Tasting the Home Brew

Put a couple of bottles of American Blone Home Brew in the fridge this morning in preperation for tonights consumption. Was very uncertian to how this brew was going to turn out as I had some temperature issues early in the brew process. After that the beer remained very cloudy and did not look good to bottle. Well, several weeks later, much to my suprise, they cleared up.

The bottle 'popped' as I opened it, and and a good amount of fizz. The color was excellent. Darker than what I would consider a blonde, but con't complain. The ABV was meant to be around 5%, but after only having one bottle, I suspect it might be a little higher. The second bottle was not as clear, with a little bit more sediment at the bottom and more bitter to the taste.

Ah, Home Brew, got to love it. Bottoms Up!

Building Some Steps and working at the Creek.

Getting to the creek from the Cabin is a steep slope. It has been a challenge building steps into the soft earth as heavy rains eventually wash away the effort. Today, utilizing the great spring weather, I decided to build steps onto the slope by building up the steps using the abundant local fallen logs and compacting the earth to create steps. Following are some pictures of the effort. I hope to build a step or two over the summer to hopefully complete the effort.

Maggie is learning the new steps:

We also decided to widen the creek a little bit. With a little bit of elbow grease, we managed to double the width of the creek next to the fire pit. Using amazing engineering skills, the mini dam built with rocks and creek sand also raised the water level a few inches:

Ducktown Elementary School

Went up a side street today thinking we would find a school with some fields that would provide us with some exercise options. What we found instead was an abandoned school with awesome architecture. How could this impressive building go to waste? Reminds you of the hard times this region has been through.

2010 Vegetable Container Garden

We have always wanted to try our own vegetable garden and this year we are going to give it a shot. We dont have space for a garden so we are doing it in containers. We found a book that explains self watering containers, and knew this would be perfect for us. Once we realized how much water vegetables need, we realized thats why we have never been successful in the past. Hopefully with the help of these self watering containers we will have better luck.

First of all I will quickly explain what a self watering container is. Basically, it is a pot with a fake bottom that has a water reservoir below it. There is an opening in the bottom, or a tube that sticks up, which allows you to fill the reservoir and this encourages the roots to grow deep to get the water.

We planned on trying to grow basic stuff like tomatoes, Herbs, and peppers, but that quickly changed once we saw all the vegetables at the garden center, and it changed even more when we visited my parents and they sent us home with more. We now have broccoli, peppers, lettuce, cabbage, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, arugula, tomatoes, eggplant and onions. Here are some pictures as of this weekend.

This is our herb pot, it contains parsley, chives and cilantro.

These are white onions, once we put them in the pot they really began to grow tall. I cant wait to see how they turn out.


The pot on the left is our broccoli and on the right is arugula and a pepper plant.

On the left is 2 more peppers and on the right is more broccoli and some basil.

There were so many onions in the pack we did plant a few in the ground. Who knows if these will survivie.



This isn't a vegetable, but its a rose bush my granny gave me when Rod and I got married. This thing grows like you wouldnt believe. If I didnt trim it, it would be taller than the house. Last year I cut it back and it didnt do so well, and I was afraid I might have killed it, but this year it is growing strong as ever. I can't wait to see how many blooms it makes this year.

This also is not a vegetable, but I had to post this one too. This is a mum that Mike gave us a while back. I thought we had lost it but this year we fertilized it and it is taking off like crazy. I look forward to this one blooming in the fall.

Best Burgers Ever!

Lamb is expensive, but it is worth it. Easy Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Pound of ground Lamb

Teaspoon of Oregano

Breadcrumbs

1 egg

Salt and Pepper to taste

Crumbled Feta Cheese

Half cup of diced Cucumber

Plain Yogurt

Half a teaspoon of fresh or dried Mint

Burger Buns

1. 1 Pound of ground Lamb

2. Mix Lamb with half a beaten egg, breadcrumbs, Oregano, Salt, Pepper and crumbled fetta cheese.

3. Make in patties

4. Grill!

5. For sauce, combine Yogurt, Mint and cucumber and drizzle on Burger