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Showing posts from July, 2009

Great White Whale of a Stout

We picked up the stuff to brew a dry stout yesterday from the Hop Shop in Grey. One can of hopped dark malt syrup and 3 pounds of dry malt for a richer brew. We started the brewing process last night after Honora was put to bed. Things went fairly well initially. Sanitized all the buckets and equipment, no boilovers, generally a good time. We filled the brew bucket with the water and wort and took the hydrometer reading to find out how much alcohol might be at the end of the process then walked the 95 bucket into the basement. Once in the basement I noticed the seal around the spigot was leaking. Some one tightened it a bit too much. Someone who thinks you can muscle everything just a little better. I couldn't reach my hand into the bucket to fix things so we had to move everything over to the glass carboy. In the process of moving everything to the carboy the hose we were using detached and began to spill future beer everywhere. We cinched off the flow of beer and began to clean u

Not so exciting update...

Still no new pictures, but all the new seeds we planted July 5th for lettuce, kale, spinach and mesclun salad mix are all coming up. I also planted more carrots and there have been no signs yet, although in their defense they take longer to germinate. The compost is going well, especially since we have had a couple hot days. I need to dig in and check on the worms. Also I need to add more nitrogen to it (probably a layer of grass clippings). The last stretch of weather has been perfect, just enough rain to water everything and just enough sun to keep it all growing. Some of the tomatoes are now flowering and have tiny green tomatoes started. Cucumbers and squash are gong to start spreading out soon which means I need to complete the rellis side of the raised beds so they can vine up. I need to reapply the aphid killer to the tomatoes, it has not wiped them out but so far it has been decreasing the numbers and the tomatoes look better for it. We have a couple of unexpected pests, these

Pest of the year so far goes to....

Well, a quick update on pests and the weather. Aphids are decreasing in numbers after hitting them with "Safer Soap" from Paris Farmers Union. An approved for organic garden option that appears to get approval from lots of people. Squirrels have been hiding out and not digging in the garden, probably due to the horrible weeks of rain. Which brings me to our worst "pest" so far, the rain! We lost our melons (there is still one pathetic looking vine, but I think it will not produce melons before it gets too late. We lost our kale, lettuce and spinach to the rain as well, just started getting yellow, it did not mature correctly and got bitter while still small. We tore it all up and stared new this weekend. Hopefully this will get us going into the next weather pattern ans we will get more sun and better looking crops. The tomatoes, basil, and peppers are looking a little weak as well, but the couple days of sun gave them a boost. Cabbages, broccoli, brussel sprout

Cleaning the bottles

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Here are a few pics of Jen and I removing labels from the bottles we will be using to bottle our beer. It was not fun and a word of advice; if you are saving bottle for brewing stick to Smithwicks and Bass as the labels come off with almost not work what so ever. Avoid at all costs Dos Equis and McSorley's as these babies are the worst. The Dos Equis has a metallic label that doesn't allow the water to soak through to the glue and the McSorley's glue is a rubbery mess that requires gloves to roll it off. We had to buy a 12 pack to get the 100 bottles we were looking for, but we have it now. Not the funnest part of the brew making process.

Home Brew

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For my birthday I received a brew kit because a flooded garden and hunting ground hogs was not enough. This was our first kit.   And this is what it looked like bubbling. It is in the basement now waiting to be beer.

1 Groundhog down

We setup the Have a Heart trap and caught our first groundhog. Jen and I came home and it was just looking at us. Every time we walked away from it, it would scramble and throw itself at te sides of the trap trying to get out. This was our first wild animal caught so we were a little lost about what to do with it; something we should have thought about prior to setting the trap. O-well... After a few minutes we decided on a dump far away from our house and a little away from other people in general. We decided on a heavily wooded ballpark. We are not sure the legality of it, but we had a ground hog in a trap and we were bringing it to a better place. Jen threw down our army tarp in the back of the Rav 4, threw the trap in the back and went for a ride. About 30 seconds into the trip it dropped a pile of scat and pee'd in the back. The smell was horrendous and it immediately filled the truck with it's stench. We hit every light make the trip even more miserable. We finally hit th