Category: Stay at Home

CO2! It’s surprising how fast CO2 accumulates indoors when windows are closed and air con running. The annual Californian wild fires have started and the smoke plumes are covering parts of Silicon Valley inc Mountain View where I live and now work from during Covid quarantine.

Earlier this week I was feeling sluggish and turned on my CO2 sensor to check the state of CO2 build up indoors. I followed EPA‘s and CDC‘s wildfire recommendations to lock doors & windows and run the air conditioner. I got a shock! CO2 levels reached 2,430 ppm!

An hour later I decided to venture outside. Even tho the sky had red/black clouds, I was pleasantly surprised it was ok to breath outside. I took the CO2 meter with me and confirmed my suspicion. CO2 levels outdoor were at 447 ppm. The pictures below were taken at the time.

On a good clean day in Mountain View, I’ve recorded CO2 levels around 300 ppm.

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Ventilation

Why was CO2 so high indoors? Lack of ventilation and enclosure integrity testing. You breath out CO2, house appliances also produce CO2 etc, and yes it accumulates in the home when doors and windows are closed. The kitchen is notorious for generating a lot of CO2. Search for a backhoe for sale near me, built to handle diverse excavation needs.

There’s also the “sick building syndrome” which might play a role but I don’t have enough data on that yet to comment further. However a lot has been written about this online and proposals to move towards green building designs. California has all invested in https://firebarrierexperts.com/fireproof-boxes-cable-trays/ to keep all systems running during wildfires.

Additionally, if you’re a property owner in Florida and your house’s or current space’s fire alarm system and/or water-based fire protection system such as a sprinkler system is not operational, you are required by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Florida Statute to implement a fire watch should that system become impaired. You may seek expert help from a professional Fire Watch Company in Cocao Beach.

What removes CO2 from homes?

Windows and Plants (Photosynthesis) only. Air Purifiers and Fans do nothing. Have heavy duty ones in the room and nada.

Using Plants would be an interesting experiment to work out the volume of photosynthesis required to make this work. I know different plants have different capabilities. Currently I only have 1 plant in each room and I know that’s not enough. Furthermore, photosynthesis only happens in sunlight. If you’re looking for an easy way to offset your carbon footprint, Carbon Click makes offsetting simple, allowing you to contribute to environmental initiatives with just a few clicks.

CO2 sensors aren’t included in air filtering machines. I have 2 big machines filtering air with HEPA filters etc. and they stay quiet while my dedicated CO2 device screams. For more information on how windows can contribute to improving indoor air quality, you can go to this site.

If you notice any leaks, rust, or dents on your gutters, you should have new rain gutters installation as soon as possible!

AQI Apps

I use Apple’s Weather app, AirNow and PurpleAir. AirNow is meant to be the most accurate of the lot using high grade sensors. (read below on sensors)

All these online weather apps are either reporting from a region not near me (downtown Mountain View) or are delayed (not real time). Even the highly acclaimed AirNow is 3 hours behind. You can trace it’s data source online quite easily.

The lesson here?

CO2 is an odorless and colorless gas so you won’t know if it’s affecting you till it’s too late.

Use your own judgement based on your own CO2 devices when to ventilate the house. Consider exploring options like spray foam insulation Houston tx – compare & save, to improve energy efficiency and create a healthier indoor environment.

Most of all, get some fresh air.

My CO2 Device

This is a non-dispersive infrared CO2 sensor to measure the levels of carbon dioxide. It’s a well known fact that high levels of carbon dioxide impairs human cognition. There is enough scientific journals in Nature, NIH, etc, on this topic. Google it.

Why this device? It uses a specific wavelengths of light to measure the amount of CO2 in the air. Much more precise and reliable than the cheaper electrochemical CO2 sensors. Order it from Amazon.

Stay safe during the annual California wild fires!

If you have read my previous posts on making Sourdough bread and wondered where the heck do I get the sourdough starter from, then wonder no more. This post will explain that mystery. We will make sourdough starter by fermenting flour and water to give birth to naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeast.

