Vacation 2015

We're off to the beach!   So far,  so good.

1 for #2

Isn't she beautiful?  Georgia is one year old today.

New Culinary (Mis?)Adventures

Recently I've been on a reading jag of both first person narratives from the American south and my own heritage.   In the process, I discovered that one of my first ancestors on American soil was a maker of whiskey and "a fine peach brandy. " So, I researched both the ancestors and brandy and found that,  at least in theory,  it's not hard to make.  

Here's the process by which I started making brandy.  

Ingredients:
Spring or distilled water
Roughly 4 pounds of fruit per gallon of water (I'm making both peach and plum)
5 pounds of sugar per gallon of water
6 teaspoons of active dry or other yeast  (any kind seems to work for this purpose)

1. Dissolve 6 tsp. yeast in a warmed cup of spring water.
2. Pour a fine bed of sugar on the bottom of your chosen container -- a 5 gallon bucket is ideal.  
3. Slice the fruit and layer it over the sugar.   Alternate layers between sugar and fruit.   (If you have an assistant like mine,  ply them with fresh fruit slices. )
Don't remove the pits!  They're an important part of the flavor.  
4. Pour the activated yeast mixture over the sugar/fruit.
5. Top with spring water.  Leave enough room for fermentation -- generally a few inches. Put the top on loosely-- you do not want to pressurize this mixture. 
6. Wait!   No,  seriously.  Now you wait a lot.   If you've done everything correctly you should have a kind of murky grey concoction that's releasing bubbles occasionally,  but mostly looks like it's doing nothing.   That's the correct look.   For the next month, you'll want to use a long handled spoon to mix the concoction at least once a week.  Recitations of the witches' speech from Macbeth optional.  
7. At the one month mark,  you should have a concoction that is stable enough to bottle,  if you wish.  To get it,  you'll need to filter the fruit from the liquid.    Generally you can do this by pouring first through a colander and then through cheesecloth.   It will improve by aging -- but it's edible now.  So bottle it!  Get creative with containers and enjoy.   The fruit that is discarded can be fed to animals (carefully,  as it's alcoholic -- don't feed too much at a time) or baked into quick breads.

Enjoy!

Ta da!

Welcome Georgia Bijal! 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Thi post is about my goals for the year.  I know, it's July.  But it always takes me some time to really think about what I want.  And I also have some challenges, this year and every year, that I take a whole to grapple with.  So, here are some goals, big and small, that I want to share with you all.

1.have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Due August 24th, and no we don't know the gender. 

2. Destroy our debts and manage our taxes better.  A small goal, this one.  But summer of 2015 is when I think we can make it all happen.  

3. Get back to derby by the end of 2014. Grrrrl, I need an outlet.

4.live more efficiently.  Cut costs and use up my CSA.  Really.  

Our Next Project: The Playroom!

Carriage House 2nd Floor, a photo by Athens Nikita on Flickr.

See this dark hellhole, with ammunition rolling all over the floor?

This is our carriage floor attic/bonus room/whatever. As of right now it's been used to load ammo and house a teenage boy on weekends. It has jalousie windows. It's a little low and close. But it's out there, and would make a pretty good playroom if we clean it up.

So, next up -- fixing it!

Just a few things on the docket:

1. Replacing those horrible, no good, terrible, awful, completely inefficient, COLD windows. Seriously, what crazy person would install these IN PENNSYLVANIA?

2. Putting down play mats, or maybe even new flooring. What's there is cute, but it's kind of damaged.

3. Enclosing the staircase and putting a gate on it. Baby boy is actually pretty good with stairs, but why risk it?

4. Some electrical upgrades. The lights flicker up there. ...NOT GOOD.

5. PAINT! What do you guys say to some green walls with some chalkboard segments?

6. Finally, decor and furnishings -- right now Hal has a pack & play up there for quiet nap times and privacy from the dog. But we can do better.

27 in 4:44!

Tonight I achieved something that is a sort of benchmark in roller derby -- the 27 in 5.  It's just what it sounds like -- you try to make at least 27 circuits around the track in 5 minutes.  This has somewhat been the bane of my existence, so much so that I last attempted it a few months ago, when I achieved 27 in 5:02.

Anyway, for me going fast is mostly mental.  There certainly is the physical aspect -- the pushing through, the trusting your feet, the skating the groove, etc.  But more importantly for me is shutting down that persistent, annoying little voice in my head that at first told me I couldn't do it, and then told me that I didn't want to do it.  I had a litany of negativity going on, that for whatever reason just slowed me down imperceptibly.  I think maybe I was afraid to want it.

Anyway, tonight I was actually tying my shoe when the whistle blew.  I sprinted onto the track, not even thinking about the seconds I lost, and I let my brain go.  I settled into a breathing pattern that was like a mantra, and I looked halfway around the track.  Honestly, I didn't give it my all.  I didn't give it myself at all.  I just put one foot in front of the other and pushed til I was done.

Obviously you can't live on autopilot all the time, but I am so proud of myself when I lose my brain and just act.  My goal, ultimately, is to beat my 25 in 5 time, which is just 10 seconds fewer.  Wish me luck!