Friday, August 29, 2014

Barn Boot: Fail

 I really would like a pair of barn boots that fit.

I made a couple boot blanks from polar fleece.  I figured this would make a warm and soft interior and a decent framework for the rubberizing agent to stick to.  I used HERCULINER Truck Bed Liner as my rubberizing agent.  I'd been looking for a product that just had bags of granulated rubber and an adhesive separately, but this came with both mixed together in the can.


I stuffed the boot with plastic bags full of paper to get a boot like shape to start with, and started daubing on the rubberizing agent with a brush.

Several problems came up with the rubberizing process.  The material is meant to be applied with a foam roller to a flat surface.  It got very clumpy when trying to daub on with a brush on an irregular surface.  Second I am not a neat person, and if you get a drip on the dry side of your boot or on the newspaper you're putting the boot down on, you're going to end up with paper adhered to the boot.  Thirdly the adhesive soaked through the fleece and also adhered to the plastic bags inside the boot.

The next problem was that although I'd realized I'd need more room in the boot to get it on after stiffening, I didn't account for it enough.  You can see the problem here in the trimmed down version of the boot.  (I trimmed it at three different heights hoping to find one still usable.)


Finally, a trim that fits!

But the sole is lumpy, and the shape is a bit more rounded than it should be, leading to it being short in the toes.

You can see in this shot how little of the upper I laboriously hand sewed on is still present.


But it was not a total loss.  I learned something about the fit of a barn boot, and didn't waste leather in the process.  I also learned that the base material should be resistant to being soaked through so the rubber remains on the outside of the material.  I may also consider rubberizing the toe area with the material flat before sewing up the heel.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Can't Beat a Block of Cheese

Someone called my attention to Epic Bars, so I made a little scout around for some over the counter low carb paleo snacks.

ProductServingsFat grams per servingProtein grams per servingCarb grams per servingFiber grams per servingCalories% fat caloriesKetogenic Ratio
Epic Bison Cranberry1.0121110118857%96%
Tanka Original1.01.57769.519%41%
Wolf Snax1.020151228863%110%
Monterey Jack Cheese187110469%178%

Guess until they make me some real pemmican bars I'll be sticking with my meat and cheese.

I should rephrase that, there is a nearly real pemmican bar (not dehydrated enough to be shelf stable though), but it's frequently out of stock and never available in local stores or on Amazon:

ProductServingsFat grams per servingProtein grams per servingCarb grams per servingCalories% fat caloriesKetogenic Ratio
Grassland Beef Pemmican, Honey/Cherry Free12615129879%246%
Grassland Beef Pemmican, Regular12411829274%159%

Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach

You know that bit about not shopping when you're hungry?  Holds true for the paleo diet too.  I bought a pound each of Provolone and London Broil.  I knew I was over the 1 meal target, but I figured it was for both breakfast and lunch:


Product
ServingsFat grams per servingProtein grams per servingCarb grams per servingFiber grams per serving
Provolone16.6871
Cold Cut London Broil8.62130
Peppers, sweet, red, raw2.00.30.996.032.1

Total Calories2,381
% carb calories4%
% protein calories39%
% fat Calories57%
Ketogenic ratio139%
Uh.  That's more like 4 meals there.  Guess I better get some back in the fridge for tomorrow.

Good thing it's tasty.  The pepper gives it that bit of crunch without adding a lot of carb calories.  The cheese and meat flavors blend well...


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Ice Cream Vs. Yogurt

My Fibromyalgia flare-up leaves me exhausted, and sometimes exhaustion leads to doing dumb things like drinking burning hot beverages and ruining all appetite for foods with texture while the burn heals.

So yesterday for lunch I had ice cream, and today I had yogurt.  Which is better?

ProductServingsFat grams per servingProtein grams per servingCarb grams per servingFiber grams per servingCalories% fat caloriesKetogenic Ratio
Haagen Daz3.5174250941.5056.88%59.06%
Lemon Merange Oikos Traditional Greek Yogurt4.04.511210674.0024.04%32.73%
Key Lime Oikos Traditional Greek Yogurt4.04.511180626.0025.88%36.69%

Looks like ice cream has it in the normal case, but perhaps while I'm healing the protein counts for more.  The total calories in one container of Haagen Daz was a bit high, perhaps I could look at some of the smaller container sizes.  Secondary note here is that not all flavors are equal.  I already knew that different Oikos flavors have different additives, apparently they have different nutrition profiles as well.

Flare-up

It's a bad week.  Thursday I had a big pile of blueberries with honey on them, and got a sugar high and crash.  For desert that night I had blackberries with honey.  That night I came down with a very bad cold that lasted about 24 hours.  Saturday sore shoulders and PMS.  Sunday morning I realized that this was a Fibromyalgia flare-up, and went back to bed for 5 more hours of sleep, but was still tired in the evening and needed caffeine to make it to bedtime.  Monday I was hallucinating/dreaming while awake at work (my code was talking to other parts of my code, and I was trying to investigate their conspiracy).  It didn't help that I burned my mouth at breakfast.  (Tried to sip the top off an overly full travel mug of recently boiling broth.)  I'm exhausted.  I need to be very careful about my diet and sleep and get back on a regular PT routine again until this calms down.

It's still not as bad as flare ups used to be, I was able to climb the stairs in to work this morning without much trouble.  Flare-ups used to always center on my legs, and this time it's just my shoulder.