I manage a beyond-the-state-of-the-art facility that employs some of the smartest people on the globe. Yet, going shopping can sure make one feel dumber than a rock.

I've got about 50 lbs. of ground "cured" and seasoned meat ready to be packed into casings for various kinds of smoked sausage and snacks. I'm short on hog rings, and the string I have unravels so badly, it is hard to tie off sausage links.

I was in seven different stores this evening looking for string and/or hog rings. Nobody -- and I mean nobody -- knew what a hog ring was! Not one single store had string.

The first store I went into was a "big box" outdoor outfitter store. I couldn't find either. I saw a guy about my age at a checkout row who had some sausage casings in his hand. I asked him if he knew were I could find hog rings and string. He pointed me in the right direction. I got there, and the "helpers" had no idea what I was talking about. I found the holders for "3/8-inch hog rings" and for "Sausage String." I was told "we don't usually stock those items"!!!! She led me to a display of tape!

It all went down hill from there. Does anybody know what I'm talking about when I ask for string or hog rings? Does anybody remember what a telephone dial sounds like going backward? Does anybody know what a TV tuner sounded like before remote controls?

The Old Curmudgeon.

Well, I don't know what "sausage string" is, but I am quite familiar with hog rings, at least I think I am?

Try an upholstery shop...they used to use hog rings to attach the fabric to the springs on automobile seats... unless you're talking about a completely different kind of hog ring?

Oh if they only knew the delicacies you were going to prepare with those hog rings.....

What's a hog ring now?

http://www.hogrings.com/

Who woulda thunk it

Anyone here besides myself who's actually installed one in a hog? I've got the battle scars to prove it, too. Those hooves are sharp.

Hogs, in general, are not fond of the installation procedure.

Meat Twine, String, Thread.

I've used things similar to "hog rings" in lots of things -- thankfully, not hogs. I'm guessing that anybody about my age had to "crunch" a ring through something's nostrils. My first was my 6th/7th grade 4-H steer. The "tactual" sound and feel haunt me to this day. (My steer wasn't nearly as distressed as I was.)

Anyway, I need to start stuffing some "gut."

Ken

Dwight -- thanks.

As I was walking around in the various stores, I was thinking that I'm glad I have Pond Boss friends, and that I know people like Dave D., Esshup, and Dwight. These are real people, who would know what I'm talking about.

Dwight -- the items in your link is all I wanted to find in a local store. These things seem to only be available on the Internet anymore. Last night, I had to order "popcorn salt" through Amazon because there are no more local distributors selling "Flavacol". Two large cartons of Flavacol was about $4. The shipping was about $12. Yeesh! This should at least be a life-time supply for me and my two sons.

Similarly, I hope that Hinkley, MN won't disappear. What would the world be without a piece of pie or a hot and gooey roll from Toby's??? on the the trip between the "Cities" and Dooluut? Where would RFD-TV be on Saturday night without Big Joe Polka -- or our good friend Bing?

I wish we could slow down time!

So is there something about it, aside from it's 100% cotton composition, that renders it acceptable for foodstuffs?

I got home late, and our youngest grand daughter was already here for Movie and Pizza night. So, I didn't stuff my sausage yet. We had our pizza. Lynda, our grand daughter, and our two fuzzball cats are watching Toy Story II.

In the morning, I'm going to make my own "hog rings" with my Harbor Freight wire bender and some #14 wire. I also "stole" the grandkid's kite string from our "beach kit" to replace the awful string I had.

Life is good -- just way ahead of its time.

Self sufficiency is still a great alternative; making due with available materials.

Hog ring?

Absolutely. It probably doesn't have to be cotton, I'm just not sure what else works. After I posted this, I "Googled" string and many other variations. I didn't find anything suitable.

I grew up on a farm and in a "general store." My father was the local "butcher." I thought I knew what string was. Every counter in our store had a roll of string. Most counters had their own big roll of brown, white, wax, etc., paper that was wrapped with this string after it was filled with some delicacy, like meat, sausage, cheese, fish, etc.

Nylon melts in the smoker. Jute and is way too lose. I obviously don't know what to call it.

I was in one big national box store where they had an electronic locator. It only permitted the entry of three letters. I put in "str" for string. The returns I got were for "string cheese" and "light strings, holiday." I put in "twi" for twine. The only return I got was for "twizlers."

