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. :) 

Ramblin' Jack

I have been noticing something lately, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I have a tendency to read a caption before I really look at a picture. I seek out the caption after a cursory glance at the image, just enough to lightly stain the memory banks. I let that sit in the back while I tackle the description, the text of the situation. Then once I've fully grasped the W's ( whowhatwhyfor...) I turn back to the photograph for further scrutiny.
I feel as if I'm not giving the image enough credit to tell the story, and I'm not being present in the moment and appreciating the art. Also I think it could be the related byproduct of mass information input (I'm an information addict), a constant search for more facts about any particular topic that has caught my fleeting interest.
So I'm trying to be more conscious of it, and maybe that's enough. Because there are pros and cons to the proliferation of digital images, including the hyperbolic increase in the number of scantily clad self portraits in the bathroom mirror.
Anyway, just a thought I had and wanted to express in actual vocabulary. It feels great to form paragraphs. The FB/twitt phenomenon is training a generation to respond in short, abbreviated lolspeak. Kids these days... ;)

Caption:  This is my before frost harvest of basil and sage (taken about three weeks ago). I hung this in my bedroom for a fortnight and the finished it in a desiccant chamber, with final storage in mayonnaise and mason jars. This is the first time I've dried my own basil. I had a great year with those plants; much pesto was made. Ramblin' Jack Caption...

Bats!

I have an update on my bat situation. Yesterday we were chillaxin' in the yard, gettin' our quid on, when J exclaims "Bats!" There were about 4 or 5 bats just flyin' over the yard for maybe 20 or 30 minutes right at sunset. I haven't investigated the bat house yet for signs of habitation (guano), and it's really too early to even get my hopes up. But up they are! I would love to have a bat family living here, I would even build and install a second house asap.

Either way, it was a great feeling and a blessed moment. This was only the second time I've seen a bat at the house, and they were flying formations over us. :-)

Pups and Blooms

I took a couple pictures today. It was hot. I like dancing in the streets when I can...

Two new foods, dude

I just finished eating a sandwich consisting of whole wheat sandwich bread, seedless blackberry jam, and slices of swiss cheese. Very delicious. I almost think crisp baby greens would have been good on it.?
Also, while sitting in my tent in a rainstorm this weekend (good times), I was dipping my mozzarella string cheese into a jar of nutella. Yeah, baby!

p.s. I fired up the chainsaw today, with great success. Sweaty work, though.

p.p.s. Check out the website Scanwiches. Awesome!

The excitement is building! I received notice from Transformus that our theme camp is approved. Cool! Now I'm just waiting on grant approval and some monies to buy goodies, specifically miracle fruit and brain molds. We are rounding up a posse and brainstorming like 2011, and this is going to be a burn like no other. So excited!


update: no grant, so the miracle fruit tasting will only be a few folks, but I bought some brain molds anyway...

Fodder from above

It's 8 o'clock, Thursday the 26th. A gentle rain is falling as night approaches. I just finished cleaning out one of the rain barrels, so it's freshly scrubbed interior awaits the harvest of fresh skyjuice. I also just planted two basil plants in the garden, which brings me to the point: I love watering in. The act of generously soaking a plant immediately after putting it in the ground (or a fresh pot) to settle the soil around it is very satisfying to me. :contentedsigh:

update- I checked on the barrel at midnight (it had stopped raining) and it was almost full. I'd guess 50 gallons...

Pics to complete the picture...

Locust Bloom

Everything is in bloom! Even the homely locust tree, thorny and scraggly, like the Clint Eastwood of hardwoods, shows off it's beautiful flowers when the conditions are right. It's amazing! I love spring!

Bands I've Seen Live (Hey What Are Blogs For Anyway) :shrug:

An Ongoing List
-musical acts I have seen live, bands or dj's, in clubs or at festivals, the ones I remember anyway...

