Relationships

In tha past month or so I have gained access to an incredible private fishing hole, found a source of free scrap metal, acquired a broken hair dryer (I really wanted one), bought real maple syrup at a fraction of the going rate, was able to secure green coffee beans for $2.50/lb, was given permission to use a friend's vendor license to buy wholesale, and have borrowed hundreds of dollars worth of beer brewing equipment. Various relationships made every one of those things possible. I don't know how hermits do it. Thank you friends!

Beer

The old Minnesotan Lutheran in me is wary of writing a post titled "Beer". I will have to outline the evolution of my convictions in a later post. For now, it is hardly necessary to know that I enjoy it--only that I am brewing it!

My good friend Earl invited me to help him make homebrew a few years back and I have joined him on a couple of occassions. A month or so ago he provided help, knowledge, and equipment to enable my own first batch. We got to enjoy the first bottle on Tuesday and it seems to get better every day. My only complaint is that for the cost I might as well have bought it at the store. In fact, if time is money I really got the short end of the stick.

My first batch was created with malt extracts. This is the only way Earl has ever done it. Yearning for more affordable beer I have studied intently the world of all grain brewing. If I grow my own hops, culture my own yeast, and buy malt in bulk, I think that I could be making beer for well under $10 per 5 gallons. Now, don't conclude that I am an alcoholic. I just enjoy good beer a whole lot more than bad beer, and I also love saving money.

If you stick around, I will certainly fill you in on the whole adventure. Thanks for reading.

Luffa or Loofah or Lufah

So today in plant bio, I found out you can grow your own Loofah.  I could hardly believe that the specimen that sat before me was organic.  I bought 140+ seeds off of ebay for less than $5 after shipping.  I am pretty stoked about the whole idea, but Stephanie rolls her eyes.  I requested two plots at the community garden this year and I wasn't sure what to plant in that second plot, but now I know.  I will have a plot of popcorn and a plot of Loofah.  So, come next fall, when you need a good natural exfoliation, call me and I will hook you up!  

Holy Harmonica!

The Cutest Boy Ever

I am fully aware of my own bias... of course that is not ture, but this child sure is incredible. This past weekend all "talking" ceased for Thor in favor of his new audible skill--bubble blowing. This may be incredibly cute, but it has tripled his slobber out-put. Maybe a youtube video will come soon.

Personal Finance 101

A small passion of mine is managing our personal finances.  I did not happen upone this obsession like I did the rest of them.  My story, I imagine, is like many others.  After many years of overdraft charges and thinking to myself at tax time, "I made that much money?  Where on earth did all of it go?", something finally snapped.  So, for the past couple of years I have managed every cent with Quicken.  I love it.  I can print reports that detail every single time we went out to eat, produce graphs of utility bills, see how gas prices influence out fuel expenditures and more.

Some people keep lots of secrets about their finances, but they are what they are.  I can state ours boldly with little threat of enticing identity thieves, that is for sure.  We are currently in debt to the tune of about a quarter of a million.  If we were not in so much control of our money this figure would terrify me.  But, thanks (and no thanks; I'll explain later) to John Commuta and some intense spreadsheets, I know we can be TOTALLY debt free in 11.3 years with "just the money we already make".  This is great news, especially since we plan on making more eventually!

The one way John steered us wrong is in prioritizing which debts to pay first.  According to Commuta (and Dave Ramsey I hear), you are to pay off smallest balances first thus increasing your "accelerator margin" or "debt snowball" fastest.  I spent half an evening playing out both scenarios and proved that focusing on the highest interest rate first is in fact the best strategy.  I shouldn't be surprised.

Anyway, there is really nothing to say about our plan beyond what is written a thousand other places.  All I know is that I am excited and we are determined and I know that you can do it too!    

Smoke! (Coffee Roasting attempt #1)

I read that coffee roasting produced smoke, but I underestimated how much! I can hardly breathe! So, today starts what I anticipate to be an exciting wing of my blog. The do-it-yourself adventure log. Today, I roasted coffee.

The coffee roasting idea came to me a week or two ago while perusing beer making websites. One site had a link for coffee roasting, and the moment I laid eyes on those words I was hooked. Since then I have

 read countless webpages and a library book. Today, I got

 my shipment of green Columbian coffee beans. A roaster out of Cleveland and a little coffee house they supply a block from our house were willing to let me buy beans directly and have them shipped piggy back for free. Coffee for $2.50/lb. cannot be beat! The best price I could find online was around $4.00/lb and that was before shipping. I feel like I should buy 150 lb. before the price goes up! Green Coffee beans will store for up to a year, so buying in bulk is a very viable option.

Today's maiden voyage will determine if it is worth building a real roaster with my handy-man of a father-in-law. The rudimentary equipment o

f the day was simply a pot with a lid. There are many proponents of the Whirley Pop method, but since we don't have one, a well agitated pot had to do the trick.  

The coffee looked amazing.  We immediately brewed a pot, in spite of the advice that coffee reaches its peak at 24 hours.  The coffee tasted like water...  I never knew coffee had "body" until I tasted that which had none!  Over time this coffee improved significantly and we concluded that it was over roasted.  We have roasted two smaller batches now, each very light roasts and blended with the original batch it is a decent cup o joe.

Andy and I heavily discussed our plans for a roaster, and my scavenging for parts has already begun.

Lessons Learned: 

-Stovetop roasting is far from ideal and will never give consistent results

-Over roasting coffee does not enrich flavor, in fact it robs it

-Cooling is essential, or else the roasting goes far beyond your hopes