I did find a guy about my age who took me to the automotive department. We did find string amongst nylon rope and ratchet straps. But it was twisted nylon, and extremely expensive in my opinion -- $7.95 for 250 feet.

Not long ago, a great old co-op hardware/farm store about 30 miles from here closed when the proprietor fell off a ladder and was seriously injured. The store closed and was auctioned. Before this happened, I kept thinking that this store needed to be on the Internet, where people like me could find what they wanted.

Anybody want to start an old time general store on the Internet?

Ken:

Tractor Supply, Rural King, Farm & Fleet all should carry what you are looking for.

You're spending too much time in the city!!!!

If you need, I know I have a bag of hog rings here. I also have that funny 4-fingered tool that you slip a good sized "O" ring on. You should know what it's used for, but I used it to pinion Wood Ducks and Mandarins when I raised them so they couldn't fly away. The nice lady that ran the bird exhibit at Sea World San Diego told me about that. They found it worked better than cutting the wing and cauterizing it.

A store like this?

Martins Hardware Store

I'm sure I still have a rotary phone somewhere around here in a box.

You remember the black bakelite "Felix the Cat" clock?

Not mine, but a spittin' image

Ain't that the truth!!!

Help me escape!! I spent over an hour on Monday evening trying to get just one mile away from the office. I nearly ran out of gas getting to the gas station about 2-miles from the office. It took me 3-1/2 hours to get home. By the time I got home it was nearly time to get back for another 12-14 hours of bliss. I think I might need a new career!

Worse than remembering these old clocks -- we get one to two mailings per week, and several e-mails per week for these old-style Cat Clocks

My grandfather owned a country grocery store, where they had two gas pumps out front, a meat counter inside, sold ground feed and grain in the back, and a former blacksmith shop in another building off to the side. By the time I came around the blacksmith had long since departed, but everything else was still in operation. It was a great place to be a kid, and just hang around the stove in the wintertime.

I have no doubt he carried hog rings.

I've got the DVR set!

Wow. I'm killing time waiting for Hee Haw to come on by watching something from the DVR. A guy named "Fred", who looks incredibly like our Pond Boss friend "Bing" shows up on Larry's Country Diner hawking radios he said he's been building since the early 1900s. Thelma's sister Nadine sat down in front of one of the cathedral radios from 1932. I sure was hoping this guy Fred was going to get up and sing with Linda Davis and Nadine, but I guess he was too bashful.

Anyway Fred, you looked and sounded great.

I haven't installed a hog ring but I watched my dad do it.
I found a box of hog rings and pliers on the shelf of a local hardware store. The owner said they had been there for years.
Hog rings work great for making fish traps.

Hey Cat/all:

This may seem sacreligious, but I see there are vegetable alternatives to using intestines as sausage casings...but I've never heard any feedback on their experience with them. I could enjoy bratwursts and sausages with a clearer conscience as I already informed the wife they were now made from vegetable matter. I pride myself on being honest and forthright - but honesty falls on the wayside when it comes between me and my brats.

So - anyone ever mess with these vege-casings before? Are they sacrelicious?

Considering what's put inside them, does it really matter?

That is unless you're making Tofu brats or something like that.

I know I know...but I want to make these at home using veal, pork, etc. If I do that Amy will be able to verify casings...so, I assume you have never tasted these and would rather be dead than try them?

Using vegetable casing on sausage seems a lot like drinking caffiene-free diet cola. Maybe just as bad, but it would be like the direct opposite of putting non-Kosher ham in a bagel sandwich.

I did Google the vegi casings. They are listed as collagen casings. I use animal based collagen casings for my snack sticks. They are "man-made all-natural" casings made from what used to be consider "glue factory" materials -- skin and bones.

TJ, show her this and ask her what she'd prefer......

Does a potato peel qualify as a vegetable casing? How about lettuce?

Back onto the topic...
Even I remember the sound of a rotary telephone and when we only had 13 channels on the dial. That all seemed to change around 1979 or so IIRC. I remember getting 36 channels on our cable box and thought I'd arrived. Most of those channels stank, of course, except early days of MTV and HBO watching Porkey's, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Revenge of the Nerds 300 times each when my folks were upstairs asleep. What an education I received! Helps explain those Sombrero moments, maybe.

I remember the sound of a manual tuner, with it's positive detents...thunk thunk thunk. Then, they would get worn, and the detent position would no longer correspond with the strongest signal reception, requiring one to "wedge" the selector knob in-between channels to improve the picture...we would jamb a broken toothpick under one side of the knob....worked great.

