I hate snow

It looks like it'll be at least another week before I can get the bike out of the shed because of the snow. That stinks!

Way too much snow

Well, I finally got us shoveled out enough to get the vehicles out. It's nearly waist deep by the road and a good 18" deep everywhere else. The roads are passable, but barely. There isn't any pavement to be seen at all anywhere.

12" and counting

We have at least a foot out there and it's still coming down like mad. I am fairly certain that nobody's going to work tomorrow. I took the kids to the old stone store this afternoon to do some sledding. They lasted 10 minutes and we headed for home. It was 25f, 20-30 mph winds and not fun.

blizzard warning

This morning they upgraded the forecast from winter storm warning to blizzard warning. It looks like we're getting that 12-18" today.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (somewhere else)

The latest forecast says we're expecting 12-18" of snow tomorrow beginning in the morning and getting real heavy by mid-day. I am not looking forward to shoveling, but I was smart. Both jeeps are parked down at the bottom of the driveway, so I only need to shovel a path to them from the house and clear out the plowed stuff at the end. On the plus side, the kids will get to use the new 2 person sled that Santa got them.

Merry xmas

The kids woke us up at 6:45 to open presents. Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Booboo in the Xmas tree

Wish i had found this a week ago

I've had one of my sockets that hurts like heck since I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Advil works for a while then it hurts again. I discovered the Red Cross toothache kit at the grocery store. It's a pair of tweezers, tiny cotton balls, and a bottle of clove oil. Soak the cotton ball in the clove oil and hold it on the sore spot for a minute and it does a nice job of numbing things. In less than 5 minutes, I've gone from a dull ache to hardly even noticeable. It should last 4 or 5 hours from what I've read.

Its blueberry...

I just cracked a bottle of the blueberry mead tonight. Its just under a year old and definitely getting better with age. This is some good stuff. :)
Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Real food...

Tonight I had an omelet at IHOP and man did it taste good. After nearly 2 days of pudding and applesauce I was so ready for real food again. I am so glad I had all 4 wisdom teeth done at the same time. I'd hate to go through this again.

Another take on TSA security...

owie

I had all 4 wisdom teeth taken out this morning, so I'm not too happy right now. On the plus side, the oral surgeon was good. I didn't feel a thing.

You know it's cold when...

When you walk out the door with damp hair and your hair freezes. Crackberry... The only way to fly.

More photos uploaded

I have uploaded more photos to the family site as I get caught up on our library.

WTF TSA....

New photos uploaded

I uploaded some new photos to the galleries on the web site this morning.

Yup, this is our kids alright...

We have a sitter...

We have a sitter for Saturday night so it looks like we can go out after all. Yay!

not happy right now

We have plans for Saturday night and just lost our baby sitter. Now we have to try and find one on short notice. :(

So true...

We're going to see Alegria...

Well, I just booked tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show Alegria when it comes to Atlantic City in April. I can't wait!

The worst movie I've ever seen...

We're watching the Bridge to Terabithia. This has to be, by far, the worst movie I have ever seen. It lost my attention within the first 5 minutes and went down hill from there. If it weren't for the fact that my daughter is watching it I would have turned it off long ago.

Make it stop!!!!!

I have Christmas songs stuck in my head and it's not after Thanksgiving yet!!!! Make it stop! AHHHHHHHH!!!!

Car seat expiration dates... huh???

Ok, so after buying a new car seat for our 3 year old last week I see it has an expiration date on it. The first thing that went through my head was, "say what???" It's not like it is gonna get moldy after a few weeks like cheese after all, so I did some digging. It turns out that the car seat expiration dates are a bunch of crap. I hate to say this, but car seat manufacturers are doing this to drive more sales, in spite of stating otherwise.

Read this article from the NY times in 2005. It tells the truth behind the myth. Yes, car seats should be replaced somewhat regularly, but not for the reasons you might think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/11/business/11shortcuts.ready.html?ex=12761424...

It turns out that the primary motivators for the expiration dates are changes in technology and the fact that manufacturers stop testing seats after a certain age. This DOES NOT mean that the car seat is unsafe because it is over 6 years old. The plastics used have a lifespan of at least 10 years. "It's not as if you'll hit the expiration date and the plastic will become weak," he said. "The plastic is good for at least 10 years. But regulations and standards are constantly changing."

So, before you toss that car seat because of a fictitious expiration date, check it over for condition and use your own judgment. What a concept!

IMG00042-20101118-1821.jpg

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Cat nap

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

A fun time was had by all

Last night we had a wine & cheese party. We had a decent turn out and it seemed like everyone had a good time. We had lots of good food and lots of good wine. :)

Saudi court rejects death sentence for TV psychic

Witchcraft??? I thought witchcraft went out like 200 years ago.

