Well what ya wanna know about biltong GP? You guys may know it as jerky....

Tell you what I'll do.......

I'll make some biltong over my "rest period", and take some pics while I'm doing it. I'll send you some detailed instruction sheet with pics on how to make your own.

You can make it with any beef or venison, although I haven't tried it with Ostrich or Crocodile yet....

I was under the impression the the process was different than jerky. Looking forward to seeing what you do. Thanks

Me too!

Me too!

Do we need to break it out of the disease thread? 

Do we need to break it out of the disease thread? 

LOL- Don't ask me... I think eating meat *is* a disease

LOL- Don't ask me... I think eating meat *is* a disease

You might be right...kinda like being short.   

Basically in Open, I don't care if it's on topic or not or which way it bends (easy boys)(that's for you, Brian) as long as it stays civil.

Originally I had high hopes for here in Texas, but no longer. I thought that maybe after what has been in the news about New York and more recently Louisiana that people here would have their eyes opened. Instead it seems they have their heads in the sand, or perhaps between their lower cheeks. I go to a restaurant to pick up an online order and get in the vehicle line approaching the entrance where they have a desk and awning cover over a bunch of employees. I roll down the passenger window and an employee standing a good 5 feet away asks my name. I give it to her and she assigns me a parking spot which I go and park in. The parking spots are in four rows and the numbered ones are all spread out with one unnumbered one in between. I'm thinking "cool" these people seem to know what they are doing. Then my order comes out but she wants to hand it to me through the driver's side window. I point to the passenger side, then she says "if the window doesn't work then open the door" again I say "no" and point to the passenger side where the window is already open. She gives me a look and then walks over there and puts the order through the window and sets it on the seat. She walks back to the restaurant giving me a look again like I'm the weirdo. I guess she thinks we're doing all this because we want to be at eye level and face to face about 12-18 inches apart? Normally for online take out I don't tip very generously, after all, I did most of the work. However in this instance, knowing that business is down, I tipped online at 20%. As I drove away I regretted it.

The next day I go to the grocery store where I've signed up for an online order and parking lot delivery. I call from the lot and tell them what numbered spot I'm in and my order number. While I'm waiting for my order to come out I notice two women sitting about 3 feet apart at an outside bistro table drinking lemonade or some such as they face each other gabbing away. Then I see two guys coming out of the store walking about a foot away from each other grocery bags in each hand having a conversation. I'm thinking about the social distancing of 6 feet and I assume they are a gay couple doing their shopping, just then they stop and face each other and set down their groceries to shake hands before each turns and goes to separate vehicles. The girl comes out with the groceries and I'm glad that my having the rear hatch already open has made her think that is where I wanted her to load them. Which she does, however she then walks up to about 10 inches from my window and wants to hand me the paperwork, I yell through the glass to just put it in the back with the groceries. She frowns a bit and then does just that.
Am I the one that's clueless here?

Why is it the folks on TV telling us that we need to social distance 6 feet from each other (national or local doesn't seem to matter) often do it from a stage where people are all crammed together behind them to ensure they are all in the camera shot? To top that off, many of them in the back are constantly touching their faces!

I'm very glad that here in Illinois we have a governor that took this crisis seriously right from the outset. JB shut the state down before the **** completely hit the fan.

So far no CV cases here in the county we live in, nor in two of the three adjacent counties.

I think this is a matter of opinion (not about you being clueless, about what is 'safe interaction'  ).

Social distancing is great but it is not 'the fix'. If anyone along the supply line of your orders is carrying the contagion, it is almost certainly on your food / groceries. Which I assume you will handle directly as soon as you get home. The only way to maintain real, 100% 'social distancing' is to also break the chain with anything handled by ANY other human with a period long enough to make sure the virus that may (and certainly will be in some cases) be on the packaging / products you take possession of. Are you getting mail (post for the Limeys (that is for you, Jim) )? Do you wait at least 9 days after the mail is delivered? If not, you are at some risk of inert material transfer through objects.

