Monthly Archives: December 2020

It’s a happy New Year’s Eve

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The fireplace at the Last Frontier

The only thing that makes this a happy New Year’s Eve is that here in the Bandera area of Texas we have been getting rain all day long. It started late last night with a light show and some claps of thunder. I really enjoyed just sitting here in the house, watching and listening to that show. We got some rain in the last few days. Looking at the precipitation map at the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service Precipitation Analysis, we have received between 0.5 and 1 inch of rain in the last seven days.

This rain has been a blessing and relief as we have been in Extreme Drought for a while. Here is the Texas drought map from the National Integrated Drought Information System (if you want to see your state select Regions => States):

Texas Drought Map 29 Dec 2020 from www.drought.gov/drought/

I outlined Bandera County in black. It is just northwest of San Antonio. Looking at some of the other maps for states, it appears that LL over at Virtual Mirage is in Exceptional Drought (Arizona, so what — I lived there a year for pilot training and know), drjim and WSF are in Severe Drought there near Boulder, Colorado, the OldNFO is fortunate to be in Abnormally Dry to Moderate Drought as I know he lives in North Central Texas and CW of Daily Time Waster is in Extreme Drought along with me. The following chart shows the drought levels along with drought information current as of December 29th, 2020 for Texas. Each state has a comparable chart along with the map.

Drought Chart for 29 Dec 2020 from www.drought.gov/drought/

While I was preparing the above images and getting some of that other good information around 16:40 local, lo and behold, there was snow falling. It wasn’t heavy, but hey, that is an abnormal occurrence down in these parts. It won’t be a white New Year’s Day. The lead photograph is our fireplace burning on this cold day.

Speaking of New Year’s Day and the new year, I am not much up for wishing “Happy New Year” this year. As I posted over at OldNFO’s blog, I am not very optimistic about the coming year. I think in hindsight (yeah, 2020 – snicker), that this past year will just be prelude to 2021. I fear that no matter what, there will be bad times ahead. We have become multiple, extremely divergent factions living within the same borders with divisions so deep that we cannot live together. Even the political Left has some factions that are so extreme that they may fight among each other. For instance in Colorado, people claiming to be Earth First terrorists, sabotaged the natural gas lines around Aspen. I don’t consider that to be a bastion of Conservatism though I may be wrong. Up in Washington state, trains have been derailed by an unknown group. Then we have Portland, Seattle and some other areas with Democrat Governments suffering from continued rioting by BLM/Antifa.

I, as a Christian, view the current events as a major outbreak of Evil in the greater Cosmological War between Good and Evil. Pray that this great Evil will be taken away.

BillB

The Ghost of Turkey Past

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I had a hiatus in posting for nearly a month. The first writer’s block was I was so angry with the turn of politics in our Nation that I couldn’t cogently write anything about what was going on because that turn was what was laying heaviest on my mind. Some of the other folks that I read have got the subject pretty well in hand. Somehow they have a mental wall that I just can’t build right now.

The second writer’s block was that I didn’t want this just to be a blog about cooking. I got away from that but am bringing back what I was going to post just after the American Holiday of Thanksgiving. That is why this is titled “The Ghost of Turkey Past”. The title too reflects on the fact that we had turkey for Christmas. This latter one though was just roasted in the oven.

We elected to have Texas Pit BBQ smoked turkey for Thanksgiving. My Christmas present for last year (2019) was an Old Country Pecos model offset horizontal smoker from Academy Sports and Outdoors. Apparently this model is exclusive to Academy as it is not listed on the Old Country BBQ Pit website but information with it indicates that is who makes them. It is better than an Oklahoma Joe’s but certainly not one of those $1,000+ units. I did do some modifications to it such as sealing the cooking chamber lid with red silicon, putting a spring tensioner on the firebox air inlet, and sealing the firebox lid.

My Pecos BBQ Pit

There the smoker is loaded with some of the pecan wood my son-in-law gave me for this particular cook. I laid a fire in the firebox and then used my “Lighter” to get it started. I was a Boy Scout however I was not about to try to light this with one paper match with is a feat that I have accomplished in the field.

The fire is laid and waiting to be lit.
The Lighter.
Lighting the fire.