 

 

Saudi court rejects death sentence for TV psychic

via AP Top Headlines At 9:50 a.m. EST by By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI on 11/13/10

By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI 2010-11-13T13:17:26Z

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has refused to ratify the death sentence of a Lebanese psychic convicted of practicing witchcraft in a case that has outraged international human rights groups....

Ok, maybe it's an obsession...

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

A must see video

Now, this is a teacher who deserves to keep his job...

B.C.

10 drinkable varieties and counting...

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Booboo and mischief

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Sony retires the cassette Walkman after 30 years - CNN.com

I don't know what is scarier...

The thought that Sony is finally retiring cassette players, only about 10 years after they became obsolete. When was the last time YOU actually listened to a cassette? I haven't in at least 10 years. I replaced all mine with CDs in the mid-90's. Heck, I haven't popped a CD in a player in at least 4 years, they're all converted to MP3 now.

-or-

The thought that enough people still listen to audio cassettes that Sony actually still manufacturers players for them.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/10/25/sony.retires.walkman.mashab...

The kitties

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

The new kittens

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Sometimes it was just meant to be

This morning we got word from the vet that Tigger didn't make it through the night. Today around 4:30 I learn that one of my coworkers' friends has two 9 week old kittens and needs to find them a home. So tonight we find ourselves with 2 9 week old grey & white kittens. Pictures to follow when I can get some.

RIP Tigger

We took our 8 month old cat in to be neutered and de-clawed yesterday. He died in the middle of the night... This isn't how I wanted to start my day.

ScientificAmerican.com: Can You Hear Me Now? The Truth about Cell Phones and Cancer

Hmm... makes me think there is something to this.

By Michael Shermer
Physics shows that cell phones cannot cause cancer

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-you-hear-me-now

Grumble...

Sunday I broke my hydrometer. Ok, no big deal. Tonight I went to make my pear wine and remembered I broke the hydrometer. Now I need to get another one and fast because I have 36lb of pears that will go bad in a relatively short period if I don't get the wine going real soon. It'll take till Friday to get a replacement and the nearest store is well over an hours drive away. I hppe I can get it before things go bad. Worst case scenario is I start the wine and guess on the sugar (guess on the light side) and when I get it in, adjust the mash accordingly. Ugh!

My next project

I need to make a fruit press to get the last bits of the good stuff our of my fruit after fermenting it. :)

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/homemade-cider-press-146517/

I love my work...

Tonight I bottled 5 of my wines, and I have to say that they all came out quite nicely.

Pumpkin: While the flavor is subtle, it is there. I'm not sure if the flavor is because of the buckwheat honey I used or not, but it's a keeper. I think I'll make another gallon or two for next year.

Bananas with cocoa: This one came out excellent! I plan to convert 4 gallons of the second banana batch I made into this and see if I can duplicate this on a larger scale.

Plum: This came out a bit on the tart side, but rather than sweeten it up, I decided to try it with some chocolate. Wow, is this stuff good with chocolate! We have another winner. :)

Honeysuckle: What can I say? Come spring, I will be hunting down every flowering honeysuckle in a day or 2 within driving distance and hope I can find enough flowering vines to make a 6 gallon batch of the stuff. :)

Pineapple & orange: This is more of a Pineapple, but it is still quite tasty. The pineapple overpowered the orange, but you can taste the influence of the orange in it.

Perfect night

What could be more perfect than watching cartoons and eating popcorn with the kids?
Crackberry... The only way to fly.

I like this!

Homemade space craft hits 100,000 feet (19 miles)

This is well worth watching!

http://www.brooklynspaceprogram.org/BSP/Space_Balloon.html

A different take on Christianity...

Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Makes perfect sense.

Where we had dinner last night.

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Gizmo

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

Tigger sleeping

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

apple & brown sugar sparkling wine???

Ok, so I cracked one of the bottles of apple & brown sugar and there was a noticeable pop. If I hadn't been using a big corkscrew, the cork would have ended up on the other end of the room i'm sure. I definitely made sparkling wine, the real question is how??? The wine sat with no signs of bubbles for about 2 months before I bottled this stuff, yet it clearly re-started fermentation once I bottled it. About 2 weeks ago I blew a cork in one of the smaller bottles of the wine, so I know this bottle is not a one-off.

Miracles

It is the absolute refusal to consider any possibility other than the outcome you have selected that prepares the Field of Possibilities for a miracle. It is the further refusal to judge anything by its appearance that makes the moment ready for magic. In miracle working, you must be prepared to ignore the evidence of your own eyes, you must close up your ears, and you must be out of your mind. If you are in your head, if you are in your mind, you will think your way right out of the miracle. When you perform miracles, ‘you do the unthinkable.’

