The Big Book of Farmall Tractors

I came about purchasing this book in a bit of a strange way. Last week I went to our local Theisen's store to purchase a small rodent live trap. There are numerous ground squirrels (aka chipmunks) that are completely overrunning our garden in the backyard. So it is now my duty catch them and release them out in the wild of the country side.

Anyway, I headed on over to the store with my two year old. As we arrived it started raining a bit. We ran in, and within a few minutes, the sky decided to completely open up and dump a massive amount of rain on the area. So, we were kind of stuck in the store until the rain let up. Hence how I came to come across this book. So we wandered the store eating fresh popcorn (Thiesen's pops free popcorn every day!!!!) and picking up random items (like this book).

Growing up we had a few Farmalls around the farm. I have vague memories of an older one that we used for mowing grass. When I asked my dad about it, it turned out to be a much smaller tractor than I remembered. I was thinking it was an H model, but in fact it was a Farmall Cub, which is basically an overgrown lawn tractor. I guess things just seem bigger when you are young!

We also had two larger (and newer) Farmalls on the farm as well. An 806 diesel and a 706 diesel. Both were wide front axle models. The 806 also had the front wheel assist axle, which we would switch on and off depending on the time of year. Let me tell you, it was a bit of pain to do so from what I remember. Also, those front wheel assist axles made turning that 806 a major pain in the rear. The newer models these days are so much better in that respect. Okay, enough about the tractors I remember driving. On to the book.

There is a fair amount of farming history woven into the chronological presentation of the Farmall tractor series, which was quite interesting to me. Seeing how the times shaped the design of the tractors, to how the competition drove design features, and so on.

The author spends a large portion of the book on the letter series tractors, which I would argue are the iconic image of the Farmall series. Specifically the H model. All models of Farmall are covered up to 1985 when International Harvester was purchased and merged with Case. So the book is a good reference too, especially when it seems that the model numbers changed every year in 1970's.

All in all a very good read (to me anyway) for someone who likes red tractors and has an affinity to farming. Hopefully not to many people hunt me down here in Iowa for not liking that other color tractor that is so popular here.

Ramen: Not just for Poor College Students

I believe most everyone who endures the 'poor college student' years has eaten their fair share of ramen noodles. Those incredibly inexpensive meals in a pouch, that have sustained many a student through the day, so that there was enough beer money for the weekends. Yes, those sodium laden nuggets of sustenance are definitely one of the staples in a dorm room pantry. I'd never expected much from ramen from a culinary viewpoint.

And so, when I was in Japan for work, I had a bit of wake up call, so to speak. I was working in a small town about a half hour train ride from downtown Kobe, with a supplier in one of their labs. During the week we'd been eating lunch in their cafeteria, which was always very good in my opinion. A lot better than the breakfast buffet at the hotel I was staying at! Anyway, one of the managers working with us says, "Today you are in for a treat. The cafeteria is serving ramen." Well, I just about split a gut laughing. Okay, to be fair, I think I only let out a snort, and contained most of my amusement. However, I did let out enough that they asked what was up. I explained the whole ramen and poor college student connection, and how most Americans would not ramen to be much of a treat. We all had a good laugh, went up to lunch and ate our delicious ramen noodle soup, and went on with our day.

Fast forward to this weekend. We decided to try to make our own ramen soup, with great aspirations of making the noodles from scratch, as well as the soup stock. While this is definitely doable, we scaled back to purchasing pre-made ramen noodles using canned chicken stock. We went with a chicken ramen instead of pork, and it turned out to be a very delicious meal.

Here is what we did. First we baked several chicken thighs, seasoned with salt, pepper, and soy sauce. When the chicken was cooked, we tore off the meat and roughly chopped it. For the soup stock, I heated up the base chicken broth, and added a fair amount of peeled ginger root. I let that steep for about an hour, then removed the ginger. After that, I added a few tablespoons of soy sauce, and some salt. I also cut up some green onions, and some nori sheets (dried seaweed) to use with the chicken as toppings for the soup.

The ramen noodles got a four minute soak in boiling water, and then were distributed to all the bowls. The chicken, onions, and nori were laid on top of the noodles, and then a few ladles of stock were poured over the top. What you see in the picture was the result.

The results were fantastic! And every single one of the kids enjoyed it (to varying degrees). I guess I had the "umami" going on!

Wolf Weather

Last night we had a pretty good storm roll through Iowa and the surrounding region. The sirens were blaring in town. The weather alerts on the phone were wailing. And we dutifully grabbed our sleeping children and hauled them down to the basement. With six kids, it took a couple trips!

I noticed that a few of my friends here were posting on Facebook about having to be in the basement instead of sleeping, or having to spend some quality time in their 'safe place'. I joined in the fun, and posted that we were also in our basement, with six sleeping children, and was glad the internet was still up so I could watch the progress of the storm (or rather the 'impending doom').

When starting to write that post, I was in a very sarcastic mood. The storm hadn't hit us yet. There were multiple siren alerts, and a multitude of weather watches and warnings in effect. It reminded me this morning of the boy who cried wolf. Seems like there are so many times when the news stations cry "Wolf!" if there is a cloud in the sky, a few snowflakes, or a few drops of rain.

When I was about finished with my post, I paused, and added that everyone should keep safe. While yes, this seemed like another round of "Wolf Weather" to me, I have to remember that these storms really can be dangerous. And the thought struck me that I shouldn't take the alerts so lightly. The meteorologists are only doing what they can with the tools currently available. I might argue that they are required to sensationalize a bit for TV, but I do believe they are honestly trying to protect the public at large.

