peaks Brewing had a truck there, but it was serving food only, no alcohol sales in the food park! To say I was disappointed is an understatement. We claimed a table, then wandered and looked at the dinner options.

I decided to go for a gyro from a Greek food truck. It was a long wait for the food to come up. Meanwhile, Donna chose a Mexican shrimp bowl, Sara had a vegan bowl and Howard had a burrito. The Mexican truck they went to was much quicker than the Greek truck I was at. They were halfway through their meal before I even got back to the table.

Today is Superbowl Sunday. We were invited to a couple of Superbowl parties, but opted out. We are still playing it safe and avoiding indoor contact with large groups of people. I plan to break down a chicken and grill yakitori before the game, then we’ll probably snack for dinner during the Superbowl. I don’t have a horse in this race, so I just hope it’s a good game.

The weather here in Mesa, Arizona has been fantastic. We’ve had clear skies and daily high temperatures in the mid to upper 70s. The forecast for the week ahead calls for more of the same. We’ll be enjoying the sunshine on the pickleball courts. The nights cool quickly and we’ve had overnight lows around 50 degrees. No problem with that!

*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!

Bitchin’ Sauce

I spent most of Saturday morning on the pickleball courts. I played in the men’s round-robin 3.0-3.5 matches and ended playing a total of nine games. I was pretty worn out by the end. Later we met up with Mike and Jodi Hall for a late lunch on the patio at Lucky Lou’s. We caught up on things – we haven’t seen them since before Christmas. Mike and I enjoyed a cigar and a few beers.

Afterwards, we made a stop at Winco where Donna restocked groceries and I found a nice cut of beef top round for jerky. I cut the steak across the grain with a my 240mm sujihiki (Japanese slicer) and was able to achieve very uniform strips for jerky. The right knife makes all the difference. I mixed up my usual marinade and refrigerated it overnight.

On Sunday morning, I made a Costco run to restock the liquor cabinet. I made an impulse buy at Costco – I saw a large container (of course it was large – it’s Costco) of Bitchin’ Sauce. Bitchin’ is a Southern California slang term from the late ’50s or early ’60s and was usually heard among the surfer crowd. It meant really cool – better than good.

I haven’t seen Bitchin’ Sauce in the store before. It’s made in Carlsbad, California and we used to buy it at San Diego County farmers’ markets. It’s an almond based chipotle dip – gluten free and kosher! It’s great with tortilla chips or crackers – in a word, it’s bitchin’.

I put the jerky on the Traeger in the afternoon and had it on the smoke setting P0. After two hours and forty-five minutes, I had a superb batch of jerky. I think it’s my best effort ever. I really think the evenly sliced strips contributed to the final outcome.

We also bought a whole chicken at Winco and I broke it down Sunday afternoon. It was fairly easy and didn’t take too long. Although whole chicken is a little cheaper than buying pre-cut chicken, we didn’t buy it to save money. I think you get a fresher product that’s arguably better quality than pre-processed chicken thighs or breasts. Once the chicken is cut up, it begins to oxidize and lose fluids. Pre-processed chicken may have been cut days earlier at a processing plant and who knows how long it’s been in transit before you finally buy it. Whole chickens broken down at home are definitely fresher. Plus, I can cut it the way I want it for yakitori.

I stayed off the pickleball courts Monday. I had to drive to west Mesa where I signed documents at Rocky Mountain Cummins for my refund. Mesa has a population of about half a million people spread out over 139 square miles. It really sprawls – it’s a 15-mile trip each way to get from our location in east Mesa to the west side of town. It’s the third largest city in Arizona and the largest city that isn’t a county seat. It has more people than Minneapolis.

While I was on the west side, I made another stop at Asiana Market. I picked up some nori (seaweed wrapper) and also mirin for yakitori tare. Back at home, I got to work on my kitchen knife handling skills. I made Japanese fried rice while Donna grilled baby bok choy and Jerk shrimp.

The results were outstanding – a fine dinner plate.

Grilled Jerk shrimp, bok choy and Japanese fried rice

I paired the dinner plate with a Japanese beer I bought at Asiana.

The weather on Monday was a little strange. The temperature reached the low 70s, but it didn’t feel like it. I was outside in my ham shack under the canopy and the cloudy skies coupled with a fairly stiff breeze made it feel a lot cooler. I had an interesting conversation with a guy named Frank in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. Frank and his wife are from Placitas, New Mexico and spend their winters in Puerto Vallarta. He told me that last year on the NFL Conference Championship weekend, they went to a local club which is like a large sports bar. He said he estimated there were around 200 patrons there. This year, they went to the same place last weekend. There were eight people there.

Many people that usually winter in Puerto Vallarta didn’t return this year due to Covid restrictions. Canadians in particular – their government requires citizens returning from Mexico to quarantine in a hotel at a cost of around $2,000. No choice – mandatory quarantine at a hotel selected by the government! He also told me that they usually go to the Walmart near their condo to stock up when they arrive for their winter stay. This year, they were stopped at the entrance and had to show identification. Anyone over the age of 60 was denied entrance to the store! This put a wrench in their shopping plans! They had to order contactless grocery delivery.

Donna and I hit the pickleball courts this morning. We were treated to excellent weather although it was a little more humid than usual. It’s sunny and 78 degrees as I type this at noon. The forecast calls for 80 degrees today, a high of 75 tomorrow and low 70s through the weekend. I can handle that!

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.

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.

Belated Christmas Dinner

I mentioned in my last post our plan to head over to Wickenburg for a family holiday gathering. Saturday afternoon I put the top up on Midget-San. I usually just raise the top without fastening it, then cover the car while it’s parked at our site. We normally drop the top whenever we drive. Donna wanted the top up for warmth on the 100-mile drive.