My new wine rack

Built from scrap lumber. :)

Crackberry... The only way to fly.

First casualty

Well, tonight I noticed my first casualty from my wines. A small bottle of the apple with brown sugar blew the cork sometime over the last few days. I don't know if the cork just wasn't seated correctly or what, because this stuff didn't show signs of fermentation for months before I bottled the stuff. I guess it could be worse, the bottle could have blown up.

Strawberry riesling?

I may have invented a new wine recently. I blended some of my strawberry wine with some riesling. It actually came out quite good and I will definitely be doing it again. I'm seriously considering taking a few bottles of each, blending them and re-bottling them. Crackberry... The only way to fly.

I love strawberries

Especially when they are turned into wine. Yum! The batch of strawberry wine that I made is absolutely fabulous. I will definitely be making more of this in another few months so we don't run out. :)

Peaches.. yum

Today I started a batch of peach wine. If it turns out well, it'll be ready for Pennsic. :)

Say cheese

Today we finally broke down and bought a new point & shoot camera for each of us. The SLR is great, but there are many times when it isn't around and we wish we had a camera. The simple solution was to get a point & shoot for each of us to carry around. I also rearranged the camcorder & SLR bags and got it so we may actually use the camcorder once in a while. What a concept!

Get Smart

Last night I introduced Katie to Get Smart. She seemed to like the show and I had fun watching it again after not seeing it for quite a few years. :)

Posterous test

If I did this properly, this post should go to facebook and my blog at the same time.

looking good

I was just checking on the wines that are still in the works and the
pineapple orange is clearing up nicely. It has a nice brown/orange tint
to it but is crystal clear otherwise. I can't wait to try it in a few
months.

Gloria part 2?

Earl is following a similar track to Gloria in 1985 and similar wind
speeds. If this is the case, we are in for a real rough day tomorrow. We
should know more by later tonight.

it's gonna get windy

They issues a tropical storm warning for us Friday. It's gonna get windy
at the very least...

Another 15 gallons...

Yesterday I started a 6 gallon batch of dandelion mead and about 9 gallons of banana wine. Yum!
Crackberry... The only way to fly.

good stuff

Yesterday we bottled a bunch of my wines and meads and I have to say
that I impressed myself. I do some pretty good work. Now the real test
will be to see if I can duplicate my efforts. Here's what we bottled:

Strawberry wine (6 gallons) - still needs a few months but tastes and
smells good.
Apple wine (6 gallons)- it's a subtle flavor but quite tasty.
Apple with brown sugar - Much more aroma and flavor thean the batch made
with white sugar. I will be making a bigger batch sometime for sure.
Banana - Oh heck yeah! I'm planning to start a 7-8 gallon batch within
the next week (this was only 1 gallon). This stuff is killer, lots of
aroma and tastes like bananas. :)
Clover sack mead - I definitely need to try and duplicate this. It's
only 6 months old and already is incredible. I don't know if it's the
recipe or the 5+ year old honey that did it, but I plan to try and
replicate this one real soon too.

Bananas with cocoa - its real dry and needs some more flavor, so I added
sugar and airlocked it again. I'll try again in a few months to see how
it's doing.
Sweet mead - it tastes quite good. Racked it and it needs more time
before bottling.

we had a good vacation

Overall our vacation was pretty good. Thursday afternoon I loaded the
blue jeep and had it all hooked up and ready to go. When I was doing my
last minute check, I noticed it had a cracked rim, so we did a Jeep
change real quick and took the black one instead. We headed for Pennsic
around 5am and made decent time to the site. We arrived at around noon.

We had a pretty uneventful time there. It averaged in the low 80's every
day and was pretty warm at night too. We got some rain, and about 1 1/2
hours into a serious downpour we started leaking through the roof.
Luckily we were able to borrow some tarps to keep dry. I re-coated the
roof when we got home to make sure that doesn't happen again.

finally loaded...

Well, only a few hours behind schedule we are finally loaded and ready
to roll in the morning. I had the coolers iced down and loaded in the
blue jeep around 4:00 and the rest by 5:00. When I was doing my last
inspection, I spotted a cracked rim on the front of the Jeep. Since I
did not want to do a 400 mile run on a cracked rim, we unloaded the blue
jeep and loaded it all into the black one. I am so glad we have 2
vehicles capable of towing a trailer. When I was doing my light check, I
noticed I had no running lights, so I had to do a quick bypass of the
light controller for the trailer and tapped it into the vehicle
directly. Since we plan to leave before dawn, having runnign lights is
important. If we were going to leave during the day I would have left it
alone since I would not have needed them for the trip. The important
thing is we are loaded up and almost ready to leave now. Only about 8
hours until departure. :)

26 hours and counting till vacation

26 hours until I am officially on vacation.. woohoo!

