Getting Gardening Fever

The chives are sprouting, the camellias are blooming, the daffodils and tulips are sending up leaves and I am getting a serious case of spring fever. I have an overwhelming urge to go out and dig in the dirt. Unfortunately there is no time to do so this weekend. Yesterday was International Pipe Smoking Day and I spent most of it at Smokey Joe's, in Fife, WA, hanging with my homeboys. I did manage to get the hefeweizen bottled before celebrating, but not much else was accomplished besides drinking lots of beer and smoking lots of pipes. But hey, that's what the holiday was all about.

That left today to get most of my housework done. As of now I have done 6 loads of laundry, took the husbeast out to lunch (used my $20 of food for $8 Groupon), bought 2 books on gardening, and am in the process of baking some bread. Here are the 2 new books I picked up.




I used my $10 off Groupon. I probably could've got a better deal on Amazon but I wanted to be able to leaf through the books before buying. Still, 2 books for $25 is not too shabby. I was hoping they had a book on seed saving but no such luck.

Today is also "bread baking" day. I am trying something different. I ground the spent grains, then double sifted them to get most of the chaff out. Here is the chaff.


And here is the nice malted barley flour that went into today's loaves.


This is the bread dough before going into the warm oven to rise.


My friend Kristine came over to feed her bees today. The bees weren't all that keen on her poking around in their hive and are very active. Here is Singha sitting near the hive entrance watching "kitty TV".