A lot of people have tweeted “Why a Big Mac Costs Less Than a Salad”. Sadly, I’m guessing most read the tweet but don’t do any further research. It’s just a sound bite.

The real story is that while the First Lady is campaigning against child obesity and making news on the importance of good nutrition, the government is spending huge dollars subsidizing beef and dairy and barely a penny on fruits and vegetables. According to 1995-2005 records, meat and dairy received nearly 2000% more funding than fruits and vegetables (yes, that reads two thousand percent).

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine created a pyramid chart that makes the disparity easy to see.

Even the PCRM’s chart does not tell the whole story because, while it looks like the government subsidies for grain would be a step in the right direction, nearly all of those subsidies are for grains that are processed into unhealthy ingredients …

"we heavily subsidize the growth of foods (e.g., corn, soy) that in their processed forms (e.g., high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated corn and soybean oils, grain-fed cattle) are known contributors to obesity and associated chronic diseases, including cancer."
… The 2006-2007 Annual Report of the President’s Cancer Panel

It’s just another example of you get what you pay for. If *YOU* don’t want to get fat, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and other associated heath conditions, tell your senators and legislators to stop spending *YOUR* money on stuff you don’t want. … Oh, and "eat your vegetables".

It seems, no matter how much space you have, you end up filling it up and wanting more. The shop is no different.

The “uncluttering” solution is to (1) sell, give way, and throw out the stuff you don’t need and (2) use space more effectively. I did a little of the first and a lot of the second. My problem was I needed to use my vertical space better so I installed the industrial equivalent of a closet organizer – warehouse (or pallet) shelving.

My first challenge was to find shelving that I could afford. New stuff is nice, bright, clean and expensive. Craigslist yielded something that is old, dented, dingy, a little rusted, and affordable. A road trip in between “climate chaos” snow storms got them the last 90 miles to the farmhouse where they sat for another few weeks for the weather to cooperate. This weekend was the perfect.

It took a couple trial & error attempts before I came up with a process for installing the 10’ high up-rights and connecting the 10’ long spreaders. BARRETT did most of the heavy lifting. I would load two of the 50 lb spreaders on the pallet stacker’s forks and then lift them to 10 feet. I would then position a ladder at one end and bring in one of the up-rights. Once I locked the spreaders to the uprights with funky connectors and a 3lb sledge, I moved the ladder to the other end and repeated. Once all the bents were in place, I used BARRETT to position all of the lower spreaders then cut 2’x4’ cross braces and again used BARRETT to help deck the shelves with spare press board.

Currently, the shelves are holding some spare construction lumber, a pallet of pre-finished plywood for the home office cabinetry, and in a bit of chicken-vs-egg, the shelving hold the left over shelving.

Living in rural America you are not likely to find a Starbucks, Target, Cosco, movie multiplex, Home Depot, Trader Joes, commercial airport, or a wide range of fine dining and entertainment hotspots “just around the corner”. More likely they are 90 miles in one direction or another. What you will find is a collection of family owned and operated small businesses serving an eclectic range of needs. One example is the Machipongo Trading Company with their local coffees from Eastern Shore Coastal Roasting Co.

The owners of Eastern Shore Coastal Roasting Co. have a solid range of coffees they have blended and roasted themselves and are not just some repackaged bulk purchase from “elsewhere”. What’s even better is they love to hear what people think and want. Kristen and James use treat their coffee just like a microbrewery treats their beer. You might even call them a “micro-roaster”. What is so great is that a micro-roaster can do small batches – all the way down to 7lbs. With this little tidbit, I contacted Kristen and setup an appointment to visit and talk about coffee !

Coffee has more distinct flavors than wines – most quote, “more than 700 flavor constituents”. Knowing what you like is one thing. Describing it is much harder.

Anyway, Kristen first had me try each of the blends they had available (over a period of weeks – not all in one day). Then I cam back with my comments. From that information, she selected and roasted three single-origin beans – Guatemalan, Sumatra Mandheling, and El Salvador Peaberry – as well as their house blend. They ground all to the same consistency and it was back to taste testing at home.

The first few days were tough.

• Day 1 – make a single espresso shot of each and taste side by side “strait up”. Serious buzzing ensured.
• Day 2 – make a single espresso shot of each with a measured amount of whole milk and taste side by side “strait up”. Again, serious buzzing ensured.
• Day 3 – repeat Day 1 with a 1/2oz of chocolate syrup in each (this is what I enjoyed while in Rome a few years back). Sadly, less buzzing ensured which meant I was adjusting to the mega dosage.
• Day 4 – blend 50/50 of Guatemalan and Sumatra Mandheling and add milk. Fortunately the withdrawal was not as bad as expected but I definitely did not want to escalate back to 4 shots before 8AM.
• Day 5 – blend 50/50 of Guatemalan and El Salvador Peaberry and add milk.
• Day 6 – blend 50/50 of Sumatra Mandheling and El Salvador Peaberry and add milk.
• Day 7..10 – I was traveling
• Day 11 – blend 1/3 each and add milk.
• Day 12 – make a mocha from the Day 4 blend.
• Day 13 – make a mocha from the Day 4 blend using a different espresso machine
• Day 14 – make a mocha from the house blend

So, now I have my notes from all of the above (along with a serious caffeine addiction). It’s time to return the Machipongo Trading Company for a tasty breakfast and a conversation with Kristen. Soon, theSalmonFarm may have it’s own signature coffee !

It was a marathon session with some “creative CYA” but most of the spiral staircase is it.

Still to be done is the wood treads for the risers along with the balusters and handrail. If it were not such a huge safety and code violation, I’d love to leave the balusters and handrail off as the free floating treads look cool.

A curious coincidence is that each riser weights 42 pounds which is right in the sweet spot for a curling stone!

I was asked how I did the install without help. The short answer is “very carefully”. The long answer is that I built a pair of “holding” jigs – one at the top of the center pole and one in the middle. I first mixed up a small batch of epoxy and buttered the concrete floor to install the base plate. (Later, I drilled the concrete for a pare of holding pins I made and used JB Weld to make those permanent.) I then brought the 90lb center pole in and placed to over the center sleeve of the base plate and secured it with the two holding jigs. With a 12’ ladder next to the pole, I picked up a riser; climbed the ladder; remove the top holder; slid the riser over the top of the pole; reattached the holder; slid the riser down to the middle holder; detached it; slide the riser down the remainder; and replaced the middle holder. Rinse and repeat 12 more times. The last piece was the top platform which is installed much like a riser only it also gets attached to the rim of the hole in the second floor using lag bolts.

So, to the point of this post – any bets on the date and time I first hit my head on one of the risers ?

“Idealists don’t get much done without a few pragmatists running interferance for them.”

I’m thankful for all the pragmatists in my life (even those who don’t realize they fill the role).