More Danskos

I admit it. I have a bit of a Dansko habit. I'm on my feet all day and these are the most comfortable brand of shoes I've found. But they usually cost over $100. And I'd rather not pay that, if I don't have to. So I watch for them on Craigslist. Today I scored this pair for $20. And they were delivered to my workplace. Oh, and no sales tax. Sweet!

Painting The Hive

One of this week's tasks is to paint all my wooden ware and get the hive into place in the backyard. I have mailed off the remainder of the payment for my bees and I expect to have to go pick them up sometime during the first 2 weeks of April.


With the weather so chilly and damp, husbeast had the (not so) brilliant idea to paint the hive in the kitchen. The teeny, tiny kitchen. Last night I managed to apply the first coat of primer. Tonight I'll apply a second coat. Then to figure out what color to actually paint it. I think I'll paint it yellow to match my home.

Some Serious Wine Racks

After much research into the different kinds and styles of wine racks, I decided on the 14 shelf Gorm racks. They are inexpensive, easy to assemble and hold a whole LOT of wine. Each unit holds 112 bottles. Today we made the pilgrimage to Ikea. I bought 2 units. So I am probably set for a while. I say probably, because you never know with me. Along with the racks, I picked up this jug of lingonberry drink concentrate. And what am I going to do with that, boys and girls?


MAKE WINE! The concentrate consists of lingonberry juice, sugar and grape juice. I think lingonberry wine will go perfect with our Thanksgiving meal. I better get on it, if it's going to be ready in time. I'll have to send the husbeast to the brew store to pick up a couple (maybe 4?) 3.5 gallon jugs. OK, I'm getting distracted. Back to the wine racks. Here they are unloaded and stacked in the living room.


Husbeast only had time to assemble one of the racks before heading off to work. Here it is assembled and in place in the basement.


There went my budget for the month. And I'd been so good.

Two More For The Closet

The bulk aging closet, that is. Today it was time to rack the Orange/Banana and Apple/Raisin wines, for the final time, and place them into the closet where they joined the Cyser Mead. But first I had to sample them. The hydrometer bottomed out, meaning there was no more sugar for the yeast to convert to alcohol. These are both pretty potent. My favorite is the Orange/Banana. So good! Some folks say you can't make good wine from oranges. Not true!


And here is the Apple/Raisin. It's not bad. I just wished I'd added cinnamon and ginger, along with the cloves.



Next time I'll make a real spiced apple wine. I better start it soon if I want it ready in time for Christmas. I froze my ginger from the last visit to the Japanese restaurant. Now I just need cinnamon sticks and more apple cider.

And here is how I filtered out the raisin bits. I rigged up one of the straining bags around the siphon. Worked great.

Fresh Roasted Coffee

I finally got a day off, that wasn't raining or snowing. And this afternoon I was able to take 45 minutes and roast my week's worth of coffee.


It took 5 batches, in my little popcorn popper, to fill the pickle jar. I still haven't heard the elusive "second crack". I am afraid to let them go too long and end up with over-roasted burnt tasting beans. So my strategy is to wait until the roasted beans try to jump out of the popper. This point comes not too long after the "first crack" stage. The beans get fatter and lighter and eventually are jettisoned from the popper, much like popped corn. I find if I leave them in much past this point they get a little burnt. Here is a video of today's roasting. It's rather noisy but you can definitely hear some of the "first cracks" happening during filming.

Ant Wars

For the past couple of years I have been fighting a losing battle with these beastly little creatures. I have tried everything. Pellets, sprays....things that I hate using......but to no avail. Still they keep coming. But I think I may be turning the tide. I am making my own ant poison using water, molasses and borax. This photo is from day 2, when there were still quite a few ants clustered around the bait. Each day there are fewer and fewer live ants, and more dead ant carcasses for me to sweep up. I am hoping some of the ants are living long enough to make it back to their nest and share some of this treat with the queen. The borax seems to work well. Once they eat it they wander around aimlessly until they fall over, convulse, and die. I'd almost feel sorry for them if I didn't loathe them so much.


On a more appetizing note, I think I have perfected my bread recipe. This is a loaf from the last batch, which was made using some of the barley flour from the Hairy Porter. This bread is soooo good.

March's Expenditures

$9.27: Groceries - Safeway (3-4-11)
$6.74: Espresso - Perk Central (3-4-11)
$15.86: Groceries - Safeway (3-8-11)
$6.74: Espresso - Perk Central (3-8-11)
$6.74: Espresso - Perk Central (3-11-11)
$26.06: Groceries - Safeway (3-11-11)
$6.74: Espresso - Perk Central (3-13-11)
$4.38: Breakfast - Ikea (3-14-11)
$285.75: Wine racks & juice - Ikea (3-14-11)
$68.54: Money Order for Bees - Market Place (3-14-11)
$10.54: Manure & groceries - Market Place (3-14-11)
$20.00: Dansko Shoes - Craigslist (3-15-11)
$6.74: Espresso - Perk central (3-16-11)
$50.00: Envirocycle Composter - Craigslist (3-16-11)
________________________
Grand Total = $503.88
Espressos = $33.70
Groceries = $81.95