And here is where I take a left turn in what I'm discussing. The thought occurred to me that this is a lesson to learn and apply to life. That we shouldn't take the alerts we perceive lightly. What am I talking about? Well, from a Catholic vernacular, I'm referring to "avoiding the near occasions of sin" and the like. When our internal sirens go off, listen to them. When we pick up on negative vibes in a situation we find ourselves in, get your guard up. Every time. No exceptions.

Just as with the weather, we can get complacent in our lives, and not be on our guard when alerts are 'issued'. And just like the weather, a situation can engulf us into misery without warning. Like a wolf biding his time.

Thankfully for us, the storm rolled over last night without much fanfare. A good lighting show, a heavy downpour, and not much wind. But areas around us were impacted with heavy winds and possible tornadoes. Looks like we have another round of storms rolling in tonight. I best be on my guard, because I do not know if the "Wolf Weather" will strike closer to home or not.

Detroit Style

We really like the Detroit style pizza from a local restaurant here in town, but having such a large family, it is expensive enough that we really treat it as a 'treat'. Since my standard pizza has been such a hit at home, I thought I'd take a stab at making Detroit style. So, I did some googling (that is a verb now isn't it?) to try to learn the intricacies of producing this style of deep dish pizza.

The first thing I learned is that Detroit style pizza is generally made in a square pan. This is contrary to what we've been eating locally, but I think I'm okay with not trying to be nit-picky about the finer details. To me, the main things that define this pizza style is a caramelized cheese crust, dollops of sauce on top, a caramelized cheese crust, a thicker bread-like crust, and also a caramelized cheese crust. Yes, we really like the caramelized cheese crust around the outside.

Pizza Dough in Pan

One of the aspects that had me wondering if I could do this was the pan used to bake the pizza within. I had toyed around with trying to find a deep dish pizza pan, and did find a few online that would probably do the trick. But there were quite a few options; coated steel, coated aluminum, non-coated, non-stick coated, anodized, etc. So, again I googled to see what might be the 'best' pan to use. I found out something that should have been obvious. My cast iron skillet would work just fine for this task. And so began my giddiness to try my hand at this endeavor!

Ready for the Oven

In looking at various dough recipes, it became apparent that my standard whole wheat pizza dough recipe should do fine in this application. So I whipped up some dough Friday morning (I forgot to make it Thursday night!) so that it could rise during the day and be ready to make into pizza that evening. The intent was to make some standard pizzas, and create one experimental Detroit style in the cast iron pan.

I won't go into the details on the standard pizzas, as I have another post on that topic. For this great experiment, I first greased the cast iron skillet with olive oil, and then rolled out a ball of my dough to just fit the bottom of the pan. There is not supposed to be any lip/edge to the crust, so that the cheese can be spread to the edge of the pan (for the delicious caramelized cheese!). I have a small cast iron pan as well, and decided to also make a small pizza in that pan, which actually became my pre-experimental pizza since it got baked first. The dough was covered in cheese (mozzarella, colby-jack, and cheddar), and topped with a few dollops of pizza sauce.

Fresh from the Oven!

Baking time was around 15 minutes for the small pizza, and 17-18 for the large one, with the oven set to 500 F. The indicators I used for determining when to pull the pie out were a browning of the cheese on top of the pizza, and seeing that the cheese at the edge had caramelized. It almost looks burnt I suppose, but it tastes oh so good!

The pizza came out sizzling and smelling absolutely wonderful. It slid out of the pan easily enough so I could cut it into slices, then promptly put the pizza back in pan to keep warm.

The Caramelized Cheese Crust!!!

So, how did it taste? Well, you can ask my wife, but if we didn't have another event (with even more great food) later that evening, I would have scarfed down the whole pizza myself. I was absolutely giddy with how well this turned out. The crust was crispy on the bottom, chewy in the middle, with a perfect edge of 'burnt' cheese at the edge. The kids have dubbed it their new favorite pizza, and I'm thinking I may have to buy some more cast iron pans to keep up with demand!

The whole wheat crust does add a very different dimension to the taste of the pizza that I'm still trying to decide is good or not. The whole wheat flavor of my standard pizza is fantastic, but this combination in the pan pizza may need some more experimentation! Bummer! :)

What's in a Name?

Pater Pueri? What is that? Well, it means, using Google Translate to go from Latin to English, "father of the boy", or "the boy's father". I believe it also can mean "father of many boys" or "father of boys". "Pater Multi Pueri" would probably have been a better phrase to use, but it seemed like it was getting too long. And I played around with using the number six in the name, such as "Father of six boys", but I didn't think having a website name with 'sex' in it would be appropriate, as the translation would be something like "Pater Pueri Sex". Please note I have not had a single Latin lesson in my life.

I do have to note that my original thought for a name for this blog was "Six Pack Dad", but apparently that was taken. Dang...so many good ways to interpret that name...

So, what's up with this blog site? Well, I was struggling with how my current blog Six Boys and  a Workshop was getting too much of a mixture of topics. It was meant to be a place to post about my woodworking adventures, but I found writing about other topics was fun too! So taking a cue from the many woodworking blogs I read (and my own reactions to reading them), I decided to focus that blog on woodworking, and this one to be a catch-all for all kinds of topics. I may eventually create another blog for electronics type stuff.  And maybe spin off a food blog too. Okay, maybe not. Two blogs should really be enough.

As I mentioned, I noticed my own reaction to the woodworking blogs/vlogs when they talked about something other than woodworking. When topics not related to woodworking would be presented, I would quit reading/watching. So with woodworking becoming my recently self-proclaimed main time-waster hobby, I figured I better do some focusing on the reporting of my woodworking. Those articles will be at Six Boys and a Workshop, while all other topics will be covered here for now.

Till next time, carpe diem!