Stochastic Contemplations.

[worth1]

65 but everyone drives over 70.
Not me cops won't pull over for 5 over.

[worth1]

Oh and the road is crawling with cops.
Sheriff and highway patrol.
People pulled over all the time.
The problem is development.
I remember when this road was a wee thing.
Now during heavy traffic times it is a string of cars both ways.
It is highway 95 between Bastrop and Elgin.
About 16 miles of hell.

[Sue_CT]

How can there be a stop sign and an intersecting street where the speed limit is 65? Is there a stop sign? I know around here every intersecting street has one unless it is more like a fork where you don't have to stop before turning.

[imp]

You are on here early today, worth, would have thought you still at work at 4pm, maybe you are beating that traffic?

[worth1]

How can there be a stop sign and an intersecting street where the speed limit is 65? Is there a stop sign? I know around here every intersecting street has one unless it is more like a fork where you don't have to stop before turning.

No stop sigh the cars have to turn left, traffic so bad they have to stop, no turn lane.

Putting three stores there doesn't help matters either.
I never have stopped at those stores.

It is like that all up and down this road and this is the worst of them.

[worth1]

You are on here early today, worth, would have thought you still at work at 4pm, maybe you are beating that traffic?

I get to work early to beat traffic and I come home early for the same reasons.
Yesterday one of the guys used my meter and instead of putting it back in the truck he left it hanging from the panel.
I was over halfway home 50 miles one way and had to turn around to get it.
This pout me in the thick of it.
I get up at 3:30 AM every day and leave at 4:30 or earlier sometimes.
I have a guard wolf that watches things while I'm gone.
No one pulls in my drive that I dont know or the cops are called by my neighbor lady.

[imp]

You are on here early today, worth, would have thought you still at work at 4pm, maybe you are beating that traffic?

I get to work early to beat traffic and I come home early for the same reasons.
Yesterday one of the guys used my meter and instead of putting it back in the truck he left it hanging from the panel.
I was over halfway home 50 miles one way and had to turn around to get it.
This pout me in the thick of it.
I get up at 3:30 AM every day and leave at 4:30 or earlier sometimes.
I have a guard wolf that watches things while I'm gone.
No one pulls in my drive that I dont know or the cops are called by my neighbor lady.

Smart, the early in and early out, saves a lot of wear and tear on you and your car to do that. Used to be when I lived in north Ft.Worth and worked in downtown Dallas, even 10 minutes either way could mean a long bumper to bumper driving mess or a sort of decent steady go of it.

A "guard wolf"??!! It's good to have neighbors that can help; in our neighborhood, we have the neighborhood watch and pay attention to each other's yards, families and houses for more than 20 years now. And we have good coverage from the police since the station is so near.

[Rajun Gardener]

Crawfish and Mardi Gras season is here and the weather is perfect for both!

The crawfish harvest is getting better and the prices are starting to drop due to this mild weather, most of the restaurants are starting to sell them and they might run out by Mardi Gras!

Let me translate the prices in the ad.
Small/medium means they ran the crawfish through a grading table to sell the big ones to restaurants for top dollar so you end up with all small crawfish. Restaurants have been selling 3lb orders for $25, that's expensive but when you miss/want crawfish the price is worth it to get that fix.

Field run means they didn't grade them and you have some big crawfish but this time of year it's 50% medium to small.

This place is taking advantage of the early high price of crawfish and asking the farmers to use smaller traps or keep everything they catch. Most farmers have a grading table on the boat and let the smaller crawfish go. The smaller trap catches the small crawfish due to the size of the holes in it. Most farmers don't do that because they all want top grade crawfish all year instead of fast money for the first month of a 4-6 month season depending on the heat.

Regardless of price, the crawfish harvested in cool weather are easy to peel because the shell is soft and they're full of fat and fat is flavor.

image.png

Of course all the crawfish is a by product of rice and Louisiana grows rice and sugarcane to export. Back 40 years ago farmers would let you catch crawfish out of their rice fields but when the prices went up they started farming that too in the off season. Here's a video I shot last fall of a trip I took to Crowley La, the rice capital and some footage of old rice fields getting flooded for the crawfish season.

[MissS]

It is hard to find cane sugar here these days. Almost all of the sugar sold here in Wisconsin is beet sugar from Michigan. Why is all of the cane sugar being exported?

That's a fun video. I enjoyed the ride.

[worth1]

I cant remember the last time I had beet sugar it has always been cane sugar.

[pondgardener]

C&H sugar is a popular brand here in Colorado. Any baking I do is strictly using cane sugar.

[Rajun Gardener]

When I think of sugar cane I think of Steens syrup, we grew up eating it and now it's used for everything including sausage.
https://www.steenssyrup.com

[mention]MissS[/mention] Apparently the US is having a bad year for sugar production.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge ... 76ff2.html

[MissS]

C&H and Domino's are the only two sources of cane sugar here. All the other brands including the store brands contain beet sugar. The label won't always declare more than just 'sugar' but if it is sourced through Michigan then it is beet sugar. I always look for a label that says 'cane sugar'. This is the only sugar that I will use to feed hummingbirds.

[pondgardener]

Colorado had some large beet sugar production on the eastern plains. Not sure how much now...I usually wait until C&H products go on sale, usually the two main holidays and I really stock up then.

[worth1]

I get the HEB store brand sugar and it says pure cane on it with a pictuer of sugar cane.
C&H is out of Hawaii and California they shipped from Hawaii to California (hence the C&H) for refining.
A long time ago they had an advertisement on TV with a little kid sucking on sugar cane.

Domino sugar and C&H are part of the ASR or American Sugar Refining Group, Domino's goes way back.

Sugar and it's history deserves it's own thread I have studied it from one end to the other for some time and one hell of a big rabbit hole.

[imp]

Well, I gues it is a matter of preference, but there is no chemical difference between sugar beet sugar and sugar cane sugar, excepting in the one bone char is sometimes used in the process of making the sugar.

[EdieJ]

Sugar beet shreds after they are done processing makes good horse feed. So at least there's not a lot of waste.

[imp]

Yes, sugar beet pulp ends up in a lot of feeds, even sometimes dog food. Even good in the compost heap. Did anyone know, sugar beets are good for humans to eat when small and used to be used as a stock feed long ago? Also, like all beet greens, sugar beet greens are quite good cooked.

[worth1]

I couldn't care less what plant my sugar comes from beet or cane the HEB brand is the cheapest so I get it.
I read some place that sugar cane is the largest crop grown on the planet.

[MissS]

I myself do not use sugar so I do not care if it is beet or cane. I do use about 30 lbs of sugar a year for feeding hummingbirds. As of yet there has not been any studies on the safety of using beet sugar for the birds, so I will continue to buy them cane sugar until beet sugar has been approved. I understand that sucrose is sucrose, it is the trace elements that may be different.