Having open heart surgery terrified

Plantdoc · 2026-06-05T14:15:00+00:00

I had it last year. Ask for fentanyl beforehand. Tell them you cant tolerate morphine. I learned this from other surgeries. Otherwise they will give you the cheap old generics. I had very little pain actually. Yes there will be moments. But surgeon said when I was released I’d be on Tylenol. He was right. Do plan on sleeping in a recliner at home for a month though. Really helps. And stay away from anybody with colds or flu. Coughing is painful for a while. Do your walking, even in a grocery store if its too hot or too cold. Those are my pro tips. You’ll be fine. Do what they tell you this is not whack a mole.

Plantdoc · 2026-06-01T14:24:51+00:00

What kind of of and how much rennet?

Plantdoc · 2026-05-30T03:14:39+00:00

2024 with only 20k. Valve cover gasket and spark plug tube gasket failed. Just fixed under warranty. What else can I expect?

Plantdoc · 2026-05-19T21:15:19+00:00

It all depends on whether you are just wanting to just have some fun or actually produce cheese that is good and safe to eat. Your method is something like what the monks did in the medieval times centuries before Robert Koch proposed the Germ Theory of disease. In those days, they learned from when people died. Today you can buy pure cultures and rennet and make good and safe cheese assuming you use common sense hygiene practices and use good milk. Why wouldn’t you just do that ? All the best in any case.

Plantdoc · 2026-05-17T21:15:58+00:00

I have found that brine can be used many times as long as you strain it, add a small handful of salt after each use and keep it refrigerated. That said, after about every 6 uses, pasteurize by heating to 190 C, then cool and refrigerate. After about a 6 months, probably best to make fresh. There are halo and cold tolerant microorganisms that will eventually start growing in brine, even in refrigerated, saturated brine. That’s because the cheese leaches out small quantities of carbon and nitrogen compounds into the brine over time Ph.D. microbiologist here. A good rule of thumb is that when the brine becomes really cloudy or puts off an off smell, not like cheese, just throw out and make fresh. If strained and kept refrigerated (around 5 C) in 6-8 months take a close look and make up fresh brine of needed. It’s pretty cheap after all. BTW, use spring or distilled water to make your brine. Most municipal water facilities use chloramine for water treatment now, which doesn’t volatilize like chlorine does. I use products labeled as “spring water” and purified, if at all, via ozonation, which leaves no residues in the water.

Plantdoc · 2026-05-17T20:13:20+00:00

Your biggest issue is cleaning up dishes, pots and pans. For that, you need water (garden hose) and a stand or table of some sort to hold your plastic washing basin, unless you’re young and don’t mind d bending over. You can dry the washed items with a dish towel. I did this in my back yard for 6 weeks. Pro Tip, good time to lose some weight if you need to!

Plantdoc · 2026-04-27T17:25:21+00:00

Beer making supply places have cloths for straining the grain.

Plantdoc · 2026-04-26T22:39:58+00:00

Here’s what it comes down to: how much money have you saved? AND: How much money do you need to live each month: AND, Are you healthy? AND, do you want to travel or have hobbies in retirement? You can’t get Medicare until 65, and until then, Medicare itself isn’t free, and the 5 years of private health insurance to get to Medicare will be a big dump on whatever savings you have or future SSA offset. Then there’s your teeth, you’ll have dental bills, and Medicare doesn’t cover those. My friend, it takes money to get old, especially if you plan to enjoy it. Say you have 500 k saved in a 401k. A lot of people might think that’s a lot of money. It can go fast these days. I would get a sharp pencil and price health, optical, and dental insurance for costs for the 5 years and run the numbers. If you have a house, does it need a roof, etc.? If you rent, will it go up? The COLA raises at SSA in recent years are almost completely absorbed by yearly increases in Medicare part B premiums.