That’s right, yeast comes from the air. It’s all around us everywhere we go. That’s how our ancients made bread and it doesn’t require any special yeasts from the shops to make. Just water and flour and some of that natural yeast around you.

Sure you could buy that highly processed yeast from the shops but then you aren’t making sourdough bread. Sourdough bread making process uses all natural ingredients which makes the sourdough bread a much healthier alternative than the stuff you buy in supermarkets that’s full of preservatives.

Sourdough is the process of using the yeast from the air around you to bake bread with the classic sour taste (lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli) and better inherent keeping qualities than breads made with baker’s yeast.

Prep

An ideal temperature for sourdough is 75F – 82F (25C – 28C). I have noticed that warmer days create a rave party in my sourdough starter. Pay careful attention to your kitchen temperature and close any windows to keep it nice and stable. A gust of cool air won’t help the growth process.

Store your sourdough starter inside a cupboard where the air is stable. Not on the fridge or in the open as other sites have you believe. Cold slows things down.

Ingredients

• Flour — Use Whole grain flour (whole wheat or rye) to get the starter going. Whole grains contain more nutrients and sourdough-friendly microorganisms than all-purpose flour. I tried white flour in the past and it was a disaster.
• Water — Use filtered water; not tap water. I have this Zero Water and always have clean 0 PMF tested water.

Utensils

Electric Scales — getting measurements right is key to making this work.	Mason Jar — the vessel made out of glass. Make sure you have a loose fitting lid to put on top after prepping the mixture. Do not tighten it or it could explode when the gasses build up.

Optional is a Wooden Stirrer. I prefer it much more than a cold metal spoon. Personal preference here.

Time

~7 days

But it can take up to 2 weeks of trial and error if the temperature in your kitchen isn’t ideal. Once the starter gets going you will have a party in your mason jar every few hours. It’s fun to watch the feeding frenzy at full throttle.

Let’s begin

The idea is to daily mix flour and water together into your mason jar on a daily basis in a process called feeding. At start you’ll make small adjustments in volume of water but then once things get going keep the ratios pretty much consistent.

TIP: Make sure you mark the jar with the height of the starter using a dry eraser and loosely place the cap of the jar on top. This way you will spot activity (growth) over the next 24 hours.

What’s feeding?

Giving your yeast more flour and water to feed on. Just stick to 1 type of flour. I like to use whole-wheat for all the feeding. You can use white for making the bread but for feeding use the optimal flour type.

Day	Feeding
1	100 grams of flour 150 grams of warm water Mix with wooden stirrer till it’s all blended together (no more than 30 seconds) I like to have the mason jar on my electronic scales zero’ed out. So what I add into it I can see the weight increase. You can zero out the weight after having added flour. Then start with water. Make sure the water is NOT hot. Just warm. If your finger can rest comfortably inside the water without getting burnt then it’s good enough. I like to use warm over cold water to speed up the reaction.
2	Discard half of your starter leaving 50g behind. You can either discard half of your starter into the sink or use it to cook something. With the other 50g left in the mason jar, add and stir: 100 grams of flour 125 grams of warm water
3	Discard (as above) then add and stir: 100 grams of flour 125 grams of warm water
4	Discard (as above) then add and stir: 100 grams of flour 100 grams of warm water By now you should have seen bubbles inside your jar — fermentation at work. If not then continue this process daily until you do.
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7	Does your starter look like this? Note the bubbles from the activity. This starter is perfect and ready to be used in Sourdough bread baking. If your starter isn’t there yet then make sure the temperature where you are storing your starter is warm enough. Also note the green mark. That green mark was when I fed the starter last. This way I can see activity over the time horizon.

Starter Storage

If you aren’t going to be cooking bread daily then store the starter after feeding into the fridge. It will slow down the fermentation process and buy you about a week of not having to feed it.

Otherwise put it into a cupboard away from the sun’s UV. UV is ionizing and will start breaking down the yeast (killing it).

