I like this time at night on HBT

[BobbiLynn]

Nope, I wouldn't do that. But if the little guy is reading HBT at night, he might have figured it out already.

Good point, he does like to type with me and peck at the keys, possible he is understanding more than I realize. Damn chicken, he is so smart. Did I tell you about how he almost picked the lock the other night? He wants to move into the house and get my dog kicked out. It's a rivalry.

 

[BobbiLynn]

I was insane once, luckily I escaped.

I had to go to that place too, I was in a state called sane, escaped as well.

 

[Varmintman]

Man I'm beat.. Doing a huge new garden plot this year, it's about 1/3 of an acre. Tilled in 20 yards of compost and 250 lbs of dolomite today. I got totally nuked out there.

Man that is just to dang big for me. My idea of a happy garden is the produce isle in a store while my wife wants to have one big enough to dwarf yours.

I have been tilling for weeks now But we are going to end up much smaller

 

[bottlebomber]

Man that is just to dang big for me. My idea of a happy garden is the produce isle in a store while my wife wants to have one big enough to dwarf yours.

I have been tilling for weeks now But we are going to end up much smaller

Hey man, sometimes you've gotta do what they want. You get the rough work done, and then it's up to her to do all the planting, weeding, and watering.

 

[Varmintman]

Yup my end is almost done. I figure one more pass and I will turn it over to her to deal with.

She has started all kinds of plants in the house. I guess I should not complain because I do enjoy fresh food and it keeps her happy

 

[BobbiLynn]

Man that is just to dang big for me. My idea of a happy garden is the produce isle in a store while my wife wants to have one big enough to dwarf yours.

I have been tilling for weeks now But we are going to end up much smaller

Why tilling for weeks? Doing it by hand with a hoe? I guess I am lucky that hubby collects old tractors. Plowing and disking only takes a short afternoon to do a big field. All together I've probably planted 2+ acres so far this year plus my container garden. Peas, green beans, lima beans, cucumbers, basil, oregano, chives, onions, hops, sorghum, bell peppers, jalapenos, moringa, turnip greens, mustard greens, potatoes, asparagus.... But we depend on our crops for income. The berries grow wild, can't wait to see how many we get this year. All the rain we've had, we should be overwhelmed by blackberries, 10-15 acres. Takes 20-30 minutes to pick a gallon. Some friends are going to help this year. Wondering how much to pay them. Been getting $25.00 a gallon for the berries in past years, more when sold by the pint. Maybe pay by the gallon for picking. Dang, I can't wait.

 

[BobbiLynn]

I walked to my neighbors house to give them more herbs. Gave them garlic chives this time. The wife is so proud of the oregano I brought them last week, or maybe it was 2 weeks ago. Almost 2 miles round trip. The 3 gallon pot of chives got heavy. They moved in maybe a year ago and had some problems at first. Hubby knows their landlord and it's a hostile situation. Sewage from this guys rentals was spilling onto our property. We forced him to get it fixed right away. Him and hubby already have bad history so made things worse. Anyway, I just want the new neighbors to know they are welcome around here. They are my closest neighbors in proximity, besides family. Had a nice visit then walked back home. It's the husband and wife, their 2 little girls, and the Mother who lives there. And they have 2 chihuahuas.

 

[Varmintman]

Why tilling for weeks? Doing it by hand with a hoe? I guess I am lucky that hubby collects old tractors. Plowing and disking only takes a short afternoon to do a big field. All together I've probably planted 2+ acres so far this year plus my container garden. Peas, green beans, lima beans, cucumbers, basil, oregano, chives, onions, hops, sorghum, bell peppers, jalapenos, moringa, turnip greens, mustard greens, potatoes, asparagus.... But we depend on our crops for income. The berries grow wild, can't wait to see how many we get this year. All the rain we've had, we should be overwhelmed by blackberries, 10-15 acres. Takes 20-30 minutes to pick a gallon. Some friends are going to help this year. Wondering how much to pay them. Been getting $25.00 a gallon for the berries in past years, more when sold by the pint. Maybe pay by the gallon for picking. Dang, I can't wait.

Well I had to reclaim the old garden spot. I had not planted anything last year so it was overgrown with grass and weeds. So I sprayed roundup let it work a bit and then started tilling. I figure I have tilled it 8 or ten times now trying to kill the weeds and break up the soil good again.