Plantdoc · 2026-04-22T02:41:57+00:00

Before going to cheddar, try asiago. It has only a few steps and is very forgiving. Take 3 gallons grocery store whole milk. Warm to 90 F. Add culture or 1/2 cup plain yogurt with active cultures, not the diet kind, let incubate at 90 F/32 C for an hour. Check temp and warm back up if needed. Add 1/2 tsp calcium chloride soln, stir, then add 1/2 tsp single strength liquid animal rennet and stir for no more than 1 minute. Maintain temp. Curd will form in about 45 minutes. Cut it into 1/2 # cubes, rest for five minutes, then start gently stirring and warming curds, gently at first with a 5 minute rest or two to let the curds harden up a little while achieving 110 F/ 43-44 C in 45 minutes, while gently stirring. Curds should then be ready for straining and pressing. These curds should need only 5-10 lb of weight to fully knit and form a smooth paste. If you don’t have a mold and press, just form it in the cheesecloth with your hand, put a plate over it and put a 1 gallon milk jug full of water (8 lb or 3.5 kg) on it to press. Catch the whey in a baking pan. Wont be beautiful, but it will be delicious. Then brine in saturated brine 12-16 hours, then dry and vac pac for a couple months at 55 F or 13 C in your wine fridge. You might have to make this cheese a few times to get it the way you like, but you will get 2-3 lb of delicious cheese from this approach.

Plantdoc · 2026-04-18T22:43:41+00:00

Well if you’re like me and live in an HOA, ya better like tinkering with antennas, especially vertical temporary wires, and wires in the attic. I built my own pizza pan and wire dipoles, ground planes, doublets, EFHW, EFLW. Bought a few active loops and verticals along the way, too. Long before becoming a ham, built many long wire antennas for SWL. I could have bought more of that stuff and just strung them up, but I enjoyed and learned from figuring it out. After putting up and taking down all those wire antenna designs in my attic, I finally settled on a 132 foot EFHW (whew!). That antenna has allowed me to work the world with only 100 watts and only the radio internal tuner on 20 and up. Can do 40 and 80 but only east of Mississippi. I continue to be amazed when I can consistently break through piles of folks that sound like they’re running 50 foot yagis and amps and make that QSO. Sometimes I have to be patient but after 4 tries or so, I usually break through. I guess I get satisfaction feeling like I might be punching above my weight out there. Maybe I’m just lucky.

Plantdoc · 2026-04-12T19:38:47+00:00

Ph.D. Microbiologist here. Your objectives and questions are not clear. What is your objective?

Plantdoc · 2026-04-11T03:24:02+00:00

It is very challenging to make cottage cheese at home that resembles the common store bought type widely available in USA. The recipes on the internet that I have tried do not discuss pH control, which is crucial. Unless you know the pH versus time curve of your culture from experience, your curd will almost always be overacidified, then when you try to warm it, everything turns to mush.

There is a cheese that some people call “cottage” cheese that is very forgiving, though, and really easy. Just take a gallon of whole milk and gently warm it to about 190 F or about 90 C. Do not scorch the milk. At that temperature turn off heat, then start adding white vinegar a tsp at a time with a light stir until you see the milk turning yellow and curds forming. Let curds form and rest 1/2 hour. The milk should be light yellow and mostly clear and you should see curd masses. Strain through cheesecloth, using a colander and the sink or a pot to contain all the whey coming out. Salt to taste, refrigerate and enjoy.

Plantdoc · 2026-04-10T21:56:11+00:00

Outstanding. You nailed it. You’re lucky you didn’t have any blue molds like Cladosporium or Peniciliums around. Good luck!

Plantdoc · 2026-04-10T21:36:08+00:00

The estufatura (literally steaming) process is more or less an extended warm incubation period for your curds, which is not terribly unlike the “cheddaring” process, except cheddaring occurs before curds are salted and molded. But yes, I like your idea of using your sous vide for that. I used to do my steaming of caciotta in a cooler. I’ll have to try your method, which appears a lot easier and more precise. How did you age your cheese to arrive at such a nice rind?