Nursing your Starter

Keep an eye out for liquid formation on top of your starter or coloration. The former is a sign your starter is running out of food and needs feeding. The latter is mass suicide and the only way to save it is to remove that coloration and feed it pronto. Try not to get to that stage.

A quick smell of the starter is enough to give its health away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How long will the starter live for?
A. As long as this starter culture is fed flour and water regularly it will remain active. A regular schedule is typically 12-36 hours. 24 hours is ideal. During hot days you will see a lot of activity in your starter within the first few hours of feeding.

Q. What does a feeding schedule look like?
A. Discard half (say 50g) and add 100g whole-wheat flour and 100g of water. That’s it.

Q. How do I know when to feed the starter?
A. Use the 24 hour marker as a guide or once you gain enough experience you can visually work out when feeding is required. Visual queues include:
– you’ve noticed the starter growth (doubling in size) and then deflation
– liquid building up on top of the starter
– change in color on top of the starter (this is bad ie. death, so feed it asap)

Q. Do I have to feed the starter daily?
A. Yes if you keep it outside of the fridge and/or bake daily. Otherwise put it into the fridge and feed it weekly. Just keep an eye on the coloring of the starter to avoid early death from a too warm fridge. The fridge acts like a cryochamber for your starter and will slow the growth down without killing the starter. This is great for folks who intend to bake only on the weekends.

Q. What is your feeding schedule like?
A. I bake once per week and feed it once per week. I fridge my starter for a week and only feed it prior to going into fridge. So once per week. Every Friday around 2pm I take it out of fridge, wet the outside jar with warm water to de-cryo the yeast and let it sit there for 3hrs. By 5pm it has spawned into crazy life (doubling in size) and 200g of it gets mixed into the new dough for bread making. Then the remaining starter I feed it with only whole wheat flour (130g) and filtered 130g of water. Mix it. Kiss it goodnight and fridge it till next Friday.

How did you starter turn out? Let me know.

This post is a follow on to my previous titled The Ultimate Quarantine Sourdough Bread Baking Guide. This post is geared to all those busy bee mums & dads, entrepreneurs and software engineerings burning the midnight oil. The focus of this post is on “timing”. Something we all have little of but want to maximize the most of.

As you may have already learnt, baking Sourdough bread is a long process. Sometimes it can feel like it’s 2 days worth of work. Trying to bake bread during a weekday is next to impossible; even in quarantine (covid-19 era). However the tension and pressure of most busy bee’s responsibilities typically starts to ease up after 5pm. That’s the ideal time when you can transition into Sourdough baking. Even after a stressful day, baking Sourdough bread will give you the relaxation your brain needs. It is a perfect way to end the day and start the next day with a fresh warm loaf and a house full of fresh bread aromas. Tried and tested in our kitchen. Before you start baking, make sure your kitchen is completely clean, you could even consider installing washable ceiling tiles to make it much easier.

Ok, onwards and upwards!

Assumptions

You have all the Ingredients, Utensils, Kitchen Temp ready to go and you have the Stretch & Fold technique bedded down? If you said nah to one of those, then please go and read my previous guide on baking sourdough bread.

Don’t forget, we will use Baker’s Ratios:

• Flour starts at 100% = 1000g — Strong/Bread Flour otherwise mix in Whole-Wheat into the White to give it a strong Protein (Gluten) structure
• Water is 70-80% = 750g (my favorite ratio is 75%)
• Starter is 15% = 150g (if you don’t have a starter then make one)
• Salt is 2% = 20g

Let’s Start!

Day 1: Fuse the Ingredients

5pm	Mix 1000g of flour and 750g of filtered water into a giant bowl and mash it by hand till most of the water is absorbed and it looks like a shaggy mess.
	Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 1 hour.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”
6pm	Add Starter and Salt to the Dough then do the Stretch & Fold INSIDE the bowl.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”

Day 1: Stretch & Fold the Dough

This process is all about building a nice gluten structure in your dough. As the water is absorbed by the flour, the gluten will swell to form a continuous network of fine strands giving it that elastic and extensible nature.