 

[bottlebomber]

Why tilling for weeks? Doing it by hand with a hoe? I guess I am lucky that hubby collects old tractors. Plowing and disking only takes a short afternoon to do a big field. All together I've probably planted 2+ acres so far this year plus my container garden. Peas, green beans, lima beans, cucumbers, basil, oregano, chives, onions, hops, sorghum, bell peppers, jalapenos, moringa, turnip greens, mustard greens, potatoes, asparagus.... But we depend on our crops for income. The berries grow wild, can't wait to see how many we get this year. All the rain we've had, we should be overwhelmed by blackberries, 10-15 acres. Takes 20-30 minutes to pick a gallon. Some friends are going to help this year. Wondering how much to pay them. Been getting $25.00 a gallon for the berries in past years, more when sold by the pint. Maybe pay by the gallon for picking. Dang, I can't wait.

That's a lot of stuff Bobbi! Hey, you know what you should do is let people come and pick their own black berries, and charge them less.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Dare I mention that blackberries make killer mead?

 

[BBL_Brewer]

All this talk of gardening reminds me that I need to train my hops here soon. With all the rain and flooding around here lately I haven't got around to it.

 

[mcbaumannerb]

I got my six yards of mulch spread today - and finally got my rhizomes in the ground. We had a beautiful day - a little chilly, but that wasn't a problem when doing some gardening!

 

[bottlebomber]

I decided that hop growing was something I'd leave to the pros. I've got my one nice centennial plant just so I can say that I do. I have no problem at all spending $200 a year on hops over all the effort of growing those things.

 

[mcbaumannerb]

Mine will be more to say I have them than to really use them. I'm much to anal retentive to brew with a hop that I don't have any idea what the AA level is.

 

[Stauffbier]

I'm much to anal retentive to brew with a hop that I don't have any idea what the AA level is.

For that reason I plan to use mine for IPA/IIPA's. Just for late hop additions and dry hopping only. I'll bitter with pellets.

The real reason I'm growing mine is because somebody told me I couldn't succeed at growing them in the hot & dry desert southwest. I took the challenge. Last years first year growth on a Cascade only yielded about an ounce, but they grew. This year I planted 8 varieties in better locations of my yard.

 

[Hoppity]

Every batch is an adventure for me, and creates new memories. I like to use my own hops. I've been brewing for over 2 years now and have learned there are so many variables in the process that tossing my own hops in adds intrigue not paranoia.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

I decided that hop growing was something I'd leave to the pros. I've got my one nice centennial plant just so I can say that I do. I have no problem at all spending $200 a year on hops over all the effort of growing those things.

It's a labor of love for me. And all bragging aside, I think HG hops beat commercial hands down for freshness and aroma. 2-3 days from harvest to freezer is pretty hard to beat. Unless you're into pellets, in which case you kinda have to buy.

Mine will be more to say I have them than to really use them. I'm much to anal retentive to brew with a hop that I don't have any idea what the AA level is.

I thought so too at first. I even did the titration method a few times trying
to pin down an AA%, but after a few batches I realized that it's really not that big of a deal. I just ened up using my best estimate and adjusted my batches until I was happy with the bitterness. The crops change a little year to year, but not enough to really throw anything off. IBU's are kind of a mystical beast anyway from brewer to brewer, so as long as you're happy, that's all that really matters.

 

[Leadgolem]

...so as long as you're happy, that's all that really matters.

Isn't that usually the case?

Since I have now opened my December batch of cider, I started another one today. I checked my notes from the August batch that was so good. I'm going to use a couple of the methods I used for that batch in this one to try to improve the cider. The December batch is just "meh".

I got some more skim milk to try the mozzarella experiment with. I'll probably do that tomorrow, though maybe not. I'm a little tired. If I get some energy back I might even do it tonight... I haven't really decided.

I forgot to turn my colby every day like I was supposed to. About 1/4 cup of cheese smelling water was on the bucket lid I've got it sitting on when I went to look at it today... Apparently I was also supposed to dry it before waxing too. Oh well. This should be educational anyway. That should be ready in just over two weeks.

I planted some trees that the idiot mail order plant company shipped to soon. Then the grapes, same idiot company. Setup some fairly ridiculous hose systems to get water out to everything. Have I mentioned that there is no functioning exterior water at my house? I have everything running off of hoses connected to the cold water faucet for my washer. It isn't pretty, but it works.

Bought a chainsaw. Tested the chainsaw, didn't cut anything just ran it for a minute to make sure it worked. Started the lawn mower to make sure it is still in working order.