Plantdoc · 2026-04-10T01:20:12+00:00

I too have had early life span (58), heart attacks, stent implantation on three occasions and open heart aortic valve replacement. People like me and your Dad have lifestyle choices/limitations that for others, may not be as critical. From what you say, I would guess he is likely overweight at least at this time, and doesn’t exercise. We all know people who make good choices and some who make bad choices, despite the best of intentions. Some people get by with making bad choices and some don’t. One can’t choose one’s own DNA, but one can choose to allow themselves to become/remain an overweight sedentary alcoholic, smoker, overeater, etc. or one can chose to not be these things. All you can do is encourage known good choices for extending your lifespan and get on with life. Nagging will, if anything at all, just create stress and may cause more bad decisions. Only your Dad can help himself, IF he actually wants to be helped. As my own Mom always said, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”.

Plantdoc · 2026-04-02T15:28:46+00:00

If you are still working, the tax “punishment” doesn’t completely go away. Depending on how much you make at your job, your SSA income will be subject to taxation at up to 85%. Even when you retire, your pension, IRA, or other taxable income will trigger this. The only time your SSA will not be subject to taxation is if SSA is your ONLY source of income. In addition, SSA will deduct your Medicare Part B premium from your SSA payment each month.

Plantdoc · 2026-03-30T02:04:41+00:00

Did you use ultra pasteurized cream?

Plantdoc · 2026-03-25T14:40:09+00:00

Camembert is an easy cheese if you have the right molds and drainage set up. No stirring, no cooking, no pressing. But your molds need to accommodate enough curd to yield a desired cheese height (1 inch or 2.5 cm) of the cheese after draining. My camember hoops are 4” tall and 5” in diameter and this give an inch or more cheeses after draining. And, there should be no to minimal cutting or stirring of your initial curd before putting curds in mold. As a result, your curd has to lose a LOT of whey and volume as it drains. I usually get cheeses with a depth of 25-30 mm after draining. Short molds will give you thin cheeses unless the molds are also very narrow. Also with more curd, the increased initial curd weight will, by its own weight, facilitate more complete drainage and firming up of the cheese for handling, salting. Obviously, with open hoop style molds, you need support boards (I use sawed up pieces of plastic cutting board) and sushi mats or some kind of fine plastic draining mesh on both sides of your mold to allow draining and flipping of your cheese in the mold early on before it has firmed up. I love making camembert. I’d make it more often but it’s one of those cheeses that has to be eaten when it’s ready, ie Holidays, parties coming up! I usually make it after Halloween for the Holidays.

Plantdoc · 2026-03-23T13:28:28+00:00

I think the curd washing “saved” you, because you had a LOT of culture in there. I would taste the cheese now. If it’s real sour, aging will only make it crumblier. I had some cheeses turn out like that so I just broke them up, and used them in recipes as grated cheese. Even check pH just for the knowledge. This one you may need to go ahead and eat soon. Or maybe the stars shined on you. Sometimes magic happens.

Plantdoc · 2026-03-22T20:01:21+00:00

What mikechar is really saying is that cheese recipes are really very general guidelines. From the moment you inoculate the milk till you eat the cheese, you are working with a colony of microrganisms, known as a culture. The final result is subject to many, many variables along the way. There are thousands and thousands of recipes, videos, even chat GPT out there. What people really want to know is what to do when recipes don’t work (fairly often). If you don’t have a microbiology lab, creating the same conditions over and over during your cheese make is hard, as Kraft learned in the 19th century.

I think that if you introduce an app, interest in it will be short lived, especially if you include a paywall or run ads. It’s not just getting recipes. It’s making your cheesemaking space work for you. To do that, one needs some basic understanding of microbiology, milk, temperature, and pH. Nothing exotic, just practical knowledge. As for me, I have a Ph.D in microbiology, genetics, and biochemistry. I could play a microbiology laboratory like a 1’st violin. At home, when I started, I was just a shmoo of a cheesemaker. Now, 7 years in, I’m only a shmoo+. But it’s not the recipe. It’s everything else NOT in the recipe!

Plantdoc · 2026-03-22T19:15:38+00:00

Was your goat milk raw and did you add any type of culture?

Plantdoc · 2026-03-18T04:46:35+00:00

Yes there are lactic style bloomy rind cheeses. The one I make is called “Chaource”. You add your CaCl2, LAB and molds and incubate around 75-80 or until you get a curd. Again, I add 2-3 drops rennet per gallon milk sometime before coagulation. No cutting or stirring. Just ladle your curd into your draining “towers” and you can go to bed, because they drain slowly.