The trailer is packed

Sunday I got the trailer all packed for Pennsic. All that is left is to
pack the coolers, perishables and stuff that I can't pack till the night
before and we're ready for war. :) It's good to be going home again.

the trip from hell

We went camping over the weekend and ordinarily it's pretty uneventful.
This weekend was definitely the exception. Thursday Rain got sick and
almost came home from work which would have meant that we couldn't leave
early for the trip on Friday so she stayed at work. I loaded up most of
the gear on Thursday so I wouldn't have to load and unload on Friday.

Friday morning I woke up with what Rain had on Thursday. This was
definitely not good and I seriously considered not going at all, but I
knew it was a 24 hour thing and I'd be better for Saturday so I took it
easy and got things loaded up. Around 1:00 Rain calls me and says the
black Jeep won't start. I already had the trailer all hooked up and
wasn't in the mood to unhook it to go look at the black Jeep so I took
the trailer with me. It turned out the Jeep was just not fully in park,
so the safety switch was preventing it from starting.

As I was backing the trailer into the driveway, I noticed something odd
with one of the trailer tires. I'm glad I looked because one of the
inside sidewalls was split. I broke out the hi-lift jack and changed the
tire and put the spare on. For some reason I decided to bring the
hi-lift along as well since I don't usually bring it with the blue Jeep.
I was glad I did. About 50 miles into the trip, the other trail;er tire
(not the new spare) blew. Now I had a problem since I had no spare now.
I located a tire shop nearby with the help of the GPS and called to see
if they had my tire in stock, which they did. I dropped the trailer,
leaving it on the jack and headed for the tire shop (thank goodness for
the GPS). $40 and 1 hour later and we were back on the road with a new tire.

We also lost alot of time to traffic due to construction and what should
have been a 3 hour drive at most took a little over 5 hours.

Updates

I re-built the 2 ger door frame uprights that I broke last week (my own
fault). When I get access to a table saw, I'll trim them down a bit so
that the "U" is a bit shallower and that shouldn't happen again.

Today I also decided it was time to defrost the big freezer since the
frost builtup was like 4" thick on a few of the shelves. So right now
the contents are in the coolers. Thank goodness we have 2 decent sized 5
day coolers. :)

I started a batch of pumpkin melomel today. I found a bunch of frozen
pumpkin puree left over from Thanksgiving, so I figured I might as well
use it up. Maybe we'll have pumpkin melomel for Thanksgiving this year,
or next...

Katie is getting strong

This morning katie wanted to pick me up. She's always tried and lifts me
a hair but that is it. Well, today she actually picked me up off the
ground a few inches. That really says something. This is a 70 something
pound kid picking up a 138lb adult. She is capable of lifting nearly
double her body weight and she's only 8 (this coming saturday).

mobile ger?

Yesterday we set the ger up to use for the bbq today. After getting it
all setup, including the roof canvas, I realized I should have put it up
in a different spot. So 4 of us grabbed a piece of khana and lifted and
moved the fully assembled ger about 10 feet. Pretty cool. :) I just wish
we had a video camera to capture that in action.

paying the extortionist

Well, Thursday morning I went down to town hall to pay their city water
hook up (extortion as far as I am concerned) fee. I'm sorry, but there
is no excuse for charging residents $2500 to hook up to city water
"because the rest of the residents have been paying monthly bills for
years. It is only fair that new hookups pay the same." I should only
have to pay what the 100 feet of water line in the street cost to run
between my house and the next, which I can guarantee was far less than
$2500, even at the outrageous union rates that the contractors get. The
rates went up from previous years also, and I can guarantee that this is
the township's way of making up for lost state funding this year.

Yes, it is extortion because we have been threatened with fines and
legal action if we don't hook up to the system by July 15th. The only
thing that makes this not extortion is that they have made it legal for
them to do this. If anyone else did the same thing, it would be
considered extortion. What makes it worse is the economy. Let's face it,
I seriously doubt that anyone has $2500 just laying around ot pay this
fee, which means that most homeowners have been forced deeper into debt
at the benefit of the town. It's not right.