Fixed a minor leak in the washer fluid bottle in my truck with a little metal HVAC tape. It's up fairly high on the neck of the bottle, so not really a big deal. I just want to slow down evaporation loss out of the hole, and/or leaking if I'm sitting at a really extreme angle.

Cleaned my trucks air filter, and MAF sensor. I've been getting a little bit of a rough idle and an occasional stall right after ignition. Since I just ran seafoam into the engine through the vacuum assist line for the brakes, and those are really the only times the truck pays attention to the MAF I'm hoping it's just a fouled sensor.

My air filter is drying in the garage, I'll oil it tomorrow I think. It's a little late now. Hard to tell if you've gotten the oil on it evenly in the dark.

Since it's brew day,

 

[BobbiLynn]

Isn't that usually the case?

Since I have now opened my December batch of cider, I started another one today. I checked my notes from the August batch that was so good. I'm going to use a couple of the methods I used for that batch in this one to try to improve the cider. The December batch is just "meh".

I got some more skim milk to try the mozzarella experiment with. I'll probably do that tomorrow, though maybe not. I'm a little tired. If I get some energy back I might even do it tonight... I haven't really decided.

I forgot to turn my colby every day like I was supposed to. About 1/4 cup of cheese smelling water was on the bucket lid I've got it sitting on when I went to look at it today... Apparently I was also supposed to dry it before waxing too. Oh well. This should be educational anyway. That should be ready in just over two weeks.

I planted some trees that the idiot mail order plant company shipped to soon. Then the grapes, same idiot company. Setup some fairly ridiculous hose systems to get water out to everything. Have I mentioned that there is no functioning exterior water at my house? I have everything running off of hoses connected to the cold water faucet for my washer. It isn't pretty, but it works.

Bought a chainsaw. Tested the chainsaw, didn't cut anything just ran it for a minute to make sure it worked. Started the lawn mower to make sure it is still in working order.

Fixed a minor leak in the washer fluid bottle in my truck with a little metal HVAC tape. It's up fairly high on the neck of the bottle, so not really a big deal. I just want to slow down evaporation loss out of the hole, and/or leaking if I'm sitting at a really extreme angle.

Cleaned my trucks air filter, and MAF sensor. I've been getting a little bit of a rough idle and an occasional stall right after ignition. Since I just ran seafoam into the engine through the vacuum assist line for the brakes, and those are really the only times the truck pays attention to the MAF I'm hoping it's just a fouled sensor.

My air filter is drying in the garage, I'll oil it tomorrow I think. It's a little late now. Hard to tell if you've gotten the oil on it evenly in the dark.

Since it's brew day,

Oh, wow, you have been busy. Happy brew day!

 

[BobbiLynn]

Tomorrow is tree coming down day so today was moving concrete structures to get them out of the way. Concrete picnic table thing with benches, a bird feeder that I am using to grow herbs, chocolate mint will be ready to pick a nice batch soon, and a couple concrete sculptures. Used a dolly but still it was tough. Bird feeder thing was the worse, lifting up the tiers after toting it over piece by piece. It's very large but at least made in 4 separate pieces.

A friend called earlier and asked me to "go out". No, I'm too tired for that. She asked didn't I ever get bored living in the woods and hardly ever leaving the house. Um, no. The water moccasin in my garden today got my heart beating fast. Now those are poisonous. I was a good 15 feet away when I heard him hissing at me, he was saying, "Don't come any closer", so I just turned and went the other way. This is why you don't kill friendly snakes, snakes are territorial and if you have non-poisonous snakes, they will keep away the others. I'm not going to let hubby kill any more white oaks. I'm still upset about that. I should have killed the water moccasin so I could feed it to hubby when he was least expecting. All the venom is in it's mouth, not the body. Cut off his head and cook the rest.

 

[Leadgolem]

I went ahead with the cheese experiment.

I made 1 cup of citric acid solution with 1 tbs of citric acid. Then heated 1 gallon of skim milk to 140f. Then added the acid solution. Got a nice coagulation going. The whey turned yellowish. Then I brought it up to 170f. I think that was a mistake. Around 160-165f the whey clouded up again, so I'm thinking I lost a lot of proteins to the whey again. I poured the whey through a colander to extract the curd, then discarded the whey. The final cheese tastes good, but it failed to achieve the kind of stretchy layers you get from mozzarella. It is semi-sticky. The yield was also somewhat low. I yielded .72 lbs from 1 gallon of skim milk. With a fairly high protein extraction, I was expecting between .85 and .90.