I also recall getting yelled at for spinning the channel knob too fast.....

How about those long lost sounds of pay telephones. When a nickle, dime and quarter made dinnerent bings and bongs. The operator listened to the sounds to see how much money you had put in.

Being an old geaser, that stuff is all stored away in the grey archives.

I am probably one of the more guilty of those responsible for the demise of old tech by being an early and often adopter of new tech.

When our kids and grand kids are geasers, they will be talking about old tech being notebooks computers, touch pads and cell phones.

All that and much more will be directly linked to the Frontal Lobe meaning effortless instant access to all world's knowledge. They may not be talking at all but communicating directly through the WWC (worldwide consciousness). Thankfully, I won't be there...

The phone system at the lake house was a party line system...........

Who remembers those?

AND I AIN'T THAT OLD!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a party line when I was a kid. I also remember you only had to dial 5 digits to call someone.

The old rotary phones were great for calling into radio contests. Dial all the numbers and hold the last one till the announcement. I won 3 or 4 times on one radio station. They said I could not be a contestant any more. Vernor's and radio station t-shirts were the prize. I had enough Vernor's for a while.

No Bionic Dwight???

Anybody remember the crank style lawnmowers? My dad bought one from either Western Auto or OTASCO. The lawnmower was green with a white Briggs 3hp. motor. If memory serves me, it was called a Wizard. The coldest natured dang thing we've ever owned! LOL!

Back in the late 50s or very early 60s, we had a horrible Sears mower that had a spring-loaded wind-up crank on top instead of a rope-pull starter. You'd wind it as tight as possible, put the crank back in place, and push a release. What a miserable machine. Is that what you mean by "crank style"?

I remember seeing Wizards until not too many years ago. I believe they were taken over by MTD.


And, as long as we're going back a ways, how about this?



Who remembers the last sign??

Burma Shave

Burma Shave of course.

Dueling Geazers!

Yep. That's the one. My dad spent more time kicking it than pushing it. LOL!

After all this geezing, I'm thinking I need to take my camera up the road about 15 miles. There are a couple of "Mail Pouch" barns that are still in pretty good condition.

I still don't have a ball of string or any hog rings! But, my latest batch of salami and pastrami sure turned out good.

Hmmm, sounds like a job for a qualified outdoor power technician...

Wizard was indeed a line of Western Auto mowers, and Ken is correct in that they were built by MTD.

Many parts are still available if you guys want to relive the good ole' days!!

Hard salami? Is it made out of deer or elk? I'm a hard salami nut! Must be the German in me! LOL!

Ken, I'm going into Amish Country tomorrow. Want me to pick up some string and hog rings for you? I can get them in priority mail tomorrow.

Scott,
Thanks for the offer. I've got enough to get me by this week, and I'm heading to the interior of WV over the weekend. I know they'll have what I need once I get 20 miles into WV.
Ken

Whereabouts in the interior? You know I live pretty much in the interior of WV, right?!

Todd -- I'm not venturing THAT FAR into the interior. Romney is as far as I'm going. It is interesting that they have lots of thing in the Southern States, the local supermarket, and the Food Lion that are hard to find elsewhere.

Ken, I'm headed out now. If you don't find what you need, I'm sure I have some (or all) of those things around the house, just not in unopened condition.

No doubt. Like Morton's Tenderquick! I'm buying some online. Absolutely no one around here or even in the extended area sells it and I want some doggone venison pastrami!

Ken:

I found an Amish grocery store that has the high temp cheese for sale. It's already cubed up around 1/8" cubes. Cheddar and Pepper Jack. $3.49/lb. I can get some and ship it if you need.

Todd -- it is crazy what is carried in stores over small geographic areas. Lynda suggested that with all the meat processing we are doing this winter (Gary/Aneta and Lynda/me just bought a dead steer -- 800 lbs. of cleaned and wrapped meat -- plus the venison we already have). She asked if we had enough Tenderquick and sausage casings. I didn't know. We were passing by the Southern States Co-Op store, where we got 10 lbs. of Tenderquick -- plus hog rings, string, and more casings. Tenderquick is one of those products carried in nearly every supermarket, *-Mart, and big box stores in this area.

Scott -- Thanks for the offer. As of this morning, I think we've found everything we need. The smoker is loaded with several types of goodies as I write this.

