I was too busy to blog this summer

I have been having an amazing summer, no doubt. My garden was semi-successful despite my neglect. Transformus was extremely satisfying. Wisconsin was beautiful. I built a sturdy stand for two rain barrels.  I've continued the buttermilk production and have been making both cornbread and buttermilk bread regularly. Oh, and I put in a pool. :) I'll try to update more often, it'll be nice when my memory leaves me.

RE: Reaching Personal Financial Goals

Paid off my car loan today. Five long years, but it is still an awesome car, very dependable and most importantly stylish.  So I feel that it was totally worth it. Now it will be like having extra money every month. I guess I should start paying off the rest of my debt... Being a grown up is hard work sometimes.

Cultured Buttermilk

I recently found this mason jar in my back yard. I was cleaning up some trash and it was laying on it's side in the dirt, amazingly unbroken. I brought it up to the house and oxicleaned it, then cleaned it again. In the end it's a perfectly functional glass jar, and I love that about these jars.
Here I am using the jar to culture my own buttermilk. I used foodiewithfamily 's simple instructions using an almost expired quart of whole milk mixed with maybe 1/3 cup of buttermilk. If this works (and I have no reason to think it won't) then I plan to start making more cornbread and cake and bread. :) Also, I imagine myself as a skinny old man drinking lukewarm buttermilk straight from the jar, dribbling some into my grey, wizened beard as I nod my head to a classic DJ Shadow track.

Brewing

I've been brewing up a storm lately. I'm drinking the last bottle of an American Wheat as I type this, in celebration of another successful boil. I just pitched the yeast on a Pale Ale, after first soaking a couple pounds of specialty grains and then boiling malt extract and hops (I think the term for this level of brewing is partial grain). It's easily a 4-hour job with lots of wet hands and measured steps and a few moments of excitement, and I think I'm getting the work flow down. I could use a couple more pieces of equipment, but the current setup works nicely. 
Last night I racked a Double that had been fermenting for a week. It had plugged up the airlock on the 2nd day with it's extraordinary krausenhead. When I opened it up to siphon into the 2nd fermenter, I had to push aside a 2 inch layer of yeast scum or whatever to get to the beer. I didn't taste it, but I smelled it and it smells great! I'm real excited about that one. 
One other success I had was an Oatmeal Stout. It's dark and delicious and should get better with time, to a point. So I'll put aside a 6 or 12 pack for next winter, to see what develops. 
I'm seriously digging this hobby. It can be reduced to the very basics: water, malt, hops, yeast. Or it can be all about the nearly endless variables that go into brewing. And the end result of this experimentation? Beer! I love beer, and I love learning, and I'm having a golden moment. :)