Clearly this process needs some more refinement, but it does work. To me, it's much easier then the other methods for making mozzarella I've seen. I should trust my instincts more I suppose. I knew when the vast majority of the proteins had coagulated and it should have been pulled from the heat. I just thought I would listen to my head and run up the temp to mozzarella stretching temps... Turns out I mis-remembered the temps, you only need to hit 135 to get mozzarella to stretch.

Next time I'll bring the milk up to 140f add the acid solution, and hold the temp there while the proteins coagulate. I don't think I actually needed to raise the temp like I did with this batch, and the last one. I think I just needed to wait a few minutes and stir gently to get the proteins to stick together.

 

[Leadgolem]

Hmm, we need music I think. To quiet here tonight.

 

[Leadgolem]

Hmm, my bed frame has been squeaking. At first I thought I had squirrels, but I just tightened all the bolts and it stopped.

 

[Varmintman]

Everyone need to run their virus program. I have had the flu for the last 3 days and typing in the forum. Flu is a virus right hehe. I think I must be getting better though since I have put off finishing my last will and testament.

I thought I felt good enough to work on some saws yesterday and got through 2 of them before I called it. Sigh 4 more to go before I can do any more large jobs like the car lot was.

Next big job will only be 3 or 4 cord of wood but it is in town and we will have to close a road down to fall the trees. I am really looking forward to that job simply because it is going to be more technical falling instead of just knocking trees down to get them down.

 

[BobbiLynn]

Too bad you don't live closer, v-man, I definitely trust you to take down my trees. The tree guys are here and yeah, they have enough room, said I don't have to clean up anymore of the yard. I thought for sure my back would be messed up again today but it's fine.

Dang, I want to brew today. I really want to make some "ginger ale" soon. A pale ale with ginger root. I'm really getting into the herbal beer thing. Beers for all that ail you. Different healing properties in each brew. The oregano beer is incredible. Can't believe how quickly it fermented and cleared up. Had to pitch more yeast after a couple days, so it had a total 5 days of fermenting then the yeast dropped out like lead, again. First load of yeast dropped out after 3 days, then second pitch went 2 days before dying out rapidly.

 

[BobbiLynn]

Geez, these guys were cutting up the wood in the yard, they don't have to do that!! Just drop the trees, we'll get the rest! I stopped them from doing that. And anyway, they weren't cutting in the right length needed to fit in our woodburning stove inside. We use that for heat in the winter and to cook/bake. I have even brewed beer on it. Told them just get the other trees down, don't worry about cutting it up once on the ground. Hubby not here, he went to his shop so I am hoping I am telling them the right trees to fall. But they pretty much know by looking, the ones hanging over the house. Anything threatening needs to go. The chickens on the porch are scared. Because, well, they are chickens.

 

[Varmintman]

I would help you if I was there Bobbi for sure. Weird how most folks will pay to have a tree removed and have all the wood hauled off as well. The guy cutting the tree makes money on both ends that way.

As nice as having a house in the shade of a tree I am thinking I would never do it.

 

[BobbiLynn]

I would help you if I was there Bobbi for sure. Weird how most folks will pay to have a tree removed and have all the wood hauled off as well. The guy cutting the tree makes money on both ends that way.

As nice as having a house in the shade of a tree I am thinking I would never do it.

It's going to be hot in here this summer without the trees, but we have central AC, also heat but rarely use it. A whole new view when sitting on the front porch. One of the tree guys asked did I lift weights when I was carrying a few more things out of their way, just in case. He said I looked way too scrawny to be able to lift that. Then he noticed, you got bare feet!! I gave them some potted herbs and green beans. Tomorrow, I will give them some beer. Never underestimate a skinny country girl. Sure, I lift weights, grain is heavy when wet. Also finished unloading the trailer of manure into my compost pile. Cleaned out the chicken brooders, dumped their crap. Lift weights? Not on purpose, but I sure lift plenty of "weights".

 

[Leadgolem]

Hmm, yummy yum. Home made bread. This loaf was baked on a cookie sheet so it doesn't have so much crust. Not much better then fresh baked bread.

 

[Stauffbier]

Hmm, yummy yum. Home made bread. This loaf was baked on a cookie sheet so it doesn't have so much crust. Not much better then fresh baked bread.

I like making bread too. I do the typical spent grain in my bread and pizza crust. You're right! Nothing beats a hot piece of fresh baked bread right out of the oven with a big ol' slab of butter on it!