This all leads me to Internet shopping. In the last several weeks I've ordered over $3000 worth of items through the Internet -- most through Amazon -- including a new LP-gas, fully-automatic, Generac generator. Nearly everything has arrived within two days of ordering.

I don't want to start a political discussion, but it really makes the Post Office look antiquated. Almost everything has arrived via UPS, FedEx, or private trucking companies. I've been able to track everyplace my orders were from the time I placed the order until it arrived at my door.

It all seems to be better than the Pony Express of my early childhood. We know our USPS mail delivery person, but we also know our UPS and FedEx drivers. All are neighbors.

The sight and sounds of telephones sure have changed. My wife's cell phone died recently, and we were eligible for upgrades on our service. We got new phones using the Android operating system. What a far distance from the old crank phones of my childhood.

If you haven't upgraded in the last year or two, things have really changed. For the past 20 years, I've nearly always hated any "new" phone that was replacing the old phone. This phobia goes back to my original "bag phone" as being one of my most favorites.

I recently got a new Android-based phone. These things are incredible. They now act as 4-G hotspots for up to five other devices. The browser is better than anything I have in Windows 7. My Yahoo and G-Mail are better than on a computer. I'm thinking seriously that we may give up our land-line and DSL. I can even get the old-time dial sound and old-time ring sounds, but the "live TV" feature doesn't have a "clunking" channel tuner! However, it does have a built-in FM radio and an Internet radio! $19.95 for the phone, on a renewed 2-year contract that recently dropped in price! It even replaces my car GPS.

What is this world coming to????

Ken, I'm leery of giving up my land line. I still have a corded phone here in case the power goes out. We had some bad storms a year or 2 ago and the cell towers were dead too, but my land line still worked.

A buddy got a LEM grinder and loves it.

Did you find the high temp cheese? It's in the LEM catalog, but at $8.99 per pound. The store was $5.00/lb cheaper.

I would like to go to cell phones and drop the land line but I have a land line to my PC and wifi from my high speed modem in the house that runs my Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch. I have Direct TV and could go to satellite high speed but that is expensive and the speeds aren't that great for the money. I could go to 3G and maybe 4G with a thumb size USB plug-in to my PC but I don't know? Looks like I am stuck.

We have two land lines at our place. One is the business phone because we need a "brick and mortar presence" in the hard phone book. The home phone is Gail's preferred communications link so I am leaving that alone. Personally, I'd be surprised if I make more than a half dozen land line calls in a year.

Decent Internet speed where we live is a challenge. I installed a Peplink load balancing router that allows combining two Internet services (Wireless and 3G cellular). The combination provides consistent 3MB download speeds. My smart phone is a rooted HTC Thunderbolt.

John, how do you like the Fire? Thinking about it for Christmas. Did you compare it to the Nook?

I bought the Fire for my wife to try and bring her into the computer world but so far she isn't using it. I would say for the money it is great. My eyes aren't that good in late life but with most things you look at you can make them bigger or smaller using your finger. The screen shows glair and finger prints but I bought a Skinomi TechSkin - Screen Protector Shield for Amazon Kindle Fire that doesn't show finger prints and cuts down on the glair for $10 including shipping. It installs pretty easy. The screen is backlit for reading and the colors are bright and pretty. The speakers sound good for as tiny as they are, but I bought a great set of ear phones for less then $15 JVC HAS150RX Light weight Flat Folding Headphone (Red) that are highly rated by customers and do sound great. But the Fire for $200 is a lot better then $500 or more for an I-pad.

The biggest Fire downside for me is you about have to charge it every night. Where as the Kindle touch is charged about every two months. Of course Kindle Touch is used mostly for reading but you can get online with it. Both use wifi but you can get the Kindle Touch with a 3G feature also but that is only for downloading books.

Great review, John. My wife and I bought three Kindle Fires for our kids for Christmas. I've played around with one of the units since they arrived (through Amazon and, like Ken's experience, they were delivered very quickly) and have been really impressed. Brilliant graphics and, as you mentioned, color. Can't wait to help the kids really figure them out after Christmas! I'll check out the screen protector you mentioned because I did notice how badly the screen got smudged up from my fairly limited usage so far.

My biggest gripe with the Kindle Fire is it's wifi only. When they come out with a Kindle that lets me download books and surf the internet, all while using 3G, then we'll talk.