The amazing tigger

The night before last Tigger, our 4 month old cat, learned to climb the
ladder into our daughter's loft bed and I had to get him down at like
3am so she could sleep. Last night he did it again, except this time she
took my advice and didn't keep moving around so he'd settle down. He
ended up sleeping the night with her. This morning he climbed down the
ladder (head first) all by himself to get down. I have a feeling he'll
be sleeping with her from now on.

digital copiers can be scary

You want to see this video. Forward it to anyone who owns a digital copier. This is downright scary.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6412572n&tag=related;photovideo

Quest update

We had a good and interesting weekend at Quest. It all started on the
ride up to the event, when about 30 miles out from home one of the tires
on the trailer blew. I'm talking explosive detonation here. It sounded
like someone lit off an M80 and the Jeep shook. I pulled over right away
and saw a shredded tire on the trailer. No big deal I thought since i
have a good spare on the trailer. We unloaded the whole back of the Jeep
to get to the lug wrench and jack that are stored with the spare tire
under the floor.

I proceeded to jack the trailer up and remove the blown tire. Once i had
it off, I went around to the front of the trailer and started spinning
the wing nut off that holds the spare under the trailer. When it got to
the very last thread, it stopped dead. I found a multi-tool I keep in
the Jeep and used it to spin the nut off, only to have the entire
threaded rod unthread from the nut inside the trailer (which i could not
get to without unloading the entire trailer). Now I had a problem. I had
a spare tire with a rusted on nut on one side of the rim and a stuck
wing nut on the other and only ONE pair of pliers and no other tools.
Needless to say this is the last time I leave the tools home.

I called AAA and had them send someone to help. In the meantime we
looked for a way to get the wingnut to go the last 3 or 4 turns to
remove it. We ended up with me holding the tire between my knees,
holding the hex nut with the pliers, and Rain hitting the wing nut with
her metal ground quiver. Eventually, we got it loose and I was able to
put the spare tire on. About the time we got the stuff reloaded in the
Jeep the guy from AAA finally got there. He had air on board, so was
able to inflate the spare which was a little on the low side.

We got to Quest about an hour later than we expected and got the 2 gers
set up. I have to say that they worked out really well. We had loads of
space inside and they proved to be waterproof when it rained. I was glad
I got the smoke holes cut before Quest. They really did their job well,
including venting smoke from the stove when we were cooking. We
comfortably sat 12 people for dinner and still had plenty of room to
navigate around.

The new & improved camp benches worked well too. They really cleaned the
common area up by allowing us to sit on the supplies instead of piling
it in plastic tubs around the sides.

Why plywood is not a bad choice for a khana

One of the biggest arguments against using plywood is that it may
delaminate over time, especially when exposed to water. I can't count
the number of people who have mentioned this concern to me when I talked
about the idea. I wasn't all that concerned about delamination but
couldn't come up with a good reason why. Tonight that reason came to me
when I was tarping the trailer because of the rain to keep the khana dry
(the recently cut edges are still unpainted).

In my backyard, I have 2 small pieces of wood (roughly 1'x1') that I use
to set the side stand of my bike on when I pull up by my shed due to the
ground being soft and sandy. These pieces of wood were cut from 3/8"
interior grade plywood a few years ago when I made our camp sinks. They
have sat outside on the ground, unprotected and unpainted for at least 3
years now and they are still in good shape. There is no sign of
delamination on these pieces.

Now, considering that these 2 gers will be set up and used for about 3
weeks total every year and stored in the shed out of the weather when
not in use, I see no reason why they should not last at least 10 years
without any issue of delamination (I bet i'll break a few long before
that happens).

Sexy CPR

This is great.. and work safe.

http://supersexycpr.com/cpr.html

The words remain the same...

But the meaning has been altered considerably over time. I actually got to listen to some of my Pink Floyd collection today. I mean really listen, not have it in the background. Some of the songs have found new meaning over the last 20 years for me. Life's experiences have taught me quite a bit in that time. I now see a while new meaning to some of these words that I did not see when I first discovered them as a teenaged kid.

Sweet dessert mead

Today I spotted 5lb jugs of clover mead at Costco for $10 each. I could
not pass that up so I bought 5 jugs and started a 6 gallon batch of
sweet dessert mead. We'll know in 9 months or so if it is a good one.

Check out google.com today

If you haven't been to google.com today, check it out. They have a
playable pacman game as their logo!

Thanks alot DYFS

Dyfs unceremoniously closed Adrien's case today so we will lose the DYFS
funded daycare that we had for him. That's $150 /week we're going to
have to come up with now unless we can find something cheaper.

iphones suck

I can't say it enough... iphones are junk. Who ever designed these
things was not thinking. How can you design a touch screen phone that
requires skin contact to use? Don't these people realize that quite a
few women out there have long nails (my HTC was touch sensitive, and did
not require skin contact to use)? On top of that, the touch screen
keyboard makes it way too hard to accurately type anything. I find
myself hitting every key BUT the one I am aiming for on the screen (my
boss's phone, not mine). This is just one more reason why I will never
own one of those pieces of crap.

