I'm BACK!

We've had our daughter. I'm back...

Attic

This weekend has been spent ripping out old insulation and installing new insulation. I now have effective R58 to R98 in the baby's room and over the lights- and I've also shut down the air intrusion that would happen around them because of the way the old insulation has sagged.

Seth cut, I imitated Darth Vader, and the insulation just fuzzed apart. Very long, very tiring, very itchy work.

It's mostly done except for some spots around the bathroom fans- I'm going to add a cellulose insulation there to keep air intrusion down and then toss on a few more pieces. Then I'll put up a shelving unit around the outside that should hold a couple dozen crates (next to see what will fit up the attic).

Joys :)

Baby Room and Wine Progress-

All the joints have had at least one coat of mud put on them in the baby's room. Now it's a dry / apply / wait game.

I spent all day on Saturday prepping the wine for bottling and starting next years batches. I don't think I'm going to have time to clean and prepare all the bottles I need for this years batches- I'm almost out- so I'm very screwed and pretty annoyed, but that's the risk I took while waiting. This year may only be 36 gallons of Riesling wine (the 45 gallons of Chardonnay from last year is still sitting in the tanks).

Unless I can get some free time or slave labour there won't be any 2008 Chardonnay. Sigh. I do have some smaller carboys- perhaps I should just do a couple of gallons in those... ?

Hot Pepper Hell

We borrowed a food dehydrator from a friend yesterday and Liz started to dehydrate her peppers.

The house started to smell of hot peppers- that tangy, green burning hell known as spice.

At 6am when I got up the house reeked of peppers- she was happy, I was eager to leave. They dried in about 10 hours.

Next up- basil and sage and tons of hops....

Beer: Barley Island, Noblesville IN

Barley Island

A dated post to be sure- but while attending my Grandfather's funeral we ran across a brewery in Noblesville , IN, named Barley Island. Mind you the entire clan had gathered for a 'tea party' and the males were in desperate need of reclaiming their masculinity.

So it was in search of a bit of refreshment that we found ourselves entering Barley Island. I should note that Indiana has not banned smoking in bars or breweries- so unfortunately I wasn't enjoying myself as much as I'd like.

While there they had several beers on tap and a cask conditioned ale- all delicious and well priced. Sampler cost was picked up by my Uncle but I believe it was around $7.50.


Belgium - Strong belgium (duhhh) characteristics- was as good as a beer overseas. Not much aroma (but was that due to the smoking? I don't know)- 1/6/6

IPA Cask Conditioned Ale- Great hops, some off taste due to the cask- good room temperature. A little while later as it sat out and I made my way through the rest of the beers I tasted it again- and it was even better! 2/8/8

The Brown Ale- They said they added more hops in this batch but (I felt) it was wasted. There also was not much malt character- 2/5/7

The Pale Ale- Great Hops, great floral and bittering- 2/8/9

Wheat- Once again, I'm not a wheat fan, but this was very good. Practically no aroma to speak of, 1/7/7

I'd recommend stopping in for a pint- I was sorely disappointed by the lack of stouts (new production coming online after losing a boiler) but I'll get that the next time I'm around Indy.

Home Again

Back home, from Indiana DC, and time to cut the grass.

Un-pissing off a friend-

So how do you un-piss off a friend that got so angry at you he storms out of a bar, screaming obscenities at you- after a night of bashing every other group out there. I don't know how to fix it.