Blood and White Stuff In Eggs

This blog is in answer to my Daughter-in-law's question about the things that she found inside her Grandmother's farm fresh eggs.

A chalaza is a white threadlike structure in an egg which helps to keep the yolk in place inside the shell, like an anchor. Sometimes, there are two of these visible on opposite sides, other times only one is visible. Over time this rope can get twisted as the yolk moves around inside the shell, making it look thick and bumpy.

The chalaza is perfectly safe to eat, although it can be removed if you wish. The more visible the chalaza is, the fresher the egg. This is why they are not very noticeable in store bought eggs. If you are reading this post without ever getting eggs fresh from the farm, you probably don't even know what I am talking about because you have never seen one.

Blood Spots or Meat Spots that are sometimes found in eggs are caused by ruptured blood vessels during the formation of the egg.

Candling methods can reveal blood spots in eggs, if you wish to go to the trouble. However, as the egg ages the yolk takes up water from the albumen and dilutes the blood spot making it vanish, so blood spots actually indicate that the egg is super fresh. Again, this is the main reason that these meat spots, like the chalaza are not normally found in store bought eggs. Eggs with these spots are perfectly fine to eat or the spot can be removed with the tip of a knife.

Finding chalaza or meat spots in your eggs do not reflect the quality of the eggs. They only tell you that your eggs are fresh. The color of the yolks are the real test of quality. The lighter the yolk the less nutritional value.

A Better Mousetrap

In my opinion, it has finally happened. Someone has finally built a better mousetrap. Now if you have had these mousetraps in your home for years, you will have to excuse me, because I don't get to town very often and these are new to me.

When we bought some sacks of grain cheaply at Orscheln because they had holes in them, we became inundated with mice. I believe that these were foreign mice who came here from Orscheln in the feed sacks. Where they came from before that, I do not know.

This theory is supported by the fact that while at Orscheln, I seen mice in several different locations scampering about. As a matter of fact, I was surprised by the fact that I didn't hear people screaming all around me but then I think we were the only customers in the store.

This may have been a good sales gimmick used by Orscheln to sell mousetraps. There was just something about the store that made you remember to pick some up. I had three choices:

1. The traditional, wooden, finger crushing traps that bring fear to my heart every time I see one.
   
2. A newfangled plastic clothespin type trap
3. A more expensive, more complicated plastic trap.

I chose number two and here it is:



All you have to do with this trap is smear some peanut butter up under the top lip and the little mouse comes along and while trying to reach the peanut butter with his tiny mouth, he steps on the metal trigger and SNAP, he is history. This trap is easy to bait, set and empty, they come two in a package.

Since I was so happy with this trap, I thought that I would try the other plastic trap the next time I was at Orscheln. So, I bought them last night and have them set but haven't caught anything yet. But I haven't seen or heard any mice in a long time, they must have all heard that I got some new, more sophisticated traps.

Here is the other trap:


Now with this trap, you put your bait of choice into the well in the center of the trap by raising the lid on the well, as seen in the second picture. Next you close the lid then pull up the spring loaded bar by the handy loop provided, this sets the trap.

The tiny mouse comes along, smells the bait, hears his little tummy growling and sticks his twitching nose into the hole on the front of the lid over the well. As he sticks his nose farther into the well the lid lifts up and springs the trap. The bar then SNAPS down onto the cute little mouse and he or she is history also.

I should be ashamed of myself, I should have compassion. Who am I, that I should judge the life of a tiny mouse as less valuable than the life of any other creature. I should get live traps and relocate the cute little mice to your house.

Walmart

Is it Wal-Mart or Walmart? Anyway, we had to go there yesterday, kicking and screaming all the way. But there was this big winter storm warning and we had to go there to get the essentials to make it through weeks of isolation and being stranded with no electricity. We got a toaster, a stick blender, a Crossman 760 Pumpmaster BB Gun, 6000 BB's, bread and Little Debbie's snack cakes.

I got the BB Gun because my eldest son said that we got him one just like it when he was very young and it lasted him his whole childhood, until his little brother blow it up. So he got his son one for Christmas and I went yesterday before the big storm and got me one.

We needed a new toaster because our ancient Toastmaster toaster had died. We looked over their selection, the features and prices, then manufacturer names: Toastmaster, GE, Hamilton Beach, Black and Decker. The one that we picked and put in our shopping cart was a Black and Decker, then we looked on the box and it said that it was made in China. So we put it back on the shelf and chose another and it too was made in China. We went on to the next one and you guessed it, every toaster that Walmart had on it's selves were made in China. So we held our noses and bought the Chinese Black and Decker toaster. They must have taller bread in China because we can hardly reach the toast when it pops up.

I remember the good old days when Wal-Mart used to sell items made in the USA and was proud to do it. I also remember the days when Wal-Mart used to have plenty of cashiers and no waiting. I think that our local store has like 26 check-out lanes and at peak times they have 5 of them open, the rest of the time they keep 2 open.

Of course that winter storm that was suppose to dump 6 inches of Snow and Ice on us never materialized. I think this is a conspiracy of the Government or Walmart to get people to run to the stores and buy Milk and Bread. This is a clever way for Walmart to make even more money or the Government to stimulate the economy. I wonder how much of a kickback the weather forecasters get?