Busy weekend

I had a real busy weekend. With some help from friends, we set up both
gers and tested the full rig. This is going to work really great. The
amount of usable space in these things is enormous. We ended up
shortening the rafters by about 2" to give a little more canvas
overhanging the sides which made me happier. Garth helped me rebuild the
camp benches and turn them into boxes, so now I can re-pack things and
not use the plastic bins any more. We also repacked the shed after
totally unloading it and managed to get the bike back into the shed
again with the 2 gers. Yay! I'm still tired. I am not used to all that
effort.

the blueberry is bottled

Last night I bottled the blueberry mead. It had ok flavor but is a bit
on the acidic side. Next time i'll use less of the acid blend.

Old skills die hard

Tonight I put my electronics skills to the test. My daughter's laptop
had a flaky power jack on the mother board. It's an older laprtop and we
can't quite afford $400 for a new one right now. I got on Ebay and found
a replacement jack for $6. Of course this meant that I had to totally
disassemble the laptop, un-solder the old jack, solder in the new one,
and put it all back together again. Well, 1:45 later and the laptop is
up and running with no more flaky power connector. Yay!

Ger #2 is almost done

The roof ring and roof are done. I just need to cut and hem the sides and drill holes in the door frames.

Oh, so fun.....not!

SO, a few days ago we noticed we had luke warm water instead of hot
water. Odd, but it got hot again. We also noticed some air in the water
lines. Maybe the well was going? Nope... This morning before I went to
work I shut off the water to the heater (I installed a shutoff valve
when i replace the last one). Tonight i turned it back on so Katie could
get a shower, etc. About an hour later Rain comes running up the stairs
from going to do laundry. Water was pouring out of the water heater and
it was all over the floor. I shut it off, grabbed the shop vac and we
proceeded to clean up what we could. I turned the water in for a few
seconds to see where the leak was and it was the lower heating element,
so off to Lowe's I went to buy another one. I've seen this before. The
element gets a pinhole leak and the element explodes the tube it's in
and then water comes pouring out of the element. I replaced the element
and no leaks so far, thankfully. Needless to say this is not how I
wanted to spend my evening.

Everything is green

Wow, the pollen is insane today. Not only is everything green, but it looks like there's a fog in the air the pollen is so thick. I am so glad I have my alegra.

The khana is done!

I finished the last khana piece today. A few holes in door frames and gluing the roof ring are all the structural pieces left to complete. Yay!

Its hot out

Its 87 degrees and its only 11:00. It's gonna be a hot one. I just finished half the khana for ger #2. One more to go :)

Now, this is impressive to watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=RobaJKGMMiE

The ger is gonna work real nice

After being up for a week, I took it down today with minimal help. I figured out how to put the roof on and off by myself. At this point I have to:

glue the second roof ring together
make 8 more rafters
add the pins to the second set of door frames
assemble the second khana (we're ripping the last of the wood tomorrow)
Modify roof #2
Cut and hem the second set of wall canvas
Paint the second ger (khana is pre painted prior to assembly already)

And I have 2 weeks to do this. Its gonna be busy but can do most of the canvas work while I watch tv at night and I plan to glue the ring tonight. My goal is to set up both gers with canvas in 2 weeks. That leaves 2 weekends to repack the camp gear and resupply.

Blueberry... yummm!!

I racked the blueberry mead the other night and sampled it. This is a
good mead. :) I will definitely be making more of this stuff because it
won't last. :)

Instinct is a good thing...

This morning I noticed Tigger starting to do nature's thing and quickly
got him in to the litter box. Once he was done, instinct kicked in and
he covered it up. Hopefully litter training will go quickly.

another expensive day

It isn't cheap being a home brewer, but well worth it in the end and I
will save money in the long run. I just ordered almost $200 in
equipment, but that is another carboy (I have 4 now), bottle washer &
drying stand, 10 gallon fermenter for the fruit wines (fruit takes alot
of space in the bucket), corks, some bottles, airlocks, and other odds
and ends. Since the blueberry and apple are pretty well done I need to
do one more racking before I bottle in another month. Pretty much
everything is ready to rack off into other containers now, and I'm all
out of carboys. The good part is with the exception of cleaning supplies
and corks, everything I have bought so far is reusable from batch to
batch, so it gets cheaper from here on. All I should need to buy is some
more carboys on occasion as I start more batches of mead or wine. I
figure a batch ties up a carboy for at least 3 and maybe as much as 6
months, so I'll end up buying another 6 or so carboys in the next 6
months. That'll give me the capacity of 8 6 gallon batches in progress
at any one time with one empty for racking when needed.

New kitten(s)

We have 2 7 week old kittens right now. Fred is going to keep one of
them but Tigger, the male, is ours. We have the baby gate up in the hall
to keep the kittens in the kitchen & living room for now until they get
a little bigger.