In the meantime, I'll download the Kindle app, and the Nook app, for my netbook computer. Yeah, it's a little larger than a tablet, and it's not as nice to read on as a kindle using E-ink, but it will do so much more. I do wish it were touchscreen though!

I have 17 inch HP, 15 inch Dell, 12 inch Acer and 10 inch Acer notebooks. I use them all, though my favorite device is my Asus Eee Transformer.

With the Transformer and my HTC Thunderbolt 4G Hot spot I am pretty much invincible connectivity speaking wherever I may go.

Dwight, was it absolutely necessary to post a link to the transformer?

I was perfectly happy with my nondescript, ordinary, netbook a mere 5 minutes ago. Now, it's a relic, one step up from a coaster on the evolutionary ladder. I feel a great emptiness in my being.

Great. No sleep tonight.

I certainly hope that you have recovered by now! Perhaps you just took the cure and bought a Transformer?

Alas, No transformer here. I spend half my waking moments online reading customer reviews of transformers, comparing specs of different transformers, Watching U-Tube tutorials on transformers, and shopping for the best prices on transformers. The remainder of the day is spent trying to convince myself that I don't need a transformer, and bemoaning the fact that I ever became involved with this thread in the first place.

To further complicate matters, both of my children have recently approached me, apparently suffering from some type of anxiety disorder characterized by frenziedly marking off days on the calendar with a big red "X", and thrust into my hands reams of paper, which I now understand is commonly referred to as a "Christmas List". Curiously, my wife seems unfazed by their erratic behaviour, even going as far as to insist we comply with at least a portion of their demands, which she maintains we have done for 11 years now. The children of course, corroborate her story.

So no transformer for me, unless it's an action figure that folds up into itself in such a convoluted manner that it brings a grown man to the verge of tears every time he is required to "reconfigure" it into "battle" mode, then back again, every 15 minutes. I'm welling up now just thinking about it.

The charging cord is a little on the short side.

I have an older Kindle that has free-3G and Wi-Fi. It doesn't have the best browser, the display is grey-scale, and the keyboard is kind of strange, but I sure use it a lot in the 3G mode. It connects through AT&T, so it works nearly everywhere.

I use it at least an hour a day. If I'm traveling it gets used about 3-8 hours a day.

Besides the free 3G, recharging it only every week or two is a seriously great feature. It will also recharge from any USB port.

It is loaded with more reference books, like cookbooks, sausage books, fish stuff, etc., than I could ever keep on a whole wall full of shelves. Between my wife and me, we've got several thousand books in our archive.

I also have several hundred PDF files on my Kindle, including things like the whole six-volume set of original Fox Fire books.

I'm glad I'm as old as I am. I just hope Amazon outlasts me, and doesn't go out of business anytime soon. I'd have serious withdrawal -- and it would cost me a second bundle to get back a lot of my favorite books.

Hey Ken, I was in Academy yesterday. They have hog rings and pliers in the deer processing equipment section.

Dave -- I gave up on trying to find hog rings locally. I had three nearly-full 500-foot rolls of #14 solid-copper wire in the barn. I decided to use them. I just wrap the casing ends with a couple of turns of wire, and snipping it. It works great, and it is quick. Each sausage takes less than 1/2-inch. Even with scrap, these old spools of wire will be enough to make at least 30,000 salamis, summer sausages, etc.

I finally found plenty of string.

Between six immediate and extended families, I've helped butcher, trim, grind, and package 14 deer this season. The families all helped too -- from the 9-10 year-olds, to us old farts.

So far, I've made about 50-60 lbs., of pastrami, sausage, and other meat snacks. I've also been making lots of my smoked fish spread. People are starting to get "anxious" because I can't make enough each week from the meat they've left with me -- especially with Christmas and New Years coming up. One brought me a really nice big and fancy smoker to help move things along faster.

With semi-retirement not too far off, I'm now at the point of wondering what to do next.

Ken, I know a guy who owned 2 bars, but was like you, and did his own sausage, etc. He sold his bars, and just processes deer meat. He doesn't butcher, you bring him deboned good meat. If you bring him bloodshot meat, etc. he'll refuse it and will refuse to do anything for you in the future.

He smokes hams the the 2 weeks before Christmas, makes jerkey, summer sausage and deer sticks. He only works at this from Oct thru the end of January, and takes the rest of the year off. He does enough work those 4 months to carry him thru the rest of the year. He's BUSY this time of year. IIRC, if you take his prices and average all his products, he charges $5/lb for his work.