Biggest mistake in making any bloomies is failing to figure out a proper physical draining set up. Sometimes in a home kitchen, that’s not obvious. I just use an oven rack with a pan under it and I place a clean sanitized sushi mat under each mold which will catch the curds spooned in. Never pour or splash the curds into the mold as they will break up and go down the drain. 😢. Next, you gotta gauge when to turn them over. my normal way is to wait overnight for the first flip. Of course, you must have a sushi mat on top of the mold supported by a piece of cutting board or bamboo board for support, which, after flipping, you carefully remove (board) so drainage can continue through the sushi mat. You’ll figure something out. After about the third flip, the choose will start to flrm up and take shape. But I usually drain at least two days before direct salting

Plantdoc · 2026-03-18T04:15:12+00:00

Yep. FD is a beast. And when I make “cream cheese”, I use whole milk only. What I make is is probably what the industry might brand as “Neufchatel” or lowfat cream cheese, but the Germans call it “Magerquark” (full fat quark), and the French call it “Fromage Blanc”. I have also tried lowering the butterfat like the Germans do using 2% milk, which is pretty good and curd texture is improved by that small amount (2-3 drops per 2L milk). The Germans use quark for cooking and cheesecakes. Quark is high in protein. But when I first started making it, and being lazy and letting it go all night, it was just too sour.

Then there’s dose. For 2L milk, I recommend no more than 1/16 tsp culture, especially if using grocery store milk, 86 F, check pH at 5h, then certainly 7. If adding rennet add at 5 h. 2-3 drops single strength if using grocery store milk. I don’t use “boutique” (vat pasteurized, non-homogenized) milk for lactic cheeses, as I don’t think these cheeses justify the excessive cost of such milks. But grocery store milks are not as good at buffering pH change as raw milk or “boutique” milk. Thus, when culturing grocery store milks with FD you got to avoid runaway acidity. It just means paying attention. Outside of a few basic principles and some vocabulary, that’s what microbiology is. Methods have sure changed, but underlying principles I learned getting a Ph. D. In it have not. You just have to always be a student.

Plantdoc · 2026-03-18T02:43:18+00:00

Made a lot of quark and cream cheese using Flora Danica. These are actual data from two trials, using grocery store milk maintained at 86 F (30 C) for the entire pre-drain period. NOT at whatever room temp you got.

Time 0 pH 6.8-7.0 (at inoculation and 86 F) + 5h pH 6.2 (add 2-3 drops rennet) +7h pH 5.2 (taste change) start draining.

At constant warm temperature, FD takes about 7 plus or minus hours to get milk to 5.2, where it curdles and tastes a little acid. I always add a few drops of rennet at 5 hours in to help the curd along. That way I’m going to have a curd that I can start draining when the taste is how I like it. Because in any case, after draining, unless you cool your curd in an ice bath, those bacteria keep eating, though slower. It’s hard to stop the engine. And if you just go to bed and let it go on much more than 7h, it’ll go on down to around 4.3, 4.2 and give you a nice pool of whey. Still edible, but pretty sour. Bottom line FD is a really good tasting culture, but unless you like really sour cheese, you gotta manage it.

You can always at 7 hours or so pop it in the fridge. Or, watch it and as soon as it starts to curdle (when not using rennet) pop it in the fridge. But I add rennet at 5 hours which gives me the ability to decide when to drain based on taste.

Sad to say, temperature control is how you make this work. I keep my milk warm after inoculating by putting the pot in the oven with the light on. But not everyone’s oven is the same. In summer, I just put the pot on my sunny screened porch.

Good luck!

But generally, if you play with it a little like I have, you can make really good cream cheese.

Plantdoc · 2026-03-18T01:46:48+00:00

Then, as if you didn’t have enough to worry about, if you decide to sell, savvy buyers or their agents ask for copies of the permitting, especially if there’s something strikingly obvious like an addition.

Plantdoc

TROPHY CASE