I put the top up and fastened it in the afternoon when the sun would likely soften the material. Getting the top fastened in place is always a wrestling match. The top material has to stretch slightly over the frame work and clamps to the windshield frame. Driving the Midget with the top up is a different experience. It’s much noisier inside and getting in and out of the small sports car is a little more difficult. With my back troubles, it wasn’t fun to climb out of the driver’s seat.

We hit a red light at Brown Road, about two miles from our site at Viewpoint, then didn’t stop at all over the next 90 miles. Our route took us on the Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway), then Loop 101 to I-17 to AZ74 (Carefree Highway). Midget-San with the Nissan A15 engine and five-speed transmission made the drive at 70mph without strain.

Our destination was my ex-wife’s house that she and her husband Jerry recently moved into. It’s north of Wickenburg about 5 miles in a housing tract called Wickenburg Ranch. It’s new construction in a gated community with a golf course. My middle daughter, Jamie and her man Francisco were there and his son Trey. My oldest daughter, Alana, and her fiance Kevin came down from Arlington, Washington with their kids – Gabi and Lainey, our granddaughters – and Kyle and Nick, Kevin’s sons.

The trip to Arizona was a surprise for the kids – they didn’t know anything about it until they were told to pack on Christmas Day. My youngest daughter, Shauna, couldn’t make it. She and her boyfriend, Gabe, returned from a trip to Bermuda, where Shauna will be working soon. On Saturday, they were at Gabe’s parents’ house in North Carolina.

We arrived at LuAnn and Jerry’s place just before noon. LuAnn was the only one home at first. Kyle and Nick were fishing at a pond with Jerry while Alana and Kevin were on the golf course. I’m not sure where Lainey and Gabi were, but we were all together soon enough and started in on hors d’oeuvres.

Charcuterie tray – just a small sample of the appetizers set out.

We grazed on the appetizers, drank mimosas and talked with football on the TVs. Donna contributed a baba ganoush dish with flatbread and brought the mimosa fixings plus chewy molasses cookies she made.

Meanwhile there was a turkey cooking and Jamie brought a ham. Everything was set out on the kitchen island and it was time to plate up!

Granddaughters Lainey and Gabi plating dinner

LuAnn and Jerry are just starting to settle into their place and it isn’t completely furnished yet. We had a variety of chairs to seat everyone around the tables.

I should mention that everyone in the room except Donna and me and LuAnn and Jerry have had coronavirus. And the four of us who haven’t had it have been taking precautions. So we felt that this particular group setting was fairly low-risk, especially since we kept the doors open the entire time we were there and spent some time outdoors as well.

I didn’t want to make the 100-mile drive back to Viewpoint through the desert at night, so we checked in at the Best Western in town. We had a quiet night and I was surprised to find the complimentary breakfast was a hot meal with scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuit. The trip back was uneventful and we were home before noon on Monday.

I mentioned the knife set Donna got for Christmas in my last post. When Cutlery and More (a retailer and online store of kitchen gear near Chicago) shipped her knife set, I received an e-mail notification. The e-mail also included a $25 gift card for my next purchase. I couldn’t resist. I shopped around and decided I needed a bunka-type knife. A bunka is a versatile Japanese knife that could be considered a kitchen-prep knife suitable for anything from vegetables to trimming beef.

I wanted a knife to trim the cuts of meat I smoke in the Traeger. This could mean trimming anything from babyback ribs to brisket. I found a small bunka – five and a half-inch blade length. Most bunka knives are around seven inches blade length. I felt five and a half inches was adequate for my use and easier to handle in a small kitchen space.

Cutlery and More had just the thing and it was on sale for Christmas. I ordered an Enso knife by Yaxell made in Seki City, Japan. With the sale price and my gift card, I was able to get this knife for just $64. The blade on this knife is Damascus – it has a very thin core made of VG10 steel at a hardness of 61-62 HRC. This thin core is hard, sharp and somewhat brittle. To counter the brittleness, the core is laminated with 18 layers of stainless steel on each side, alternating between relatively hard steel and soft steel making the blade much tougher and less likely to break. There are 37 layers of steel altogether. The knife was delivered shortly after we returned home.

I don’t fool myself into thinking a Japanese blacksmith made this by hammering red-hot steel on an anvil. Most likely, this is made from a laminated Damascus sheet supplied by Takefu Steel (maker of VG10 steel), which is ground and heat-treated. The hammer finish is most likely applied by pneumatic or hydraulic hammer machines. No matter, it’s still a high-quality knife with a beautiful finish – and it’s razor sharp. It’s going to be just right for slicing a fat cap down to <1/4″.

I’m doing a little more studying to increase my knowledge of knives. I’m not studying so I can start designing and making my own knives – I just want to gain a deeper understanding and be able to cut through the marketing hype (pun intended). To that end, I ordered a book from Amazon – Knife Engineering by Dr. Larrin Thomas. I was familiar with Larrin’s work from his website – Knife Steel Nerds. He has the rare ability to take complex engineering topics and explain it in a way that a layperson can understand. It’s hard to grasp from his website as the topics range from basic to highly advanced – without a logical progression. His book organizes his writings in a way that takes the reader from basic ideas up to complex applications, each chapter building off of the last.

We had a high temperature of 68 degrees yesterday, but gusty winds made it feel cooler. After dark, a few rain showers came through. We can expect the cool days with temps in the low 60s for the rest of the week – no rain is forecast though. Though my lower back continues to be problematic, I hope I can return to the pickleball courts soon.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Lighter Load with a Toad

Bitchin’ Sauce

Jaws

Mesa Winter

Who’s Tracking You?

Just One More

Yakitori

DHL Delivers

Goodbye 2020

Belated Christmas Dinner

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