I love coffee. I tend to drink both espresso and pour-overs in the morning. And, while I love trying new coffees, trying to dial-in a new roast on regular basis can be problematic early in the morning.
I’m a fan of having a daily driver; a coffee I can rely on. Unfortunately, my last daily driver went out of stock from the roaster I’ve been using. But…they have another that’s really just as good! Yay!
I’m a big fan of Ethiopian coffees; supposedly the original home of coffee. I also prefer a light or at most medium roast. And finally, that Anaerobic Natural processing method really brings out fruity and floral flavors. That isn’t to say other methods of processing don’t or can’t, but I’ve found that this is what rings my bell, at least currently.
Klatch Coffee is the roaster I’ve been using for the past little while. One of things I really like about them is that each batch is consistent. That means I don’t have to dial-in my espresso machine just because I have a new order of the same coffee I bought last time making my morning routine pretty darn easy.
Yes, I was making more bone broth today, but the real score as a nice jar of tallow. This comes from the roasting stage of the cook. Again, first I blanch the bones in boiling water for few minutes to remove impurities like blood, bits of hair, and so on. Next comes the roasting. I use my air fryer on roast for about 25 minutes at 425 F. That generally gets them nice and golden brown. I also get a nice haul of pretty clean beef tallow. You’d think this makes the bone broth devoid of oils, but it isn’t so. There’s always enough for a good amount in the broth itself.
I love cooking with beef tallow. It’s a lot healthier than using seed oils. As I don’t cook a lot of pork, I don’t get a lot of cooking fats from that, but it’s wonderful as well.
I’ve been having so much fun with my new Spark Go that I decided I’d add another piece of kit for it. As it’ll also work with my 40 and is $20 off right now, it seemed like the time to get it. I’ve found that anything that increases my interest in playing my guitar regularly, is probably a good thing.
It’s a foot controller to move between amps and effects in the Spark. As I’m generally using a rhythm and lead setting, it’d be nice not to have to adjust things on the phone to change on the fly.
I wanted one of these when they first came out a while back, but they didn’t ship to Hawaii. Now that they are on Amazon, and at the same sale prices, it’s doable.
It should be here Wednesday. I’m sure I’ll have more about it then.
I’ve been COVID-19 free for at least a week. Or perhaps I should say, I’m pretty sure I’m COVID-19 free. I haven’t tested since last Sunday and I did test clear.
But the truth is, I’m still exhausted. I’ll admit I get up pretty early in the morning. But instead of being able to get through the day, as least till the afternoon, I’m finding I can barely keep my eyes open by mid-morning.
I haven’t started exercising yet. All the advice I’ve seen has said that waiting ten days is probably a good idea. I am going out for a walk with a friend tomorrow. I’ve already said that we’ll need to keep it short, but at least I’ll be outside for a bit.
Now it is, you guessed it, time to go to bed. G’night!
I mentioned in a post about my new Valeton GP-200LT that one of the reasons I bought was to have a usable looper along with effects and such.
Well, I just lost two hours to the looper playing over a really simple chord progression.
Really it’s was just a B chord and an A chord…over and over, I guess I could have thrown in an E, but I never did. You’ll note, if you have a little theory that B and A are the 5 and 4 chords of E major. And, as I was resolving to B, it was a B Mixolydian jam.
There, I’ve just exhausted my knowledge of music theory and there’s a fifty-fifty chance I’m wrong anyway. But it was fun.
I also was using amp/cab/effect model I created myself in just a few minutes and I really liked the tone.
So yeah, I’m quite happy with the Valeton.
But why did I say it’ll get worse?
Well, I’ve another piece of kit arriving. It a Spark Go portable amp. It has some tricks up its sleeve that the Valeton doesn’t, but their purposes are a bit different,
So yeah, I’ll probably lose a few more hours. Sigh.
I’m quite pleased that I’ve now hit at least three batches in a row that have gelled properly. That’s pretty much all I wanted to say. I’ve got the proportion of water to bones down pretty well. Next up, work on the taste.
Mind you, this tastes very good already. Further, has it can be used as a base for other dishes, I don’t want to impart too specific a flavor profile to it, other than beef that is.
But I am still have a lovely sixteen ounce serving each morning as I recover from my recent COVID-19 illness, so making it a little more flavorful wouldn’t be out of the question. I do add some salt when I reheat it right now, as well as a pat or two of butter. Today, being out of my usual butter, I’m using a little goat butter!
I’ve had my Valeton GP-200LT for a couple of days now and am thoroughly impressed. Keep in mind that I’m not much of a guitar player. Anything I use needs to be relatively simple. It needs to sound good, at least to me. And it needs to be on the smaller side so I don’t have to take up a lot of room.
So far, I’ve been happy on all counts.
The things I wanted most out of device have been easy to use and sound great. I wanted to be able to use a looper easily. I’ve tried loop pedals with varying degrees of success. The biggest problem I’ve had is lining them up with other tools. The looper in the Valeton is fairly rudimentary, but it works. I haven’t plumbed the depths of it yet, but can create a loop using one patch, and play along using another. Yay!
I also wanted some sort of rhythm. The Valeton has a built-in drum machine. Again, it’s not super programmable or extensive. But it has basic rhythms allowing me to practice along with something that keeps time. Using the metronome function is especially useful, especially in conjunction with the looper.
I also was able to create a decent sounding patch incorporating an amp, a cab, and some effects both quickly and easily. And better, it sounds great.
Now for the things I really wish I’d been able to achieve. To use the looper, I’ve had to place the device on the floor. I’d have preferred it on my desk, allowing me to trigger looper start, record, and stop with an external switch. I’m almost positive this can be done. I just haven’t figured it out yet.
And sadly, my expression pedals doesn’t seem to work with the Valeton. I’m hesitant to get another in case that doesn’t work either. Again though, it may just be my inability to set it up correctly. It seems to be being read, it just doesn’t trigger anything, or at least nothing I want.
Things I did have to add. I use my Bose noise canceling headphones quite often because I live in an apartment with neighbors. Because I’ve had to place the Valeton on the floor, I needed a longer cord. That was quick and cheap from Amazon, but it meant a day or two of waiting.
Further, I also needed a longer USB-C to USB-C cable to plug the unit into my Mac M2 Mini. I bought a cheap one. You can imagine the results. Do not buy cheap USB-C cables. I ended up getting the very expensive Apple USB-C cable because I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and a Mac M2 Mini. It works great with the Valeton.
Here’s a vid on why that cable may actually be worth the price from Adam Savage.
I certainly learned something about USB-C cables.
In any case, I’m happily plinking away with guitar and quite enjoying my new toy. I’m sure there’ll be more about it in the future and who knows, maybe even some music from me. But that’s not today!
I made another batch h of bone broth today for my friend. Perhaps more properly, for his wife who can really use the nutrition. I seems to have the recipe down as this one looked good, had plenty of fat, and gelled nicely.
There was even an extra four ounces of tallow from the roasting to pass along.
I’ll be making another batch for myself either tomorrow or Wednesday. I have a few extra bones to toss in, something I didn’t do for today’s batch.
