Pretty While It Lasted

It was pretty while it lasted ... but now all those pink blossoms and the white flowers on the dogwood trees have littered the ground and they are all just green trees once more.  Even the purple wisteria has gone ... leaving behind green viney bushes that you scratch your head over and ask, "Why would anyone have that in their yard?"  Until you see a foto and remember the the sight and scent of the glorious purple blossoms.  There are still a few azaleas bushes blooming.  But everything seemingly has flopped back into being just green-green.  As I was walking the little dogs at 6:30 this morning, I did notice some lovely yellow Iris flowers in a yard on King St.  Perhaps I'll remember to take a foto of them ... and show you later.  My truck-driving neighbor is still in the hospital with a stroke that he had last Thursday.  I called the company he is leased on to and told them that he is in the hospital and won't be driving for awhile.  My landlord's spinster daughter has something (the doctors have no idea what to do about it --> "House?") that her muscles just won't work and she basically isn't feeling anything (no pain) ... which leaves her bedridden. I promised a month ago that I'd drive school bus tomorrow ... but things have occurred since then that mean I'll earn $20 and lose $80 to keep that promise.  Henceforth, No more afternoon bus driving.

Busy Day -- Yesterday

I was helping the DAV collect donations for "Forget-Me-Not" flowers from 9-10 a.m., then drove 2 counties down to visit a kid at a high school, then off to the local big town to visit two people at the medical center:  1) the 39 yr-old father of a client had a heart attack the day before (blocked artery) and 2) My neighbor's middle daughter is almost an invalid.  De-stress the client (son of the heart attack guy).  Then 60 miles away to visit with 3 clients.  Back to the county med ctr to visit the oldest son of the little old lady who lives up front -- he had a stroke.  No more truck driving for him.  Back in the home area to visit another client.  Then home to type up reports and eat a little dinner before a daughter came over for a visit.  Made it to bed by midnight.  ugh.

Associations ...

This organization said that I could become a member for only $40.

A Professional Organization to add to my list ... 

That's only good thru June 30th.  Then I'd have to pay another $40 for the next year.  :-)

I think I had a membership with them once upon a time ...

and it probably expired 15 years or so ago.  Ha!

And The Winner Is ...

I put them both in at 9:00 a.m. ... at the end of the effective cooking day, I am convinced that one of the cookers was hotter than the other.

The AllSeasonCooker is definitely hotter than the box cooker.  Maybe the box cooker would cook hotter if I made reflectors all around reflecting more light into the box.

Then my wife comes home and tells me that she and the grandsons snatched the box cooker at about 5:30 p.m. and really enjoyed it.  The AllSeasonCooker was out there for 1.5 more hours in dieing light.  But the AllSeasonCooker had almost no liquid left, the veggies were significantly softer and darker in color than the boxcooker.  I think the AllSeasonCooker was overall hotter and cooked faster.  Wife and grandsons enjoyed the chicken and veggies.

All Season Cooker

This is another solar cooker design that I stumbled across on the internet.  www.allseasoncooker.com  Actually, it is more of a reflector with the cooking chamber being comprised of a 4 qt. Anchor Hocking bowl and a 9-1/2" Pyrex pie plate.  I have a 2-1/2 qt. pot in there cooking food.  The reflector is made using that corrogated plastic (coroplast) that politicians use for their signs ... get one of the really big ones. (4' x 8')

Of course, you may recognize the old cardboard box solar cooker.  It is made with 2 cardboard boxes with wadded up newspaper as insulation between the two.  That is a single layer of plexiglas that the sun is shining through.  What I am doing is a comparison cooking test.  

I started them at the same time.  We'll see how they turn out.  

I have great confidence in the box cooker ... the question for me is the allseasoncooker.  I put cut up potatoes, sliced carrots, cut up onions, a few meatballs, and chicken in both of them.  The reflector cooker only has half a breast of chicken in it.  The box cooker has two leg-thigh pieces and half a breast of chicken.  Is that fair?  I've had the box cooker do a whole chicken that still had ice crystals in it, and at the end of the day it was falling off the bone.  So I trust it.  I'll let you all know later how they turned out.