The point is that it is almost impossible to truly isolate ourselves. It is the same as doing everything we can to prevent motorcycle accidents- we can do whatever we want and as much as we want but the risk is never eliminated as long as one rides a motorcycle. So by refusing to allow strangers (and perhaps even friends?) into a six food space around you, you reduce but do not eliminate your chances of contracting this virus.... or even any other transmittable disease. BTW- wouldn't it be ironical (a favorite word) to contract something like typhoid in the middle of this COVID outbreak? Back to the point- you can swing the odds but not stack the deck to be 100% assured of avoiding the disease while still living anything like a normal, first- world life. Same goes for getting the virus as well; you could do anything (easy boys) regarding contact with an infected person and still not be 100% guaranteed of contracting the virus either.

So no, I do not think you are clueless but I do think you may be putting a bit too much emphasis on a single rule of behavior. We (Andrea and I) go to stores and shop pretty normally and I fully understand the risk that I / we could contract the virus for either the people around us as well as handling the food packaging, which may well be contaminated from almost anyone along the line that handled the product as well as previous customers who may have handled the package(s) and be infected. BTW, the same goes for washing our hands- it is a great step in the right direction to reduce the presence of the virus on our hands but it is NOT 100% assured that we have removed all of the potential virus. Again, a percentage will be washed away but some virus will be left. So probably a good idea but certainly not any kind of guarantee that you just made COVID disappear from our paws.

All of that said, I believe we should all do what we think best for ourselves and others, within the confines of whatever rules are in place, of course. If you choose to maintain some physical distance between yourself and others, that is certainly a sensible and reasonable choice. But it still comes with risk of infection as long as you are passing inert things between yourself and others. So each of us has to judge what is a reasonable mode of behavior given the circumstances. All in my opinion, of course.

On a different note, it looks like China has reached 'burnout' of virus transmission and should now be on the downside of infection rates (though not illness / death rates yet perhaps). It looks like Italy has also reached the 'knee of the curve'. The US is still in the climb though with no indications that we are peaking, at least from what I have seen and can understand from the data I have been able to find. This one is gonna' sting and we still cannot tell how much it is going to swell before it goes away....

Just be thankful that Mary Ann and I are not in TX, 'cause should we all happen to meet up, you know I could not resist that special hug I have.   

Brian (COVID free as a boy can be..... I think)

<snip>

Am I the one that's clueless here?

Why is it the folks on TV telling us that we need to social distance 6 feet from each other (national or local doesn't seem to matter) often do it from a stage where people are all crammed together behind them to ensure they are all in the camera shot? To top that off, many of them in the back are constantly touching their faces!

Just be thankful that Mary Ann and I are not in TX, 'cause should we all happen to meet up, you know I could not resist that special hug I have.   

Oh groan. 

Social distancing is great but it is not 'the fix' [...]The point is that it is almost impossible to truly isolate ourselves.[...]

Agreed, completely.

This is all about risk mitigation.  Just halving the number of interactions you have, will greatly lower exposure.  Doesn't mean we all have to go insane about everything.

When I go shopping now, I go half as frequently, make absolutely sure not to touch my face, and when I get to my car and lose the cart, I disinfect my hands (if possible), wash immediately when I get home, unload, and wash hands again.  No mask.  No veering around other carts by 6 feet.  No gloves.  Just some common sense precautions.  Canceled dinner meetings and other meetings with friends.  Not wearing a mask at work either, but washing hands more frequently (and we have few visitors there).

