Neanderpundit

Saw it made in Africa but have not tried making it myself. I will probably continue to speriment with it, as there are already things I know need changing.

On the recommendations of many people I’ve added a bit of brown sugar. I should have done half the batch to see how it turns out. next time I will.

I’m using a small consumer food dehydrator. I would have made a biltong box but the dehydrator is better suited to the pieces of meat i have. if I get good enough at this to do more, I’ll be using much larger pieces of deer.

I put the meat in the dehydrator a little too wet, and as a result have burned some drippings on the heating coils. i then covered the coils in a bit of foil, hoping that would prevent any more nastiness. By tomorrow I expect there will be no more dripping. I hope that by tomorrow evening I can start sampling. (OK< I've already sampled some. Sue me) The pieces are about the size and thickness of the not so common garden slug.

I don’t know how this will end. Perhaps in tears, though I suspect the tears will be regret that I didn’t do a whole deer.

it takes very little time at all to cover every girder and rafter with the dust of the manufacturing process.

I have been in the habit, for many years, of hitting things as hard as i can, with my bare knuckles. I do this because I spend a lot of time on my hands and knees under machinery, and the callouses on my knuckles have helped protect my hands. This has an added benefit: if you have to hit someone, their jawbone feels like a pillow after thirty years of hitting steel and brick and concrete.

A year or so back, I was leaving the factory of one of my customers, thumping the building columns as i went, and then I came to column L14.

Years of remodeling and layout changes in the plant has left L14 floating, just standing there supporting nothing. it is still connected to a network of lateral supports, but the roof has been resupported by a different structure, at that one location.

So I thump L-14, and instead of giving me a hard “bang” that makes no sound but I can feel it through the bones of my hand, it goes “Thrummmmmmmm!” and an area about twenty feet wide by about 12 feet long gets showered in dust.

Yesterday, a tour of people came through the shop looking at some new processes; these people were predominantly competitors, and I recognized them all as people who have caused me some trouble in the past.

I waited until they got in just the right spot, and then I whacked L14 a hell of a whack.

Sometimes I’m a real stinker.