An "assault weapons" ban in Colorado that bans a whole host of semi-automatic weapons, summary on EV shopping, and, dried sourdough starter.
Putting a pin in the EV car shopping series.
I wanted to just take a quick minute and summarize from my earlier series of posts about EV's. Touch on all the high spots once more.
--What you drive is a matter of your tastes and what meets your needs. There are people that prefer EV's and for whom EV's make good economic sense. I have no animosity to EV's, but I do not find any in my current price range that meet my needs and this includes the current (rather lavish) subsidies.
--I know that I am not alone in this and the idea that I should have to pay tax dollars so that others can drive around in EV's while I can't frustrates me. It violates basic rules of fairness and, given their focus on equity and etc., I find it odd that the Democrats running this state don't put their money where their mouth is on EV subsidies. They should either be accessible by all those that are paying into the system, or they should only be paid for by those than can access the subsidies.
--Even if you do have the money and will to borrow to get an EV, the tax credits and lack of need to buy gas do not guarantee that your monthly cost will be less. A decent, used hybrid might be just as cost-effective as a used EV with subsidies.
--As the market matures and later-generation EV's hit the used market, my guess is that this will change, but right now the used EV market doesn't have many lower-priced options that are worth the money compared to gas-powered cars. The battery degradation and consequent loss of already-small ranges in the used EV market make them good for people that lived their lives in a 20 to 45 mile radius (and less than that in winter), but for the vast majority, it's a non-starter.
--The political and media narrative that these subsidies put the cars more in the reach of everyday people needs to be revised, and the claims need serious context which has thus far been missing. Take a look at the screenshot attached. It comes from the Sun's twitter account and references the article I used in my earlier posts. See the bit boxed in red? That claim needs major context. Yes a proposed $12500 total subsidy (if the Assembly passes it this session) would cut the price of a $25000 EV in half, but look at what that would buy you. Look at what's available. Look at what the financing would be for everyday people to get a $12500 note.
I've written enough times to (I hope) make clear that I'm not a Second Amendment absolutist.
I probably fall on the free-er side of center than some others who also consider themselves as not absolutists, but I'm not for the idea that anyone gets any gun any time.
Still, the bill mentioned in the article below is way, way, WAY too extreme for me.
If you look at what the bill defines as an "Assault Weapon", good Lord, one wonders what exactly wouldn't be one! Look at the screengrab for an idea.
I took note of the sponsors and will be watching their page to see if it advances past the draft that was leaked. I included the pages of the sponsors off the draft below if you were curious and/or wanted to watch too.
If I see it start to move, I'll post an update. I'm not planning on as much testifying this term, but I will most definitely be writing or speaking on this one!
If you hear or see something and don't see it on my page please let me know so I can share.
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2023/01/09/colorado-democrats-aim-to-ban-entire-class-of-semiautomatic-weapons/
https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/andrew-boesenecker
https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/elisabeth-epps
https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/rhonda-fields
Last one of the day and you know what that means: a curiosity for fun that is not related to politics.
I forget if I've mentioned, but an ambition I've had for a while was to start a wild yeast starter from complete scratch (meaning no shortcuts, no commercial yeast to kickstart, no purchased or shared starter) and use it for baking.
I did that last summer and have been using it and enjoying the breads.**
One of the things you soon learn if you make a starter is just how much materiel and time it can take to maintain. Even refrigerating, it's still a maintenance issue and I have enough of those already.
So, you can freeze it. Then you can thaw it out a little ahead of when you want to bake with it so you can revive it. I've done that. Had various amounts of luck with how easy and quick it is to kickstart the starter (and, yes, I've tried all the different things seen on the internet).
I am now experimenting with dried starter. That is, instead of freezing the starter when I'm done, I'm trying to dry it out as a way to keep it long-term.
In the pictures attached you can see the process in rough steps:
1. The mason jar has my dark rye starter (not 100% rye, but a mix of dark rye flour and bread flour--this is the original mix I made though I have a plain bread flour one too). One trick I learned that helps your starter revive is to not wait til it's ready to be fed to freeze it or dry it. That way it's not exhausted going into storage. For the way I do things, that means, wait til it bubbles after a feeding, but don't let it double (and certainly don't let it go til the edges fall!). The lines on the jar are, in ascending order, height at feeding, half again as high, and doubled. I let the starter get halfway between feeding and doubled before drying.
2. Now take the starter and smear it out thinly on a sheet of parchment paper. When I say thin, I mean thin: thin enough to see light through, less than 1/8" thick. Cover the smear with another sheet of parchment paper pressing it down in to the starter. Leave it on the counter to dry at room temp. If you've spread it thin enough, it should dry completely in about 24 - 36 hours. That's the second photo attached. After the starter dries it comes off the parchment as a bunch of crispy flakes like you see in the bowl.
3. At this point you can either crunch the flakes up by hand, put them in a ziplock and run over it with a rolling pin, pulse in a food processor, or do like I did and grind to a powder in your spice grinder. That's what you see in the last photo attached. I took the flakes and reduced to a fine dust in my grinder and put it in a mason jar.
4. One last step to be safe: seal the starter (flakes, powder, what have you) in an airtight container. Leave it out for 24 hours and check for condensation on the inside of the jar. If there is any condensation, you didn't dry the starter enough and it will spoil. Try again. If your container shows no condensation after 24 hours, you're safe to store til you need it.
So far (and I'm just now starting some apples to apples comparisons using starter at the same level of activity when either frozen or dried), I'm not seeing a huge difference in revival times from dried vs. frozen. Both are about the same amount of time and work.
The one nice thing about the dried is that it is portable and needs no chill. That means it's easy to take places and easy to share. That's a definite plus you don't have with frozen. Even at that, however, I think I'll keep a frozen starter or two around. Always was a belt and suspenders guy.
**A note on sourness: I'm not a fan of super, duper sour bread. I like a little sour and wild yeast breads keep better than commercial. You can control the sourness of your bread by how long you wait from feeding til using and by how much food you give your starter. If you like it sour, do a bare doubling of your starter and let it sit in the fridge an extra day. If you like it mild, triple or even quadruple your starter and use it after sitting in the fridge one day. The reason is that the yeast always lead the bacteria (and the bacteria give the sour).
Also, if you like it sour, make sure to use high gluten bread flour. The more sour, the more the gluten wears down in your starter and it'll go to soup!
Have a happy Friday!