OMFG that's good *#$&

I racked the strawberry wine to the carboy after 2 weeks in the bucket.
Well, let's put it this way... This is some good #($&!! It's at 17.25%
alcohol based on the math and tastes good! :) I may very well bring some
to Quest.

Getting closer...

$170 later and I am almost done with ger #2.

We have canvas.. :)

The canvas is here for the roofs. :) Now to see how they fit this
weekend. I'm fighting the urge to unpack them now.

Good customer service

Ok, so I ordered rope a month or so ago for the Ger and request 35'
lengths. I got one piece at 25'. I called today and they are shipping a
35' piece at no charge to correct the mistake. Now, that is what
customer service is supposed to be. :)

I should have canvas any time now

According to UPS, the canvas is on the truck for delivery. :) I should
be able to check the fit Sunday perhaps.

The ger is progressing

I bought the canvas drop cloth for the walls for one ger today. I'll
work on those over the next few weeks. All I need to do is split it down
the middle and sew it together to make a 30'x6' piece. The rafters are
starting to look sharp - yellow. The ring will be red. The sun will
always shine inside our Gers. :)

Hardware wars

I so remember this as a kid!!!!

The canvas shipped

I got shipping confirmation today. The canvas should be here Friday. :)

Ger update

Yesterday I ordered 2 20'x20' canvas tarps for the 2 Gers. I hope they
don't take too long to come, but I do have a few weeks before I really
need them. $500 out the door just like that... ouch.

New photos in the galleries.

I just uploaded cabin party photos and some others to the galleries.

Ger update

I just got done redesigning the door frames for the ger because I found
a design flaw that could have led to catastrophic failure of the door
frames. If this had happened, the entire roof would collapse. The ger
page is updated with details and photos.

Drum Roll, Please....

The full sized ger is a thing of beauty. I set it up in the back yard today, minus canvas.

Final dimension when set up:

• +/- 16' diameter
• 5'10" ground to roof band
• 8'9" ground to bottom of roof ring

Photos are up on the site for anyone who wants to see.

http://irvinefamily.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:full-size-ger&catid=46:yurt&Itemid=63

this quote says alot

Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be
predetermined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We
should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the
frontiers of our destiny. Your destiny can't be changed but, it can be
challenged. Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.

Strawberry Wine

Ok, so I began to turn 22lb of strawberries into wine tonight. We'll
find out in a few months how well I did with it.

Cabin party

Well, this weekend we had our annual cabin party in WV. We had 15 people in attendance and had an absolute blast. I brought the telescope and we did some star gazing last night. The costumes were great. For the first time in 20 some years there was actually a duplication of costumes which was kind of funny. I can't wait for next years' party.

RIP lovey

tonight I had the unfortunate chore of burying our 14 year old cat,
Lovey. He was a good cat and will be missed.

took the bike today

Well, I took the bike out today for the first time in like 2 months. It
felt so good to get out on 2 wheels again. With the cold and snow we've
had this winter, the bike has hardly moved since before Thanksgiving.

I like making wines :)

In the past 24 hours I have started a 1.5 gallon batch of banana wine
and a 1 gallon batch of apple & brown sugar wine. I am experimenting
with smaller batches now to try flavors. I also have 6 gallons of
blueberry mead and 6 gallons of apple wine fermenting. :)

Wine making

I have started 2 more batches... 6 gallons of apple wine and 1.5 gallons
of banana.

My plan is to split the banana in half when I rack the first time and
add cocoa powder to half to see what it does. I picked up Hershey cocoa
powder for the task.

oh, the blueberry mead is still fermenting though it is slowed down
alot. I figure a few more weeks of fermentation is left. I'll probably
rack it after it stops and let it clarify till mid-April and bottle it.

http://irvinefamily.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=44:mead&Itemid=63&layout=default

Apple Wine

Well, I started a batch of apple wine today. This should prove
interesting. I have 48 Granny Smith apples sitting in a bucket of sugar
water fermenting.

Lovey update

Lovey is doing pretty well. He still has a snotty nose so there is some
sort of infection going on there, but he is bathing, eating, and using
the litter box so it is a good sign. We have to wait to see how he does
long term, but so far he is in decent shape.

ger update

Ok, so I have 1/2 the khana finished for the ger. I need to cut an extra
8 slats to finish this one, which means an extra 16 for both of them.
That translates into roughly an extra 1/2 sheet of plywood with about 4
or 5 extras.

One big-ass baby gate.

Ok, so it's only part way done, but the khana is painted and starting to
come together nicely. I have about 1/4 of it strung together and photos
posted if anyone is interested in seeing it.

http://irvinefamily.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:full-size-ger&catid=46:yurt&Itemid=63

Holy snow!

