Brown's Berry Patch

(EDITED May, 2016. I am uncertain as to the status of the Farm, I had heard they closed but they still have an active Facebook Page. It was always a pleasure traveling out the Patch. Perhaps a little investigation is in order.)

It is that time of year again, we are taking our yearly trip to Brown’s Berry Patch. Brown’s is located in Orleans County, just south of Lake Ontario.

Brown’s Berry Patch has seasonal you-Pick fruit, right now, apples are in full swing along with pumpkins. Some softer fruits are available in the shop, but not available as a self picked item. Prices for apples are ridiculously low, be sure to bring a bag to carry your picks home with you. Wagons are available for rental.

Live music and the grill are the center piece of the Patch. The various acts provide family friendly entertainment while you enjoy treats from the snack shop or a meal from the grill. Take some time to take a pictures and shop before venturing out to pick apples.

Kids will enjoy the Barnyard Adventure. Prices are very reasonable, about $5.00 per person. The Barnyard Adventure is subject to weather conditions, so it is best to call ahead or check the local weather for the 14571 zip code.

Address: 14264 Roosevelt Hwy, Waterport, NY 14571
Website: Brown’s Berry Patch

Chromebook and Ubuntu - How do I right click?

If you are using Crouton on a Chromebook, there will come a day where you ask "How do I right click?" With Chrome, you tap with two fingers. In Ubuntu, this does work.

Nothing special is needed. Just hold the ctrl button and click. This also works with any Ubuntu variant and a Mac single button mouse.

Good to know, eh?

Taco Soup

Taco Soup is a wonderful, healthy meal that is filling and fast cooking.

Ingredients:
1 lbs. Ground Beef, 90 or 95% lean
1 can of corn
2 cans of seasoned chilli beans**
1 can of petite diced tomatoes
1 can of petite diced tomatoes with chilies
1 package of taco mix
1 package of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
*optional - 1 cup of onions or scallions.
**Try substituting other types of beans such as black beans or kidney beans.

Brown meat in a frying pan and drain. With 95% lean meat, add a tablespoon of olive oil.
Pour all 5 cans of ingredients into a large pot, do not drain these. It doesn't get easier than this. Add in the ground beef and stir in your two mixes. Bring to a simmer.

Garnish with matchstick carrots, taco cheese, and sour cream. Add Franks Hot Sauce or Tabasco to kick it up a notch. You can also add any fresh, cold veggies on hand.

Leftovers can be served cold, over a classic iceberg lettuce salad, fresh veggies, or tortilla chips. I like cold over lettuce with fresh tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and broccoli. Excellent for any season.

Multi Day Chromebook Offline Test Part 3

My questioning mind. Google Drive stores files locally. I wonder where? Could I find those files and drop them on a jump drive to edit elsewhere? I can’t see them anywhere on the hard drive and since this is an offline test of the Chrome OS, I don’t want to connect or fire up Ubuntu to poke around.

My other question is why doesn't the spell check work? I noticed that the spell checker for the Chrome Web Browser is working, but that function is apparently different than the spell checker for Drive files. I find it baffling; you would think they are the same tool.

The other funny thing is, I can’t delete drive files. I am sure that is a safety feature, but in messing around, I have created several “Untitled Documents” that I can't ditch. That is maddening to a file freak. Why can't I delete?!?

Well, I guess some mysteries in life are good.

Aw, who am I kidding. I am so gonna Google the answers later. 

Multi Day Chromebook Offline Test Part 2

As my multi day test of my Chromebook’s offline I noticed that I have some curious behaviors. Dropbox happily stores and updates information on my Chromebook hard drive by virtue of either manually downloading via the Chromebook’s App or automatically via Ubuntu’s capabilities.

Strangely, when I click Chrome’s Dropbox App, I am told I am offline.

I know that. The App doesn't do any caching locally even though the files are all present and accounted for. I have to manually navigate to the folder and open the files.

Some files open natively such as .jpegs or .pdfs. MS Word files open in Quickoffice, not Drive. From the Drive’s Open menu, I can't even access those files.

I could copy and paste information from Quickoffice to Drive, but that is just weird.

Or is it? I have to ask myself “why are you using both Dropbox and Drive?”. Well, the answer is Dropbox offered features that Drive didn’t have when I first starting using them, and now that each has more features, I am using them wrong.

I have 5 gb of space on Dropbox and over 100 gb on Drive. I should be using Drive all the time. I just can’t do it, because there are items I want to be available offline that drive does not handle. A copy of the Ubuntu installer for Minecraft. I suspect Drive wouldn't like that file at all.

Drive is a different sort of animal. It isn’t the beast of burden that Dropbox is. Dropbox stores data while Drive creates data. Someday I will adapt and figure it all out.