Pork, The One You Love

Cloudy and low 60s at TRY time. Fall like, but still leaning way to the side of great weather.

The countdown to the end of regular season TRY is on -- counting tonight there are FIVE weeks left.

On 10/11/12, my oldest boy was born. Tonight after TRY you can join us at the Village Burger for a tasty, but slowly served, burger followed by some funfetti cupcakes. No need to bring anything for the birthday boy, except a happy birthday wish, either at the park or at VB for those who can join in.

The "Run of the Dead" is this Saturday (the 15th) right in Liverpool. There is a video right at the top of the page that shows off a lot better zombie action than I assumed they had. Certainly looks interesting! (If you are into that sort of thing.) My sister-in-law plays a role in this event because her and other North Syracuse Wilderness Search and Rescue volunteers do most of the work getting the course prepared...and then get a minor kick-back of money from each participant. (So it becomes one of the WSARs bigger fundraisers for the year.)

Does anyone want to check out a local Y?
Catherine's membership (And I assume any other main member?) currently has the option of "gifting" a two week trial membership to as many friends as she can find to take up the offer. (Then if you end up joining, she does get a free month herself, but that is very secondary to you guys taking advantage to see if the Y is worth your time.) I am thinking someone like Malinda? Or Tim and Lindsay? Bill? People that live super close to the "new" one in B'ville that maybe have never seen the inside? Membership is month to month, so for anyone looking for a place to get runs in through the winter, it may be worth considering for 4-6 months? (The B'ville one does have a 1/8 mile track.)

No matter which Y you would want to check out, Catherine just would need to know that you are interested - gives them your name - and then you get two weeks free. You do have to start your two week trial by the end of October. (And it just so happens that at the B'ville Y they are doing a 2 week yearly pool maintenance the last week of October and first week of November, so that would limit what you have access to during your trial.)

For those who have never thought about the Y as a gym choice - a membership gets you into "all" the Syracuse area Y's, including the one at OCC - which has that very nice indoor track for winter running.

Do you have a choice of what time of day to run? Because SCIENCE is now claiming it is better to run in the evening. (TRY time is probably a bit too early to be considered to ideal time...but at least it is close?) Of course, I've often heard that running in the morning is better for weight loss, so who knows with these studies and how they come up with their numbers?

Meat eaters only from this point on:
Lastly, I posted this on TRY, but another way to ask people: Who would be interested in buying locally raised pork next late September or early October? My brother-in-law proved the concept this summer raising 5 of them, but next year is willing to double his herd. (But needs the "order" soon so that he can put the request in with the farmer that will have the piglets in the spring.) This year the price per half pig ended up being a little less than $300 for about 70 pounds of meat. You get a lot of choices for the cuts you want. (Hams versus steaks, what types of sausage, ribs or not, etc.) The pigs are raised on my families old farm in Croghan and the meat market is just outside of Lowville.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of what half of a pig involves. We ended up with about 20 pounds of ham and ham steaks, and 5 pounds of bacon. 15 pounds of sausage. And then ribs, all sorts of pork chops, tenderloin, shoulder, ...

Here are the coolers that were both full:



Here is the bacon (disappointingly little, but super tasty):


Here is almost all the rest of the meat (a couple small pieces wouldn't fit and kept sliding off). Hams and shoulder on left. Chops and steaks in the middle and our sweet and hot sausage on the right.:


Here is part of the custom cut order form to see the decisions you have to make:




This year no payment was due until the end, but with him expanding to non-family members, there may be a minor down payment asked for in the spring? (I trust all of you so am not too worried about it.)