I might have cut my transmission and reception odds by at least 2/3rds.  If everyone did only that, it would probably be "enough" to slow it tremendously.  Probably your biggest risk would be kids with you- they touch EVERYTHING, continuously, and their hands are in their mouth/nose/eyes all over the place, all the time, no matter what you do

Could it be on a box or something that I brought home?  Could be.  Would it survive the journey, and I touch the same spot, and it somehow get to an appropriate site on me, and then get into me, and be enough and viable to infect?  Could be.  The odds are pretty low.  Especially compared to touching a shopping cart, door knob, railing, faucet level, or light switch...  Those I treat quite differently.

t my alarm and got up early to shop our local markets senior hour 7-8. They would only let in 25 at a time.  The market had hand washing stations out side and a antibact wipes dispensor inside. I arrived at 7:05 and was number 28. Got in and grabbed a wad of wipes to use to handle everything. Got my stuff home and proceeded to unpack the goods wiping everything down with Lysol spray.
 

t my alarm and got up early to shop our local markets senior hour 7-8. They would only let in 25 at a time.  The market had hand washing stations out side and a antibact wipes dispensor inside. I arrived at 7:05 and was number 28. Got in and grabbed a wad of wipes to use to handle everything. Got my stuff home and proceeded to unpack the goods wiping everything down with Lysol spray.
 

Great job Bob! What were they out of that you wanted? Anything?

No tp or dis8nfectant

Quite a few reports of New Yorkers leaving New York and possibly taking Covid-19 with them.  The only way to contain this is to do what the Chinese did and shut the cities off.  They'll be more hot spots developing for sure now.  Saw a FL licensed vehicle across the street and I know damn well it wasn't there a few days ago.  It's either coming back from NY or escaping FL. 


I really don't blame these people for leaving but it's going to make this last a lot longer than Easter.

Yep, the wiping down of purchased materials, as well as wiping off everything (such as can be done) before touching it all adds together and decreases the odds yet more that you will be infected.

Just talked to my son and granddaughter (such as one 'talks' with a toddler) and they are on the far other side of this behavior, much less serious about COVID than even I am. They let the child run around, touching anyone / anything and everyone finds it cute apparently (hey, she IS adorable.... seriously). Personally, I do not agree with this behavior but my son and DIL are in their 30's and I cannot do anything about their behavior or attitude toward this situation. I have made suggestions but they fall on deaf ears. Such is the nature of a free society. ?? ??

Brian

t my alarm and got up early to shop our local markets senior hour 7-8. They would only let in 25 at a time.  The market had hand washing stations out side and a antibact wipes dispensor inside. I arrived at 7:05 and was number 28. Got in and grabbed a wad of wipes to use to handle everything. Got my stuff home and proceeded to unpack the goods wiping everything down with Lysol spray.
 

Quite a few reports of New Yorkers leaving New York and possibly taking Covid-19 with them.  The only way to contain this is to do what the Chinese did and shut the cities off.  They'll be more hot spots developing for sure now.  Saw a FL licensed vehicle across the street and I know damn well it wasn't there a few days ago.  It's either coming back from NY or escaping FL. 

Those are known as HALF BACKS....

It is not legal for the fed. gummit to shut down 'travel', and I do not believe we will see anything like that on the federal level. If we do, it will be followed by lawsuits and end up in the Supreme Court. Travel is a constitutional right and as such, is extremely touchy to try and control or stop.

We may see some quarantining on a state level though that is not legal either (same reason). That said, we have seen it before during the more extreme over- reactions to the Ebola "outbreak" that happen a few years back. The governor of NJ tried to prevent the travel of a disease- free citizen but was so clumsy about it that she simply drove out of NJ and back to ME. And as we know now, there were exactly zero deaths from Ebola transmitted to someone while in the US. As they say, nothing exceeds like excess :-)

Just to be clear, COVID is very, very different than Ebola; COVID is fairly easy to spread but has a relatively low mortality rate. Ebola is much less easily transferred but has an astonishingly high mortality rate. The same behavior / attitudes cannot be used for those two different viruses, or at least certainly should not be used interchangeably.

Brian

Quite a few reports of New Yorkers leaving New York and possibly taking Covid-19 with them.  The only way to contain this is to do what the Chinese did and shut the cities off.  They'll be more hot spots developing for sure now.  Saw a FL licensed vehicle across the street and I know damn well it wasn't there a few days ago.  It's either coming back from NY or escaping FL. 


I really don't blame these people for leaving but it's going to make this last a lot longer than Easter.

?