The snow storm that is supposed to hit us tomorrow night into Sunday has
been upgraded to a blizzard warning! They're talking 12-24 inches of
snow... ugh!

Photography at it's finest.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/sets/72157604247242338/show/with/2346008881/

Lovey should be coming home tomorrow

Our cat, Lovey has been at the animal hospital for a week now since he
got real sick. I talked to the vet last night and he told me that Lovey
was showing serious signs of progress and should be able to come home
tomorrow night.

The ger is coming along nicely

This weekend we painted the khana slats. In a day or 2, the ends will
all be finished and I'll be ready to start lacing it together.

the mead is coming along quite nicely....

We racked off the mead today into the carboy and took a sample. Oooh is
it coming out good. :) This is gonna be a good batch I think.

The popcorn incident

This happens to every parent at some point, but how we handle it
determines the future of the child in some ways. Yesterday Adrien had
some popcorn as a snack. When he was done, he dumped the cup of popcorn
crumbs on the floor. I told him to pick them up and put them back in the
cup. His response was "no". Of course, I could not let this go and told
him to pick it up. He refused, so I told him to have a seat. After
several more attempts he still refused to pick up his mess. This led to
me sitting behind him and not letting him go anywhere or play with
anything until he picked up his mess. It was now or never if I was going
to beat the stubborn, 'I'm gonna do what I want regardless of what you
say' attitude. I had a similar situation with Katie right around the
same age. Well, to make a long story short, 1 hour and 45 minutes later,
he said to me "Daddy Joe, I stink." This was after screaming crying,
stomping, etc. constantly the whole time. He had peed in his pull up a
while earlier. I said to him "Let's get this cleaned up and I'll change
your pull up." He said "ok" and started cleaning it up. I had finally
won. If this works like it did with Katie, the stubborn attitude should
end when I tell him to do something from now on.

The kids' ger is ready to go!

Just in case anyone is curious. I just finished the canvas for the kids'
ger. It's all set for the kids to use it now. :)

http://irvinefamily.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46:plywood-ger-yurt&catid=46:yurt&Itemid=63

The full-sized ger has been started as well. I already ripped the
plywood for the khana. In 2 weeks the khana should get a coat of paint
and then the assembly begins.

http://irvinefamily.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:full-size-ger&catid=46:yurt&Itemid=63

Plywood khana - part deux

Well, after the encouraging results with the small scale model, I have
decided that it is time to build a full size ger using plywood for the
khana (if for no other reason than nobody else has done it). I bought 3
sheets of 3/8" exterior grade plywood today and headed for Garth's house
to do some serious cutting. We cut 72 1 7/8" pieces out of the 3 sheets
(and almost no waste at all except what the saw ate). We drilled 9 holes
in each on 10" centers. Now to give them a good coat of paint. My dad (a
house painter by trade) is looking into the best way to coat the ends
for waterproofing and then a coat or 2 of red & black paint. After they
are painted, I'll lace the khana together and see about the door frames
(2 of them for each ger). With some luck, I may have the roof ring up in
another month on the first of 2 16' gers.

Brrr

25 degrees... Can we say brrrr?

New website theme

I changed the look and feel of the site. Why not check it out?

The mead is fermenting

Well, the good news is the mead is fermenting. I got up this morning and
the airlock is definitely pressurized, so everything is working as it is
supposed to. Now it is a waiting game.

My first batch of mead is started...

18lb of blueberry honey, about 2 1/4lb raisins (yeast nutrient, went by
the recipes I have), and lots of spring water (6 gallons in the bucket).
I also added pectic enzyme, acid blend, and grape tannin according to
the recipe. I went with the Montrachet yeast. Now I just have to wait
for it to start doing its thing. It's sitting in my kitchen in the
bucket with an airlock, so it should maintain between 65 overnight to
70-72 during the day.

We'll know in a few months whether or not I did it right.

The point of no (re)turn

Well, the bike is our of commission for now. With the cold lately, I
haven't had it out in a few weeks anyway. I've gotten tired of dirty
chrome, and still don't understand why motorcycles have so much of it in
the first place. It's a pain to keep it clean, so I decided it was time
to go stealth. I went out to the shed and had to take the seat, rear
fender, and headlight off the bike to get to the 4 turn signals. I
brought them inside and used the dremel and a sanding drum to rough up
the chrome. I gave them 2 coats of dark gray automotive primer and they
are drying. Later tonight I should be able to do a light sanding job on
them and then give them a coat of flat black paint. If I like the
results, the headlight bucket is next since I had to take it loose to
get the front signals off anyway. After that, I'll do the handlebars,
back rest supports, and any other chrome I can take off the bike to paint.