7pm	Spray your bench and hands with water. This will avoid the dough from sticking to the bench or your hands and make it easier to work with. Now take the dough OUT of the bowl and onto the wet bench. You will Stretch and Fold the dough on a bench before putting it back into the bowl. You will soon realize why this technique is better than doing it inside the bowl because: (a) less sticky all round and (b) more control for the stretch & fold to build gluten structure and ultimately yield that oven spring we all want from our sourdough bread.
	Stretch & Fold. Use the Star Fish approach to Stretch & Fold.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”
8:15pm	Repeat the same approach as at 7pm.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”
9:30pm	Repeat the same approach as at 7pm.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”
10:15pm	Repeat the same approach as at 7pm.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”

Day 1: Pre/Shape the Dough

11:15pm	Pre-Shape. See Stage 2: Shaping & Proofing #3 for how this is done.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”
12:30am	Final-Shape. See Stage 2: Shaping & Proofing #5-#7 for how this is done.
12:45am	Fridge overnight the banneton baskets so they can finish proofing. I like to give this process around 8 hours.

Sleep.. rest up and dream about your Sourdough Bread

Day 2: Let’s Bake it!

8:45am	Pre-heat the Oven for 1 hour on 500F (260C). You can speed the preheating with the Broil setting. If you need help understanding your oven icons, you can visit appliancehunter.co.uk. Also make sure your Dutch Oven is inside the oven as it’ preheating.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 1 hour.”
9:45am	Take one of your proofed baskets with dough out of the fridge and onto baking/parchment paper. Scour the dough and pop it into the oven for 20 mins baking time. The overnight fridge proofing will also give you dough more rigidity when you scour.
10:00am	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 20 mins.”
10:20am	Dial back the oven to 450F (232C) and quickly remove the lid off your Dutch oven letting the loaf gain some color, character and flavor for the next 40 mins.
	timer “Hey Siri, set a timer for 40 mins.”
11:00am	Done. Take a peek to make sure the loaf has a nice splitting bursting lark full of color and texture. You can leave it in the oven for a tad longer if required. Take the loaf out of the oven and let it cool off for at least 20-30 mins before cutting into it.
	Bon Appétit!

I hope this was helpful and you’ll be baking delicious finger licking sourdough bread in no time.

PS. Follow me on Instagram. I post my Sourdough bread pictures on Instagram and would love to see yours too.

The seas were wild and the sky was pitch black my friends! The Rain pounded the ocean to the howling sounds of the wind, like a pack of wolfs ready for a big feast.

Joshio the Pirate was helming the ship through these dangerous Tatio waters of the 7 Mamio Zones. The night was long my friends, but Joshio the Pirate managed to steer the ship through the colossal waves avoiding the Kraken Zachioctopus… lurking and watching for someone to wrap his tentacles around!

A Short Story from the Imagination

Josh, my oldest son has been bugging me for a pirate ship since we came back from Sydney Australia. In Sydney we celebrated his 6th Birthday and Uncle Randy and I made a Batman Piñata filled with candy for the kids at Josh’s birthday to have a blast.

“Dad you promised me a pirate ship for my birthday.”. “Yes I did son.” I said, “Yes I did. But your birthday was in Sydney and bringing back a pirate ship to Silicon Valley would be challenging.”. Well, the pirate ship I had in my mind would be a challenge. Now that we are back in Silicon Valley and Quarantine has started, the stars were aligned. It’s time to build a pirate ship.

Sure I could have purchased a Pirate Ship on Amazon; but that’s easy. The act of building a Pirate Ship engaged the boys creativity and demonstrated to them the power of creating vs consuming.
Plus we got to spend some valuable time together. Win on all sides!

Being a father

If you want to see projects for younger kids then I highly encourage you visit Sensory Lifestyle. Sensory Lifestyle is dedicated to sharing evidence based play ideas & parenting resources that will help you feel confident in your parenting and boost your child’s development. It’s aimed at Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers.