• Tool x 3
• Melvins
• A Perfect Circle x 2 or 3
• Smashing Pumpkins x 2
• Zwan x
• Fountains of Wayne
• Tori Amos x
• Ben Folds
• Rufus Wainwright
• Willie Nelson
• Gregg Allman
• Ani Difranco x
• Drums and Tuba
• Ween x
• Foo Fighters
• Queens of the Stone Age
• Primus x
• Les Claypool's Flying Frog Brigade
• Dark Star Orchestra x 2
• Jack Johnson x
• Tom Freund
• Kaki King x 2
• Citizen Cope
• Robert Randolph x
• The Word
• Allman Brothers Band x
• The Dead
• Aerosmith
• Jackyl
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Garth Brooks
• Spurge x
• Tricky
• Snoop Doggy Dog
• Failure
• Ziggy Marley, et al x
• Blind Boys of Alabama x
• Trey Anastasio
• Keller Williams Incident
• Galactic x
• Jane's Addiction
• Jurassic 5
• NIN
• Pierce Edens x
• 311
• Incubus
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
• Talib Kweli
• The Roots x
• Radiohead
• Phil + Friends
• Sonic Youth
• Mars Volta
• Atmosphere
• STS9 x 20 or so
• Big Gigantic x 3
• Dubconscious x
• Collective Efforts
• Prefuse 73
• Aesop Rock
• Dinosaur Jr
• Black Moth Super Rainbow
• DJ Shadow
• DJ Vadim
• Blackalicious
• Gift of Gab x
• Lyrics Born
• Common x
• KRS-One
• GZA
• Burning Spear x
• Telepath x
• Glitch Mob x
• June Panic x 2
• Hammell On Trial
• Gruntruck
• Patti Smith x 2
• Lotus x 2
• Pnuma Trio
• Midnite
• Zakir, Bela, Edgar
• Bela, Edgar
• Yonder Mountain String Band
• Flaming Lips
• Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band x
• Xavier Rudd x
• Motion Potion
• Sasha + Digweed
• Beck
• DJ Vadim x
• Two Fresh
• Dieselboy
• Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
• GFE
• Alice In Chains
• Erykah Badu
• Beans
• Big Boi
• Disco Biscuits
• Bassnectar
• Cypress Hill
• Unified Theory
• Bob Dylan
• The Breeders
• Fear
• Liz Phair
• Daedalus
• Snake Oil Medicine Show
• Mike Relm
• RJD2
• DJ Spooky
• Donovan Frankenreiter
• Easy Star All-Stars
• Eliot Lipp
• Ana Sia
• Ep3
• G Love + Special Sauce
• Godspeed You Black Emperor
• Rasputina
• Gov't Mule
• Spam All-Stars
• Living Legends
• JFJO
• Arrested Development
• Lifesavas
• Toubab Krewe
• Afromotive
• Luciano
• Michael Franti + Spearhead
• Mike Doughty
• Soulive
• The Nightwatchman
• The New Deal
• Sonmi Suite
• Sub-ID
• Taj Mahal
• Telefon Tel Aviv
• Toots + The Maytals
• James Brown
• Rusko
• Emancipator
• Bluetech
• EOTO x 2
• The Smithereens
• Nosaj Thing
• The Wailers
• Papdosio
• Particle
• Conspirator x 2
• Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk
• GalaxC Girl
• Karl Denson's Tiny Universe
• North Mississippi All-Stars
• Ozomatli
• Audioslave
• Mofro
• This is art
• Count Bass D
• The Lee Boys
• The Cranberries
• Corey Harris
• Welder
• Sun Ra Arkestra
• Break Science
• The Mahavishnu Project
• Laura Reed + Deep Pocket
• Kung Fu Dynamite
• DJ Bowie (Bowie Van Ling)
• T'n'T
• Eyedea & Abilities
• Matt + Kim
• The Broadcast
• Josh Phillips Folk Festival
• RBTS WIN
• Do It To Julia
• Aaron Wood
• Asheville Horns
• Bayou Diesel
• Supercollider
• Quetzatl

Drill, Baby, Drill

Thursday's post

I've been listening to a lot of Terence McKenna lately, through the Psychedelic Salon podcast. He's an enchanting bard, with great charm and style and vocabulary. Good stuff.
So I found out with a little research today that the Asheville City Buses will not be running on Earth Day. That's right. Asheville will not have public transportation available on Earth Day! What is that about?
I finished the fence. Whoah. I finished the fence. Hey now! It looks awesome, the dogs love it, everybody's happy. It took a long, long time, but I reached my goal, and that feels good. :)
I'll finish this with an original joke:

What do you call an unemployed rastafarian?


















Jah-bless

Octopus

I was taking pictures of some pottery today, so I took a picture of an octopus I made in high school pottery class, probably 1996 or 1997. It was a really nice day, upper 70's and sunny. Other than the amatuer photography, I bought some lumber from Lowe's and mostly assembled the upper gate. More pics to come of the entire fence project.

I worked on the fence this weekend (weekends are Sunday/Monday in my reality). The weather was gorgeous, perfect for outdoor work. Maybe 65 or 70 degrees, mostly sunny, slight breeze; then the wind picked up about 3 pm Monday and thunder announced a storm, with plenty of rain. I managed to reach a big goal, the cross bracing (or stringers) is completely done. Woot! Now I just need to put up the deck boards on 140 feet of fence and make two gates. The end is in sight! Also this weekend I made Shannon a birthday cake, using the german chocolate recipe with chocolate cream cheese frosting. It turned out real nice. She appreciated it.

Wooden Fence

So I've been working on a particular project for many, many months. It's taken much longer than I expected, and was slightly over budget, but it's starting to come together and I'm getting excited. It's a fence for the backyard, made of 8 foot long pressure-treated deck panels that are placed at a 40 degree angle. It's about 6.75 feet tall, dog-proof and private. I still have a fair amount of work to do, including the two gates, but I'd peg the project at 67% done. As Shannon said the other day, (paraphrasing) "If you finish this, it will be the coolest thing you've ever done." It's probably about 230 feet long, with 31 4x4 posts buried 3.5 feet with 80 lb Quikrete per hole. And it's going to be so functional! I imagine beautiful spring evenings, gardening while the dogs run around the yard. I'd like a picnic table and small firepit, too. Those will be added to the list of smaller projects that can finally be worked on once this fence is tackled...

Lascivious Lager

Last night I bottled a brew. It went well, thanks to my lovely assistant. It was a kit beer from Cooper's that I had bought at least a couple years ago. The malt extract was actually a month past due, but it all seemed to go according to plan. I have only done this a couple times, so I'm still a novice. But it's when things go this smoothly that I get the confidence to create a more complex beer. It's a very satisfying hobby with lots of opportunity for education and experimentation. So nice!

Too hungry to take picture of finished product...

Last night I made a curry of sorts. I started with olive oil and a white onion over medium high heat. Once that was soft (4 or 5 min) I threw in a couple apples, which I had peeled and diced. This then cooked at a medium heat for 4 or 5 more minutes, softening the apples. Then in goes a couple cans of coconut milk, a few tablespoons of some tomato-based curry paste, and the tofu. Speaking of which, the tofu was cut into pieces and drizzled with olive oil, to be roasted in the oven at 375 for about 40 minutes. This gives them a certain chewy texture on the outside while the inside is free to soak up the curry flavors. I let the whole thing simmer for maybe 30 minutes, then threw in some frozen peas for color and flavor. Served over Jasmine rice, it is super delicious! And there's plenty for leftovers.
p.s. New band name: Nauseous Sausage
p.p.s. Get Well Murph! <3