Lighting the fire is sort of fun. That “Lighter” sounds like a jet engine running. And actually it is rather like a little ram jet engine. After getting the fire lit I filled the water pan and closed the doors on this machine to let it get up to temperature. The target temperature for this effort was 250 to 275 F. Once I got there I needed to let the cooking chamber soak at temperature to stabilize. After about 30 minutes with “Blue Smoke” coming from the chimney I put the prepared bird in the cooking chamber. This is what I believe “Blue Smoke” looks like:

“Blue Smoke”

I had prepared the turkey earlier with a simple rub of salt, restaurant grind black pepper and garlic powder after washing and drying it. The goal is to give the meat you are smoking some basic seasoning from the pantry but the real seasoning is the smoke. Because Mrs. BillB does not like heavily smoked meats, the smoke time for the turkey was to be limited to about 2 to 2 1/2 hours to get the smoke flavor but not too strong of a flavor. An hour or so into cooking I took a peek to check on the turkey; it was looking good. From that peek, I determined that I would have to go the full 2 1/2 hours before “pulling” the bird and putting it in the kitchen oven to finish cooking. Here it was at “pull” time:

The Smoked Turkey in the smoker

I put the bird into a 275 F oven on convection for about another 2 hours. I had a thermometer in the breast and was looking for 165 F internal temperature. When it got there, the bird was removed from the oven and this is what we had:

We accompanied it with cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts, cranberry jelly, cranberry salsa and some nice wine. The smoke flavor was just right and we had a great Thanksgiving Dinner.

Bon Appetit

BillB

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

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Merry Christmas to any who stop by. For me this is the first day of the Season of Christmas, so I will also wish to any and all 11 more days of Merry Christmas till we reach the day of Epiphany when we celebrate the recognition by the Three Wise Men from the East of the Messiah. For some in the Anglican way that I was raised in the figures of the Three Wise Men move gradually to the the Creche over these 11 days. I think it is a wonderful way to extend the Joy of the Season beyond just the 25th of December by having the Christian Season of Christmas.

BillB

The Real Date of The Christ’s Birth

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A blog that I enjoy reading is the “Anglican Curmudgeon”. Allan S. Haley is a lawyer from California who practices both secular and canon law. He has published a number of articles on the connection of science and the Bible. One series he published in December 2009 and then followed up on in December 2010 puts together many puzzle pieces which try to resolve the real date of The Christ’s Birth. As Christians we celebrate it on December 25th. There are many reasons that this date was chosen in the early Church but not as a counter to the pagan winter solstice celebrations as some assert. Mr. Haley places the actual date in May-June 2 B.C. which he says from his research is when the very early Church placed it. The determination of B.C. and A.D. was done a few hundred years later and missed the mark by a couple of years. Here are the posts he did on this particular subject.

The Nativity and the Star of Bethlehem

When Herod Ruled – Resolving the Dates

Other Evidence of the Date of the Nativity

The Star of Bethlehem and the Nativity

Dating the Nativity: New Considerations

Using the Bible to Date the Nativity

Again a Merry Christmas to all.

BillB

The coming Nativity of Our Lord

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Great Conjunction of 2020 taken in Virginia, USA

The celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord is almost upon us. Last night was the Great Conjunction of 2020. A friend’s niece who lives in Virginia took the picture above. I don’t know if she added the lens flair or it just came out that way. It does make a statement for this time of year.

I have seen on some of the other folks I read, links to Advent and Christmas music. I thought that I would add to this. First is my favorite Advent hymn:

The next I heard over at Chant du Départ. It was the version by Sting. Having a bent more towards the “classical” sounds, I give you this rendering of the Basque carol:

But if you want a more authentic version here it is in Basque:

And finally for your joy and appreciation, the Irish Wexford Carol. The first is by Alison Kruass. When she sings some things, I think she has the voice of the Angels; this is one:

Here is a more traditional rendition by The Palestrina Choir of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.

Even in such dark times as we may be entering, this music brings joy to me and maybe also to anyone who stops by and listens.

A very Merry and Blessed Christmas to all. The Light came into this world to push back the Darkness.

BillB