Tools you will need

• An old bed frame or some wood from pine beetle lumber suppliers
• Olson saw (fun method) or Jigsaw (lazy method). It’s more fun doing it by hand especially if you want your kids involved. Opt in for an Olson saw (a non electric version requiring elbow and grease)
• Pirate nails (long black ones) and few shorter nails
• Hammer
• Hot glue gun with plenty of glue
• Paddle pop sticks
• An old shirt that we will use for the sails. If you live in Silicon Valley you probably have a pile of swag. Stop hoarding it, and deploy it to good use.

Time to build this

2-1 days.

Take your time and get your kids involved.

Be ok with making mistakes and scrapping your first prototype. Remember it’s ok to make mistakes. Your goal should be to teach your kids this basic life fundamental.

Without mistakes there are no learnings. Mistakes is how we learn. If we don’t make mistakes then we aren’t learning.

Ernest Semerda

Let’s begin…

1. Research

I started with researching what Pirate Ships look like. Don’t rely on your memory of you’ll end up with something weird. You’d be surprised how hard it is to even draw a bicycle from memory. You have been warned.

Research with your child / children.

Listen to what they want and make few suggestions like: let’s add a black Pirate flag with bones etc… take note of these pieces since attention to detail matter.

2. Supplies

Look around your home for opportunities to convert something from one state to another. Like something that’s gathering dust. Or maybe an old bed frame (as was in my case) which now became a useful commodity.

Whatever you do not have access to, buy from a hardware shop. We ended up going to Lowes hardware. I also love these modern style rugs, so have a look at those.

Keep track of your expenses

Keep track of the project’s expenses. You want to demonstrate to your child that you are frugal with money. Spending money is easy. But being thoughtful and calculated requires executive function thinking. Certainly, money is undeniably important in our lives, and if you’re looking to increase your wealth, one avenue to consider is trying your luck with betting on 해외배팅사이트.

We used Veryfi Expenses app to snap photos of receipts and have it instantly translated into an expense with all data extraction done for me automatically. Easy peasy.

Identify pirate ship parts

• Wooden dowels for the ship’s masts. The mast’s purpose is carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation light, look-out position, signal yard, control position, radio aerial or signal lamp.
• Crow’s nest would be sitting on one of these masts. We use an old medicine vial cut in half for that.
• Jumbo craft sticks. Half of one would serve as a pirate ship plank and the rest for decoration.
• Ropes and lines would run between masts and ship. Needed something that looks thicker than a basic string.

3. Build

There are no right instructions how to build a Pirate Ship. Just start piece by piece and improvise.

Ask your kids how they think you should start the pirate ship. Then move onto the why questions. Really get them engaged in the thinking and tinkering process.

You can run this like a software development project. Start small, piece by piece and work your way up. Assign work to your team (kids). Work together to nut out the complex parts of the task.

Josh’s old bed frame

If you have spare wood around the house then use it. We used Josh’s old bed frame to build the body of the ship.

Most of all, get your kids involved !!

Final Masterpiece!

Spin off projects

Once you have a Pirate Ship you can continue building endlessly. Here are a few additional inspiration spin-off projects you can consider.

• Build more detail to the ship. Extend the cabin crew with chairs, table and some pirate accessories. You can also add a life boat to the side of the ship.
• Extend the ship with motorized/electronics like lanterns that light up at night (based on room ambience) and act as a night light for the kids room.
• Build a lighthouse so the ship won’t run aground when sailing the dangerous seas. To give it more ambience, the lighthouse could feature a rotating light on top. And for playtime you can bring some dry ice and create fog with the lighthouse in the middle of it.

The spin off projects are endless and will provide endless play opportunity for your kids and spark creativity at every corner.

In a world of over consumption and instant gratification, a project like this breaks that mould and teaches young kids that creativity is endless when you put your mind to it, things worth doing take time and building is fun!

Let me know below how your Pirate Ship turned out.